It’s officially summer and I want to get out and about

And I think I am finally getting used to what that means weather wise here in the Berkeley area. I reminded myself that although I have lived almost all my life in areas of the country where summer is HOT, there were those 6 years in Seattle lol. We are having warmish sunny days and in September the real hot ones will arrive and of course there is no rain.

And after living here for two years I really want to get out and do more. Hence, my summer exploring idea list.

DONE - Go to the upscale farmer’s market for fun. Live music, lovely if expensive organic produce, flowers and baked goods plus great smelling food stands and trucks. We only bought produce and fancy hummus but I have high hopes for the peaches.

The Berkeley Art Museum (possibly with a granddaughter or 2 when they have their art lab)

Car show on July 4th (we did this last year and it is a good walk plus fun to look at the old cars)

A botanical garden (we have two very large ones to choose from)

Ice cream or frozen yogurt plus a meandering walk

Go swimming (the city pool is an easy walk away)

San Francisco, Sonoma or somewhere in Marin county

A state park, the zoo, a museum, a beach, or winery - so many options

A crow shouting match & a charming book - Thriving week 20

I borrowed this book from the library and it was surprisingly charming. Inspired during the worst of the pandemic by the need to have something to look forward to, it also is a musing on everyday joy and thankfulness. Loved the illustrations and admit I had never thought of drawing faces on eggs! I’ll have to suggest that to my granddaughter next time I babysit. What a surprise that would be for her parents.

Were you able to see the Northern lights over the weekend? I saw them long ago from an airplane in the northern part of the East coast. We didn’t see these but then the viewing advice for SF Bay area residents was to go to a rural area between 11pm and 2am and look north. Um, no thanks.

I did have a nature sighting though. Friday when I was working in the yard I heard a lot of cawing. First thought was they were warning of a predator. Then I noticed two crow pairs siting on wires overhead facing each other and going at it. I think they were yelling about territorial boundaries. Since crows often seem to be yelling though perhaps it was just a general chat instead. It was funny though. If you have any crow behavior knowledge please share!

Then I discovered the Birdcast website that tracks the nightly annual bird migration north by county in the US. I was absolutely amazed when it said that one recent night over 625,000 birds traveled over my county! Most of them were further east in the inland part of the county. They fly pretty high up and pretty fast. It is good to be amazed still by learning new things.

I really enjoyed walking to our neighborhood market to get salad fixings plus Acme fresh walnut levain bread and Bonne Maman orange marmalade for a treat. Lots of flowers in front yards, beautiful weather and good exercise.

Progress this week: Exercise more frequent, diet better, to do list being worked through slowly, Hubby and pup fine, good family time, nice if windy weather, etc. Basically a good week overall.

Top of mind from last week:

I took myself to the Humane Society thrift shop for an outing and with high hopes for interesting stock and was quite disappointed. I was looking for non-clothes and they pretty much only have clothes, nice clothes, but not worth returning. Oh well, there are two other thrift shops near me to investigate and then I will have to do some serious driving to go to see major stores none of which are near us.

However, ACE Hardware had the things on my list and I had a $5 off coupon. Spray paint to touch up patio furniture, pray silicone for window tracks, and more 3 M N95 masks for fire season prep.

Leftovers seem to inspire more cooking creativity right now than meal planning does. Leftover rice plus frozen cooked chicken led to a sort of chicken fajitas over rice plus small spinach salads for one dinner. I had thought I’d make Mexican rice and bean tostados but switched gears after browsing the frig and freezer.

The main shower floor will hopefully stay cleaner now that I removed globs of excess glue from the tile under the door. It was cruddy and the result of an obviously shoddy shower door installation.

Our plants are growing well and have lots of blooms so the yard is nice to look at from both inside and outside. I did remove all but one batch of Calla lilies that came up unexpectedly after my DIL mentioned how poisonous they are. The largest patch will have to go to as the pup thinks the drying leaves are a toy.

I’ve got a pile of decluttered stuff to put out with a free sign on Saturday as it is citywide yard sale day. Fingers crossed it all leaves with new owners.

I finally finished the home inventory update which will go into our Go Bags and the cloud in case we need to file a claim. I organized by room and went into detail as I remember how a friend had to make a detailed list from memory when their home was destroyed in the Northridge earthquake.

We had some hot for us weather alternating with chilly windy days. The new mini split heat pump unit upstairs kept the whole house cool and warm enough. We will still have to use fans in the bedrooms on the hottest days but it is much improved and money well spent.

Unexpected art - Exploring the area

 

A house in the Berkeley area. We happened upon it when looking for a parking space while taking our granddaughter out for frozen yogurt. Amazing!

Explore where you moved to in a targeted way

We have mentioned to each other several times that we were surprised there wasn't a really good bakery in our new hometown. So while we were driving Saturday I decided to see if there really wasn't or if we just hadn't found it. Enter a list from Google and a 1 1/2 hour dog grooming session to wait out in a very hot day.

I first went and joined AAA to check off another of those move to-do items I never finished. Then I drove around trying to find all the bakeries on my list.

I now have a list of a very expensive bakery that looks to be quite good or at least quite visually appealing in terms of cakes and pastries, a cupcake place I know is delicious, and a busy Mexican style bakery and lunch spot.

Some samples may even have been purchased and eaten in the name of research - hot chocolate cupcake anyone? Delicious.

Spiced chocolate cake with chocolate buttercream, whipped cream, cinnamon dust, and chocolate shavings

While driving around I also found a newly opened Tifa Chocolate and Gelato which is apparently their second location in the county, a Noah's Bagels, and a charming little bookstore called Mrs. Fig's Bookworm.

I was unable to find one of the bakeries on my list so will do more research to see if it still exists. So many businesses here are in mini-malls and thus are hard to see from the street even if you have an address.

Yesterday I stopped in at the town aquatic center to register for private swim lessons and found it is quite a lovely facility. Waiting to hear if I got a spot to work with an instructor to refine my lap swimming technique. If I do it is 4 half hour lessons a week for 2 weeks. Way to get back into swimming or truly decide it isn't for me.

Tomorrow a new friend and I are going to try the women owned wine bar in one of the mini-malls as a lunch outing. It looks like they have good salads and sandwiches on their menu.

I am now inspired to come up with more lists of things to research and try in my new hometown.