A Zen sunset for a cold Winter's day...

So much fire in the sky for it to be so cold on the ground! Again, I have to qualify my use of the word "cold"... meaning, it's cold to ME, but not necessarily to my friend Michele, who's enduring life in the sub-zeroes in Michigan, or friend Heidi in Germany who's experiencing the same. "California cold" is a concept only a native Californian can grasp. Whatever... I'll be glad when it isn't so "cold", like as in April or so!

Things to celebrate today...

Want an excuse to party tonight? ... to pop open a bottle of 2000 Moulton-Rothschild Pauillac? ... or, perhaps, to finsh up that bottle of Southern Comfort, while you listen to Janis Joplin oldies?? Consider celebrating one of these Red Letter events...
Today, January 28, is:

*Bald Eagle Day
*National Kazoo Day
*National Blueberry Pancake Day (you probably should have taken care of this one at breakfast, unless, like my Mother, you think pancakes are a perfectly acceptable dinner...)
*National Bubble Wrap Appreciation Day
*Fantasy Island Day (Debuted this day in 1978)
*International Make Your Point Day
*National Serendipity Day
*Runic half-month of Elhaz begins (The rune Elhaz signifies power and sanctuary [Ooooooo])

What are you waiting for???
Get out there, boogie down, and...
Let . It . All . Hang . Out!!!

Happy Birthday, Wolfgang...

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
27 January 1756 - 5 December 1791

Mozart is another of those fantastic composers who, alas, isn't on my "favorites" list, simply because I've long since passed my saturation point with his music. I wouldn't dare deny his greatness, and truly love his operas, masses, and late piano concerti. He was a child prodigy, composing at age 5, appearing before Emperors and such at age 6, and concertizing in France and England with his famous father, Leopold, and child prodigy sister, Nannerl, at age 7. In his short lifetime he wrote an absolutely staggering amount of music... 41 symphonies, 27 piano concerti, 7 violin concerti, 27 string quartets, 25 piano sonatas, 33 violin sonatas, 20 operas and musical plays, 16 masses, a requiem, and dozens of other works. If you haven't experienced his music, do give it a go - all of it is good, and much of it is excellent!

The day I've dreamed of for 8 years...!

Oh, I LOVE this picture! That helicopter contains "Lonesome George" and it's about to lift off and carry "'W" back to Texas and, hopefully, a life of total obscurity, from whence he will fade away into the sagebrush and cows and never be heard of again. We had to wait too long, and too many people, polar bears, wolves, whales, environments and endangered species had to suffer before this moment finally arrived. Now, I'm not a prayin' woman, but, let me tell you, I'm praying right now that this wonderful country I love so much, will NEVER, EVER have to endure another embarrassment like him again.
Let the healing begin!
Amen!!!

Waiting for Spring...

George, my landscaper, and his crew got my rose garden "up and running" last week. It doesn't look like much right now, but, come Spring, I'll have 18 beautiful hybrid teas and one florabunda struttin' their stuff. I got a wild mix of reds, yellows, purples and oranges, lots of oranges! Normally, I only grow hybrid teas, because they do best in this area, but I couldn't resist the one florabunda because every picture I saw of it knocked my socks off! It's called "Cinco de Mayo" and is a blend of lavender and orange - one of my favorite color combinations - and I can hardly wait to see it in action! Here's the nursery website's picture of it...


Here are a few others I got:

Leonadis

Black Bacarra

Perfect Moment


Is it Spring yet?????

Here's what was in the boxes...

The New Grove's Encyclopedia of Music & Musicians...
29 volumes
25,000 pages
29,000 articles
20,000 biographies
and yada, yada, yada...

This should keep us off the streets and out of trouble for the rest of our lives!

Happy Anniversary, Thanksgiving, Chanukkah, New Year's...

This present to ourselves cost us a bundle, but it's the gift of our dreams... something we've wanted for years, if not decades, and we finally decided to spring for it, since we're not getting any younger! Stay tuned while we get it unpacked...

YAY!! I sold a quilt!!

I just got a call from Pieced On Earth, a shop in downtown Vallejo where I have some of my quilts on display. Janet, the owner, told me she sold one of my quilts today. Very cool! I'm happy!! This piece is called "Vernal Awakening", and is part of a series of pieces depicting the seasons. It's made of hand dyed and batik fabrics.

Uh Oh...

My husband is always yelling at me about spending too much time on the Internet. I didn't realize he might be right until I got this message today...

How to scare the crap out of your human...

1. Find a nice patch of sunlight.
2. Roll over onto back.
3. Go into maximum "stretch" mode.
4. Don't move a muscle, even when human approaches.

Garden Doldrums

Such a discouraging time of year for gardeners this is... too cold to stay outside more than ten minutes, too wet to just stand around and water (my favorite gardening activity), although the wet ground makes it easy to yank weeds, it's too cold to do that for more than ten minutes, et cetera, et cetera...
This is what I have the most of these days...

I gotta hand it to my tomatoes, though; after the Christmas Eve storm I thought they were done for, but that's not the case. They may look like hell warmed over, but, thanks to the day or two of sunshine we get between storms, they keep on keepin' on. They actually taste good, too! There's enough for salads at dinner, and there's nothing that cheers up a winter salad like tomatoes from just outside the back door!

But wait... here's a hellebore that seems to be surviving... I guess there's hope.

Diana Triumphs!

In mid-December, we noticed one of our fur-babies was loosing weight. Then, about a week before Christmas, she stopped eating... bad news. We took her to the Vet where they did some blood work, and the results were exactly what we didn't want to hear... highly elevated Creatinine, BUN and Phosphorus... all signs pointing to kidney failure. She also had what they called a "massive" bladder infection. They immediately put her on IV fluids and antibiotics and tacitly indicated we should prepare for the worst. She was in hospital for six days, during which time repeated blood tests didn't show any improvement. The day after Christmas, after yet more discouraging blood work, we brought her home, and started administering the fluids and antibiotics ourselves. We're old hands at this, having had four previous "kidney cats". Almost immediately, she started eating again, and acting like she was feeling better. We were hugely heartened. Over the following days, she continued to eat well, returned to her usual social self with the other cats, and became seriously more affectionate and demonstrative towards us, in spite of the fact that we were poking her with needles and ramming pills and other objectionable stuff down her throat twice a day. The day after New Year's we took her back to the Vet for another round of blood tests, and the next day, received the astounding news that the Creatinine value was down by half, BUN was at "high normal" and Phosphorus was in the mid normal range.YAY!!!!! We're to continue with fluids and antibiotics for another month, and then return for another round of blood tests, and this time we expect a complete recovery. However, if you feel like sending healing thoughts and mojo in Diana's direction, they would be much appreciated!