Saturday, 30 April 2011

Robert and Chrissies new house

Much nicer than the old one.

Friday, 29 April 2011

Guess what's in season ?!?

Poor house.

Imminent destruction.

Interesting mix.

No, I didn't buy any.

Thursday, 28 April 2011

A rose on the way back from lunch.

Amazing colours.

Roses on the way to lunch.

Absolutely beautiful.

Wednesday, 27 April 2011

School food truck

There are two of these trucks that are parked outside the local school
from lunchtime until about 4 pm. They sell all sorts of dodgy sweets
and other crap. The pretzel thing on the right are a sweet deep fried
biscuit thing that is drenched in sweet syrup of various flavours that
can be seen in the window.
The trucks themselves are extra dodgy, they are held together by
string and rust. There is a portable generator strapped to the front
bumper to power the freezer etc inside.

Mushrooms.

Mmmm ... Yum !!

RCP

Redwood City Police.

Tuesday, 26 April 2011

Sunset

Amazing sunset tonight with just a band of cloud lit up by the setting sun.

Monday, 25 April 2011

Hot cross buns

The photo doesn't do them justice.

It makes them look too good.

Well spoken.

Sorry, couldn't resist. ;)

Cassoulet leftovers.

The pig bits I didn't want. ;)

Cassoulet

18 hours of slow cooking and the end result is a delicious, rich
mixture of beans, tomato and pig bits !

Work update


This is what work looks like now. In the front are the three (actually
2.5) crankcases of the big engines, my little engine will go in front
of the yellow drum on the right.
Behind the engines are the insulated steam pipes, the main steam line
is the horizontal one on the right. The black box behind the engines
to the left of the steam pipes is a condenser to condense the steam
after it comes out of the engines, this increases the efficiency of
the system.
The large white burrito at the back is our insulated hot water storage
tank which is a LPG tank with different pipes sticking out of it.

Sunday, 24 April 2011

Chopping block


Making mirepoix for a cassoulet.

Garbanzo beans


Otherwise known as Chickpeas (despite the bad speeling).

Saturday, 23 April 2011

Spag Bol in a Bowl


Yummy dinner.

Smugmug lunch

I had lunch on Friday with Trav and Steph at Smugmug. They have there
own chef who prepares very healthy delicious food.


I had roasted tomato soup, grilled cheese sandwich with 2 cheeses (I think.), kale salad with a creamy Caesarish dressing, spinach, blood orange and some type of grain salad and asparagus with a very yummy avocado dressing.



And delicious fresh berries for desert.


This is a new print that the co-founder of Smugmug was showing off to a visitor. It's a panoramic print of Prague composed of 300 individual photos and printed on 10 panels.

Wednesday, 20 April 2011

Point Reyes.

At the end of March I hired a car from Zipcar and went for a drive. Here's the map of my travels.
I started at the Caltrain station in San Francisco (A) and drove north. After wandering around the Marin headlands (B) to get used to the car, I headed for some lunch at Hog Island oyster farm (C).

It wasn't a very good day, overcast with some rain.


The bridge and San Francisco from the Marin Headlands.


I think these are turkeys, not sure if they are wild or not.


The houses next to Hog Island oyster farm.


The car. ;)


The weather cleard up a bit by the time I got to Point Reyes (D).


There were lots of little inlets and gullies on the point. And cows.


The surf beach on the west side, nothing to the left until you hit Japan.


I was dismayed to see the hill next to the light house keepers hut covered in concrete, until I read the sign and worked out that this was the only way to get fresh water.


The point was made up of a very interesting conglomerate.




And there was a Gray whale skull.


There was 302 steps down to the actual lighthouse. Imagine having to climb these in the middle of the night, in a storm every 2 hours to wind the clockwork to make the light go around.


There were a number of tourists on the lighthouse.


The clockwork mechanism. The fans on top are used to regulate the speed of the shaft and there was a weight behind me that connected to the cable down the bottom to power it.


The new light on top of the old foghorn shed.


The old foghorns, the end was about half a metre across.


They have numbered the steps, but only so you can see them on the way up.


I drove up the highest point on the Peninsula and had a good view of Tomales bay, you can see Hog Island on the very left of the water.


I spotted a very cool looking mushroom on the side of the road.




Lookng back at Point Reyes, the lighthouse is over the hump in the middle.


The boatshack, just past Hog Island oyster farm


The sun came out as I headed inland towards Petaluma.


There was some flooding in the fields.


After a quick dinner at Wholefoods in Petaluma, I drove back towards San Francisco and went up Mt. Tamalpais, where I caught a stormy sunset.


It was a misty blue look back at the city. The bridge is to the right.


I went back to the lookout on Marin headland and took a reasonably good phot of the bridge. It was handheld and would have been better if I had my tripod.


I then took the car back to it's spot and went home on the train.