Strictly speaking, it’s not an antique because it’s less than 100 years old. But it’s getting there!
wurly
Month: February 2025
dickens
Do you have a favourite Dickens novel? Mine might be Bleak House.
on the move
It’s time to move on to our next temporary lodging. We’ll be bouncing around a bit for the rest of the month.
impending
The alerts are telling us: “Be prepared for potential mudslides, debris flows, rocks and water in the roads in all recent burn areas, especially canyon roads. It only takes ½ inch of rain per hour to start a debris flow.”
beer clock
My MIL’s home has an eclectic mix of decor items and wall art. I asked for the story behind this clock — when she got it, and why. Did she enjoy the beer? She said it was given to them decades ago, and she has always liked it. ’It’s just fun,’ she said. ‘It’s a rec room thing.’
Google ‘beer clock’ and you’ll see that a lot of brands make them. Because it’s always time for a beer??
fishermen’s memorial
Playing tourist in my (temporary) town.
two trees
After our meal at a Ventura restaurant called Two Trees, we asked the waiter about the name. He told us the story of two oak trees high on the hills behind Ventura, an iconic landmark that could be seen from the harbour. He said the trees burned in the Thomas Fire of December 2017, but that the community raised the funds to replant them. I asked what kind of oaks they were, but he didn’t know.
I did some googling when I got home. Turns out the story is slightly more convoluted. For starters, they were blue gum eucalypts, not native oaks, originally planted in 1898 along with 11 others. Several months before the Thomas Fire, one of the last two trees was felled by strong winds (it was already dead at the time). So then it was just Lone Tree. And maybe a recently planted sapling (sources vary, reported timelines are inconsistent). It seems that the trees have been replanted multiple times over the decades, perhaps most recently in 2018. Venturans consider the trees iconic, and want to protect, nurture and, yes, replace them as needed.
Now I need to look out for this landmark, which I confess I’ve never noticed.
loss
The valley oaks are bare, carrying only the occasional gall. I sat among them and let myself feel my loss. But listen to all those birds!
hashiworks 