closing out 2015

We went to find spawning salmon. And while we didn't see any, I knew they were there. We toasted in 2016 with some champagne and oysters, made pizza, and were in bed by 10:30. It was a good New Year's Eve.

peace on earth

finding comfort in marin county

Today was a field trip day, the Bay Model and the Matthew Turner in Sausalito. The Bay Model is a rather interesting old school museum, no fancy special effects, the section on Marinship was well done. We will have to make visits often to the Matthew Turner to track it's progress.
When it came time for lunch we headed to San Rafael Joes. It was exactly what we wanted, no kale on the menu. As comforting as it gets with older waitresses, older chefs, older clientele and decor that probably hasn't changed much since 1947:
"Welcoming friends and families since 1947, San Rafael Joe's has established itself as a Marin County Tradition." 
That's how they bill themselves and that's what we wanted. We each had a glass of wine with lunch. And while Marin County may not be the same as it was in my childhood, at least I found some of the past. And the horseradish was the real thing. We were told that the Thursday special of corned beef has an even hotter mustard served with it. We are going back.

december

Dash And Aero have the right idea. If only they looked like this more often. We are all trying to lay low for the holidays.

thanksgiving

What I'm thankful for:

My Parisian orange zester .

 

Making cranberry sauce.

 The simple things in life.

Just add a paper bag and life is good.

ebay, russell chatham, and cheda's garage

Mike is  a careful  follower of Ebay. You never know what quirky things you may find. Russell Chatham is a writer and landscape painter well known to those of us who fish or who are ghillies.

Point Reyes Summer

Cheda's Garage in Point Reyes Station is an old fashion garage, family run for the past 90 years.

We proudly sport Cheda's Garage license plate holders on both of our vehicles which has lead to interesting conversations as we travel around the state.
All of the above came together last Tuesday when we set out for Point Reyes Station to deliver a very obscure immigration paper of Chatham's great uncle that Mike found on Ebay. We knew Russell had a studio in West Marin, and we knew that he knew the very helpful woman at the garage because we had seen them together on a past visit out west. The very helpful woman turns out to be Hillary Cheda and when we stopped in just hoping she might give the paper to Russell she said oh you should just go find him and give it to him directly and she pointed the way to his studio. In today's totally wacky world of mistrust and fear, I found this astonishing that a place exists where someone would do this. I suppose we look honest and without agendas. So on our way out of town to find the studio we actually ran into Chatham himself. And when Mike gave him the paper he was amazed and asked what can I do for you. With quick thinking Mike said "how about a tour of you studio". He said follow me and off we went.

We spent an hour and a half with him talking life, art, fishing and today's world.

Here's Russell reaction to kid's today and their "devices".

This painting is a current project.

This is a collection of his striped bass flies.
We left his studio in complete amazement with a gift of three books from his Clark City Press and smiles on our faces.

and the winner !

Persimmon is the new apple my friend Chris just told me. In fact the 2015 Building 14 pie contest winner was pear/persimmon, thanks to my workmate Rhys bringing in some beautiful persimmons to go with my already planned "San Francisco Fire House Pear Pie". I am so excited, I can't wait to see my name on the plaque in the lobby.

Here were the other entries:

Lucky did not get to vote, although if he could have he would have cast his ballot to the the pies served with whipped cream. That he got to taste after he was found wandering around the shop under the pianos.

There were some serious discussions and scoring as usual, but pretty much everything was consumed.