For the past 12 summers, a summer isn't summer without sunflowers growing somewhere in the front, back, or side of the house. I sowed the first sunflower seeds, and until this year, the Mama sowed seeds from the previous year's harvest. I tossed the seeds about the backyard too late, meaning after the last of the rain. And, me watering sporadically and forgetting where I had tossed the seeds, not a sunflower was to be seen. Then. Last week, I saw that spindly sunflower smiling at me as I was watering flowers. I'll do better next year. I'm linking up with Seasons , a weekly meme hosted by jesh stg. Click here to join in and/or to check out other blogs.

Ha! I'm actually doing Teresa's meme, Friday's Hunt , on the actual day. This week the photo hunt was 1) The Letter L, 2) Week's Favorite, and 3) Lace. My interpretation of the letter L is also my favorite photo. A lovely landscape of the Southern Diablo Range in my neck of the woods. I clicked the photo (above) as the Husband drove us homeward on Highway 25. A big fat black wire streaked across the scene which I erased in Photoshop. These tree branches reminded me of lace. What do you think? Okay, now it's time for you to check out the other participants in the Eden Hills Friday's Hunt . See you later.

This is a close-up of the petals of the first California poppy that I saw this year, back in February. Dear friend Jennifer said the lines of the poppy reminded her of a Georgia O'Keefe painting, and suggested that I zoom in on the petals, crop, and play with what I saw. Most definitely! Georgia O'Keefe is one of my favorite artists. I love all of her phases, from her early years in New York to her later, and more familiar, years in New Mexico. Many years ago, I dropped everything to trek down to Los Angeles to see an exhibit of Ms. O'Keefe's works. Wowza! Here's the photo that I took of the poppy. Isn't the poppy gorgeous? Maybe one day, I'll try painting a close-up of its petals with actual brush and paints. I'm linking up with Seasons , hosted by Jeanette of St Germain's Blog, and the Creative Every Day Challenge , hosted by Leah of Creative Every Day.  I hope you'll go visit both memes.

Heartily, I say. Rain. We have been getting lots of heavenly rain since March began and it ought to continue through the whole month. It surely is helping the lessening (such a word?) of our drought. Blue skies. The kind that comes after a rain. Delightful. Fruit trees in bloom. Beautiful! Totally.  That's the Asian pear tree in the Mama's backyard.  If all goes well, we many have another good crop this year.   And, green! It's emerald green all over. We truly are blessed. Today, I'm sharing with Our World Tuesday and a new meme called Seasons , hosted by Jeanette at St. Germain's Blog.  Take a look at both, why don't you?

Hello Singular Live Oak Tree, So huge, so healthy, and so handsome! Thank you for helping make sweet oxygen for us as we walked through the Elkhorn Slough Reserve National Estuarine Research Reserve . It's the letter H at ABC Wednesday . Thank you, ABCW team!

Coooo. Coooo. The sound took me away from the computer. I walked down the hall and glanced out the window. Coooo. Coooo.   Two of 'em. See how the dove on the left looks at the other one. Someone is in love. Coooo. Coooo. I'm hooking up with Warm Heart Wednesday , hosted by the wonderful Jenny Matlock.

Simply wonderful and marvelous. See you tomorrow.

The items for this week's Friday Hunt, hosted by Teresa of Eden Hills are: 1) Starts with D. 2) Week's favorite. 3) Beautiful. For me, they all came together in this reflection of tree branches in a puddle of water near our public library. I didn't find anything I wanted to read in the New section. Any disappointment I had was quickly wiped out when I saw this reflection. To check out other Friday Hunt participants, click here . If you'd like to join the hunt, you have until Sunday evening to link up.

Rain warms my heart. Big time! After four years of drought, the rain we've been having nearly every week, and sometimes several days in a row, is wonderful. We won't know until April (perhaps) if this El Niño weather pattern will break the drought. Knock on wood. As you can see, the rain has brought our lawn back. The Mama is happy about that. I'm heading over to link up with Warm Heart Wednesday , the meme hosted by the lovely Jenny Matlock. Want to join in and/or read what other participants have written? Click here .

One of the things Molly the Cat likes to check out when she goes out to the backyard is a bucket full of water that sits next to the patio. I wonder if she sees what I see in the bucket. Today I'm participating in Our World Tuesday . Click here to join in and/or to see what's going in other parts of the world.

Today I'm participating in the Friday's Hunt , a new weekly meme hosted by Teresa of Eden Hills . You have until Sunday to hook up. Click here to join and/or to check out the participants. It's trés fun! Now, on with my finds. Starting with B That's the Mama's tiny banana grove in August. It didn't get as full as usual last year because of the drought. The grove usually yields two to five banana blossoms, which the Mama sometimes harvest for us to eat. Sometimes tiny bananas grow, but the cool weather sets in before they can ripen. Here's what the banana grove looks like today. I pruned the dried tops of the banana stalks (Are they called trunks?) last week. They'll grow back by Spring. Hopefully. This is the first year I pruned the grove without the Mama's instructions. Week's Favorite Molly the Cat yawned just as I snapped the camera. I think she did it on purpose. She doesn't care for me taking photos of her. I wonder

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.

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 .