All the pretty goslings...

This pic is another favourite of mine with the parent geese eating with the goslings. As Spring is doing it's thing at the moment, the migratory Canadian geese have loads of goslings down at Shoreline park. They are just the cutest little things, everyone was just loving them! The parents are so protective & I had to keep Ashwin away from them as he would have been biten by an angry goose on patrol.

Corny!

Trying out new vegetables on the little one at the moment - we tried corn on the cob the other day. Not a very good idea as it was quite hard for him to eat - next time I will cut the kernels off next time to make eating it easier. We were having fun down at Shoreline with a friend & enjoying the action of the kids play area. At the moment Ashwin has a thing for other peoples toys & his favourite is anything with wheels - cars are great fun! Think we will have to invest in a good ol' Tonka truck soon!!

Hey you old tree!

Here is a 200 year old Laurel Bay tree found at Rancho San Antonio near where we live. It is a beautiful tree & it's leaves can be used for cooking - curries and the like. There is this little fence around it to protect it from people climbing it - still that didn't help it from a random kid & his father wanting a closer look-see! This tree is so special it has an information panel about it's history. There were some other huge trees in the preserve - great fat gum trees that just love the sunny, hot California weather!

Hey mum & dad, can i have a bike??

Ashwins new obsession is bikes... whenever he sees them, he gets excited, screams & runs over to touch them. Think it is a hint for us to buy him one, he did manage to have a ride on one the other day down the park - it was a Kettler bike with a parent pushbar, german engineered & quite stylin'.

Hi Mr Scarecrow

While we were down at the farm we hung out with the local 14 year old farm cat who was living in this barn. Looking up we saw the scarecrow hanging in there, dressed quite appropriately for the farm - yee hah! You can spend a bit of time hanging out with the animals but Ashwin was quite dubious about the sheep who were baa baaaing quite loudly at him - they seemed very vocal due to their goat friend being taken for a walk. Ashwin was into this at all & grabbed the closest parent for safety from the farm animals!

A garden of treasures

Continuing our weekend of relaxation & exercise on Sunday we wandered around Rancho San Antonio to take in the few rays through the clouds in the afternoon. It is an excellent space for walking with minor elevation & the bonus is their farm & garden - they also have cool signs, like this one!

Driving back in time...

...in the valley of silicon, these folks were cruising along at snail speed so we could drive by and see what this was about. It was a car that took people on tours around ye old San Fran, the people driving the car had outfits that matched the era of the car including a funky fur coat, hat & gloves - stylin'!

Chillin' by the Shoreline

We wanted a relaxed family weekend as it was cool, overcast & rainy - it was a nice time to go for a walk down at Shoreline. Due to the crapola weather we scored a parking spot on the weekend! So we grabbed the warm clothes and went for a wander to see the spring colour & life around the lake. Ashwin enjoyed himself as per usual quacking at the ducks & woofing at the dogs. Shoreline is looking good at the moment with it's spring flowers in bloom adding a bit of colour to the landscape.

Prancing in Prada

Here is a leg covered in Prada, go funkster go - ready for a party!! Maybe if I was a disco diva they would be part of my wardrobe. These pants were found at Marshalls and I tried them on for a bit of fun, $200 wasn't in my budget though?! RRP for these funky threads were $400 - crazy man for a bunch of sequins from Italy. Oh yeah if you want to look like a Koi you might buy these, James reckons these pants are like fish scales. Don't know how you would get about in these without hooking yourself to things :)

One for the boyz!

As a friend of ours (Ramon) in Australia loves trucks, so I thought I would take a pic to show y'all how BIG the trucks are here! The suspension on this beast was so high so you probably needed long legs or a step ladder to hop on in! This was taken at the carpark of the yoga studio I visit & this beast is damn loud too!

Well Hello Mr Toad

It has been a very quiet week this week and we have enjoyed the sunny days out and about downtown. The other day I had these missions (shopping for prezzos!!) to do as well as go to the library. Everywhere we went people were saying "oh she's so cute". So here is a pic of the cute one a little boy (obviously!!) hanging out with Mr Toad outside the library. Sure he has long hair but we are hippys man and we enjoy being in the granola state - California, man, full of fruits & nuts.

Scrappa goes missing....

Look at the naughty little rascal hanging his head in shame for worrying us to death! On top of the hangover on Sunday we discovered that Scrap was missing and we searched everywhere for him. Called the animal lost & found to no avail & we were planning to call the shelter in the morning. In the end he reappeared at 8pm that night!!!

