The Ship House in Carmel California

Heather from the I Love Carmel California site told me she met the owner of The Ship House and said she and her husband would be delighted to give us a tour of their home.

Several weeks ago we visited Lorna and her husband, George, in their very unusual home called The Ship House.

Allen Knight, collector of all things nautical, built a stone ship's cabin, it was a three year project started in 1936 on a lot next to his home. The door is a door from a ship.

The interior has ship's "knees," along the walls.

The door to the left of the desk is to the small bathroom, you must duck slightly to go in.

The bed was in one corner, complete with portal windows and sand dollar pillows, they are keeping with the nautical theme.

The compact kitchen has a sign from an old sailing ship, Aurora, that sunk many years ago.

We climbed the narrow stairs to the viewing deck with windows all around.

No ship or Ship House is complete without a ship's wheel, this is also from the Aurora.

We thank Lorna and George for the interesting tour of a most unusual home in Carmel-by-the-Sea, California.

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The Valentine at Carmel-by-the-Sea California

On Valentine's Day hubby and I went to Carmel so he could photograph more scenes for his next book.

At the southwest corner of Sixth and Lincoln is a bronze sculpture titled "The Valentine." She holds her valentine in her left hand.

It is a romantic reminder of lasting love.

Heather and Bill Bebaugh wrote an article about Jan and his coloring book. It is posted on their site, click the following to read it.  I Love Carmel California

They also put together a short video about Jan's drawing process for his coloring book, watch it on their YouTube channel by clicking the photo below.

The video also includes photos of our trip last September to the medieval town of Amersfoort where we lived in the early 1990s. We loved being able to walk the center of the old town. That is what makes Carmel-by-the-Sea so appealing to us, it is a charming town and also walkable.

It was such a pleasure to meet Heather and Bill for the first time at Il Fornaio. We learned about more places and things in Carmel, we will be exploring and photographing more for the next book. Jan is working on illustrations for a notebook that is like a walk through Carmel.

Cottage of Sweets in Carmel-by-the-Sea

If we are craving candy while in Carmel we make a stop at Cottage of Sweets. The chocolates are excellent.

The roof facing north is covered with moss and the red and white awning pops.

Here is the Cottage of Sweets page in our Carmel-by-the-Sea coloring book, available at Amazon, click here.

Heather, from the I Love Carmel California blog emailed me today and said, "Before I left for Atlanta I was walking up Ocean Avenue about 10 days ago and saw a lady waving the coloring book and chatting with her friends about how wonderful she thought it was.  I didn’t realize at the time that it was your book, but now that I see it, I know that’s exactly what she had been holding. "

 That was pretty exciting to hear!

Carmel-by-the-Sea Coloring Book Celebration

Saturday, December 10, 2016 was an exciting day. An order of 25 coloring books arrived. We were over the top thrilled because they were better than the proof!

It was after 3 in the afternoon and I said we had to celebrate. I quickly sent out text messages and emails to some of our friends saying we were having a spur of the moment party. In the middle of December on a Saturday many people already have plans so it was a small group.

Everyone posed with a color book and each couple were given a signed copy.

We all toasted and had a fun unexpected time.

Click here for a link to Amazon.
To see a video looking through the book click here for Jan's author page.

Jan is now busy illustrating his next book.

Carmel-by-the-Sea Coloring Book for All Ages

For months Jan has been working on drawings for his book, Carmel-by-the-Sea, California's Storybook Town Coloring Book for All Ages.

Finally it is complete and the proof has been ordered from Create Space and will be available on Amazon in just a few days!

Here is the front cover,

and the back cover shows six of the hand drawn illustrations featured in the book.

The size of the drawings are printed to fit an 8x10 inch frame if you like your coloring.

So, we wait in anticipation to see the proof!

A Visit to Shakespeare and Company in Paris

Across the Seine from Notre Dame is the world famous book store, Shakespeare and Company. The history of the store is very interesting, it first opened in Paris in 1919 by an American, Sylvia Beach. She closed her store in 1941, during the German occupation.

In 1951 another American living in Paris, George Whitman, had collected so many books he opened a bookstore under the name Le Mistral Bookshop. Silvia Beach visited over the first years and as the story goes suggested he rename his shop Shakespeare and Company. The eccentric George created a bookshop where writers could stay a few days for free with rules of helping in the shop for an hour, reading a book a day and writing a one page biography. He called them tumbleweeds. Many thousands have stayed.

Our first visit to Shakespeare and Company was in the early 1990s, it seemed rather odd to me that there were books laying flat on what appeared to be narrow beds. Books were stacked everywhere and aisles were tight.

YouTube has many videos about the store and George's famous haircuts, burning off his hair with a lit candle.

George named his daughter Silvia for Silvia Beach and for years planned that she would take over some day. Here is his story at the front of the store. George died two days after his 98th birthday in 2011 and Silvia has taken her turn.

