Crunch. Crunch. A couple of sparrows have found the basket of sunflower seeds I forgot to put away.  Crunch, crunch, crunch. You’re welcome.

  Plop, plop, plop, plop, plop . . . . "It's raining." I said to the Husband. "It is? It is! The streets are wet." A few minutes later, no more plop sound. That was a couple of hours ago. It's still raining. Simply more gently. I don't even think it's raining until I happen to glance out a window. Last week we had our first winter storm. Have I said that before? By the second morning, the little red wagon was overflowing with water. Amazing! I heard a weather guy say that we made up to 40-something percent of the normal annual average just in that first storm. A few more storms like that and we may not have a drought year. Hoping for the best.

The full moon was up in the sky when the sun rose this morning. Click. Delightful! This was the second month in a row the moon stayed up to watch the sunrise. And, by good fortune, I saw it both times.  In some cultures, the January full moon is called the Wolf Moon because the wolves would howl in hunger during this season. We have no wolves here, but we did hear some amazing howling winds during our recent first winter storm.

 See the white streaks in the photo? They aren't scratches.  That's rain! Our first rain of the winter, and if the weather guys are correct, we'll be enjoying rain off and on for the next week. Whoooo-hooooo! 

While traipsing through the backyard early one morning last week I came across first-time visitors. Mushrooms! Mama would've harvested them. She would've thrown a quarter into the stewing mushroom pot, and if the quarter didn't turn black, then she would've eaten them. I wouldn't be surprised if there is a scientific basis behind the coin changing color to signify mushrooms are poisonous. When I was a kid, I ate the mushrooms my parents gathered on the oaks and sycamores along a certain creek in the hills right after good winter rain. They were tasty but kind of slimy, what the Husband might say in jest, "Awful mouthfeel." Daddy taught me which mushrooms to look for and where to find them, but I could never trust my judgment so I mostly held empty buckets and carried full ones back to the car. I love those times. 

 I like the look of rust. . . and fallen leaves. . .and winter in our backyard.

I read that morning glory blooms last one day, hence the sweet flower's name. Well, then, I shall stop complaining about how quickly the new kind of morning glory I sowed this year fades away. Isn't it gorgeous, oh so frilly pretty in pink?  By the way, do you see a face in the morning glory? I see a couple.  In the above color photo, when I focus on the slit,  which looks like an eye, I see a lion's face.  Now, in the black and white photo below, I see a profile of a face looking to the left in that bottom petal. Anyone else see a chin and mouth?   Do you see faces in flowers, clouds, trees, and other objects? There's a name for that ability. It's called pareidolia. There are times when I'd rather not see faces in things, especially when they're spooky.  I'm sharing with Mosaic Monday today. Yes, I know it's Tuesday. :-)  

A red leaf. I forgot everything else I saw yesterday morning. The first sunflower in bloom. The wispy pink and white morning glories. The white African daisy with its dark purple center. The red leaf. Fall in summer. "Hey!" said the sunlight. Red leaf in bright light. Red leaf in some light. Red life in shade. "Hey!" said the sunlight. When I previewed the photos on the computer I saw it then. Had I looked away? Had I blinked? A shiny black bug on the red leaf. Where did it come from? A black-and-white map? An overview of a terrain of some sort? For reconnaissance? A red leaf. It's Mosaic Monday , so I thought I'd try something different today.  Good cheer, Everyone!

"Summertime and the livin' is easy. . ." So it was, at least, yesterday. We watched a Mama turkey and her two babies amble through a hole in a fence. Not ours, though I wouldn't have minded. A deer stood still in the middle of the country lane we traveled.  We sipped a sappy margarita that I concocted out of tequila, triple sec, lemonade, and guava juice. It tasted like cough syrup but we drank it anyway. Next time, I'll leave out the triple sec and lemonade and maybe I'll come up with a guava margarita. We sat outside in the late eve, the Husband, Missy Molly, and I. What pleasure! The Husband plucked a ripe apricot off the tree for us to share. Deep in flavor, the kind that makes your tummy sparkle and you sigh into a smile.  Figs! Charlie, short for Charlotte, has borne fruit, at least six of them! That's a first for the "Little Miss Figgy" dwarf tree that friends gave us in 2018. Bean vines are twirling their way up and a

I was sitting in front of the computer about to start today's post when I heard it.   Pop! Huh? I looked over to the left where the sound came. What do ya know? A California poppy pod makes a sound when it opens. Pop! And, the seeds go all over the place. Yesterday, I harvested a pocketful of poppy pods and left them all on a small oval plate on top of the radio.  The poppy pod that popped was not on the plate.  Did the pod jump off the plate as it opened? So it seems. That's my story for today. Much more interesting than I was about to write. Pop! I wonder if that's how poppies got their name. All Seasons is where I'm heading now. The meme is hosted by Jesh at The Jesh Studio . Come join me if you like.

"Come upstairs with me," said the Husband when he came back from a trip to the gas station. "You've got to see something." "Is it snow?" I asked. I was in the kitchen prepping garlic for lumpia filling. "You'll see." Snow! This is the first of the season. No wonder it was cold this morning. Well worth it. I'm heading over to ABC Wednesday . Come join me, if you like. :-) Happy Thanksgiving, Dear Friends!

