It Really Is Fall According to the Date

 But we have very little color in the trees. Everything is still pretty green. There are a few maples that are red, but nothing spectacular. This morning surprisingly started with a pea soup fog and we have gone from 57 to 62 F. Although, the sun has come out so I expect it to warm quite a bit.

Here is a shot from this week last year (2023):

I was actually a bit early for my 8 a.m. eye doc appointment in Florence today. It's 9.4 miles so it only took about 20 minutes. After that, I treated myself to brunch at the Miss Florence Diner, aka Miss Flo's. I think it's Miss Flo's that started my love of diners.

Fond memories welled up as I sat on the 'bar' stool near the kitchen entrance. When Deb was about 2 years old, we went there as a family and the waitress looked at Baby Debbie, and then looked at her father and said, "Can't deny that one!" Not that he ever would, of course. (She is now in her 40s.) We got a good laugh at that. When I was an undergrad at UMass, I got to know some guys who had a car (they were upperclassmen) and for a treat, we would motor off to Miss Flo's for a late supper. One guy always ordered the lobster pie (there is a full restaurant in the back). I never tasted it and forgot to ask if they still have it. 

Ann and I went to the Pine Hill Orchard in Colraine, MA. It was a lovely day for a wagon ride (which really needs heavy duty shocks, in my opinion!), so we hopped right onto the wagon after we parked. It was a fairly long and bumpy ride and then we walked almost to the end of the row which had honey crisp apples. The more common ones such as McIntosh were closer to the front. As I was about to tell Ann that I had enough, a stern looking guy popped up at the end of the row and said, "You were supposed to buy a bag first." This was news to us (no signs to that effect) and I was congratulating myself for having the fabric shopping bag rolled up in my purse. Ann had a reusable bag with a sweater. We told him we were going to dump the apples in the paid-for bag. He said, "I'll wait." Holy smokes, I thought he was going to zip tie us next and march us off to the pokey. I guess they have a lot of people who think the apples are free. The 'big' bag was $23! We split a medium sized bag (about 8 apples, they were really big apples) for $15. Ann, bless her, treated me to my apples. 

I have felt very unproductive lately and I don't know what I have shown you, but beyond the two Barbie-sized mini quilts, I have finished these quilt tops. 

Yes, it's time to change my couch cover to Fall colors. I have the fabric all washed, I just have to put it one. Maybe I'll more to show you -- I have to get cracking on items for the Sleighbell Fair! (No, no dammit dolls this year. They were hard to make!)

Emily and I went to Glen, New Hampshire to visit Deb and Paul in their country home (vs the condo in Boston). This was taken on the common in North Conway which is next door to Glen.

Pork Chop allowed me to take his picture. He actually had a really good time and had many admirers who smiled at the happy dog, happy dog.

I know you're probably sick of looking at my glass collection, but I wanted to show Elaine and Lorne the 'jewel' that they gave me. It's glowing pink/purple in the top right. (It's totally visible when I sit in 'my' chair.) I'm sorry, I'm too lazy to take a better picture. Right now, with the shades closed, it's a very deep purple on the right side and gold on the left. I love it! I also have my new beaded humming bird on the green martini pitcher. I got it at the Ace Hardware store in Palm Springs. We all love that store because the employees are so nice! It's also the type of store that if they don't have it, you don't need it.

This coming Saturday (Oct. 5) will be Emily and Tina's Great Adventure. We're going to drive to DC to a hotel in Dupont Circle. The next day we will go to the National Gallery of Art to see: Paris 1874: The Impressionists. (I may have switched the title around, but you get the idea.) Then we motor off to Ohio.

We are going to the Cincinnati Zoo, woo hoo! I hope to see Fiona the Hippo. But if it's too chilly, she won't be swimming in the pool. I don't know what backstage things we might get to do. Here's last year's picture from when Emily and I fed the giraffes at The Living Desert in Palm Springs.

It's time for me to buy a big pumpkin for the front yard. I imagine my front steps with cute little pumpkins -- and then I remember I don't want to entice squirrels up onto the porch. That's too close for comfort for me! When Mom first moved into her house in Quincy, I opened the back door to the small yard and there was a squirrel there waiting expectantly. He wouldn't shoo away. The original homeowner had been feeding him/them. Here I admire the coal black squirrel in my back yard (I have only seen one), but he will have to walk to the stump in the front yard to eat pumpkin. Although I suppose I could put some in the way back rough. Nope, can't encourage the bears. (My neighbor about 5 houses up the street had a bear fishing in her koi pond last year.)

I hope you have a lovely rest of fall! Cheers!

