The other day, someone gave us some Pepper Plant barbecue sauce, made in Gilroy, California, and we decided to give it a try on some chicken breasts.

The bottle of BBQ sauce.

My husband has barbecuing down to a fine science. We use a Weber Grill and plain charcoal, which we light with the use of a chimney starter.

The chimney starter lights your coals quickly and without the use of lighter fluid. I think we learned this trick from an old episode of Alton Brown’s show Good Eats, and it definitely works more efficiently than lighter fluid does. (Not to mention it’s more cost-effective in the long-run, since you never have to buy another bottle of lighter fluid again once you have a chimney starter.)

In the end, we had chicken breasts and kabobs with leek, bell peppers, and mushrooms. We sat at the top of the hill in our backyard looking out over the Petaluma hills, watching the sun set. Since it was January, we needed some blankets and candles, but otherwise we were quite comfortable.

There are a lot of spectacular hikes in Sonoma County. Maybe that’s why I never paid attention to Helen Putnam Regional Park in Petaluma. I had read it was an easy 2.8-mile hike, and because it seems like it is in the middle of town, I had it in my head that it was going to be a city park with a jungle gym and a lot of planted landscaping.

But to my delight, I discovered that Helen Putnam Regional Park is a lovely park. A concrete road takes you over a series of hills and down to a little lake. In January, with the endless oak trees and everything green from winter rain, it feels like walking through one big meadow. I sat by a lake, climbed a hill, ate an apple, saw a jack rabbit, and looked at a lots of spectacular views. Here’s some photos:

In between all the other things I have been doing, I’ve been experimenting with wire working. Above is part of a necklace I made this week.

To make the necklace, I cut 50 pieces of copper wire at 6.5 inches, curled both ends with pliers, and then hooked them together.

I’ve been playing with beads since high school, but I like working with wire more. You have no need for crimp beads or clasps or connectors or anything like that. However, I now understand why metal necklaces are so expensive. They are not hard to make, but time intensive. Good thing they look good on.

Oh New Cup! So fresh and clean. Yet to have coffee stains, yet to have cracks and chips. How I enjoy drinking lattes out of you. How I enjoy looking down at your cheerful-yet-elegant design. I thank you for brightening my morning.

Hail new cup!