October and November 2008
Fall?
Back to Brannan Island
October and November 2008
Fall?
Back to Brannan Island
October was a pretty quiet month. The weather was mild with temperatures in the 70's and 80's. The good news is that we finally did get a little rain. The bad news is that we are now seeing the occasional winter fog days where everything is gloomy and grey.
Down by the river, the park district decided to try to improve the spawning grounds for salmon and steelhead. The first thing they did was to construct a fence and boundaries to prevent a lot of dirt from fouling the river. It was fun to watch the turkeys behind it - reminded me of the old shadow plays. The construction has now been completed but to date (December 1) we have not seen any salmon.
The Woman's Thursday Club's garden group took a tour of Otow Orchards in Granite Bay. The orchards have been in the Otow family for almost 100 years. During World War II, the family was interred (it is of Japanese decent). Upon release, they were able to return to their land and continue fruit production. Their specialty is drying persimmons in the ancient Japanese art of hoshigaki -- hoshi means dried and gaki is from kaki, the Japanese word for persimmon. Tosh Kuratomi showed us how this is done. First, the persimmons are peeled and are put on strings - two to a string. Then they are placed on drying racks and are routinely messaged to keep the fluid from settling at the bottom of the fruit. As they dry, they form a coat of sugar. It takes three to six weeks for the whole process from the time the ripe fruit is picked to the end result. The product is a sugary treat with a consentrated persimmon flavor.
The reason two persimmons are put on a string is so they can keep track of where they stopped messaging the fruit. The fruit is hung in a pattern over the drying bar with one higher than the other. After messaging the two fruit, the position is switched. Another thing I learned from Tosh. It seems rats aren't too fond of newspaper. The drying rack's posts were wrapped with newspaper and newspaper was strewn on the ground under other racks. Since they have been doing that, they haven't had losses due to rats.
In November, the garden group took a tour of the Cal EPA building and Sacramento City Hall. The purpose was to view the art in both buildings. Since the EPA building is closed to the public, we had arranged a docent led tour. There is a fantastic blown glass chandelier by Dale Chihuly. The docent said we were lucky because it was even lit that day. The most remarkable series was Merle Axelrad Serlin's fabric collages of California's terrain (in the EPA building) and California trees (in City Hall). The series in the EPA building starts with a view from under water in Monterey Bay. As you go higher in the building, the terrain gets higher - coast beach level, Sacramento - San Joaquin Delta, Headwater Redwoods, Central Coast Foothills, Joshua Tree, Lake Tahoe and finally Mount Shasta. The work from afar looked like paintings but upon close inspection you saw the layers of cloth and the quilting that was done to construct the pieces.
On our walks by the river there is a canyon that we sometimes go through. There is a rocky place in it where passerbys create rock sculptures. Lately, someone has been demonstrating an amazing skill of rock balance. Neither of the two photos have been doctored - they really got the rocks to balance that way! In fact in the second picture, the light rock at the base was the one that was balanced in the first picture. The second one reminded me of Jean Arp's sculptures.
Yes, I decided to do a pumpkin again this year. I really like roasted pumpkin seeds on Halloween. Well, no one got to see it. We didn't have ANY trick or treaters. Oh well,the pumpkin didn't go to waste, it was cut up and steamed to make pumpkin rolls and pumpkin pies. I bought the pumpkin at Otow Orchards - they have other produce then just persimmons. It turned out to be really meaty and pretty tasty.
November 1 turned out to be a big rain storm. Too bad because it was the Helen Klein Ultra Run - a 50 miler. The runners didn't mind the rain because it wasn't windy so they weren't cold. After all, they usually sweat and are wet anyway. For the rest of us however, what a pain. Some of the check points had bridges, tarps or some sort of shelter. The check point where I was located had none. They had to keep the food and supplies in the plastic box to keep them dry. A huge puddle formed and the runners had to clomp through it to get what they needed. Luckily, I only had to be there half a day. By the time I got home, I was freezing.
The reason I got to go home early is that Marilyn and I were going with the Delta Divas to a "Funvention" dinner. The entertainment was humorist Jeanne Robertson. She is a 60 year old woman who stands 6'2" and talks about life in the most humorous way. We laughed the whole time she was on.
Marilyn's daughter, Rosie, is having a baby boy in January. His name will be Max Eliot Carson. So, sister, Katie, hosted a baby shower at mom, Marilyn's, house. I was picked to make mimosas for the attendees. Katie had bought Korbel champagne. It was hard to doctor it with organge juice, but I managed. During the party, everyone decorated baby t-shirts for Max. It was great project with many lovely tees.
