Nothing like home grown

These beautiful specimens are from our mates garden. As they are on holiday at the moment they said to come on over & grab some veges before they are eaten by the squirrels. We had these in a salad with some tasty lettuce from their garden - thanks guys!!

Out for a hike on a sunny day

Here we are in the shade of a Redwood - finally a pic of the 3 of us in the wild! This is on the Skyline trail in Sanborn County Park.

A tree with bricks!

We went hiking over the weekend on the Skyline trail in Saratoga, it was an easy hike checking out our new hiking boots that we scored at a REI sale. The day was breezy & for a change we experienced peace & quiet away from the urban buzz for at least 20 mins!!

I'm too sexy for my yoghurt

Mmmm mmmm nice look Mr Ashwin - yoghurt smeared all over your body. Talk about getting to know your food, it was a hot day & the yoghurt probably felt quite nice on the skin. Lucky, bath time is after dinner these days - by the end of the day Ashwin is a bit of a grub. Anyhow, there is nothing wrong with being a bit creative with your food :) Another pic to add to the yoghurt & Ashwin collection.

My first swatch...

How easy was this piece of stockinette to make on the machine! Man this isn't a really fancy stitch so it is perfect for the machine & it knits up soooo fast. I am obsessed with my machine now - only thing I need to create now is more time to play with it!!

Fun for water babies

Last week we ventured over to Rinconada Park in Palo Alto for some water fun. Man it took me back to my younger days & going to Amazons in BrisVegas. This place had a small waterslide, toadstool shower & fountains galore - cool!!

Introducing my new toy!

At long last we found a knitting machine & here it sits proudly in our room. What a dream it is to knit on & as it is a bulky machine I can use store bought yarn - still will have to get it cheap :) Anyhow my plan is to knit up some nice warm hoodies & misc knitted pieces for us all. Such a huge learning curve teaching myself & getting my head around this machine from the '80s!!

Can we fix it?? Yes we can!!

Yes some fine words from Bob the Builder. This truck is similar to one of Bobs mates 'Scoop' in the show, we have been enjoying watching DVDs of Bob lately. As this truck was on sale, I bought this to increase his collection of toys with wheels. Being a boy he just loves his cars & now he has a truck to scoop up all the Matchbox cars around the house. "Yeah mum, dream on that will never happen!!"

Water Saving strategies in da Valley

As most of the world is in drought mode conserving water - here in the U S of A, taps are flowing, creating beaches in local parks.

Here's Blackie!

We went to Washington Park in Sunnyvale the other day, it was full of fun stuff & had some massive ferns in the gardens. What's a visit to the park without an encounter with a furry friend. Ashwins lunch box dropped a few Cheerios on the ground & we had this hungry little fella waiting closeby to have a feed. He looks pretty scrawny especially in the tail area.

Yogurt art!

"Hey Mum & Dad check out my new hat!". Dessert time was time for some creative vibes with the yummy yoghurt that was on offer. The whole container went all over his face first & then on his head - "nice hat Mr Ashwin". Maybe we could have ongoing yoghurt art pics posted on da peaches blog. At least we know that dinner time is always fun & happenin' with Mr Ashwin!

Now that's dodgy!

Check these pieces of marketing expertise :) Whoops they ran out of blu tack & invisible tape.

The buzz of 'extreme marketing'

With the exciting buildup of The Simpsons movie in the U S of A on the 27th July - whoo hoo! There are only eleven 7 Elevens that are turned into Kwik E Marts in the whole country & we have scored one near our cinema complex at Shoreline. Here is a snapshot of what we had to check out - Marge was there too but she was stuck in the window with the afternoon sun reflecting on her.

Look out for the fireworks!

We waited at the Spectacular down at Shoreline to see the fireworks only to realise that Ashwin is not too fond of fireworks. So we saw about two & then he started crying. Next he was waving bye to the fireworks for the fireworks to disappear - which didn't work. So we high tailed it back to the car - here he is with is favourite, chips from Trader Joes!!

