I decided to enter the garden art class in the repurposed and recycled crafts category for the county fair. The instructions were simple: Take one item (any item), photograph it, then turn it into garden art. My first idea was to make an asterisk out of a tree branch. It worked, but looked too clumsy. Next idea was to create an elephant out of chicken wire. It was turning out well but safety became an issue with all the sharp points. So I abandoned the project for another day. Then came the mini aluminum decorative milk can, pictured above. Too bad I painted the lid shut so I couldn't plant a succulent in it. (I'll work on getting it open later.) Finally, something worked. I painted one of the Mama's dried gourds that I found in the garage. It's one she grew for seeds. If anyone asks me what it's purpose will be in the garden, I'll say "Birdhouse." lol Time for me to clean up and take the entries to the fairgrounds. When I get back, I...

    At the moment, I'm working on my photo entries for the county fair (due tomorrow). As usual, I let the days go by like three years ago, the last time I participated in the fair. My post from September 28, 2015. ************** Yesterday afternoon, procrastinating me started thinking about my flower arrangement entries for the fair, which are due on Wednesday afternoon. I opened one of the kitchen cupboards and staring boldly at me, obviously begging to be in the fair, was an Eiffel Tower martini glass.  "I'm for the A Touch of Glass dry floral arrangement," it proclaimed.  "Okay," I said. "Let's go." We went to the office where I set the Eiffel Tower martini glass on the drawing board, into which the poor Husband keeps bumping as he goes in and out of the office. Before I knew it, the dried green moss called out from its basket on the floor, "Hey! Hey!" Bammm! A handful of moss planted itself in the glass, ...

"Enjoy life. There's plenty of time to be dead." ~ Hans Christian Andersen

"Go into the sunlight, Molly." The Husband and I coaxed the furry Girl as she walked beside the side fence. We had been admiring our new front fence, yet again, when we noticed how the late afternoon light lit up our Molly the Cat. Did she oblige us? Of course not. Fortunately, I happened to click the camera just as she wandered off the sun-lit path. "You're welcome," said Molly the Cat. Purrrrrrr.  I'm linking up with the photography meme Wandering Camera hosted by Soma Acharya of Whims and Fancies . Click here to learn more about this month's meme and to check out other participants.

My theme for #23 Round of ABC Wednesday: Signs & Such of San Benito County, California Lifelong learning. Seriously, how can we not expand our skills and general knowledge as we go through life? These days, for example, I'm learning about flower gardening and succulents, and mixing paint colors and repurposing stuff into garden art. Without even trying, I've been learning about the rise of Nazis due to reading several novels that were set in England between WWI and WWII. It's just as well that King Edward VIII quit the throne for Mrs. Simpson. The two were suspected of being Nazi sympathizers. Speaking about books, do you have any Little Free Library stands in your community? They're part of a world-wide effort for people to exchange books for free. Take a book, leave a book. The Husband and I would like to put one in our front yard one of these days. The Little Free Library in the photo stands in front of Vertigo Coffee in San Juan Bautista. L ...

"How do you get brown?" asked I, standing outdoors at the patio door. "Mix green and blue," responded the Husband, washing dishes about 20 feet away. As I walked back to my temporary work table beneath the Miracle Tree, I realized I would have to first mix blue and yellow to get green. Sigh. Several hours later, when the Husband stopped, I showed him the rock I was painting. "The brown looks like dirt." Accomplishment achieved! Today is Our World Tuesday , where I'm participating. Here's the link . Grazie, OWT administrators.

Missus Lady and Hero Man have been hanging outside in the backyard with me a lot lately. I like it, even when they suddenly go into fits of chatter and laughter as they play with their paints, scissors, hammers, saws, and other stuff. They crack me up, my humans do. Purrrrrrrrrr. There is one quirk of Missus Lady that bugs me. Click, click. Click, click. When I hear that puckering kiss sound, miao, I turn around, miao, nearly all the time. Click! goes the Missus Lady's camera. How many pictures of me does she need? Miaooooo.

