Another Nice Day

Good morning, my friends. Despite the rain early on, we've hit the jackpot in the Escondido weather department. We're expecting a high of 81 degrees today, and the warm weather will continue through next week. 

We had a lunch date with our friends yesterday. We tried out a new-to-us BBQ restaurant, and the food was delicious. When we left the kitties, they were acting as bookends.

We've been on the hunt for some wheatgrass for them. We'd visited a Sprouts and a PetSmart the day before. No luck. Then, we found plenty at an Albertson's store. The kitties have been nibbling at it ever since. 

Usually, I think about finding wheatgrass before we leave home, but I forgot about it this time. Sounds like I need to add it to my packing list, doesn't it? Smitty likes to add it to his smoothies in the morning.

We got out for a short walk yesterday afternoon. Right away, we came upon this group of ducks walking along the road. We made the ducks nervous as we walked by. I like how ducks will quack-mutter when they're faced with a potential threat. 

Across the lake, we saw our friend the Great Egret.

He looks like he has a bead on something here. We watched for a while, but didn't see him catch anything.

Of course I took pictures of every blooming thing.

My phone tells me this next one is Duranta.

And this is another blooming Jade plant. Who knew?

Okay, and I spent the remains of the day finishing off this section of the Raggedy & Friends block.

And then I started on the second section for this block. I'll start here this morning. It's mostly words, and so it should stitch up pretty quickly.

We have no plans for the day. Probably, I'm going to get out with my DSLR and macro lens today to take some macro shots. (My friend, Kate, inspired me with her macro photography.) I expect naps will be in the bargain. How are y'all spending your long weekend? Traffic being what it is around here, we'll probably stick pretty close to the RV. We have some more hikes planned for next week. We'll decide as we go. 

Oceanside, California

Good morning, my friends. It's another beautiful day here in Escondido. We're meeting up with some friends for lunch in a couple of hours. Aside from that, there's not much going on today. As for yesterday's wanderings, I took the first stitches on the smaller embroidered section for Block 11 of Raggedy & Friends.

We were meeting up with friends for lunch at the Oceanside Broiler near Oceanside Harbor, and then we were going to walk on the Oceanside Pier. When we left the kitties, they were clearly distraught about being left alone for a few hours. Sadie was snoring on her window hammock. (Don't mention the snoring, though. You'll embarrass her.)

Smitty was crashed on the couch, having already cried his eyes out.

I didn't take any pictures of the harbor yesterday, but here's one I took during a previous visit. It was cloudy on the day I took this picture, but the weather was perfect yesterday. We were out in short sleeves. (I actually wore shorts a couple of days ago.)

After lunch, we headed over to the Oceanside Pier for a little walk around.

We were in the process of taking a selfie...

When a woman offered to take our picture with my camera.

Our friends on the left, Tom and Deb, and I were all in our high school band together. Deb and I played clarinet (I played alto clarinet), and Tom played the saxophone.

Okay, so let's go for a walk, shall we? Please obey the rules.

Don't embarrass me now.

If you're riding your skateboard, please pick it up and carry it from here.

It's a beautiful and long coastline here in Oceanside. Looking north toward Los Angeles, it looks like this:

Looking south toward San Diego, it looks like this. That road you see on the left side of the image is known as "The Strand."

It was a good day for surfing

When we're here, I always take a picture of the Roberts Cottages below. You can read about the history of this Oceanside landmark right here. When I see them, I renew my commitment to make a quilt of them some day. 

I haven't yet taken a picture of them that I really like for rendering them into fabric. On the other hand, when I looked for that link about the history, I found lots of images online. One of those might do for my quilt.

Looking in the other direction, there were boats offshore.

We walked to the end of the pier. Since our last visit, the restaurant that was here burned down, damaging the end of the pier. It's now fenced off to prevent folks from walking out there. We know of no plans for rebuilding, but I expect the pier will be repaired eventually, even if the restaurant is not rebuilt.

As we were leaving the pier, these musicians were setting up for some entertainment.

We walked south on The Strand. We were on the hunt for the house you see below. 

If you've ever watched the program "Animal Kingdom" on TV, this is the house that Baz lived in on the show. We enjoyed the show because it was mostly filmed right here in Oceanside, and it's always fun seeing places you recognize on television. (And if you haven't watched "Animal Kingdom," it's a good show. Some violence, but an interesting story and engaging characters.)  We tried to locate Deran's bar (also on the show), but couldn't find it.

