A WEEK OF NEW

A bushy grey tail with dark rings scooted out of the door of the downstairs bedroom as I walked in and turned on the light. We had left the bedroom door open to allow in the fresh air. The door let in something else as well. A raccoon, I'm sure, who came to check out the new residents. I didn't see the animal's face, but the rings on the tail let me know what kind of bold creature had visited our new place.

The backyard of the rental where we are staying for a couple of months leads down to a lagoon and faces west so the sunset is blue, yellow, and shadows. I thought of mosquitoes as the sun disappeared, but no insects buzzed around our heads. The doors don't have screens like they would on a Minnesota lake where at dusk everyone comes inside, listens, and watches the bugs surrounding the porch lights.

A new place and a perfect time to make a sketch-a-day diary of what catches my eye. We've already found the local corner shopping center just a short walk away with two restaurants, a small grocery, an exercise studio, and a coffee place where we hope to spend some mornings.

We've driven to Santa Cruz to one of our favorite bookstores and snagged a bag of books to keep us reading. We found another set of shops in Aptos with two excellent restaurants, the Red Apple Cafe, for breakfast and lunch, and the Bittersweet Bistro for dinner. We haven't gotten organized enough yet to start making meals at home. 

With each box I unpack, I sigh, "Did I really need to bring this?" And then I remember why. If I had left the box in storage, the contents would have been what I really needed. Packing light has never been my forte. This time, we left screwdrivers and pliers in storage since we rented a furnished place and thought we wouldn't need them. We could have used those tools when I opened a kitchen cabinet door, which fell out of its top hinge leaving me to hold on to the door until I could get it realigned with the base and back in place. No tools needed!

I don't have my watercolors out yet, but I've decided to use marking pens and colored pencils to make my diary. I've pulled out the templates made by Nico Ng that I bought earlier this year and hadn't had time to use. I'm ignoring for the day the rest of the stuff that needs to be unpacked. I am ready to begin.

Nico Ng and all his helpful products can be found here:

https://nicong.co

The Red Apple Cafe in Aptos:

https://www.redappleaptos.com

The Bittersweet Bistro:

https://www.bittersweetbistroaptos.com

Cafe Cruz 

Don’t be fooled by the entrance on the street side:

https://www.cafecruz.com/