Peace Posies for April

Spring is a pert little season around here. So fleeting is the wild flower show on the backroads, so sweet the weather and the green hills, and then it all goes away.

We went wine tasting at Pear Valley yesterday, which is always good for a quick buzz. There were lots of folks too. Maybe the busiest I've ever seen the place. I bought a case of Aglianico, a lovely garden wine for the coming months.

My garden is really rolling along too. We have only one Juliet tomato plant with nine red cabbages plants, six hot red pepper plants, six celery, two fennel, bunches of artichokes, and lots of chard, lettuce, red mustard, miner's lettuce, and parsley.

The irises are out-of-sight this year, and we have lavender with buzzy bees.

Oregano, hollyhocks, milk weed, artichokes, garlic chives, chard, just to name some, have all gone wild. So it's chaos, wonderful chaos. And Mad Men tonight!!!

How is Spring treating you?

Happy Veterans Day

My father was a Navy man. He served in the Submarine Service during WWII as a radio specialist, where he built radars. His radar on the USS Hackleback found the Yamato.

After he left the service, he went to MIT and studied engineering, and basically spent his whole life building radars with JPL/NASA. He was a pioneer in space exploration, and his radars were used in the mapping of the Moon and Venus.

However one of the biggest surprises was using his radar to find the ancient Mayan canals in Guatemala. He told me that not a week would go by without a call or two from someone who was interested in this research - even 20 years later!

My father was a very patriotic man. He flew a flag 24 hours a day, illuminated at night. He even planted his front lawn red, white, and blue! He replanted the delphiniums this spring. He would sit by that big front window and look out to his flower garden.

He put in a gas lamp in front of his house.

Dad passed away in July. He was 87 years old. 

One of my favorites pictures. Circa 1985

He was always the most happy working.

Purple Flowers on a Cloudy Day

Calling Cards!

I am a Cloud Junkie. This is a fact that I have come to accept as part of my whole being. Clouds make break out in song. Clouds make me look like fool as I jump out of vehicles to photograph them. Add a sunset and I'm likely to dance a jig too. So what's a happy girl to do.

Make calling cards of my cloud photos!

This is the word side covered up.

Name.

Phone number.

Email address.

with my icon!

Speaking of which, here he is with his stuff. Catnip and crackers. What a mess!

And I know I haven't really blogged about notebooks much or at all, considering this is Judy's Notebook. But I do collect them and fill them up with words and pictures and other things. I guess you could call me a "journaler." Personally I am so glad I did not call this blog, "Judy's Journal." But if I were to rename it what would you suggest?

On the left is Martha Stewart's newest line with Staples. Totally bringing out the office nerd in me with a selection of file folders and labels and notebooks. I told The Mister "Get me outta here before I spend money on one in every color!"

On the right is the fabulous cult Rhodia lined notebook. It even smells good.

And I just blogged these postcards on Judy's Bento Box. These are postcards that I had made by Moo. There are 20 different photos from my Flickr account and I did some bento, some food, some clouds, some Si. A real assortment.

Do you like to get mail from your postal person? Email me your mailing address and I'll send you a postcard.

Lunch at Giovanni's

With Spring at our fingertips and the promise of rain on Sunday, we spent a nice afternoon at Morro Bay on Saturday. On the list of things to do was lunch at Giovanni's Fish Market, gaze at the ocean, talk about all times we have gone sailing, drink Margaritas, and walk around town.

Halibut and chips, my friend. So delicious that I can't get over it. I just zoned out and stuffed my face.

I like little old towns that have little old theaters in them.

We also went to Mill's, one of the last old-fashioned stationary stores in the West. Well, I don't know that for a fact, but let's face it Staples and Office Max have pretty much squelched the competition.

I bought a notebook there - so clever of me, and we went on our merry way.

Which was next door to an antiques mall, but my heart wasn't in it, so we went for a drive and I named every wildflower I saw.

My Favorite Things

Si's eyes, 
Totoro bento, 
Weird clouds, 
Pinwheel lunches, 
and Purple flowers.


