Baby Tomatoes!!!!

I'm thrilled! I have baby cherry tomatoes already! Now, you may wonder why I am so ecstatic over a few tomatoes...Well, I used to grow a garden, but since moving here; I have no room. See for yourself.

Mostly hard-scaped yard like everyone around here(water conservation and all). And the border beds are full of bushes and flower--and a few little gnomies(see 'em peeking?).

So, I have two pots with the tomato plants in them. My little treasures. They make me happy. Soon we will plant herbs in the planters on the fence. Isn't D a sweetie for attaching all those to the fence and rigging up irrigation? He is, for sure. So that's my garden folks. Tomatoes and herbs. I can live with that. If you want some Jolee's stickers, scroll down and leave your comment here.

Wildlife Pics...sort of

Sorry that I haven't been around. I wasn't well, I'm fine now. This is just a couple interesting(to me) pics I took yesterday.

Mr. Grasshopper on my window.And yet another red-tailed hawk; only I got a closer shot this time.I will stop by and visit everyone later today! Have a wonderful day.

I Laid In Wait

Ah, the tricky hummingbirds.
I think I'm done with my obsession of photographing them now. This time I took the time to crop the photos. Also, I got the elusive red male! Enjoy!And now I'm dying to do something crafty! But, I'm off to the optician again. I've been patient and diligent enough; they need to help me. Have a fun-filled day!

Contemplating

Just sitting at the table looking out the window.Eating a strange breakfast of freshly-toasted, homemade sourdough bread and chopped tomatoes with some freshly-picked basil from the backyard, minced onions, olive oil, and balsamic vinegar.I'm contemplating on whether to do what I should or what I want. I hope you all have a nice day.

The Littlest Sentinel

Well, I haven't been too crafty lately due to probs. with my new glasses---major P.I.A.! Close up work bothers me, including blogging(this is SERIOUS, people!--wha? limited blog time!!) I think we've figured out the remedy and will see doc. again this week. Anyhow, I've been wanting to photograph the hummingbirds that have been visiting my new feeder. My inspiration was from m. heart, who is a wonderful photographer and blog friend. She photographed a hummingbird in her yard recently.

This little guy is just darling 'cuz he's a total bad@$$ in miniature! He doesn't want the other hummingbird to feed here! So, I watch them chase each other back and forth. Also, I thought it was unusual to see one perched. This one does it a lot.I'm not sure who 'won' a few seconds to feed here. Who knows? Maybe this is a mated pair, although it seems like two males competing. M. Heart is also on a mission to capture these sonic-speed critters! Check it out!

Breakfast Date

I took this early this morning. Just for fun. I have no plans for the day as I have had headaches everyday since getting my new 'eyes'. Think I'll just chill. Have a great day!

A Look at the Morning.

Today, I thought I'd take you through my morning routine as I plan my day in my mind. Let's go out into the backyard. Of course, we must have coffee. It looks like Mrs. Goose needs a new outfit, maybe I'll change her later. The humble fountain is babbling happily. I just love this ornamental tree. No idea what variety, but it reminds me of little clusters of purple grapes hanging on vines.How are the herbs? The little Thai ornamental peppers are just darling. The sprinkler head is only about 3/4 in. in diameter, so you can see how tiny the peppers are. The dill has gone to flower, I should have trimmed that back sooner. Oh wellllllllll! My mint have overcome the cilantro. It's dead. Bummer, dude. I never use the mint and always use cilantro. Ah, the irony! Thyme looks lovely. Yummy with chicken and lemon. We can never have enough thyme, or is that TIME? Curly parsley and chives. Lovely in deviled eggs. Flat leaf parsley and flowers...this variety tastes so much better. It goes in everything. Oregano is thriving. Mmm...just a little in my chili. I wanted to show you the not air balloons in the background. Alas, they are too far away and the atmosphere is hazy. One of these days! My favorite. Not 1, not 2, but 3 kinds of Basil! I love, love, love, love, (did I say love?), Pesto! Incidentally, that is my son's name...pronounced Bazzil, in the British form. Yikes, the feeder! This is a failed venture. I wanted to draw the hummingbirds in and try to get the elusive photo of them. However, the ants(don't think you can see in the photo) have completely taken over so this will have to come down. Where are my gloves? Let's wander out front. D is so proud of owning this palm tree as he is a Chicago boy. He has finally 'arrived' in Cali. now! The mums are SO happy and cheerful. They've gone completely mad this past week. They're having a party in the flower bed! I'm admiring my car's shiny 'shoes'. I washed and waxed the car yesterday and of course, you just have to shine the wheels or it's like putting on dirty old yard shoes with a lovely new sun dress! Back to the back yard. Xena is waiting, IMPLORING me to return! Let's go in and check on the sour dough starter. This is the 5th day of fermenting and it is appropriately smelly and bubbly! I've never made it before, but I am very excited to be able to make a loaf tomorrow! And here's my latest stitching piece that is likely going to be neglected today. When I'm finished with my elusive and frustrating job hunt this morning, I think I will work on my blue collage. Well, I'm off to post on my 36 Parks and a Puppy blog. Have a happy day!

