The Ukulele Project

After experimenting with many ukuleles I wound up with two that I like to play. My Gypsy tenor with a low G is my favorite for mellow tunes and especially for fingerpicking. For strumming I wound up with an inexpensive plastic uke – concert size (Flight travel uke). My Gypsy tenor was purchased from eBay – from a factory in Vietnam run by Bruce Wei (a luthier). It is made from solid (not laminate) walnut and as a gypsy it has a slightly different body, a zero fret and a slightly longer scale.

The idea was to have a matching concert size made for me.

Two Gypsy Jazz ukuleles
My Flight travel ukulele is concert sized – slightly Read More »

Big Waves

The morning walk took us to Spring Ranch to watch the big waves.
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My favorite horses

One of the first things Linda introduced me to after we got married was horseback riding. Then, for the next thirty five years we ro de almost every day. I lose count of exactly how many horses we have known but three stand out as my favorites and I know two that make Linda’s favorites list.  Paco takes first place.  Paco was a born in captivity mustang who came to us very young and very green (untrained).   I began riding Paco in the dressage style and when trail riding we donned western saddle and bridle.
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Paco

A monkey in the garden

It doesn’t take much to make a rather boring walkway into a pleasant space.  When we moved into our mobile home the entry way took us through a succulent garden full of very common succulents.   Making it more inviting would involve some more plants, and a central focus.  The idea was simple enough; we would make the entry way into a Buddha garden. I envisioned bamboo hedges with a gentle Buddha statue in the middle. Off we went to Sacred Woods down in the harbor.   Sacred Woods is one of our favorite places in the harbor, full of imports from the east.  Round and round we walked, looking at all the cool statues. After about an hour we wandered back together to compare notes.  Neither Linda nor I found a single Buddha statue that appealed.  There was one thing though, one that “spoke to us”.   Amazingly, we both really liked the Hanuman statue.    Read More »