Camping and some Duly Needed Unplugging.

Many of you know that our lives here in California have been turned upside down in the last few months. A few days ago, our Governor signed into law legislation that forces each and every child to be fully up to date on all state mandated vaccinations in order to attend school. California now has […]
Winter Camping

One of the great perks of living in Southern California is that winter doesn’t prevent us from going camping. The evenings and early mornings are cold… cold enough to need gloves and hats… but soon the sun comes out and warms up the day and by 9.30am we are in T-shirts and shorts again. There’s […]
Camping in Julian, CA

Julian, CA, is one of our favorite camping spots. We stay in a campsite that has a little pond. Teddy loves to fish. We wake up early to fish, when the shadows are long and the light is golden. Kitty isn’t much of a fisherlady. But, I did catch her saluting the sun. Autumn in […]
Camping Food Favorites

We discovered some new camping food favorites on our recent camping trip. Firstly, Teddy is our resident fire man… he is in charge of gathering the supplies we need to start the fire. He sets the fire expertly with crumpled up newspaper on the bottom, twigs and kindling arranged like a teepee over the paper […]
Camping in the Wheeler Gorge Forest, Ojai, CA

When city life gets too much for us and we find ourselves fractious and irritable, we pack up our camper van and set off into the wild. We have found so many beautiful, out-of-the-way places in Southern California… some as close to us as only an hour away. This time, we tried a new camping […]
Camping Activities

We took the kids out of school for our recent camping trip to Big Sur. And promised that they would do ‘homeschool’ while we were away. The girls dove right in. Their task was to pick an animal, tree or bird from Big Sur to learn about. Kitty chose a bear, her friend a minnow […]
Camping at Big Sur, CA

FIVE glorious days camping amongst the Redwoods at Big Sur, CA. We are all so happy when we camp. We are carefree and relaxed. Our days revolve around hikes and BBQ’s and fun. We unplug and unwind. We swim in the river. We build dams like beavers. We laugh and live and learn and love. […]
Unplugged and Ranging Free.

We ended our two-week Spring break with a burst – 4 days of blissful camping with wonderful friends. Oh, what a gift it was to be out in the wild places, watching our unplugged children ranging free. No computers, TV’s, phones (except to listen to the daily Oprah/Deepak meditations), microwaves, radios, Starbucks, washing machines. Lots […]
Cactus Fruit

Cactus fruit ripen to their best in Southern California at Christmas time. The fruit turns a lovely rich red color and, as Kitty pointed out, with the green of the cactus leaves, it’s starting to look a lot like Christmas in the wild places around here. Cactus fruit, or prickly pear, is a delicious fruit […]
The Great Outdoors

Here are some fun pics from last weekends camping trip. Lots of acorns, autumn leaves, puppy love, archery, treasure collecting, reading, apple pie, crafting, cook fires and, at the end of it all… tired children and puppies. Blessings and magic, Donni