To celebrate the last Tuesday of the year, I'm hooking up with Our World Tuesday , a weekly meme hosted by Lady Fi, Gattina, Sylvia, Arija, Sandy, and Jennifer. To check out other participants, as well as to join in, click here .

I took this photo of a nearly full moon on Christmas Eve, then cropped and added art filters in Photoshop. 

“Society grows great when old men plant trees whose shade they know they shall never sit in.” ~Anonymous, Greek proverb I read that Greek proverb this morning on Facebook. It reminded me of the Daddy when he planted peach, pear, apple, persimmon, cherry and fig saplings around the backyard of his and Mama's house. "These trees are for the grandchildren," he said. I recall thinking how lucky those kids would be to climb the trees. The Mama moved before the Only and Older Brothers' kids were old enough to try them out. I like to think that other kids did. The proverb also had me thinking of the Mama and her wonder of planting the apricot and avocado seeds from the fruit that we've harvested from her trees. This year two of the second generation apricot trees bore fruit. I have no doubt that all the other apricot and avocado trees will do the same one day. It'll be one crazy fruit forest out in the backyard when the trees grow up. I love that my par

Beyond what we can see is the universe. Who else got goosebumps? See you tomorrow with Jane Austen, Action Doll.

The Mama's persimmon tree gave us an abundant crop this year. We're sharing the fruit on the top branches with the birds and squirrels. I told them to leave the lower branches for us. So far, so good.

It's been raining this weekend and the weather forecasters say it may rain everyday but Wednesday and Friday. I like that.

After a rain, a temporary shallow puddle develops on our patio. I like to call it our cement pond. The cool thing about this cement pond is the reflection I can see in it.  That's what I saw this morning.

I love the way the leaves cover our front yard this year. This may be the first year the yellow-and-red blanket is is thick.  The photos show how it looked today.  The Husband raked the leaves the day before yesterday.  While the Husband raked, I put up a few Christmas decorations around the yard to cheer up the Mama as she looked out the window as she ate her breakfast.  This time I did more than add red bows to the tree. See the green bough on the fence? That's new, thanks to the Godmother. She was downsizing her Christmas stuff, so she gave me the bough and a bunch of cool ornaments. The Autumn leaves and the holiday decorations in the front yard are a few of the things that perked me up this week. How about you? I'm linking up with the lovely Jenny Matlock's Warm Heart Wednesday . Click here to join the meme and/or read more warming posts.

We've had frosty mornings for the past two weeks now. I'm pretty much used to it now. Yesterday, I noticed a rose bud waving as I was raking leaves in the backyard. Then I noticed several more here and there around the yard. They are the Mama's blooms. Today, I'm linking up with Warm Heart Wednesday, a new meme hosted by the lovely Jenny Matlock. Click here to read joyful posts.

Warm Hearted Wednesday is a weekly meme that reminds us to think of the joys that happen in our lives, which range from buying a new colored pencil (yes!) to celebrating an anniversary (whooo-hooo!). The meme is hosted by the delightful Jenny Matlock who started it this week. Want to join in or learn more? Please click here . My positive thing this past week is our lawn. I live in California. For those who don't know, we're in our fourth year of a severe drought. This year, we really let the lawn go. Now and then the Husband hand watered it for about 10 minutes to appease the Mama, who loves her green lawn. But, she had to choose this year:  Either water the lawn or water her flower and vegetable gardens. For the past three or four weeks, we've had one day of steady rain each week. Hurrah! There was enough rain to bring much of the lawn back on its own.  It's nice to see the lawn happy again, for awhile. To read more Warm Hearted Wednesday posts, click here .

Our original avocado tree has about 30 fruits. The Mama and I counted them a few weeks ago. I learned that avocados start to ripen once they're picked, and the best place to store avocados are on their trees. Up until a point. And, that's when they look like they're about to shrivel, which means they'll soon fall. Those we won't want to eat. I'm sure the Mama would still say, "Nothing wrong with them." Anyway, I don't want the avocados to get to that point. Maybe after Thanksgiving, we can pick an avocado and see if it'll ripen in two weeks. Yummmm. Knock on wood.

The big news is that it has been raining today. Those glorious drops of water on the Mama's rose are raindrops. Hurrah! Showers were steadily beating the rooftops and roads between very early this morning (maybe 1:00 a.m.) and just before noon.  It looks like more rain is on the way. Maybe even a thunderstorm or two.  Whoo-hooo! I got happily soaked twice, once walking around the neighborhood, taking photos. As I was bending down by a gutter taking photos, a  driver at the stop sign called over to me, "Are you okay?" It took me a moment to realize he was speaking to me. I stood up and turned, pointing to my camera, "I'm fine. I'm taking photos." He laughed. "Thanks very much," I said. He waved and drove away. The second time was a quick dash over by bicycle to the godmother. When I left her house, I felt like bicycling more in the rain. I was good and whooshed straight home. The Mama said it the best about our good fortune today, &q

Dear Blogging Friends, This is for you! Hugs with much love, Su- sieee ! Mac

"You have beautiful earrings," I said to the woman in the grey coat walking beside me. I was going with the flow of the crowd checking out the various food booths and trucks at yesterday's San Benito Olive Festival in our county. "Thank you," the woman replied, stopping to give me a better look at her earrings, so I thought. They were dangling earrings in an intricate delicate design with tiny balls hanging at the top and bottom. They had an East Indian look to them. As she was telling me how she had a lot of earrings that her relatives gave her she began to take one earring off. I figured for me to look at the lovely design closer. Some women do that—take off an earring to show another woman who is admiring them. I've done it myself. Why do we do that? I don't know. She handed me both earrings, which startled me. I studied them. "Gorgeous," I said, as I handed them back. She did not take them. "They're yours," she said

The ornamental pear tree in our front yard is totally mixed up. Flowers are blooming on some of its branches. They are definitely pretty, but that's not supposed to happen in October. Nor, for that matter in December or January. That was going on last year and earlier this year. Some branches bloomed in mid or late Spring when they are supposed to do their thing. I don't think it's because of the drought. This tree is said to tolerate drought conditions. I think it's the hot temperatures we've been having the last two months that's causing some flowers to bloom. We have yet to see flowers bloom on every branch at the same time. If it did, wowza, I imagine it to look like a tree full of snow.

The Husband thought the photo was that of a cave. Nope. It's the hollow of the mighty old oak tree that I shared in last week's The Weekend in Black and White . And, that's where I am again, today. To participate in this Friday meme hosted by Dragonstar, or to check out black and white photos from bloggers around the world, click here .   

It's Friday and means the Weekend in Black and White hosted by Dragonstar. To participate or check out other B&W photos, please click here .

Hooking up with The Weekend in Black and White , a weekly photo meme hosted by the delightful Dragonstar. It has been a while for me. To participate or to check out other black and white photos by bloggers around the world, click here .

I didn't know cows ate pumpkins. I wonder if they might like pumpkin pie. Moooooooooooo.  Click here to check out what Tuesday's like for bloggers from around the world.

The Mama loved to sew dresses for me in pink when I was in elementary school. I didn't care too much for the color, but because I wasn't interested in looking at fabric back then, she bought what she liked. Long story short, once I got to a point where I began choosing materials or ready-made clothes, I avoided pink. Then somewhere in my late 40s, I thought the color pink is fresh. It's bold. It's got pizazz. It's joyful. It's happy. Again, long story short, I think I'll put some pink in the tunic I am going to sew soon.