Monday walk…to the beach

The beach is part of life in much of southern California and as our daughter and her family live just a few blocks from it, every trip there includes a daily walk to the beach. On the way, my heart was gladdened by these golden poppies and the contrast with the bright blue fence behind them.

My plant ID says these are Delosperma bosseranum or, as we normal people call them, iceplants, a succulent. No ice in sight but if ice looked like this, what an interesting world it would be!

I haven’t seen dog droppings, so I’m assuming these bags get used. I love the “Business is picking up”, something I would have liked to have written.

Look this direction and you can see the Palos Verdes pennisula and the city of Palos Verdes, or PV as the locals call it, where the houses are large and expensive and the views are amazing. The flowering succulents on the hill above the beach are in full bloom.

Look the other direction and you can see flowers again as well as quite a distance along the coast. At the bottom of this hill is The Strand. The official name of The Strand bike path in Los Angeles is the Marvin Braude Bike Trail, a fully-paved, 22-mile (35-km) bike path that runs from Will Rogers State Beach in the north to Torrance County Beach in the south. It gets a lot of use. When both my husband and I visit, we stay in an Airbnb in Hermosa Beach and my husband bikes to where our daughter and family live and then back at night.

There’s so much to do at the beach but father-son time is one of the best things!!

It wouldn’t be a Monday walk with Jo or a trip to Redondo Beach without a stop at Sweet Wheat, my favorite French bakery. Today I’ve taken a break from panna cotta to enjoy Paris-Brest, so light and tasty and, important to me, just barely sweet…but SO very delicious. I’m sure I walked off any calories going to, along, and from the beach, right? 🙂

The Paris–Brest is a classic French pastry, featuring a crisp, almond-studded baked ring of pâte à choux that’s split in half horizontally, liberally filled with praline crème mousseline—a heady mixture of vanilla pastry cream, nutty praline paste, and whipped butter—and finished with a dusting of powdered sugar.

This bakery staple was created in 1910 by pastry chef Louis Durand, as an homage to the long-distance Paris-Brest-Paris bicycle race (the pastry’s circular shape is meant to evoke that of a bicycle wheel). Pâtisserie Durand, which is still owned and operated by the Durand family, claims to have the original recipe, but fortunately this hasn’t prevented pastry chefs around the world from putting forth their own spins on the dessert. ~ Serious Eats (You can find a recipe there as well.L

Happy May Day! Did any of you make May baskets when you were children? If you live outside the US, is May 1 a special day for you?

Wordless Wednesday…just a random photo that I like

Remembering Mom, now in heaven, whose birthday was December 7. She turned 12 in California on Pearl Harbor Day, December 7, 1941.

Wordless Wednesday…together

Heading home…but not quite yet

There’s not better way to start the day than to go French at Sweet Wheat. With grandson in the stroller, we relaxed on the patio enjoying pastries, coffee, and baguette sandwiches before heading out for a last walk on a perfect southern California morning, delaying our departure until about noon.

Continuing the French theme, my husband spotted this snail burrowing away in its flower. It was safe from me. Snails aren’t on my menu anywhere I am!

We had a classic morning to take with us on our drive home. Of course this was the last body of water we saw but we survived traffic and manic drivers to arrive safely back, already missing that grandchild. 🙂 Thanks for sticking around through my sporadic posting throughout the long weekend. I hope you enjoyed a bit of the personal.

End of the road…day 1

Started the day with a trip to the farmers market. Why no pictures you ask? True answer… forgot all about it. I was too busy buying whole-grain sourdough bread, green garlic, leeks, and apples. So sue me. (Dictation would like you to believe I bought leaks but I actually bought edible leeks.😁). Then we had a lot of baby time but no trip is complete without at least one visit to Sweet Wheat for panna cotta with raspberries and a mocha.

Speaking of the farmers market, there’s the always intriguing question, at least to me, of whether it’s the “farmers market” because there are farmers there or is it the “farmers’ market” because it belongs to the farmers?

A walk is always good and during this one I caught some light on a leaf creating a little abstract leaf portrait. For all you Thursday Doors people, I also found more doors, but you’ll have to wait ‘til next week for those. 😉. Pretty sure I did not walk off all the calories from the panna cotta and the mocha, but I’m fine with that.

Of course no trip to the beach is complete without an ocean view. View? Great. Days off with family? Priceless!

Lost

One Word Sunday 4.3.22

Flat

for One Word Sunday and Life in Colour: black/grey

Taking the long view

How about some orange roofs for Life in Colour…if you can tear your eyes away from the beach, ocean, and far view. This was part of a delightful time of driving around looking at expensive houses with fabulous views during my recent visit to Southern California.

Travel photo 5

My nomination for this travel photo challenge came from Su at Zimmerbitch. Same old same old: one travel photo, no explanation necessary. Today’s invitation goes all the way to Finlan, where Ritva is trying to survive the dark of a Scandinavian winter. Take us away to somewhere sunny, Ritva, and if you do, link or pingback to my post/blog. Or just enjoy my photo when it gets dark.

One Word Sunday…power

for One Word Sunday