The aftermath...

Oh headless pinata, you gave us lots of joy and the poor balloon that once was blowing in the breeze with it's helium high is laying on the ground. Lucky the floor wasn't too messy as James has mustered up the energy to clean up before he went to bed (oh by this time I had passed out cold!)

Caught red handed!!

"Hey Mr Ashwin what you up to?" Here is the icing stealer busted in the act! I was moving the cake away and still he would look over the table on his tippy toes and pull the plate toward the edge so he could take a dip into the orange blossom icing. Most of it ended up on my jeans as he would come along and grab me after he'd had a taste.

The evidence...

In the foreground you can see the massive bottle of margarita mix that went with the massive 1.75 litre bottle of tequila and triple sec. There is the shaker to the right of the pic with it's classy retro vinyl cover :) Notice we have no pinata as the lollies are scattered all over the floor - they were good!

Cheers to you!

After the many margaritas James is looking quite sober here - but the red eyes are a giveaway :) He is ready to down the strawberry margarita... It was a great investment to buy some martini glasses, it is just an excuse to have another cocktail party!! Maybe we could do a tiki night theme or something else that has the American twist on things. Bummer we have to wait until September for James' birthday - we'll have to think of an excuse to have another party soon??!!

Straight from the shaker...

Here is Andy's concoction of freshly squished strawberries, tequila and triple sec - whoa that was strong! I had a couple of these at the end of the night and don't remember too much afterwards... Still they look pretty cool and did taste quite good as well. We had plenty of margaritas made "to go" for those willing to have more. So we thought we would mix it up a bit as people had mentioned strawberry margaritas to me - worth trying once and hey if the night went on further, who knows what would have appeared!

Bring on the food!!

Here is a selection of some of the food that we had - there were plenty of olives, tortilla chips, a five layer dip, salsa, enchiladas, and the most tastiest cake (made by knitting master Shona) was the gingerbread (birthday) cake with orange blossom icing - mmm that went down very well and we all enjoyed it!

Our beloved pinata....

Da Margarita Party!

It was an awesome night and here are a couple of pics of the crew who came over and just fitted into our apartment! We all enjoyed the delicious potluck mexican (spanish/italian) feast of food. The margaritas were flowing from the beginning to the end including an experimental Strawberry margarita! We did a homemade margarita mix with fresh lemons and limes with cane sugar (as opposed to corn syrup - not very nice and is added to everything in the USA). James choose the cow balloon in the background as cows are his friends! By the end of the night we were pretty wasted and I drank way too much tequila!!

What's inside you - you smell nice!

This is our pinata for the margarita party we had on Saturday night. It was a great night and we drank lots of tequila and the margaritas were tasty! Man my head hurts today but it is worth it as the night was was wild. Mack is sniffing out our little burro for the lollies that he has in his body. There were plenty of them - 4 bags to be exact! I had to hide them in the pinata before James got home from work as there wouldn't have been any left for the party. We now have a headless pinata and thank goodness Ashwin isn't too freaked about it - he still likes to pick the body up and pull the paper mache off (great?!? more vacuuming!!)

Mr Noodle

We were having a lovely meal of buckwheat soba noodles with shitake and eggplant the other night & we love eating noodles with chopsticks. Next to us, Ashwin who was having the same meal started protesting with loud screams on his chair - this isn't a good thing! We were wondering if he was just sick of being there but instead he wanted the chopsticks we were eating with - it was very funny to watch him attempt to eat with them! Teach him young and before we know it he'll master the art of chopsticks.

Fancy pants

This is the fanciest iris I have ever seen - usually I have seen the solid purple variety with a stripe of yellow & white. These ones were much smaller and probably a hybrid of some kind? This was found outside the library - a place where we do spend a lot of time! I have to say that I really enjoy going to the library but with Ashwin at such an inquisitive age I can't wander in peace.

Bright Leaf, Bright Leaf!

Wandering around parkland during the week we went to a fave park of ours near the library. There is the smallest Japanese garden there in the corner hidden away - compliments of a sister city of Mountain View. Here is where I found this lone maple standing out like a beacon amidst the green - they are one of my favourite trees.

It's time for a bath!

The other day it was bathtime for Ashwin & as he was so keen for a bath & to play with his bathtime pals he decided to climb over the edge and hop in - clothes and all! It was quite funny as James came home and saw it all, we then had to deal with his wet clothes and the worst thing was to deal with his very wet nappy, yuck!

