Friday, October 22, 2010

My next project ..

This is my secret garden .. this area I fell in love with when we first looked at our house in Valhalla.  It had a little trellice-fence thing and a big, crazy vine plant that was pretty .. but really un-useful.  So, feeling a little randy one night  (you'll remember my husband is gone, gone to Sicily, gone until December and then gone again) I decided THIS DAMN THING IS COMING DOWN!! 

So, I busted it down.  Yes, it had cement anchors, and yes the damn vine plant REALLY didn't want to come out .. but in keeping with our "family" motto .. I maintained my Can-Do attitude.  And this is the morning after .. eeek!  Did I really do that!  Well, yes I did, now clean up and get rolling. 

There will be grass and plants and it will be wonderful, it will be my secret little retreat and I will LOVE it! 

This home-ownership is the coolest thing. 

You're my blue sky, you're my sunny day. Lord you know it makes me high when you turn your love my way


Every day on my way home from work, God helps me forget all the junk from the rat race and shows me what is REALLY happening! 

 ** sorry the menu thing over there cuts into the picture .. I'm new to this blog thing.

Another little suprise bloom ..

My Man!!

At work, we have a HUGE bucket of peanuts - supplied by one of out fantastic HVAC mechanic's. So, after eating hundred's ... I decided it was time to STOP!  And who could eat such a handsom little creature?

Food is fun

Roxbury Deli ...

mmmmm ~ mmmmmmm!
And looks a bit like Kermit?

my birthday

rain makes corn, corn makes whiskey. Whiskey makes my baby feel a little frisky ..

rain is a good thing!

It's Fall here in our little piece of heaven and it's been super overcast and raining A LOT.  During the summer months, I forget how much I like autumn.  It's probably because I was born in this season.  Whatever the reason .. I'm so happy it's back. 

Sorry!  I got side-tracked .. back to the rain!  Valhalla is in FULL bloom!  I had my aunt up for a visit last weekend - SO FUN! She and Nico went for a walk while I was hiking Saturday morning and they brought home a HUGE pile of bougainvillea's home .. I decorated the house with them .. the outside of the house!

Wednesday, October 13, 2010

Quite possibly the best burger in history ....

Can I ride your magic bus?

Bard mansion

The Nico ..

Eats ...






















This is my boy.  It was a beautiful day, we'd just come from the doctors office and the child was hugry.  We sat on the curb out in front of the restaurant.  He ate his shredded beef burrito and I read the book I'd just picked up at the thrift store. As he goes further and further into this teenager thing, I cherish the moments like these. Later that day we played catch in the back yard. It was a good day.

rain ..

Rain brings many things with it ..

    rainbows with purple stripes ..

AMAZING sky

happy grass :)

and the desire to make corn bread!!  This is a "before" .. didn't get and after.


Tuesday, October 12, 2010

the grass is greener where it is watered ..

One of the first places my husband and I went when we started seeing each other was a car show in Carpenteria.  I found this little ceramic sign that read "the Grass is Greener Where it is Watered".  Coming from a relationship where the emotional grass withered from lack of care, this little sign really rang true with me .. so I spend the five bucks and I bring it home.  I hung it on the wall and would just stare at it every day when making coffee or doing dishes ..


I would picture in my head all the ways you can "water your grass" to keep it so green all the neighbors will envy it .. just an expression, don't want anyone to envy .. but, this little sign has been with me and I have meditated on it so many times ... in my tiny little house where I learned, or started learning who I was again and found out how to be independant .. and found what it's like to send the one you love to war and what it's like to be so scared for you child.


Then that little sign came with me to the fancy house, where it sat - again - at the kitchen sink .. except this time there was a fancy green house window for it to sit on and I looked at that sign everyday .. and I thought about what it meant and how to save grass that was getting little brown, scratchy spots.  And We fought and fought and made that grass so healthy and happy that pretty soon We got married and now, I've moved the little ceramic sign to it's new home .. a place it will stay for a long, long time. 



Again, it's right with me at the kitchen sink.  I still look at it every day, and it means so much more to me now .. as I'm standing in OUR house, looking at the Seabee's car parked and knowing that it's going to be sitting there, unused, for a long time and then seeing at our grass.  Our very own grass that I do have to water and mow and care for .. it is a real struggle .. but one that yields such vibrant beauty, such a cool and comfortable retreat on those HOTTER THAN HELL days we have, a place for Us to sit and talk about our day .. and how happy and proud he'll be when he does come home - finally - and the grass in the yard and the grass that sits up by the sink with me are so hearty, healty, lush and green ..


Anyhow .. this all leads me to ..



our new grass .. everyone told us it couldn't be done .. well dig this!!!!


Yeah, the grass is so much greener.


our little patch of success.

and then the rains came ..

AND IT GREW STRONGER!
"he who is drowned is not troubled by the rain"

The first patch is just about ready to be released from it's isolation, dogs will be free to run all over it.  Second patch to come!