Good Things List No. 70: Southern California, Natural Brushes, Book Reviews & More

A monthly list of good things to see, buy, read and watch.

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As I type this there is still snow outside our windows on the hills – but I am already in a spring mode thinking about the garden (dreaming up some new plans), spring cleaning (the windows- ack!), and lighter clothes.

I guess I’ll just ignore the snow and cold? This is pretty much every March around here. Not so much in Southern California where we spent the last week of February – maybe that’s why I have such spring fever!

Here are the good things I’ve got for you from February – I’d love to hear any of your good things, too, in the comments!

Good Things List

Southern California Trip

We bought direct tickets to fly to John Wayne Airport on a cheaper airline and found a two bedroom place to stay with a little view of the ocean on Airbnb for a mid-winter surf trip for my husband and daughter. (And oh my gosh – can I just fly everywhere direct? SO much easier and less stress!)

I get to walk and relax on the beach (and take pictures) so I always tag along! We lucked out on the weather – most of the days we were there had some sun with highs in the 60s. The week before had the “atmospheric river” with torrential downpours and the week after brought all the cold and huge snow in the mountains.

I had a great time watching them surf and enjoying the warmer weather, and also just seeing the lifestyle there with all the beach volleyball, biking, walking, and surfing – so different from our life in February!

They surfed at Doheny Beach State Park which was a 5-minute drive from where we were staying.

While we were there we visited the San Juan Capistrano Mission and the cute town surrounding it.

Most of the mission is reproductions of original buildings and there are the ruins of the main church that was hit by an earthquake in the 1800s.

Of course what I loved most about the area was all the flowers that were blooming in February – look at those roses!

We also visited the farmers market and the pier at San Clemente which was just about 10 minutes south of us, as well as going north to Laguna Beach for dinner with our niece and Newport Beach to meet an online friend.

Going in the off season meant that the traffic wasn’t bad and there were no crowds. We really enjoyed this area and how it was close to a lot of other things to do.

Natural Bristle Brushes

In an effort to eliminate another source of plastic in my kitchen, I bought some wood and bamboo handled brushes with natural bristles.

And when they came, they were so cute I decided to put them in a small pitcher by my sink to be able to use easily (versus under the sink where the ugly plastic ones were – though the biggest natural bottle brush is still under the sink because it’s too big for the pitcher!)

Which meant I had to find something to hold it along with the soap, sponge, and Bubble Up brush. I pulled out a small round cutting board I wasn’t using much and they all fit perfectly.

Useful and cute – I love it!

Here are the Natural wood/sisal/bamboo kitchen brushes I bought:

• pot scrubber brush (comes with two extra heads)
• sisal bottle brushes (the largest one is under the sink)
• brown cup/bottle brush (similar to the one shown)

February Reads

This image makes it seem like I didn’t read as much as normal, which is true since I usually read/listen to about 8 books, but I actually read six books in February. Since three of them are all in the Stella and Lyndy mystery series, I’m just showing one cover for them all.

Murder at Keyhaven Castle, Clara McKenna, Narr: Sarah Zimmerman. And Murder at The Majestic Hotel, and Murder on Mistletoe Lane. I finished this series I talked about last month with one of my favorite narrators with these three books. The title characters – Stella and Lyndy – finally get married in the Keyhaven Castle book, take their honeymoon at the Majestic Hotel, and celebrate their first Christmas on Mistletoe lane. They are just fun books to pass the time with interesting characters, light mysteries, and a sweet love story in the background.

Blandings Collection Vol 2: Blandings Castle Books, PG Wodehouse, Narr: Stephen Fry. I think I wrote about this collection before, but Brian and I finished listening to it this last month and the final stories had us laughing out loud! Oh gosh, Wodehouse’s take on Hollywood in the 1920s is hysterical. We think it’s based on his experience writing for Hollywood, too. Again, Fry is a master with voices and just brings them and the situations to life. Good stuff.

The Flying Circus, Susan Crandall. I remember really enjoying Ms. Crandall’s Whistling Past the Graveyard, so we listened to this based on that recommendation. While I didn’t like this quite as much, it was still a very interesting story about the very early days of aviation and the “barnstorming” shows former WWI pilots would put on with all the decommissioned planes. Most of the descriptions are based on real life planes, pilots, and daredevils at the time (men and women would walk on the canvas wings in flight with no safety belts!). The story of a trio – two young men and a woman – and how they came to know each other and fly together held our attention. Mainly because the author gave them serious issues and backgrounds to overcome and deal with. My only complaint was the rushed ending – so abrupt after the sometimes meandering middle.

The Secret Life of Flora Lea, Patti Callahan Henry. Well. This book has a lot of good reviews on Amazon, and I waited quite a while to get it from the library, but it just didn’t hit the right notes for me (and I’ve enjoyed Ms. Henry’s other books). Number one, the premise of the thing was completely unbelievable, as is the explanation and ending, so there’s that. But that doesn’t always stop me from enjoying a book. This one also had a main character that I just didn’t care for who did things I wouldn’t think would actually happen. And it just went on and on, repeating the same images and remembrances over and over. Bringing in the American writer? That never really flies well. I gave up about 3/4 of the way and skipped to the end.

Watching

Argylle, in theaters (now on Apple+). I’m sad this has gotten bad reviews – Brian and I thought it was a lot of fun! The director set out to make a PG-13 spy/romance he could watch with his daughters like movies from the 1980s, which is totally needed in today’s movie landscape- thank you! And this has a lot of comic-book, over-the-top scenes in it that just made us laugh – totally spoofing the serious spy movies (think Tom Cruise’s Mission Impossible). It was also refreshing to see a real size woman play the romantic lead (Bryce Dallas Howard) and Sam Rockwell was a hoot.

That’s it for another addition of the Good Things List!

If you’d like to see more of what I’m enjoying, you can check out all the Good Things Lists here. I’d love to know what you think – if you’ve tried any of these or what you’d recommend. Leave a comment below with your thoughts!

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