Blood Oranges

We went picking blood oranges, and other citrus on a friend's orchard-----I'm hooked on blood oranges---so good! I'm even trying to grow a small blood orange tree--it's doing pretty good after a slow start.

We hopped the fence--forgot the gate's combo, and hiked up the steep road--out of breath!

The leaf points to the owner's house--what a place!

Avocados too!

Lemons high above your head!

Wow! The trees were laden with fruit!

It was a warm day--we hauled our bags of fruit to the car--great day for picking!

Great Blue Heron Marks the Spot

I realized the first spot I chose for my garden wasn't the spot. The sun quit that spot too quick in the day--this is after I had my son, who delivered a whole truck load of rich dirt for my birthday, haul it all up a hill! I've been trying to watch the sun, since I'm surrounded by trees, to pick out the lengthiest, sunniest piece of ground. My son's fiancee pointed out a likely spot. I only needed to check out if it gets sun in the morning. And there, first thing I see when I look out the window the very next morning, right on the exact spot, is a great blue heron! I took it as a good omen! Of course we all know that it was stalking for gophers, not so good, but I'm planting above the ground, so good!!

It slowly stalked away...

The sun caught its bright orange beak, what a beautiful creature!

Wake Up!

My granddaughter wakes up wanting to play! "Make the kids talk" she'll say. The kids are about either 48 or 55 imaginary children--some have names like, 'Tree Up-Tree Up', (he likes to climb trees). 'Bad Up-Bad Up' (is always going to the principal's office). 'Asthma Up-Asthma Up', (has a hard time breathing and needs a certain amount of medication), there are more. On this particular morning she brought a few animals into my bed, "make the animals talk", well, they said a few things--grumbled a little--I think they were all hungry for breakfast. One of the animals asked my granddaughter to go get gramma's camera, which she did, only because the request came from an animal--(See these games can come in handy!); I just had to catch the morning light--hadn't even gotten out of bed yet.

Also you may notice the awesome portrait on the wall. Check out some other great portraits and think about having yours done by my sister, Martha Miller!

Pride of Madeira

Each spring when these bushes send up their spires of blooms, I'm always amazed! I've lived here on the central coast of CA for about thirty years. When I first traveled out here, it really was like being on another planet. Rhode Island has trees and shrubs that can survive the cold winters, deciduous plants and evergreens. Morro Bay has these too, but because we get very little freezing weather, the houseplants I was once familiar with back east, were growing here, in the ground and they were huge--glorious--mammoth versions of what I'd seen in those pitiful house pots--jade--all kinds of cacti--begonia--fuchsia. Then some plants I'd never seen like these Pride of Madeira--huge monster plants that grow so quickly in poor dirt with very little water-- such a striking blueish purple. Right now the blooms are at their peak.

They grow along the sides of the road,

In different colors,


Hummingbirds love them,

And bees!

Ten Hour Car Ride Home

On our way home from northern CA to the central coast, we traveled through very tall red wood trees,

This was a great snack while traveling in the car, because it was actually fun to make, and not too messy.

We rode into snow, my granddaughter made a slush ball. Snow in April!




Incredible oak trees--old, crippled trees--beautiful, spooky, familiar...
towering juts of rock and earth,

over the golden gate bridge,

into San Francisco--"Little boxes made of ticky tacky, little boxes on the hillside, little boxes all the same..."

A ride through the city on 19th Ave,



From here it's another 5 hours to go--it felt so good to get home and get out of the car!!

A Walk Through Humboldt University

We took a walk in between down pours. We saw dripping blooms...

A green house dome...

Some unexpected things, like whale bone ribs--just kidding...

A whale's skull! I'm not kidding. We rounded a corner to see about four of these whale skulls strapped against the side of a building...

A phone booth! Who ever sees phone booths any more--had to get a picture, next time we see one, it might well be in a museum!

Aunt Michaela's Toys!

While visiting up in Humboldt, my granddaughter had the extra treat to play with Aunt Michaela's Toys!! My daughter has collected and filled her apartment with such strange, beautiful, old, scary, crazy toys! These pictures are just a scant few--I wished I had taken more.


The golden nesting dolls...

An assortment of toys. The little doll in white is pretty old--made from that very first brittle plastic.

Michaela has an eye for the bazar. I've had this doll hanging on my wall since she first bought it--still in the package. If I had seen this in the store, I would have past it by, or looked at it and felt depressed (I don't like stores all that much anyway--this, in a store? forget it!), but check it out--click on the picture! Look at that "wig"!!! One strand of hair! The whole thing is just so cheesy, that it's a piece of artwork in and of itself. It's hard to believe this was manufactured to be sold!

Here's a sweet tiny altar she put together for me. all the little figures and the picture are symbols that represent me--her mom. I'm afraid the elephant's nose has broken off--that represents my clumsiness.

Here's a few other things I have at my house--little gifts she's given either me or my granddaughter over the years. The most recent is the little Indian girl, she's made from a Q-tip! and fits into that tube box made from a toilet paper tube!



Francis Vachon did this time lapse video of a baby playing with his toys!

The Little Cottage

We rented this little cottage for the Easter weekend. I think I said it was located in Trinidad, but Westhaven is the name of the town where it's located. We had a great time and loved this little crooked house--reminds me of the poem about the crooked man: There was a crooked man and he walked a crooked mile,
He found a crooked sixpence upon a crooked stile.
He bought a crooked cat, which caught a crooked mouse
and they all lived together in a little crooked house.
If you're interested click here for more info.

There was a crooked lady, who had a crooked spine--she crawled into the hot tub and stayed till half past nine!---------Ahhh!

A scene from Moonstone beach...

A water spout, blowing out some spray from a wave in Trinidad...

The wood stove heated up the place very toastily--I haven't sat in front of an indoor fire for the longest time--that felt so nice!

A view from the loft...

A banana slug slowly journeyed across the outside screen, probably wanting to come in to join our fun--or calling us out to join his, or, more likely, just crossing the screen!


The weekend was wet, which is not unusual. The growth around the cottage is rich and lush. I missed the place as soon as we left!