Oreos, owls and Oktoberfest

Owls....

they

are

wise,

kinda spooky

whooooooooooooooooot,

they

are

in

a movie,

and they

are

Annie's

current collection

I love to indulge

in

a

good

collection

and owls

are

really

happening

To

celebrate

Annie's

completion

of the L.S.A.T.

last

weekend,

I made

some

Pumpkin Owl Muffins

I

found then

in

another fun

blog

by

Taylor Thomas

and

I

copied

them!

First,

you detach the oreo cookie halves

and stick a

Reese's piece

in the middle

I made pumpkin muffins

Frosted them with cream cheese frosting

Stuck the eyes on

and

stuck in a

candy corn

for the nose


So goofy

silly

and easy!

Yesterday

I found

these

oh so

happy

Autumn

napkins

at

Picking Daisies

and

napkin rings

at

World Market

owl napkin is Annie's

and

this

will welcome her home

As for

Oktoberfest,

it was

an

"O"

word

and

there is

an

Oktoberfest celebration

tomorrow

at Avila Beach

and

we

will celebrate

Oktoberfest

at

home

for

John's birthday

Ein Prosit

und

Happy October!

Sunset's Victory Garden

Last

April

John and I

(and Toulouse)

attended

the

"ground breaking ceremony"

for the

Sunset

Victory Garden

at Santa Margarita Ranch.

The

garden

was to

be

organic,

using

compost

and

sustainable

gardening

techniques.

I was intrigued

to see

the outcome

of

this

one

acre

garden

fast forward

October 2, 2010

The

entrance

to the Victory Garden

Hi John!

I

am

in AWE!

The

garden

is

absolutely

magnificent!

There is a scheme,

well, duh!

I guess every

good

garden has a SCHEME

There

are small plots of herbs

here and there

Gorgeous

olive trees

surround the garden

And

exquisite

veggies,

integrated with

flowers

are everywhere!

Thai Chiles

Bok Choy

amazingly beautiful

Swiss Chard

hundreds of

tomatoes,

peppers,

cucumbers

melons and pumpkins

beans,

eggplants

peas

onions

garlic and leeks

recycled wine corks

used

kinda like

bark

for weed maintenance

and to

keep the ground moist

(great idea, I am saving our corks!)

I wanted

to

do a "Peter Rabbit"

in

all the

lettuces

and kale

parsley, sage, rosemary, thyme, basil, savory, oregano

so fragrant

The gardeners

were

on duty

seven days a week

to insure

that this

would be

the garden

among all

gardens.

IT

WAS!

Sunday at Sunset's Savor the Central Coast

Sunset Magazine's

SAVOR THE CENTRAL COAST

The main events

of

Savor

were

held

Saturday and Sunday

at

Santa Margarita Ranch

about

fifteen minutes,

or so,

from SLO.

The location was

majestic

nestled

among

the oak trees

with

an

old

historic train

chugging

right

through the middle of the property.

I

get

why

Sunset

chose

to

hold

Savor

here

....

majestic!

You enter

and

get

a

Riedel

wine glass

and

this

huge

green

bag

(for grocery or farmer's market shopping)

goodies in hand

you can

start

enjoying

the event.

Fall is in the air!

I

LOVE

FALL!

There

is

food and wine

sampling

everywhere!

Really

good

food

and really

good

wines!

That's Patty

from

Corner View Restaurant.

They were

serving

a

delicious

Smoked Salmon and Arugula Salad

mmmmm

John and I

found a

Pinot Noir

from

Ortman Vineyards and

enjoyed the two delights together

h e a v e n

....

I

had to

put my

camera

away

in

order

to

taste

the

food and wines

(or get a third hand)

Then I came across

these

marvelous

little wonders

from

Windrose Farm

in Paso Robles

Grilled Shishito Peppers

with lemon

they were my fave!

great people watching

while

nibbling

and tasting

That's

Dana,

one of the

"twisted sisters"

from

Calcareous Winery

amazing wines

and

a spectacular location

I had a glass of their Grenache

There is

also

a

beer garten

with

Stella Artois

and Leff

and other artisan

beers

(incase you don't like wine)

There was

so

much

to see,

and taste,

and

smell

and touch

SAVOR THE CENTRAL COAST

2011

around the

first weekend

of

October.

More EXTREME fun!

