My Water Post For Today.
Fire Island. A wonderful place that I love to visit.
I haven't been there for a few years, but this photo was taken on one of my trips. 2009, to be exact.
The water was wild, and not many people were around. It was also free to visit, since it was off-season.
Just the way I like it. Raw beauty and no pestering by thousands of beach goers.
I hope you enjoy.
First off, Happy Valentine's Day!
You can never go wrong with flowers.
Just sayin'... :-)
On Saturday, after our gym class, we had to make a trip to Walmart.
I needed to get my son some insoles for his hiking boots.
He ended up on a hike that very afternoon, so it was a good thing we finally got this out of the way.
As we walked across the front of the store, I saw some tops, similar in style to others I have bought in the past.
Those have worked out just fine, for work and so I stopped and checked them out.
This one had a scarf as part of the ensemble. I am not a big scarf fan, but it can be removed, so what the heck.
14 dollars later, there I am on my return home from our pre-Valentine's dinner, with my son, my "Magic" son and a cousin of my "Magic" son.
We had a wonderful time and I looked very nice in my new top.
Superbowl Sunday arrived and I had a spaghetti squash to get rid of from my box of produce.
Along came this video about stuffing the squash with chicken tenders, sauce and cheese. Baking it in the oven to melt the cheese and eating it.
It sounded like a decent idea and I found chicken breasts on sale at the market.
I had baked the two halves of the squash, before we went to the movie and when we got home, I cooked the breasts in the fry pan, to make the tenders and then I used left over sauce from the week before, to cover the tenders and the squash.
Fresh mozzarella cheese and Parmesan cheese and off to the oven it went for about 20 minutes.
Edible and gone as of lunch on Thursday. My son and I shared them, over the course of the week.
The video is HERE, for you to check out. No audio needed.
We just finished our first run of a new show called "Lost L.A.".
It is only a 3 part series and we are searching for underwriters to bring it to full fruition.
Of the three shows, I was most in love with the third episode. Of course being a mass transit kind of girl, having a show about subway tunnels, angel's flight and the canals in Venice, makes my day.
Episode two was all about the area around Dodger Stadium and though I had high hopes for it, it ultimately disappointed me a bit.
Episode one was the worst, in my and my Husband's opinion. It was about the Monarch Bear who is depicted on our California Flag. That bear was captured in the Santa Clarita Valley area and instead the show said it was Ojai. A major factual mistake for a history series to make. If it gets more funding, maybe I will make a stink about that. lol
It is worthy of a viewing and there is lots to learn. Especially for those non-angelinos.
My best to the team and I hope the series continues, with additional funding.
Oh, the ratings have been quite good, considering it is just a little 3 part series.
Check them out, HERE.
I did indeed go to Ash Wednesday service...thankfully short. :-)
My ashes, which I thought would disappear by being in a pool after service, stayed with me all day. Wow.
Thank goodness for bangs.
The one thing that struck me as a bit weird, was this crown of thorns, that was hanging by the entrance to the Church.
What do you think?
Appropriate, or over the top?
A little Ash Wednesday humor courtesy of the Catholic Cartoon Blog. I originally posted this in 2011. :-)
Happy Ash Wednesday! I am off to get ashes this morning at the 6:30AM Service, before gym.
I remember so vividly kneeling at the altar rail in St. Ignatius and being told to push my bangs to the sides, to give the priest a good shot at getting the ashes on my forehead. Against orders, of course, I would always leave the presence of the Priest and immediately move them back into position, to hide the fact that I had them.
A big relief to me then and what is funny about the whole situation, is that I still feel that way, every single year.
I have been blessed with the variety of people I have worked with, during my 35 year career at KCET.
One of the early group of people included Mitzi Trumbo, daughter of Dalton Trumbo, from the Hollywood Blacklist.
We always knew the situation with her and her life and KCET went out of our way to produce and air programs in the 80's that dealt with The Hollywood Blacklist.
It definitely means more, when a member of your staff was so intimately involved in the whole mess.
Mitzi was our staff photographer and later a freelance one, for most all the 80's and even into the 90's.
She was an incredibly friendly and cheerful person and a pleasure to deal with.
I am so glad our careers crossed for those years and it made me more aware of that dark time in our American history.
The movie Trumbo is releasing in Great Britain and so The Guardian interviewed Mitzi about her memories of those long ago days and what it was like to watch them film the movie.
It is a great interview and some lovely photos. Check it out, HERE.
Photo is of Mitzi and Dalton and you can see it in the article.
My Water Post For Today.
