Merry Christmas

I thought I would let you know we are back home and busy, busy.  We had a great trip.  I took lots of pictures and haven't had a chance to get them edited yet.  There were a couple of problems we had to deal with after getting home from a wind storm, our phone line had come down because of a tree and they didn't fix it and Larry's loquat tree snapped off completely.  It was blooming and he might have gotten fruit, but it's a goner.  Gracie gave us the cold shoulder for about three days.  

Today we did some shopping in old Placerville, had lunch and after returning home finished wrapping gifts. It might be next year before I get all caught up here on the blog...hahaha.

So Merry Christmas!  Happy New Year!

Love, 
Val, Larry and Gracie

I took these pictures at Lori and Dave's place.

Deer Courting

Three weeks today since the "bug" caught us and just starting to feel better.  It has been a weird one.  Not down so bad we were stuck in bed, but energy sucking enough to keep us from doing as much as we want to be doing.  Lots of rest days in between getting things done.

The weather has been gorgeous, warm days, little wind and nights in the low 40's.  This morning dipped down to 37.

We were sitting on the bench on the hill a couple of days ago, soaking up some sun and waiting to see if the crashing about in the bushes bucks would make an appearance so I could get a picture.  The buck must have decided to take a nap.  We didn't see him but as I had my camera I took some pictures of the acorn woodpeckers storage tree.  This large, tall ponderosa pine is riddled with holes that are stuffed with acorns, and there are two others similarly adorned all the way to the top.  There are constant battles between the woodpeckers and the thieving squirrels.

The senior buck made his appearance this week and dethroned the two pointer who thought he was king.  The does stayed in the manzanita and toyon bushes and this guy with his antlers sounded like he was ripping the crap out of everything in there.  They do not have a care with those antlers, which is why we have to put a fence around the young trees.  They get themselves hooked up, they just twist their heads and rip.

As I had finished Connor's red blankie, I was able to get started on a project I've waited almost a year to start.  I bought gorgeous hand dyed 100% alpaca yarn from an alpaca farm back east.  If I had thought about it I could have gotten the name of the alpaca that gave up this fiber for my shawl that I am making.  The pictures don't do the colors justice, they are warm and autumnal.  This piece is crocheted and works up pretty quickly.

The first 6 or 7 rows.

Day before yesterday there was serious deer courting going on.  The younger bucks didn't care that I was standing close enough to hit them with a gently tossed rock.  They are probably last year and year before that's babies and used to us.  The big guy was a bit more cautious but with chasing the doe and keeping an eye on the two young whippersnappers that were keeping an eye on him he didn't much care that I was out there either.

Round and round the bushes they would go.

Yesterday I went with a friend to a couple of wineries that were having Christmas fairs.  I found a fun necklace that had to come home with me, we tasted some wine and then we spent a lot of time at the Winterhill booth tasting and being educated on wonderful flavored cold pressed olive oils grown locally and basalmic vinegars from Italy.  I may become a foodie.  We so enjoyed the experience we jammed on down to their store in Placerville to taste the chocolates made with their olive oil, jams and glazes.  They are so happy to let you taste anything and put together combos for you to try and they ship anywhere for just three bucks over what it would cost us to ship that you can't go wrong.  If you're ever in Placerville you must go experience the wonderful flavors.  

Sara showed me three places that are set up on the honor system.  One is a place that has chickens free ranging and sells eggs from a cute little trailer.  You go in, get a carton of eggs from the little fridge, write down in the book what you took and leave your money in the box.  Down the road a piece is a husband/wife little produce farm and they also do stone baked breads on the weekend, same thing, everything is in baskets with prices and you take what you want and leave the money in the box.  Next stop was for mandarin oranges, same thing, take what you want and leave the money.  Amazing system.  Love it.  
That is the "cool" thing about living here.  We are country living within short drives of major city hubs.

Pictures

Time slips by so danged fast, I figured I had better post these pictures before a month passes.

I finished Connor's birthday blankie and it is on its way to him in the mail.  He wanted red and I chose the baske tweave pattern.

Also my gorgeous orchid is peaking, so I though I had better get a picture or two now, before I forget.

Glorious Weather

Eleven days into November and we are still having breakfast out in the garden.  I'm thinking we probably should have had a few rainy days by now, but we are loving this.  And the ten day forecast is still dry with days in the low 70's for several of those.

