An interesting day . . .
I started my day with this beautiful fresh squeezed glass of orange juice . . .   mmm even more fun in a wine glass

I squeezed 2 oranges and it over filled this glass by a lot, this is a special treat!
















We took a drive this morning and ended up at Hart Park.  It is a huge 370  acre park eight miles northeast of Bakersfield.  We saw a white cat, and then a black cat and then as we started looking around there were cats everywhere.  Neither of us are really cat people and to be honest it kind of gave me the creeps.  When I got out to take pictures they were sure eyeing me up and vise versa. Apparently there are about 100 in this area.  Irresponsible pet owners drop them off here - at one point there were over 400 abandoned and feral cats in this area. There is an organization that feeds them and tries to get some of the tame ones adopted and the feral ones "trapped and altered" (whatever that means)   http://www.lifewithcats.tv/2011/05/19/the-cat-people/

There were also some peafowl  - there is a large flock of them in the park

and some ducks and geese

Honk Honk!  - this goose did not want to move off the road.  What is in the water at this park anyway?

  See the brown ones in the centre? I have no idea what kind of geese these are.  They almost have a bit of a waddle.  The front one was digging a hole to china for some reason.







Apparently there is a huge flock of parakeets in this park as well.  They are not native to this area but some were released  at some point and their flock is growing.


I also saw a heron and an egret at this park.  It was kind of eerie with all the cats and the geese that just sat in the middle of the road and wouldn't move plus we were the only humans in the park.



We  also went to the Kern County Museum.  It is a huge complex with all kinds of old buildings from the late 1800's and early 1900's.  It also had a big section devoted to the history of the oil and gas discovery in this area.  It even explained how the oil and gas got there in the first place. It had a lot of hands on displays, including a movie theatre and a little capsule that was called a diving bell.  We went in side the little capsule and it had a peephole where you could see what you would see if you were to go down through the earths layers. The capsule itself moved and vibrated to give you the illusion you were actually going through the earth's layers.

 Yup, that's Don with an umbrella - it was raining!

There were some beautiful old houses.

 I just loved this house - it was built in 1891 and donated to the museum some time in the 1950's

 This is an adobe house

this is the inside of the adobe house

There was a whole town, with all the shops, jails, hotel, hospital etc.

 California Sycamore tree - remember when we saw this tree at Red Rock Canyon mom?  I think this is such a pretty tree and the leaves are huge!

There are still lots of pretty flowers blooming.  How lucky to still be able to see these!

 I have seen these a lot here but do not know what they are.  It is a really woody bush and they bloom like crazy!

Then we went back home and I baked

 Caramel walnut brownies with Ghirardelli chocolate

Corn Bread Muffins.