My Funny Valentine's Birthday

Song - Happy Birthday Swing by the Lucky Seven

It's Mr. B's birthday today and I couldn't have picked a sweeter Valentine!

He's funny....

He loves his family.....

Loves to travel.....

 

 

Lake Como

 

Cinque Terre

 

Bourdeilles

London

And he makes friends where ever he goes.....

Mr. B is the one on the right...

He's a hard worker and goes into the office regularly!

He is also very humble and rarely knows more than anyone else!

He likes to sing....

....dance.....

.....play guitar......

...talk.....

 ....flyfish.....

...take me to concerts....

...and throw parties!

So glad he wandered into my life...

 

Happy Birthday Funny Valentine!!

 

"Your birthday reminds me of the old Chinese Scholar:

Yung No Mo"

 --unknown

Mr. Moon

Song - Moon Shadow by Cat Stevens


 Just in case you were not up early on Wednesday morning.....

5:02 am

.....I took these for you!

 

5:24 am

6:12 am

Unfortunately I forgot to set up my tripod the night before so the photos are a little wonkey but you get the idea of this spectacular moon event!

"The world is full of magic things 

patiently waiting for our senses to grow sharper."

--attributed to W.B. Yeats

Bee Yourself

Song - No Rain by Blind Melon

As to the above song - "Shine on little bee girl......."

I have this Camellia shrub outside my office window and right now it is in full bloom.  The bees just discovered it today!

Pollen on Camellia's was something I never have thought of (probably because they don't have a scent) but the bees know.

Stopping my work for awhile, I put my camera on a tripod and went outside to watch their activity.  I saw them remove the pollen and place it on their back legs.  When they had a sufficient amount, they would fly away and come back clean & ready to keep working.  How do they know when they have gathered enough pollen or too much to fly? What do they use the pollen for?

Actually they store the pollen to use when it's too cold or there are no flowers pollinating.  Stored pollen is mixed with mouth secretions to make brood food/bee bread which is essential for new little bees!

Pollen is not readily available when the bees start to rear their brood early in the year.  They rely on stored pollen.  Nurse bees consume bee bread as a stimulus to produce royal jelly for very young bees.

The bee in the above photo was taking a little break to "re-distribute" his heavy load. Now I know why they call busy people "worker bees"!

"What a kid I got, 

I told him about the birds and the bee 

and he told me about the butcher and my wife." 

 --Rodney Dangerfield

Sipping on Saturday

Song - Little 'Ol Wine Drinker, Me by Dean Martin

My friend Jill brought me up to Calistoga for my Christmas gift yesterday.  We had a beautiful drive up there, the weather was gorgeous and then we ate lunch at a yummy Thai restaurant downtown.  After lunch we went into some of the shops along main street.  And you won't believe it but they have a real live bookstore that's still in business!

We headed on down the Silverado Trail to visit one of my favorite wineries - Frank Family!

It's a tad expensive but when I want to splurge on occasion - this my go to wine! The guy (Saul) who was pouring our tastings said that I looked familiar.  We finally figured out that he worked at Chimney Rock Winery when my artist friends from BASA and I had a nine month show up there!

It was a beautiful day in the country with my beautiful friend!  

Thanks Jill.  

We need to celebrate Christmas more often!!!

"Each friend represents a world in us, 

a world not born until they arrive, 

and it is only by this meeting 

that a new world is born." 

-- Anais Nin

Listen

Song - Rain by The Beatles

Six days into the new year and I hope you have had time to curl up by a fire 

and read a good book after all of the busyness of the holidays! Sigh....

It's finally raining in California!  It was so wonderful to hear mother nature's "pitter-patter" on the rooftop. There was a certain amount of calmness about it but then we had an earthquake later that night that jolted most people awake, so that was the end of "calm" for awhile!

My Sweet Peas have begun to bloom - they were just a little 

confused by the warm, dry winter weather.

The Daffodils have begun to emerge from the ground.

And the Snowdrops have begun to show their little white bells.

The birds began coming to the feeders a little more often as if in anticipation of the rain.  Above is a female Nuttall's Woodpecker who seems to have made herself quite at home in the bowl of seed!

 And the hawks have been calling to each other in the early morning sky.

 My roses are about done for the year but it's fun to catch one blooming in January! 

I think I will wait a few more weeks before pruning them back for the winter.

What do you hear in your garden?
Have you been listening?

PLUVIOPHILE 

(n) a lover of rain; someone who finds joy 

and peace of mind during rainy days

Twenty-eighteen

Song - Don't Panic by The Hot Club of San Francisco

Best wishes for a great new year!

"Now is the accepted time to make your regular annual good resolutions. Next week you can begin paving hell with them as usual. Yesterday, everybody smoked his last cigar, took his last drink, and swore his last oath."

--Mark Twain

Where Have You Been?

Song - A Hard Rain's A-Gonna Fall by Bob Dylan

Where have you been my darling young one?

I'm a bad, bad blogger.....I forgot November and December!

Well I didn't really forget them.  It was more like they bowled me over!!!

 I babysat my son's sweet pup Chewy. What a cutie!

We had 22 guests for Turkey Day!

I completed two commissions and started a new painting.

This was from our Spring trip to Scotland - a piper greeted us in the Highlands near Glencoe.

My mom and I had some downtime at Lake Tahoe.

We had a great cousin's reunion which I did a lot of family tree work for.

David, Timmy & myself

And then Christmas just blew by......

And I was sick the entire time (3 months) with some kind of 

flu-bronchitis-pneumonia-cold-cough thingy! UGGG!

And being stubborn - I never went to the doctors.

Lucky for me, my husband and my boys all cook as well do their loveys, so I had plenty of help.

I hope you will forgive my absence for the last two months.

I'm still here!

As a treat I am going to share two special yummy recipes 

Pumpkin Bread a la Monica

Pumpkin Bread Recipe

1 ½ c. flour

½ tsp. salt

1 c. sugar

1 tsp. baking soda

1 c. pumpkin puree

½ c. vegetable oil (I sometimes use ¼ c. water and ¼ c. oil)

2 eggs, beaten

¼ c. water

¼ tsp. nutmeg

1 tsp. cinnamon

¼ tsp. allspice

¼ tsp. cloves

½ c. chopped nuts (optional)

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Sift the flour, salt, sugar, & baking soda together. In a separate bowl, combine the pumpkin, oil, eggs, water, & spices. Pour into bowl with dry ingredients & mix until all are combined. Stir in the nuts. Pour into a well-buttered 9x5x3-in. loaf pan, bake 50-60 minutes until done in the middle. Remove from pan, cool on a rack.

 

Jacque's Delicious Cranberry Honey Butter

 1/4 c. honey
1 c. butter
1/4 - 1/2 c. chopped dried cranberries
& orange zest to taste

Jacque placed the butter in small canning jars with handmade labels. 

“And now let us welcome the New Year —full of things that have never been.”

—RAINER MARIA RILKE