Raindrops on roses and whiskers on kittens
Bright copper kettles and warm woolen mittens
Brown paper packages tied up with strings
These are a few of my favorite things

Cream colored ponies and crisp apple streudels
Doorbells and sleigh bells and schnitzel with noodles
Wild geese that fly with the moon on their wings
These are a few of my favorite things

Girls in white dresses with blue satin sashes
Snowflakes that stay on my nose and eyelashes
Silver white winters that melt into springs
These are a few of my favorite things

We will all have hairs on our stems today.

The end of a sweaty day - it's muggy here - something we don't experience much on the West Coast. And I sketched a bit in the garden. Trying to find peace. Trying to calm myself.

I seem to be having a hard week. I am not a cheery person today.

Thank goodness, my garden did its thing though all by itself this spring - which I thank to the rains. Here's a pic.

Just for today

Still Life with Old Fashioned Rose and Scion tC

Mission Irises

I have propagated these flowers for a few years.

These are San Miguel Mission irises from the 1700s.

Bento With Flash

I really like food without flash. I really like all photos without flash. But it was so dark today.

Tea Time

Earrings I Like

Even though they really don't look like foxgloves.

Untitled

It's kind of gnarly around here as of late. I live in between two wildfires and the smoke is caustic on my throat and eyes. Black widow spiders are popping up everywhere and seem to be multiplying like bunnies. There is air in the pipes, but no visible leaks (major oh-no). And the ants want to crave me up and take me back to their nest.

So on this fine day (I feel so lucky to be alive), I give to you a lovely picture of my flowering parsley with a bee coming in for a landing.

*Edit: yes the ants do crave me, but the word I was intending was carve

Welcome To August!

Good-bye July. You was one of the most never-ending stressful months so far this year. Time to slip slide into August for the rest of summer. Yay!

This is milkweed, by the way. Most people would rip it out from their lawns and gardens, but it is a hugely beneficial plant and an important food source for the Monarch butterfly family.

Lavender Farm

We went to the Lavender Farm yesterday and found that it was a very large house sitting on an acre or two that was planted with two different kinds of lavender, neither of which were in bloom.

 

I made the best of it and took some pictures. They look better on Flickr. I wanted to reduce the size of the photo space so I made this composite for this blog, and I just noticed The Mister's hand looks kind of weird on the cat's head.

  

I was hoping to buy some plants. For some reason I thought this was a nursery that carried different types of lavender. Oh that's right. I was told that by that earth mother who works at the in-town nursery. 

 

The Lavender Farm had lots a lavender-derived products for sale, but I didn't see one plant. Oh well.

 

I got off on the hippy nature of the greenhouse and trailer with a little garden. I was transported back in time when I wanted to be the master gardener of an organic winery and restaurant in Hopland. I like to change my careers every once in awhile. Sometimes really quickly if I figure out after a year or two that I hate what I'm doing. That's what happened with the theatre.  

 

I love all things about the theatre, the performing, the creative arc one must endeavor to get from point A to point B, the make-up, the costumes, the front of the house, even building the scenery. What I could not stand - maybe I would feel differently now but I doubt it - were the people. All those would-be stars. The most annoying people e-v-e-r!

  

Boy, that was aside. 

But to run with it, I will continue. Not in any particular order. I've been a university research specialist. I've been (and still am some days) an independent research specialist. I was a newspaper columnist for seven (or was it eight, I can't remember) years. I was the editor-in-chief of a newspaper, a college newspaper, that is. A dance teacher. A movie theater manager. A toy store clerk (but that was a job not a career). Another job I had was behind the cosmetics counter in a major department store. That was a trippy job. Women would come in starting at about age 35 with a very scared look in their eyes asking for wrinkle cream (you know the kind that really works, they would say in hushed tones). Like there is such a thing. 

