TRAVELS WITH MATTIE

There are signs that border the Midland School property north of Los Olivos, posted along the road meandering up to Figueroa Mountain. Some are carefully hand-painted on wooden monuments, and some are smaller and less celebratory and printed by machines on metal plaques. The headlines are the same: "This Land is Protected Forever."  When I see those signs, I wish that they existed at the borders of every remaining open space in California. Heartwarming, and heartbreaking. 

This weekend we had a BBQ! My best buddy Rick came into town on Thursday afternoon. Friday we went on an amazing hike from the cabin, along the Santa Ynez River, up the Aliso Canyon loop, over to Upper Oso, down to Lower Oso, and back to the cabin along the river on the most beautiful trails anywhere.  This guy, posing at the high point on Aliso.  And on Saturday we had a cabin BBQ! Great people, great food, and an epic dance party to end the night. ALL THESE GUYS IN THE SAME PLACE?!??? Cabin BBQ y'all.  Thanks to: Rick, Bobby, Sam, Sara, Adam, Becky, Robby, Guad, Sydney, Jeremy, April, Mary, Shannon, Rahsan, Emma, Louise, Paul, Kaitlin, Scott, Thatcher, Jefferson, Michelle, and Alex for bringing great food and drinks, being generally awesome, and making it such a fun afternoon/evening/night in the forest. You wonderful, wonderful people. More BBQs as we get into warmer weather and longer days! Got in another great hike this morning (the same l...

For the past few days, most of my time has been spent working on a paper.  But in my OTHER time, I have... ...watched my dog be totally confused by brazen turkeys...  ...sipped tea on a warm winter morning from the front porch while the turkeys goofed off in the yard... ...found new trails behind the cabin... ...stalked some big cats... ...played in the new snow on Figueroa Mountain... ...and spaced out with this view of distant dusted mountains from the Figueroa ridge... ...!!!

February 2013: THE CABIN GOES INTERSPECIES.

Hi everybody!  Things are incredible up at the cabin, and Mattie and I have been going on some great adventures.  We see a million amazing mushrooms on our daily nature walk (but still no chanterelles).  Whooaaaaa Here's the trail behind the cabin:  Mattie watches for turkeys. They live up here at night. I went on a hike up to the ridge behind our place yesterday and found another great mountain lion track! Big, deadly friends lurking near the cabin! For Valentine's Day, Mattie took me on an adventure through the riverbed. More bed than river, but a few good pools to cool off in. We found a great new trail across the river through a giant eucalyptus grove and meadow. Santa Ynez River(bed). My cabin is on that green hill in the far right of the picture.   We made new friends with creatures, including deer, ducks, and this guy: He's shy. AND THIS WAS MY VALENTINE'S DAY GIFT TO MYSELF!!! An amazing fossil r...

Got a good tip, woke up, went exploring, and couldn't believe my eyes.  Aaaaaahhhh the coolest thing in all of the land!!! Thanks to secret tipster. Got home, decided I'd hit a writing slump, and made a new office about it to get my brain going again. The new office. Mattie supervises.  Back to work - tons of work - but about as happy as I could be. Paradise Road is right. Love, Allison and Mattie (The Boss) Mae

Hi again friends and family! It's been all beautiful on Paradise Road, with new friends, bright skies, silly turkeys, our fox buddy, and wonderful visits with old friends from my hometown.  I'm trying to make up for time I lost with the flu, so am working my tail off - but not without a few breaks.  Last weekend I went to SLO for my Dad's birthday. We had a great time at the Melodrama, and it was fun hanging out with the crew (me, mom, dad, Dylan and Jessie).  This week I drove Danielle and Cole to the airport (they flew to Utah to ski for Nell's 30th birthday) and picked them up last night. A short visit, but always great to see them.  Yesterday, John and Mary Ljung (they're the ones I stay with in Mono City in the Eastern Sierras!) stopped by on their way back from LA. We had lunch at Cold Spring Tavern, checked out the old stagecoach tracks, and ate some amazing baked desserts made by their daughter Heather. Mattie and I were very sad to hear...