Oswego, 2013 in the fall. There was this squirrel hanging around, while I was trying to take some beauty shots of the lagoon and the geese out front of the campus.
I finally went for a photo of him (or her) and though it is a bit on the fuzzy side, I thought it was cute enough to show off.
There were lots of animals on campus and I enjoyed interacting with all of them. Well, minus the geese poop, of course.
The fall is my favorite time of the year, for photos of Glimmerglass Lagoon. I love when the trees begin to turn and before the snow attacks the grass.
I hope you enjoy.
In that time I have watched blogs become less important, as people get more and more into Facebook and Social Media in general.
This past year I have seen a resurgence in blog interest.
A few thoughts as to why that might be.
Things like Facebook seem to be more for small interactions. Since I have both Facebook and Blogger (and also a Twitter account) I can see the differences between them. I know in my world, I tend to put the less wonderful photos up on Facebook. Lots of cooking photos, sunsets (usually not the best one I got that evening) and of course, lots of cell phone photos. Enough said about the quality of those photos.
I do work on the images I post on my blog. Color correction and such, are a part of the process and I also resize the image, to bring it down to Internet size.
Facebook gets the full image and I think it does the re-sizing, as it uploads.
I always notice In Facebook that the colors (when an image uploads) are much worse than what I see in the camera.
As to Twitter, I find it not interactive at all and mostly a vanity project. More so than Facebook, if that is possible. I put Instagram in that same category. A quick one line and a photo showing off something.
I feel, and the reason why I have persevered here, is that there is a place in this world for more than a line of dialog. I admit that I am not the most prolific writer, but it is definitely more than one line.
Some days, it is a stretch for me to get those few lines up, to go with a photo I want to showcase, but I manage to get it done.
I am glad to see some blogs showing up this year and as a matter of fact, a resurrection of a blog that was the reason why I made one of my own. See my blog post on February 20th. That is when Mizar 6 (formally Mizar 5) comes back.
So, for the forseeable future, I guess I will continue to blog.
Any comments, thoughts, etc... feel free to put them down below. :-)
This photograph was taken by photographer and friend, Shawn King.
I met Shawn when he was all of (almost) 2 years old.
I was 24 at the time, soon to be 25.
Why do I mention this, you may ask?
Mostly it is to say that even though there is a huge difference in our ages, he has managed to stay friends with me for decades.
I appreciate that greatly.
This photo turned up at the end of the latest post at his website King Of Queens Photography.
From what was written, you can tell he meant it for me. :-)
I showcase it here and may at some point in the future, crop it for the right side of my blog. We shall see if I can do that and not ruin what it is, too badly.
The photo was taken at Tortilla Flats in the Superstition Mountains, in December of last year and you can see the entire post (in case you visit further into the future), HERE.
About 6 months ago Santa Clarita got its first Dunkin Donuts, since one closed back in the 70's.
I am an East Coast girl and yet, DD never was a big part of my life. We went, upon occasion and that is about all I remember.
As a matter of fact, while up in Oswego in 2013, I would drink the Starbuck's knock off, instead of stopping at the Dunkin Donuts half way up the hill to campus.
Trust me on this, it was VERY popular with the students.
So between our gym class and my haircut on the Saturday before my birthday, I give my guy a choice. Starbuck's or Foster's Donuts. He chose Dunkin Donuts.
So since he was the driver of the car, off we went to Canyon Country and stopped at our brand new Dunkin Donuts.
It was crowded and all that, so I assume they are doing well.
We each have an AARP card and so we got a free donut with our coffee. A nice perk for the price of our AARP fee.
It was good all around and as my Husband said, he was glad it is so far away, otherwise he would be there every day.
I have never made Rice Pudding. Ever.
My Mom used to make it, when I was a kid. I believe she made it in the oven, if I am not mistaken.
It was good and creamy and it was the only way we could get it, growing up.
Now days, they have it in supermarkets.
There is a story to this post. Last week we shot a production called "Full Frame".
They do multiple episodes over a 4 day period of time.
We get coffee service each day, for the crew.
Each day we got a quart of half and half and a quart of 2% milk.
On the first day, I grabbed the milk because it was not even open yet. It was sitting in ice still, so I thought it would be OK to drink.
At the end of the week, we had 7 containers of milk and creamer and since I had just brought in our normal half and half for the office, I just took it right back home, at the end of the day. Now I had my own 1%, the quart of 2% and the quart of half and half. What to do with expiration dates coming up this week?
My husband, getting tired of seeing all this milk in my fridge, suggested Rice Pudding.
So I looked for a recipe which used already cooked rice. It ended up being made on the stove top, instead of the oven.
