There is the friendly neighbor cat, who feels right at home…even waits by the door to come in (though she is never invited.)

There is a mushroom house occupied by two cheerful gnomes.

Nearby you will find a rabbit, a deer, a few ducks, and other statuary.

The most recent addition we noticed on our last visit was a little door in a previously unoccupied hole in the walnut tree.  This attracted a great deal of attention and speculation about the occupants, although they did not appear at home when we knocked (many times).

The wildlife varies but is always entertaining. This large green beetle appeared out of the blue a few weeks back, the only one we have ever seen. It must have been lost or taking a rest stop on the way to somewhere else.

“Hurry! Before the car breaks!”
— The kid tries to get her parents up and out of the house

Before we visited my mom on Sunday Jill said, “You should make another family history video!” I was feeling slightly less than energetic, but since it’d been a while since my last video, I hurriedly packed some cameras in a bag and we set off.

Once there, my mom gave me a drumstick (yay!) and I parked myself in front of her TV to watch some HGTV (I can watch stuff ‘Professional Grade’ and ‘American Handyman’ for hours!)

“Hey, aren’t you going to video your mom?” my bothersome lovely wife asked.

I gave a low Wubie grumble as I unglued myself from the comfy confines of the La-Z-Boy, muttered a cheerless goodbye to Mike Holmes, and went outside.

Once mom agreed to the interview, I grabbed my ultra-cool Canon 60D…and discovered I’d left its battery in its charging cradle at home. Awesome.

“Oh well,” I thought, “that’s why you bring backups!”

So I pulled out my trusty Flip camera and handed it to Jill. She was taking on the dual role of both interviewer and camera person for the video. I grabbed my other backup, (yes, I brought along three cameras!) wrestled with a tripod for a bit, and we shot an impromptu interview.

And it was a lot of fun.

Some notes:

• Next time I shoot a video with two cameras I need to make sure they’re both recording at the same rate. I had lots of audio sync issues while editing this video
• Because of the audio issues, I ended up cutting the interview into two parts. I hope to post the second part later this week
• Boy, am I glad Jill shot video w/ the Flip during the interview. I started the edit thinking I wouldn’t use much of her Flip footage; I ended up using most of it. I like its saturated look
• Jill was the all-star here. She’s the one that prodded both me and my mom for the shoot. It was her questions that kept the interview going
• Less than halfway through the shoot I had to leave my camera as the kid ‘volunteered’ me for a game of ‘Chase Me’
• I made the beginning of this video (the pan over all of the photos) a few years ago as a test. I never used it for anything (except for a post), so I thought I’d make it the intro for this video. The music is “Mr. Blue Sky” from the Amelie soundtrack

Yesterday we wanted to get in a little outdoors wandering before the rain started up again.  It was a bit late in the day for Filoli so we went to the lovely Elizabeth Gamble garden instead. It feels a bit like a mini Filoli.

The main difference that is completely unlike Filoli is the traffic noise…it is surrounded on all sides by busy streets. I would guess it hasn’t always been so, and it must have been a most tranquil spot when Elizabeth Gamble first lived here.

The grounds have a vegetable garden area where elementary school kids have been allowed to plant,  gorgeous rows of flowers, and several secret nooks with water fountains in them. By far madame’s favorite part of this garden is the rabbit topiary.

Afterwards we stopped at a local patisserie for a macaron and next door got a really giant balloon…alas it popped as soon as it got home.
Today it’s expected to rain all day, so we will stay indoors and dry…and probably make chicken soup and pumpkin bread. Fall is here!

The next day, she was inspired to make a caterpillar house and look for caterpillars while visiting grandma’s.

She didn’t discover any caterpillars, though grandma reported seeing some lovely green and black ones on her tomatoes a few weeks back. But she did find two green grasshoppers on the geraniums next to a rose bush.

So into the caterpillar (now grasshopper) house they went. They didn’t stay long, but they humoured L and didn’t seem to mind too much. After testing out the box they went back to napping on the geranium.

Maybe next time she will find a new insect friend!

At Grandma’s house there is a perfect hole in a tree, which would be great for the saucy squirrel who lives nearby.

At Filoli  in the olive orchard (pictured) there are so many nooks and crannies in the trees it must surely be someone’s home.

Perhaps elves or gnomes, or relatives of the mice of Brambly Hedge?

