Perfect Pear

Some things are worth the time and trouble.

Our Yellow Pear Tomatoes lived in the house with us from January until we planted them outside after the last frost in mid-June.

We are reaping what we've sown now. We even have had the privilege of sharing some of our bounty this summer.

Yep...this little beauty was totally worth it.

Word Crunch

I started a new quilt the other day. At first I struggled a bit with the color scheme and message. I knew I wanted to use word blocks, in the liberated Lazy Gal way, and once I chose the message and the colors, I was off. Little bits of pale aqua polka dot, solid orange
and cornflower blue (thrifted dress shirt)

make the letters which form the words.

I was in a roll. The letters were flowing from me.

Then Crunch!

My sewing machine broke!

I am lost without it. I.must.get.it.fixed.
:0(

OH Boy! I have been having dreams about my new quilt.

Passion for Pumpkin

Do you remember my post about Audrey I...my Pumpkin vine?
She has been doing splendidly outside on the front deck all covered in huge pumpkin colored blossoms and enormous leaves. Unfortunately at first all the flowers were male but I didn't care it is still a wonderful plant.

This is what Audrey looks like today. Amazing... I think.

I wasn't sure I could grow a Pumpkin vine up here in the mountains but she just keeps growing and one morning something fabulous happened.

A female flower! I pollinated it myself with one of the males in hopes I could maybe, just MAYBE get a pumpkin.

The first one was disappointing. It shriveled up but the second one kept growing and growing. Today she looks very promising.
Can you see her peeking out from under that showy Male flower.

Here she is. Such a beauty don't you think? I have named her Jackie O. Lantern ;0)

I hope she makes it to Halloween.

Choosy Squirrels choose Jif

I ran out of sunflower seeds the other day and the critters who visit my little Wildlife Diner were all squawking and chirping "Where's the Seed?". Do you see Mister Squirrels face? That is what he is saying right there.

So I tried something new. I rolled little balls of peanut butter in oatmeal and put them in the freezer. I even used Jif... my favorite. Chunky of course.
They were a hit! Mister Squirrel couldn't get enough of the cool peanut butter. I dare say he got a bit greedy so...

I filled the saucer with water and moved the PB balls further down the rail just to make the little guy work for it. ;0)Hmmm... He took a little sip.

I have the Peanut Butter Balls on a wooden tray just to the left of that little orange pot... you can see the corner of it in the photo below. Mister Squirrel scurries right around all those obstructions, grabs himself a ball of yummy chunky Jif. His next move was funny to me... he came back to the saucer of water, and sat right down in it! Mister Squirrel munched on his food while sitting in a cool bath.

It seems that he also used it as his toilet. I wonder if it was a message to me?
When he was done...

He washed it all down with the fresh water in the yellow mug. Keeping a wary eye on me and my camera the whole time.

He is out there right now with a couple friends chirping, I better get out there!

Walk to Poisonwood

On my walk to the Post Office and Bank I found myself enjoying the warm sun too much to go back home so I decided to trek down to Mammoth Creek Park and meander along the creek. Here is a shot from my first stop, the Post Office. Our PO always had some of the worst landscaping in town and several years ago a group of locals got together and made it beautiful. The shot below looks a bit dry and weedy now but it is actually just spent wildflowers. Can you see the metal Trout swimming up the dry creek bed? A good friend of ours Brian Jones made them. He is an incredible artist. He works mainly with metal and has sold many gorgeous pieces. I love these little "Rainbow Trout".

This eye catching work of art is also at the Post Office. It bobs and weaves in the wind. I am sorry I don't know who made it, I'll have to find out. It is very striking.

OK, I have crossed our Main Street and I am at the Bank now. Our town has put a great amount of effort into the path system. They have a long way to go still but boy, it is sooo much better than when I was a kid. We had NO sidewalks. Roller Skating was tricky. ;0)

Now I am at the Mammoth Creek Park, Ahhhh...

It is so soothing here. Cool, calm and I love to hear the kids playing in the creek.

I have made it to the creek and my feet are going in!

There is a young runner sitting up to his armpits in the water just downstream from me chilling his sore muscles in the super chilly snow melt. We have a lot of runners sitting in our creeks this time of year. They come from the flat land in large youth groups and run and soak. The high altitude training is ideal. If you can run here with the low oxygen levels than you can run like the wind in Los Angeles!

However I am no runner. I am a reader, so I pulled out my newest read "The Poisonwood Bible". Oh my... this book is amazing. I have been told many times to read it but just never came across it. I am so glad I bought it and I can't believe I waited so long. When I start a book and can't stop thinking about it or talking about it (poor hubby)... it's a keeper! I highly recommend a soak in a creek with The Poisonwood Bible.

Dragonfly

A couple days ago I went down to one of my very favorite nearby adventure spots. The wide view looks like this...

You wouldn't know that just to the right is a lush wonderland complete with a rushing river, swimming hole and wildlife galore unless you ventured down into the dense brush.

Just look at what I found this time... polliwog heaven. I spent many hours schlepping buckets of pond water from this creek to a large fish aquarium when I was a kid. I have a thing for frogs and back then I loved to catch polliwogs/ tadpoles and watch them turn into tiny frogs. I then released them back in their pond of course. I did see the polliwogs but it was the Dragonflies that amazed me this time. There are just a crazy amount of them out there right now. There were bright orange, red and blue ones zipping all around.

Can you see that one?

How about now?

Oh man! he flew away before I could focus.

This pretty pale blue Dragonfly was absolutely stubborn about this stalk of cows corn, lucky for me.

He refused to leave so I was able to get closer and closer.

I think he cussed me out!

His head was swiveling around giving me a "look".

He had the most fascinating eyes... like big clear bubbles of water.

I gotta go down there more often...so much fun.