Saturday, January 19, 2008

A Getty Weekend: Part 1

After all our traveling during the Christmas and New Year holidays, I wasn't ready to spend another night away from home. So rather than follow our mutual birthday gift tradition, we stayed home for my birthday weekend - sort of. Since I have Fridays off, I drove down to Malibu for a wonderful, solitary, and mellow afternoon at the Getty Villa. It wasn't very crowded and it was another one of those warm and clear (Catalina Island was totally visible) SoCal winter days. After parking and walking up the path to the museum, I started my visit with an architecture and garden tour. The docent told us about the Villa dei Papiri in Herculaneum, Italy - the first century Roman country house the museum is modeled after. He did such a good job of describing life on this "working ranch" that I think I was in a timewarped haze the entire afternoon!After my visit, I rendezvoused with Tom and some of his Portola colleagues at Rookies for beer and appetizers - not a bad way to return to 21st century Ventura!
(Once I have edited my pictures, I will activate a link.)

SoCal Spring Has Arrived

Mid-January continues to be the beginning of our spring flowering season. After our big rain, the hills are beginning to turn from brown to green and our flowers are beginning to bloom.This is the first daffodil to bloom in 2008!

Friday, January 18, 2008

3AM moonset

An advantage of falling asleep in front of the TV (and laptop) is waking up at 2:30 and getting to watch the moonset in front of the house. The color was actually this orange tone but by pushing the ISO for a sharper image, I lost the true color and got the color it was when it was higher in the sky.
Clear but cold tonight - 43 degrees.

Wednesday, January 16, 2008

Sweet Home, Redondo Beach

Having grown up in this beach city sixty miles south of where we now live, I still think of this as my hometown and love visiting it often, especially in the winter when most of the tourists are gone. Since I was scheduled to work late, I took half of my workday off and ended up with much of the afternoon off as well. I started the day by leaving Ventura before sunrise to get my hair cut by Kathleen. After that, I wandered around The Pier taking pictures (click on the photos to see the sandpipers, pelicans, and black-crowned night herons better) and enjoying the sunny morning until Tony's Fish Market (AKA "New" Tony's) opened at 11:30.I had a leisurely lunch of smoked salmon chowder, Catalina sanddabs, and linguine with clams - yum! Sitting by the window, I got to see rainbow reflections as the waves broke under the pier. I even saw a dolphin in the the distance - how perfect is that? (Actually, I consider every day I see dolphins as perfect days!)

Monday, January 14, 2008

Another Gorgeous and Mild January 14th

Aaahhh . . . I am soooo lucky to get these gorgeous sunny and warm birthdays. It seems to be part of the normal SoCal climate to have rain that washes the air and land clean the week before, so we have blue skies and warm winds by the middle of the month. As is my birthday tradition, I had to walk on the beach and enjoy the weather, so I spent my lunch hour on Hueneme Beach and just sighed with pleasure!
(Had to try self-timing a self-portrait or two . . .
but it took a few tries to find the right place to stand!)

Tom and I had a nice dinner at Eric Ericsson's on the Ventura Pier. Of course, the celebration won't be limited to just one day, especially a work day, so stay tuned!

Monday Morning After Last Week's Stormy Weekend

While Tahoe woke to bluebird sky and loads of powder on the ground, we woke to spectacular sunrise colors and SNOW on the distant mountains! (I get a kick out this telephoto shot from our upstairs window - snow, palms, and banana trees!)Although we seem to get snow in the lower elevations at least once a year, I still get all excited about seeing that beautiful white coating on our local mountains!(Don't forget you can see the larger versions by clicking on each picture.)

Sunday, January 13, 2008

Last Week's "Monster Storm"

That's what they actually called it and getting to be home to watch the weather coverage last Friday, Saturday, and Sunday was really exciting . . . eleven feet of snow fell over the four days of storm at Kirkwood and there was so much snow and wind on Highway 80 between Sacto and Reno they had to close it for a while! While it didn't break any records, this storm made it into the record book as one of the biggest storms in more than one aspect.Meanwhile down in our part of the state, the giant storm brought honest-to-goodness real rain - 2.35" in our rain gauge over the three days.