The Big Trees

 Our cabin sits near a grove of centuries old sierra redwoods. I often walk up an old road with my dog and when I get to a place as that road narrows, I am surrounded by some of the "younger" redwoods.  I will stand there, just the dog and I and close my eyes and listen to the silence. It is deafening. It is magnificent.  I will look up, I am surrounded. I am happy.

This is a walk we took with our dog, who runs and runs and smells the earth and life renewing itself with each passing moment.

Calaveras Big Trees State Park

http://www.parks.ca.gov/?page_id=551

From Farm to Table...A Bucket Full of Blueberries

My last stop on my most recent road trip to Malibu, was Santa Barbara Blueberry Farm right on Hwy 101 in Gaviota. This is my second visit to this charming U-pick, with 22 acres of plump, juicy blueberry's literally right at your finger tips for the picking. An absolute gem, the farm has a season that runs from Memorial Day until the berry bush's have been picked clean. So with pail in hand, we were instructed by the young gal working the stand to walk about a 1/4 mile up the road to the yellow flag and start your picking there, and off we went. We stopped to say hi and coo at the cutest baby piglet we've ever seen, a couple of sweet as can be goats, and chickens pecking in the dirt. Past a lovely pond under an ancient giant oak and well worn picnic table and on to the row of bushes with the yellow flag.  I wandered up rows of bushes chock full of berries, and easily finding perfectly ripe and ready for picking berries in no time...lost in thought on this perfect warm summer day, the only sounds I heard were my own humming and the hungry moo of the cows in the barns behind us.  An hour and half later, our buckets were full (just about 3 pounds) and back down the little dirt road we walked in happy silence.  Forking over $15 for each pail (an amazing bargain for these no spray blue's) we were on the road again way too soon.

Find out what I came out of the oven on my other blog...love to cook love to bake...