California Newt

The rain brought these little guys out! They are called California Rough Skin newts... Jim found out later, after having brought a couple home from their adventure hike, that they are poisonous if ingested...!

Needless to say, we let them go pretty quickly after that!

Lemon Pudding

When I came back from San Francisco yesterday, on the kitchen counter stood a special treat.

This special treat may be one of the reasons I married my husband. Granted, he is seldom in the kitchen to create food. In fact, I would prefer that he stayed out, and let me be the control-kitchen-patrol that I normally am.

But the truth (and secret) is, my husband is a good cook, when he wants to be! He was the one who taught me how to bake bread, many moons ago now. He can whip up a perfectly good Beef Bourguignon. He can even make home-made sloppy Joe, as he did with the kids this Sunday while I was gone.

But most of all, he makes the most fantastic dessert, that I dare call my very favorite dessert of all time. The lemon pudding.

I have never made this dish myself, so I don't even know how to go about it. I know it involves a lot of fresh lemons. And eggs. The result is this divine lemony cake/custard combination that tastes much lighter than it actually is. I love it!

Ano Nuovo

The sky was threatening more rain.  We had not reserved spots for the Elephant seals tour at Ano Nuovo State Park today, mostly because it had been booked solid.  But today, we thought we could just try our luck. 

And luck we had. We got there just in time to join the next group, heading down to the 'rookery' where the elephant seals are breeding, sunbathing, and you know, living their lives. 

Jim and I had been here once before, years ago, before the children came into our lives. I remember being dumbfounded by this National Geographic-like action happening right before our eyes.  We were just a few feet away from these gigantic creatures, some were fighting, some were mating, some were swimming.  We were newly Californians, and were instantly sold by the bounty of this coastline. 

So today, we got to share that experience with the kids. They are just old enough to be able to follow what the docent was saying, and wise enough to know how amazing it was for us to enjoy this unique experience. 

The walk was 3 miles total, but the tour was over two hours.  A lot of that time was spent near the rookery where we stood near the elephant seals, who by the way, seemed oblivious to our presence.  

Most of the females had left, we were told, since they had finished nursing their pups, mated, and were on their way back to sea.  Lots of these pups were already 300 lbs, and yet they looked tiny compared to the large males who apparently could weigh up to... 5,000 lbs! 

The tour was informative, the 'show' was fun.  The most amazing thing of all was that after it was all over, we hopped into the car, drove less than 30 minutes south, and voila, we were back home.  It was the best kind of entertainment...right in our own backyard!

In between storms

As I write, more rain is drenching our already over-saturated ground. It actually sounds like hail, and a monsoon combined.

We were lucky with a few hours of sun today, enough for a short hike at Big Basin Redwoods State Park, and a viewing of the Tour of California (a bicycle race, the American version of the Tour de France, with all the big names riding through town).  Can you get anymore opposing activities? I think not. 

So we saw newts and calla lilies before snapping photos of Lance Armstrong and Levi Lipheimer! 

Valentine's

A day late, but not a dollar short!

Happy Belated Valentine's Day! These were cards we made for the kids' school friends. The hearts are made of 'sculpy' clay that can be baked in the oven.

Farm in February

Resting on an avocado tree

We were deep in the field of mustards at UCSC farm today. There is nothing more fun for the kids than to walk through these tall plants, pretending to make their own maze. Claire kept worrying about the farmers : "They will be mad at us!" she kept saying.

I am pretty sure it was okay for them to walk through just once since this is winter crop, planted to help enrich the soil before Spring when the real planting season begins again. Or at least I am hoping that is the case...

The Mission - Santa Cruz

Several Spanish Missions dot the California coastline.  It is to remind us of California's history and early days when it was still part of Mexico (under Spanish rule).  Santa Cruz has one of these historic missions, although the original one did not survive.  The new one was built within the last 100 years, and located not too far from downtown Santa Cruz itself. 

I am ashamed to say that even after almost 10 years, I visited the mission for the first time just a few weeks ago.  Surprisingly, its ground is rather beautiful.  A mini sanctuary, at least for the youngsters who seem to be able to find something to entertain themselves with for hours. 

We returned today, in between rainfalls, for some more fun.  The rain started again soon after our visit, and so we came home to make these scrumptious Valentine's cookies.  

Because according to Claire, we have to celebrate Valentine's all week... Oh, how the children can change your mind on many things!

After School

There is a 'short-cut' that we take to kindergarten everyday. It's a path up to UCSC campus, used by bikers and pedestrians alike. We like it because it is a rather peaceful way to start and end our (Kindergarten) day. Recently, we have also been eating lunch around here, since it's just too beautiful out to be indoors.

Today a family of deer joined us. They were tame, but were cautious and watched us from afar.

