Tag Archives: journey

I’m chomping at the bit to write about a couple of things today, but Fadra’s prompt is, “How do you feel about where you live?”, and I have opinions about this too, so here we go.

My family moved to Florida when I was four. Aside from a short stint, 18 months, in Las Vegas with my husband, I’ve lived here since then. There are a lot of things to love about Florida, the beautiful beaches, flip flops all year, we don’t have to shovel snow or scrape ice off our car windows. For me though, I’ve never gotten used to the humidity at the levels we have. I soooo dread the summers, this one more than others as we’ve had NO winter this year and we hit 86 today, UGH. When we lived in Vegas, even when it was in the 90′s I could handle it because of the low humidity levels, you could go into the shade to escape, you can’t here. There are some who love the warm, wet blanket that wraps their body as they step outside four to six months out of the year, not me.

A couple of years ago we were set on moving to Colorado, the mountains, we love mountains, mountain lakes, streams, etc. That didn’t work out, still here, we found a wonderful house in East Bradenton on seven acres. We’re surrounded by old Florida, lots of beautiful oak tress dripping with moss, they’re lovely when the sun shines through. It’s so quiet out here and our neighbors are organic dairy farmers/ranchers. Such a great addition to our already natural lifestyle. This is our compromise until it’s the right time to say goodbye to Florida.

Ultimately for me, home is where my husband, two children & our furry babies are, on the road, here, anywhere, as long as we’re together.

Times Up!
This has been my Sunday 5 minute Stream of Consciousness.

Want to try it? Here are the rules…

* Set a timer and write for 5 minutes only.
* Write an intro to the post if you want but don’t edit the post. No proofreading or spellchecking. This is writing in the raw.
* Publish it somewhere. Anywhere. The back door to your blog if you want. But make it accessible.
* Add the Stream of Consciousness Sunday badge to your post.
* Link up your post at all.things.fadra.
* Visit your fellow bloggers and show some love.

Coconut Oil Body Scrub

I have a friend, Rosemary Nickel founder of Motivating Other Moms. We met many years ago, once upon a time when I was a Pampered Chef Consultant. Yep, I was. We’ve paired up to bring you weekly Natural Living Tips or Tips on how to live a more natural life. Beginning next Tuesday I will be sharing with you tips Rosemary and I have learned on a particular topic.  Our first topic, which we’re very excited about, is Coconut Oil and other coconut products. There will be beautiful photographs and video too. So please check in next Tuesday, I’ll be showing you how to make this Coconut Oil Body Scrub, I know you all want in on that action!!

Peace!

After my 3-day solo trip in Big Sur, I met up with some of my very best girlfriends at the San Fransisco Airport. After stopping for lunch in Sausalito (which I LOVE) and then onto Trader Joe’s in Santa Rosa (oh, we’re getting one here in Sarasota this year:-), so excited!!!), to stock up with goodies, we finally made it to our VRBO in Guerneville around 7p. The property is beautiful, right on the Russian River, there is a Main House, the Cottage and The Town homes, nicely decorated with all the amenities. Sweet! Very different then my eclectic Rainbow house in Big Sur. We all un-load, Maii whips up a salad for dinner and the chillin’ begins. Some food, wine and conversation. Maybe a little too much wine, well, for me anyway:-).

The next morning we have to be in Healdsburg by 10a to meet Tommy and Mike, our guides for our biking adventure in Wine Country. PFMan and I did a combo biking/kayaking trip in July with the same company, Getaway Adventures. Ask for Tommy to be your guide, you won’t be disappointed. It’s a misty, cold day, but we’re troopers and we all gear up, ponchos and all, to prevent the skunk marking up your back on a wet day, ha. Off we go. Our stops today are, De Lorimier, Bella Vineyards and Amista . We had lunch at Amista, the guides had prepared a wonderful feast of salads, cheese, fruit, etc. We were famished and everything was wonderful!! Back on the bikes for our return trip, a total of 17 miles. Woot!

