Frost nearly there, on the Half Moon Bay Punkins

Click on the illustration above to more fully enjoy these Half Moon Bay punkins!

We lunched with Aimee!

Pumpkin patches on the way home,

Show their fall colors

excerpted from  "When the Frost is on the Punkin" by James Whitcomb Riley  

They’s something kindo’ harty-like about the atmusfere

When the heat of summer’s over and the coolin’ fall is here—

Of course we miss the flowers, and the blossums on the trees,

And the mumble of the hummin’-birds and buzzin’ of the bees;

But the air’s so appetizin’; and the landscape through the haze

Of a crisp and sunny morning of the airly autumn days

Is a pictur’ that no painter has the colorin’ to mock—

When the frost is on the punkin and the fodder’s in the shock.

Half Moon Bay Harbor http://postcardfromcalifornia.blogspot.com/2013/08/half-moon-bay-harbor.html

Three cheers for the San Benito House Deli on Main Street in Half Moon Bay with it's lovely outdoor seating

 I vote for the Olive Walnut bread every time!

http://www.sanbenitohouse.com

When the Frost is On the Punkin, James Whitcomb Riley http://www.poetryfoundation.org/poem/174222

Trout Dreams at Lake Tahoe (Haiku)

(Click on the trout above to get up close and personal!)

Swim down Taylor Creek

Carnivorous thoughts drive you

Back to Lake Tahoe

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Resources

The Stream Profile Chamber (just off the bike path and on the Rainbow Trail on the South Side of Lake Tahoe) is like a aquarium built into Taylor Creek. In addition to views of different fish passing through between creek and lake, the visitor finds information on the feeding habits of trout and salmon. According to signs the trout will eat a variety of foods, including mice and small birds! 

I learned from another visitor that the Kokanee Salmon in Lake Tahoe, were originally brought in as a food source for the trout, in the 1940's. 

http://www.fs.usda.gov/wps/portal/fsinternet/!ut/p/c4/04_SB8K8xLLM9MSSzPy8xBz9CP0os3gDfxMDT8MwRydLA1cj72BTJw8jAwjQL8h2VAQAzHJMsQ!!/?ss=110519&navtype=BROWSEBYSUBJECT&cid=FSE_003741&navid=110000000000000&pnavid=null&position=BROWSEBYSUBJECT&recid=11785&ttype=recarea&pname=Lake%2520Tahoe%2520Basin%2520Mgt%2520Unit%2520-%2520Taylor%2520Creek%2520Visitor%2520Center

Terminado - The Bramble Blouse - Another Semi-Fitted Sleeveless Summer Blouse

You don't hear the term brambles used to refer to berries much these days.
I think it dates more from times when lots of berries grew naturally
in woods and fields, and folks just went out to pick their own, come summer time.
Nowadays most of us find our berries in a box or frozen bag.
The birds and squirrels score most of the ones I have in my yard.
Oh well, they can't run to the grocery store like I can! I don't really mind.
And it saves me a bit o' trouble in those prickly bramble bushes.

Hey! Do you remember the podcast I did in July, where I talked about creating my sleeveless, pink and white seersucker blouse Amaryllis blouse from my much altered tried-and-true shirt pattern (it started out life as B5586)? Well I enjoyed wearing Amaryllis so much (that gal has been a real go-to summer wardrobe choice) that I made another blouse from my same much altered pattern.

And doesn't it look pretty durn cute with my sage'y green shorts from two summers ago? I think so! I've also been wearing it with my new Midnight Sky black denim skirt, but I don't have a really cute photo of that combination yet :-)

Oh yeah, I altered the pattern a little more!  I just can't get enough of altering now - no pattern is safe from my fideling fingers.   Blame my wonderful dress form buddy Conchita for that! Because this crisp bramble printed cotton doesn't hang off a woman's body in the same way as the loosey-goosey seersucker I used for Amaryllis, I made a few changes to my Bramble Blouse as I was creating her. . . 

i) I took the long front darts I'd created from the hem, up the princess line, to the bust apex, and extended them up above the bust apex. 
ii) I also took those darts in more - so my Bramble Blouse is all together narrower than Amaryllis.  
iii) In addition I added long darts along the back princess seam. 

My dress form Conchita was really useful
when it came to making the
Bramble Blouse more fitted

These alterations resulted in a semi-fitted blouse that's just a little more fitted. 

OK, I admit it. I used good old
safety pins to try out that extended dart.
Because just after I tried this out on
Conchita, I slipped it on
me and checked out that new dart in the bathroom mirror.

Amaryllis is somewhat fitted,
but less so than my Bramble Blouse
That works because she's made out of a non-crisp seersucker

~ ~ ~

Web Resources

Audio/Podcast Summer of the Blouse - Amaryllis http://meencantacoser.blogspot.com/2014/07/ench-by-sew-022-summer-of-blouse.html

Blog Posting about Amaryllis http://meencantacoser.blogspot.com/2014/07/amaryllis-my-new-semi-fitted-blouse.html

Wardrobe Builder - The Midnight Sky Black Denim Skirt http://meencantacoser.blogspot.com/2014/08/terminado-wardrobe-builder-midnight-sky.html

Creating Conchita, my Dress Form Friend  http://enchantedbysewing.blogspot.com/2013/09/ench-by-sew-12-dress-forms.html

Golden Gate Memories in the Family

(click on the photo above to get an up close and personal view)

A walk to and/or over the Golden Gate Bridge is a lovely long walk from San Francisco's Presidio, a lovely destination in it's own right. Recently I went to an exhibit about artist Mary Blair at the Disney Family Museum while my husband hoofed it out to the Bridge. Still  recovering my health a bit, I contented myself with taking a photo of the bridge, from the back side of the museum. Reflections on his families history, in regards to the bridge, have me planning a fall walk out onto the span. Such a promenade is a the perfect local field trip.

John A. Roebling was famed for wire rope suspension bridges, like the Brooklyn Bridge and another well known construction San Francisco Bay Area locals still admire. My mother-in-law was always very proud of her father, Willard G. Marks', work for the John A. Roebling company, which supplied the cable for the Golden Gate Bridge. Each of her children inherited little sample paper weights of cable used for the bridge. Ours is on display on the secretary desk in our living room.

It turns out there was more to the provision of that cable, than simply rolling it up and sending it over. PBS did a special on the Roebling Crew's work for this huge undertaking. 

Nice knowing my husband's family has an interest in what it is that keeps our footing sure, when we take a walk across this beauty.

~ ~ ~

Web Resources

Spinning the Cables -- The Golden Gate Bridge (Roebling Crew) http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/americanexperience/features/general-article/goldengate-spinning/

John A. Robling (Johann August Rõbling) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_A._Roebling

The Roebling Museum is in New Jersey http://roeblingmuseum.org/about-us/the-roeblings-sons-co/