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

Here's my first experiment of doing something creative that's completely different for me. I learned the technique of layering two or more photos together in Photoshop while doing the Jane Austen Action Doll posts . I took three of my photos to make this collage. The woman is a store dummy and that's a chair in the shape of the hand. Both strange objects in the first place. The final effect kind of gives me the creeps. How about you? I'm linking up with the Friday meme called What Happened in Your Surroundings or in Your Mind This Week? hosted by Pippa Koenig. Click here to join in and/or to check out other participants. Update: I'm also linking up at s~A(R)T~urday , hosted by artist Claudia Willison. Be sure to check her out, too.    

The Husband and I made a special trip to Monterey last week so I could spend the birthday money the Mama gave me for someting pretty to wear. I was hoping to find a new top or two in Macy's. No such luck. Nearly everything was made out of flimsy, slick-like fabric. It reminded me of polyester from the 1960s and 1970s. The few things that I did like were too expensive even at 50% off. For instance, I saw a bohemian (aka hippie) style tunic that was cute, but at the original price of $200+, no thank you. I checked out a couple of other women's apparel shops in the mall. Zilch. About two hours later, I met the Husband at our meeting spot. We sat on a bench and enjoyed the warmth of the day for a long while before we headed back into Macy's to buy us some bed sheets. We found a package of 700 thread count sheets for half off, about $60. A great deal. The cashier made it even a better bargain by giving us an extra 10% from a newspaper advertisement. "Thank you," I

On New Year's Eve Day I noticed this rose bud. The odd thing about it is that its branch is among several rose branches sitting in a bucket of water that the Mama set aside in early October. She pruned the branches from the rose bushes in the front yard and was going to plant the branches in the backyard. But, then her health sidetracked her. This is the first time I've ever seen a rose branch in water take blossom. Another surprising thing is that we've had cold temperatures, including frosty mornings, for several weeks. I can only think that the Mama's love for her roses is strong and the roses love her back. By the way, the Mama is doing better. If you're interested in what happened, you can read about the Mama's health in last Sunday's post . Today, I'm hooking up with Our World Tuesday . To link up yourself and/or to read what's going on with other participants, click here .

When I woke up this morning, the streets were wet. We must've had a pretty good rain because all four us of slept later than usual.  Tilda-Hilda and I took a chance that it wouldn't rain and it didn't. We pedaled nearly six miles in 34 minutes. I was looking for a big puddle to take a reflection photo of Tilda-Hilda. No luck. Maybe next time we go out after a rain, which may be at the end of the week. Whooo-hooo! (For the rain, that is.)

I'm participating in a new meme called Friday's Hunt , which is hosted by Teresa of Eden Hills . You can link up until Sunday, in case you're wondering if I know what day it is. If you'd like to join in and/or check out other participants, click here (after you read my post, I hope.) A is for Artichokes I'm used to seeing fields of artichokes near the coast. So, it's very strange to see them growing in our area, which is about 40 mile from the coast. I wonder if the artichokes taste any different. Week's Favorite Yesterday, the Husband, the Mama, Molly the Cat, and I received a trés cool gift from Cousin Kuting (which means tiny and cute in Ilocano). It's a large sturdy canvas bag perfect for everything that needs being carried. Molly the Cat sniffed it, which I take to mean that perhaps if need be she would jump into it and be smuggled into somewhere that we need to be secretive about. But, that's not the neatest part about the bag

I love handcrafted gifts. This Christmas I received one of the most amazing, beautiful handcrafted gifts ever—a quilt by Sister-in-Law Carleen. Isn't it gorgeous?! The pattern is trés cool. The photograph doesn't do justice to the the bright and contrasting colors of yellow, green, purple, turquoise, and bits of bright blue. Carleen used a tropical theme because, she said, I was a tropical gal. I totally like that. Needless to say, but I shall anyway, this Carleen original warms my heart big time and many times over! I'm sharing this post with Warm Heart Wednesday , a new weekly meme hosted by the amazing Jenny Matlock. Yes, yes, I know it's Saturday. :-)