Around The House And On The Farm

With the First Full Day of Fall I decided to finish off some of my Fall decorations... a beloved collection of black Steiff Halloween cats....

more Halloween..old candles, a lantern, some paper mache....

i love these old owl candles.....

some more owls....

more candles and paper mache....

vintage candles...always a favorite...fun to cruise ebay for....

i love this guy....

here the 2 pumpkin people are from jen murphy of jen murphy bears...and the scarecrow pitcher is from my friend julie of julie whitmore pottery....

julie whitmore pottery....

a pitcher from julie on a stack of ironstone plates and tiny apples....

some old Halloween chocolate molds....

made a few caramel apples from Gopher Glen. when we got to Gopher Glen the chalkboard said they had an apple called SWEET AUTUMN.....what? is that for real? is there REALLY an apple named SWEET AUTUMN...that sounds too good to be true. the lady said it was true..a new variety for this year...well, let me get a bag...and wait just a minute...does that also say LIMBERTWIG? my FAVORITE apple of all. YES...we have LIMBERTWIG today. I asked her aren't they usually ready around Halloween...she said they are early this year..well, give me another bag....Limbertwig are THE BEST for making caramel apples cause the apple is very tart...

so we gathered some apple twigs in the orchard and came home to make caramel sauce.....

what an early Fall treat we have for tonight....

after Gopher Glen we made our way out to The Avila Barn...baskets of apples are everywhere now....

pumpkins and gourds have arrived.....

what a sight....

the farmer was just unloading the pumpkins.....

pumpkins and hay....

the view from the back of the barn looking towards the Pacific ocean....the ocean is only about 3 minutes away....the sycamores line the creek leading to the sea...they are just starting to turn color.....the field is a pumpkin field...they give tractor rides on the weekends to go and pick out your pumpkin.....

there he is...he is at The Barn every year..isn't he just adorable...

i don't know his best side..the back or the front...i think the back.

another fun day picking out all of Fall's bounty....

Eclair Bakery in Arroyo Grande, CA

We took a drive south through the Edna Valley and made our way to The Eclair Bakery in the village of Arroyo Grande about 10 minutes south of San Luis Obispo. With Fall in the air I am really on the bakery hunt..... for the old fashion ones...the ones that remind me of The Cream Puff Bakery in my hometown of Los Gatos, California. We used to go there alot in the Fall because across the street was a Sprouse-Ritz. It was one of those big old drug stores with the wooden floors and all the Halloween candy. In the Fall they had stacks and stacks of the Halloween costumes you used to get in the box. We made my mother take us in that store almost daily. By the time Halloween rolled around we each had about 10 different costumes. My mom would call the neighbors the week before Halloween and ask if Kary and Mark could come trick or treating. We loved it so much we never could get enough. I still can't get enough.

and the Eclair really reminds me of The Cream Puff....could it be the name? They had some nice looking raspberry tarts....

this cute little sign was by the cash register....

this is the outside...as you can see it is very old fashion....

and they had lots of eclairs...

look at that...cherry strudel...wouldn't that be nice with a cup of tea?

simple white cupcakes....

the pie offerings for the day....

they had a nice collection of old cake stands. I LOVE vintage cake stands and have a large collection of them myself.... well, I like anything that is old and has to do with cooking and baking....

old cake decorating boxes.....

cute box of old birthday candles....

some of their vintage cooking untensils....love that egg beater..remember those?

a box of cake and sandwhich cutters...for bridge, luncheons and party occassions...who spelled sandwhich wrong..them or me?

and as you left out the door another nice collection of glass cake stands. we had a nice time and made our way back home skipping the Highway 101 and taking the Old Biddle Road instead....just old fashion.

In Search of a Pumpkin

My cousin John is here in San Luis Obispo visiting from San Francisco and we decided to make a day of pumpkin hunting. We did find a pumpkin pie at The Avila Barn. But what we really wanted was a pumpkin.

They had some nice looking end of the season tomatoes and squash. But frankly, I am burnt out on 'em.

We made our way up See Canyon to Gopher Glen and this was the days offerings of apples. I got a bag of Bellflower...one of my favorites ... they smell like apple blossoms in Spring....and a bag of Red and Gold. We tasted the cider..it was really good...but I am waiting to buy that for Halloween night.

We headed down Los Osos Valley Road to Mary's Pumpkin Patch. The sign on the road said OPEN. So we went down the driveway.....

Little Louie the tiny donkey was there......and we petted him.

huh? the pumpkin racks are empty......where is everybody?

we headed out back past the witches trail to the old barn....

and it was there that we struck gold...kinda...we saw the pumpkins but they were behind a locked gate...and no one in sight....quiet, cool and windy...but no Mary. nobody.

we walked the witches trail and this was our view...a field of corn and the mountains looking towards Morro Bay.

another view as we came to the end of witches trail....the yellow and orange in the fields are marigold flowers grown for their seeds....again, the mountains looking towards Morro Bay North

we made a circle and came back to Mary's. That's the Farmhouse where she lives....but no Mary.

Slick the cat was there in the barn...already on the job...seems like he was the only one around.

looked like no pumpkins for us today so we loaded up and headed to Carlocks Bakery in Los Osos to see what they had for Fall...

as we walked into Carlocks this poster caught my eye. I wondered if that would be fun? Probably not for me...you see..i have this really weird thing about guacamole..i have to make it myself and eat it on the spot...i never order it out. how long ago was it made? how old is it? i just can't do it. But i guess i could have a margarita....

Carlocks didn't dissapoint...they had haystacks and Fall leaf cookies....

and just look at those donuts...how often do you see that anymore?

that cute little sign as we walked in the door...

and the BIG SCORE of the day...a donut from Carlocks. That's my cousin John. We see each other about 4 times a year...and when we get together there isn't one moment of silence....we talk on and on......we might not have found a pumpkin that day...but we did find some donuts..and we had a REALLY good time.