The Hopeless Case

"Carl... wake up. It's springtime. You should be outside."

"The weather is beautiful. Cutter is running around chasing birds. What are you doing in here?"

"Look at the beautiful daffodils. Don't they smell good? Wait... Carl, you don't eat them. What are you doing?"

And then he laid his head down next to me and gave me that "wonderful dog" look.
I hugged him and... well...

 His message was clear, without saying a word.

" I love you Farmlady, but I'm staying right here on the couch."

Stubborn little Corgi!

Sister Visit

Sis was here for a few days. On Sunday we were dying of unseasonal heat.
She arrived, bringing all kinds of goodies from Trader Joe's and looking for a little relaxation on the mountain top.
We ate dinner, talked, watched Masterpiece Theater... and she just relaxed on the couch, with a dog on each side of her.
In the morning she fixed me some of her unbelievable oatmeal for breakfast.
This sister of mine can really fixed a dish of oatmeal.

She makes the oats with milk. Then she adds cut up apples and dried cranberries while it's cooking.  She tops it with a small amount of brown sugar and pecans, that she buys at Trader Joe's. They are pecans that are baked with honey and sugar. I'm guessing that you could do this with regular pecans but these are already sweetened and packaged this way. Sis breaks them up on top of the oatmeal and OH!  Is it good. You only need a little milk because the fruit and nuts makes it all moist, sweet and delicious without adding a lot of milk or sugar. She even sprinkled some of the brown sugar on the plate, to make it look beautiful enough to take a picture of (which I did) and similar to what you pay big bucks for in the restaurants. It's called "plate-ing" on the Food Network. It was a truly beautiful serving of oatmeal.
So, we ate in the living room... with the dogs... and then we let them lick the dishes. A bad habit that has been reinforced in this household. They are truly spoiled dogs.

Carl always gets to lick first, and Cutter waits patiently, for his uncle to lick part of the dish. Then Cutter gets to lick the rest.

"Oh boy. It's my turn."

After breakfast they got to cuddle with  their auntie.  Cutter still gets a little overwhelmed with too much closeness, but Sis finally won him over.

And, a few days later, when it was time for her to leave, they were both unhappy about saying goodbye.

"Where are you going Auntie?"

Look at Carl's expression. It was a sad moment.

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While Sis was here we spent a morning down on the river. First we drove to the new river access under the highway 49 bridge.
The drive down to the water was springtime magic.

The whole area from the highway to the river was covered with a daisy like flower that had been planted along the road, with lots of California poppies in between all the beautiful yellow flowers. It was a most beautiful site. 

The river was flowing wide and deep... and clouds were moving in from the west.

It was a perfect spring day in the foothills.

After we tiptoed through the daisies, we drove back toward Jackson ,over the Mokelumne River bridge and north to see the hills of poppies that I posted on  Wordless Wednesday.

It was so beautiful. Nature never fails us here in the foothills.

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On Tuesday we went to Sutter Creek and had lunch.

We went to some of our favorite stores... mostly "just looking", because these are high end stores and things tend to be a bit pricey. But, there is always the possibility of a surprise "bargain". You just never know when something will be on sale that you can't resist.

We introduced the owner of Romancing the Range to the Magnolia Pearl website. She had never seen or heard of this amazing women and her endeavours. The clothes in this store are all "cowboy meets Pearl" kinds of clothing and she went crazy when she saw The website. Check it out. The music is worth the link. It's beautiful. She also has a blog..... My, oh my!  Read a few of the posts on her blog and you'll see why I call her amazing.

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Loved having Sis here. It had been a while since her last visit. It rained most of yesterday but we managed one more lunch downtown before she left for home. 

 Thanks for coming up. We all miss you . Carl and Cutter have been looking for you all day. 

I will see you soon.

California Groovin'

This is Bart. He is one of our four Nubian wethered goats. He's quite the gentleman. When I stop to see them, usually every evening, he's the first one to come over and "talk". He was being exceptionally sweet yesterday. We always say "Hello." by touching noses and then he starts sniffing me. It's his way of making sure that I am who he thinks I am. It's like he says...
"Ah! It's farmlady. She's wearing that wonderful shirt that has the shinny buttons and the Jessica McClintock perfume. I know her. She is...(sniff, sniff...) my favorite person besides The Prospector, who feeds me. I like Farmlady very much." Then, I start rubbing his neck and tell him what a wonderful goat he is and, for once, I caught the "look" with my camera. When I start rubbing and talking, he closes his eyes and gets all groovy. It's so cute. He's such a lady's man.

