San Jose, Redux

I'm baaaack!! I've missed being a part of the blogging community... not enjoying my mom's ancient computer that takes FOR-EVERRR to load a page, I didn't get online. As you may or may not have noticed, my last posts were all from my iPhone. Therefore, I couldn't share with you the pictures I took with my camera. Or, maybe I could have, but I'm not savvy enough to know HOW!


So a few things to share with you... 

Starting with the cool views from the plane, which always entrance me. I love the shining river in the third photo.... it's like a silver thread woven into the fabric of the earth below.

Strangely, it rained on our first full day in San Jose, which is odd. It RARELY (I'd say never, but it just happened) rains in the summer in California! I mean, I'd only lived there since I was six, but I feel like it was rare enough for me to feel a bit surprised when it happened.


On our walk to the park that I grew up visiting, we also saw some really old, large trees, which K thought were pretty awesome, and I had to agree.

Mom & K under a large pepper tree... the trunk was about 7 ft in diameter!

There were lots of birds, geese, ducks, and a few that I wasn't sure WHAT they were, but have seem them my whole life.

And back at my mom's house, her garden has grown MORE amazing than ever...

She has all sorts of vegetables, herbs, fruits, flowers... it was so prolific that I had to tell K about "back in the day" when San Jose was an agricultural center for the States, and all around us there used to be farms and orchards. (I'd heard these stories from teachers growing up, and indeed, the orchards that had surrounded my schools are long gone now.)

My mom knows how to bring the outdoors in... sitting on this window bench that my step-dad made, you can watch hummingbirds up close! All kinds of little critters visit... mostly birds, but a few squirrels, too (which drive Jo Jo crazy, he being the family dog.)

And a few of the ways she brings nature around is to have feeders and bird baths. Also, she's planted a lot of flowers outside the windows which the hummers love to feed on. It's exactly the kind of garden I had back when I lived in Fremont. Full of life!

She also added elements of bonsai, through the use of a grapevine, which has been there for years. She gets delicious grapes on them, too! We took a lot home with us!

There are other interesting elements in her yard, in the form of little scenes... she has statues that used to be inside (bought when we lived in Japan) which she got tired of having in the house. They became outdoor ornamentation, and seem quite happy there!

We really enjoyed spending time outside, as you might recall from my other post. Mom would serve us tea that she'd made from her own herbs, and which were delicious! It was quite relaxing and enjoyable... I'll miss it!