From the Outside

Every six months I'm able to admire a Frank Lloyd Wright designed building. The Kundert Medical Clinic is located next door to the office of our dentist.

It was a happy accident that we first noticed the Seven Sisters Railing as we walked over the Santa Rosa Street bridge. We backtracked our steps after reading the explanatory sign to take a closer look at the Wright building.

Currently the medical office is owned by a couple of Cardiologists I know but I'd rather not have to pay them a visit in order to be inside their lovely building.

Foodie Friends

The other day my friend Sandee wrote a very delicious blog post about making Artisan bread in just five minutes. Although the thought of making hand-crafted bread so quickly was intriguing I was more interested in her bread cloche. I knew what a cloche hat was but had never heard of a bread cloche. (I didn't know I needed one till I read her post and saw the beautiful bread sitting in the stoneware cloche.)

The tempting photo made me think of another friend, CJ. She's a coworker friend, an accomplished baker, and amazing blogger. Her blog is called Food Stories. I'm not sure where she finds the energy to work full-time and keep up with her blog but she does and she does both well.

CJ's blog has a section called Food Foto Gallery, because "we love food and food photos".

So anyway I was thinking Sandee should post her beautiful bread and cloche to the Food Foto Gallery. As I read the submission instructions and looked at other people's photos I thought, "Well, why not." And posted my own photo.

Here's a screenshot of part of today's Food Foto Gallery. Can you find my food photo?

A Force of Nature

Last year, a large oak branch broke but it's fall was blocked by the nest of gnarly branches beneath it. It was too high for The Man to trim and it hung there suspended in the air. We made sure to give it a wide berth and not stand or walk beneath it.

We have lots and lots of tall oak trees. Sometimes the mighty oaks and the power lines intersects a little too closely. As a precaution, the power company hires a local tree trimming service to monitor clearance of the utility lines. When Cristina from the tree company came out she agreed that the broken branch presented a hazard and marked the tree to be cut at a later date.

A few weeks ago after our stormy weather Cristina came by again. She mentioned to The Man how unusual it was for her to be sent out to the same area and she remembered marking the tree.

The Man said, "We were standing on the driveway looking at another tree and all of a sudden we heard a loud crash. The suspended limb and the limb holding it came crashing down. It wasn't a windy day, it was just a breeze that brought both branches down."

How inexplicably weird is that?

The fallen branches . . . 

. . . ready for the log splitter.

This may be the oldest oak tree in our neighborhood. It definitely is one of the largest. There are always broken branches littered beneath it. I would not want to spend too much time in it's shade.

Happy First Day of Spring.

Out and About Downtown SLO

It's been a long time since Sandee and I got together for a Girls' Day Out. Yesterday we headed south and spent the afternoon wandering around downtown San Luis Obispo.

SLO is a very pretty place on any given day. On a sunny spring day it's simply spectacular:

Mission San Luis Obispo de Tolosa est. 1772

Public Art and San Luis Obispo Museum of Art

 ~ Sycamore & Budding Thistle by Jim Jacobson

~ Fish Life by Jim Jacobson

~ Metal Human Figure by Bob Moore on outside wall of the SLO Museum of Art

Work of art by Nature . . .  priceless.

Lunch at Vieni Vai Trattoria

Hot from the wood-burning pizza oven.

Musical Chairs

The Goaty Boys celebrated their second birthday last month.

Coincidentally, I found the original Craigslist email we sent to Mama Goat Peggy:

We're interested in a couple of your wethers.  We recently moved to Atascadero (from Hawaii) and have 6+ acres.  We're looking for a couple of goats as pets/weed eaters and everything we've read indicates that Nigerian Dwarf goats will fit the bill.  Our property is fully-fenced, and we have a 25' x 50' pen.  If the goats are still available we would like to take a look!  We would also appreciate any advice and recommendations on their care.

Peggy's response:

We still have several of the wethers available!   Your property sounds great for them!   I'd start them out in the little pen and get them really used to you and tame (they naturally like people but also are shy at first but with handling will become regular lap goats if you let them!).

Goats are herd animals and need a buddy to be happy so we knew we needed to adopt two goats. When we went to Peggy's to place dibs on "our goats" I was drawn to Wyatt's black and white coloring. We didn't have the heart to separate the three brothers so we placed dibs on all three boys and planned to return when they were weaned from their Mama. (We didn't consider their sister, she cost quite a bit more as a valuable dairy goat, and milking a goat daily was not something I wanted to do.)

The Boys with their Mama, 4-weeks-old.

We were smart not to encourage them to sit in our laps but they did teach themselves to sit in lawn chairs.

Nowadays, it's part of their daily routine: relaxing on the back deck, lounging in their chairs, and taking a siesta.

From my kitchen window I can easily see them.

When I tap on the glass they all turn to look at me with a goaty smile.

It makes my heart sing.

Everyone but the Dog

We're finally getting some of our much needed rain. In fact, it's been raining off and on for the past four days. Our home rain gauge is at the 5 inches mark, that's more rainfall than all of last year!

The animals have been cooped up in the pen for the past two days and although they're free roaming today it doesn't look like anyone wants to be outside. The doghouse seems to be the perfect shelter from the storm.

For Molly the Cat.

Sophia and two white eggs.

"You know we're not house-broken. . . ."

And the dog?

Sleeping inside the house on her heated bed.