Memorial Day

Remembering those who have served, those who are serving, and those who gave the ultimate sacrifice so we can be free.

Missing you today, Aaron!! I'm so proud of the commitment you have made to serve our nation.

Blogger Help

I have a feeling that Blogger has "burped" again. Remember all the problems we experienced a week or so ago? All of a sudden my followers are missing. I can't imagine everyone would up and "not follow" me anymore. My ego just couldn't handle that blow! Instead, I think something must have happened in the deep, dark, scary depths of blogger world. (insert scary organ music here.......)

Anyone else have anything strange going on with their blog?

On a different note, have a wonderful, safe and reflective Memorial Day weekend!

Feeding the Birds

I thought you all would like to see my new little bird feeder. My friend's brother made the bases for us.

He took copper pipe (he's a plumber) and soldered a washer on the top. I found a sugar bowl that had a chip on it and glued it to the washer with glue. I used "Amazing E-6000" glue, but you can use epoxy as well. You could use any kind of old chippy piece of china you happen to have that will hold the bird seed. A cup and saucer, a tea pot, a small bowl, or even a platter would work just fine.

I think it turned out just darling!

The birds are already starting to enjoy lunching on fine china!

Mooooooooo!!

One of my sisters lives less than an hour from my house in an area near the foothills that separate our valley and the bay area. There are only about 13 houses, all on one side of the street, and you have to go through the local golf course parking lot to get to the houses. It's off the beaten path with views of the valley and golf course grounds from one side of the house and grazing land from the other. I think it's just beautiful, although she does feel isolated at times. To me the only down side is the occasional rattle snake and tarantula that come wandering by. She's lucky to have cats that help with that problem!

This picture was taken just down the road from her place. As much rain as we have had this year you would think the hills would have stayed greener longer. In California the hills and fields are green in the winter and "gold" in the summer. Being a transplanted mid-westerner, I call a spade a spade - they are brown!!! Beautiful none the less, however. It's lambing season and there were lambs everywhere with mama sheep getting ready to give birth or having just given birth. I wish you could hear the baa's! It was amazing. Do you see the one little black sheep? There always seems to be at least one!!!

This is across the street from the houses on her street. Cattle graze the range land and get right up to the fence.

If I lived there I think I would sit out front and visit every time the cows came by.

They are not tame and if you start to get to close they back off.

This fella was eating the vines that are attached to the fence. When they eat the top foliage it causes the entire vine to fall down (see the vines on the right). Then the vines have to be pruned back so they can grow up the fence again.

All in all a very beautiful and interesting little spot to live! I hope you all have a wonderful weekend!!!

Garden Tour

I didn't realise that I had been m.i.a. for a week! Goodness, time flies when you are doing absolutely nothing but clean house, yard work, run errands, etc.. It seems that the entire country is being deluged with rain, and our little corner of the world is no different. May is usually dry in much warmer but it's been raining steady. My flowers are loving it, though. Too much, in fact. By now I have ripped out all my over-winter blooming pansies and replaced them with my summer annuals. I still have almost a dozen pots of pansies blooming their little faces off, defying me to dig them up! That's alright. There's always tomorrow or next week when it comes to gardening.

A couple Saturdays ago my sister and I went on a garden tour hosted by the garden club in a nearby city. They have one of the largest, most active garden clubs in the country, and their annual tour is a must-see for garden enthusiasts. This year they had, I believe, eight homes on the tour, which is self guided. So we hopped in Janice's car with our map and off we went. We had a wonderful time and saw some lovely gardens.

I used to think that I didn't want to go look at other peoples gardens. I figured that if they were good enough for a garden tour, I would be "jealous" and feel bad about mine. It turns out that that is so far off base I should be ashamed of myself. First, we're not supposed to be jealous of anyone about anything. It turns out that I am bombarded with wonderful inspiration and come home with a renewed energy to dig in and make my yard the best it can be. The one thing that always stands out follows one of my favorite sayings, "God is in the details!" Whether you have a little modest postage size garden or a huge, park-like setting, it's the details that make or break how it looks. Keeping it clean and picked up, trimmed and clipped doesn't take money, just time and pride.

Here are some pictures of the tour for you to enjoy. If there is a garden tour offered near you, jump on the chance to go. You won't be sorry!