End of July Good Afternoon!

 It has been a rollercoaster ride including buying a new washing machine, inhabiting the desert with temperatures 10 degrees above normal (can you say is it really 112 F.?), paying exorbinant plane and rental car prices, getting stuck in Denver for hours due to the "computer glitch," buying a new laptop (mine died) having LOW TIRE PRESSURE in my car twice in three days bla, (the first was when I was in Holyoke), bla, bla, bla.

Now for the really good stuff! Mom is fine. She had her battery changed, they may have done an oil change too but I didn't ask. My Debbie Darling picked me up in Boston (and got me a hotel room!!) which saved me another three hours of waiting in Denver for a plane to Hartford which was ultimately cancelled. And I did not catch covid on my travels! 

More really good stuff: Emily met me yesterday in Mystic, Connecticut and we went to the Mystic Aquarium. We had a really good time. It was only 69 F. when I left the house (stopping at the tire store in Northampton first to check the tire pressure and get rid of the warning that obscures everything else). It was a perfect day in the 80s with a slight breeze as we walked around viewing the fish and other animals. It did creep close to 90 but we were in our cars with the a.c. by then.  For your viewing pleasure, I submit some of my favorite shots. (Yes, there are more, but enough is enough!)

I have no idea whose hand that belongs to above, she insisted on putting her fingers in this fish's face. But she did provide a size reference. He is a big un!

I thought it was interesting the way the water actually camouflaged the shark above. A better view of the same shark is below.

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I love sea horses! This guy kept moving around and bending down as if he were camera shy.

There were more water lily flowerx, but I liked this shot.

And we leave with a sea lion leisurely swimming on his back having a great day.

I hope you all have a great day and happy adventures!

It's Almost Summer!

 It has been a nice cool spring so far -- only a few really hot days. I missed the daffodils at my house, getting home at the beginning of May. A lot of my flowers have disappeared, such as the white hydranga and some daisies. The tulips are gone because they were worn out. I think the other missing items are because I had to spray poison ivy poison again and that stuff kills everything in the area. I had an awful case of poison ivy last year and I don't want to relive that.

But going back to California, knowing that I would not be there for Carole's big birthday party, I threw a mini party for her at Mom's house.

It was a small group and we had fun playing Mexican Train Dominoes after a lunch of three different kinds of quiche, sweet potatoes, and salad. The party that Carole had at her house had many people, lots of food, and a mariachi band!

One of my favorite cactus in Palm Springs.

The spring roses in Palm Springs were gorgeous as always. I love spying on the bees as they gather pollen, don't you?

No, I don't know what this is called but it's pretty.

J and J's hedge outdid itself with blooms this year.

On the road again at the beginning of May. At this point, I believe I was in New Mexico. I had bought a new tire in California because of a totally flat and useless tire. But I seemed to have problems keeping air in it and I had a heck of a time finding air pumps that worked. Here, I stopped at a tiny garage off an access road. The scenery was spectacular but, of course, I couldn't just stop on the highway to take pictures. So while the guys were checking my tires, I snapped some shots.

Then on to a Missouri (the Cave State) rest stop. The wall was much bigger than this, covered with many license plates.

Finally, I made my way to LaGrange, Illinois where my friends Alaine and Todd live. They are the best hosts ever! We went to the Garfield Park Conservatory which had mounted their spring flower show. It was spectacular in many many greenhouse rooms. There wasn't too much blooming outside and it was raining quite heavily so we didn't mind being inside.

The yellow "flowers" below are Chilhuly glass sculptures.

At this point in my photos, I have a picture of my EZ Pass. I found out the hard way that I had forgotten to give them my new credit card number. One of the tolls (was it in Kansas, Toto?) was $10! The toll booth person was very nice and asked if my transponder was not working. (I had to take a picture of the transponder to get the number to call to give them the right number -- the writing was too small to read so I took a picture and enlarged it.)

And then it was home to other people's tulips and flowering trees. And my unmown lawn which had turned into a meadow in spots.

I had contracted with Busy Bee Landscapers but they had not seen fit to get busy...

Last year, I discarded the falling down deck and got a new one. This year, I used the same company to put on a new front porch. The old one was hazardous for old ladies such as myself.

Before

After

I've been helping to make jam at the church and working in the kitchen for the spring supper. Breakfast on the deck is wonderful.

The lettuce you see in the picture is pretty much done after three harvests. It was warm enough to discourage the lettuce. I have more tomato starter plants (cherry tomatoes) and basil. Phyllis kindly brought me some oregano which I still have to repot.

