Spring, Sprang, Sprung

Good afternoon, my friends. Did you remember to spring ahead today? And just because I worded the question that way, please don't feel obligated to "spring." If you prefer, you can just sit down and slide one hour ahead. It's perfectly fine. 

It's been a busy morning here at the Traveling Three Cats Ranch. We're having dinner with friends this evening to celebrate the beginning of Daylight Savings Time. (Some of us actually like it.) I'm contributing dessert, and so I busied myself making an apple crisp. We'll take along some vanilla ice cream, and I think this will be a tasty treat. I used all Braeburns in the crisp.

And I really love the topping for this crisp. I'm using a recipe that was created by the pastry chef Michelle Vernier, formerly of Portland's own Wildwood restaurant. The restaurant closed some time ago, but the recipe for the crisp was published in the Oregonian newspaper a few years ago, and I snapped it up. I would link to it here, but it's no longer available online. I'll give it to you here. It makes a really delicious crisp, and it's very easy to do. We'll serve it up with some vanilla ice cream. Yum. Think of it as diet food. It's apples! And oatmeal! And ice cream! At my age, that calcium is very important. You might even say it's health food! (Follow me for more diet advice.) Here's the recipe:

While that was baking, I spent some time on my slow-stitching. The covered bridge is nearly finished.

The Stanbro Men got outside for a walk. Smitty was fairly insistent about his walk this morning, having fortified his courage with a good scratch on his scratching post.

Sadie enjoyed the morning from the comfort of her catio. Please ignore the kitty snot on the window there.

Backing up to yesterday afternoon, we went out for a second walk. Armed with the gate code, we could explore the park behind us. It's a lovely green space in densely-packed downtown Escondido.

Walking to the right, I snapped this image of the play structure. (We walked to where no one was watching. I didn't want to be mistaken for some kind of perv.)

Our shadow selves made their first appearance of the trip. 

Before we go any further, let's read these many rules. Basically, don't have any fun while you're here and you'll probably be in compliance.

And they're not just kidding with the "No Kite Flying." Mike tells me one can gauge the voltage by the length of the insulators. He estimates these wires are carrying zillions of volts. (Technical electricity terms.)

The park was named for the late Rod McLeod who was Administrator of the local Palomar Hospital. After his death in 1976, the park was named in his honor for his outstanding contributions to the community and for his service to the City as a member of the Escondido Parks and Recreation Commission.

Walking on, I took pictures of every blooming thing. Here we're up close to the blooming mustard.

This is "candy tufts."

Here are some more of those freeway daisies.

And whatever this is.

Some more daisies in a different color.

We were interested in these Eucalyptus trees. There is more than one kind of Eucalyptus. The ones ubiquitous in Southern California are the Tasmanian blue gum. They're a deciduous tree and they shed their bark each year. The ones we saw farther north were still shedding their bark.

These appear to be completely finished with their stark white trunks. I stopped to pick up a piece from the ground.

And here's another kind of Eucalyptus. This one is known as Red Ironbark Eucalyptus. You can see it has a trunk completely different in appearance.

It also produces an interesting sort of "berry," for lack of a better word.

We also saw some pepper trees.

Mike held some of the peppercorns in his hand for scale.

On our walk back to the RV, I captured this nearly perfect rose.

The hibiscus has opened some more from my previous picture.

Smitty might have come with us, but he was busy on a photoshoot for his Captain Ameowrica cover. Look for him on the cover of the July issue of Cosmeowpolitan magazine. Such a studly cat.

So I'll probably get out for another walk today. My friend, Kate, is motivating me to get out my photo prompt cards and do a little photo scavenger hunting. Aside from that, we don't have much on the agenda beyond waiting for time to have dinner with our friends.

That's all I have for you at the moment. I'll leave you to enjoy the rest of your afternoon. After losing an hour of sleep last night, I'm recommending naps all around.