Hokome Gardens

Lately, my time with the 'rents have been rather low-key:  Tuesday nights, trips to the mushroom/egg farm, another trip to Phil's Fish Market Restaurant.  Yesterday we tried something new:  Hokome Gardens in Saratoga, Lunch at Hobee's in Los Gatos and Costco!  Here are the pix:

Dad and Mom on the overlook

Apple blossoms against the clear sky

Koi Pond with koi and turtles

The koi were glad that I bought the fish food!

dappled moss and ancient rock

new fern growht

In another month, the wisteria arbor should be spectacular

view from tea pavillion

Mom at the balcony of the tea pavillion

the apple blossom drapes the path

The gurgle of a gentle water feature

St. Patrick's Day Corned Beef Party

Time to celebrate St. Patrick's Day with some corned beef and some wearin' of da green!

We ate well:  Dad's delicious deviled eggs, Mikie and Bobby's chinese chicken salad, asparagus, colorful swiss chard, green jello with fruit, Mom's wonderful scalloped potatoes, corned beef, cabbage and carrots.   All of this was topped off with a small St. Patrick's Day cupcake:

More Than One Way to Bring Home a CAT

Mom and Dad have been joined by a feline companion:

MEET MISS DAISY

Michael Sue scouted out the pet fairs and added one to our list of errands on Saturday.  Mom and I foolishly went to Petco first and almost immediately fell in love with Miss Daisy.  She is a sweet and gentle lover kitty with almost no voice and a strange way of purring.  We went to lunch and then came back and bought all the accessories a new kitto might need:  Science Diet kibble, a new litter pan, a toy or two...

I think she knows what side her bread is buttered on, what do you think?:

Succulent Farm! #4

Yes!  We finally found the succulent farm!  This time we actually followed the directions from the website that I downloaded several trips ago.  We thought we knew where it was, so we didn't really even get into the area... but this time... well... we followed it and found it.  I don't have any photos from the succulent garden, because I was busy snatching up the little jewels.  There were two big greenhouses full of succulents:  big ones, small ones, in-between ones, all lined up with precision and growing in their own spectacularness.  Dad took some pictures, but I mainly bought up.  I will have to go back with just photographing in mind.

After the succulent garden, we meandered through the rolling hills and royal oaks, until coming upon the Elkhorn Slough (pronounced "Slew") Open Reserve Research Center.  We used the facilities, walked around their exhibits, found a great view of the slough, with the electric towers on the left.

One of the exhibits was a bunch of native plants that were labeled.  Here is the Periwinkle:

 I took a picture of the Periwinkle because there is a cat in our family who used to have this name, but when she became famous, changed it to Lady Gaga.  On the way to lunch in Moss Landing, we visited Annieglass Store, which has beautiful handblown glass objects.  Pricey but beautiful.

 Mom and Dad found this lovely butterfly bench to sit in and discuss what they wanted for lunch.

We ended up having a Snapper Sandwich (Dad) and Fish and Chips (Mom) and Fish and Salad (me).  The food is always good at the fish restaurant in Moss Landing.  I stopped at the produce stand in Moss Landing and got two big spears of brussel sprouts for 5.00.  Mmmmmmmnnn... brussel sprouts!

We drove back to Morgan Hill with a short stop for Micky D's (diet soda, decaf coffee, and a caramel sundae with nuts) and a quick run into Bed Bath and Beyond in Gilroy.

Good day was had by all :)

Still Looking for the Succulent Farm #3

A beautiful sunny day and gas in the car... what more can you want?  I suggested that we head to either Casa de Fruta or The Giant Artichoke for lunch.  Dad picked the Giant Artichoke.  On the way out of town, we stopped at the mushroom farm and bought a couple of pounds of smalls (2.00/lb) and portabellas (5.00/lb).

