California Dreaming

I am in a whimsical mood dreaming about getting away. It is about 28 degrees Fahrenheit today, which is up from a couple days ago, but it is still so darn cold. The Mamas and the Papas lyrics are very apt:  "California Dreaming on such a winter's day." Since we took our big trip to Italy in 2009, we haven't been traveling much because it is not financially feasible. However, this summer we will be going to California to visit my brother, sister-in-law, and by that time, their baby girl. And, we will be visiting a friend in San Francisco too (we were roommates while living in Taiwan). I'm thinking of flying into Medford, OR, then traveling to Crater Lake, the redwood forest, and down through Napa Valley before hitting San Fransisco and heading down Highways 1 and 101 through Carmel, Monterey, and on to Los Angeles where my family lives. If you were going to California, where would you make sure to visit?

I wish I could just take the whole summer. Then I would visit this place in Utah to peruse the beautiful cottage gardens there.

Farewell my bleeding heart...

This is an Outdoor Wednesday post to join in over at A Southern Daydreamer's blog.

In the spring, I bought a bleeding heart plant with no flowers on it. I planted it and diligently cared for it through the summer knowing that next year, the beauty would be unleashed. The plant was gorgeous, light green leaves, which bordered on almost yellow. It was the perfect foil during early summer to the purple clematis or the baby blue eyes (as shown below) growing nearby.

Yesterday morning, while letting my dog out, I noticed that it no longer existed. And although I nurtured it with hopes for next year's glory, it is naught to be. Some hungry bunny or deer has brought the plant's life cycle to an abrupt end, and left a divot in my garden. Look how lush it was. Can you imagine what next year was to hold?
 

So farewell. Farewell my bleeding heart. 

Estate Finds and Roiling-boiling Clouds

Yesterday, I stopped by an estate sale in my neighborhood. I had seen signs for a "sale" but was unaware that it wasn't just a simple yard sale. By the time I arrived there was not much left, but I did find a few items for purchase. I spent $28 dollars as follows:  $0.50 on some gingham fabric that will be made into cafe curtains in my kitchen; $1.00 on an oval enamelware basin with red trim; $1.50 on a vintage wool cardigan; and, $25 on a hutch for my dining room. I had been looking for something for the dining room for some time and finally decided that I was going to build a built-in to fit the space. I still hope to do that as the hutch is not my style; however, it adds storage space in the meantime. Here are the goods:

Please excuse my dust vac peaking out from around the base of the hutch (the plug is back there). I think $28 was a great price. I don't know why, but my favorite is unexpected - I just love that enamelware basin. I guess it reminds my of my grandmother's house. This mosaic of my finds was put together to join in the Mosaic Monday event held over at the Little Red House blog. I hadn't joined in for several months, so pulled together some photos to make a mosaic. These photos are to show my finds rather than to impress with their artistry. However, there are some amazingly wonderful mosaics over there - I'd suggest you pop over for a browse.

On Saturday, there was the most amazing cloud formation in the sky at around 8am. I just had to memorialize it in a photo:

Doesn't it just look like the sky is boiling?

Wildflower

There is some sort of weed flowering outside of our house. It is pretty and kind of looks like a plant that would grow by the edge of water. I was trying to get a nice picture of it. I tried once but didn't get a good picture. So I tried a couple more times.  A friendly creature inserted himself into the last photo.

Camera Rebirth - Part II

Earlier this month, I wrote about pending (FREE) repairs to my Canon A75 camera in a blog post. I am happy to say, I received the camera back yesterday. As my camera died photos got progressively worse and worse. They went from clear and crisp to halfway clear, this picture shows how the problem started.

Then things got worse as shown here:

Then even worse:

Following this, the LCD Sensor finally died for good and there was only blackness. As I mentioned before, I loved the camera. So I was very excited to get it back. The following are a couple of pictures I took in my backyard today after the camera came back from Canon following repair.

What a difference, no? (I wish that were my yard, but it's not. It is a school yard. I took the picture because that darker clouded area to the right of the picture was giving off a lot of thunder but the sun was shining brightly where I was. I thought that Charlie Brown must be sitting somewhere under that cloud, melancholy as ever.)

Smoldering July

What a hot week it's been in Michigan with temperatures in the 90s and humidity up there as well. From what I can gather, the whole country is feeling the heat.

My brother and sister-in-law are in from L.A. and rented a small cottage on Wamplers Lake in Brooklyn, Michigan. The cottage sleeps six, but the lake site was perfect for my siblings, their children, and our parents to visit during the day. I have some adorable shots of my nieces and nephews, but I will not share those without their parent's approval. So, in the stead of those photos, I will share some shots of the great outdoors as taken around the cottage. I am linking this to A Southern Daydreamer's Outdoor Wednesday event.

 The view from shore.

The glory of the heavens.

Behind the Cottage.

An old abandoned dock also resided behind the cottage. In my opinion, this added visual interest.

Pasta Salad

My brother and his wife will be renting a cottage in Michigan over the next week, and my parents, two sisters, their spouses and kids, and me and my husband will all be converging to spend time with them. It is on an all sports lake, so they've rented a jet ski and boat as well. I'm pretty excited and have been busy preparing food to take out there tomorrow. The grape leaves were the start a couple days ago, today I made a cream cheese, sour cream, habanero,  and spring onion spread that will be put on tortillas, a pasta salad, a red velvet cake with blueberries on top. Next, I preparing a potato salad and a self-designed garbanzo/avacado/tomato salad. I'll leave a cucumber salad, hummus, and tzadziki for tomorrow.

In honor of Foodie Friday and Vegetarian Foodie Fridays, here's a picture of the pasta salad (the dressing is homemade). This time I put zucchini and summer squash in the salad, which is unusual, but I'm sure it will be good. One of the things I do that is a little different is that I like to put poppy seeds on my pasta salad because it seems to add visual interest.