“Mommy, where’s my goggles?” – Lucy preparing to cook

The youngest member and I were invited to a party at Filoli, an after hours stroll for members.

Madame handled her first garden party with aplomb. She enjoyed the hors d’oeuvres, particularly the crackers.

She waited patiently to go in the house,  listening to the barbershop quartet.

She was excited to go upstairs (usually not allowed, but open on this special occasion) and see the rooms up there.

In the ballroom she entertained the guests with some impromptu ballet to accompany the piano player.

She enjoyed herself so much, she didn’t want to leave…even when her tuckered mom was ready to go.

Do you know what I dreamed about last night? Caterpillars at Filoli! - Lucy

One of the neat things about visiting Filoli is that you never know what you will see. The flowers are changed often, and the wildlife varies as well according to the season.

Recently we have seen wild turkeys and deer, and even both in the same day! The turkeys are hilarious…very self-assured birds who sometimes walk in front of a car, puff up, and gobble gobble at you.  The deer are so used to Filoli that they do not bolt at the first sight of visitors…esp. since we stay mostly at a distance.

There is also a resident rooster at Filoli, and though we have never seen him, we hear him often. Sometimes they let one of the chickens roam around in the garden…the last time that happened, Lucy was just a baby. She was scared of it even from a distance, and wanted to run away.

Oddly enough, her grandmother was also scared of chickens. She related this to me one time when we were walking through Filoli (possibly the same day as the chicken episode). Lucy has also shown a great dislike of chickens and roosters at petting zoos…so I think this might be an inherited trait.

Anyway, the last few visits we have been noticing…caterpillars! There are the little tiny green ones that dangle on strings hanging out of trees and get stuck in your hair (they have these every year at Stanford too), and the regular sized ones with stripes or spotty patterns. Here are some of the cool caterpillars we found recently.
Anyone able to identify them?

“Wubie put on his nighttime pants with sardine sausages and I put on a pretty dress. And the dress had lots of balls of kittens!”
— The kid adding to our usual “Lucy and Wubie” bedtime story

2010.12 Gma Vita Visit (Panasonic HM-TA1 Test) from Mike C on Vimeo.

We closed out the weekend with a nice visit with Gma Vita. Luckily, we were able to spend some time in her backyard before the rain hit. Once it got too wet, we retreated inside for an impromptu concert by Lucy. Her rendition of “Raindrops Keep Fallin’ on My Head” was a big hit.

Later, Lucy and her mom helped Gma Vita decorate her Christmas tree. (I used this time to take a nice nap on the La-Z-Boy. It was awesome!) Somewhere between the singing, decorating, and napping, we hammered out details for an upcoming vacation we’ll all be taking together early next year. Lucy can hardly wait!

Daddy: “You know, you don’t have to use all your trains at once.”
Lucy: “Yes, all the trains have to be used at once in the world we live in.”
— a conversation w/ Lucy while playing w/ her train set

Family History Part 1 from Mike C on Vimeo.

“Perfection is the Enemy” is something I often remind myself. I guess it’s a variation on… googling …Voltaire’s “The Perfect is the Enemy of the Good.”

For me, waiting to get something “perfect” or “just right” often equals not doing anything. So I often need to tell myself to chuck that “striving for perfection” stuff out the window and to just try to learn, create, and get better at things on a continual basis (in between goofing off and being lazy, that is.)

So, I finally heeded this advice regarding a long delayed family history project I posted about last week.

Part of this project involves filming short, quick video interviews. My mom, good sport that she is, agreed to sit down with me for the very first interview (with two cameras rolling of course!) This initial video concentrates on her memories of growing up in the Philippines before WWII. I hope to do many more videos.

Some notes from this first shoot:

• I brought two lights and both bulbs burnt out before I could even use them
• It was fairly quiet outdoors until we started shooting—that’s when the neighbors started with the firecrackers
• I’m glad I used my old directional microphone, or the firecrackers would have ruined the shoot
• With no lighting I was worried about having a dim picture but had the opposite, too bright on my main camera (I toned it down a little in post)
• I need to learn more everything that has to do with video (shooting, editing, etc)
• I need to get a better selection of family photos and interview questions
• http://incompetech.com/: Royalty-free soundtrack music. Cool
• This video was shot in 1080p/24fps but was outputted to the web at 720p/29.97fps (something else I need to learn about)
• This was a lot of fun and I learned a lot—what more could I ask for?