Another fire in our area...

Here are some views of the Tea Fire that is currently blazing in the Santa Barbara area. We can see it burning from our street, which is kind of crazy. Hard to believe another fire is rocking this area so soon. Wow! The bottom photo is an artsy reflection shot we took at the Mission this evening. Now that area is being threatened as well. Unbelievable!

Saving a pelican...

On our walk on the beach today, we discovered a wounded pelican. It was sitting quietly by itself, very still and alert. Upon further inspection, I realized that its wing was broken. I also decided that I needed to call someone for help, which is exactly what we did. After about 30 minutes, a couple volunteers arrived and took the bird back to their clinic. It was quite exciting, especially considering the fact that it may have been Lindsey's first trip to the beach ever.

Introducing...

LINDSEY, our newly adopted dog. The animal shelter thinks that she is a 2 year old golden retriever/collie mix. She appears to be rather sweet, fun-loving, and curious. I think she is going to add a lot to our little family unit. We feel thankful to have the opportunity to provide her a home and some valuable training. It should be quite the adventure for us all.

Our new best friend...

After weeks of failed attempts, Kyle and I have successfully adopted a dog. She was definitely hard to resist, as she is sweet, playful, and very beautiful. It's all very exciting! Here's a little preview of her. We'll be posting more soon!

An Early Thanksgiving...

One of the perks of living in Southern California, aside from the sunshine and citrus offerings, is our local community college. It offers a variety of non-credit classes for adults, at a very reasonable price. In the past we have taken craft, business, gardening, language, and cooking courses. Today, we participated in a very special class, which took place at Fairview Gardens. The course was designed as a way of celebrating the fall bounty and the notion of healthy vegetarian community cooking. Though we didn't learn a lot of new culinary techniques, we did acquire some delicious new recipes and inspirations. As a part of the class, we toured the farm and learned about some of the organic gardening methods. Then we collaborated on an early Thanksgiving feast, which was delightful. I absolutely adored the upside down apple pie, though Kyle was particularly impressed by the Happy Tofu Turkey. It was all scrumptious! Some additional highlights of the day were watching a mole suck a plant underground, meeting a new friend named Ruth, and squeezing fresh pomegranate juice.

Gleaning the harvest...

The local food bank has a program called Backyard Bounty, wherein volunteers go around to the various neighborhoods gathering the excess and unwanted fruits for the needy in our community. Before this program was organized, there was a lot of waste occurring in this area. The owners of the trees picked what they desired, and generally left the rest to rot and regenerate into next years harvest. Thankfully, a concerned citizen noticed this wasteful trend and decided to take action. He asked individuals for permission to glean their extra fruits, with favorable responses. This program now gathers thousands of pounds of fruit each year for the food bank. It is amazing.

Yesterday was my first day volunteering with the program. I had the good fortune of helping to glean persimmons from a large orchard in the hills. Participating in the harvest was a fun experience. It took me back to the days of old when I used to pick fruit with my grandmother. Being able to actively contribute to my community feels great, and I look forward to other harvesting opportunities.

A tale of an apple fairy and wall street crash...

Once upon a time there was a strong and healthy Mr. Wall Street. Life was good for Mr. Street, as he counted his rapidly accumulating money daily and reveled in the power that he projected far across the world. People generally liked him, though his popularity was often linked to the wealth distribution that he controlled. Then one day a sly little apple fairy, who loved the color green with all of her heart, discovered a great treasure at Mr. Wall Street's residence.

She knew that the only way she could acquire the green goodness for herself, would be to cast an evil spell on the unsuspecting victim. With one fell swish of her magic apple wand, Wall Street found himself in a crazed frenzy. He staggered here and there, with minor bumps and rises, until he began to spiral down out of control. Eventually, he CRASHED! The apple fairy laughed with glee, and quickly took the majority of his cash. Strangely, the sadness on his face touched her, and she decided to slowly return his treasure. Over time they became friends, and then they lived happily ever after.