Red Beans And Rice With Stewed Chicken And Plantains

Many years ago (in the early 90's), we had people from Belize who cooked in our Commissary.

Ruth and Hubert owned a restaurant in the Mid Wilshire area and in addition, they cooked for us.

There were all sorts of meals that they served, but the one that got everyone to queue up in a line outside, was their Red Beans and Rice on Fridays.

I still remember it, all these decades later.

Great food and great camaraderie.

If you ever feel like trying something authentic, try this recipe out.

You will be glad you did.

I assume the original article is from KCET Confidential.

Grow Little Poppies, Grow!

I know you can hardly see anything in this photo, but the little green things that look like wispy weeds, are the start of my California Poppies.

I only planted them 2 weeks ago, because I was trying to time them toward the end of the rain that we have been having for the past month and a half (or so).

So we will water them, they will get sun and we will hope they will bloom in a few weeks.

This is the front of the house, by the fake brick wall, that the builder put in.

Send prayers their way. :-)

My Magic Son Returns From Ohio

My Magic "Son" spent the better part of 6 weeks in Ohio, shooting the director's vanity project movie.

He got home and next thing he did was immediately fly to Texas, for another movie.

You can tell it is pilot season because he is busy, busy, busy.

It was nice to get to see him (and get our money from him).

We had lots of catching up to do.

Justin Hayward Videos From The Canyon Santa Clarita

Happy Birthday Sis!

Here's a little present, from me to not only you, but all of my blog readers.

I promised to post a link to the videos I took, back in September, but life got in the way. Remember that shortly after the concert, we flew to visit our Son. Then he came out and then Thanksgiving came and went and Christmas and My Birthday and taxes and yeah. Busy year.

Since I just uploaded Gordon Lightfoot and found out how fast it is now days, I went back to my other videos and uploaded them.

Forever Autumn

Dawning is the Day

Watching and Waiting

Justin Hayward was pretty darn awesome that evening and I am glad I managed to capture a few videos.

Enjoy.

Fire Island At Sunrise

The photo was taken by Sid McIntosh.

My Water Post For Today.

No matter how many times I have visited Fire Island, I have never been there at sunrise.

It is a beautiful area of Long Island and worthy of a trip to the south shore, to see it.

From the angle of the photo, it looks like this was taken from maybe West Fire Island, or Captree itself.

No matter what, it is a beautiful photo.

I hope you enjoy.

Gordon Lightfoot

The man is 4 years older than my Husband...let that sink in for a moment.

Gordon Lightfoot decided to celebrate the fact that he turned 80 years old in November, with an 80 Years Strong Tour, which the LA Times wrote about in Saturday's paper.

I was not aware that he had serious medical problems in the early 2000's, but in a lot of ways, he looks it.

In good news for us, we had great seats, right in the center stage area and our view was great.

In regard to The Canyon Santa Clarita, it is a small venue and so everyone has a great view.

I did not know about half the songs, but those I knew were welcome by me and by the audience. His voice was not strong, but he stood the entire 90 minutes and played guitar at the same time and I give him props for doing that. His other guitarist (a much younger man) sat the entire set.

I did one video and of course that was Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald. How could I resist. You can see it HERE.

Unfortunately I can't give you our setlist, but here is the one from San Jose. It had 2 sets, which we did not, but it gives you a hint of what was played. All "X" marks mean I remember hearing that song.

Set 1:
Waiting for You

Cotton Jenny

Too Many Clues in This Room

Never Too Close

Don Quixote

I'd Rather Press On

A Painter Passing Through

Beautiful

Much to My Surprise

Cold on the Shoulder

The Watchman's Gone

The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald X

Set 2:
Carefree Highway X

Did She Mention My Name X

Ribbon of Darkness X

Sundown X

Spanish Moss

Shadows

Let It Ride

If You Could Read My Mind X

Restless

Baby Step Back

Early Morning Rain X

Encore:
Rainy Day People

Makenna And The Carrot

My cat, Makenna, loves her carrot catnip toy.

The mornings are usually when she is in the mood to play with it.

She wants Mommy to stay and play with her and (of course) I can't.

I kind of like the color of the carrot, better than her banana. A little difference and a more realistic look to it.

Two Traffic Types At Bob's

It was my work partner's birthday on Tuesday and since the other traffic person from our new combined KOCE/KCET organization was in town and had never been to Bob's Big Boy, we decided to celebrate his birthday there.

Nicole and I go way back, to a 2010 TechCon session that we put on together. In other words, we are good friends.

Since we are such good friends, I wanted to send a photo of us, to the TechCon person who organizes the event.

So my work partner nicely took a few photos and I thought it came out pretty decent.

Even though it was drizzling at the time, you really can't tell.

It has been quite a traffic career and Nicole is one of the ones who has made it special.

Thunder And Lightning Last Night

Shortly after I got home from work on Tuesday evening, the sky lit up and the sounds of thunder started.

I immediately decided that it was better that I delay going to shower and instead shut off the computer and read.

As I was sitting there, another cell must have moved in and the cat, who was sleeping on the rocking chair in our den, came walking out.

