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?

Thursday Doors…tiny doors 2

Last week I forgot to continue the current tiny doors series so I’m remedying that today. After looking at the doors, we can stop at Sweet Wheat for a French pastry and some coffee before strolling to the beach. Who’s in?

Thursday Doors 4.6.23

Give me one minute…

and three seconds and I’ll gift you with what we saw on a chilly beach walk this (Monday) night.

Thursday Doors…tiny doors return

We’ve taken our virtual airplane (first class seats and service only, naturally) from Arizona’s Petrified Forest to Redondo Beach, California for round two of this group of tiny doors. No history that I know of, no stories, just some tiny houses with tiny doors. After viewing, feel free to walk across the street, view the ocean, and enjoy the weather. The return flight won’t take off until just after midnight Pacific Standard time, so take time to relax. Tomorrow we’ll finish up at Petrified Forest and then see where our journey takes us next.

Thursday Doors 10.20.22

Thursday Doors…fairy interesting doors

Yes, California tiny doors are back. These houses have an ocean view but even though that raises the price, they might be the only affordable homes around! I didn’t see any “For Sale” signs though, so you’ll have to keep waiting if you plan to move into the area.

I see I missed most of a teapot house on the far left side. May have to check that one out next time I’m there.

I prefer my fans indoors but last time we were there, it was hot and humid enough that one this size outdoors might have helped as few people near the beach have AC.

Thursday Doors 10.6.22

Monday walk…beach walk

The sun hot, the beach not too crowded, time with friends and family, walking with feet cooled by the lapping waves…a lovely weekend morning.

Jo’s Monday Walk

Multiple

One Word Sunday: multiple

Cellpic Sunday 6.26.22

So many people just skull-king around!

Six-Word Saturday 6.25.22

Four swords and seven years ago…

Six-Word Saturday 6.17.22

Thursday Doors…library doors

Yesterday was a travel day, coming home from California and a badly-needed break. Bad news: I’m having grandson withdrawal. 🙂 Our daughter, grandson, and I started our last few hours together with a walk to Sweet Wheat for my last raspberry panna cotta, followed by a walk by the beach, then back to the apartment to load up my van, hug and kiss everyone, and venture out into the LA traffic. Everything went quite smoothly for the most part until I had an hour added to my arrival time when on the bottom part of Chiriaco Pass, traffic came to a halt due to some sort of emergency about five or six miles further up the road. Of course I knew nothing about it except that the zillion trucks and million cars were barely moving. I put in a couple of CD’s, sang along, and was thankful that the accident wasn’t further up, where 11 miles could have taken several hours.

Libraries of whatever size are favorite places of mine and here are two good-looking ones I found during my visit. This first one sports a definite beach vibe and needed more then just a front door view to appreciate the whole thing. Don’t you just love the door handle?

Although right above the beach, this library is less decorative yet still attractive. Unfortunately I didn’t have a book to leave, so I just took a photo rather than a book.

If you’d like to book more door time, check out Dan’s blog where doors from all over the world are on view. Dan’s our head door-braian although thankfully he doesn’t enforce the “quiet in the door-bary” rule!