Jackie's Blog

My favorite fish/meat shop is Poppy's in Morgan Hill. A couple of weeks ago, Mike the owner, said he had signed up to join the Morgan Hill Police officers and have his head shaved in aid of St Baldrick's , a kids cancer charity. Very impressive to have 18 police officers do this I know, but my first thought was their hair is pretty short anyway. Mike however had LONG hair- way past his shoulders, halfway down his back. I took a picture of him a few weeks ago but it doesn't show his pony tail. I missed the event itself but I did take a photo of a photo.. Today I saw him for the first time since the event.. It's growing back already! PS Mike raised $4,100 for St. Baldrick's and the police officers raised $13,000. Mike also donated his locks to Locks for Love - another non-profit organization that provides hairpieces to financially disadvantaged children in the United States and Canada under age 18 suffering from long-term medical hair loss from any diagnosis. Grea...

...and my photograph every day for my blog has slipped a bit recently. I still take at least one picture every day because I do my 365 self portraits . I belong to both the main 365 Flickr group, with currently 14,556 members, and to another smaller group with only 216 members. The latter are very supportive and fun, so we comment on each others' photos and it is quite an incentive to post one. The blog takes a little longer to do and I don't have so many interesting things to talk about on a daily work grind basis- but I try! Today, we did the usual chores and finally ended up at Sycamore Creek Vineyards for their 2007 Chardonnay and Pinot Noir release. The Chardonnay was their oaked version, but I prefer their Naked Chardonnay. This is only their second Pinot release and it is really nice. The grapes come from their Santa Cruz Mountains vineyards and it is a really good balance between fruity and smoky. It's still young, so will only get better but we like it! To accompa...

This should say it all...

Why is it all or nothing with tomatoes? I grow mine in containers or bags of soil (or both), and this year decided just to do the small cherry tomatoes, but they all seem to have ripened at once.. and why just the day before we are going away for a long weekend? My peppers are looking pretty good though!

This is my third day trying out a new way to commute to work for me. The Monterey Salinas Transit . It's another bus service, but with more comfortable buses and a WiFi connection, so I am actually typing this whilst on the bus on my laptop. It does mean that I have to bring my laptop but I can also catch up on my photos and my blog- it's a bit wobbly though!

This past weekend was one of those amazingly busy Morgan Hill weekends. It all starts with the Friday night music series. Everyone sitting around with their chairs or blankets at the small outdoor amphitheater behind the Community and Cultural Center watching and/or dancing to the live band. Everything from country to R and B, Blues or Rock and Roll. I've now come to prefer this location to the old 3rd street location- it just makes so much more sense. Saturday morning I joined the Morgan Hill Photography Club for the 2nd annual Scott Kelby Worldwide Photo Walk. 32,600 people took part in their own cities. We basically wandered through the downtown area taking lots of photos. It was very hot and I didn't find the perfect picture but it was fun all the same. My favorite pictures turned out to be the ones of people.. I still got to go to the market- my favorite Saturday morning "chore"... We then spent a couple of hours pulling my new motorbike apart and making absolut...

The wonderful thing about living in Morgan Hill is all the events that happen. Last night the annual 3rd July street dance. There are food and drink booths selling their wares for charity and a band. They close off all of Monterey Road in Downtown, and thousands of people turn up to drink, dance and socialize. It is a great atmosphere! People are very serious about holding their spot for the parade the next day, and they set their chairs out ready in their favorite spot and tie them together and leave them out overnight!

Last night I suddenly realized I was due to go to the dentist this week and it turned out to be today. I had a funny conversation with a bus buddy this morning, about his wonderful dentist- about the fact that his dentist and the whole practice was really friendly and helpful. He said they had a massaging chair, they let you listen to your own music and even their receptionist was wonderful. I just knew he was talking about my dentist too.. Santa Teresa Dental

Memorial Day weekend is Mushroom Mardi Gras in Morgan Hill, and this year was the 30th anniversary of the event. Carl and Tracy, and Joe and Jill joined us on Saturday to wander around. It is largely an event to "raise funds for educational scholarships, which are granted annually and provides an opportunity for many local non-profit organizations, clubs and schools to create awareness of their cause". There are lots of people selling products, food, games and rides. For us it is just an opportunity to catch up with friends and support (by eating and drinking a glass of wine or two) some local causes.

Today I took several photos at lunchtime and was quite happy with the options I had by the time I got back to the office. Typically, when I found the picture I really did want to take, I did not have my camera with me.. only my iPhone. I was at the gym and went in ready for the Pilates class and there they were- as I had never seen them before. All the exercise bikes were lined up in a very neat row. I love repetitious objects. This was not the best photo I took today, but the most interesting one..

Today is Thursday, and the weekend is almost here. We have tidied the house and are almost ready to take off for the weekend after work tomorrow. We are both getting into work early so we can leave early afternoon and try to escape the rest of the traffic that is trying to leave the Bay area for the weekend. We are heading towards Healdsberg- in the middle of wine country, to visit friends and go barrel tasting over the weekend. I have days of blog entries to write as I probably won't get the time to over the weekend. Today was a day of plenty in terms of things to write and photograph, so here goes... Thursday- meet my favorite bus driver.. This cheerful chap greets me with a huge smile every day at 4:05 PM. Today he let me take his picture. He is always smiling and always gets us home on time. For Friday- Bus stop advert This ad appeared this week on the bus stop shelter and it bugs me! It is an ad sponsored by the Department of Health and Human Services. What bugs me is that th...