Today is the first day of (meteorological) Spring, so how fitting that the clouds have descended and there is rain on the way. We’ve had some glorious weather this past week, up to 27 degrees at the hottest point in the day but this next week will be giving us a taste of the British weather, with highs of 14 or 15 and more frequent rain. It looks like it will be a week of more sewing, museums and art galleries.
Silverlake
Last Sunday we headed East to Silverlake. As the name would suggest, there is a lake at Silverlake, although there’s a high fence all around it so you can’t get too close or be tempted to take a dip. Interestingly, we had to walk up a bit of a hill to reach the lake, which my physics-based brain finds counter-intuitive. We walked around the eastern edge of the lake, bumped into a Brownie and her mum selling Girl Scout cookies from a cart, so naturally I picked up a couple more boxes (the S’more cookies are amazing, I can’t believe they’ve decided to continue that flavour after this year), found a German pub with a ‘beer garden’ which was more reminiscent of a school playground with a few benches and umbrellas scattered about, and had some amazing Vietnamese food for lunch. I had grilled salmon with black coconut rice and apple and ginger slaw. Then we jumped back in the car to drive round to the west side of the lake, to Sunset Junction. There are lots of coffee shops, vintage shops and home decor shops on this side and we picked up a couple of thrift store bargains and Chris found a vintage suede jacket with tan, navy and green panels. After all that, we headed home to catch some of the SAG awards, looking for a glimpse of Rosa who was attending with the rest of the ensemble of Bridgerton.
LACMA
On Tuesday, Rosa and I spent a wonderfully relaxed morning reading and enjoying coffee on the rooftop of our building. I’ve been reading The God of the Woods by Liz Moore for my book club meeting next week – its a New York Times Bestseller which I don’t think has quite taken off in the UK yet, but I’ve seen so many people reading it in cafes over here. I highly recommend it – it’s set in 1975 when a teenage girl goes missing from a summer camp in New York State. She’s the daughter of the family who own the camp, and her brother also mysteriously disappeared some 14 years previously…
In the afternoon, Rosa went to meet some other friends in the city so I walked down to Chris’s office for a lunchtime coffee and catch-up with him, then I went to the nearby Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA). There’s quite a bit of construction work going on there (a welcome reminder of my life back in the UK), but still enough exhibitions on to entertain me for the afternoon. I saw an original Andy Warhol soup can, Magritte’s ‘Ceci n’est pas une pipe’ and a whole roomful of Picasso. In other parts of the museum, there was an exhibition for Black History Month and a digital art exhibition, showcasing the development of digital manipulation in art and filmmaking over time.
Carpinteria
On Wednesday (after an ihop breakfast) we headed up the coast to Carpinteria, just east of Santa Barbara. Chris had to run some errands for work so Rosa and I set up on the beach, sun-cream out, sunglasses on and books open. Carpinteria is a beautifully peaceful town (it does help that it’s currently off-peak season) with great restaurants (we went to Little Dom’s for grilled fish sandwiches), houses reminiscent of The American Dream, and a stretching white sandy beach, popular this time of year with surfers. On the horizon, the Channel Islands of California loomed out of the ocean mist, looking like the mountain peaks were hovering above the water.
The water is quite cold at this time of year. I dipped my feet in late afternoon when the sun was dropping lower in the sky and the day was chilling off – retrospectively, I should have gone for a quick swim at the hottest point in the day when the sun would have dried me off and warmed me up quickly, but by 4pm, the warmth had definitely dissipated so I opted out of swimming this time. We also discovered a lovely little coffee shop selling freshly made bread and pastries, as well as locally sourced honey from the Santa Monica Hives. I never realised quite how much of a difference the type of plant makes to the flavour of the honey. They had samples available of avocado, sage and wildflower honeys, each with their own distinctive flavour palettes. I bought a jar of sage honey then we headed back to the beach, sharing it with various gulls, curlews and even pelicans!
Hobby O’Clock
In addition to enjoying having time to read more — reading at cafes, reading at the beach, reading reading reading (which reminds me, I need to buy some more books) — I’ve been enjoying continuing my sewing journey, and cooking more varied meals. I love cooking, but when juggling work, Guides, and other volunteering and administrative roles that I keep signing myself up for, I usually rotate between a few quick and easy meals. It’s nice having a bit more time to plan what to make, try out new recipes and picking out ingredients at the supermarket. Supermarket shopping might be a bit more expensive out here, but the price generally correlates with quality. We’ve had some amazing tomatoes, berries and sausages from Trader Joe’s to name a few. RecipeTin Eats is becoming a favourite website for recipes – the smoky roasted tomato soup and the butter chicken recipes are already two of my favourites. I was a very picky eater as a child and didn’t really believe family members when they said my tastes would change as I got older, but of course they were right and I love international cuisine now – this week I made a Chicken Tinga (pulled chicken with cooked down tomatoes and a hint of chilli) to go into tacos and it was amazing if I do say so myself. Good quality ingredients and the right store cupboard condiments really do make a difference.
Back to the topic of sewing, having spent the first 10 hours of my 50 hour skills project learning the basics of my machine, I was ready to move on to something involving a bit more machine sewing this week, so I started working on a Cath Kidston tote bag pattern. This one is made from two different fabric patterns, one for the outside of the bag and a decorative inside pocket, and a different one for the bag lining. So far, I’ve sewn the bag panels and the lining panels. Next I need to sew the two together, add top-stitching and make the handles. I’m slowly getting better at stitching in a straight line, although I do keep forgetting to change my machine settings and having to unpick and redo seams when the stitch length and tension are incorrect. I also managed to catch the bottom seam when sewing the pocket on so had to make a slight adjustment to the pattern and trim the lining panels down to correct my mistake – it’s a learning curve!
I might hunt down a craft/hobby shop next week to get some sketching pencils and paper. I prefer sketching from photo references, and mostly in a cartoon, Disney-like style. But with the time I have and beautiful scenery surrounding me here, maybe I’ll give landscape sketching another go.
Santa Monica
Today I hopped on a bus for a first trip down to Santa Monica. I’ve been putting off this journey as it’s a slightly awkward one from home, with a couple of different buses, or a taxi and then the metro meaning it takes at least an hour to get there, but today there was an event on Santa Monica Pier that I couldn’t resist. Ihop were attempting a new Guiness World record for the most pancakes served in eight hours as an early Pancake Day celebration. I dutifully played my part and enjoyed a free short stack with syrup and butter before finding a spot to read on the beach again. By 5pm, Ihop had served 25,629 pancakes and were awarded their World Record Certificate. What a way to kick off March!
Signing off now from across the pond,
Rachel
Adventures in the USA: Rachel's Travel Diary 
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