this past week ..

This past week started hard .. went along and got a little smoother, and now looks like it going to end on a sweet note.  I'm trying to get my "good attitude" back at work.  No more being down because there is tension in the office.  Just happy Wendy :)

Now, if only I had grass in the back yard ... we'll see what this weekend brings!

Here are a few things that happened in the past 7 days ..

Punch Bowls

There once was a hike ..

The thing about Punch Bowls is that people go there to party .. with parting comes shady people .. and with shady people come an lack of respect.  A lack of respect for nature in this case, but no matter how much junk the toss on the ground and how much paint they spray on the rocks .. there is no denying the absolute beauty of the place. 

The first time I did this hike, Nico was a little, tiny man and I carried him in a back pack.  The next time was with my future husband and my almost-teenage son .. well, Nico and I just did it again and here are some of the photos ..

trying to break shale :)

beauty from a rock ..

Suprise!

So, it turns out that there are all these secret plants popping up in and around my gardens . .we have tiny little purple and yellow pansies, cool purple yard lilies with BIG green, lush leaves with the coolest white polka-dots, other bulb plants .. not sure what they're going to develop into, and 2 tomato plants (one even has fruit now!) .. SO cool!  But what excites me the most are the 10 or so roses that have survived some pretty crappy environmental abuse and have poked their little heads up through the dust.

They were ALL over the place, so last weekend I dug up all the little fella's in the back yard and put them in proper rose formation, took great care to lay their roots so they had lots of room to stretch out, built little moats around them, watered heavily and then built little shantys to keep that hot O'ville afternoon sun from burning them up.

Almost a week later, it looks as if it was a successful mission.  One of the little guys looks wilty, but still green! Woohoo!  So, if I can just keep Puppy from digging up everything, it will - one day!, be a beautiful yard with flowers, grass, beautiful little trees to keep Big Pine company and when the Seabee comes home we'll get started on the slope .. can't wait for that!!

Anyhow, here's a photo of one of the suprise roses that came up in the front flower bed.  Strong little sucker!  Too bad the bloom doesn't have a strong scent ..

As a side note .. the alyssium is taking over the world!!!!

Peace~

The last day of a long weekend ..

it's Monday evening .. just talked to the Seabee in Sicily, now time to start winding down and get prepared to head back to work.  A few fun things from today ...

this morning, got our first mortgage payment all enveloped up .. funny, it didn't hurt as much as rent used to  :)  and I used a stamp left over from our wedding invitations .. just seemed appropriate <3

then, took a ride to vons to get some fixin's for dinner ..

got so enthralled with dinner, forgot to take a 'before' pic .. so, here's the meatball's and pepper's we had for dinner after Nic and I dug in ..

And, then it was time to put our feet up and get our chill on!  Be well, have a wonderful week

~wendy&nico

Garden of Valhalla

Complete with a serpent, our garden has everything!

BBQ 4 ..

Had a BBQ with some friends to celebrate Labor Day .. tomato's supplied by janet, SUPER home grown and SUPER delicious .. the cantaloupe kiss was an accident .. but surely a sign from the love god that my seabee misses me  ;)

cruiser adventure ..

Nico and I rode our new cruisers down to vons, the VTA bike trail is super cool.  Lived here the majority of my life and this was the first time I ventured out on the trail.  This will become part of my day to day.  Takes a little longer to get where you're going, but the ride is what makes it TOTALLY worth it.  A couple pic's from our ride ..

in the begining ..

hi there,

the purpose of this blog .. to show my far-away husband all the fun and wonderful (and borning and scary) things that are happening in and around our new home.  There will be stories and photos of all sorts of things .. plants, bugs, neighbors, friends, Nico's, dogs .. bar-b-que's, delicious dinners, experimental recipies ... anything and everything.

We'll start with this .. our tree.  my mission .. to save her ..