The past few days I actually put all my sewing things in the dining room away to do Spring Cleaning and get ready to spend some quality time with friends and family. My good friend was flying in with her family from North Carolina to stay with us for two days. It’s been a busy few days .We went to the Santa Barbara Zoo, played on the beach, went hiking up on the mountain behind the orange groves, had a cookout while the kids roasted marshmallows and the grownups enjoyed some wine. Today I took all four of my kids and some of their friends to a tour of the UCLA campus down in Los Angeles followed by lunch with my best friend and her daughter. There were 10 of us in all ! On the way home we stopped at the Malibu Surfrider beach to watch the surfers. It was an end to a perfect few days.
I hope all of you have a joyous and blessed Easter .
Girls on the hike.
What’s a California ranch without some rusted out clunkers on it?
An orange tree. But you probably know that.
This tree grows blood oranges, so sweet and delicious, but messy.
The view from the top of the hill. The valley below was once trekked by the Spanish Missionaries who would walk from the Mission San Fernando to the east of us to the Mission San Buenaventura, near the ocean to the west of here. They built all of the missions to be within a days walk of one another.
A mystery fruit. Can anyone identify this?
Trekking along…
and hitching a ride down with Daddy.
What a beautiful orange tree, I never saw one for real! Your kids are so gorgeous just like their mom. 🙂 Joyeuses Pâques.
Merci Daniele. Joyeuses Paques a vous aussi !
was that mystery fruit a cherimoya?
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cherimoya
Great photos! Looks like you all had a wonderful time. I love the pic of your little one and the white dog 🙂 I have never had a blood orange. What do they taste like?
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Your fruit is indeed a cherimoya, they are custard like on the inside with a flavor of pineapple meets vanilla. It looks as though you were hiking in the Santa Clara Valley. I used to live there.
Nancy ,you sre right about the fruit but we aren’t in Ssanta Clara Valley but over the mountain along the Santa Clara River. Good eye!
The Heritage Valley, as they call it now, used to be called the Santa Clara Valley, but I’m dating myself. I lived in Santa Paula and Fillmore for a time. I finally came to my senses and moved back to the coast. I am just down the road from you, making tutus in Ventura.
custard apple??