What made you smile today?

I can see the movie now - Mighty Ducks on grass.

Gardening, of all things. I'm a long time gardener but I've flagged at it in Albuquerque. Too damned hot, too cold, too windy, and when it's just right I've put it off too often, for various reasons. So I'm out there today when it's 47 degrees F. That's perfect. Nice day, got a fair amount done (more to go, more to go). Am itching from the dreaded Russian thistle, but that'll pass.

Potted my in-ground basil and sage plants, which were verging on death's door. We'll see - I've managed to keep basil alive indoors after being in the ground before, but this will be touch and go. The basil seems to be perking up already in the kitchen pantry area. The sage seems to be planning to become a dried herb.

I walked into the kitchen, glancing around distractedly.
"What are you looking for?" asked Rhys.
"You," I said. "Oh wait! There you are!"
"Good," said Rhys. "Now you hide."

Flower delivery at the door.
Bark bark bark say the dogs.

Set accepts flowers for Miss Rita (neighbour, just home again from surgery re latest cancer).

Bark bark bark.

Set puts flowers in front of boy dog so he knows what the excitement was about. Boy dog relaxes.

I put flowers in front of blind girl dog so she can smell the flowers. She sniffs and sniffs and sniffs and tries to take a big bite of the pretty pink carnation. That dog LOVES flowers.

and then there's....

Glad that my inner camera hog is back.

With a vengeance.

I was unable to take photos for about 2 years after my mother died. I just couldn't. Photography has been important to me since I was about 12 years old and bought my first 2nd (or 3rd) hand 35 mm.

I just finished pulling 300+ photos off 2 cameras. Now to start editing.

Happy happy happy

Good.

This morning I noticed a lot of flowers on my feijoa tree, the first such proliferation for about 8 -10 years during the worst of the drought. Lovely red & pink things that look like this. :


We've had lots of spring (& winter) rain this year ... my garden is springing back to life!
If all goes well, in high summer I'll be seeing lots of these:


And you should see my roses in the front yard!
Haven't enjoyed my garden so much in years!

You have a Feijoa? Oooooh, I've specified them often and had one myself.
I tried to rescue one in my in law's desert patch. The local gardeners made it into a smallish cube... what can you expect from people who pollard, not that I admire the original designers who specified mulberry trees there in the first place, thus they were pollarded. The mobile home village in winter looked like a place with chicken bone trees (mulberries), and cube bushes (feijoas).

First time I saw one, our plant materials/garden detail guy suggested we try eating the feijoa blossoms (we did) - said they're good in gelatin salad. No fan of the jello salads of my youth, I didn't go there, but now I can imagine that could be beautiful.

In fact, I think it was the fellow who just died - may he rest well in peace -

I worked for him a bit at one point, I forget doing what, some small design - but what I most remember is his wife's cabbage potato sausage soup that she made for our class visit.. I've raved about it on a2k before.

Major guy, Scott Wilson - I tear that he is gone but am happy to have known him and his wife.

http://www.latimes.com/news/obituaries/la-me-scott-wilson-20111112,0,3170002.story

Great! Drought saps our spirit as well as the Plant life, doesn't it?

Yes, it does rather, Deb.
I think I lost interest in maintaining my garden during the drought. Too many plants I'd planted & had been nurturing died. Gardening became a rather dispiriting chore rather than a pleasure. And the native birds vanished.
Ah well, the fittest & the most drought-hardy plants & trees survived. With the help of lots of buckets of grey water from the house. Remember the "bucket back" syndrome?

So this spring is something quite amazing to experience after years of that.
It is hard to stay out of the garden.

It rained steadily, all day long, today. A thorough drench. Lots & lots of rain.
I fell asleep while I was reading this afternoon & woke to the sound of rain, hours later.
That has to be one of the most soothing sounds I know.

