parley view parsnip... October 27 1993

20 Years ago Sunday, my home burned down in Laguna Beach, California.

My son blogged (sleepytako on my sidebar) about the fire from his point of view. Many of the photos are borrowed from him and The Orange County Register.

1993 seems to be the first "big" year that everything and nature went crazy in California.  Orange County and LA had fires and two months later Los Angles had the huge Northridge Earthquake. That year the fall and early winter was not beautiful.

In the Fall the Santa Anna winds blow down from the desert, pass Palm Springs and zoom through the mountain passes into Southern California with a vengeance. The winds are fierce, hot and dry.  And that Fall they were especially dry, pricking the skin and burning the eyes with their heat. Suffocating heat. Heat that make you dizzy and your senses on edge.
Today major fires seem to be just something you see on the news everyday, but in 1993 the major fire was not such a daily accourance as it is now. And diffidently not fires that march across the land leaving a swatch of destruction, attacking populated areas taking some homes while leaving others.

On October 27, 1993 some idiot crazy hateful stupid  person (?) decided to start a fire at the beginning of Laguna Canyon. Then the winds started and it was all over after that.

 Our home made the from page of may papers in the U.S. alonge with many around the world.
My home is the third from the white home on the right, that was left standing (it was made like a bunker but sustained damage  also. There where other homes just down the street on both sides of my home that survived. 

 The fire swept down the canyon and jumped the Laguna Canyon road and roared up our hill and then crowned, raining fire down on us, a horrifing rain.

 Across the hill from our hill.

This is what it looks like when your home is on fire.

 This is my home. A beautiful canyon view and city view and  then straight to the ocean laid out like a blanket of blue every day.
All the news people like to broadcast from my home, even the Governor was interviewed there.  Because beside the fireplace that was left standing like many other homes, we had a two walls and a windows of my daughter's bedroom plus a fence.  We never knew who we would find broadcasting in front of our home on any given day. Yea us.

What the fire looked like fron the beach. My home and hillside is to the right not in the photo.
As we were evacuating we were all bumper to bumper driving south on Pacific Coast Highway.
We could see the fire running down the hillside towards us, I remember telling the the children to stay together and run to the ocean if it reach us.

More photos and aftermath of the fire tomorrow.
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And just because I can here is your pretty to start the week.

On a much happier note, Elizabeth of the wonderful blog, My Life By Buster and About NY made these fabulous, soft beautiful hats for a sale.
Since I could not just zoom over to NY, as much as I would have liked too, I asked if could I buy some.
As you see,  yes was the answer. She only asked for a donation for a favorite cause.
I have several that I donated to, mostly animal ones but also UNICEF. After much thought
I will make a donation to the unicefusa.org Syrian Children's Relief Effort.

Beautiful hats ! The colors are very much like the colors of the desert. Mesquite, Paloverde trees, cactus and their bloom. Sage plants and the water in the creeks and rivers
the sky, clouds and sun at sunset.

remembering . . . parsnip
music. . . Bittersweet Memory,  Blue Merle