She usually just lays on the ottoman, but the thunder bothered her so much, that she kept starring at us and refused to settle down.

This is truly a West Coast cat. Makenna almost never hears thunder.

Thankfully, it passed fairly quickly.

It's been a wild winter this year and I would be happy if the rain calmed down a bit, now that spring is almost here.

Cinema Classics

As a person who now works for a PBS Station, I got a laugh out of last weeks Saturday Night Live skit.

Keenan Thompson hosted a show called Cinema Classics and it opened with a PBS Logo.

The actors recreated a scene from the movie To Have and Have Not. With the famous line about "You know how to whistle Steve? You put your lips together and blow"

If you want to watch it, it lives HERE.

The Thunderbirds Came For A Visit

It's a crappy photo off my TV, but you get the idea...

The Thunderbirds came to celebrate the premiere of Captain Marvel, which was happening on Monday evening at 5:30PM at the El Capitan Theatre.

Being they were going to do a fly by in Hollywood, I was sure that I would be able to see them, similar to when the space shuttle Endeavour came by.

I could see on the TV that they were passing Mt. Lee, but they were too low for us.

A real shame.

My Husband told me that they came right over our backyard, on the test flight at 12:30PM.

Dreaming Of Montrél, Quebec

My Water Post For Today.

Montréal, Quebec is where my mind went today.

We are starting to get ready for our Son to come out and visit us (he purchased tickets on Sunday) and when that happens, I think of the last trip we went on with him.

The St. Lawrence River was beautiful and the sky was blue, with wispy clouds.

It brings back memories of a nice 2 day trip in a different Country, that we shared with our Son.

I hope you enjoy.

Hill Sliding In Canyon Country And The History Of Slides In Santa Clarita

Chances are that you have seen the story of the hillside sliding in Canyon Country.

It has been more than a week since the hillside above the Tressles Development in Canyon Country, began to fall.

Many years ago my Husband and I lived in a Mobile Home, right across the street from the American Beauty Development (which is at the top of said hill) and we watched them build it.

As a matter of fact, we toured the models and almost bought a house in that area, by Terri Drive.

So to say we thought we knew that area of town, is an understatement.

This past week, our local news organization, SCVTV, have been posting articles about slides (the first one) about that very area. Note, I have no knowledge of those slides, but the photos are proof that they happened.

On Friday they posted an incredible series of articles about a development right across the street from Friendly Valley, a Retirement Community.

I had some very hazy knowledge that something soil related, happened in that area. But I did not know anything about the extent of the land movement of this 1969 development called The Princess Homes.

Well, after spending about 2 hours of my life reading article after article about the incredible amount of slippage that occurred as they were building the tract, I went to Google Maps and checked out the area. There is a huge empty area in the middle of the development with empty spaces up at the top, where houses used to be and the same thing on the side of the hill and on the bottom. In other words, to save the entire development, they had to bulldoze something like 6 or 8 houses around that landslide. It is all there for you to see, 50 years later.

From what I also read, the same thing that caused Vasquez Rocks to form, is part of that land. It is unstable and even worse than my own area, which does have notices on some houses in older areas between my area and Saugus High off of Bouquet. I guess from what I read ancillary to the article itself, is that one of the older developments in the hills not far from us, also had a potential landslide that at a point in time threatened houses down below them.

Now that I know way too much about the land I live on, I hope that my grading was done better. :-)

Photo is of the American Beauty homes on Terri Drive (bottom of photo) and the Tressles (brand new) homes toward the top of the photo. In the middle is the landslide that has been covered with tarps and sandbags, to try to keep further land from slipping down. The train tracks are over on the right and then Soledad Canyon Road, a bit further right, just out of the photo.

A Little More On Up Helly Aa

We have been airing Shetland again and just came around to the pilot episode.

The characters are all young and the highlight is the fire festival, Up Helly Aa (which I have mentioned before).

I have liked a Facebook page called Promote Shetland and found out that they not only have the festival in Lerwick (the largest town on the Shetland Islands), but 11 of the little towns follow along later in the winter. So there are a lot of festivals going on right now. It is the residents way of making it through the worst part of winter.

This photo was taken from that first season episode and highlighted the 2012 Up Helly Aa Festival.

Now days they shoot with drones, so I saw some spectacular footage of this year's 2019 festival.

All the streetlights are turned off that evening, to bring an even more impressive feel to the torches and then the burning of the Viking Boat.

I find this whole thing totally fascinating.

A Line Of News Vans

I left work on Thursday and had a helicopter flying over my head, to land at Providence St. Joseph's Hospital.

As I walked I came upon not one, but 5 remote trucks for most of the news channels in the L.A. area. Channel 5, Channel 4, Channel 2...etc.

At the end of the line was an engineer beginning to set up a tripod. He stopped me to ask about my Oswego Jacket.

So I asked what the deal was inside.

He had no idea about what the helicopter was all about, but he was there because Luke Perry had been hospitalized.

I felt really bad to hear that.

I don't usually deal with nightly news, but today I sort of did.