Spectacular spectacular!

Look how excited James & Ashwin are outside the sign down at the Amphitheatre. All ready to get symphonic with the Broadway tunes - yeah! Really it wasn't that thrilling, so we sat on our picnic blanket & ate snacks while checking out the yankie garb, dubious!

Hiking on the 4th July!

As James had the day off for the yankie holiday of Independence day we enjoyed the hot day & went for a small hike up at Saratoga. Ashwin wasn't in a great mood that morning due to some eye teeth slowly appearing... here he is in grizzly mode next to the Grizzly Trail sign. Eventually we put him in the baby backpack, we went wandering & he went off into the land of zzzzzz's.

Stuff on MY cat...

Celebrating the discovery of stuff on my cat website, we created our own stuff on Mack. He was in this spacecat lounging zone when we put one of Ashwins cars on his body. Maybe we'll have to pile more stuff on him & submit a pic one day!

Get ready to slide...

Through the tunnel is James & Ashwin about to take a slide down the twin slides at the park. There are some fun slides around the place but most of the time they aren't that long so you can't get up the speed & feel the wind in your hair.

Clover & redwoods

From the angle of something really small we see some clover & on the horizon some redwoods. It was very nice to lay in the grass on a sunny Sunday afternoon & get some rays. Yes I can definitely say that the weather here is just the best!

Gumnut grove

As part of a relaxing end to the weekend we went for a wander down the Stevens Creek (no creek at the moment!) trail to see what we could find. After wandering the paths we discovered a school & a playground for Ashwin to play in. It was quite a hot afternoon so I found a grove of old gum trees to photograph & nearby were some lovely old redwoods - aaaah the shade of trees.

Hoo hoo riding the Caltrain!

Walking downtown the other day some dude gave away these FREE Caltrain hats. Looks like they were made in the days when Caltrain launched it's service - back in 1987!! These are just like the hats you used to get at Hungry Jack's (Burger King) parties when u were little & ate that crap every week??!! Still I think that they look like they would go with the uniform from Krispy Kreme the donut store.

Clover everywhere...

Sat arvo we visited San Veron Park - quite small but it had some very interesting play equipment. I was trying to capture a shot of Ashwin on this hill with the blue sky backgroud. While waiting on the lush green grass, this is what I found...

Strike a pose there's nothing to it...

Come on, vogue
Let your body move to the music (move to the music)
Hey, hey, hey
Come on, vogue
Let your body go with the flow (go with the flow)
You know you can do it
Ladies with an attitude
Fellows that were in the mood
Don't just stand there, let's get to it
Strike a pose, there's nothing to it
We love u Mads :)

What's under the hood?

Ashwin has car envy this time... a few weeks ago it was trike envy but now he has one of his own he isn't too interested. At the park this belonged to a little girl who was happy to share a ride with Ashwin - talk about starting young. He isn't even 2 yet!!

Hawaii Five O

We went out for a photo shoot the other day as we received a wonderful package from Australia. This outfit is from Uncle Lukey & Aunty Taryn (thanks a million!) all the way from Maui, Hawaii - so we had to go & take pics of it.

Walking in someone else's shoes

This is a spanky looking swimming costume Ashwin is wearing to his class. He found James' shoes and decided to try them on, they are slightly too big! These would not be too good in the pool being so heavy & would make it much harder to move him through the water. And don't look too close at the feral carpet - it is horrible cheap stuff that loves the dirt, when we leave it'll just be replaced.

The first cubby house

Ashwin found this huge box & decided to turn it into his first cubby. So to pass away the afternoons we started to decorate it. Here he is in his new art smock & paint in hand ready to go. He did a bit of freestyle painting here & over the rest of the week we did collage for wallpaper (that wasn't too successful as Ashwin likes to pull the collage off). Anyhow by the end of the week, he scored a window as well.