Turning directly around from the house above, we could see the length of the pier...a little shorter now with the loss of the restaurant.

Walking along, I took a few shots of the landscaping. I'm not sure what these are. They look like huge rosehips, but this is not a rose plant. The "berries" are about the size of a cherry tomato.

Also, this...it kind of looks like a double daffodil to me.

Okay, and we headed for home mid-afternoon. We got into some terrible traffic, making our drive longer. We tried looking for some wheatgrass for the kitties, but couldn't find it at the two stores we visited. We'll try again today. 

As for today, lunch with these same friends, as I mentioned earlier, and then probably home to relax for the rest of the afternoon. (I can't rule out a visit to a quilt shop.) The good weather is expected to continue into next week. We still have two weeks here in Escondido, and we still have some items to check-off on our to-do list. Also, we're hoping to get over to see our recently-hospitalized friend the weekend. She's home from the hospital now, and slowing feeling good enough to meet up again.

So that's all I have for you today. I'm going to get busy with my slow-stitching next. Have a good day, Everybody! 

Coming Up Roses

Good morning, my friends. We had an easy-going day yesterday. I did three loads of wash...wash loads are small in our washer/dryer combo, and so three loads are required to do the work of two. Aside from that, we got out for a walk around the park, and then sat and relaxed for most of the day. 

First thing, I spent a little extra time on my slow-stitching. I'd missed a couple of days, and so I wanted to stitch a little longer. That allowed me to finish the second embroidered section for Block 10 of the Raggedy & Friends project.

Here are the two sections for Block 10.

Finishing those two sections was my goal for January's 

So, I'll link up there when the party starts at the end of the month.

From here, I had to decide whether to continue on with the Raggedy & Friends or whether to start something different. There are two blocks left to finish off all the embroidery (four embroidered sections), and so I decided to continue on. I started this project when we left on our trip to Alaska. If I can finish all the embroidery on this trip, I'll be able to finish off the quilt top when we get home.

Okay, so with that decided, here are the two sections I'll need to stitch for Block 11.

And since it's impossible to see anything there, here's the image from the pattern. I'll start with the lower one.

So we had breakfast, and then got ourselves around. We planned to get out for a walk. We left Sadie basking in the sunshine.

Smitty is more careful about his tender skin. You don't want to get skin cancer, you know. He decided to camp out under where we hung the bird feeders, although no birds have visited the feeders as far as we can tell. One can hope though, and Smitty is an optimistic guy.

Before we leave for our walk, though, I remembered this photo from the wineries the day before. It missed the boat when I posted my pictures yesterday. This is bougainvillea. It's just one of many plants I wish we could grow in the Pacific Northwest.

So, okay...off we go. Remember I told you some folks who live here have some nice potted gardens around their rigs. This one had a couple of good looking bell peppers.

At another site, we found this waist-high lemon tree with at least two lemons on it. I'm guessing the cactus there is to discourage any visitors to the midnight market.

Moving on, we found this blooming jade plant. I don't think I've ever seen a jade plant with flowers. I didn't even know they bloomed.

Along our way, we passed this aloe plant budding out and ready to bloom. This one seems to get shade most of the day.

Walking on, we found a few blooming to beat the band. These get full sun all day long.

Here's how the whole plant looks.

We walked all the way out and past the gated entrance to find these pretty blooming roses. They were very fragrant.

Our neighbor has this interesting plant. My phone tells me this is Kalanchoe. It's common name is "Mother of Millions." It's a succulent native to Madagascar.

This is an Organ Pipe Cactus. We have a whole national monument in Arizona dedicated to the Organ Pipe Cactus.

We didn't see our friends the Great Egret or the Great Blue Heron, but we saw the cormorants again. The two on the left are the double-breasted cormorants. The one on the right is a black cormorant.

There are speed bumps throughout the park...annoying when we're driving in and out.

Of course our shadow selves had to bump up against one another to demonstrate how this "bump" business works. Yeah...they're hilarious...not.

Today we're planning an early lunch at a restaurant near the Oceanside Harbor that we like. Afterward we'll get out and take a walk on the Oceanside Pier, which is one of our favorite destinations when we're in the area. Since our last visit, there was a fire on the pier, and the restaurant at the end has not yet been rebuilt. We're not sure what we'll find there, but I guess the mystery will reveal itself soon enough.

Smitty was the picture of contentment yesterday evening. Kitty treats and a comfy quilt are all he needs.