My what a big butterfly!

This is the coolest balloon I have ever seen - Shona got it as a birthday surprise last week and we have enjoyed having it in our loungeroom and Ashwin has enjoyed playing with it! Day by day the helium leaks out and now we have a bit of a flaccid looking butterfly body just hanging there. When my neighbours came over and saw the butterfly balloon from behind they thought the balloon was "something else" (starting with P and ending in S) anyhow, I will leave that to your imagination...

Swinging like a cowboy

Ashwin looks like something from a western in his new hat from Aunty Shona - it is just perfect for when we go to the park. The bonus is that it stays on his head, usually he doesn't like hats and takes them off straight away but this one ties up with a bobble under his chin. We look like a right pair of country bumpkins hanging around the park with our cowboy hats on. Oh well as I said to James "When in Rome, do as Romans do... or should I say When in the U S of A, do as yanks do??!!"

Fancy a line dance??

Danger Mouse himself on the edge of the playset doing a bit of a dance! Lucky for him I wasn't too far away as Ashwin enjoyings going to the edge and then will climb on my shoulders to get down. I was constantly shouting "No!" whenever he got to this spot and then when he saw that I busted him there, he started his little dance. This has to be my favourite park near our house as it has a fence and this huge redwood tree and the playset is just the right size for little ones - Ashwins size.

Wondrous wisteria

Looking closely at the Wisteria tree I found that the flowers were in full bloom and they had such a glorious scent. This flower is seen quite a bit in Japanese fabric design and on kimono such as the one at Hakone Gardens (see our flickr site). I had never seen one this close before and did not realise they have do much detail in each and every flower. On kimono the wisteria is generally stylised & with a bit of luck (& time) I can be inspired to design some fabric patterns from my photos with a new visual diary project.

Turtle lovin'

Basking in the sunshine are a family of turtles keen to show off their shells and colourful bodies. I love watching them swimming about and climbing atop the branch for some rays. The second one from the left is just hanging with its front feet over the branch and looks very chilled.

Painted Turtle

James found this turtle swimming in the lake and I thought he was leading me astray but then I saw its head move. I cannot understand why anyone would paint a turtle shell but maybe this was someones pet and it outgrew it's tank. Well if I was a turtle I would be very happy with living in the huge lake at Overfelt Gardens.

Confucius says...

Wheresoever you go, go with all your heart - Chinese philosopher & reformer (551 BC - 479 BC). Nice one I like that and it is in reference to an enjoyable time in Overfelt Gardens. In the gardens is this sculpture of Confucius. I thought he looked pretty cool from this angle with the whooshing clouds behind him - this could be a scene from Monkey? Everyone remembers Monkey magic (the Japanese show) with his crew Sandy, Pigsy and Tripitaka and all their adventures and I just loved the theme song.

A healthy lunch with all the food groups!!

In this wonderful Tupperware lunchbox we have Ashwins "special" easter lunch! He had his O's, baby cat biscuits, rice cakes, cheese and easter eggs. It was an excellent space to hide the stash of eggs, which disappeared quickly. We celebrate just once a year and may as well enjoy it as we didn't score the long weekend over here!!

What's in the picnic bag Yogi??

Here we are on our picnic rug enjoying the sunshine on this warm spring day. I have finally succumbed to buying a cowboy hat as the sun here can be intense. This one I found at Sunnyvale farmers market and is cool as if it gets squished it can be put back into shape again. So now Ashwin & I match with his sheriff hat and my cowboy hat - yeee hah!!

Happy Easter Ashwin!

Thanks to my sister for sending over a stash of easter eggs we were filled with chocolatey goodness of Cadbury chocolate. Oh I have to say that the chocolate here is not as good as the chocolate back home. As Ashwin had received these in his easter parcel we saved them for him and he ate this whole easter egg and wanted more!

Peace and Plums

Easter Day we decided to have a picnic, so James found this great little place in East San Jose called Overfelt Gardens. It is such a peaceful place to visit with a huge lake with geese and ducks in the centre and around it a Chinese Cultural Centre. Here is the Plum Pavillion where you can sit and contemplate life. We enjoyed our picnic and of course, easter eggs from my sister (Thanks TJ!). After lunch we went for a walk around the lake and left the gardens feeling very relaxed.

Plant a seed and it will grow

On Friday we visited Ashwins favourite hang out the Childrens Discovery Musuem. We started at the spot where he cannot get enough of - WaterWays, he ended up getting soaked even though he had a smock on! After that I decided to take him out into the sunshine to dry and we found the Kids Garden to play in with vege patch & all!

