Plane over wires

What do you do with a travel blog when you’re finished with your travels? When your days now differ significantly from the days spent wandering freely, exploring and adventuring, to abruptly searching for a job, being in a city and looking out the same damn window every day. Suddenly your nights are not spent stargazing or dancing on a beach in the tropics. Responsibilities ensue. Don’t get me wrong, with all of these changes comes the joy of being with family and friends and we’re surrounded by wonderful people who love us. These are all the things I missed the most.

I’m not saying we’ll never travel again, but for now, we’re settling in. We’re starting a garden, working, paying rent; all the typical stuff that has nothing to do with traveling.

I have grown somewhat attached to this blog and the amazing folks who have faithfully followed us on our journey over the last year; however what is it they say about a dead horse?

We’ve been back home for about a month. It has taken longer than I expected to adapt, although I am getting there. I have realized that a purpose to one’s life is what drives us. It gives our life meaning and satisfaction. Not that I’m asking you to define my purpose in life, but I am asking that you offer up your brilliant, creative, funny, dirty, I don’t care, any thoughts are great thoughts, for my next blog. I need you. It must involve photography. That’s the only rule. Give it to me!

Where do we go from here?

By the way, our book is in the making. We are so close to finishing it and we’re excited to share it with you.

Our local farm stand

Blossoms

Santa Barbara Mission

A house, on a street, in a town.

Monkey Pod tree

Welcome to the jungle! It’s a wet, green, teeming with life, flowery and splendid tropical jungle. We are woken every morning by the sounds of this mysterious place. It resembles being woke up by hundreds of cuckoo clocks striking Twelve at the same time. I imagine… We’ve taken to the farm quite quickly and nicely. The first day spent acquainting ourselves with the land, the other people on the farm and gathering coconuts from neighboring trees, well, I watched but Shawn got right in there. Coco’s are a staple here. There’s an abundance of them as well as Papayas, Noni, Bananas and a variety of garden vegetables. We’re eating well, that’s for sure. I was introduced to the garden by Caroline a Girl from Quebec who had WWOOF’d for quite some time, mostly in Europe. I’m so grateful for her guidance and the time we spent in the treehouse sipping coffee and eating chocolate. She left a few days ago for another Island. Another experience. We’ve spent a lot of time cleaning. We realized almost immediately that we were sharing our room with critters so that became our priority and now it seems we are pest free. It helps that we bring kitty in to our room to sleep at night. Shawn has been diligent with eliminating the little rodents from rest of the house as well, which is communal so a little more difficult since everyone has a different idea of cleanliness. We’re working on it. There are wild chickens everywhere here, wild pigs, which I had to chase out of the garden the other day and then there are the spiders the size of Kansas and centipedes 5 inches long! It’s been an extremely exciting first week. We’re actually having a pretty significant storm right now and have endured incredible amounts of rain. There are downed trees, power outages and yesterday the river on the property reached new heights. The Chickens had to be moved in a frenzy as the water rose dangerously close to their coop. We spend our days on the, we work in the mornings, me in the garden and Shawn works with the guys on finishing up the construction on the main house. We ride bikes down to the beach after work, a beautiful 3 minute ride from the farm. We’ve only left the area twice and that was Saturday to hitchhike 30 miles north to a farmers market and on Sunday we went to another organic farm up the road where they had a raw food dinner. Pizza and salad, it was amazing! They played music, we danced and met some really nice people. All in all we are grateful to be here, in spite of its challenges and we’re looking forward to some nicer weather so we can explore Kauai and all its glory.

A tree house on the farm, utilized by Yvette and her son Dylan

Our room from one of the gardens

Inside our room

The outhouse. NO room for modesty here.

Only in Portland

We left the colorful city of Portland a few days ago and now we’re getting ready for the next big thing. It will be quite different from the gray skies and bare trees of Portland. It won’t be all about Indie music and hipster culture. We won’t be able to find a microbrewery on every corner or a dive bar within arms reach. We’ll miss their enthusiasm for coffee shops, food trucks and of course VooDoo Doughnuts! But we’re ready to put the winter clothes away and spend some time on an organic tropical farm in Hawaii. We’re looking forward to getting our hands dirty on this trip!

City Bikes!

A gift from the sea

What a special day this has been! We are thrilled to be chosen by Betty Londergan for the Versatile Blogger Award. Betty is the Author of one of our favorite blogs heifer12x12 Thank you Betty!

As the proud recipient of this award we must now fulfill our duties, yes there are duties!

1♥ Select and list 15 bloggers who we nominate, these are in no particular order and we love them all!

The blonde coyote

pretty pictures

For the love of wanderlust

Annika Ruohonen

Naive Test

long time spent

Little london observationist

Collette falls on her feet

My Italian letters

Claire Atkinson photography

booshy

Malate

Nitty gritty dirt man

The lazy photographer

Travelbug

2♥ List 7 things about us you may not know

We love cheese

We love Bikes

We like slow food (the opposite of fast food) What is slow food?

