Looking for Pigs and Penguins

January 11, 2009

Lily Wood's second birthday. Happy birthday Lily!

Beautiful day here. Think we'll go down to the harbor and look for pigs or penguins in honor of Lily's birthday (her favorite animals).

At Brophy Bros. bar and restaurant. Always a popular place on a nice day, but no pigs or penguins in sight (perhaps they are at the bar).


Looking out into the harbor past the fishing boats, hoping to spot a penguin.

From the looks of those hills this would also have been a great day for a hike in the mountains, but spotting pigs or penguins at the harbor would be REALLY special.







Paddlers in kayaks headed out past yachts and motor cruisers moored in the harbor at the marinas.












The view north from the breakwater looking toward the beach and hills of Santa Barbara.











At the end of the breakwater, looking past the wharf toward the nearby hills of the riviera and beyond to the south-facing mountains.

In the foreground that's a whale's tail bench to rest on while enjoying the view.










On the way back along the breakwater, looking across the harbor, we see the Santa Barbara Sailing Association dock with its training boats hauled aboard. Remember when Katie spent her days sailing in the harbor and around the buoys?










Back at the SB Yacht Club at the foot of the breakwater the sun is beginning to set.


We didn't find any pigs or penguins, but the walk was worth it anyway.

Gardening Day

Monday morning. Partly cloudy and cool. Perfect day to do some long postponed gardening. Mow the lawn, trim the flowers back, cut off any dead branches.

Dick has been meaning to trim back the roses and lop off dead branches for weeks but has been waiting for when things are dormant before doing so. Trouble is, dormancy seems to be a relative thing around here this year. The nectarine tree seemed dormant last October dropping its leaves (it is sensitive to the angle of the sun), but the other trees and flowers insisted it was not time yet and hung on for a while.

Weeks later the apricot trees began to lose their leaves, and gradually over the next weeks the plum and peach trees leaves also turned and their leaves began to fall. But the flowers . . . they seemed to disregard the change of seasons totally this year and lingered on. What to do? When to trim?

Even after the few frosty mornings in December the rose bushes stubbornly insisted on putting out more buds, making it seem unkind to snip them down to size in preparation for the next spring season.

However, it was decided that when the apple tree lost its last leaves (it has always been the last to do so) that would signal time was right to trim back the roses. Trouble was, this year the apple tree merely changed its leaves from green to yellow and to this day they cling to the tree (presumably waiting for new buds to push them off in the spring).


Some of our roses, notably our Icebergs and Cecil Breuners are famous for their hardiness and bloom all year round. Our Cecil Breuners, with their delicate pink blossoms, are now fully intertwined throughout the 10 foot archway that Katie and John used for their wedding, April 2005. Each year this trellis of roses bursts into its fullest bloom in April and gives us the treat of remembering that special day.

Dormancy? When can we expect it?

The apple tree is not cooperating. We may not get a hard frost before spring comes. Already our bulbs are pushing their sprouts above the ground and getting ready to bloom.

Even the bright yellow flowers arrayed in the deep green of the Euryops Pectinatus, usually blooming twice a year, seem to insist that spring is already here.

And the periwinkles blossoming amid the ivy under the now leafless plum trees seem to agree that if we were to wait for complete dormancy we would find ourselves well into spring and discover that our roses are once again in full bud, blooming in a January springtime.

We must trim back the roses regardless, and so we do.

Having done so, we undoubtedly will now have several weeks of frigid cold and frosty weather to taunt us and tell us "Couldn't wait just a few more weeks could you?"

Ah, so . . . there will be no more rosebuds for the next few months (except our Icebergs and Cecil Breuners). So in the meantime we console ourselves with our winter pansies.

This blog is to express thanks to Tricia and Dan who sent Dick the wonderful classic book "Down the Garden Path" by Beverley Nichols, first published in London in 1932 and reissued in delightful hardbound edition, with original illustrations, in 2005 by Timber Press, Inc.

Thanks Tricia and Dan!