Circus Side-Show Garden

Ok, so here is the end result of the gnomies in the garden. (see previous post 'nerdy gnomes'). See? Kind of a circus! Those are my herbs growing in planters on top of the fence. Note the Christmas lights around the fence. Also, note that the goose is no longer naked! There are a lot of gnomes, people! It makes me think of gnome-chucking(Harry Potter)! Today I am thinking about honing my blog a bit. I believe I will start 2 new ones. This for arts and crafts. Another for cooking for diabetics(low carb, essentially) and a third for my 37 parks project. About this (Eclections) blog...it occurs to me that I really enjoy seeing what others have in-progress. It's kind of like opening a present each day when I check in with particular blogs and see what they are up to or if a project is finished. So, one goal is to show a bit more of that to people. I don't do anything particularly special, but it's fun for me. The other thing I just love to see is where people do their arts and crafts (studios, if you will). That gives me the idea to share my humble space and some of the unique things I have for inspiration or just because I like them. A little tour if you will, a piece at a time. I hope this is something others will enjoy. Therefore, I'm off to photograph some of my works in progress and bits of my 'psuedo studio'; which I will post later on today. Also, I'm going to figure out how I add additional blogs. Have a creative day!

Nerdy Gnomes

Ok, I have to detour a bit today to tell you about our new gnomes. First of all, I have 'most-embarrassing-teenage-moment' memory of visiting my Grandma's house. The thing is that she had numerous gnomes, spinny flower thingies and a plethora of other assorted tacky plastic stuff in her yard. I would call it an Amusement Park of Gnomes. I even suspect all their neighbors secretly added more to their yard upon receiving them...a gnome re-gift, if you will. Here we would roll up in the car, and me, being self-consciously 14ish, would bolt for the door and hide my face lest some studly(albeit pimply) boy might see me here! Now that you have THAT background, you are up to par with me wondering why my sweetie and I bought 2 yard gnomes yesterday. In order to tell you WHY, I must first back-track and tell you this story:

The Story of the Plastic Goose

Well, my fiance's daughter having the usual impossible task of buying a present for dad on his birthday; had an inspiration! She thought to herself 'well, dad has a new house and he's been doing all kinds of work in the yard and loves his garden so much...Hence, the GARDEN GOOSE. I had never heard of such a thing, being a Californian. Marketers probably realized that Californians are just 'too cool' for gooses as I know NO people that have them in their yards. However, when he opened the box, I was quite delighted with the 20+ outfits she comes with. Don however, nervously chuckled (probably wondering where to put the goose so the other yard 'guys' in the neighborhood would not find out about it). This is not to say that Don didn't appreciate his daughter's thoughtfulness. It's just...he is a 6 foot 2, cop-built, booming voice, in other words 'macho' kind of a guy(marshmallow inside, but hush, only I know that!). Two weeks later: Don is weeding in the back yard, he lightly tosses the goose aside and yes...CRACK! Broke a leg off. Ok, I glued the leg back, no problem...put her back in the yard. 3 days later, my son, doing whatever teenage boys do to wreck things(read: live and breath) knocked her off the ledge. I'm afraid the poor goose lost her head. NO, I don't mean she came alive and was scandalized by her out of season outfit! I mean broke her head off at the neck. In 3 pieces. Of course, said daughter was coming to visit in 2 weeks. So, I put out an APB on the internet and finally found a replacement for $50 with the same 20+ outfits. Not quite. Ok, more searching found just the goose for $30(pictured here, naked). So, Don had to re-purchase something that he felt he could live without, so as not to disappoint.

BACK to the gnome story now:

So, we were in Joann's craft store yesterday and they had all their yard stuff 60% off; which for me would be 75% off since I get to use an educator discount also. That's when it happened: I saw the gnome holding the goose(above picture); as if stealing a goose from someone's yard! I CRACKED UP! Too funny! So, we both loved the joke and had to get it. Of course, you cannot have only one, so one turned into two. It gets worse! I then purchased three more today! I'm out of control people!!!! Tomorrow, I will show you a picture of our new circus side-show garden. Circus is correct, trust me! There are also Christmas lights all around the garden. This is because Don likes the way they look at night while he's in the spa. Not because he is lazy. He just likes them...the jury is out on this still. Ok, I'm off to sew.

Dragonfly!

Isn't it beautiful?! It just happened to land next to our fountain a few minutes ago and pose so nicely for me! Enjoy.