Remnants of the Past

.....

DAY 2

of my fabulous

weekend

was spent

at

Remnants of the Past.

Remnants

is

a feast

for

your senses

It

is filled

with

beautiful

vintage

rustic

extraordinary

STUFF

in

the quintessential

perfect

local,

The Dana-Powers Barn

in

Nipomo

entering

....Remnants

I brought my camera,

really,

I did!

but,

I was

so

mesmerized

by

all the

goodies

that I forgot

to

take

pictures

So

here

are

some

other

blogs

and videos

to enchant

you

Keep these pages

handy

and

watch the

dates

for

April 2011

Remnants of the Past

I

am

going

to

read

the blogs

and

mark

MY calendar!

Thursday before the BEST Weekend~

We,

as

in

John and I,

and

about a thousand

other peeps

have been

waiting for this

weekend

for

maybe

like a

year and a half.

It

is

hard to believe

that

it is finally here!

Ta-Da

Sunset Magazine's

Savor the Central Coast

The

Opening Ceremony

was

in front

of the

historic

Fremont Theatre

This guy

is

truly

one

of the

thousands

of peeps

really really

looking forward to

this day

For

Opening Night

there

were delicious

little

bites

from

local restaurants

and

tastes of wines

from the

county's

wineries

Even Mayor Romero and his wife were excited about the Opening Ceremony!

Woot! Woot!

A toast

to

SLO

to

Sunset Magazine

and

to

a weekend

full

of fabulous

Flavors of the Central Coast.

Cheers~!

......

Friday day

(it that correct...Friday day?)

well,

Friday during the day

various wineries

throughout

the county

had events,

winery and

vineyard tours,

luncheons

and tastings.

Friday evening

was

A

Most Amazing

dinner

in

Mission Plaza

we were there in spirit

Rumor

was

that

is

was

beautifully presented

and

beautifully delicious!

(next year!)

Saturday and Sunday

the

Event

was at

Santa Margarita Ranch

More about

Savor the Central Coast

later....

BOX ART

I can easily say

that

I do believe

that

San Luis Obispo

is

one of the

most

charming

of

small towns

in the

U.S.

ok, ok, ok...

I

know you will

beg to

disagree,

but you know,

I really

think it

is

charming

When

you build

or

refurbish

or restore

a business

in downtown

in SLO

the

A.R. C.

(architectural review committee)

makes

you do

something

beautiful

or

artistic

around

your property

(or you can pay

a fee

that goes into

a general

beautification

fund)

In any event

you will see

very cool

art

in

strategic

places

all around

downtown.

Recently,

SOMEONE

decided

that the

power boxes

were

U.G.L.Y.

I have to agree -

power boxes

are

really

ugly

So,

someone

decided

to

have

artists

paint

them

So, the sixteen

powerboxes

around

downtown

SLO

are

now

pieces of art

...

you can take a

walking tour

and see

all the artistic

powerboxes

around

downtown

...

you can download a map

here

park

and walk

I did

just

that!

No. 1

I am

not

going to

tell you all

about

the artists

and the art

because you can find all the info

here

I didn't understand this No.2 box..

No. 3

(Swiss cheese)

No. 4

No. 5

This artist

Marcie Hawthorne

gets to paint

2 boxes

.

this one is at the

Mission

San Luis Obispo de Tolosa

No. 6

and this

one

is around the corner

Oh, look!

There's Marcie painting the box!

No. 7

This one befuddled me

a bit

...

hmmmm

what could it be?

No. 8

and

then I

found out

that

one artist,

Joe Bachelor,

was

painting

3

(three)

boxes!

No. 8

This one

That's joe's

wife

finishing

up last minute

touches

and

chatting with

a young

fan

No. 9

Hey!

There's Joe!

He was finishing up

No. 9

and then was going

back

to

No. 7

to paint it

(remember the box that befuddled me?)

No. 10

I will walk and find

boxes 11-16 in the next couple of days..

It is like

a

"Where's Waldo" game

the map

takes you to all

the

powerboxes

but

then

you get

there

and look

all around

and

think

"where

the

*#!@:&

is

the box?"

and then

THERE IT IS

aLL

iN

AlL

iT

Is

a

fUN

aCtiVitY

tO

dO

IN

S.L.O.

...t o b e c o t t i n u e d