As the lemon snapped off, the robin flew from the slightly bouncing bough bowing heavy with lemons. (How's that for purple prose?) The red-breasted bird landed on the fence and scolded me. "Excuse me," I said, and continued gathering lemons for lemonade. Several days later, Molly the Cat and I were wandering near the lemon tree. Two robins swooped by and landed on the neighbor's roof. The bigger bird stared at me, as if saying, "Out! Now! Please." I understood immediately. "Come on Molly, let's go inside. These guys have a nest in the lemon tree." As you can tell from the photos, the robins hid their nest quite nicely. At first, I thought it was precariously situated on the limb, but, hey, if nobody picks the lemons, it's safe. And, that is what has happened, which is too bad since there are some nice-looking lemons on that branch. The mama and papa robins have been taking turns sitting on their babies. I wonder if they like

"Take a photo of the pink roses before I clip them," said the Mama, as I was cleaning Molly the Cat's litter box. She—the Mama—rarely asks me to take a picture of anything, especially of her works of wonder. "Take it so you can see the apple tree," the Mama said, showing with her hands the angle she wanted me to shoot the photo. She was sitting in the living room. I love it when the Mama gets artistic on me. That, too, is rare these days. That is, except for her gardening.  The Mama is one of those people with a green thumb. She can clip a rose branch, stick it in the ground, and most of the time it grows into yet another beautiful rose bush. The rose bush in the photo was once upon a time a small pot of roses that was bought at a grocery store. I don't remember how long ago, but I do recall she didn't really care for that kind of rose at the time. But, the Mama being Mama, rarely throws a gift plant away. By the way, that is not the apple

Let's play the guessing game. What do you think this is? Ah, you don't want to scroll down, do ya?  Easy, huh? A hidey-hole. Most certainly a huge one. Who else thinks this could be a portal to another dimension? Or, a place to hide treasures? Or....? Whoa! Would you believe this is an avocado tree? It's one of the oldest ones in California—more than 100 years old.  Just think of all the secrets that may have been hidden in that hidey-hole. If you're ever in Santa Cruz, California, you can check the tree out at the Santa Cruz State Historic Park .

Spring? Winter? I dunno. We're finally getting rain. Lots of rain. Plenty of rain. We may have a lousy apricot crop though. That's okay. We have several bags of frozen apricot form last year's harvest. Yesterday, the husband and I went out for a walk. After two days of being indoors, because of the lovely rain,  our bodies were shouting "Exercise, Pu-leese!" The rain had stopped. The sky was blue. The wind was strong. And, bitingly cold. I complained, of course. "You'll warm up. Walk fast," said the husband, stretching ahead of me. I kept my head down and let the wind zig and zag me as I walked. I pretended I was a kite. By the time we reached our goal, we were both game to go a further distance to return home. I'm glad we did. We would not have known that there was snow on the mountain range to the east. Nothing like all-of-a-sudden treats. Have a wonderful week, dear readers. It may look like white clouds just above the mountain