And just like that it's winter again in Southern California. After a few days around 80, the high hovered in the low 60s. It was back to wearing a sweater and a vest. The sky is a leaden color, but I don't think it's going to rain.
I just sent off the manuscript to Classy Yarns and I can sit back for a minute. Though not for too long. I had pushed everything aside as I pushed to finish the manuscript and now all of that is waiting. The first order of business is to update my website. It is a matter of deciding what changes I want to make and writing some copy and gathering up the cover photo, an excerpt and a photo of the project.. I will get it done over the weekend.
The trip to Ojai last Saturday and the information I read about the small town and the surrounding area made me want to send Molly there in the next book. I already am putting together a plot in my head and then I'll come up with arcs for each of the characters.
We had gone to Ojai on a weekday before and it was relatively quiet. The weekend was much different. There were lots of tourists like us. The playground Jakey loves is in a park that had a new age type music concert going on. There were lots of people sitting on blanket enjoying the relaxing sounds. I could just see the couple who were making the music from my spot in the playground.
It turns out there is a whole lot more to the park than I had realized and next time I plan to do more exploring. I was surprised to read that the population of Ojai is just under 8,000. It is nestled between mountain ranges and is known as an energy vortex. There are no chain stores. The stores all seemed to be small businesses with an artsy feel.
I missed it, but hope to see it next time, but near sunset there is something called pink time when the Topatopa mountain turns pink.
We took a detour on the way home and checked out Lake Casitas. The ride there was through lots of open spaces with mysterious gated roads hidden by trees and greenery. That's another thing, thanks to all our winter rain, all the open spaces are a bright spring green. I love looking out the window and never get bored. Jakey on the other hand has his nose buried in a video system and has no interest in looking at what we are passing.
We only looked at the lake from outside the fence. It's a dammed up river and surrounded by hills and open spaces. The reason for us checking it out was to see the water park. It was closed now, but would be great in the summer. I don't think Molly will be making a stop there, but Jakey will when it gets warm.
That is if it ever happens.