On Saturday, I had arranged to take the girls to The MacLeod Family Vineyard. This would be my 3rd trip, I just love this family and their wine! Every experience is a different one, you learn so much about their passion, their love, a truly unforgettable experience. This time George MacLeod the father and founder of the vineyard took all us ladies on a hayride through the vineyard, he had many stories and kept us laughing and learning. And did he say he’s 90?? Can’t believe it, he’s so sprite, so sharp too! A wonderful man. After the tour we joined his daughter-in-law Marjorie, in her home, for the tasting. We were the first to taste the new Rose’ and Sauvignon Blanc, they had just bottled them two days prior. All the wines were amazing. PFMan and I had joined their wine club on our trip in July. The MacLeod Rose’ is my favorite, it comes with the April shipment, I can’t wait! I can’t tell you about this family without mentioning Panda, the wine dog. You simply must go meet her and the MacLeod’s if you’re in the area. Tours are by appointment, run about two hours beginning at 10:30a. In July, PFMan and I will be bringing our children with us, Marjorie said they get to do apple juice tasting, sweet!

On our last day we took a nice walk through the Redwood Trees in Armstrong Woods and then drove to the coast, stopping in both Jenner and Bodega Bay. Jenner has beautiful brown sand beaches, enormous waves crashing into the rocky coast and lots of drift wood and fun colored pebbles which kept some of busy for quite sometime. Continuing down the coast to Bodega Bay (of The Birds, Alfred Hitchcock). We stopped at Spud Point Crab Company for their infamous Clam Chowder, highly recommend, then to Bodega proper to see the Birds house in person!

I really can’t think of a better way to have brought in this next decade. Happy 40th to me:-)!
Peace!

So, I’m 40! I’m not too surprised that I’m embracing it with love, I have been working towards this acceptance after all. I wanted to ring in this next decade in a BIG way, so off to Northern Cali I went. My first three days were spent alone in the Redwoods between Carmel and Big Sur California, one of my favorite places. Landing in San Francisco around 12:30 my first stop was Baja Fresh for lunch. I can’t help it, ever since PFMan and I lived in Vegas, years ago, I have loved BF and don’t miss a chance to eat the veggie burrito. Then down the coast I go. HWY 17 is spectacular, a curvy, tree-lined drive, just breathtaking. I arrive in Carmel to do some shopping for my stay. I’m determined to go veggie while I’m here so I stock my cart with organic produce, strawberries, asparagus, & pistachios. I’ve brought my herbal teas from home as well, oh and chocolate with sea salt:-). I turn down Palo Colorado Rd. to head to Don Loui’s. This image above is the point where Palo Colorado Rd. meets the Pacific Coast Hwy. Turning off down Palo Colorado was magical. See I’m a dreamer in the sense that I love environments that transport me, and when you turn onto this road you are placed immediately into towering redwoods, like a land of fairies. You twist and wind amongst the quiet giants, houses placed into the sides of the mountains like they’ve been there forever, all blending in with the trees, completely part of the forest.

Here I have my bag of goodies, camera & backpack (which was packed in my luggage and now used to haul only the few items I’d need for this portion of my trip), and up the mountain I go. Not too bad, about five steep switchbacks, with little treasures at every corner. Then the Dragon House appears, unbelievable! I’m through the Dragon house tunnel and onto the Rainbow House where I’m staying. Don, the innkeeper, is an eccentric. He’s been on this property since 1983. Then it was him, the land and a tent. The Rainbow house he built first. Yes, him and his son. Previously he was a contractor and landscaper by trade and it shows. Today there are 4 buildings, The Rainbow & Dragon House (rentals), his own home and an octagon above the rest with windows looking out over the mountain and Pacific Ocean, used for yoga and/or meditation. Beautiful, peaceful! He’s created many trails all around the property as well.

