Wednesday, December 19, 2007

L.A. Vines

I'm here in southern California, watching the rain beat down on the normally parched hills north of L.A. The weather has been less than ideal: colder than usual, kind of windy, and, for the last two days, very wet. Luckily, we've been able to find ways to enjoy ourselves indoors. Take, for example, our trip yesterday to Agua Dulce Vineyards, a boutique winery about 40 minutes from my mom's house. We watched a video, tasted 5 different reds and came home with 6 bottles. We are definitely no experts when it comes to wine, but this stuff was pretty good and well within our price range. Watching the rain soak into the charred earth up there (Agua Dulce was in the path of the wildfires a few months ago) only added to the experience.

Friday, December 07, 2007

Don't slip on the peel...

Want to make banana muffins? Click here.

Wednesday, December 05, 2007

It's all whipped cream and marshmallows

The first major snow of the season came last night, light and feathery in the air but thick and pillowy on the ground. It was a very quiet storm, this Alberta Clipper that came in last night, but it left a 6" blanket of snow in its wake. The shot above was taken from our front window, where our tiny tree and other decorations are set up. It has continued snowing off and on all day...

A church near our house and an icy intersection...

Berries and other holiday greenery buried in a mound of snow...

One last tree has held on to its yellow leaves.

This is perhaps my favorite Christmas decoration in our neighborhood. He's a little snow-covered, but this is actually a deer head mounted on a plaque with a lit-up, red nose. Yes, we have our very own Rudolph up here on the north side.