The garden looks so nice right now and I haven't had to do anything. Spring is just a wonderful time of year. We don't have to water or prune. We don't have to fertilize or plant anything..., yet. It's a time for enjoyment. We watch the bushes and trees bud out and the bulbs that we planted in the fall push up through the damp earth and blossom into lovely flowers, some of which, I had forgotten I had planted. Bulbs are like "surprises" in the Spring. I have white tulips that I didn't remember planting..., but here they are, opening up in the wine barrels and looking all lacey and lovely.
The French Pussywillow is ready to be picked and the alyssum is all over the place. Some of the alyssum has grown down onto the walkway. Cutter has decided to use these soft fragrant flowers to rest in after he wears himself out running around the yard with Carl. He look so cute sitting in this shady spot watching Carl. He waits for a sign that it's time to play again. Carl thinks it's funny that Cutter is sitting in the flowers, but he forgets that he use to get a drink in the birdbath and then lay right down in the middle of my flower bed when he was a youngster. He prefers to sun himself on the porch now that he's a big, grown up dog. They are both enjoying the beautiful weather.
As I sit here in the warm California sunshine and think of all the beauty around me, I remember Robert Louis Stevenson's small poem that says....
"The world is so full of a number of things,
I'm sure we should all be as happy as kings."

I think that sums up how we feel, here, today....

Oh May, Oh May, Oh May.... Oh My.

"Everything is blooming.... most recklessly;

if it were voices instead of colors,

there would be an unbelievable shrieking

into the heart of the night." -

~Rainer Maria Rilke~

California Dreamin'

The luttuce is loving this mild weather and the goats wish that the fence would magically disappear.

The Fig tree has new leaves on it and everything is heavy with the anticipation of Spring.

Squeeky is not sitting on everyone elses eggs anymore. She is producing her own little white ones.

Old dog Maggie and the pupster are enjoying the warm porch.
Annibel is learning to live in the garage and seems to like being outside since she was bannished from the guest bedroom.
We saw a beautiful big fox yesterday, drinking from the water container across the driveway.
My sister is here for a few days . We took a long walk last night and picked wildflowers.
The prospector got new and stronger reading glasses today.
I'm baking(what else when Sis is here) BREAD PUDDING. The house is filled with the fragrance of raisens, vanilla and cinnamon.

Everyone is taking a nap...., quiet now. Don't wake this peaceful moment....

Give Me one More Day

"I'm not old, I just need re-potting." I have this sign over my front door. Sometimes I don't feel any older than I did 20 or 30 years ago, until I hike too far up the hill or wrestle with a goat who needs to have his hoofs trimmed. Then I realize that my body is not as agile as my thinking is anymore.., that this body is wearing out. And then I think to myself that it would be so nice if I could "re-pot" myself like some of the root bound plants in my garden. That's the problem. I'm root-bound. I need more room and better soil so I can keep growing, but here I am in my 60's, in a worn out old container that has been through some rough years of weathering the storms of life and there is very little that I can do accept lose weight and accept what is. Sometimes trying to be positive get really old. Sometimes being "happy"about everything gets tiresome.....

Just about the time I start feeling sorry for myself I take a look at what's around me. The mild Spring weather is edging up to 70 degrees. The linnets are frantically putting a nest together in the dog angel birdhouse and all the pansies have survived the cold nights and the wind...., and on my first Iris, about to bud, is a very small white spider.

The goats are happily eating the new grass in the pasture and smiling for the camera. We have planted some lettuce and tomatoes (the beginnings of a great summer garden) and a new, very yellow-orange bird has arrived to drink the hummingbirds sugar water but can't figure out how to get it's beak into the tiny opening. I'm sure the hummers are laughing over this. I am.

Spring has come to the Foothills of the Sierra Nevada Mountains and the hills are covered in carpets of small white flowers and yellow Buttercups. Each day I find a new wildflower and take a picture of it. Then I go back home and look it up to see what it's called. Each day I put one foot in front of the other and step forth, looking for something new, something beautiful. Today the old container allows me one more place, small though it may be, to hold and keep this fleeting life of mine, one more day, one more hour, one more breath....

"A garden is a lovesome thing" T.E. Brown ...., grandsons and flowers; planting joy.