Though I highly recommend staying here alone, as a couple or small family, this is not for everyone. Forget a warm shower and none at all in the Rainbow House. Luckily I like going rough and dirty, ha. There is no oven and only a propane burner for stove top, and it’s QUIET (aside from the very loud frogs and owls at night:-). I like to think of the house like a tree house on crack, seriously! And since I like being transported, it was perfect for me, like a kid again.

So what’s a girl to do all alone in the mountains? Hike, hike, eat at her favorite restaurant in Big Sur, play words with friends, ha, take lots of pictures and hike some more. To my chagrin there was no big AHA moment or anything, just time with myself which in itself is a BIG deal for me. In my past being along has been very difficult. A good friend of mine text-ed me while there questioning how I was doing alone. He said he talks to himself a lot when alone, lol. Me too:-). And I did, much of it in my head, some out loud. But I was comfortable with it, the oneness, and that’s a BIG deal!

Please enjoy some of the many photos I took while on this part of my trip and look for a post on me joining the girls in Wine Country soon:-)!

Peace!

Previous trip to Big Sur with my honey:-)!

I’m deliriously excited!  Arriving in San Francisco in 17 hours! I’m completely embracing turning 40 in NINE days and I’m starting off the celebration with some personal time in Big Sur, CA, all alone in the trees then I’ll join some of my very best girlfriends three days later for some time in wine country!  This is not my first time here, but I can’t get enough of Northern California, the coast, the country, the unbelievable availability of fresh, locally produced foods.

Right now I have no idea how exactly I plan on spending my alone time, as this is somewhat uncomfortable for me. Rain is predicted on Tuesday and Big Sur is not a place you want to be tooling around in a possible downpour, so I’m planning on spending the day in. The house I’m staying in, The Rainbow House, is a 10 minute or so hike up a steep incline in the trees and I’ve been told that a pack on your back with all food and clothes needed is recommended. Ok then. A quick stop in Carmel on my way there will provide me with all my provisions. I’ve loaded up my I-tunes and Kindle, packed lots of hot tea and a rosemary/mint candle, I’m ready!!

Thursday morning I head back up to San Francisco to pick up my girlies at the airport and we head up to Guerneville, Russian River area! See I’m not a Napa girl. I love the Russian River, Guerneville, Healdsburg, and Sonoma. We have a beautiful home in the hills there. Friday I’ve scheduled a bike ride through Healdsburg stopping at four wineries and a picnic lunch in between and the Saturday we’ll spend some time at MacLeod Family Vineyard again, a private tasting in the vineyard then onto Sonoma Plaza for lunch at Girl and the Fig. After lunch we’ll continue onto some of my faves like Viansa and Cline.

Sunday We’ll breathe deeply in Jenner. The coast here is unforgettable! Ahhhh….!!!

Times Up!
This has been my Sunday 5 minute Stream of Consciousness.

Want to try it? Here are the rules…

* Set a timer and write for 5 minutes only.
* Write an intro to the post if you want but don’t edit the post. No proofreading or spellchecking. This is writing in the raw.
* Publish it somewhere. Anywhere. The back door to your blog if you want. But make it accessible.
* Add the Stream of Consciousness Sunday badge to your post.
* Link up your post at all.things.fadra.
* Visit your fellow bloggers and show some love.

I'm a sucker for a castle in the countryside.

I’ve never really be fascinated with France.  Haven’t had the desire to go to Paris like so many do, I’ve always been more interested in Italy, Ireland.  PFMan and I had a wonderful first trip to Italy in Spring 2009, then we took Gavin & Addy to Ireland in March of this year. We could of course go back to either again and again only touching on places we’d like to see and spend more time in.  I do so desire to get back to Italy!  As a family, we have a goal to go abroad once a year, so we’ve been trying to plan the trip for 2012 and we’re having trouble.  The issues, money, time and all of agreeing where to go.