The Husband and I finished and installed a fun project on Friday. Some of you may remember I talked about the work-in-progress fence project last Sunday. Amazingly it only took us six days from creating the first fence panel to the installation of seven panels weaved with branches from the backyard trees. That's a short time, considering who we are. It was lots of fun working with the Husband on it. He agreed. We love the final result. We don't know about the neighbors, who I hope simply think of us as those old hippies doing their thing. Hmmm. Maybe that's not a good idea. The Daddy warned me not to end up being a hippie, which to this day I have no idea what he considered made up a hippie. I can only hope I did not disappoint him. lol This morning the Husband showed me how to tie Boy Scout knots. One knot reminded me of the stitch the Mama taught me for hemming. Another knot had me thinking of knitting, and still another of crochet. I didn't do so well re...

Gulp. I don't know. Would you climb up those ladders? I rate that climb as double-sweaty palms, five gulps, and one big shudder.

"I'll have a tuna BLT," said Good Friend D. "What?" responded the waitress. "Tuna BLT," said he again while some of us checked the menu again. It turned out D merged the tuna melt and the BLT together in his head, at which the waitress relaxed, then said they don't substitute. Oh well. D ended asking for the BLT. The Husband and I were so enamored with the idea of a tuna BLT, I concocted sandwiches for us a week later. Ingredients • 2 slices of barely toasted sourdough bread • Mustard • 3 strips of bacon (which I cooked in the toaster oven) • 2 tomato slices • 2 or 3 lettuce leaves (we had red lettuce in the fridge) • Tuna filling: one can of tuna mixed with minced celery, onion, garlic, orange bell pepper, pickle, pumpkin seeds, mayonnaise, and creamed horseradish. Assembly I layered the sandwich as such: A slice of bread, tuna filling, lettuce, tuna filling, tomato, bacon, and the other slice of bread spread with mustard. T...

This morning at the end of breakfast my fingers locked into a Vulcan salute, and I wasn't even trying to make one.  "Look," I said to the Husband who was intently bent over his iPad. "Wait, I'm watching this video." I constantly interrupt the Husband while he's in the middle of reading or watching a video online. Sorry, Dude. My fingers weren't moving. Now what? Gah. That got me thinking about what kind of Medicare Advantage plan to get. I think I'm in good health for being a life-time fatty. Poor Mama, the doctor pulled out 21-inches long and over eight pounds me, cesarean style. That must've been awfully scary for her. Baby Sister (who lived two years) and I were cesareans. Older Brother was a natural birth in a jungle in the Philippines. Just kidding about the jungle, though I would love to claim being born in a jungle. I don't know whether Oldest Girl was a cesarean, too. Valentina, the sister who died on the day she was born...

My theme for #23 Round of ABC Wednesday: Signs & Such of San Benito County, California If we were all mindful of what's common sense and common decency, we wouldn't need signs like this one. For that matter, also many of the regulations and laws that ensure people, animals, and the environment are not being used by greedy bullies and then spitted out when done. But we do need those laws, regulations, and signs. We certainly do. How else do we keep thugs, ruffians,  money-grubbers, self-servers, oppressors, tyrants, and the like in check? After all, they've lost their goodness of being kind. So I think. Okay, off the soap box I jump. Thanks for listening. Maybe tomorrow I'll be in a lighter, kinder mood. K is the featured letter today on ABC Wednesday . Click here to read about this weekly meme, and click here for this week's list of participants.  Thank you, ABCW Team!

On Sunday, the Husband and I attended the Chicken Festival in San Juan Bautista. Bwak, bwak, bwak. The last event being 10 years go, it celebrates the wild chickens that roam the California mission city. The flock was thinned out a few years ago, but they are slowly coming back. We didn't see any of the fowl, but we did see a young local dance troupe called the Grupo Folklorico "Carisma Mexicano" who performed traditional Mexican folk dances that incorporate ballet techniques.  The girls and boys were charming and delightful as they stepped and swirled in a rather tight spot on the narrow street among the vendors' booths. Today is Our World Tuesday , where I'm participating. Here's the link . Grazie, OWT administrators.

