A Fall Walk

Kyle and I had a great time at Woodward Park. Enjoy the pictures!

A morning walk

Fall is on its way! I love when the leaves change colors. Cool morning walks are so inviting. Kyle and I went for a walk this morning and enjoyed some yummy breakfast at a local downtown coffee shop! We also had to stop by one of my favorite spots to take leaf pictures. Of all places, it is the post office:)
This turned out to be a fun angle to get the leaves.

There are still flowers blooming here!

I love lilies!

It is still early in the fall season leaf wise, so many of the leaves are still green.

Aren't these cool!

Perspective

What would it be like to be a moth traveling and landing on this bush?

What would it be like to be a rollypolly crawling though this jungle of leaves?

What would it be like to be an ant trying to crawl up this fuzzy flower?

What would it be like to be a worm popping up and seeing a sea of gold?

What would it be like to be a sparrow landing in this tree?

A November Walk

I went on a walk, and what did I see?
I had to stop by the post office because I knew they had some of the prettiest trees around.

The lighting was perfect that afternoon.

The colors were stunning and breath taking.

I ventured on toward downtown Clovis.

And although it is fall, you can still find evidence of summer.

Reasons to go to Wisconsin

Please understand that between Kyle and I, we took over 500 pictures. I went through and deleted some of the fuzzy ones, and we still have over 450. So, it was hard to chose some of the really good photos. I "kinda" went crazy with the floral shots, so notice that with great effort all of these photos are not pictures of flowers.

Reasons to go to Wisconsin:

Reason #1 To see the Bahers! They are simply fabulous and worth the flights with crying children (yes we did have a toddler on all three flights back that wasn't to keen on flying). They took us to an Epicnic that was wonderful with AMAZING food. Notice that the sky is blue all the way down to the horizon, unlike the sky in California with the fires and smog.

Reason #2: The Bahers spoiled us with mouth watering food. We had frozen custard at Michael's, lobster tail and cookies the size of dessert plates at the Epicnic, bratwurst from Bavaria, tea at an artistically interesting coffee shop called Indigo (which I HIGHLY recommend the peach tea to all in the Verona area), yummy scones at Gallup, along with all the great food the Bahers made for us like pancakes, burritos, strawberry short cake... oh the list could go on and on.

Reason #3: In Wisconsin someone got the great idea of making dog parks. They are gated areas where dogs and their families can go and the dogs don't have to be on a leash. The parks have beautiful prairie flowers and are great for a nice walk. It is so peaceful, and the people that bring their dogs are nice!

Reason #4: We got to see tons of stuff with the Bahers as tour guides including the FREE zoo in Madison, the Rogers at the zoo in Milwakee (they have cheetahs and a leopard there!!!), a Mallards game, the free botanical garden, the giant Farmers Market around the capital, a tour of Epic, and SOOOO much more.

Reason #5: It's simply gorgous there.

Other photos from our last trip

my mom's front yard

Santa Cruz

the Mystery Spot

Last week in photos II

I have no idea what these flowers are, but boy are they stunning. They reminded me of China and Singapore. You can find them at the Mystery Spot in Santa Cruz. My family and I went through a mini (due to size of location) tour of the "mystery spot" which reminded me a whole lot of Knott's Berry Farm. There is, or at least used to be, a "tour" at Knott's where you would have optical allusions due to perspective and the tilting of land and what not. The Mystery Spot is the same type of thing. It only cost $5 to park and $5 a person, totally worth it. Plus, we went of a mini hike while waiting that was great. (It's at the back of the parking lot past the buildings. Just look for the yellow sign )




























You can't tell well from this photo, but this white flower is the size of a dessert plate!!! This was at Monterey near a guy playing piano on a regular keyboard at times, and on an keyboard that is held like a guitar. He was rather amusing to watch as he passionately played while showing (or pretending to) love life.

July 4th Ocean View

There is just something about the ocean that soothes me. I love the sound of the waves crashing. The movement of the water can be so amazing that it causes me to just sit and stare. I feel like every couple of months I just need a few moments of quiet by the water, and then I can handle whatever is coming next. It's not that the water is magical, rather it is the majestic power of its Creator that stirs within me when I sit and reflect.

Last week in photos

Kevin and I hiked down this side of the mountain onto the beach. If you look carefully (click on the picture to see it bigger) you can see Tara and Donald sitting down.
















A tiny, hidden neighborhood near the KOA








Santa Cruz KOA











My mom's garden

Pets

Sometimes strange things happen when I'm out of town. For example, Kyle said we got a new pet. Have you ever had a pet like ours? We only kept this hissing pet a few days. I was very thankful that the pet chose not to fly for whatever reason. I am also thankful that this was not a long term pet. He was released back to our porch yesterday. I think he and I are both happy about this:)

Searching for Fall

I've been on a search for fall lately. I took a different way home in search for fall, and I found fall. The odd thing is, you have to look for it. And truly if you look, you can find the beauty. What you don't see is the buildings along the same street as the orchard with bars on their windows and barbed wire on a fence. You don't see spray paint or broken down cars.
Sometimes we get so focused on the junk in life that we pass right by God. He is working. Today I was able to see Him in His beauty. I hope that you take the time to count your blessings, for we all have many of them.

Photo Post

Golden Clovis sunset


Nanny and Minnie (Madison)


Thomas and Caitlyn


Kyle, Tasha, Grace, Tim at Avila Valley Barn in San Luis Obispo, Ca.

We want a pet

Tasha and I want a pet. We had a cat that came around our apartment but we haven't seen it in a month or so. We had named it Welfare. Our apartments charges a large nonrefundable fee for cats and dogs so we know we don't want either of those.

Here is what we came up with - newts.

FACTS (wikipedia)
Newts are not reptiles. They are amphibians. Amphibians are four legged vertebrates that can breath through their skin.
Newts release toxins through their skin which is their defence against predators. They are either aquadic or semi-aquadic. What is super cool is that "Newts have the ability to regenerate limbs, eyes, spinal cords, hearts, intestines, and upper and lower jaws."

Appearances (wikipedia)
1. In the novel Matilda by Roald Dahl, Lavender, Matilda's good friend, uses a newt to play a prank on the head teacher Miss Trunchbull.
2. The witches in Macbeth include "eye of newt" along with many other ingredients in a recipe for their potion.
3. In Monty Python and the Holy Grail a peasant claims that a suspected witch turned him into a newt, although admits that he "got better".

Caudatamedia Site
Photo 1
Photo 2
Photo 3

What are some good newt names? I am thinking of maybe getting three small newts, see if we are good newt parents, and then start a newt breeding farm. Okay, just joking about the breeding farm. Give us some name ideas though!