I’ve been gone for more of 2025 than I’ve been home. From the Middle East, to Indonesia & the Cook Islands, to Austria-Hungary and the former Yugoslavia, which included six Intrepid tours and more explorations on the front & back ends, I was ready to unpack my suitcase!
Correspondingly, in spite of a lot of trips, we’ve not missed a La Honda summer since moving here. So it was time to get back into the homestyle groove. This random batch starts with my last flight, ML’s quiche, a long-awaited bike ride, and GPS proof…!
The only-three-years-old Portola Valley Palooza is the new summer kickoff – a week before the La Honda Fair, and practice for our locals since I reckoned half the bands are from LH, ie. the Squirrels of Wisdom and Zanzibar, here first.
One of my new favorite local artists is Paul Loughridge who puts together objets trouvés into interesting sculptures. And, in addition to cute kids and the Zanzibar horn section, is Bundy Browne (with Guitar Gypsy), who will appear again at the LH Fair.
His Mom was worried about messing up his voice fronting a punk rock band, so amazingly, our son Charlie turned to singing in an opera instead! Thanks to the guidance and encouragement of particular music professors, he played Antonio in the Marriage of Figaro at UCSC. We went to two of the four performances, and on one night a whole crew of his La Honda homies were in the front row. Another night Nancy & Jered came and we went for dinner afterwards at Chocolat. Some pix…
A random collection, again! Found this dogtag in our backyard (gopher contribution?), a huge cage on the side of the road, Todd Wright’s cool renovation, dead squirrel, crazy art thing, Liz Chapman’s garden, Dave Meyrovich playing Lit Night, a trip to downtown Redwood City (San Mateo County Planning & Building), and four views of the new paint job on our old house…
The La Honda Fair. Starts with Bundy on the porch Friday night (here with Birdie), then Skalonda, some fair booths (focusing on friend & photographer Chuck Clark), and some distinctive locals. Amazingly, new friends Mike & Sarah (with whom I explored the Cook Islands earlier this year) came all the way from Oakland to groove to our hippie beat, and Gary Gates closing the show – of course…
Our two UCSC graduates, test driving their commencement gear. Flowers, in our yard and beyond. And a walk in the woods with my neighbor George…
Thanks for checkin’ my pix, and especially.for reading this sentence!