Chipmunks Love Crab Season

We just wanted to share this shot. This is right in front of our cottage. You can see the Ocean, the trees, and some of the lovely architecture. You can see all of the things that are awesome about our area right on our 9 acres -- giant redwoods, whales, meadow, lawn, flowers, birds, Victorians -- and best of all -- mini donkeys.

Chunk is nudging me, "What about the food?"

He has a point. All of this would only be half as good without our amazing cuisine, based on our organic, local produce. Crab season is still underway too!

Chunk is supposed to be changing careers but he's still pretty food-oriented. Hard to blame him though, considering.

Is it me though or is Chunk perhaps enjoying the new breakfasts at the Inn at little bit too much?

Here he is at our private beach. He was supposed to be leading a meditation retreat down there.

It's very peaceful and yes, it is the perfect spot for a picnic.

Or some yoga, Chunk.

Podengos do the darndest things!

Here's the world's smallest hunting dog, enjoying our pristine, private beach on one of our ridiculously unseasonably warm days.

The weather continues to be balmy and Heidi is going nuts with her bird watching. If you've never seen a miniature donkey using binoculars...Well, you haven't been hanging around our cottage.

The second best place to bird watch after our 9 acres of gardens, meadow, and woods is the Mendocino Coast Botanical Gardens, just North of us on Route 1. They even have guided birding walks as follows:

Early Bird Walks: 3rd Wednesday of the month at 8:30 am

Beginning Birding Walks: 1st Saturday of the month at 9:00 am or go to this link:

Birdwatching at the Gardens

 OK Heidi? Hope you're happy now! She's bird-mad this spring -- which has definitely sprung in our parts.  Come up and see for yourself.

 

Family-Friendly Mini Donkeys

Even teenagers find us irresistible! Here's a recent visitor to the Inn who fell madly in love. And who can blame him?

Yes, we are family-friendly up here. Everyone knows we love dogs --- but kids are pretty cool too. There are board games in all of the cottages and high speed Wifi (kids need that, trust me).

Many of the cottages have more than one bedroom, and more than one bed per room. Some of the luxury houses have full kitchens and multiple bedrooms and private hot tubs.
 
This boy in particular liked the private beach across the street. He even refused to leave when everyone else was going back to the Inn, but luckily, it's close enough that he could find his own way back.

You'd understand if you'd been to our beach.  Hawaii's got nothing on us.

Summer in January?

OK, so Heidi's been going on and on and on about the weather lately but -- wow!

You have no idea. It's in the 70s this week -- a good ten degrees warmer than in San Francisco.

Ha!

Take that.

A natural paradise on earth.

And Pacific Tapas is open 7 days now.

Did I mention Sangria on tap?

What goes better with sunny weather on the beach than that?

You can watch the sunset over the Pacific from the windows of the new place too. Over your Sangria on tap and some delectable little plates.

It is still January right? Unbelievable.

Crab & Wine this weekend!

Hi from Heidi!  

Good news all.

The fun-filled Crab & Wine Days starts this weekend up here in Mendocino.

Just in time for this fabulous spring weather.

Mid-60s? Check! Sunny? Check!

Fresh local food by our amazing local chefs? Check and check.

There is an annual crab cake cook-off, many tasting dinners,  wine tastings at our wonderful wineries, and so much more.

Who wouldn't want to be here? The ocean, the sun, the food...

We are the luckiest mini-donkeys in the world.

Heidi out!

Birds are everywhere

I call that a sure harbinger of spring but Chunk calls it a menace! As you can see from this photo (and excuse the poor quality of the shot -- chipmunks like to take pictures but I never said they were any good at it), Chunk is sick of competing with jays four times his size for his breakfast.

Sure there's plenty to go around but chipmunks are hoarders by nature and their pouch is always half empty. Chunk is fattening right back up these days with the new breakfast regime at the Inn. Even better than before, which is saying a lot about a breakfast that at least one guidebook editor has called one of the best he has ever had at a B & B.

So no wonder poor Chunk struggles with his waistline. His back stripes are starting to wrap around his sides but Heidi is shaking her head at me. She doesn't feel that appearances are fair fodder for the blog.

Please! Joan Rivers and her ilk would be out of a job if we didn't all love to discuss what other people looked like. With awards season upon us, Heidi is going to have to cut me some slack. I MUST criticize January Jones' Golden Globes gown! Freedom of speech for mini donkeys! That gown was just the worst. She must have been chilly, even in Los Angeles.

We, on the other hand, have been blessed with wonderful spring-like weather up here!  60  degrees on the coast, thank you very much.

A perfect week to read at our private beach...Now I if I can just get Heidi to hand over the new People magazine. Hypocrite that she is!

I'm a Whale Watcher

Hi from Heidi!

Monique thinks I'm a nature-loving nut, but this time of year I get very excited because we start to see the really heavy part of the grey whale migration -- a movement that peaks in March, right around when the local towns have their annual whale festivals. (Little River's is March 12 and 13th this year.)

