Pictures is the answer

A month has gone by, and I have not made any entries here, so I'm posting some pictures so you can see some what we've been up to.

October, of course, deserves an Octoberfest.

Michal & Adam are at work feeding us Bratwurst.

Coming to the serious part, the next weekend, the
experts (Natalie & Geoff) are cutting
pumpkins for Halloween.

Kellie is getting her pumpkin ready to insert the knife.

In the meantime, Patricia has a growing man to feed.

Another weekend trip was to Seattle, Patricia's old stomping
grounds during college at Univ of Washington.

The Chihuly glass exhibit at the Civic Center is a permenant home
of this famous Washington native son.

And as always, Patricia is creating great memories.

Back at home Michal, Adam and Kellie invited me for an
evening of wild entertainment, go-carts, pinball machines and minigolf.

Then, we are off again, this time to San Miguel de Allende
to visit our friends,Whitney and Don

Don waiting for Patricia who is discovering the town through
her lense.

Back home again hanging out having coffee at
the CUP, a little coffee shop in Oceanside.

Almost the start of summer

We had another great Biergarten Party, very good turnout, and we made a lot of new friends.
As I like to say, everyone of importance was there.
The food, very important to me, was fantastic as always, and we want to thank everyone for bringing something - except I did eat and drink too much again, but that's no one's fault but my own.
Here are a few pictures, and there are more in my album.

Someone took over the center table

Some of the Paradee family and Ian enjoying themselves 

Mary, Glen and Chris are in deep discussion

Francis and Teresa posing for pictures

The week in pictures

Sunday, I drove up to Anza, Patricia was happy to have a day on her own, and I was happy to see Guido and Annette and speak Badisch all day.  After having inspected Guido's new additions to his house, we went for a walk to see Clair and Lee who live about half hour walk away.

Guido and Annette on our walk

I had no idea that last year's fire came so very close to their house.

On the home front, whenever Patricia starts to measure something, I became wary.

And it always turns out great.

The first potatoes for this year.

Then, of course, there is the time with Gavin, all day.

Here is Gavin's first major work of art. Abstract impressionism? Post modern?

To top it off, we fixed up the Biergarten for the new season and
had a soft opening with Glen.

That was it for the week. It looks like the next Biergarten Party is on Saturday, May 11th.
Have a happy week.

October Fest

This was our version of the Oktoberfest here at the Koenig Biergarten in Encinitas.
Periodically, Michal puts on a garden party, which we have now renamed the "Crest Dr. Community Party."
What a great time we had.  It was a beautiful sunny day and at great personal expense, Michal engaged the PigPen Band that play Folk-Country and Blues Music.
The pot-luck style food, plus Michal-provided-German-sausage-and-beer, was exceptional. Whenever people ask me what to bring, my standard answer is "something you love," and there is always plenty and a great variety of different, sometimes new and interesting foods.
Thanks to everyone who came and made it a great party.

Our new sign announcing a party

The property is ready to have a party

Lots of sausages and great food

Great friends, lots of laughs and good conversations

This time Michal engaged a great band to play fun tunes.

Next time, we look forward to seeing you at the Party as well.

Sapote Tree

On Crest on the property where we used to live, there is a great Sapote tree.  Most people around here don't know what to do with it's fruit.

This is what it looked like in August.  Guillermo cleaned away all the
dirt around it and replaced it with new composted dirt,
so the tree can now breath and be nourished again.

By September, the new leaves are showing up all over the tree.

This is only three days after I took the picture above.

This is the same tree after only two weeks

As I was looking, I found one fruit from last season hanging lonely on the tree.

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Can't wait for the tree to bear fruit again; I could eat myself sick on this custard like fruit.

A garden of Eden

The roads where I walk have a special bonus: every year I anticipate the five fig trees along the way, and it's now harvest time. The trees are hanging out into the road, so I assume when I go past at 4:30am that the fruit is for my picking, and I do.