We did a little Family Poll last night to help us decide, everyone had Italy and France listed in the top 3.  Addy is crazed with the desire to visit Paris. She’s eight and badly wants to see the Eiffel Tower.  Gavin is really more interested in going to Venice, Paris 2nd, PFMan would love either, and I, of course, would love to go back to Italy but suddenly I’m interested in the French Countryside with a short jaunt to Paris, and stopping in Bruges, Belgium if at all possible.  Here lies the other dilemma, time. We only have two weeks.

First, let’s back up and explain why suddenly I’m even more interested in giving up my beloved Italy trip for France, the country I’ve not been to excited about visiting.  Not to say that I don’t want to go to France, there have just been other countries that have been higher in priority.  My family background is Italian/German so these naturally interest me more, I’ve never been good at pronouncing words in French so this really intimidates me, I’ve heard they don’t like Americans…. Ok, so back to my new found desire to see France? Well it all has to do with pictures.  Yep.  I’m motivated by stunning images of the French Countryside.  Being a photographer myself, it’s no leap for me to be inspired by beautiful photography and I recently hit the mother load.  You see, I love travel photography, I love food photography so when I stumbled upon this blog post by Cannelle et Vanille about her trip to Southwest France to teach a food styling and photography workshop, I was sold.  Not just because I must be involved with a workshop like this in the future, but my goodness, just look at these pictures!  The setting, it’s storybook and the food, hello!  I want to spend DAYS toodling around here.  Then I started clicking on the blog posts of the other ladies who attended this workshop and saw this!  Here’s the link to the cottage on VRBO.  Oh yes, we are!!  At least we hope to.  The plan is to head there in late March.  The weather will be cold, but the crowds will be sparse and it will also be more affordable.  So here I am somehow being magically swayed into ditching my beloved Italy for two weeks in France, yep, and stopping in Paris of course.  Time to spruce up my French.

Peace.

We’ve been here now exactly 19 days and it’s already been quite the adventure. We’re starting to make new friends, finding our farmers and markets, yep we have both close by. In fact, we recently learned that we can walk, yep, walk to The Dam Ranch (only .6mi from our house). They have fresh eggs, chickens, goats milk and cheese. We also visited the Miakka Farmers’s Market this past Saturday. It’s located at the Crowley Museum and Nature Center.

It’s so wonderfully peaceful out here, a little creepy too. We love to camp, primitively, so we’re not strangers to the dark, the crickets, critters moving in the trees, bugs, etc. But it’s something about having so much space, and it’s sooooo dark. I love it though, and I’m sure we’ll get used to this. We’re on a two-lane country road and our neighbors are only about 2ish acres away from us on two sides, a bit further to the rear of the house. It’s like we have our own nature park really. So many beautiful old Florida oak trees with hanging moss. The moss glows in the late afternoon as the sun shines through it, beautiful!

Then there’s the spiders. We have many banana spider friends, AKA Golden Orb Weavers. Yes, they do weave a golden orb, it shines in the light a glorious yellow hue. We had a Wolf Spider stop by the other evening. We, well PFMan, gently removed him from the house against his wishes. I’m usually the bug remover, but I’m trying to break PFMan in a bit. We had our friends over the other day and the kids found a Jumping Spider that had placed his web in a poor location, the walkway from the house to the walled garden. Just glad it didn’t jump on me while removing his web. I like spiders, but I don’t want them on me.

The Verizon man found a Gopher Tortoise in the yard behind the studio. Watching Lilith, our Corgi/Beagle mix, was loads of laughs as she saw the tortoise for the first time. She had no idea what she was looking at and really wanted to investigate. Poor little tortoise probably just wanted her to shut up. PFMan witnessed a family of opossums in the yard a couple of nights ago. Did I mention we pass soooo many moos and naaaas to and from our home. I don’t think I’ll ever get sick of seeing those cows grazing. Love seeing the mamas with the babies. I haven’t gotten my camera out yet to capture them or the horses yet, but you can bet I will soon! For now I’ve just taken tons around the house.

