Thing One and Thing Two

Tallulah-Palooza Friday

Tallulah Mae's helpful post-Thanksgiving advice. "Friends, did you over-imbibe yesterday? Too much choco-pumpkin pie with whipped cream and sprinkles? One too many helpings of yam/marshmallow casserole? Green beans coming out your ears? Corn pudding overload? Just do what I do: nap. A lot. Trust me, you'll feel better after a nice five-hour snooze. That is all."

Gratitude

Happy Thanksgiving!

This has not been the best year for my family--far from it--but I am grateful today for so very much (more than I could ever put into words, certainly). While I miss those who are not with us today, I do cherish the happy memories I have of other days spent together. Here are two quotes from Henry David Thoreau...I think they're both quite lovely.

Have no mean hours, but be grateful for every hour, and accept what it brings. The reality will make any sincere record respectable. No day will have been wholly misspent if one sincere, thoughtful page has been written. Let the daily tide leave some deposit on these pages, as it leaves sand and shells on the shore. So much increase of terra firma. This may be a calendar of the ebbs and flows of the soul; and on these sheets as a beach, the waves may cast up pearls and seaweed.

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I am grateful for what I am and have. My thanksgiving is perpetual. It is surprising how contented one can be with nothing definite—only a sense of existence. My breath is sweet to me. O how I laugh when I think of my vague indefinite riches. No run on my bank can drain it, for my wealth is not possession, but enjoyment. If the day and the night are such that you greet them with joy and life emits a fragrance like flowers and sweet-scented herbs—is more elastic, starry, and immortal—that is your success.

Fruit-Picking Road Trip Part Three

After we picked fruit, we stopped for some delicious Mexican food at El Rey (fabulous salsa).
Then we stopped, serendipitously, at San Antonio de Pala, on the Pala Indian Reservation. This mission was an asistencia, or submission, the only one still in existence in the California mission system. It is still an active church with regular services. The rough floor in the chapel is original to 1816, and the paintings were done by Native Americans. The campanile is free standing, which is unique in the mission system. Very pretty and atmospheric.





Across the street is the Pala store, with this great old crusty sign.
And here are some more photos in the persimmon orchard. Just a lovely, lovely autumn road trip...

Fruit Picking 2009: Part 2

We also picked pomegranates, whose beautiful jewel-like seeds shone in the sun... apparently the best way to get at those seeds is to open the fruit up underwater: water in a bowl, submerge the fruit, quarter it, peel it open; the seeds sink, the white pithy stuff rises to the top.

Fruit Picking 2009

Remember this excursion last year? Here are some photos from this year's fruit-picking fun! These are Fuyu persimmons. The trees are lovely...their leaves turn color as the fruit ripens. It was a glorious SoCal day...more photos tomorrow and Wednesday!

Tallulah-Palooza Friday

Rin Tin Tallulah. "What is it, girl? Timmy fell in a well? No? What's that? The UPS truck is three streets over? You can hear it shifting into second gear? OK then..."

B.(ee)'s Knee(s)

Check out Miss Apis here, going for the nectar in this Bird of Paradise flower.

P.S. The post's title refers to a nasty injury to a certain person's knee...

Pretty Kitty

Tallulah Mae loves to stare at cats, and this one stared right back at her with its gorgeous green eyes.

Moony

Tree Love(liness)

How beautiful are these trees? I think they're cottonwoods. Their leaves flutter and shimmer. Their beauty made me weep, actually...

Tallulah-Palooza Friday

"What?"
Whose chair IS it, anyway, Miss Tallulah Mae?

Week of Tallulah: Thursday

Tallulah Mae, you look like an alien here, an adorable alien giving us the raspberry: "Pthbbbthhhth..."

BTW, check out this Wikipedia explanation of why it's called a "raspberry"--derivation is from "raspberry tart" in rhyming slang (as in Cockney), and "tart" rhymes with...well, since this is a polite little blog, I won't type the word here, but you can figure it out, I think. Funny!!!

Week of Tallulah: Wednesday

Week of Tallulah: Tuesday

Baby Tallulah Mae and her favorite squeaky carrot...'nuff said!

Week of Tallulah: Monday

Hello, Tallulah Mae!Um. Is that really comfortable? Your front legs look a bit stiff.
Apparently it is quite comfy...


P.S. Thanks to all of you who left such very sweet and kind comments on my last post. You've no idea how much it means...

The Sun Has Set

My father left this life this morning. Words truly fail me. Here are some words from Walt Whitman.


On the Beach at Night (An excerpt)

On the beach, at night,

Stands a child with her father,

Watching the east, the autumn sky.

Up through the darkness,

While ravening clouds, the burial clouds, in black masses spreading,

Lower, sullen and fast, athwart and down the sky,

Amid a transparent clear belt of ether yet left in the east,

Ascends, large and calm, the lord-star Jupiter;

And night at hand, only a very little above,

Swim the delicate brother, the Pleiades.

From the beach, the child, holding the hand of her father,

Those burial-clouds that lower, victorious, soon to devour all,

Watching, silently weeps.

Hold your loved ones close to you tonight.

Wispy Fozie