Post-Christmas Hike up Cold Spring Trail

With all that Christmas dining, sitting around the table playing games, and doing nothing more energetic than jigsaw puzzles, one eventually gets to long for a way to work off a few calories and clear out a few cobwebs.

So on December 29 Dick (aka Gordo) decides to take advantage of a fine sunny day and hike up the Cold Spring Trail east fork as far as the eucalyptus grove midway up the mountain (that's about all he can do, in his present corpulent condition).




The weather is perfect, crystal clear and in the high 50s to start the morning, and warming up to the 70s as the hike progresses.

The trail is still a little wet from the recent rains but the views, as usual, are terrific and well worth the effort.

This view to the left, looking east toward Summerland and Carpinteria, is a little hazy due to a controlled fire in the back hills of Summerland, but otherwise shows the great panorama available toward the coast from 2000 feet up the mountain. On a clear day such as this you can see all the Santa Barbara Channel Islands: Santa Barbara, Anacapa, Santa Cruz, Santa Rosa and San Miguel, and from Pt. Mugu east, to Coal Point off the UC Santa Barbara campus and Gaviota to the west (the Santa Barbara coast faces south which is why the hills of Santa Barbara get warmed by the sun all winter long).



Dick agrees with Ray Ford Jr., the authority on trails in the Santa Barbara area (he has published several best-selling guides) who says, "This is absolutely my very favorite trail."

One of the pleasures of this trail is the wide variety of scenery along the way, from ocean panoramas to tunnels through overhanging foliage, to huge random boulders, with deep clear pools and small waterfalls along the Cold Spring. On a hot summer day it is the one trail that stays pleasantly cool, cooled by the Cold Spring flowing along the lower portion of the trail.

Dick has lost count of the number of times he has been up this trail, more than a dozen since 2001, including twice that year with his daughter Katie. They made the trip all the way to the top of Montecito Peak (2450') and happened across a coyote roaming the trail. In November 2003 Katie, with Josie (her dog) and John Wood (her future husband) and Hanna, Dick's granddaughter, hiked the loop up to the Edison powerline towers and back as a brief taste of the pleasures of hiking. This inevitably led Dick, Katie and John to seek out the even greater hiking experiences in the high Sierras, but that is a story for another time.



In the summertime hikers come up here just to swim in the pools, or just sit by the waterfalls and listen to the sound of the water.

And almost daily, mountain bikers start at the top of the mountain from the trailhead at 2775' on East Camino Cielo and careen to the bottom along the winding treacherous trail, usually with a miniature cowbell tied onto their handlebars to alert the hikers below that they are coming. (Helmets and steel nerves a requirement.)

Dick has seen an even rarer extreme sport on the trail: unicyclists riding up the hill from bottom to top, a total distance of 4.5 miles with an elevation gain of 2450 feet to the crest.

Perhaps that is one of the special attractions of this trail, you never know what to expect, and no two climbs are ever the same.

Christmas Morning in Pictures

The special day arrives. Even Hannah is decorated for the occasion.

Rebecca looks especially radiant.

And Susie and Dick are enjoying the morning by relaxing.

Hannah opens her presents.

Rebecca does the puzzle.

Later Hannah models her new dress for us.

And Susie and Rebecca begin preparations for Christmas dinner.

Christmas Preparation in Pictures

Start with a perfect Christmas tree from Jerry's Flowers to put us in the holiday spirit.











Add to this our traditional:

Jigsaw puzzle

Model train

Advent calendar on the piano

Stockings by the fireplace














And presents under the tree

And we are ready for the big holiday.

Christmas 2008

Begin blogging this Christmas 2008. We are enjoying a rainy day with strong wind but staying snug and warm inside by the fire. After opening presents this morning with Rebecca and Hannah, Susie prepares the Christmas dinner while Dick watches the NBA Lakers / Celtics basketball game on the TV. Dinner to be served this evening for Susie, Dick, Rebecca, Hannah, Hannah's friend Anthony, and neighbors Wini and John.

Merry Christmas to all!