Elkhorn Slough

Right next to a power plant near Moss Landing, about 30 minutes south of Santa Cruz, sits Elkhorn Slough.  It's a marine preserve with tons of bird life, and often marine mammals frolicking about.  

We took advantage of yesterday's brilliant weather to hike around there.  On our way, we walked by a couple from Ann Arbor Michigan.

"It's 7 degrees there today," said the husband, a professor at U of M.

Seven degrees!  It was easily 60 degrees warmer where we were all standing, chatting. Even though they didn't say it explicitly, I think they secretly wished they didn't have to leave here, to go back there...At least until July.

Still on Track

Just for fun, here is a monitor lizard sun-bathing in Lumpini Park, in the middle of Bangkok! The park goers don't seem to mind them... But we were sure to keep our distance. These guys only live in zoos and museum exhibits around here! And plus, they can bite...

Anyhow, just a short note to let you know that we are still following our New Year's resolution of baking a loaf of bread a week. I must admit that during the heat wave that we had recently, it was hard to turn on that oven. But we managed a loaf of Oatmeal-Molasses bread, and a beer bread, plus a couple of challahs in between.

Now the proper winter (California) weather has returned, we will be baking again, I am sure.

A part of me wishes that I were still snapping photos of these monitors, though.

President Barack H. Obama

Anything is possible now (with a lot of hard work, we keep reminding our kids). 

We are thrilled to be part of history.  Better yet, to have our children be part of the new era!

Continued Warmth

My condolences to our friends and family on the East coast who are apparently experiencing some very frigid weather (and have been for a long while)! I wish I could send some warmth over your way, with a little bit of sand, maybe...

We are enjoying it for you over here, we promise!

Warm January

It was warmer here today than it was in Thailand. Thailand! The most tropical country out there, where most days, it is just too hot to be outside!  Apparently, it was in the 50s there, and has been for days.  Things are sure topsy-turvy these days.  Who says Global Warming is not real?  Good thing the new Vice President is Joe Biden, and not Mrs. Palin!

We still took advantage of the heat wave today and went to our favorite beach: Bean Hollow. The tide was not going to reach its lowest until later in the day, but we were able to walk the rocks and find treasures as we waited for the super low tide to come. And it did. 

I spent a moment on the sand, flat on my tummy, palming through the beautiful pebbles. Occasionally I would find a beautiful beach glass to add to our collection, and occasionally I would come across just a perfect piece of pebble that I could not resist bringing back with us.

Most of all, though,  as I watched the kids lose themselves to the beach, I spent a moment reflecting on how lucky we are to be here, now.  Being there on that beach, driving back on coastal highway 1, I was reminded of the awesome beauty of this area.  To have had the warmth and the sun and two happy children on top of all that, I could not have asked for more!

Moon and Beach

Or more like, beach, then moon.

We were surprised at how low the tide was today at Davenport Beach. In fact, now that I am writing this, it may have something to do with the impending full moon??

Anyhow, we loved having the huge tidepools to discover. We saw dozens of sea stars, sea anemones, bullhead fish, and thousands and mussels. I am not exaggerating! Thousands. Maybe even hundreds of thousands.

On the way home, the moon was up, and the hills were green with cows grazing here and there. Was I in England? New Zealand? Oh right, I am still in California. Coastal California where you get mountains and beaches right next to each other. Spoiled, we are!

Milk Bread and Corn Bread

It was a cold and rainy day here, perfect for bread-making! Since the challah was eaten within hours of it coming out of the oven, we were ready to bake something else. Looking for something simple with ingredients at hand, we decided to make one yeasted bread (Milk Bread) and one without yeast (corn bread).

The corn bread was easy, and was eaten with dinner of baked beans and clam chowder (you would think we were back in Boston).

While we waited for the other bread dough to rise, we went to the park to ride the bikes. The rain had ceased and the fog was settling in for the evening.

As I post, the house is overwhelmed with the smell of the Milk Bread being baked in the oven! It is heavenly, and we have not even tasted the fruit of our labor.

Family New Year Resolution

It happened rather abruptly a few days before New Years.  The kids got inspired from a book we read in Thailand about baking bread.

"Can we bake bread when we get home?" they pleaded. 

And so we did. Jet-lagged and all, we decided to start our first (hopefully) weekly loaf of bread on New Year's Day.  The first being Challah bread, a well known and well liked Jewish bread usually in a braided form.  I have made it before a while back and remembered that it wasn't too difficult.  The dough had to rise twice, first time for 2 hours and second time for 4-12 hours !).  

The kids and I, believe it or not, baked the dough at 4am the next morning. Why not? We were up, the dough was ready, and we were hungry for breakfast! 

We made three loaves, two small ones, and one big one. The kids ate all of their small ones up in one sitting!

Will keep you posted of our next loaf... if may happen before the week is over at the rate we are going!