House Chickens

I think that everyone needs a house chicken.

Our neighbors have a new family member, possibly a Silver Sebright (sorry, not quite up on my chicken identification skills. ) All I know is that she's a really sweet-tempered chicklet, and she doesn't mind at all if I carry her around. I had to bring her home and introduce her to Dave. I handed her over and she promptly fell asleep while he was browsing the internet.

Salsa after Midnight

The last few years, we've been getting enough fruit off of our trees to make salsas, jellies, wines, etc. This year our harvest didn't really pay any attention to our schedules or the weather. The peaches started falling off the trees while I was in Minnesota. And when I returned home, we were in the middle of a 100+ degree heat wave. What to do?

Salsa after Midnight!!!

Dave took the the propane base from the turkey fryer and set it up outside. I set up a chair so that he'd have a place to put the jars as they came out of the canner. The only mishap was that I thought he was waving at the camera so I happily stood there taking pictures...only to find that he was actually waving for longer tongs so that he'd stop steaming his hands!

Anyway, it was fun. The house stayed cool, and the peach salsa is darn tasty. :-)

What a Lark!

I love Lark Toys in Kellogg, MN. The craftsmanship is amazing on all of their carousel animals.

Dad was chomping on a toothpick so he doesn't have a smiley face...but I LOVE this picture of Mom. :-)

Bev and Kale enjoyed themselves on the carousel. Smile for the camera.

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Eli helps out with the yardwork. Why doesn't our mower have bubbles?

Strawberries, anyone? I don't think anyone had a problem eating their fruits and vegetables this weekend.

I love the expression on the boys' faces. So cute!!!



Mom and Dad and I went exploring...and found a replica of Laura Ingalls Wilder's "Little House."

Flower Child.




And here we are...because Mom asked....







See, there's the smiley face.

Oh, BTW, I finally decided to join Facebook, and I'm surprised how much I've actually been posting. Wanna be my friend? :-)

Bee Advised

I don't normally look for patterns, but I realized earlier today that most of my blog entries are bee-inspired in some way. First I was enamored with the Bee Fields Shawl (still happily waiting on my to-do list), then we had a swarm that hung out in one of our trees for a few days, and then we had a swarm that decided the walls of our house were perfect for fine living.

Well, we've been bee free for a while now...but I was reminded to blog. Can you guess my inspiration?

For Mom and Dad

As promised...here's a new picture for you. Dave and I were having a good time playing pool and Farkle...a fun dice game. I'm official scorekeeper. We still have to get you a photo of the two of us...you'll have to put up with me for now.

Christmas in California

I love the Crochet Cafe in Temecula. Cute shop. Surrounded by yarn. Lots of friendly people stop in...and more than adequate opportunities to do people watching in the little courtyard that serves the little shops surrounding the Old Temecula Jail.

Which leads me to yet another observation of Christmas traditions in So Cal. I can't tell you how many families troop down to the jail to take their Christmas photos. It's usually about 80 degrees out, and Mom, Dad, and the 2 1/2 kids are decked out in holiday sweaters (red appears to win the popularity vote).

Now, there is a certain prettiness to the courtyard. Flowering vines cover the stone walls and climb over the iron bars on the doors. But, it strikes me funny that so many families choose that at their holiday photo backdrop. It's a jail cell! Maybe the cemetery wasn't available. ;-)

We're Fine

Once again, I'm watching hours and hours and hours of fire footage. And I thank God that I'm not numb to it. It's hard to believe the devestation.

But, we're OK. The fires are still quite a bit North of us...though very familiar. The "Freeway" fires hit all of the roads that we normally take going to Hollywood for shows or to Dave's dad's house. The toll roads that burned are the ones that I used to take in to our Irvine office.

More later...

Hope everyone is safe and well.