A couple of beers with Maria at Blue Cow Deli:
Coffee with Linda and Ade:

Caroline. We first met in Mexico years ago and once owned catamarans. No more! But the friendship stuck.

Girlfriends are the best. You know what I mean.

I got some juice from Tom and Julie in Dixon, but then one of the guys Justin works with gave him three large bags of whole pomegranates.
We borrowed Merrilyn’s juicer and Dave set up a work station in the garage. Phyl (mostly) and I cut the pomegranates and – bless his heart – Dave squeezed out all the juice. 92 poms!

Time to make jelly.

Phyl and I drove up to Penn Valley in Justin’s truck to do our version of “American Pickers” at a storage unit in Penn Valley, but our additional purpose was to pick up some California Golden poppy seeds for an upcoming RLEHS project – 8 lbs to cover 30,000 square feet. Stay tuned.

This nursery focuses on organic growing only.

This is a long-standing annual Rio Linda event held every October at the American Legion Hall.


It’s simplicity makes it a special event. A microphone is passed from person to person.

Stories are told, memories are shared. Old friends are found.

Ray Sisler with Danny Mott.

Thank you very much to Joyce Buckland for organizing this event.

And I was the only one in the room who came for lunch in between two part-time jobs. Lol!

Cousins and neighbors and two gorgeous cakes from Freeport Bakery.

Three local artists were invited to speak. Dave Massengale, Kathy Dakan, and Neata Antonelli.

Dave specializes in military aircraft, the waterfall is by his wife who teaches painting through the local parks & rec.

Neata’s style is photo-realism.

Kathy and her husband Glenn (pickleball too) have been friends since I had her oldest son Shane in 6th grade at Westside School. 20 years ago? At the Sunday Social Kathy shared a great story about how her artistic self recently emerged into the public after 20 years of creating. Her show at Ambrosia Cafe in downtown Sacramento closed recently. Kathy’s style is stippling or pointillism. From her show:

Fairytale Town, Sherwood Forest.

Friends,

food,

fun.

L-R Cousins Jeffrey, Leo, Lauren, and Sophia.

Kristen and Thais, friends since they were less than 1 year old.

Lenin’s sisters, Leah and Holly.

Dick”s cousin, Bobbi Castle passed away unexpectedly recently. Today, there was a memorial at her home in Rio Linda.

Caroline and Peter. Caroline is Leta’s sister, Dick’s aunt and Bobbi’s aunt.

L-R: Mark, Clara, Carolyn. It was inspiring to talk with Clara. I’m an 11-year retired teacher, she’s a student teacher out of UCDavis. She’s young, energetic, so bright and ready to tackle the complexity of being today’s teacher. There is hope!

I always seem to run into friends from different community connections like Lillian Smith who was Bobbi’s next door neighbor but also a recent speaker at a RLEHS Sunday Social, a Master Food Preserver. Below L-R, Nicki Sadek from Calvary Lutheran and Jo Messner from … too many ways to describe.

I gathered 29 pounds of walnuts the last two weeks of September. The pace picked up in October. The temperatures dropped and a big wind blew through this week. There were lots of walnuts waiting for me. Some on the ground, but lots ready for picking. Reaching up is better than stooping over.

Taking the hulls off

meant stained fingers, my usual October condition.

In 24 hours, I gathered 93 pounds! And slept quite well each night. Each grocery bag is about 15 pounds.

Total so far = 228 pounds. Last year’s final total was 204 pounds.