I wonder why agism is so prevalent in this country. It's tolerated, even encouraged. You want to see "just plain mean" in action, visit your Hallmark store. Birthdays are all about rubbing it in. You're old! HAHAHAHAHA. And by being old you are automatically: A. Senile, B. Hard of Hearing, and C. Saggy

 

Wow, I'm all over the place today. Better go make a wish and eat some cake.

Food For Hummers

All Hail Bacchus!

We were sitting around Sunday morning trying to decide how to spend the day. I said to him Let's go wine tasting! There's a new winery open a few miles down the road. It'll be fun, oh come on. 

He was reluctant. So I knew I had to work on him. 

I said Dude, I need something to blog about, plus it will be super quick, just sip and click, and back again. 

He dug in his heels. 

I said Okay but whether we go or not, I'm blogging this. 

And that was the ticket. He does not want to look unfavorable on my blog. Isn't that a gas!

So we jump in the truck with my camera in hand and rolled down the road.

The winery is brand new. The tasting room has only been open for one week. They are still putting in landscaping even. The outdoor deck was nice. I definitely could envision a catered event in the grand hall.

After we tasted about 20 different wines, I joined the wine club and bought six bottles to take home with me. Outside we decided to climb the hill and take in the view. We also discovered redmaids. 

The first of this year!

I Survived Valentine's Day

Just barely. 

  

It felt like it lasted 2 and 1/2 days, but I think we are finally over it and have moved on to everyday nattering. 

  

It all started quite innocent. On a spur of moment, I bought him a little egg spatula. It was meant to be a funny gift. He likes eggs *a lot* so what the heck, I thought, a novelty gift. It kind of looks like him too. I wrapped it in teal tissue and tied a hot pink string around it. When I gave the present to him V-day morning, the first thing he said was Oh Shit!

  

I laughed. No Big Deal! I said, You'll see. Well, he wouldn't open it. After a bit of com'on, he did and said (and I quote), "I thought we weren't going to buy anymore cheap pieces of crap!" 

  

What a sweetie, huh? Then he proceeded to throw away the handmade heart I adorned the package with. I said, You Threw Away My Heart?! So he dug it out of the trash and gave it back to me. 

  

Now way back when I was in 8th grade English, I was the best student at interpreting the symbology of the lyrics to music. When the Miss Newman asked the class, What does "I am a Rock. I am an Island" mean, I knew the answer. 

  

When my heart gets dug out of the trash and is given back to me, believe me, I know what that means. 

Just the same. Because I knew he felt bad about not getting me anything, I sucked it up and offer to cook a special dinner. Sure he said. Like whatever.

  

He tells me we have to finish our shopping (and he hates to shop), so we go into town. I'm thinking this is all a plot. He's got to have something up his sleeve. He's going to surprise me! We go to the market (which was full of clueless shoppers armed with big metal carts), and I feel lucky to get out of there without a lot of bruising. So I tell him I won't be but a few minutes because I have to run over to the health food store for blah blah. 

  

I'm thinking if I leave him alone, he'll grab some purple tulips that I love, and I know he knows that I love purple tulips. 

  

So 10 minutes later, I find him reading the newspaper in the parking lot. Hey, I said, That took forever. He said, It always does. With a sneer. And off we go, driving towards home.

  

After a bit, I said, You didn't get me any flowers, did you?

  

And he said, Oh I never know if flowers are safe around the cat. 

I just looked at him. He pulled the get-out-of-jail-free card, "Si's safety."

 

I said, You damn well know Si doesn't eat flowers. That was Clancey. That was 8 years ago.

  

Oh, he said, I can never remember.

And still I made him that pot pie.

Macro Monday

My monster ninja Iris was taken in June but is now displayed here again to get me started with......

Go to this fabulous place to see some real close-ups and join the fun!

A Visit To Dad's

My father is probably the most patriotic man that I know. Maybe it's because he fought in WWII (submarine service). Maybe it's the generation he's from. I don't know.

  

He flies a flag 24/7 with a light on it at night and his house is filled the red white and blue. So it did not come as any surprise to me that he wanted his front lawn to be a red white and blue garden. And it's really rather pretty.