Diagonal concerts

Yesterday magscanner  and I spent a lovely day in the East Bay. We started at the Harvey Clar auction gallery, where M got to satisfy his collecting urge vicariously (thank goodness!). We had a delightful lunch catching up with Lyn P, whom I barely saw at Potlatch last week. I was also able to give her my Potlatch consuite receipts and receive a check in return, so that is a fine thing too. Then we went for a long and strenuous walk up the streets and stairways of Berkeley above the university. That one of the streets is named Panoramic Way is a clue. Much amazing architecture and, yes, panoramic views.

Then we went down to the Cheeseboard, a wonderful worker-owned collective with fabulous cheeses, including Pleasant Ridge Reserve, a yummy cheese from Wisconsin that we fell in love with last May when we had it on a cheese plate at L'Etoile. The Cheeseboard even had it at a reasonable price (well, less than Whole Foods anyhow). Now I need to set up the delightful cheese safe that sbisson and marypcb ever so kindly imported from the UK for me (how did you find room in your luggage for it?! Much thanks!). It controls humidity so you can store cheeses in it unwrapped as they ought to be instead of sweating in their plastic wraps. Though I'm hesitant to mix blues with any other cheeses, and two of our purchases from yesterday were blue.

Since we're trying to get our feet in shape for extensive walking in Italy, we then embarked on a second walk, which turned out to have nearly as much rise to it as the first one, despite a lower rating in the book. It took us up near the Berkeley rose garden (though not to it, but that's okay because the roses aren't in bloom yet) and past many, many examples of Julia Morgan, Bernard Maybeck, and John Galen Howard architecture.

It was after 6 at this point, so we went back to Shattuck & Vine to have a quick meal at Saul's (really, it was quick! Yes, I know, we got lucky). Then we headed over to the block bordered by Durant, Ellsworth, Bancroft, and Dana streets to do something we've joked about but never done until now -- I went to a concert at one church and M went to a concert at another church diagonally opposite to mine. I saw Clerestory, a male a cappella group consisting mainly of former Chanticleer members. (Did you know clerestory is pronounced (and derived from) "clear story"? Years ago I was taught a more complicated but apparently incorrect pronunciation.) M's concert was The King's Trumpetts and Shalmes, featuring many hand-tooled wooden instruments (of sometimes dubious musicality, unfortunately).

Altogether, a most satisfying day. But we had better get a good walk in this afternoon before we start stiffening up.

More walkies

Yesterday I envisioned us going on a hike with a picnic lunch in the middle. What with a lazy start due to the DST shift, we had our picnic lunch in our backyard instead, then went for a brisk walk on a new (to us) section of the Los Gatos Creek Trail. The big difference between yesterday's and today's walks is that while yesterday's involved a lot of elevation gain, we were also stopping frequently to admire views, architecture, gardens, etc. Today, while we stopped a few times to look at waterfowl, the creek, etc., it was mostly brisk and non-stop walking, for nearly 2 hours. To which my feet were saying by the end, "Much more of this, you're going to have blisters down here, girlie."

Yes, I need to replace my walking shoes asap. I tried once but the Rockports I bought didn't work out, so they're going back. I'm thinking SAS this time.

We stopped at Cosentino's for groceries on the way home, and indulged ourselves by buying a garlic & pepper marinated pork tenderloin for dinner (very garlicky and peppery). That and a couple of roasted potatoes and roasted fennel made for one easy and delicious dinner. Now I'm marinating chicken for Chicken Marbella tomorrow night.