We are not vegetarian

We were both born on the 16th

We have a vast age difference

We like Stephen Hawking

3♥ Now we must go inform the nominees.

4♥ Thank the person who nominated you. Thank you Betty!

A happy and beautiful day of Love to all of you! ♥

A lonely barn in winter

Frozen in time

Covered bridge series, Scio Oregon

Rivers edge

Orchard in winter

Through and through

Ghostly church on a winter's night

Soon we will be leaving winter behind for a tropical Island in the sun!

Lan Su garden is a small oasis in the middle of old town Portland.  Lan Su meaning “Orchid awakening” and from the moment you walk through the gate, that’s exactly how you feel. The gentle meandering pathways  lead to an opulent garden full of Chinese botanicals and tranquil waterfalls. Chinese gardens are observably designed to stimulate one’s intellect and spirit while wandering in Nature.

                     You can easily spend an afternoon here with a good book or just watching the Koi in the reflective water.

Visit the Tea house, sit, relax and enjoy as you gaze out at the garden.

E.H. Wilson, noted 20th century plant hunter, referred to China as the Mother of Gardens.

“In the Chinese Garden, the solidity of stone (yang) is balanced by the softness of water (yin).  When opposites–yin yang–are in balance, there is rejuvenating qi energy. As the circulatory system of the world, water brings vital energy to the Garden and to its visitors.”

This, the last day to wish you a happy Chines new year!

The year of the Dragon!

For as long as I can remember I’ve loved road trips. As a child my Dad and I would often jump in the car on a lazy Sunday afternoon and go for long drives out in the country. The road seemed to go on forever and it didn’t matter that there was no destination in mind. We would stop at abandoned houses and go through them hoping to find some long forgotten treasure sometimes we got lucky. Then we’d stop for Ice cream on the way home. Those were good times. Still, I love nothing more than packing it up and hitting the highway with the one I love.

We left bright and early Friday morning, trying to beat the imminent storm ahead.  We smoked Cigarettes while Gillian Welch sang us down the road with her dusty Americana vocals. Eating PB & J’s, sleeping in noisy truck stops and shooting pictures through mud-spattered windows. We thought we’d be able to pick up a hitchhiker or two along the way but there were none. I suppose that had something to do with the weather. So, we made our way through snow, sleet, wind and torrential rain. We can’t wait to do it again.

Through a rainy window

Snowy trees

Snow covered gate, Dunsmuir Ca.

Good~bye for now!

Starfin

I suppose you could have guessed that our favorite place is nature, if you can call it a place. Maybe it’s more of a consciousness? A way of being. Anyway, Santa Barbara is such a unique place geographically, which is why it’s home to so many a nature lover. We have the ocean on one side and mountains on the other, all in close proximity. It makes it so simple to get away and be intimate with nature. Whether it’s fiercely exciting waves you seek or somewhere calm and meditative, you don’t have to go far. A very short distance may feel like you’re a thousand miles away. Suddenly time stands still and with very little effort you are glancing down at the ocean from high on a mountaintop or traipsing through the woods with your awareness of natural beauty becoming cloudless and acute as all else slips away. Nature, whether it’s a place or a way of being within this chaotic world, it’s where we love to be.

Abstract nature

Lake lopez

Shoreline

Fly away

Morro Bay Harbor

I can’t think of a better way to spend a day than leaving your daily troubles at shore and sailing out to Sea. There is always that hint of mystery and if you’re like me, you thrive on that. I often daydream about sailing around the world, of the long beautiful days on the open water, the star kissed nights. Arriving in foreign ports to simply while away the day taking in the offerings of local food, drink and culture. Anchoring in a sheltered cove sipping wine and watching the sunset, maybe skirmishing with Pirates in the Indian Ocean?  I know this conjures up images of Johnny Depp and kiera Knightley but we all know that’s not the reality.  They’re actually quite real and brutal, still to this day. Thankfully it’s rare to run into these kinds of water hazards.

Ahhh, Someday we’ll do it, (we’re always looking to crew on a Boat) but until then, we graciously accept every offer to go on board. Our recent Sail on the Stardust, built long ago by Shawn’s Grandfather and now lovingly maintained by his Uncle, was a perfect day sailing around Morro Bay

At Sea

Harbor at Sunset

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Way up there....

On a recent trip down South I found myself wandering around the Santa Monica Pier. I had never been there but I’ve always wanted to go. I’ve driven by it at night and seen the Ferris wheel looming high in the sky like a colossal rainbow spacecraft. Below the hoards of people lining up to board it like it’s the mother ship.  I understand the fascination with these places but I guess I’m more of a spectator when it comes to amusement park rides. The thought of strapping myself into a large mechanical device run and maintained by people who may not remember to oil their own chains let alone the one that holds my life in it’s grasp makes me a little wary. I ate Funnel Cake and meandered through the crowds, captivated.

These are a few of the Photos….

Full Moon

Dart Lady

Santa Monica from the Pier...