Monday, April 21, 2014

Busy Spring Break!

    I pin a zillion things on Pinterest, but rarely make them. However, I DID do the Peeps centerpiece! Didn't it come out great?? You put a smaller vase inside a larger one, and line the space between them with Peeps.
   So last week, the monkey & I worked at my classroom, & took a break to check out the poppies on the 138. Yowza!!
    This shot is my favorite. I think it looks great despite being taken with my old iPhone.

   It really is breathtaking...
   Besides taking the monkey to the beach (& I swear having PTSD from memories of my last visit which was the whale watching seasick episode), we visited CALM. Here is a cute porcupine!
   The adorable beaver was out, too!
   The best part of our visit was watching the bobcats play with a paper bag. I will be back to visit with my class this week!
    One of the things the monkey & I did (besides tormenting me with figuring out how to turn footage on a mini-dvd into an edited movie suitable for his mission project) was cleaning up the garden area outside my classroom. It made a great 'graveyard' during the Halloween season, but we are ready to actually renovate it. Here are the before photos:

   So, I took out the fencing on the raised bed, so little bodies can actually use it, pulled the big weeds, dug out the dirt by the gate, so it can now be closed, trimmed the trees and rabbit brush, AND, put up chicken wire along the ramp & around the perimeter, leaving an opening for a gate or removable partition. Voila! Here is how it looks now:






  I know it still looks very bare, but in a few weeks, it's going to be sprouting! I busted my rear pounding in the stakes & stretching/hanging the chicken wire. The kids are going to be super excited.  This week & next week, we'll get fresh soil & plant the bed!

Friday, April 11, 2014

Central Coast Jaunt

  Last weekend, we took a quick one night trip to San Luis Obispo to do research on the monkey's California mission project. It was a great excuse to spend a night at Avila Beach...
This is one of the piers. There are seals or sea lions hanging on that weird contraption, that were making a ton of noise.
   Hotels in Avila tend to be pricey, but I nabbed a decent room at the San Luis Bay Inn for a reasonable price.
   The monkey was in heaven...
Of course, I had to stop at the Avila Valley Barn for some yummy treats, like Paso Almond Brittle. This is what remains of the old shack I photographed a number of years ago. It's completely collapsed.
   There was NO way I could visit the area without doing a little wine tasting! We had never gone through Edna Valley, so we cruised through on our way home. This is the view from Edna Valley Vineyards...excellent wine, and lovely grounds. In fact, HGTV was filming there.
   On the recommendation of the nice local at Edna Valley, we visited the tiny Autry Cellars. They only produce about 1,000 cases a year. This is where the magic happens! The machines in the back are a bottler, and corker, as I recall. A little pricey, but fantastic reds.