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Mar. 6th, 2011 06:27 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
auntiemeeshThank you, all my lovely friends, for the kind and thoughtful birthday wishes. I've had a lovely day so far.
My dad called me first thing this morning, actually getting my birthday day right for the first time in years. He's had a lot of health problems this past year or so but he sounded a lot better than he has in a while, and it was only a little awkward talking to him.
Some friends treated me to a delightful brunch this morning. We went to a little place called Coca Cafe, which has the feel of a coffee house, but the kitchen of a restaurant. They open at 10, we got there at 10:05 and they already had a forty minute wait for a table! So after putting our names on the list, we wandered a block or two down the street to Espresso a Mano for some coffee and a warm place to wait.
As soon as we walked in the door, I could tell this was a place that takes their coffee seriously. I ordered a latte and discovered that I was right.
It also tasted really good.
We hung out with our coffees until a table opened up and then wandered back down the street to eat. I'd never been to Coca Cafe before, but I can definitely recommend it. I ordered the Almond French Toast, which came with strawberries and lemon cream sauce.
Since I was taking pictures, Friend D wanted to take a pic of me with my food. Good thing I made an effort to be presentable this morning!
The thing about today that I was not expecting was the inch of snow on the ground when I woke up, and the persistent snowfall that has continued all day, despite the fact that weather.com assured me this morning that it was raining. It's only just barely freezing, and the snow is sticking to every single little leaf, twig and branch. Very pretty in a rather bleak, monochromatic way.
My original plan for today was to go for a walk through the neighborhood and see if I could find any early spring flowers (I know that there were some crocuses and such out yesterday). With the snow, I changed my plans slightly and walked through the cemetery instead. It's a very wintry looking day; the sky and ground are the same color, with only the darker grey of the trees to provide a break between them.
I was able to find a bit of color, here and there, even amidst the snow and stone. Some subtle hints that spring is right around the corner:
The snow can't completely hide these green holly leaves:
And even a bright, cheerful splash of color:
I was surprised that my camera captured anything other than a blur of color, with this one. The wind was blowing it briskly enough that my unaided eyes couldn't distinguish anything more specific than that.
There were lots of robins about, with large egg-laden bellies. Did you know that the American Robin and the European Robin are barely related? Neither did I, until today. The Am. robin is in the Thrush family, while the European Robin is a Flycatcher. Learn something new every day, right?
I haven't been for a walk through the cemetery in ages, but it's a lovely place to take a stroll, even on a cold and snowy day like today. The only downside is that the paths are a bit maze-like and I pretty much always get a bit lost and turned about when I venture very far in. Today was no exception. On the upside, today I managed to find the pyramid, which never happens when I'm actually looking for it.
A few other structures:
This one actually had a lot of green moss or something all over it, but it just seemed like it would work better in black and white.
As I mentioned, the place is a bit of a maze. It's also kind of big, and there are only three entrances. After I'd been walking around a while, the wind picked up and it started to get a little unpleasant, with the snow driving directly into my face. Time to head home, only which way would that be? I eventually found myself on one side of a hill, with the entrance/exit I wanted almost certainly on the other side. But the path wandered off to the right and would likely branch go off in unpredictable and unexpected directions, with no guarantee that any of them would take me where I wanted to go. So I took the path less traveled and climbed over the hill in the snow. Luckily, I was right and my gate was on the other side.
And now, the sky is all pink with sunset, I'm in my snuggly Life is Good pjs, I'm getting ready to heat up some left over chicken vindaloo, I have dark chocolate to eat for dessert, and movies to pop into the dvd player. I declare this birthday a rousing success!
My dad called me first thing this morning, actually getting my birthday day right for the first time in years. He's had a lot of health problems this past year or so but he sounded a lot better than he has in a while, and it was only a little awkward talking to him.
Some friends treated me to a delightful brunch this morning. We went to a little place called Coca Cafe, which has the feel of a coffee house, but the kitchen of a restaurant. They open at 10, we got there at 10:05 and they already had a forty minute wait for a table! So after putting our names on the list, we wandered a block or two down the street to Espresso a Mano for some coffee and a warm place to wait.
As soon as we walked in the door, I could tell this was a place that takes their coffee seriously. I ordered a latte and discovered that I was right.
It also tasted really good.
We hung out with our coffees until a table opened up and then wandered back down the street to eat. I'd never been to Coca Cafe before, but I can definitely recommend it. I ordered the Almond French Toast, which came with strawberries and lemon cream sauce.
Since I was taking pictures, Friend D wanted to take a pic of me with my food. Good thing I made an effort to be presentable this morning!
The thing about today that I was not expecting was the inch of snow on the ground when I woke up, and the persistent snowfall that has continued all day, despite the fact that weather.com assured me this morning that it was raining. It's only just barely freezing, and the snow is sticking to every single little leaf, twig and branch. Very pretty in a rather bleak, monochromatic way.
My original plan for today was to go for a walk through the neighborhood and see if I could find any early spring flowers (I know that there were some crocuses and such out yesterday). With the snow, I changed my plans slightly and walked through the cemetery instead. It's a very wintry looking day; the sky and ground are the same color, with only the darker grey of the trees to provide a break between them.
I was able to find a bit of color, here and there, even amidst the snow and stone. Some subtle hints that spring is right around the corner:
The snow can't completely hide these green holly leaves:
And even a bright, cheerful splash of color:
I was surprised that my camera captured anything other than a blur of color, with this one. The wind was blowing it briskly enough that my unaided eyes couldn't distinguish anything more specific than that.
There were lots of robins about, with large egg-laden bellies. Did you know that the American Robin and the European Robin are barely related? Neither did I, until today. The Am. robin is in the Thrush family, while the European Robin is a Flycatcher. Learn something new every day, right?
I haven't been for a walk through the cemetery in ages, but it's a lovely place to take a stroll, even on a cold and snowy day like today. The only downside is that the paths are a bit maze-like and I pretty much always get a bit lost and turned about when I venture very far in. Today was no exception. On the upside, today I managed to find the pyramid, which never happens when I'm actually looking for it.
A few other structures:
This one actually had a lot of green moss or something all over it, but it just seemed like it would work better in black and white.
As I mentioned, the place is a bit of a maze. It's also kind of big, and there are only three entrances. After I'd been walking around a while, the wind picked up and it started to get a little unpleasant, with the snow driving directly into my face. Time to head home, only which way would that be? I eventually found myself on one side of a hill, with the entrance/exit I wanted almost certainly on the other side. But the path wandered off to the right and would likely branch go off in unpredictable and unexpected directions, with no guarantee that any of them would take me where I wanted to go. So I took the path less traveled and climbed over the hill in the snow. Luckily, I was right and my gate was on the other side.
And now, the sky is all pink with sunset, I'm in my snuggly Life is Good pjs, I'm getting ready to heat up some left over chicken vindaloo, I have dark chocolate to eat for dessert, and movies to pop into the dvd player. I declare this birthday a rousing success!
