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.