Rediscovering the Rotary Egg Beater

Posted on April 23, 2015 by Janice

Yesterday I showed you how I’ve been making my coffee, and this morning I tried a new way to froth the milk. A simple rotary egg beater. I remember my mom using one when I was a little girl, before she got her first electric hand mixer This looks like yet another item to add to my kitchen.

Here’s the laundry hanging on the line. A perfect day of sun and gentle breezes dried two loads beautifully, and they smelled so fresh.
New Zealand is a very modern country, with its share of dishwashers and clothes dryers, but they have a love and respect for some of the older, simpler ways as well. It makes me realize how too often we jump into the newer ways and forget the old. The older ways may take a little more time, but they can also be more relaxing. I’ve travelled to New Zealand several times to visit relatives, and each time I gain even more respect for their traditions and way of life.

A Day Trip to La Jolla Cove, California

Posted on March 25, 2015 by Janice

Yesterday, we spent the afternoon exploring the town of La Jolla, California, ending at La Jolla Cove. It couldn’t have been better. The weather was perfect and the Pacific Ocean sparkled. This is the time of year to see sea lions and their pups at La Jolla Cove. We didn’t know this as we headed off to explore. Early last year, my photography class had traveled to San Diego for a field trip that included La Jolla. If you want to see more of that trip, please take a look at my previous post Field trip To San Diego. On that trip I’d first seen the beauty of La Jolla. Up until then, it had been just a town on the way to San Diego, a sign on the freeway heading south. Ever since then I’d wanted to share its beauty with my husband, so we went exploring.

We took our dog Annika with us on the drive, but dogs weren’t allowed anywhere near the mother sea lions or pups. Easy to understand why. I stayed up above the beach with Annika, while Martin went down to take a few photos. He took the one below of three sea lions snoozing and soaking up the sun.

I took this next photo from up above while Martin was down on the beach. I thought I was taking a long distance photo of several cormarrands, but later while editing my picture I realized there were several sea lions basking in the sun along with the birds … such a wonderful surprise.

If you live in (or plan on visiting) Southern California, be sure to take time to stop in La Jolla. You won’t be disappointed.

Get Ready Now for the Monarch Butterfly

Posted on November 9, 2014 by Janice

The Monarch Butterfly is beautiful, and easy to attract to your garden. Milkweed is the Monarch’s favorite food. Our milk weed plants are finally recovering now that the Monarch butterfly season is over for us. This was our second year with the Monarchs, and right now I am watering and feeding the plants in preparation for spring. Last year, as the caterpillars devoured our plants, and adult Monarchs continued to lay eggs, we purchased several additional milk week plants. We quickly realized that this was becoming an endless cycle, so eventually stopped buying plants and let the adult monarchs look elsewhere to lay their eggs.

Here you see the monarch caterpillars munching on Milk Weed in our garden. The caterpillar stage lasts anywhere from 9 to 14 days and eventually the plants will become bare stems with roots. It is remarkable how these plants recover once the Monarch butterflies have flown from our area.

These photos were all taken in our back yard, and if you would like to know more about the Monarch butterfly, please go to Monarch-Butterfly.com . They do a wonderful job of telling the full story of the truly awesome Monarch Butterfly.