At the Giant Artichoke, we ate in the dining room, splitting an order of fried artichokes.  Dad and I had the salad bar (very nice) and artichoke soup.  Mom had a hamburger.  We bought some big artichokes from the vegetable stand.  Taking a different route, map in hand, we ended up at Moss Landing, where we disembarked for a post-meal ramble in the downtown.  One of the restaurants had a lovely garden and we took pictures of their lovely succulents:

There was an interesting fountain that had a mermaid who looked like a cross between Frieda Khalo and...  well, maybe just Frieda Khalo surrounded by fish?:

There was a large ceramic "dragon" wall that mom declared must have been part of the roof line of a Chinese establishment:

There were succulents and cacti galore:

The grounds included a boxcar and many interesting textures that caused our shutters to snap:

In the garden there were signs that led to a little antique/gallery shop.  We browsed a little until the owners said that they had to leave for appointments.  The shop was a nice little coop where "owners" worked a number of hours according to the size of their display space.  Dad found a book on Muir Woods that he purchased and we chatted with the owners.  One of them was from Morgan Hill (small world).  I found a couple of demitasse cups that I bought in order to celebrate the new espresso machine:

The sun was fading, so we made for home, the succulent farm still unfound.  We made stops at the Barnes and Nobles store and the WalMart in Gilroy.  Finally home...  :)

Jan 29, 2011 A day of errands :)

Once Nick of Nick's Appliance Repair fixed the dryer at my house, the day could officially begin!

I called Mom and Dad and they had several doctor's appointments, so I volunteered to drive them.  We went to head and neck surgeon (mom), the podiatrist (dad) and the optometry department (dad).

Mom and Dad are still all smiles after the podiatrist shaved something off something... please NOT too many details!

We had lunch at Hometown Buffet, which was very delicious.  Mom and Dad kept wishing they had had me earlier, because then I could be a Senior Citizen and qualify for a lunch with a beverage included!  I guess that 52 is not old enough to qualify for Senior status, so I cost them a little more.

After lunch, we were driving to Los Gatos when Mom mentioned that she needed a new watchband.  There is a place on Bascom Ave. that pretty much does watch bands and batteries called WatchCare.  We dropped in and the fellow was able to put a new watchband on mom's gold watch while we waited.  This is always a pretty busy place, interesting to see when a small niche business does well!

After WatchCare, we needed to use the restroom, so we dropped in at the Karimi/Brown household.  While there, I showed off the latest toy that I got for Christmas:  one of those soda-making machines that infuses CO2 into water.  Here is Mom trying it out:

Mom tastes a little of the carbonated water from the new SodaStream

She said that it would take a little getting used to... but then they are not big carbonated drinkers.   Our next stop was downtown Los Gatos.  Mom won the Lovely Lemon Throwdown at Christmas and had a red hot 50 dollar prize certificate to spend at Sur La Table.  We fingered all the lovely goodies at the Los Gatos store and finally mom settled on a beautiful new Henkel's knife.  Here are Mom and Dad at the knife counter.  She chose the 5" hollow edge after playing around with several of the knives and a carrot that was thoughtfully provided. 

At the knife counter, waiting for the floor model to be carboarded and readied for transport

Here Mom holds the gift certificate for a moment, before paying for the knife.  It was quite a feat to win the throwdown.  There were nine fantastic entries, each capable of holding it's own.  Mom made her famous lemon bars made with Meyer lemons, grown by Dad.

 We made it home about 8pm.  Another great day!

Fantasy of Lights: Los Gatos: December 28

This cold surely kept me down, but finally I had enough energy to gather up my parents and go to the Fantasy of Lights at Vasona Lake in Los Gatos.  This is our third year, so we are old hands at it, know how to get threaded into the string of cars, know how to tune into the radio station broadcasting the Christmas songs, know which lights are new and which are old favorites.

This year I declared that we were going to "be in the moment", so no cameras!!  Here are some fotos from previous years:

The fisherman who keeps flinging the fish into the mouth of a waiting pelican:

The galleon that flies with full sails across the lagoon:

The final wreaths of poinsetta:

We all love this one for it's beauty, but hate to see it, because it is the last goodbye before turning onto University and making our way back to reality.

In previous years, we had gone for soup at the Chinese restaurant on Camden, but this year we stopped at the Pete's Coffee and had Cocoa (Dad) and Godiva Pecan Mocha Coffees (decaf for mom, caf for me).  It was a sweet way to celebrate the season of light!