Building a Wall

Rick and OilMan and I went to Sebastopol this morning and took Ozzie on a walk around Ragle Ranch Park, a walk we used to do all the time when we spent our weekends in Sebastopol. That seems like such a long time ago, but it's really been less than five years since we moved here. We were amazed that Ozzie remembered the path down to the creek and went straight for the water.

When we finished our walk it was only 9:30 and the plan was to go to Handline a restaurant in Sebastopol we knew Rick would like, so we went to the hardware store for gopher baskets (baskets one plants plants in so the gophers can't eat the roots) and Lone Pine Gardens, a wholesale succulent  nursery that is only open to the public a few hours a week. The woman who runs it with her husband remembered us and is.quite a character.They used to live in Berkeley also. I put a picture of a table full of succulents in the extras.

At Handline we were able to sit in their very nice  garden with Ozzie  to eat our lunch...an interesting fusion cuisine based on seafood from the coast and Mexican cuisine. A bowl of water was brought out for Ozzie along with strawberry lemon drinks for Rick and me and and a ginger lemon for OilMan. We proceeded through fish tacos and fisherman's stew but skipped the ice cream cones as the clouds had moved in overhead and it was getting quite chilly.

Back in Santa Rosa we picked up bread which we had pre ordered from the wonderful French bakery next door to the new Pilates Studio. It is owned by a delightful young French couple who are dedicated to educating their patrons about their bread. I'm sure I will be writing about them again.The place smelled so good that we wound up purchasing a second loaf of pain de campagne and an olive fougasse.

At home we found Dana working with her rocks, laying them out according to color, size and shape, and Rudy furiously trying to dig up the iris morea at the foot of the  retaining wall. It isn't quite finished yet, but thanks to Dana's energy and her ability to work on a project like this with her father, they have made great progress. And all it cost to build their wall was some hard labor and the olive fougasse....