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To live and enjoy every day to its fullest, use my gifts to help others, I travel to wherever passion finds me.

What Will She Paint?

So many friends I met here...!

Monday, July 26, 2010

ENJOY WHILE IT LASTS

Waiting for summer in California was this year like standing in a line of 300 people and being the last one! But I finally am wearing one of my dozen shorts and sleeveless tops! Ahem, I probably have more than a dozen...


A summer in California is a walk on the beach  (Corona del Mar)
But no matter where I am in the world, in the summer people go out more, enjoy  and relax more.


Even got my good friend E. to paint with me, one day early at the beach. We were college buddies in Holland. She always wanted to draw, but never got to it. So I helped her as much as I could in the short time she was here. After her vacation here in California she has been painting oils in Holland!  Yay, I love it when I can get people to develop what has been inside of them all along.
I never finished that drawing...shhh, don't tell!



Summer in California includes ice cream! This state I've been told is one of the highest on eating ice cream. My favorite  is a mix of chocolate,  vanilla with a hint of rum, and  pistachio nut (the Italians call it spumoni). 

But ice cream is not everywhere as much valued as in the USA. Where else in the world can you get 31 flavors?? 
When we were in China a couple of years ago, we were celebrating my birthday in Shen-shen, a very modern city across from Hong Kong on the mainland. We were in a big restaurant. The waitresses all had long beautiful flowing dresses. The menus were also in English. I wanted ice cream as dessert, but couldn't make it clear to the waitress. 
I even got help from a 7 year old boy who spoke flawless English. He listened in on our conversation with the waitress. Then he ran back to his mother, who told me that the only way to get any ice cream is to go to the little shop around the corner, where they had frozen treats in their small fridge. When I asked how they got to talk such immaculate English, they said that it was from watching American movies!


What's your favorite ice cream?




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18 comments:

CorvusCorax12 said...

great pictures...i like butterscotch ripple and puppy paws...Ice cream is also excellent in Germany

Jeannette StG said...

Twain,
Butterscotch...I gotto try that, friend! All of Western and Southern Europe has very tasty ice cream, and...more expensive:) Don't know about Eastern Europe, because somehow I never ate it when we were there.
Decades before Starbucks came out with frappucino, I loved the ice coffees they made in Eur.

Clytie said...

I love your ocean shots. Sigh.

And then you have to torture me with ice cream!!! Meanie! I am not allowed to have sugar, sat. fats, or sodium - talk about taking the fun out of life!!! I try to save up to have one dish of ice cream every once in a while ... something with chocolate and caramel and .... yeah.

Irene said...

I like a very good vanilla ice cream myself, though I also like frozen raspberry yogurt. Oh, now I want some very badly. I'll have one banana split.

Dimple said...

You were waiting in line for summer?!
Well, I haven't lived in CA for a very long time, so I guess anything is possible!
Ice cream...I don't eat it anymore, for some reason it doesn't agree with my insides, but I used to like anything with chocolate! And then, coconut, but I only could get it at oriental restaurants.

NitWit1 said...

Anything vanilla or combined with vanilla; like pecans, caramal, amaretto, etc.

I loved the explanation of English. I hope the movies from which the language was learned, was not considered examples of us normal average Americans!!!

Rudee said...

I'm stuck on peach ice cream this summer. I'm thinking of making a raspberry coulis sauce to douse it in. Mmmm.

DawnTreader said...

We eat lots of ice cream in Sweden. Even in the winter but especially in the summer. My favourites are still vanilla and chocolate.

California Girl said...

Hard to believe SoCal had a slow start to what many think of as a year round event. In the northeast, it has been quite the opposite. We usually have a short short summer, July & August, with July full of rain. Our summer began in April this year and it's been a surprisingly hot one, too hot in fact.

The world is turning on its ear.

Reader Wil said...

Thanks for your comment! I just read that the train was empty except for four Italian men who were supposed to service the train. The train was driven at a very high speed. The Italians probably didn't know how to handle this train.
My favourite icecream??
When I was 5 years old we were in Holland for a year and my aunt wanted to treat me to an icecream, but I asked for peasoup with a lot of sausage in it. But now I like ice-coffee. I learned to drink that in New Zealand. It's delicious!

Jeannette StG said...

Clytie,
Ow, that's hard, so sorry you have to control all these normal urges! Chocolate and caramel is a good combi:) Heaven will be doubly sweet then, because you'll be able to eat anything!!

Irene,
You're my kind of pal, rasberry yogurt AND banana split at the same time...just kidding:)

Dimple,
this year is highly unusual! But it maybe heightened that since last year I started living 20 min. from the beach, and it's at least 8 degr. lower than where I used to live, more on the other (East) side of L.A.
Do you mean coconut ice cream??

Nitwit,
No use trying to explain - everywhere else in the world (also in Holland where I come from, they have no idea how 80% of Americans live, simple and hard working and often without vacations.

Rudee,
Oh, peach is a good choice. Peach anything...peach cobbler, peach tea...you name it. I've never tried to combine peach with raspberry. Invite me when you make it!:)

Monika,
I didn't know that about the Swedes:) Have you ever tried to combine vanilla and chocolate with anything else? (I guess that's what they often do here)

California Girl,
This year has been the most unusual year weather wise since the 20+ years I've lived here. But may be exaggerated by the fact I'm living now close to the beach.
Your summer is short, but still better than in Western Europe - Holl. has an average of 23 days of sun per year.

Reader Wil,
So, now Italians are working in Holland too? Hard to keep up with the changes when one doesn't live there anymore:)
I smiled about the 5 year old who wanted pea soup.
Isn't ice coffee good?? But I heard that the frappucinos from Starbucks have a lot of sugar.

crochet lady said...

My favorite ice cream is Chocolate Mocha Mudslide, which is made by a local company called Olson's. It is too die for delicious!

Jo said...

Oh, how wonderful...! My favorite ice cream is Häagen-Dazs vanilla bean ice cream with raspberries. Yum!

Jeannette StG said...

Jen,
I don't know the company (it maynot be in California?), but the flavors sound yummy!

Jo,
The first thing I saw is that you keyboard has the umlaut (the two little dots above the vowel) -what keyboard do you have?
Haagen-Dasz-anything tastes delicious!

Rosie said...

It is so dull and grey here today so I've enjoyed feeling the warmth of sun from your beach photos and the cool taste of that ice cream. I prefer chocolate, toffee or fudge flavours in ice cream rather than a fruity flavour. Having said that last year I had rose petal flavoured ice cream and it was lovely:)

DUTA said...

I like ice cream in winter. In summer it makes me thirsty.
There are several flavors I can enjoy: chocolate, bannana, capuccino, vanilla.
I'm not at all addicted to it, and in summer I always prefer fresh fruit and a cold drink.

Jeannette StG said...

Rosie,
Glad that this post lifted your spirits:) Rose petal...mmm, I've never tasted that in ice cream, only in a rose lemonade (an Indonesian delicacy) - do you remember which brand it was?
Toffee -yum, really good!

Duta,
True, it makes me thirsty too. I think it's an association my brain makes with "ice" - it must be cold/cooling, LOL!
Duta with a combination of the flavors you mentioned, I'm thinking of "banana split" (do you have that in Israel?)

DawnTreader said...

Oh yes Jeannette, of course I have tried other tastes of ice cream than vanilla and chocolate, and also in combination with those. I could have some sort of fruit sorbet with that, for example. Pineapple or mango or strawberry or raspberry or...