Click on the photo for a full version of it. See if you can find the blue dinosaur. I'm having fun at two blog hops today. Come join me at Wordless Wednesday and at Watery Wednesday .

It's very hot in my part of the world, today, dear readers. Summer switched into autumn. Voila, hello heat wave. Temperatures climbed to 104 degrees yesterday, according to some weather reporters. The day before, 102 degrees. The weather widget on my computer shows 91 degrees. I looked a few minutes ago and it was 88  degrees. Dearest One in the Universe, please blow some breeze through. May I humbly ask that if you could possibly, please with natural raw sugarcane on top, roll some fog into Monterey Bay. Its fingers will definitely make it over the low mountain ridge and sneak through the mountain passes. Ah, is that a bit of the breeze I feel?  Thank you, Dearest One in the Universe.   For a nonsequitur, dear readers, let's listen to some Ella, as in Miss Ella Fitzgerald, the one who had a voice magnificent and smooth. I had the fortune of seeing her perform towards the end of her career. I was in awe of how a rich, vibrant voice came out of a sweet, little old lady. Listenin

"Natural" is the theme of this week's PhotoHunt. My photos are from a drive the husband and I took on our anniversary . For the longest time, we've been wanting to explore a certain back road between out county and the next. It was well worth the bumpity-bump drive on the dusty road. To view other bloggers' interpretation in this week's PhotoHunt, click here .

The Moai Murders by Lyn Hamilton is my last entry for the Cozy Mystery Challenge . Hurrah! Lara McClintoch is an antiques dealer from Toronto, who Lyn Hamilton has made as the main character of her archaeological mystery series. The Moai Murders is the ninth tale in the series. It's the first one I've read. The story is based on Easter Island or Rapa Nui.  The author sidesteps the mystery of the Easter Island statues, but does weave the history and culture of Rapa Nui, or Easter Island, into the plot. Lara and her best friend Moira go to the island after Moira, who just won her bout with cancer, decides to go somewhere that she always wanted to go. Lara goes because Moira has asked her. Upon arrival at their hotel, the women walk into a lobby full of Rapa Nui enthusiasts who are attending a conference. They decide to sign up for the conference to learn more about the maoi. Almost immediately, they are witnesses to the ugly rivalry between the two Rapa Nui experts.  Not one, no

Fourteen years ago, about the same time as I'm writing this, I'm getting food ready for the next day's festivity. Getting married to the husband, it was. Fourteen years ago, about an hour or so from now, I will have finally laid down beside a very anxious husband-to-be. He would be so anxious, he would not be able to sleep. And, that would mean I would not get to sleep. "We can still call it off," I will have said. "No, we can't," he will have replied. "Yes, we can." "No, we can't. People are coming." "We can call them up first thing in the morning." "No, we can't." "Yes, we can." "You've already made the food." "I can put it in the freezer." "We don't have to get married," I will have said. "We already got the license," he will have replied. "Do you want to marry me?" "Yes, I do." "What's the problem?" "You

What do you see standing on top of the hill?  A choo-choo train? A Viking ship? The hookah-smoking caterpillar from Alice in Wonderland? That's what I saw as I was pedaling along the road this afternoon. I'm hopping around at Wordless Wednesday today. It's a great place to find a lot of new bloggers. Check it out.

On Saturday, I decided to experiment with baking savory and sweet scones in the same pan. Hmm, I could've baked a full pan of both and stuck half of the scones in the freezer. That just dawned on me. But then, I'd have to remember to rotate the pans in the oven so that they each became evenly undercooked, burnt, or just right. Besides, if I had tried going for full recipes that day, I would've found out I didn't have enough rice flour. As you can tell, I'm a fly-by-the-seat-of-my-pants baker. (Do I need all those hyphens?) Heads up, all you gentle readers who are precise measurers (measurists?) out there. Be prepared to shudder. Savory Scones Ingredients Handful of fresh chives, minced 2 garlic cloves, minced 1.5-inch chunk of cheddar cheese, grated Sweet Scones Ingredients Brown sugar (almost 1/2 a cup) Chocolate chips (just more than a 1/3 cup) I made the scones gluten-free because I didn't have whole-wheat flour on hand. Better on the tummy anyway. I shook th