Adventures in California Fruit: Part 1

This is a Rangpur Lime.

A few weeks ago we went gorilla fruitin with our friends from SLO and came across this little gem.

Don't be fooled by its sweet looks, this is no mandarin. In fact it is a mandarin crossed with a lemon, giving it a VERY tangy taste.
It ends up working out great for mixed drinks or lemonade with a hint of orange flavor.
It is also a classic central California joke; friend wants a mandarin and you toss them one of these. If they aren't paying to much attention to the subtle difference in smell then it makes for quite the sour face experience.

Also in case you were wondering, Gorilla Fruitin is when you pick fruit from trees that aren't yours. Don't worry karma, "it grows on trees" is an expression on abundance for a reason.

Here is a picture of our final loot.

Laney's Birthday

After leaving Orr Hot Springs, we drove a few miles down the road to an amazingly majestic Redwood grove named Montgomery woods. I keep referring to it as a Cathedral in nature. It was one of the most serene and awe inspiring places that I have ever been. In that grove there are some of the tallest trees on earth.
Here are some pictures below.
The camera is broken again, because it is being held together by electrical tape it has a sort of blurry "fish-eye" effect now... it works for this series though, i think it helps express the dreaminess of the place.

Working at Orr Springs

The four days before my birthday we spent doing a work exchange at a little northern California mountain cove called Orr Hot Springs. It's a beautiful little rustic retreat center with three thermal pools, a sauna, steam rooms, and private baths. We worked six hours a day digging ditches, pruning ferns, and clearing fallen trees from the hillsides and in exchange were given full access to all of the pools and were housed a cozy little private "yurt" with a heater and a skylight. All the manual labor made the hot springs always appreciated. I feel like Jameson and I really benefited from no internet of cell phone for four days, just us and the woods and the water, and of course the hippies naked and blissful, soaking their worries away. I wasn't allowed to take any photos of the springs due to the "clothing optional" policy of Orr, but I did snap a few of us working on clearing paths and eating breakfast.

N Street Cohousing project: Davis, Ca

Established in 1986, the N Street CoHousing is one of the more interesting community things in Davis. Years ago, about 10-12 houses on N Street all agreed to remove their backyard fences to create a private community area. They now have a community house and lots of gardens and play structures for their children.



We stayed here in Davis for two nights. A friend of a friend from Virginia had relocated to the Davis a few years ago and welcomed us into his home full of very cool interested and laid back roommates and nightly family dinners. They had built a loft bed over the washing machine and dryer where Jameson slept.



The community produced a lot of it's own food, each home had a little patch of garden which at this time of year was full of beets, arugula, spinach, and swiss chard. There were about 10 egg laying hens that I saw roaming around and eating bugs. They even had a bunch of bee boxes and the whole time we were visiting we ate from this massive mason jar full of crystlized honey.



In the back yard there were several giant citrus trees. The one pictured below was grapefruit tree. I made a really delicious honey and grapefruit dressing one night for dinner.



Jameson and I were both really inspired by the project and have been brainstorming how something like this could be possible to copy in Richmond. It seems like the perfect fusion of life in the country and life in the city.
To find out more about N Street Co housing visit: http://www.nstreetcohousing.org/

Our San Francisco treat

Santa Cruz Sea Lions

Don't worry friends, these sea lions aren't injured or dead. They are just chillin and listening to the coastal music, the California way.

Santa Cruz rulez!

Santa Cruz, California I know we just met, but you have been added to our list of "places we might have babies in".

Here are some reasons why:


Santa Cruz is on the coast. That means there is surfing, volleyball, swimming and seagulls.



Santa Cruz has a decent amount of ALL vegetarian restaurants. Including a Space Diner themed one. This goes hand and hand with this city having a pretty good indie crowd.



People grow these in their yard! Yeah its and artichoke..no artijoke.



There is an amusement park on the boardwalk. You can ride a roller coaster 20 yards from the ocean.



There are LOBO MARINOS (Sea Lions) here!



It looks like this.



IT HAS AN OCEAN!

Central California

American Mail Boxes

After driving by this mailbox we decided to take some research pictures our selves in a series we are calling:
American Mail Boxes: A Study of Culture.


Now we see A LOT of strange mail boxes, but don't exactly have time to grab a camera and document them. We are on tour, not collecting photos for a new coffee table book.
But here are some that came out.



The Classic: without a face.



This mail box stood approximately 12 feet taller than the regular sized mail box beside it.
The side of the box read "Air Mail"



You know you're at the beach when you see cheesy mail boxes. After passing dozens of Lighthouse mail boxes this "homemade" delight caught our eye.



I don't even know what to say about this one.

Our going away/ EP release show at Sprout 2/8/2011

Thanks Jack & Holly for doing the shadow puppets. It was a show to remember.