Ann and I had a good time at the Paradise City Arts Festival in Northampton. It was very hot that day but we did manage to see all of the displays in the three huge barns.

I finished binding this quilt today. It's for a Barbie doll and each of those squares is one inch or less. Cathy gave me the yellow fabric and it's very happy.

The church steeple is half finished. Completion and dedication will be later in the month. (There is a bell up there too.)

My backyard jungle is doing well. The purple flowers are chives. There are some purple lupines hiding in the over growth. But last fall, I scattered wildflower seeds so I'm waiting to see if anything else blooms.

Then I had to get a new washing machine. Shortly after that, I was informed that I need a new tankless water heater. But I think I'll wait maybe until September for that since I don't need that much hot water in a shower while ithe weather is hot. 

I almost caught the peonies before they were totally gone, but they were a bit droopy when I picked them. 

And that is it! I hope you all are having a happy spring/summer!

Happy Almost New Year

 As always, it has been too long. Perhaps some of you should give me a nudge to re-start the conversation! Yes, I am nicely ensconced in California at Mom's house. Yes, it's good to be back but I'm running hard to keep up with Mom!

Yeah, I know I'm weird, but ... I found this pattern of tree bark interesting. This was on a walk with Elaine.

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We had great fun watching Carlo for five days. Here he is after a bath. Yes, he was as soft and fluffy as he looks! The first day, he had to get used to us all over again -- while we learned his routine. Mom (luckily) took him out in the morning since he got up at 6 a.m. I took him out at various times of the day with his last time out at about 8:30 or 9 p.m. The second night, we were watching tv in the den and he looked at me and looked at Mom and finally lay down on the rug. A bit later, I said, "Where's the dog?" He had put himself to bed in Mom's bed (where he sleeps) because we were up too late for him. I guess that's how he got to be 17 years old. Early to bed and early to rise and all that.

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While playing Mexican Train Dominoes, we admired Carole's solar Christmas trees. Santa on the right climbs up and down a golden rope!

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My darling Deb left us a cookie decorating kit! I discovered that I may be the worst cookie decorator ever, but they still tasted good.

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This Friday Frolic (lunch) was at the Waters Cafe at the Agua Caliente Casino in Cathedral City. We were so happy that Deb could join us. Paul was working.

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It actually does rain in the desert! This day, we got about 0.42 inch of rain and this beautiful double rainbow. It was more colorful in person. I did not take the time to edit it and make the photo more colorful. Sorry about that.

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And our excellent Emily came to visit! As with Deb, the week seemed to go by in a couple of minutes.

Emily had decided that she would rather visit The Living Desert during the day than at night. She fed the giraffes and I loved being so close to them. A helpful game keeper reminded me, "Don't touch!" The giraffes know the drill and one came right up to me before anyone had any lettuce and he was looking for his treat. The keeper also told me not to turn my back on him. "Why? Do they bite?" "No, but they might nudge you." I was glad for the instructions because you just want to pat the giant beasts!

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Our neighbor's yard. The trees 'in real life' are multicolored but my phone camera didn't think so.

Here's the tree during the day. You can't see that there are lights on it during the day, so it was a pleasant surprise at night.

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Thank you, Carole for giving us amaryllis which bloomed right on time for Christmas!

This is Mom's.

And this is mine. It's on the only Christmas table runner that I ever made. I'm amazed when I see it that I followed the pattern!

My Canadian friends graciously gave me a ride to the Wild Lights at the Living Desert this year. We met up with Eric and his friend Ron. Eric took our picture.

Left to right: Lorne, Tina, Elaine, Robert

I didn't take any pictures of the lights this year. So here's "file footage" from 2021!

There were more lights this year, particularly around the model railway. Oh, gosh, I have forgotten the exact name but it is 'garden size' as opposed to in-your-living room size.

Here is a daytime partial shot of the railroad. New renovations and expansion are planned for the 3/4 acre installation. $200,000 has been donated for the project.

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Sunset

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Lighting of the Palm Springs Christmas tree. Hot chocolate and cookies for all!

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A neighbor's rose. Everything is flourishing even though it gets down to the 40s at night.

Our neighbors' lemon tree hasn't escaped yet!

If you throw in some lunches (every Friday), a musical concert, a trip to the casino, two trips to the Living Desert, dinner at our place, dinner at a friend's place, The Lunch Bunch Quilters' holiday party, and going to the gym, I'm ready for the hot tub and a day of doing nothing! Oh, wait. I have to finish the Sassy Cowgirls quilt! More on that later.

Meanwhile (as Stephen Colbert says), I wish you all a very happy New Year with new beginnings and health. Of course, I wish us all peace.