Welcome to the Neighborhood

Our new house sits at the base of a vast expanse of hilly open space, so it came as no surprise that our first welcome to the neighborhood came not from the Smiths or the Joneses but rather from the Quails. A group of roughly ten to fifteen California quail make an almost daily stopover in the hillside brush of our backyard. Much like penguins, they prefer to walk and nest in the ground brush rather than in trees. At our island home near Seattle, we would see wildlife every single day. Deer, eagles, hawks, wild pheasant, cormorants, pelicans, otters, sea lions, harbor seals, coyotes, and on a rare occasion, orcas off the nearby beach. Appears our little terrier will continue to have a coterie of critter guests. The tail is wagging mightily.

Adieu 2011

The last year brought a couple of very important changes to our lives. The most immediate is that I am "back" in Northern California, having spent the past several years in the Pacific Northwest. Portland, Seattle, and Vancouver will remain very much in my heart. While the market at the SF Ferry Building is nice, it's no Pike Place or Granville Island Market. And let's not mention the coffee issue, Blue Bottle notwithstanding. Something about the water up there. The second major change in 2011 is that we bought a larger spread in a very nice town in the Bay Area, if for no better reason than to allow our precocious Norwich terrier the space to run to his heart's delight. That and we needed the extra rooms to house all the books accumulated over the years from caffeine-induced spending sprees at Powell's and Elliott Bay. Now if we had room for the kayaks... and all the umbrellas.

Now that I am replanting my flag back in the People's Republic of California, the lights on this long dormant weblog have been switched back on. I'll be cleaning off the cobwebs and sanding down the rust from five years of dormancy.

Spring Cleaning

Guess this blog has been in winter hibernation for too long. Much has happened since November. A monumental understatement, for those in the know. But before I dive back into the blogging process and in journaling the noteworthy events of my life from the past six months, maybe it is enough for now to have logged back into the long dormant Blogger account and tapped a few keystrokes. As soon as my waking eyes readjust to the light of early summer, more should follow.

Royal Blue

Read the San Francisco Chronicle account of Prince Charles and Duchess Camilla's weekend visit to San Francisco in all of its granola-fest glory; just look at their itinerary: a farmer's market in Point Reyes, Alice Waters' organic schoolyard garden, organic food purveyors at the Ferry Building, the uber-bohemian theatrical mainstay "Beach Blanket Babylon", and a homeless shelter in the Tenderloin (article here). Talk about a real PR job. Can you tell his staff is trying real hard to get him groomed for the crown by making him a man "of the people"? But they used San Francisco as a stand-in for London, where they no doubt fear he and his former mistress have yet to overcome the "Diana factor". Anyhow, I did notice right away on the photos accompanying the article that Chuck was wearing a standard-issue Cal alum tie, dark blue with a lattice of golden bear logos. The article made note of the same and mentioned that he received the tie as a gift during a previous trip to the Berkeley campus three decades ago. Nice touch, dear chap. Almost endears me to the British crown. Almost.

Vancouver, British Columbia

The past couple of weeks, T and I had our first real vacation since our Paris honeymoon, a ten-day excursion to Vancouver and the various small islands off its coast. I say "excursion" with some purpose here. We wanted to "backpack" across the lower coastal area of British Columbia relying only on foot, ferries, and public transportation to get around. We even purchased a mountaineering-style pack for our trip and pared down all of our clothing and travel items to that one pack. Definitely a freeing experience, traveling on foot with only one backpack to worry about.

Terrorist Scare

We had some drama early this morning in the San Francisco financial district. Apparently, there was a large explosion at the Crocker Galleria, a popular shopping arcade in the heart of the area. The blast was so large that it shook skyscrapers within a three to four block area. T phoned saying she could see smoke blowing downwind to the Citibank Center. While on the phone with her, I could hear the emergency sirens whizzing by our offices headed in that direction. Since a bomb could not be ruled out, all of the neighboring buildings were evacuated including Schwab's headquarters. Now that the smoke has cleared, literally and figuratively, it appears the blast may have been the product of a blown underground electrical transformer. Thank you PG&E for the Friday morning drama. With echoes of the recent London bombings, you could definitely sense the nervousness and anxiety on my floor and across the whole of the financial district. Here is a news account in the San Francisco Chronicle of the explosion (including a photo of the now burned and gutted Ralph Lauren store) (link): "...Among [the evacuees] was Tom McGibben, who works at Thomas Weisel Partners at 120 Kearny, which evacuated its employees. 'We saw the lights flicker at 9:50 a.m. We felt a pretty good shake. At first, we thought it was an earthquake. We saw smoke. The alarms in our building came on. At around the 20th floor you could smell something. At that point, we began to think it could be something worse than a quake. There were flashes to 9/11.' Tim Keenan, an employee at Charles Schwab, said he was evacuated from the 17th floor of the same building. 'I saw a flash of light. I looked out of the window. I saw people running and screaming,' he said. 'Our floor warden then asked people to begin to evacuate. To me, it sounded like a big boom of thunder.'" Hard to believe the fourth anniversary of 9/11 is just around the corner. Judging from the collective jitters felt throughout the financial district this morning, September 11, 2001 was apparently not that long ago.

Suisun Valley and Larry's Produce

This past weekend, my parents pointed us to a hidden little pocket of the Suisun Valley, located on the eastern slopes of the mountain ridge dividing Solano and Napa counties. It's a real gem of a place with acres of working farms surrounding a dusty hamlet of matchstick community buildings. One building had an aging wooden sign above the front door with the words "Nissei Club" barely visible, evidence no doubt of the area's long history as a Japanese-American farming community. Our destination was a rustic but thriving roadside produce market, Larry's Produce, at the northern end of the valley. The seasonal selection was immense and the prices were incredibly cheap. Apparently, all of the produce is sourced within the valley and oftentimes on that date of sale. We purchased a large crate of fresh veggies and fruits for a meager twenty dollars. Definitely a well-kept secret amongst the locals here and in the neighboring wine country. I suspect more than a handful of the chefs in Napa come here to source their "locally-grown and seasonal" ingredients. If you're interested in an offbeat alternative to Napa or Sonoma, here is the Suisun Valley community website (link).