Gracie supervising the hanging
of the pictures.

Finally have all the kids pics hung on the wall.

We have had "the crud" for over two weeks now.  That weird nasty cold that hangs on and every day you seem to crop up with some new aspect of it.  I haven't been sick in about 10 years and may have had a teeny cold that lasted a couple days in there somewhere, but this is a long time.  I haven't been to pilates, no energy and worried that I might be spewing germs all over the place.  We might get out and do a couple errands, and that'll be it for the day.  Or we'll do a bit of yard work and take two days to recover.  Kleenex company loves us and we are about to float with all the tea and water we've been drinking, oh and soup.  It could be worse I'm sure, but I just had to whine a little.  We were hoping to get a few visits in before the holidays, but we've cancelled all the past couple of weeks.














We took a lovely little walk out on the trail yesterday. Larry has gone a few times, he never lets a little germ stop him from doing much, but I'm more into letting my body rest and heal.
























We've got a couple of mini trips coming up, Thanksgiving with Lori and a visit to Larry's Aunt and Uncle.  Woo hoo!

Red Breasted Sapsucker

We've been busy, when we've had the energy we've been getting the garden tidied up before bad weather hits.

That's all I've got.

The garden is going golden.

Bye, Bye October

Rare sighting

I have been waiting for this to bloom, since it started
sending the stalk up in August

October was a busy month and the rest of the year will continue in the same vein for us. 

We jammed up to Michelle’s for a weekend to visit them before winter hit.  We had a wonderful drive up and back.  No rain.  Shocking.  I’ll post pics of that trip separately. 

Then we finally got the company that laid our carpet three years ago out here to re-stretch the front, family and master rooms.  It hadn’t been stretched enough when installed and had developed a couple of big wrinkles in each room.  We had a lot on hold waiting for them to get here.  We had a new chair to pick up and we wanted to rearrange the furniture, but knowing we would have to clear out the three rooms we weren’t going to do it twice in a month. 

They came on a Monday so we spent all weekend clearing out and stacking furniture.  Just another way to keep the house really clean.  Thank goodness we don’t have a lot of stuff, so it wasn’t too bad.  After it was stretched it got a good vacuum and Larry crawled around and washed all the baseboards and then we put everything back.  We only have one sofa that weighs a freaking ton, very well made, the rest of our stuff is pretty easy to move.

Larry pouting where his chair will be when it arrives,
my new chair is the small brown one on left.

The next day we went to Roseville to pick up my new rocker recliner.  The two we’ve had the past three years I disliked almost from the first.  It is too big, uncomfortable and the fabric was hot.  Company loves them though.  Larry’s chair is being ordered and won’t be here until December some time.  We came up with a way to rearrange everything in a way that suits us better.  Not designer approved for sure, but it works for us.  Now when the kids visit there are lots of seats in front of the big television and the big family room’s space is utilized so much better.  And the front room is set up for comfort, visiting and reading. 

Gracie had a rough day watching us move furniture.

We have both been fighting a cold the past week.  Slows us down but we’ve still accomplished a lot. 

I got all my glad corms dug up, they had multiplied wildly.  They were in five of the flower beds and I discovered why so many seemed to lean so badly.  Some were three corms/bulbs connected and the two either side of the center one were perpendicular.  Some are the size of small potatoes and there were gazillions of teeny baby corms attached to most all the big ones.  I am planning on planting all the glads in one big bed next year, should be spectacular. 

The right half of hedge cut back, left side until next day

Hedge cut back, daylily bed cleared out

I also dug out all my daylilies, they are just too big for my flower beds.  THEN, it was onto the roses.  They were still blooming, but I have learned my lesson.  I love that they can stay in bloom into Jan. but after two years of pruning them back in driving wind and pelting rain because they were tipping over during a bad storm, I decided I would forgo a few weeks of viewing pleasure.  The rose hedge was seven feet tall, amazing.  Every year just gets better and better.  Some of the canes were almost an inch in diameter, so can’t wait to see what they do next season.

Larry catching some rays

almond butter bread (no flour or sugar) it was yummy

Yummy veggie soup I threw together from scratch,
no recipe

We dipped into the 30’s I think once so far at night, but it has been a beautiful October here this year and nice this weekend.