Happy Spring!!

Tea Party Time!

I have had the pleasure of making friends with bloggers I have met on-line. I've also had the extreme pleasure of actually meeting some of these friends in person. This happened to me again this past week or two ago. I don't know if you are familiar with Janeen over at ChaChaneen. I've been a follower for some time and have come to know her as a wonderful, kind, talented and fun person. She loves to have tea parties at her home, something I love to do as well.

On a yearly basis her church holds a tea for their Women's Ministry. Different ladies sponsor a table and decorate it. I had heard about it and asked if I could attend this year's tea. My friend Nikki and I ventured the hour trip over to meet Janeen and go to the tea. We had the best time!!! There were eleven tables all decorated and no two were alike. They were all absolutely amazing. I didn't get very good pictures of them all so if you go to the link here you can read more about it and see the other tables. The food was amazing!

Since it was to be held on April 30th, the day after THE wedding, Janeen decided her theme would be "A Royal Tea Table." She did everything perfect right down to the beautiful pink English china.

Each of the ladies at our table got an orchid to wear. Janeen also made little gift bags filled with chocolate coins for good luck, rose buds for love and a bag of Prince of Wales tea for remembrance. Tied on the top of the bag was an official wedding engagement picture of William and Kate. How cute is that?

She had jewels sprinkled all over the table along with little frames with different pictures of the happy couple. I wonder if they realised that half a world away we were celebrating along side them?

The theme of the day was Quiet Influence taken from I Peter 3:4 "Cultivate inner beauty, the gentle, gracious kind that God delights in." Wonderful words of wisdom.

My friend Nikki with Janeen.

Miss Jean and Janeen

We had such a wonderful time!!! From the moment we walked up to the church door and Janeen came literally running out, all excited to meet us, to the farewell, happy that we had met a new friend we felt welcomed and loved. Thanks so much Janeen!! Love ya to pieces!!

My advise to all of you out there is if you get a chance to meet a blog friend in person, DO IT!!!

Petunias

I've actually got about four posts that I need to do, but they all involve lots of pictures. I don't have time to do any of them today as I have to take the little guy to the doctor. Yes, grandson #2 is still sick. Better, but still not well

I thought I'd show you a quick picture of some petunias I planted in my old wheel barrow. Take a good look because I have horrible luck with petunias for some reason. Mine will not do well even though I care for them. Then I'll go to a gas station that has a neglected pot of them and they are doing fine! Go figure. I do hope these last at least through the fourth of July

Have a wonderful weekend!!!

Home Sick

One of the things I like so much about being retired is that I can help with my grandson's when my daughter needs it.

Our second grandson is home sick from school today. My daughter called me yesterday and asked me to pick him up at school for her. He was running a fever and looked so pitiful. The school nurse did say what a nice, polite little boy he is.


This is him when he was feeling better! I took him home and told him that if he needed to stay home from school the next day I would take care of him and pamper him. "What does pamper mean, Grandma?" "Well, it's like spoiling someone. Taking care of them and doing a lot of things to make them feel better." He smiled and just nodded his head.

Last night when my daughter decided it was best to keep him home from school today she told him that she would drop him off at Grandma's in the morning and that "she would pamper you." His eyes got real big and he said with a big grin on his face, "I know what that means!"

Yep, that's me. Lean, mean, pampering machine!!! Chicken soup in Toy Story shapes, ice cream bars (medicinal purposes only!), popsicles, jello, 7-up, apples with caramel dip. He's all tucked into our bed with lots of pillows and is watching his favorite television shows.

I'm really sorry the little guy is sick, but I'm loving having him here to take care of.

New Quilt Shop

I'm really excited about this little piece of information I'm going to share with you. There is a new quilt shop opening up in Sacramento, California!!!!! Woo Hoo!!! It's called The Fabric Garden and you can get the grand opening and address information here. One of the owners worked at a quilt shop in the area that closed. That was a sad day for Miss Jean as it was one of my favorite shops, even though it was an hour and a half from my house and I couldn't get up there as often as I wanted.

I can't wait to see what Gran and the rest of the ladies have at the shop. I'm going to be there bright and early on Thursday....."OPEN, OPEN, OPEN!"