B. Is the Birthday Boy!

Strike up the band, cuz it's B.'s birthday! Happy of happiest, sweet boy...

Tallulah-Palooza Friday

Tallulah Mae, Fruit Inspector, reporting for duty. Uh-oh...looks like a mutant... "My work here is done..."

Some Things for Which I Am Grateful

Simply put, I am grateful for my wonderful life and the myriad things great and small in it.

Every evening when I walk the dog, I pause and look out at the sunset and say a little "thank you": for the people I love, my stupendously wonderful husband and my sweet family, as well as my friends near and far; for the blessing of good health; for a snug and cozy home; for the darling dog at the end of the leash.

I am grateful simply for having had yet another day to breathe, laugh, cry, love.*

Happy Thanksgiving!

*It's may sound corny but it's true!

Some Things I've Purchased Recently for Less Than Five Dollars

Wistful spotted nodding dog: $2.00 at an estate sale.

Sweet little bluebird pin: $2.00 at an estate sale.

Delicious silver vintage handbag: $4.50 at "the Ladies," pseudonym for the Bargain Box, my favorite thrift store.

Rustic lantern for the garden: $2 at a yard sale.

That's a lot of fun for $10.50...

Some Things That Made Me Smile This Week

Winter sunsets...

Kute Kate the Kat...she lives with Miss Robin. Here she looks ever so slightly disgruntled because she was being confined to one room temporarily. Check out that girl's whiskers!Flying Porta-Potties... wheeeee!!!Random dogs. This one had spectacular doggy eyebrows, which you can't really see here. "Help, the ivy ate my mailbox" (said in Meryl Streep Australian accent). And getting to meet--unabashed name dropping ahead, be warned--Joyce Carol Oates and hear her read... it's so marvelous (due to my beloved university librarian spouse) to be able to experience the fruits of modern culture. We have had dinner with Salman Rushdie (told you there was name dropping in store!); attended a reception with Philip Glass; and got to shake Ravi Shankar's hand (B. did, anyway). It's not only exciting to get to meet these folks and experience what I have dubbed "brushes with greatness," but we get to hear these authors' writing read in their own voices or hear a composer's latest music being premiered. I feel quite privileged...and I smile.

Some Things I Made

I made a series of what I call "gift pots" out of peat pots and vintage images--my idea was that you could fill these with excelsior or pretty shredded paper and then give someone a gift without having to wrap it ... I made this medium size and then smaller ones as well. I think they're pretty cute! (Argh!!! WHY does Blogger sometimes insert photos sideways????) These are examples of the smaller size... yay, glitter! I also made some cards... lots of cards, actually. These are little gift card holders so you can stick that Borders or Target card into something cute and vintage. And these little embroidery hoop thingys...I thought the three of them go together nicely, perhaps in a child's room? They were super fun to do, and I loved finding the perfect bits of vintage lace to add to them. And here is everything displayed for sale at our first-ever neighborhood craft sale last weekend. It was fun; I sold a few things, which made me happy!

Tallulah-Palooza Friday

{I can't even think of a caption for this photo because I get sucked into the Vast Vortex of Darlingness when I look at it and my mind goes blank ...}

Picky

A couple of weekends ago, my garden club was fortunate enough to be able to go on a fruit-picking excursion courtesy of one of our members; his family owns a ranch where they grow citrus, avocados, persimmons, pomegranates... Here are the citrus trees and (I think, up on the hill) the avocado trees. It's not time to harvest either of those crops right now. But oh my--the persimmon trees were certainly ready for picking... these are Fuyu persimmons; the Hachiya variety needs to be soft before harvesting/eating, while these can be eaten right off the tree, like an apple. And we did! Yum. And the pomegranates...they were not as plentiful as the persimmons, in part because I think they just AREN'T as prolific, plus these trees froze a few years ago and had to be cut way back. Lovely and luscious!

It was really so very much fun to be out in such beautiful scenery picking fruit--in our shirtsleeves--in November. (Yes, I know, I'm extremely fortunate to live where I do!) We followed up the harvest with Mexican food and a few other stops along the way. To be continued...

And I'll also share photos of my fruit-pickin' bounty in a future post...

Wispy

Trippy

The mulch around the lavender in the front yard seems to be a fertile growing ground for miscellaneous mushrooms. And something/someone seems to be trying them all out (I'm SO reminded of Alice in Wonderland, by the way!!!).

Above is "CHOMP." Nibble. Peck. Um, make a small meal out of?

A Road Trip: Phoenix

Way back in September, I drove over to Phoenix to see my family...here are some of the things one can see along the way. Above: those odd decorative items often sold along the side of the road--are they rugs? Blankets? Towels? Metal dinosaurs... Cool 1960s-era motels... A hotel from an earlier era (film director Wim Wenders wrote a little poem about a painting in its lobby)......and gift opportunities. A town with a sense of humor... (and what is UP with a "Shrimp Fest" smack dab in the middle of the desert?!)... Dateland, where you can get (what else)... Date shakes!!! There are gigantic sand dunes... Giant piles of boulders...the geography in eastern San Diego county is fascinating... And a cute little "hotel" for sale in Bankhead Springs--a community that basically doesn't exist anymore (sad).

Part of this trip was along Old Highway 80, the east/west road that was bypassed by Interstate 8; here's an interesting article about it. Like Route 66, it had been a stretch of road with small but thriving communities catering to motorists...now, not so thriving, unfortunately.

Almost home...