I've nothing to say. See you next week. Purrrrrrrrrrrrrr.

Welcome to our havoc of a patio. The Husband calls it "lived in", the kind man. Most, if not all, of the placement of things on the patio was done by me. Thank you. That's not abandoned clutter, mind you. Nearly everything in sight is a work-in-progress of something, whether individually or collectively. They're all in different stages. Some, I grant you, are still at the starting line. For instance that brass lamp with many arms which friend Missus H gave me. I fell in love with it when I saw it hanging out in her barn. Not sure yet whether to dismantle the wiring. Towards the back end, by the miracle tree is a work-in-progress actually being worked on.  I pulled out the fence of twigs in the front yard by the sidewalk because it looked *gasp* messy. (That's right, these eyes of mine know messy from eclectic whimsy.) So, the Husband and I decided to make a sturdier fence. We've got two panels done. What do you think? I think they're cool. T...

Meet Shelley. She's a little sprite who showed her shadow on a saucer plate beneath Avocado Tree Number Three. Shelley insisted that she be sketched. What could I say?

This morning I was trapped in bed between Molly the Cat and The Husband, both sound asleep. Smiles on their faces. Dreams in their hearts. Musical notes danced from their noses. I wanted to get up. That Girl woke me up when she jumped and thumped onto the bed. After doing her settling-in kneading and drooling on the sheet (TMI?), she curled into a snug ball and pressed herself firmly against my side. So much for personal space. Later. I really wanted to get up. Still against my side, now upside down, Molly was stretched from around my shoulder to nearly my knee. She laid partway on her back and partway on her side in that twisted way of cats. Her bottom half was on her back with her feet turned away from me and her tummy wide open for the universe to see. (They are so cute, Molly's feet are.) Her front half was on her side, facing towards me with her arms stretched way far. (That cute little nose.) How could I interrupt such a pose from sleep? With luck, I thought, the...

My theme for #23 Round of ABC Wednesday: Signs & Such of San Benito County, California We all like to go back to a restaurant that makes us drool when we think about the food we had there. Don't you agree? In my county, J.J.'s Burgers in San Juan Bautista is that kind of place for me when it comes to a burger. Garlic fries, too. Drooooooool. J is the featured letter today on ABC Wednesday . Click here to read about this weekly meme, and click here for this week's list of participants.  Thank you, ABCW Team!

It has been 15 years since The Husband and I moved out of the San Francisco Bay Area, which, depending on where we want to go, a 30-minute to two hour-or-so drive away. Lately we have been wandering a bit further into the Bay Area maze. Molly the Cat probably wonders what has gotten into us. She, after all, gets stuck indoors when the humans are at play. The increased number of offensive drivers on the freeway has made driving no longer fun, so we've been trying out BART (Bay Area Rapid Transit) to get beyond San Jose. The nearest BART station is about an hour's drive to the north of us. It's not too much of a white-knuckle drive to get there. Right now the cost for our tickets is equivalent to about a tank of gas. Totally worth it. No fuss, no stress.  Looking out the train window as we headed east away from Oakland, I watched cars on the highway swish frantically pass each other. In a few months I'll turn 65 and be eligible for the senior discount. Hurrah! ...

I overheard Missus Lady and Hero Man talking about whether to grow a couple of small patches of grass for me to lounge in the back yard. That's nice of them, but it doesn't really matter to me. Besides I rather like that they can't find me right away. Purrrrrrrrrrr.

The paints came out last week. Splash! Splish! A blue elephant now dances across a dinner plate. A once-upon-a-time metal spoon holder now pirouettes in the breeze. This morning the Husband set up the portable table outside so I can play at being an artist. I envision a white pan being painted into a turtle, chicken wire being mangled into the shape of an elephant, and a branch being cut and put back together into something, maybe an asterisk. If any of those things turn out well, it becomes my entry for garden art in next month's county fair. We shall see. Time again for All Seasons , a weekly meme hosted by Jesh of The Jesh Studio , which is where I'm heading to share my post. Click here to check out Jesh. For the participants list, click here . Thanks, Jesh!