The Puzzle Master

Here we are celebrating Matts birthday / housewarming / summer solstice the other week & during dinner courses there was this puzzle by Mr Puzzle which was entertaining the guys. Andy was having a go & then James got hold of it & put it together - here he is holding the completed cube!

Blondie water baby

Finally after a small amount of coaxing on a hot, sunny day Ashwin made the leap into the water fountains! At this stage he wasn't too wet but by the time we left he was drenched. This week we have been going to swim class every morning.

A happy little elephant!

At the new park we hang out in lives this happy elephant sculpture. He is such a cutie, Ashwin loves to pat him. Last time we were there he was playing a game of hide & seek with some kid behind the elephants trunk.

It's Geese Lightning!

Go geese lightning, you're burnin' up the quarter mile, geese lightnin', go geese lightnin'! Ashwin has a Saturday night fever move here :) Oh the red stuff on his face is Cherry Pie... he scored a sample at Trader Joes when we did the groceries, kept him quiet for a while.

Fancy a drive in my car??

Here are some kids at Mitchell park in Palo Alto & it the park has some really cool stuff like polar bear & elephant sculptures to climb on. This is like Ottos bus out of the Simpsons but only smaller :) Ashwin was so keen to get behind the wheel that he was waiting in the back for ages for the kids to get out of the drivers seat, finally it was his turn, next stop the 101 (highway here in CA).

He he he - fun at a NEW playground

Wednesday it was time to venture out to new turf, so many other mums had told me about this park called Mitchell park in Palo Alto - that I had to check it out. It was excellent with this water feature with fountains that squirt water sporadically. I was so surprised that Ashwin didn't go for it, he was observing from the sideline (for now anyway!) Instead he found a Mexican friend here on the play equipment & had fun chasing him around.

Happy Fathers Day!

What better way to enjoy fathers day than with a brewski! Sunday was fathers day here in the U S of A, so we decided we'll go for a hike in the morning & go out to dinner to celebrate - no cooking day! Here is James (looking impressed with his beer) at our favourite Indian restaurant Godavari AKA Sues.

From Birds to Beasts

Ashwin has had his first graduation - at The Little Gym. He has a little ribbon in his hand to say he is a star! Our teacher Miss Sarah (in green) was excellent with all the kids! He has such a fun time there & just runs around everywhere (it is just perfect for a 20 month old), which is good as he sleeps well in the afternoon! The other bonus is that he learns gym moves like forward rolls, the balance beams & hanging like a monkey. Don't know if it is a good thing as he likes to climb everything now, even the furniture to dance on the dining table??!!

Yank tank

James is in car heaven here! Nearly everywhere we go we see these vintage cars in all their glory - I found this spunky convertible in downtown Mountain View. We were in San Jose the other day & saw a '70's Cadillac for sale, they were asking around $7,000 still it is too much to even contemplate if you aren't a car nut.

How about a taste?

It is $5 to do tastings here - I remember when I did tastings at winerys back home it was free & you left with a case of wine as you tried so many & were wasted!! This is the ranch tasting room interior with cool decor & fairy lights & antlers hanging from the ceiling. Oh & there were peacock feathers for sale from the birds that enjoy all the picnics (they were very friendly), I even saw one take a tortilla off a picnic lunch & scoff it... maybe it was enjoying a beer with it too?

How about a Shandy??

As we had an English person (Katy) in amongst the meetup crew she was into having a shandy or as they call them over here a Panache - our mate in the pic here Bill is from L.A. so he is quite the sophisticated type. We have Maura enjoying her refreshing beverage of beer & pink lemonade, goes down so well on a hot day!

Winery in our sights

On the way back from the hike I was wondering where are all the vines?? As we were on a bit of a hill looking into the winery we found them nestled next door. This is certainly a different landscape compared to the Yarra Valley or the Barossa region (the only places I have visited in Australia) will have to see more when we return home!