Even though I had my doubts (in regard to burning the rice and milk) I went for it. I ended up doubling the recipe, since I really needed to get rid of the milk.
15 minutes later, rice pudding like mom used to make.
Simple and very creamy and good. Mine mostly was made with the 1%, though I did put in a little of the half and half and some of the 2% at the very end.
I had to make sure the 2% was still good, since it was on expiration and it had not been opened yet. It was fine, by the way.
Yum.
Here is the recipe from All Recipes.
Ingredients
1 1/2 cups cooked rice
2 cups milk, divided
1/4 teaspoon salt
2/3 cup golden raisins (optional)
1 egg, beaten
1/3 cup white sugar
1 tablespoon butter
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
Shake cinnamon on top, if desired.
Directions
Combine cooked rice, 1 1/2 cups milk, and salt in a saucepan over medium heat; cook and stir until thick and creamy, 15 to 20 minutes. Stir remaining 1/2 cup milk, golden raisins, beaten egg, and white sugar into the rice mixture; stirring continually. Continue cooking until egg is set, 2 to 3 minutes. Remove saucepan from heat; stir butter and vanilla extract into the pudding.
In Third Grade, the children of the Santa Clarita Valley learn the history of their hometown.
Very few outside the immediate area of the Santa Clarita Valley, know our history.
In one of the coolest examples of public art, this history pole is number 1 in my book.
History should not just be taught in a classroom, history should be available to anyone and everyone.
This pole serves that purpose.
Here are the 7 signs on the pole, in order, oldest to youngest.
Tataviam Indians (our first residents), who go back to 450AD
Oak of the Golden Dream 1842
Lyons Station 1855
Mentryville Our first oil well 1869
The Golden Spike In California at Lang Station 1876
Newhall Ranch 1875
Melody Ranch 1936
The following is a description of each sign on the sculpture. I found this information HERE.
1. Tataviam: This band of Native American Indians inhabited the Santa Clarita Valley beginning in 450 AD. The arm points in a general direction since the tribe hunted and gathered throughout the area.
2. Oak of the Golden Dream: In 1842, gold was discovered in the Santa Clarita Valley when Juan Francisco Lopez pulled up some wild onions and found gold attached to the roots. A gold rush soon followed.
3. Lyon Station: Sanford and Cyrus Lyon bought Wiley’s Station in 1855 and renamed it Lyon’s Station. By 1868, the station consisted of a large-frame building housing a store, post office, stage depot and tavern. Once travelers made it through Beale’s Cut (another historical site) in the Newhall Pass, the station provided a place for a change of horses and a hot meal.
4. Mentryville: The location of the first California oil discovery in 1869 is in Pico Canyon. A boomtown rose up on this site to support those who came to work in the oil fields.
5. Lang Station: This is the site of the 1876 golden spike ceremony uniting the railroad lines of Northern and Southern California. The station was originally built in 1876 and then re-built in 1936 following a fire. Lang Station remained in use until the late 1960s when the Southern Pacific Railroad ended passenger service.
6. Newhall Ranch: The land purchased by Henry Mayo Newhall when he relocated his family from San Francisco to Southern California in the 1870’s became Newhall Ranch. Here he raised cattle and grew crops. Following his death in 1882, his four sons incorporated his business holdings and formed the Newhall Land and Farming Company (now known as Newhall Land).
7. Melody Ranch: Developed in 1936 as the Monogram* Movie Ranch, it was sold to Gene Autry in 1953 and became Melody Ranch. It was the location of many western movies and television shows and is now the home of the annual Cowboy Poetry Festival.
*A personal note, I worked for 30 years at Monogram Studios in Hollywood (KCET owned the property for 40 years).
First off, Happy Groundhog's Day! It only happens one day a year...except in the movie. :-)
The mother of this cat was so impressed on Monday, when her Husband posted this on Facebook.
Of course she was not so impressed to see that her tops were where the cat was sitting.
I am sure I will have to deal with fur on my clothes...oh well.
All in all, I liked what I saw and thought I would share it with you all.
Enjoy.
My Water Post For Today.
Well, how is that El Niño thing going, for you?
Good question.
It is doing well, further up to the north. Here in Southern California, not so much.
After we had a freight train week of storms, the first full week in January, things have ground to a halt.
Sunday, this rain came, on the final day of the month.
In good news, it rained the entire day and stopped, just in time for us to make the run down to Van Nuys and pick up our traveling son.
So the rain has come and gone and nothing new is in our forecast for the week.
Enjoy the photo, it is still a rarity.
