California Dreaming

Hello, gorgeous!

One of the gifts of living in "most" parts of California, is citrus trees. My fellow Californians that live in the "flat lands" have already enjoyed their citrus blossoms but now it's our turn.

This year, we are truly blessed with an abundance of flowers and bees! There is nothing better than to open the windows and smell the gorgeous fragrance, wafting in your rooms. The fragrance is seductive but fleeting. Only once a year do we have this gift.
But later, if we are lucky, we will have the "fruits" of the bees labor.
Thank you spring.

Spring......Really?

This is the time of the year that I am enjoying the beginnings of Spring; the daffodils showing their colors, the poppies and lupine blooming, in the flat land.

I wasn't expecting, "the white stuff".

California Dreaming -Winter Fruits-Citrus

As I find myself crawling above the stacks of work and personal obligations, I wonder, "Where did the holidays go? Wasn't it Christmas & New Years, yesterday"?

It doesn't help my diminutive sense of time, that I went from a glorious 50th birthday celebration weekend, in New Orleans (more on that later) to the frozen tundras of Kentucky for work.

There in Northern Kentucky, I found fellow associates, born & bred Californians complaining about the quality of the fruits & vegetables, especially citrus. This discussion made me stop and think , "Do I take for granted the daily bounty of California?".

Answer: yes.

Winter months in California provide an abundance of citrus;from grapefruits (Oro Blanco, the best), Mandarins, Navel oranges to the ever present Cuties.

Citrus is everywhere.

Growing up in the Central Coast of California (a.k.a. Salad Bowl of the USA), citrus was part of my Christmas flavors (also Dungess Crab, See's Candy & sourdough bread). I have lived in places where I had avocado, fig & citrus trees growing in a backyard. The idea of not having easy access to these fruits/flavor, is foreign to this Cal Gal.

Where am I going with this diatribe?

As I peel my "Cutie", I give thanks for living in California.

Amen.

Flashback Friday-Hawaii-I wish You Were Mine-Tommy Tokioka w/ Steve Perry

Even though my body is here in California, my thoughts are back in Kauai.

That is the reason for today's "Flashback Friday" video. It has an island flavor with a hint of the"70's sound of Steve Perry.

This song is what I call a "cruising" song. Envision this: A bright sunny day, driving in a convertible car, top down, wind whipping through your hair, this song playing in the background and destination unknown.

Doesn't that sound good?

Did you ever cruise? If so, what music did you listen to, while driving?

 

Flashback Friday-Blondie-Dreaming

Do dreams come true??? That's my question for the day.

This song was another teenage anthem for my high school years. I know, I know. How many anthems, can one person have? Obviously, I need a song for every situation, don't you?

Don't know how many times my pals & I listened to Blondie, especially this song. It was a lot. Those years marked many days of dreaming of what our lives would be or hold.  The unknown was all I had in my head, at that time. 

Would I go back to those days? No.

But I sure do enjoy the music and I still dream.

 

 

California WorldFest

I have been trying to get a post up regarding the great time I had for two days at the California WorldFest.  But I kept saying to myself, " It was in July and it's August so, I have plenty of time."

Ah................it's now September!!! Better late than never, right?

This music festival is held over 4 days at the beautiful Nevada County Fairgrounds. There's 7 stages, both indoor and outdoor, with the main two stages are used for evening performances only. Over the 4 days, there are at least 30 acts of different genres of music.

It's a family oriented event that has a special area for kid  events. People bring their beach chairs, coolers and picnic on the grounds.

There's merchandise vendors that provide everything from musical instruments to tie dye clothing.

Yes, I said Tie Dye. It's still alive and kicking at WorldFest.

One of the vendors was Jendala; which provides inspirational metal work. This was a tree in front of their booth, which was used aS a merchanidizing stand.

Here's a close up of the tree.

 

The festival draws a differse crowd of people. This lovely couple danced until there wasn't any daylight left.

There was this mother and child. It was in the mid 80's but sometimes a hat is neccessary.

 

 

Here's another couple, who were selling hair thingie wingies (a technical term).

 

Great people watching.

But everyone comes for the music. Does anyone recoginize this iconic horn blower?

What about this angle?

Yep, it's Doc Severnsen of the Johnny Carson Tonight show fame. Very few men could pull of that color combination but Doc. He still has the chops with trumpet.

I highly recommend this music festival. Great music, food from around the world, vendors and great people watching. I hope to see you, next July

 

 

A Walk in the Forest

Every day, I try to walk nature path by my office.

 

It helps to clear the mind and add more pesky steps to my pedometer. The pedometer, that's another post all together!

Sometimes I see other people walking or running or your typical forest creatures. You know, squirrels, birds and lizards.

But this nature trail has Dino Stump!!

 

 

Someone got very creative! Dino Stump started with 3 dinosaurs. Then all of sudden, it became a dinosaur hang out. I am not sure why Tony the Tiger's head showed up. But he looks like he's having a good time.

 

Further down the trail is another hangout with other forest creatures.

The Travelocity Gnome & a zebra??

It's amazing what you find in a forest, in California.

Flashback Friday-Redbone, "Come and Get Your Love".

Here's a song that screams "1970's"!

Every time I hear this song, I think of a 6th grader, on a field trip to Topanga Canyon, Los Angeles, in the school bus, singing at the top of her lungs with her classmates.

Enjoy.

 

Flashback Fridays- Van Halen's "You Really Got Me".

 

Summer has finally arrived, in my neck of the woods. The air is still sweet and the ground hasn't turned into blazing, hot concrete. It's the "perfect" summer weather. The kind of weather that you want to play hooky from work and go driving; cruising actually.

 

Do you remember cruising? Or am I showing my age?

 

There are certain songs that immediately invoke my memories of cruising the Asilomar Beach, in Pacific Grove or the El Camino in San Mateo. Below is one of those songs. It's Van Halen's cover of the Kink's song, "You Really Got Me".

 

This the Van Halen group that I remember. Eddie's flying fingers on the guitar and David Lee Roth's prowling sexiness. In fact, check out Mr. Roth's hip action. Hubba Hubba!

 

TGIF, y'all!

 

 

 

 

 

Father's Day & Yosemite

 

 

I know.  I am a day late in honoring my father for Father's Day. But as they say, "It's better late than never". So here's my homage to my father & Yosemite.

In the past I have blogged about the importance of Yosemite in my life, I love Yosemite.  But Yosemite is just as important to my father, if not more important.

This photo was taken in the 1960's, on a hike to Sierra Point. This trail is no longer maintained by the park, but I hope to hike it with my dad, some day.

I love how dapper Dad looks; totally digging the beret. On the whole, we Americans dressed better in the '60's, even hiking.

Also notice the camera equipment. I can't even imagine hiking with that equipment, but that's what it took.

That camera has documented so many holidays, family gatherings & formal family pictures. When I think of my father, the photographer, it's this camera he is using.

Love you, Dad. Happy Father's Day.