Buzzzzz come to me

Man if I was a bee, I'd certainly love to come & visit this mandala flower. Spring & all the sunshine brings out cute little wildflowers like this one. They are just dotted in amongst the dry long grass - geez there could be rattlesnakes in there!! The macro was in action for this one & we captured a very interesting colour combination.

View of the valley...

On this lovely hike near the winery, you could get some beautiful views of the valley in all it's sunny glory. Here is the Stevens Creek Reservoir and in the hazy background the mountains that we see everywhere we go. From this pic everything looks very green but this year the rainfall has been quite low. I just like hiking for the reason where you can do minimal elevation & get an incredible view of the valley. Imagine if we went harder, the views would be phenomenal - we just take it easy as we hike with Ashwin in a backpack!

A peacock in the winery!

Check out this spunky little fellow! Sunday we went for a hike to this gorgeous little winery not too far from us at all called Picchetti Winery - some genius (our meetup co-ordinator Maura) came up with the idea that we'll go for an early morning Sunday hike & head on back to the winery for a picnic. Now that's motivation :)

W.W.K.I.P day...

On the day of the picnic, Shona advised me that it was W.W.K.I.P (Worldwide Knit in Public) day - June 9th. These days I hardly go anywhere without my knitting as you never know when you might need to whip your needles out & do a few rows. My capelet is moving along & will be finished soon - time to choose some buttons!!

Summer days and it's picnic time...

Here we are enjoying a picnic with some live jazz tunes on a Saturday afternoon at this great park Vasona County Park in Los Gatos. At the Sunnyvale market in the morning we bought this amazing loaf of bread from a German bakery - in the front (looks like a flower) which was delicious.

Rock garden of paradise

Here is the entrance of the gardens an array of plants so it looked like a larger landscape when you looked closely. You can see Ashwin (the hooded dude) in the background on the right for an idea of perspective. Oh yeah I found out that 'dude' (the CA version of mate!) is from Dude Ranch, a place where slick folk hung out in the country.

A dandy lion

On our travels we see many a dandelion in the green grasses of sunny California. Ashwin was first introduced to the fun of these by our friend Alex when he was staying with us for his holiday - he showed Ashwin how to play with them. Whenever we see one now the fun is blowing them, or grabbing & squashing them. Usually there are yellow flowers nearby that cop the same treatment as well! Here is one in all it's fluffy glory & a little damp from the sprinklers - luckily, safe from any destruction.

Aloe Aloe

First time I saw this plant was in San Jose at the Rose Garden district, I thought what a funky looking plant - what is it?? I finally found the name of this plant Aloe Saponaria (Aloeaceae) & it is a native of South Africa located in the California area of the botanical gardens. Here is a close up of the flowers that shoot up from the centre of the aloe plant that you can see in the background.

Furry protea...

What a cute bundle of flora this is... I managed to get some pics of the protea in bloom from the early furry stages (like this) to a fully developed flower. I used to see a few at the florists in Australia. The varieties were just amazing all hailing from South Africa, which I found very interesting. It is good to increase your plant knowledge being the 'budding gardener' that I am. So far in our little patio garden we have some herbs, cucumber plants, lettuces, tomatoes, capsicum & a camellia.

On a poppy, it's a Bee

Playing with the macro function on the small digital I wanted to take a pic of the Califonia Poppy. Zooming on in & look what I found... a little bee. There are some really great looking bees around here, my favourite being the plump furry bumblebee. Speaking of bees, Ashwin sees a bee now & makes a bee with his thumb & index finger & goes bzzzz. He learnt that in music class when we were singing about bumblebees marrying flies & it goes a little something like this Fiddle dee dee, Fidlee dee dee, the fly has married the bumblebee...

Yet more squirrel action!!!

Look at this spunky little fellow, this one is one of many that came to visit us on our travels around the gardens. One thought the video camera was some sort of tasty morsel but alas there were signs that said 'no feeding the squirrels!!' Fair enough as we don't want a repeat incident of what happened in Mtn View with the squirrels that 'attack' kids for food??!! They are now dead, RIP guys :(