On our recent trip to Europe we planned to visit the store on September 15, not knowing that was the official launching of the book, Shakespeare and Company, Paris: A History of the Rag & Bone Shop of the Heart. We went to the shop after visiting Notre Dame, this is me with my very special purchase.

When I purchased my book Silvia Whitman was in the store and graciously posed and signed my book.

She signed around the official stamp.

We didn't plan on attending the 7 p.m. event but were still in the neighborhood late in the afternoon and decided it would be memorable so we were first to line up. As we waited we watched the guest speakers and readers arrive. Below is Silvia carrying a Shakespeare and Company bag, the young woman in the yellow and black is a current tumbleweed.

Silvia opened the event.

Editor Krista Halverson was introduced, she is at the right.

Wine and hors d'oeuvres were served in one of the upstairs rooms.

On our way out Krista was available and I asked for her signature also. Wow! I was thrilled to have both signatures signed to Jan and I.

Custom Miniature Home

Recently my hubby had a custom order to miniaturize a home. It is fascinating to watch him do it. The customer sends a photo of the home and hubby saws it out of thin cabinet grade plywood. He primes it and the drawing is transferred to the wood.

Watching him painting the lines is amazing.

He goes back and forth from his well used glass palette to the painting. Various shades of acrylic colors are combined.

Here he is holds it, still more detail and shading to do.

 Now it is finished, photographed, and ready to ship.

A customized miniature home can be ordered from our Etsy shop here.

Zucchini Walnut Buttermilk Pancakes

It is zucchini season and we have generous neighbors who keep us supplied. One of our favorite meals, breakfast or "breakfast for dinner," is Zucchini Walnut Buttermilk Pancakes.

In August 1980, my dear friend Marsha, and I, took a three day self guided geography course tour of "Gold Country." The University of California at Fresno class guided us from Mariposa to Amador City. We spent one night at the Sutter Creek Inn bed and breakfast. Our room was "the library" with two beds and bookcases and just off the dining room. Breakfast was at a large shared table where we all ate family style. They served zucchini walnut pancakes that were so good I had to reproduce them at home.

Add zucchini and walnuts to my buttermilk pancake recipe was a success and I've been making them ever since.

Here are the ingredients, measured out and ready to combine. The zucchini was grated on the large holes of a box grater. Recipe makes 8 to 10 pancakes, depending on size made and serves 2 hungry people.

Below the zucchini and walnuts are folded into the dry ingredients.

The wet ingredients are combined and added then gently folded into all the dry ingredients. Bake on a grill set to 350 F. Spoon the dough on a buttered grill and level off if batter is not spreading.

Bake on first side till holes start to form on top then flip over.

Bits of green zucchini skin can be seen.

Serve with maple or Log Cabin syrup and enjoy any time of day. Full recipe is below.

Zucchini Walnut Buttermilk Pancakes

1 cup flour
1 tablespoon white sugar
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 medium zucchini, coarsely grated
1/3 cup walnuts, chopped
1 egg
1 cup buttermilk
2 tablespoons butter, melted
Butter for grill and pancakes
Maple or Log Cabin syrup

Measure flour, sugar, soda and salt into a medium large bowl, use a whisk to mix well to combine dry ingredients.
With a spatula fold in the grated zucchini and chopped walnuts into the dry ingredients. The amount of zucchini and walnuts can be varied to your taste.
Beat the egg in a small bowl, add egg and melted butter to the buttermilk.
With a large spatula fold wet ingredients into dry ingredients, do not beat, fold enough to moisten dry ingredients.
On a grill, heated to medium, about 350 F. degrees, butter and then spoon batter to size of pancakes desired. Level off if batter is too thick.
Cook on first side till holes start to form, check bottom for golden brown color, flip over, cook till done.

Do you ever have a breakfast meal for dinner?

Sierra Sky Park Fresno California and Video

Sierra Sky Park is the first aviation community in the world, created in 1946 for passionate aviators right here in Fresno, California. The homes at the private airport were built with hangars so the airplane is right there, ready to taxi out to the runway and fly out. The street signs are low so no airplane wing can clip it.

Like clockwork on Saturday mornings some of the pilots take off for breakfast to various places. We live a mile away and have enjoyed the air activity over the years. Any time we have visiting guests we drive them over to see the unique neighborhood.

Sometimes there are airplane gatherings like the one here in 2013.

Last month, late one Saturday afternoon, there was a lot of plane activity leaving Sierra Sky Park and flying over the San Joaquin river going towards Madera, CA. If it sounds like an interesting plane hubby dashes out to see it and I often follow. Well, it was an amazing evening and morning, I had to put together the little clips of what happened. Turn up your volume and maximize the page size for the full effect.

Sunday morning was an amazing sight, there were 28 planes in formation.