Our dog Bear is not the Country dog, having already sprained her ankle, gotten into a Spur field (covered!) and has gotten her neck stuck in the gate leading to the pasture. That was fun, NOT! Everyone is still alive!! We’ll continue our adventure, we still have many boxes to empty and have been selling and buying furniture as needed. So it’s coming along.

Peace & enjoy the images:-)!

Pacific Coast Highway!

This was the first of three locations where we stayed while in California, it was magical! Big Sur is breathtaking, it harbors a vibrant energy that you can feel everywhere you go.  We ate our most favorite meal of the entire 9 day trip here at the Big Sur Bakery & Restaurant.  It was so incredibly simple, a salad of Bibb lettuce, shaved fennel, fresh shaved parm cheese and a beautiful Meyer Lemon dressing.  Sublime!

We choose to use VRBO.com to find a home rental to stay in and we hit the jackpot. On top of mountain, about 1100 ft. up, the view of the coast was amazing and the house… their are no words! No TV, phone, computer, complete peace, just the two of us.

Take a look for yourselves!
Peace!

I’m watching my family gather and take the recycling to the curb. I’m so happy that my kids are excited and on-board with my saving the planet fanatics.  We have just begun a small compost bin in the backyard.  I wanted to begin to be ahead of the game once we move into the new house in a month, I’m going to need some nutritious yumminess for the fruit and vegetable garden I have planned to start.  The kids are so eager to throw the egg shells and fruit and veggie peels in the bucket.

I love that part of homeschooling, which begins in a week, will focus on how we can better take care of this beautiful planet and make it better for generations to come.  We will be visiting local farms, hydroponic and dairy too!  There is one only 13 minutes from the new house called Hunsader Farms, the one we used to visit when the kids were younger.  We’d go to their festival in October, it was over 45 min away then.

This was my 5 minute Stream of Consciousness Sunday post. It’s five minutes of your time and a brain dump. Want to try it? Here are the rules…

* Set a timer and write for 5 minutes only.
* Write an intro to the post if you want but don’t edit the post. No proofreading or spellchecking. This is writing in the raw.
* Publish it somewhere. Anywhere. The back door to your blog if you want. But make it accessible.
* Add the Stream of Consciousness Sunday badge to your post.
* Link up your post at all.things.fadra.
* Visit your fellow bloggers and show some love.

P.S. One of my faves is Good Girl Gone Green!

Last night I began my journey into minimalism. We will be moving into our new home in a month so it’s time to begin tossing. We’ve had boxes in attics for YEARS, mostly mine. My old school books and notes. I was a Biology major and I loved college, so going through everything last night was tough. I really didn’t want to part with some of it. Chemistry wasn’t too hard to let go of, lol, but Zoology, Cell Bio, all my Bio classes, were tough. I had a particular fondness for one instructor at Valencia Community College in Orlando, Mr. Myers, such a bio nerd. We took some really cool expeditions with his classes, there where three he taught. I remember stopping on side roads, being in muck up to our thighs holding water spiders and other swamp critters. It’s hard to believe I new all that I did back then, my grades always high. I loved it! And my notes, impeccable. While at UNLV I even was hired by the school to copy my notes for those who were handicap and unable to do so for themselves. So to say the least, I’m a bit attached to my notes, lol. But, I was strong and threw most into the paper recycle bin, saving the binders for my kids to use. The books will be sold or donated, of course I’m keeping Silent Spring by Rachel Carson, wouldn’t be a good environmentalist without it.

During this cleanse I often pulled strength from The Joy of Less by Francine Jay.  She talks about how these notes, books, degrees, etc. don’t define you. You don’t need them as a reminder of what you once accomplished.  These things have all helped to mold me into the person I am today.

It’s been an interesting journey going through all of these old books and papers, so many subjects! Some I loved, some I hated. I remember the Philosophy class I took at UCF about Religion and the Environment, now that was a great class, and then there is the nine months of massage classes I took to get certified when we lived out in Vegas. All the Eastern Medicine, herbal books I liked to study in my own time.

This is only the beginning, sigh.