Photo essay – click to enlarge

This morning Karen and I went for a walk along the beach.

We started in Santa Monica and ended up in Venice along the boardwalk, where vendors were just setting up.

The boardwalk is an interesting place.

We started our walk around nine, and the surfers were already out in full force.

It was a pleasant day for a walk: sunny, clear, and slightly warm. Not too breezy.

We saw lots of kids and dogs–probably more dogs, I’d say. We also saw lots of birds.

The funniest thing we saw was a big group of what appeared to be baby seagulls.

I first spotted them all in a line on the beach, running toward the water. I tried to get a picture of this sight, which made us both laugh, but they were too quick! So I had to settle for taking pictures of them as they had their breakfasts. They would walk onto the wet sand and stick their heads to the ground. They must have been eating, but I don’t know what. Bugs?

Then, as soon as a wave came in, they’d turn right around and dash toward the dry sand, tiny legs blurred with speed. They were really fast, and it was entertaining to see such tiny birds speeding along.

Two more photos of the birds (you’ll see them better in the larger versions):

After we’d been walking for about twenty-five minutes, we turned back toward Santa Monica.

We went to the farmers’ market, which was fun. Craft stations and pony rides for the kids! Clothes, but I stayed away from them for financial reasons! And lots of hot-food stands, which were all fancy enough to be more like caterers’ setups. We chose a crêpe place and bought our breakfasts to eat on the grass. Karen had a strawberry-banana crêpe topped with whipped cream and chocolate, and I had a buckwheat crêpe purse filled with spinach, goat cheese, and egg. I also bought a pint of fresh apple-peach juice from another vendor.

After we ate, we explored the market and bought some food to take home, and I tried to find some flowers. The best vendor had a huge long line at his stand, so I skipped it, but no one else had anything I wanted. The stands were all filled with gerbera daisies and standard-issue mixed bouquets. I wanted something delicate and cheerful, like ranunculus (the yellow ones in the photo [link broken]), but a little less head-heavy. When Karen saw that nothing in the market was to my liking, she said I could cut some of the sweet peas Caroline had growing in the garden. Bingo! Exactly what I wanted. When we got back to Karen and Caroline’s, I went into the backyard and clipped happily.

Caroline put the sweet peas in a plastic cup with water and it sat fragrantly in my car’s cupholder till I got home.

On the way home I stopped at every garage sale I saw, and scored two gem muffin pans, and a PAPER CUTTER! I have been wanting one of these for ages. (If you need to ask why I need one, you haven’t known me long enough!) When the guy told me he was selling this one for $2, I almost hugged him. But he didn’t look like he would have liked that, so I didn’t.

Now I’m back at my apartment, and my lunch is a bowl of the baked beans I made yesterday. They’re not bad.

The end! (Or, as this guy says, “the AIND!”)

[This post was imported on 4/10/14 from my old blog at satsumabug.livejournal.com.]