A few phone shots from the mountains

Yesterday we drove to Reno to see Al Stewart in concert. There were a lot of baby boomers in the audience and one teenager. I exaggerate but not much. I still listen to his album Year of the Cat when I’m writing. I first heard it around the same time I was reading one of my favorite novels, and the story and imagery of that song are forever linked in my mind with that book. I wrote a novel based on the idea from that book and look forward to getting back to it. I needed to mature a lot more as a writer to pull it off. I hope I do someday because I think you’d like it.

The drive to Reno is pretty.  I wanted to share it with you even though the phone shots out the window of a speeding car are a bit chaotic. (Don’t worry, I was in the passenger seat.)

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Interstate 80 follows the Truckee River gorge. The views open up so you can see the transition from the west to the east side of the Sierra Nevada. I’ve always found the drive exciting. The change is dramatic. Once you’re in Reno you can look up and see stunning long vistas of the mountains.

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Farad is a very little town along the way, still in California.

Sunset was spectacular today. The storm was breaking up, leaving puffy cotton clouds painted glowing orange. I couldn’t take pictures of sunset because I was driving, but twilight was also pretty.

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The Claremont Hotel in Berkeley

Thank you everyone who commented yesterday! It is heartwarming to know that you would love a free book! The winner of the giveaway was Violet, of the totally inspiring Violet’s Veg*n Comics.

After lunch with a friend in Berkeley, I was able to snap a shot of the Claremont out the car window while stopped at a light.

The Clairemont Hotel
The Claremont Hotel

I love this hotel. Check out this fact:

The Claremont faced destruction in the 1991 Oakland firestorm, but the flames were stopped just short of the hotel.

The light you see in the foreground is for the tennis club that is on the site, I think. We stayed here once and watched tennis whenever we weren’t staring out the little dormer window at San Francisco.

Michael Chiarello is back and news(letter) announcement

Or, I should say, I’m back to Michael Chiarello. I am what I call “phasic,” meaning I go through enthusiasms in phases. My cooking enthusiasm phases are few and far between, and my husband has been waiting for another one to strike. (He does most of the cooking.) His absolute favorite phase of mine was my Michael Chiarello phase. The food is great, and best of all the recipes are simple. (I tend to choose recipes that are really involved and then I’m burned out (no pun intended) on cooking for another three months.) And I tend to make dessert which is really only useful when we’re going to someone’s house or having people over. No, I don’t eat dessert every day, and maybe that’s my problem.

I love this cookbook, though!

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I was thumbing through it because I needed the recipe for Ceci a la Siciliana, about which I love everything, especially the name. I say the name a lot. I think it is pronounced Seechee a la Siciliana. I say it as often as possible. The dish also tastes great and is vegetarian.

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Changing topic, I’m starting a newsletter this year. I plan to do one once a month and will be providing original recipes, updates on my writing, book give-aways, photos, and writing tips. To sign up for the newsletter, please let me know in the comments!

Thanks for visiting, and enjoy your day.

Monday veg dinner

Vegetarian sausage seems to be dominating our menu lately. It’s so versatile! Last night we made polenta with spaghetti squash and sausages sauteed with peppers and onions.

The sausages come in a package from Costco. We used the apple ones for this recipe.

The recipe was from the New York Times, but Hubs altered it a bit. For one thing, he used vegetarian sausages from Costco.

Here are the main flavors, the peppers, onions and seasonings, including fennel seeds (to die for).

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The polenta was flavored with bay leaf and fresh rosemary, plus sea salt. I see a few fennel seeds in there too, now that I look at it.

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During the day, my hubs used the giant persimmons someone gave us and made a persimmon pudding cake. There shouldn’t be a slice taken out of it before a photo shoot, but we couldn’t stop ourselves. It is incredible.

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Now that I look at it, I see that there is more than one slice taken out of the cake! Oh well, I’ll start my diet (again) today.

We have BJ’s Brew Pub red ale on tap at the moment.

Thanks for dropping by!

Nicci

Avenue of the Giants, and something small living in the shadows

We were traveling during the lead-up to the big storm. We drove through some rain, heading here from Sonoma, figuring no problem, the canopy in the forest will protect us from the rain. When we arrived, the sun came out!

Avenue of the Giants, Humboldt California
Avenue of the Giants, Humboldt California

This mushroom was growing below the fallen stump you see above.

A mushroom in Avenue of the Giants

The trees have an emanation. It is very peaceful here. I want to go back and stay longer.

Avenue of the Giants, Humboldt County California
Avenue of the Giants, Humboldt County California

Mendocino memories

We did some research to see if we could just move here. But then I realized, if we moved here, we couldn’t stay at the Brewery Gulch Inn any more, and that’s what I really want to do.

Brewery Gulch Inn
Brewery Gulch Inn
What was outside our window on the side. (Brewery Gulch Inn, King room.)
The side window of the Madrone room,
Our deck.
Our deck.

This was a great place for a writing retreat.

Plotting my next novel
Plotting my next novel,
What you see when you're driving down the road.
What you see when you’re driving down the road.
Little River gas station.
Little River (the next town) gas station and market,
Little River Post Office
Little River Post Office,
A view from Wild Fish
A view from Wild Fish
Another view from Wild Fish
Another view from Wild Fish.
Seafood rissotto
Seafood risotto.
Crab cakes
Crab cakes.
A dessert tart with the recommended dessert wine at Wild Fish.
A dessert tart with the recommended dessert wine at Wild Fish.
A park in Mendocino
A park in Mendocino.
The museum at the park.
The museum at the park.

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Brewery Gulch Inn. No, it's not a brewery! But they do provide plenty of beer...and wine.
Brewery Gulch Inn. No, it’s not a brewery! But they do provide plenty of beer…and wine.
Brewery Gulch Inn
Brewery Gulch Inn

Mendocino, a pileated woodpecker and other birds

The pileated woodpecker is very cautious. He took a long time to come down to the bird feeder.

Here is my left profile
Here is my left profile.
I think I'm pretty handsome from this angle too
I think I’m pretty handsome from this angle too.
Look at my crowning glory.
Look at my crowning glory.
Finally I get to eat, and you get to see my red head.
Finally I get to eat, and you get to see my scarlet crest and shiny black tuxedo.

I think this bird lived up on this branch, but I don’t know what she’s doing now, because there’s a huge storm buffeting the area now.

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Turkeys are beautiful.

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The ravens in Mendocino are huge.

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We had to cut our trip short due to a huge storm hitting today. It’s exciting to be getting some rain and snow in California!

Sonoma wine tasting

We sneaked in a little road trip between storms. Sonoma is lovely. There are so many wineries!

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I was surprised by how busy it was. I thought it would be quiet because it’s winter! But wine tasting is very popular.

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We enjoyed the less crowded tasting rooms the most.

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For the first time, I spit the wine out. I was always afraid to, but today I just did it. I was glad because I was able to taste a lot of wines. Usually I’m done after 3 or 4. It is an acceptable and even expected thing to do, thankfully! Then I could enjoy my glass of wine with dinner after we returned safely to the cottage.

We bought a lot of wine and had a lot of fun!

 

A vertical garden in Hong Kong

It was a little hard to photograph this vertical garden, which was in the ICON Hotel restaurant/bar on Kowloon (on the peninsula across Victoria Harbour from Hong Kong Island). Before this one, I had never heard of a vertical garden before, let alone seen one.

hong-kong-kowloon-17 hong-kong-kowloon-16 hong-kong-kowloon-15 hong-kong-kowloon-14 hong-kong-kowloon-13And here’s a panorama from a window, Kowloon in the foreground, Hong Kong Island across the harbor.

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