Chorro Grande area, near Ojai

We went up to the Chorro Grande area in the mountains in back of Ojai last weekend. We stopped in Meiners Oaks on the way up; Sara visited with her friend Jen and I tooled around town on my bike, noting all of the fruit trees with fruit on them -- grapefruit, oranges, persimmons, pomegranate, etc. Lovely. The next day Sara went for a hike with the spatial group, I puttered around in the hills on the other side of Sespe Creek. Full album is here.

sunrise, cold

water for coffee, stove operated from sleeping bag

the bee

native (?), pretty

one of the benefits of dating a jewish girl

selective focus

lichen

Quercus dumosa (?)

Mountain Mahogany

This is as far as I got on my hike, stopped by the chaparral...

views from the ridge I was on, looking E (above) and NW back to the cars (below)
the bee and the spatial crew went N over the ridge near the cars and up the big mountain, something like a 3000' gain.

Sespe Creek bed

Mtn Mahogany

sorta selective focus

there were lots of blue jays hanging out in the chaparral

selective focus, Chia

view on the other side of the ridge I went up

more chia

little pinyon pine

oak, cork

the little ridge I went up on

Sespe Creek

clouds coming over the ridge

Bee's watercolor of the little hill we parked next to

Why Cats are Better than Dogs #555

Some love from NPR about the physics of how cats drink. Pretty sweet.

Lox

Sara needs to write the text, but I'll start the post. We had this as a camping breakfast. Pretty damn epic.

I think 'nova' has a different meaning with regard to fish than cars

Update:
alternate version

Pozole Pics

cabbage

creme fraiche, tomato, cilantro/chile/garlic sauce on top; soup was nixtamal, red kidney beans, kale, etc

cabbage on top

Jim Anchower on Muffin Making

Anchower is a columnist for the Onion. He is awesome in his way. His latest column is about a bakery job he had at a big box store. There are some money food quotes:

People talk about how hard it is to bake, but I'm like, "What's the problem? Just put the 20-pound bag of muffin mix in the mixer, add the water it says to on the bag, and bam, muffins."

once I started bringing muffins home, it was a game changer. People would be hanging out, and things being what they were, they would get a bad case of the munchies, so I would be like, "Oh, you want a muffin?" and they would be blown away.

Life was pretty sweet, like a chocolate-chip pumpkin muffin.

The thing is, it felt good to work with my hands. It was like I was fixing a car, but instead, I was making something that people like to eat. I been fired from a lot of jobs, but this was the first one I ever felt bad about. I mean, whatever. Jim Anchower will land on his feet.

via Patagonia, photo: Boone Speed