The wonderful thing about our whales is that you can see them right from land. Guests at the Inn can even catch them from our hilltop hot tub outside our Creekside spa in a yurt or from their private balconies or hot tubs.

Of course there are boat tours too but not everyone enjoys being on a boat -- including me -- and especially not on the Pacific when it's rough weather.

Another option for landlubbers (those of you who don't have the vantage point we have from Donkey Cottage) is to go to the wonderful Mendocino Coast Botanical Gardens or Point Cabrillo Lighthouse, not too far from the gardens, where I have heard the Mother Whales leave their babies directly under the headlands in a sheltered cove and go in search of snacks.

The lighthouse is just a fun place to visit in general because it has won awards for its amazing restoration of the keeper's house and other buildings and there is a museum and mini-aquarium there.

Monique is poking me, telling me it's too soon to start going on about whales since the festivals aren't till March, but the whales are coming by NOW and I'm too excited to keep it to myself!

Pt. Cabrillo Lighthouse

Bye for now!

--Heidi

We are HUGE in Canada!

Or we will be shortly.

Check out this post from an editor for En Route magazine, the magazine for Air Canada:

http://enroute.aircanada.com/en/articles/best-road-trip-ever?p=9

No, your eyes do not deceive you, that is us in the background (or NOUS, as they say in the parts of Canada where French and English are legal equals).

Bonjour Canada! Hello! We love you! Nous vous adorons!

3.5 million people apparently read this website and magazine...

And all of you are welcome to come visit us here in Little River at the Inn at Schoolhouse Creek.

Sure, we probably can't accommodate all of you all at once but there are multiple beds in several of the cottages and even houses down by the Pacific on the other part of the property that have three bedrooms and more...and Heidi and I would share our cottage except we snore. Or HEIDI does anyway!

Bienvenue Canada! Allez nous visiter bientot!

--Gros bisous,

Monique et Heidi

Hairy Woodpecker?

You know me. I can take or leave birds. Yes, they are all around us up here on the Mendocino Coast, and many of them are very colorful as well as chatty and charming.

Chunk and Punk have to keep good relations up with the local birds since they share breakfast with them every morning outside the Inn's farmhouse.

Heidi, on the other hand, is bird-mad. She says we have species of birds all around us they don't have any place else and she is nutty for birdwatching. When she read on this blog that someone had sighted what is apparently a very rare or maybe unique HAIRY WOODPECKER, she went nuts.

You can read all about it here:

http://www.fortbragg.com/blog/2010/12/possible-local-race-of-hairy-woodpecker/


And here's the photo of the little guy (or girl -- who can say?):

Photo by Ron LaValley

I promised her I'd send out the alert and now I have! Heidi's friends at the Mendocino Coast Audubon Society are  looking into it, to see if it is in fact a brand new Mendocino-only kind of bird.

The chipmunks just hope it won't be showing up for breakfast any time soon! I told them not to worry. What with all of the State Parks we have locally (the most of any county in the US), plus that awesome Mendocino Coast Botanical Gardens, and even an Audubon-approved golf course near by, they've got no reason to show up for breakfast -- delightful though our Inn breakfast is.

Now Chipmunks Take Photos

Somebody gave Chunk's niece, Lovey, a camera for Christmas.

Here's a nice shot she took of the new place, Pacific Tapas.

She says they have Sangria ON TAP! Wow. And their plates are mostly under $10! And of course, everything is delicious.

Look at those ocean views! It's right down the Highway 1. For a chipmunk, that's an easy commute.

Lovey is becoming quite the little Ansel Adams of Little River. Look at this lovely composition of our cottage and the fields beyond it, fresh and green...You have to get really close to see us, but we are there in the Compound, enjoying the day.

I have told Lovey again and again that it's rude to take pictures of people while they are eating! However, she did get my good side. Sweet girl.

Happy Happy from Heidi

Heidi signing on!

Things are fine and green in our part of the world and Monique is off having her toes done for the New Year.

We've been playing so much Parcheesi lately, it's nice to have a spot of sunshine. It's supposed to be sunny all week too!

We had a plethora of fun visitors up here for the holidays. Many, many adorable dogs. Here's one of the more memorable ones:

For one thing, he brought his stuffed koala and refused to let go of it for his first day at the Inn until he discovered how much fun he could have here.

For another, M. Remy Martin (as he is called) decided it was a great game to run into our compound and let Monique chase him out. He thought it was delightful! Monique, on the other hand, was not amused.

She adores dogs but she has a zero tolerance policy for dogs in the compound and I support her wholeheartedly -- although not to the point of helping her chase them out. I think that's far too extreme. Plus, the dogs enjoy it too much!

Bye for now. Off to enjoy some sun!

--Heidi

Happy New Year from Mini Donkeys

From our cottage to yours!

We wish you a prosperous New Year...and so do Chunk and Punk and Lovey and all of the creatures up here at the Inn at Schoolhouse Creek (and probably the people too).

Love,

--Monique & Heidi