Shakin' All Over

Welcome, flustered reader, to something of a new era: yes, we now appear to have a functioning adult in the White House, by which of course I mean Kamala Harris. But anyway, enough of the politics. What else has been shaking it up here in the heart of Silicon Valley for the last week or so?

Well, frankly, it's been seismic. Literally seismic. Earthquakes are most definitely a thing here, and I've previously reported on what that feels like. Helen felt a couple of small earth tremors before the holidays which I didn't spot, but imagine the scene last Friday night: there I was, reclining in my finest silks on my purple velvet chaise longue, when that item of furniture seemed to start swaying slightly. And so it was, when I checked the website of the US Geological Survey, we'd had a 4.2 magnitude quake, with the epicentre just outside Santa Cruz, about 40 miles from here.

Now it's well known that most of the California coast, including San Francisco and the Bay Area, is built on or very close to the San Andreas fault. As a result, just a stone's throw from where we live, is the headquarters of the US Geological Survey, which we often walk past on our daily perambulations.

But this wasn't the only natural phenomenon to upset the proverbial applecart this week: California also suffered from high winds. Of course, it's all relative: I'm talking about the kind of blustery day which you'd have roughly twice a week in October in the UK, but here it's a once-a-year phenomenon which no-one is prepared for, so the fact that there was a tree down in Los Gatos was worthy of a 5 minute segment on the local news.

We weren't entirely immune from the damage associated with the wind: Sean and Ermintrude took a tumble and had to move to a more sheltered spot:

We also did our best to continue our culinary adventures here, picking up some of the local delicacies from a baker's stall at one of our many farmer's markets as part of a walk last weekend. The farmer's markets are one of the best things about living here, and there's really no equivalent to them in the UK: local producers come out weekly to sell their wares, with three separate markets at walking distance from our house, and another really good one just a few minutes' drive away in Mountain View.

Anyway, this week, we partook of a ham and cheese empanada, which is basically Spanish for pasty:

There's also a fad here for fusing two baked goods into one. A few years ago cronuts - donuts made of croissant dough - were all the rage, and Google being basically the Californian embassy imported these into London. Well, last weekend we sampled the scuffin, which I believe is intended to be a fusion of scone and muffin:

The person who thought this had anything to do with a scone had clearly never seen an actual scone, but anyway, it consisted of a heavy, scone-y, wholemeal dough, with a fruit filling. If anything, more of a sconut than a scuffin, but there we are. You have to try these things.

And I'm sure we'll be trying more of them as time goes by, as Helen has decided to throw herself into the local culture even more by learning some Spanish! Every Thursday afternoon, she sits on a Zoom call where someone tells her really useful things, like the Spanish for "penguin". I'd have thought the crucial phrase to learn in 2021 was "you're on mute", but maybe that's coming next week. Anyway, the course required us to go and buy some notes from the local adult education centre, which is part of Palo Alto High School. They had some pretty nice artwork and history of the school there, which was nice to see:

Since the quake last week, we've not felt another, and for now the fault seems quiet. Experts seem to agree that The Big One is coming some time in the next 30 years; I'll need to go and order that earthquake survival ration kit!