My sister, Judy, and friend, Sheila, came for a visit. Our first outing was to the Sacramento Historic Cemetery. Sheila's family plot is there and she hadn't been there in a while. After that, we made our annual pilgrimage to Apple Hill. It was jam packed. Then it dawned on us why, it was Veteran's Day! We roamed around, bought apples and other stuff.
Also during November, the Delta Divas had a day at the races - trotters. We were hosted in the club house and they served us dinner. During the time we could go out and watch the horses and bet. There was this young guy in the clubhouse with his five year old daughter and her friend. He was very busy, actively betting while keeping an eye on the girls. The sixth race was dedicated to the Delta Divas. Turns out, the winning horse was owned by the guy in the clubhouse. He had two other horses running that night. It ws fun as I had never watched trotters before.
In downtown Sacramento, the Woolworth's went out of business in 1997. It has remained empty for the past eleven years. This year, the building was converted to a bar, cafe and cabaret. The first production, Forever Plaid opend and the Delta Divas went to see it. If you have never seen it, it is a 60's musical about a band that died before their big break concert. They get the chance to come back and perform. It was funny and had great music. A fabulous way to spend and evening.
I did our family Thanksgiving the Saturday before for two reasons this year 1) as usual, JJ and Diana still have soccer tournaments over Thanksgiving and 2) on Sunday, I helped my friend, Jeanne, celebrate her mother's, Mrs. Crowdis', 100th birthday. It was amazing how well she looked and moved about. Jeanne says that she still cooks! But, back to the party. Jeanne chose a "Maxine" theme - Maxine and Floyd were even in attendence (where she found the life size dolls I'll never know). Mary Marlett performed the Reducation ceremony and we inducted Mrs. Crowdis into the Delta Divas. Then we sang her Julie Andrews' version of "My Favorite Things" that starts "Botox and nose drops and needles for knitting". Jeanne's mom loved the whole thing and we all had a blast doing it.
The family balked at a Thanksgiving portrait. Dale was ill and wasn't able to come to dinner. This year, Gordy did not set the turkey on fire and it turned out perfectly. We did have a great meal.
On the Tuesday before Thanksgiving, we packed up our leftovers and headed to Wright's Beach. It has been over a year since we had gone to the coast due to the cost of gas. As we got to Valley Ford it started raining - not hard, more of a misty rain. There was no one in the overflow, so Gordy and I got to have our favorite spot. Gordy went to take down the awing to give us a dry place to sit - it ripped. I guess it will be back to Camping World for a new awing. While Gordy was unhooking the truck, he notice a guy parking his truck across the road into the bushes. He wondered what the guy was thinking because it was a very strange place to park. He turned around to wrap the tow cords on the truck and - no truck. He shook his head because he didn't think he had moved the truck. Then he looked up - yep, that was our truck in the bushes across the street! He had forgotten to set the break and when he unhooked the cords, Tiger took the opportunity to make an escape. Luckily, there was no damage. Not a good start, we hoped the rest of the time would be better.
The sound of the crashing surf really worked its magic on us, very relaxing. The next day, we went into Bodega Bay and bought fresh cooked crab. It had been caught that day and cooked just two hours before we bought it. You can't get fresher than that. The weather remained drizzley and grey through Thanksgiving. On Thanksgiving Day, we took a ride up the coast to Salt Point. It's a marvelous drive with craggy beaches and twisty roads. When we got back, Gordy and I flew the kites. The dragon fly goes up easily but the boat still needs work. Gordy actually flew it higher and longer this time.
Clouds broke in spots well off shore and the sun shone through them like spot lights on a stage. The broken cloud line lasted through sunset that night forming a red streak across the sky. Besides the surf, the sunrises and sunsets are big reasons we like to go to the coast.
Friday we woke up to a peach and aqua sunrise. The day was sunny and actually warm. The surf was very high and pounding - more wave therapy. I didn't realize how much both Gordy and I needed it. That night, we went to Stormy's in Bloomfield for dinner. Roger still own's it and this time his daughter was there helping. We both had prime rib and it still is the best you can get.
Saturday, the marine layer was threatening to close in so we headed for home. All in all, it was a perfect trip.
Hope you all had a great Thanksgiving. Now, on to Christmas and New Year's.
So, that's where we are.
Thanks for stopping by,