Osso, yes, I planted my Feijoa not long after moving here from my previous place of abode. (where I'd planted one which the new owners loved. They used to deliver its fruit to my doorstep for a few years after I'd moved out & they moved in. Lovely people.) The local nursery had to get it in for me, as there were none in stock.
It has been the most forgiving tree/big bush, surviving years of water deprivation & growing bigger & bigger anyway. But no fruit during the worst of the drought. This year, though, is quite a different matter after all the rain.
It seems to be standing taller & the flowers!
It is obviously the perfect choice for this climate. I salute its resilience!

My friend Andy at work always makes me smile. He posted this to facebook yesterday. Bollocks is one of my favorite British bad words.

I find that people named Andy are almost always funny.
There's another Andy at work who works the front gate. He gives you a password to get in the next morning when you're going out and a password to get out that night when you're going in that morning.
He uses words like 'Chowderhead' and 'Lunar Eclipse'.
Anyway, after sleeping all night or working all day, it's a task to remember what the password is and yesterday afternoon I forgot it.
Jan, another guard was like, 'Rebecca - what's the hold up?' and I said, 'I can't remember the password.'
Jan, who doesn't play games like this (most of the guards don't) was like, 'What password?'
And I said, 'Well, Andy always has a password that you have to know to get in or out.'
And she said, 'I'll tell you what the password is - just say 'Andy - let me out of the ******* gate - NOW!'
So I did. And Andy laughed and then said, 'Rebecca the password for tomorrow is 'Civility' and I will be here all day tomorrow to patronize you on your way in and out of the prison- so don't forget it.'

I love my job. Who would have ever thought you'd get so many laughs out of such a strange, sad, and unfortunate environment.

TWAS THE NIGHT OF THANKSGIVING,
BUT I JUST COULDN'T SLEEP
I TRIED COUNTING BACKWARDS,
I TRIED COUNTING SHEEP.

... THE LEFTOVERS BECKONED -
THE DARK MEAT AND WHITE
BUT I FOUGHT THE TEMPTATION
WITH ALL OF MY MIGHT

TOSSING AND TURNING WITH ANTICIPATION
THE THOUGHT OF A SNACK BECAME INFATUATION.

SO, I RACED TO THE KITCHEN, FLUNG OPEN THE DOOR
AND GAZED AT THE FRIDGE, FULL OF GOODIES GALORE.
GOBBLED UP TURKEY AND BUTTERED POTATOES,
PICKLES AND CARROTS, BEANS AND TOMATOES.

I FELT MYSELF SWELLING SO PLUMP AND SO ROUND,
'TIL ALL OF A SUDDEN, I ROSE OFF THE GROUND.

I CRASHED THROUGH THE CEILING,
FLOATING INTO THE SKY
WITH A MOUTHFUL OF PUDDING
AND A HANDFUL OF PIE.

BUT, I MANAGED TO YELL AS I SOARED
PAST THE TREES....
HAPPY EATING TO ALL - PASS THE
CRANBERRIES, PLEASE.

MAY YOUR STUFFING BE TASTY,
MAY YOUR TURKEY BE PLUMP.
MAY YOUR POTATOES 'N GRAVY
HAVE NARY A LUMP,

MAY YOUR YAMS BE DELICIOUS MAY YOUR PIES
TAKE THE PRIZE,
MAY YOUR THANKSGIVING DINNER STAY
OFF OF YOUR THIGHS.

MAY YOUR THANKSGIVING BE BLESSED!!

She should get down with Barry Morgan

Builder - that was great - I really like that. And so true...I woke up debating - should I have lunch for breakfast? Or dessert? I ended up having an appetizer and a piece of cake.

I had two nine year old girls at our Thanksgiving celebration yesterday who got bored with all the adults and so decided to train my dog and ready her for her audition on the cat walk. This made me smile:
Writing out their plan for Pearl - the catwalk dog


The plans:

Barry Morgan sure gives you a giggle!

Very suitable for the Spicks last show

I've known it was my mother's birthday today; I'm aware of it every november and see the day coming - but it just clicked now that she would be 110.

Rest in peace, Mommy. At this point I can say this with both tears and a smile.

My mom's birthday was in November also. She'd have been 90.
Thanks for sharing that thought.

Today would have been my father's 90th birthday.