Saturday, March 29, 2008

Ice cream truck

I have never seen an ice cream truck until I moved to this area of LA. Every Fridays around 6pm, you would hear music coming from the street. Yep, it is the ice cream truck. Friday is a great day for the ice cream guy. This area is filled with kids and families, and all of them rush around the truck once they hear the music. This past Friday, too, there were at least 30 people buying ice cream! When I was a kid back in Japan, there were still lots of retailers selling stuff with the cart, bicycle, etc. Tofu was one of them. They usually played very distinctive melody with little trumpet (rappa). Whenever my mom heard the music, she asked me to grab a pot and run to the street. And, I did. The Tofu man scooped Tofu out of a big pot with water and put it into my small pot. I remember Tofu tasted soooo good. They also sold a bag of "okara", which we often used to either cook "unohana" (http://thumbnail.image.rakuten.co.jp/@0_mall/jagaimo/cabinet/00186491/img14328128.jpg) or give it to our beloved rabbits at school. The guy who sold us "okara" often gave us "okara" free or even if we had to pay I believe it was like 10 yen. To learn more about "okara", go to Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Okara_(food). # I also found out that Okara was the name of a city in Pakistan. I don't see them any longer.

Tuesday, March 25, 2008

gG goes into Zen mode

What I love these days is to walk around the backyard with gG in the morning. He would sniff around the flowers and weeds and goes into Zen mode. Do you feel the same "wabi sabi" with this gG's shot as I did?
"wabi" and "sabi" are the highest aesthetic values aimed at by traditional Japanese arts, particularly the tea ceremony and poems called Haiku."wabi" exoresses a way of being quietly clear and calm. "sabi" means having well-seasoned, refined simplicity.

Freshly mowed lawn

Can you smell the freshly mowed lawn?

Sunday, March 23, 2008

Spring Bloom!

Spring is here... or I should say summer is here all of a sudden. Yep, it was 88 degree outside around my house today. HOT!!! ...and guess where he ran into :)

Despite of the heat, or being helped by the heat, our backyard is getting pretty colorful with different colored flowers all around.

Saturday, March 22, 2008

Oh no! Peanut butter manifesto!

Okay... I understand people love peanut butter, but this was the first I saw. Created by my beloved hubby.

Friday, March 21, 2008

This is our fern house

This is our fern house. Yep, it is very green and very old (100 years old!!). This house was build in 1907 by a famous architect called Samuel Tilden Norton who also designed Greek Theater in Griffith Park. The house was first owned by a member of well-known pioneer family called John B. Amestoy. Mr. Amstoy was the son of Domingo Amstory, an early property owner in San Fernando Valley. You can find the rancho they owned in Encino still today with a little museum about the family. Our fern house is a HPOZ property with Mills Act. gG also loves the backyard with 100 year old barn.

Saturday, March 15, 2008

This is gG

This is gG, our beloved furry son who looks like a cat but acts like a dog. He sometimes reminds me of one of those programed icons following wherever your mouse cursor goes. Yep, gG follows me around the house. Up and down, left and right, day and night, constantly.