Newbie Knitters with balls!

I have been wanting to post this for a while but I had to wait until Alex had given this lovely scarf to his girlfriend back in Sydney. It is so cool that Alex was interested enough to pick up a pair of my needles and knit away. We found some beautiful yarn by Cascade, used a 12.5mm pair of knitting needles, I showed him the knit stitch and off he went. It was a challenge having a couple of gin & tonics every night whilst knitting and we all had a bit of a laugh. Congratulations Alex on your first knitting project!!

A Squirrel Tale - starring Ashwin

A recent video of Ashwin and his animal pals in and around the parkland where we live!

A luxurious dessert

Here is an ambient pic of my dessert Strawberry Mille Feuille - I had no idea what it was but it was wonderful. It is a traditional French dessert consisting of puff pastry layers with fruit and whipped cream in between each layer. They did have some interesting choices on the menu but I cannot resist a dessert that includes strawberries!

A night on the town!

We couldn't resist dessert after our amazing selection of Kyoto tapas style dishes - artfully designed and flavoursome. I have never seen or tasted such a divine arrangement of Japanese food. Every meal arrived with such splendor presented on exquisite Japanese ceramics & arranged in a distinct Japanese style. I also had the home made plum wine, so beautiful and sweet. Here is James and his Yoghurt ice cream with berry compote arranged on a leaf. Definitely worth visiting if you enjoy Japanese fine dining.

Deelish Vodka

As the afternoon went by with phone calls a plenty with wishes from Australia, Ashwin wasn't in his evening routine. In the end amidst the chaos, James surprised me with babysitters (thanks Sarah & Andrew!) and took me out to dinner to a very special Japanese restaurant downtown called Nami Nami. Here is the Japanese vodka I had with a plum that drowns in deliciousness.

A trip downtown...

Here's a shot of the downtown area of Mountain View where I hang out. I have found a couple of decent coffee joints plus there are plenty of restaurants. There is one really cool clothing store called Therapy (James bought me a top from there for my prezzo) I've banned myself from there as it is a place to really enjoy shopping :)

Sashimi for me!

Oh and here is a pic of my lunch - as I do not eat fish that often I order the sashimi lunch special with some miso, salad and rice. It was so good that I could not wait to dig in with my chopsticks and it disappeared in seconds. Man think I would like to have a birthday more often as this is the one food that I truly miss eating.

Sushi & Shon - turning japanese!

As it was a special day, we thought we would celebrate big time. Here is Shona eyeing off her delicious choice of sushi rolls - one lot had salmon skin inside and the other choice was salmon and cream cheese. Next time I visit there I will follow Shonas lead & choose from the a la carte menu as the food is different and very tasty!

Burro says "hee haw, hee haw"

We are having a margarita party in a couple of weeks with a burro pinata. As I am having issues with regard to smashing the cute little fellow Shona found this little guy for a substitute. We plan to hang the real pinata on the patio from our neighbours floor, so I hope that there is enough space for the whacking!

A lunch date...

Here is the cowboy himself waiting outside the restaurant after a feast of Japanese. It was a delicious time with fresh fish and some awesome tasting sushi. Ashwin enjoyed the glo-pink fish slices from Shonas tempura soup and ate some udon as well. In the restaurant you can see the huge bunch of balloons with its massive blow up butterfly!

A happy birthday to me!

Wednesday I celebrated my 12th birthday at a Japanese joint in downtown Mountain View. Shona, Mr Ashwin and I went out for a feast of sashimi and a selection of Japanese morsels. When Shona arrived she surprised me with a huge bunch of balloons & beads & pressies & crazy hats for us to wear - it was all very fun, thank u Shona!!

Nerd fringe!

Here he is in full nerd attire with even the nerd hair... Poor ol' Ashwin looks like something that has escaped from Star Trek in this pic - all he needs is the uniform! His baby talk sounds like something from outer space so he is getting there. The little munchkin loves to run these days and is on a mission to here, there and everywhere looking for interesting things to play with. He does get bored much more easily these days so I have to constantly come up with ways to entertain him!!??

A shopping we will go... to Yarndogs

On Sunday Shona invited me to join her at a yarn sale in Los Gatos. We got there very early for a Sunday morning thinking there would be people waiting in line but once we arrived we were the only keen yarn hunters out that early! It was a brilliant sale with 20% off all the stuff in the shop and now I have many kniting projects on the go!