Tri-county Land

One of the weekends in October, we visited a beautiful piece of 800 acre land in Livermore, our friends just purchased. It was amazing in less than an hour drive, we felt like we were in the total nature, far away from hustle and bustle of the bay area. The kids had a good time fishing, hiking to exploring the plants and animals. It's so healthy to immerse in the nature from the refreshing smell of the trees,and dirts to magnificent scenes of mountains, valley and lakes. If you are interested in visiting this site, here is the link to the website.

Toad is among one of the animals found on site.
Kids busy fishing.
Learning how to put the lure onto the fishing rod.

A Long While.....

With the change of colors in nature, the autumn is slowly creeping in. I then realized how long it has been since I logged into my blog space. Life has been hectic with many changes since the beginning of the year. The biggest one was that I finally left my job back in July, which I had been at for the last five years. It was sad to say good-bye to old friends but I was more looking forward to a new chapter in life.

Honestly, I thought I'd have more time to devote to my personal interests. But as it turned out, my-to-do list is still long with no items being crossed out except for a few trips....I should at least promise to make more appearance in the blog space from now on!

Photo: shot at Lake county, Sept 2009

Vertical Garden

Ryan and I were at Flora Grubb nursery this weekend to get inspiration for our spring planting.  We came across this vertical garden, which I cannot seem to get my eyes off.  It turned out they recently did a few installation across bay area including one at Flora's own courtyard and one at Bardessono Inn and Spa, a newly opened boutique hotel at Napa Valley. The view from the bed to the simple modern but yet serene courtyard especially appeals to me.



The bottom two images from Flora Grubb's website

Center of Tradtional Arts at Yilan, Taiwan

I've been really quiet at blog front due to a trip to Taiwan in January and the hectic work schedule. Upon return from the trip, I was immediately thrown into the craziness of work. I have not been able to sort through all the pics from this trip. Below are only a few ones taken at Center of Traditional Arts at Yilan. We had a great time visiting the center. One was for me to relive the childhood moments. But more importantly, it was for Ryan to experience the traditional Taiwanese arts. It's cute to see him playing dragon dance and Kung-fu even since his enjoying the performance at the center.

Remember those bottles on the bike? They had the tastiest ice cream in the world, at least that is how I remembered.
I love these old town streets. We happened to be there at sunset, which gave it such romantic ambiance.
Peeking through the window- traditional Taiwanese architecture
Ryan enjoyed this old-time sweet treat-candied tomato as much as I did as a kid.

Happy Holidays!!!

Things have been hectic at work/home as we were getting ready for the one-month trip to Taiwan and Maldives. But we still found time to enjoy the X'mas lighting at a neighborhood in San Carlos. It has become our holiday ritual for the past few years. I truly admire the amount of time, and efforts (and of course, energy bill) this two-block of neighborhood has spent decorating their houses to light up the holiday spirit, which is very needed for many families in today's economy.

Beach

These are few photos taken at Bodega Bay and Pescadero State beach in mid October and early November. Regardless of the low temperature of the water, the children were eager to jump into the shallow tide and to chase the freezing waves. To them, the beach offered endless play ideas- from simply exploring different textures, finding rocks, building castles, to pretending to be fishermen trying to catch the seaweeds and fish. It's enjoyable to watch their creativitity unfold.


What are daddies doing? Let's go boo them...

Let's bury your right foot first.

Little birds, come get some food here.

Is sun about to set? I'm not ready to leave yet. Let me go for another round!

Autumn Harvest

With chestnuts, persimmon, and pomegranate gradually making their appearances at the farmer’s market, we know it’s that time of year. With an enthusiastic fruit picker at home, we always try to arrange a visit to the farm during this season.

Thanks to Min’s suggestion. This year, we visited Gabriel Organic Farm in Sebastopol. We certainly were not disappointed with their abundant Fuyu persimmons. But best of all, we were pleasantly surprised to discover this mysterious fruits- pineapple guavas. We also have this plant in our yard but didn’t know what it was until this trip. The plant looks like a mini olive tree and the fruit yields very distinctive aromatic taste and smell. It somehow reminds me of the passion fruits. We cannot get enough of it. We ended up getting more of it than persimmons.


What is this mysterious fruit???

Mommy, please help....