I always wonder, when we are in some extremely remote place, whether it is possible to be stepping somewhere that no person has ever stepped before. Case in point……. while in Oregon, on the trails we have always gone mushroom picking, we had to do a LOT of bushwhacking. There has been extensive logging in these areas, and trying to find THE M SPOT that we used to go, entailed a lot of pushing our way through the brush getting totally soaked. In effect, we were not really looking for mushrooms, but looking for the trail we used to find mushrooms on. (well it was not so much a trail, as an area, we called the LOST FOREST, because we have been lost there before) We took 2 totally different approaches to find the lost forest, and in essence never did find it. We DID find mushrooms on our way to find the forest. I guess we could not find the forest for the mushrooms.😀

OH LOOK, what have we here? A pine mushroom. I guess it has been a good year for pine mushrooms with a colder snap and then a warmer snap. The cold snap sends the nutrients in the trees down to the roots and the arrival of nutrients at the roots is what stimulates the pine mushrooms to grow.(AKA Matsutake)

I did not actually take any pictures when we were bushwhacking because there is not much to see when you are lost.

I thought this tree was kind of cool, growing right out of a cut stump. Emerging from the ashes of long ago logging.

We did find lots of Chanterelles too. I pull them apart and wrap them in towels and then place them in a bag, that is how I find they last longest in the fridge. It also verifies that they ARE IN FACT chanterelles. (most mushrooms do not tear, like pulled pork)

On this trip we have decided to try to do more hikes in the areas we are in, not ALWAYS looking for something…. rocks… mushrooms. The landscapes is so different down here in California. Finding campgrounds that are near hikes has been a struggle here… the campgrounds near the cities are just basic parking lots, and extremely expensive. We ARE country folk and feel lost in city areas.

Great hikes near Santa Margarita lake (reservoir) and very, unusually, wet weather. (central California)

Storm coming in…….Looks like a medieval painting.

Getting further south we did the Santa Paula canyon trail up towards the waterfalls. VERY different hike, crossing the creek many times balancing on boulders.

I realized I have never seen an avocado tree up close, and the hike went past an avocado grove. One MIGHT be tempted to grab an avocado. …. but there was a sign to tell you that that was illegal and you could face up to 3 years in prison for taking one 😲…. so we left them on the tree.

I must say that I have never seen an oil rig up close either, so it twas a day for firsts. The first part of this hike was through private land, and we passed 2 oil rigs.

Of course lots of Mexican influences, after all this USED to be part of Mexico before it was annexed.🤔

We have taken a real interest in doing jigsaw puzzles that are compilations of old posters. I watched this VERY GOOD video on how to epoxy a puzzle. THIS guy is hilarious https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HVy7YShSz3Y&t=9s. Even if you do not want to do the project, the video is fun. We have several of these puzzles and plan to decorate our spare bedroom with these pictures…… epoxied.

So we spent a few days in Ventura and despite me having just told you about our preferring the country VS the cities, we DID love Ventura. It is like an old fashioned city on the ocean. VERY funky and very environmentally conscious.. This is a favourite place of ours, the Harvest Cafe. A vegan restaurant…. they make their own cashew milk (just like us)

Our main interest in Ventura is this wonderful lady CINDY. She has just come back from the COP27 International Climate change conference. The specific aspect of climate change that she has focused on is the huge way the military contributes to climate change. The military emissions account for 6% of global emissions. I have heard it said that the US military contributes more to climate change than most countries ….SO YET another reason why diplomacy is such a better approach than more weapons. (not to mention the lives lost, homes lost etc etc)

While we were there Cindy did an interview about her COP27 experience on VFP radio hour and she was asked if there was any music she thought might add to the podcast and she sent my song Canary in a Coal mine. So here is a link to the interview which ends with my song. https://open.spotify.com/episode/26TPP5ATEQVtaFgnOfSqCo?si=El8kdOumRhCHLFBq2FtTxw

The show hosts sounded interested in more of my music for future interviews.

We had a wonderful time, as usual, with Cindy. She shares our antiwar views, and it just so comfortable to talk with someone who has been doing this for 40 plus years. GO Cindy go.

We also went shopping in Ojai, and sort of broke the budget. My sister says if you ever find a dress you love you need to buy it because when you are specifically looking for a dress you will never find one you love 👗 So I have this CRAZY idea that I might wear a dress sometimes.

We are having a wonderful trip, trying to change it up a little, not just rocks rocks and more rocks. 😀

However we have been gone for a month and have just arrived in Barstow so today we are going off to find Opal of different colours. We have had a few days on beaches rock hunting up in Oregon

OH and Cindy has had her late husband John’s, leather jacket for years and really wanted Ken to have it. Kevin Costner???????

Stay tuned for amazing Toques… I am learning how to Crochet.

TTTTTHHHHATS all for now folks……. much. love… Janet, Ken and Tucker, who did not even get mentioned once in this blog.