I baked a lemon bundt cake this morning for my county fair entry, which I hope shall reach a mellow, not so loud, lemon tart flavor when the judges taste it this Wednesday afternoon. This cake has several firsts for me. It's the first time I've entered a cake in the fair, I tried a new recipe, and I experimented with the recipe twice (I wrote about the first attempt last month). I added a lot more lemon zest and a heaping measurement of sour cream to the recipe for more lemon flavor and less dryness. And, yes, I used a bundt pan this time. Thank goodness that the Husband hung out in the kitchen while I was working on the cake.  He looked up things on Google: How many tablespoons equal 1/4 cup? How do I make lemon syrup? When do I douse the cake with lemon syrup? Which end of the bundt cake do I display (the Husband had it right—the bundt ridges must show)? and  How do I store the cake if I'm not serving it right away? Sorry, no photo. The cake is nothing truly excit

A whispering of leaves. . . Plop! Sometimes, after the sound of trembling leaves, goes a ping! against a ladder, a bench, a table, or the shed, followed by a thud. Rustle . . . ping! . . . plop! I wonder how many times Molly the Cat has had a near miss with a fallen lemon or apple or avocado or apricot or Asian pear. The Husband says that Missy Girl knows precisely where to lay herself down in the backyard. He's right, Missus Lady.  Purrrrrrrrrrrr.  This has been a good year for Mama's fruit trees because of the winter and spring rains.  All the trees have been continually aborting themselves of immature seeds and fruits so that the fittest may live to full development. Plop! The lemon tree is a different story. We can't reach the top branches, thus when the fruit ripens, plop! The two apricot trees had branches heavily laden with fruit that they snapped. Giving baskets and box lids full of apricots to several friends didn't make a dent to the t

Snip, snip, snip. The past two mornings I've been trimming the daisy bushes in the front yard. A lot of daisies to be deadheaded. I chose to wait for the California poppies to go to seed before starting the task, so I reasoned. Snip, snip, snip. Glub, glub, glub. A female Ruby-throated Hummingbird has been Molly the Cat's and my companion these past mornings. She, the hummingbird, loves drinking the flowers of the Hot Lips Littleleaf Sage by the driveway. Cool name, Hot Lips. Remember Major Hot Lips Houlihan? Click, click, click. "Want to see a hummingbird's nest?" I asked, as I plucked the camera out of the bowl in the hallway. The Husband got up from the breakfast table and followed me out the door. I discovered the nest minutes before in the tree in the front yard. That's an upside to deadheading daisies. I think the hummingbird was used to my presence because she didn't seem to mind that I was standing nearby. Click, click

Miao, miao. How is everyone? It has been raining. Purrrrrrrrrrrrrrr. The sun pops up now and then. When it does, Missus Lady and I go outside or she leaves the back door open so I can slip out if I am so inclined. Nice human, she is. On Saturday morning, Missus Lady got it into her head to put some of her toys in the puddle that likes to grow on the patio whenever it rains. Silly human, she is. I heard her and Hero Man talking about putting some thing on the patio so she can put up dioramas that wouldn't be in anyone's way. If the thing had drawers, they could be pulled out and converted into planters, suggested Hero Man. Whatever it is, Missus Lady said, it would need to be stained so it can withstand the weather for a couple of years. Whatever it is, I hope I can climb up on it and take a snooze. Miao. Miao, miao. Missus Lady reminded me to tell everyone, "Hello, hello!" She apologizes for having not responded to comments on the last post. She sha

  The caterpillar does all work but the butterfly gets all the publicity. ~ George Carlin

That tall tree next to the side fence is an avocado tree. It started from a seed the Mama planted.  Until last year, it was hidden by a red shed, which has me now thinking that Mama planted the seed after the shed was built in 1989, thereabouts. That makes the tree about 29 years old. Yesterday morning a branch grazed the top of my head, so I got the pruning shears to trim it as it would get in the Husband's way. Lo and behold! I saw an avocado, the size of my tiny finger, hanging from beneath leaves on that low branch. I looked and looked. Yup, avocados. A whole lot of tiny avocados growing! This is the first time that avocado tree is bearing fruit. Wowza! Although Mama is physically gone, the Spirit of Mama continues to whisper to her plants. Perspective: The avocado is the size of my tiny finger.

Last week, we took a tour of a greenhouse that included gardenias, mmmmmmmm. Their scent, mmmmmmmm. The tour guide said that gardenias are coming back into popularity. I was surprised the flower ever went out of favor.

"So don't you give up now, ooh, ooh So easy to find Just look to your soul And open your mind Crystal blue persuasion, mmm, mmm" ~ Eddie Morley Gray, Mike Vale, and Tommy James I saw my first rainbow in a cloud last week.  The Husband gave me a scientific explanation for it. Something about ice crystals in the air. From my reading on the Internet, generally in terms of spiritually, a rainbow in a cloud symbolizes hope, promise, serenity, and peace among other positive ideas. I like that. It got me humming "Crystal Blue Persuasion" by Tommy James & the Shondells.  While I was taking photos, a bird flew across the sky. I clicked but I was sure I got nothing more than his tail. So call me happily surprised when I found this among my day's clickety-click captures. I'm hanging out at Skywatch Friday . Come join me by clicking here . Thanks, Skywatch Friday hosts!