Welcome May

May arrived on Sunday bringing with it blue skies, warm weather and no wind.

I mention wind because you can see from this photo that we have definitely had WIND for several days - the sand blew off the beach, onto our lane and almost covered the trash can.

We took advantage of the lovely day, left the garden behind and took Lulu for a walk to the pier which just reopened after heavy storm damage closed it for repairs.

I thought you might like to come along on our little 4 mile walk,

and remember to stop and smell the flowers along the way.

This quintessential beach cottage is on the corner of our lane and "the boulevard". 

We'll be walking on the boulevard until we get to the state beach.

Steve and I have a thing for poppies, but regretfully, they don't have a thing for us - I have no success growing poppies in our garden.

This is probably one of the oldest cottages at the beach and it sat neglected for years,

but recently a young couple rented it and they are lovingly bringing the cottage back to life.

This is another house that was a total eyesore and unfortunately the first house anyone saw when they turned onto the boulevard.

Fortunately, it has been brought back to life and I love the colors the owners chose for the house.

I am a sucker for picket fences and roses.

Steve and I looked at this house to buy when we moved to Ventura 39 years ago, but it was so expensive at $66,000 - it is valued at more than 10 times that now.

I love the boat in the yard at this house and the sunflowers - can you see the flip flops hanging on the picket fence?

The boulevard has a median running down the center and the median has been planted and is cared for by loving neighbors.

It's California - I have to show you at least one orange tree!

Let's cross the street and enter the state park where palm trees and Matilija poppies stand guard at the entrance.

Matilija poppies are one of my favorite flowers

and I am patiently waiting for ours to bloom.

Remember I told you we love poppies?

I climbed up the dune to get a close up of these.

I love this time of year when the path through the state beach is awash in yellow.

If you look closely in the pic, between the sea of yellow and the sea of blue, you will see rocks - the sand washed away from most of our beaches in the heavy rains this year, but by summer the sand should be back.

And here we are at the pier.

I hope you enjoyed our little walk.

Lucky Enough

I posted this picture yesterday on Instagram with the caption - "Steve and I are at one month of walking at least 6 miles every day - it helps that each walk is along the Pacific Ocean".

Many of the comments were about how lucky I am to have such a beautiful place to walk and they reminded me of this bottle I have sitting in the bathroom.

As we walked through town today, I focused on my luck.

I live in a beautiful place with gorgeous views.

While many of my blogger friends are housebound, we are bathed in sunlight.

After months of being ill in the fall, I now have the ability to walk 6 miles each day.

I am retired 

so I have the leisure time

to walk through town looking at cute houses.

And, if you are still with me,

I am lucky to have blog friends

who'll bear with me while I ramble on

an on.

I give thanks daily that this is our home and I know that I truly am

Lucky Enough!

Please join me for another walk . . .

Steve has an opening for an art show today and I just discovered that he didn't invite any of my blog friends.

So, I decided to simply bring you along with me - while he deals with last minute details, let's walk along Main Street.

We'll start on the corner of Main and California Street - looking up California Street, you will see City Hall

and a statue of Father Serra who founded the first 9 of California's 21 Spanish missions.

This is one of my favorite buildings in town -

named the Erle Stanley Gardner building and home to the law office of the creator of Perry Mason.

The Bank of Italy building now houses a boutique, restaurants and apartments on the second floor.

I love the tile work on The Hamilton Building - I have no idea what it was originally, but today it is a clothing store.

When we moved to town, Peirano's was an old fashioned grocery store and the murals were faded to almost nothing.

I love the refurbished murals and the fountain - Steve and I like to sit on the fountain and "people watch".

The water from the fountain runs down to a smaller fountain and by zooming in, you get a peek of the ocean.

Across the street from the fountain and Peirano's is number 9 in the series of California Missions - I did no editing of the colors on the photo, the sky was that incredible color of blue on the Thursday when I took the photo.

We don't have time to stop in at the Mission office to gain entry to the garden,

but we can peek over the fence and I must say I am glad you are with me, because although I have been to a wedding and a funeral at the mission, I have never been in the garden.

What is not to love on this building - brick, tile, etched windows, grill work - beautiful!

A few big name stores have sprouted up in town.

I wish we had time to stroll through the shops in this courtyard, but we are almost back to Fox Jewelers and Steve is waiting for us.

Maybe we should have dinner on the roof of Watermark and watch the sunset after the show.

And now we arrive at the back door to Fox Jewelers.

Debbie and George Fox recently purchased this old building and created a lovely patio in the back.

In this new location, George has a much larger workshop to create beautiful jewelry.

Yesterday the local newspaper had a nice write up of the opening.

Debbie's knack for display and the brick walls of the building are a perfect background for Steve's colorful art.

I hope you enjoyed your walk through town.

I would love to go on a walk through your town with you.