Close enough to the road to be public property.

Still a bit green but laden with fruit.

Happy harvesting, when the time comes, is all I can say.

Down sizing

Once again we are on the move. After having looked after Homer and Jessica's house, we spent a week taking care of Michal's house again.  This week, we will mind Tom and Wendy's place and also look after Sandy and Lon's house until the end of September.
In the meantime, for the gap on weekend, we are camping. Sandy and Eddie have a camper parked in their front yard and offered it to us for the three days between the house sitting gigs.  It's very comfortable, and it is also very quiet over here - no street lights and no noise at night.  It takes a bit getting used to after being in the big houses, but I like the coziness of the place.

This was last week

This is today.  Being flexible is the secret.

All and all, it is an interesting journey.

Back at Crest

Well, we have said good bye to the street and our former place about a dozens times now, and it calls us back again and again.
We just love Encinitas and delay our leaving here as long as possible.
In any case, we are staying at our old place again (but house sitting in the main house) for a week and get a chance to look after Oscar, our favorite cat.  Before we arrived, Michal forewarned us that Oscar was on the roof again, an obvious reference to marauding coyotes. Problem is, once he's up there, he can't get down my himself. So it was up to us. On several previous occasions, we have tried all sorts of things, like going onto the roof to catching him (impossible!!) and so on. Yesterday, however, was different; Patricia had the brilliant idea to make a catwalk to the roof so Osky, in his own time,would just come down. It worked effortlessly. Brilliant, Patricia.

What a novel idea

Guillermo is working the property again and keeping it very nice and clean and organized.

He does a great job keeping everything top notch.

I decided to plant some more passion fruit on the back fence, so I dug holes and planted 6 cuttings in each; now lets see if any take root.

Walking is my new buzz word

Patricia gave us each a new step-counter, called Fitbit, and this inspired me to walk once again.  I love walking; I could do it all day.  It needs no brain activity; just put one foot in front of the other, and that's it.
While walking, I have ideas, sing, talk to myself, and this is the most intelligent conversation; no argument or disagreement, ahh sometimes I do contradict myself, but by the end of my walk, I have usually reached either a compromise or come to a solution.
In any case, this new devise is great.  It's called a Fitbit and clips onto my belt and counts my steps, the distance I walk, how many floors I climb and most depressing, it tells me how many calories I have burned. For example, if I walk 5 miles, I barely burn enough calories to have a Starbucks Frappaccino.
If you are interested in watching my progress, bookmark this link.

Summer is here

Summer has arrived in Southern California, and we celebrated it with, what else, a Biergarten Party.
I spent the last few days getting things ready while staying at Michal's, and yesterday, we had about 50 people over in the afternoon. We saw some new neighbors and friends of friends.
Everyone had a great time, at least the people we talked to, and the kids had fun when we took them over to Chicken-house to see the chickens and the goats. Of course, now some of the parents are in trouble.  There children now want a goat, too.
As always, there was a great variety of food and drink; everyone contributed something, and in the end, we were left with some very nice half bottles of wine, thanks to whomever.

The garden is ready.  Patricia planted the flower-boxes, and they look great.

Ready for business; just waiting for our friends to fill up the tables.

Michal is staring to grill the sausages.

Natalie's family brought the biggest Pizza ever. It hardly fit through the
gate, and we needed to bring out a special Pizza table.

One of the highlights was chasing the chickens at Natalie's.

And then there was the spectator lineup.

Meanwhile, back at the farm, everyone is enjoying themselves 

We are all very excited; Aariel is in her fourth month, and it's going to be a boy.

Here's Patricia getting ready to be Oma with Danny.

Here is Jessica teaching Jack and Jaiden to hold
onto the goat.

Sparta is loving her goat.

Then there is the Goat pulling contest

All in all, another great party.  Hope to see you in a month or so at the next Biergarten Party.

Eddie is not ready to go home jet.