Is It Over Yet?

Only 2 more days to go till it's finally over. Why do i dislike January SO MUCH ! I try. Tell myself it's cozytime. Time to make hot chocolate and heart shaped cookies and get cozy by the fire. It doesn't work. I don't like it. So as I was hanging around the house ...John said ride with me to Cambria. So I did. And we took Buddy too. Cambria is about a half hour north of San Luis Obispo on the Senic Highway One. It runs along the Pacific ocean on one side and beautiful green pastures on the other. And with all the rain we have been having I thought we might see some wildflowers. And we did. The skies had cleared and all that was left were the big high puffy clouds. Somebody called them strawberry clouds.And when the sun hits them late in the afternoons..they sometimes do look the color of strawberries. We saw the yellow mustard coming up alongside the road. The story on that is when the priests were establishing the missions here in California, they would drop mustard seeds to form a path of yellow so that others following knew where to go...and now..in the spring it is all over...all over hillsides and vineyards....i just love it...i also saw a tree in bloom here in Cambria....and coming back down the coast we saw lovely views of Morro Rock sitting out in the sea....the ride was nice...actually it was a breath of spring air.....

Two Time Loser

I'm going to keep this short cause I'd rather forget it. I went to Morro Bay. That part was good. Made it to the fish market. But after that it was all downhill. They didn't have any Dover Sole or Petrale Sole, which is what I really wanted. So I got some calamari. The baby clams looked good, the sign said they were from Washington. The guy even said they were good. So I got calamari and clams. Both were losers. I made the worst dinner. The clams were weird. They tasted sweet. Almost like candy. We were both like, Huh? Has anybody ever had clams like that? And I don't even want to talk about the calamari. I have made this recipe before and it was always good. I pounded it out. Sauteed it in olive oil and butter. Added some lemon, parsley and capers. I mean, really, what could go wrong? It's simple. It was bad. I cut it up and put it out for a stray cat or racoon. Figured if we couldn't eat it...at least some wild creature would have a nice supper. Came downstairs this morning. 3 hungry stray cats staring at me. And a bowl full of calamari.

Huh?

Looks like somebody beat me. Halloween. Already.

Morro Bay

We had pretty much had it with the heat wave around here so we headed out to Morro Bay. I'm gonna let ya in on a little secret. I don't really like Morro Bay. And I don't even have a good reason why. I should like it. It has all the things I do like. Small, quaint, it really is charming, fishing boats, family run fish and chips dives, otters in the bay, seals, seagulls, now that I think about it, I guess I do like Morro Bay. Since moving from Cambria 2 years ago, which is about 20 minutes north on Highway One, I have not been to Morro Bay. Maybe that's what it is. I was on M.B. overload. Did all my grocery shopping there for nearly 30 years. Ya know, it was good to go back. We loaded up the car with some bottles of water and Buddy. John has been having the worst craving for some decent Hass avocados. The ones from Scolaris have been bad. We knew of a little roadside stand out on Highway 41 that was "the spot" for really good avocados. The ride was nice and we did see leaves starting to turn color along the creek. We got a sack of avocados and headed back into the village. John LOVES clam chowder. I have to be in the "mood" for it. And most of the time, I am NOT in the "mood" for it. So we went to Giovannis and he got the soup and we headed to "The Rock" as it is called to eat and watch the waves. It was cool and windy, but we had a good time.It felt good to get out of the heat, but this morning we woke to cold and foggy. So it looks like the heat wave is over. I am headed to The Avila Barn this morning to get raspberries to make a pie. We are invited to some friends for a Labor Day bbq and I am dessert. I'll let ya know how the pie making goes.