pictures {{groan}}

oh the good and bad of pictures. The good (the memories, the documentation of Life) and the bad (the fact that I have to take a picture of each slide and scan every picture) but it will be so worth it. Then I can share such gems as the following few........

just before I had Paul in 1979

Ian didn't really want his picture taken!

this guy was such a clown.

were they ever that little? Yup. My newborn firstborn. 

As if I don't have enough projects. But this one's really important. Boxes of pictures that are deteriorating by the day and slides and no slide projector. So I'll just keep plugging along.

The Voices of Flowers....

Roses beg me to take their picture. Well any flowers, really, but especially roses. With my "craft room" in Reorganization Mode, I just had to get outside for awhile. Now I am procrastinating by posting pictures. HA!!

 This one's from a bush that I got marked "miniature roses" and was covered in tiny yellow blooms. I planted it about ten years ago, and now it is no longer "miniature". I really don't know when it changed. I don't even know how, since I assumed MINIATURE were always that. Just gradually it has gotten bigger and bigger blooms. They are very fragrant.

I do need to find a class on pruning roses. I talked to a gardener once who said he uses a hedge trimmer! My daughter in law's dad is a landscape architect so I could even ask him...










This one is called Betty Boop. The picture is pinker than actual color, and there is a golden blush in the center. Someday maybe I will have a camera that is more accurate.

My mother in law was given this and when we sold her house I couldn't bear to leave it behind (ahem... and a couple other bushes!!)





 There is only one of my dad's amaryllis bulbs blooming this year. More than last year, they got shocked by the move I think. Snails seem to love them as well, and many of the buds got eaten. Not sure what color it is yet, it's getting there!! Glad there's one, but hoping that next year they will do better.

This made me miss my dad, and then laugh. I thought, "I'll have to ask Dad about caring for these and when to fertilize them" then remembered that he's gone... and then remembered what he told me when I DID ask him, several years ago....

DO YOUR OWN RESEARCH!

 another one of Grandma's beauties, just after it rained. Something about rain drops on roses (and whiskers on kittens??)

This one is a pink and orange beauty. Grandma used to just take a cutting and stick it in the ground. They would grow for her... usually 3 out of 5 or so would dig in. This was one of her favorite roses so there are a couple bushes of them. This one's in a pot on the front porch, greeting us with its cheery blooms when we come home.

an iris beauty from Lodi Lake

the amaryllis when I first noticed the bud

the daisies from our "island" which is nearly covered in rosemary

And I had to sneak a peek into the neighbor's garden... through a fence knot. ;)

I did it.....

I saw this rack just sitting on the rock pile. Obviously, someone had started disassembling it and there are SO MANY bolts it didn't get finished, just dumped on the pile. I decided to rescue it. I am excited to have created a refuge space... although it won't be in the middle of the day, it's really sunny. Which will be GOOD for the plants. I bought a sweet 100 tomato plant, sage, basil, and stevia. Hoping for a great crop of each.

Now to get some shade cloth so it won't be so hot. I love the quiet, away from the television... and it gets mainly MORNING sun, so in the afternoon it will be shaded. Good place to read... and Contemplate the Universe. And have my morning cup of coffee. And my afternoon... nap? I do have a lawn chair... hmm. This gets better all the time.

Ahhhhh.......

my kind of beauty...

Took a drive... how lovely the green of April in the California foothills! Saw this field of teensy lupine, had to stop and take a better look. It's on 49, between Plymouth and Placerville. I drive this road very often, usually several times a month. When I lived "up the hill" I drove it almost daily, sometimes twice, taking kids to school and then picking them up to go home. 

Those were certainly busy times. Having four teen agers in my home was, well, interesting. My oldest was out on his own, my second son was home schooling. My other four kids each went to a different school! If they rode the bus, it would be an hour and a half ONE WAY. So I often took them and picked them up. 

Every time I am out in "the country" my body and soul relax. Another Ahhh.... moment. I love just hearing the sounds of nature. Of course in a car it is harder. But the smells!! The pine trees. Sometimes cedar trees, or lupine, or other sweet sweet smells. Even skunk smells are nostalgic. Yes I'm pretty odd. 

Maybe someday I will get to live in nature. Meantime, I will enjoy the redwoods in my back yard, and the spot that I am carving out as a refuge.... a place in The City that I can fill with plants and birds and butterflies....