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.