Grandma and Cactus

Even tho this is our fourth grandchild ( ages 5,3,2) the excitement of a new baby is just as special and fresh as the first one.

Working the gardens at the Casa bring a new surprise every day I am there. Here is a photo of a cactus that bloomed this beautiful white blossom. It only stays open for a day.

This is a close up photo taken last Thursday. Today, Monday, the bud just below the flower is ready to open up tomorrow.

My sticks roots

Yes, I grew up in the sticks.

Yesterday I had an opportunity drive by where I grew up.
I took my Mom to visit church friends nearby.
This is 17 miles East of Palmdale, CA. at Avenue O and 135th St.

We had a chicken ranch with 12,000 egg laying hens. The chicken houses are gone now. They were where the white dot (camper) is in the photo. The house is at the foot of the butte surrounded by green trees (now). The butte can be spotted 20-30 miles away for it's hour-glass sand slope down the middle. I climbed it and all the rocks along the sides for fun time. Made play houses around the rocks...rolled down the tip top sand slope...

This is a cabin just down the hill below the house. We lived in this cabin for 9 months while the house was being built. It looks to be about 22 by 12 feet. No water or electricity. The Joshua tree is where the out-house was. The fencing you see was not there, it is for horses the current owners use the property for. It looks pretty bad now but was new in 1952. I was just finishing kindergarten when we moved there.

Tegan 3 days old and Siena

Monday I spent the day helping Randy and Staci, going along to baby Tegan's Dr. appt. etc.
I brought my garden tools and spent the evening repositioning/pruning an out of control bougainvillea on their patio.

This photo is actually a cute video -not sure how to load it.
Tegan was crying a bit, then stopped. Siena was saying 'she's not sad now' .

350 Lunches

The Casa was the place we served the pre-paid box lunches for Garden Tour guests.
We sold 350 lunches! Served them on the amphitheater terrace.
Want to know what 350 box lunches looks like...

Garden Tour

June 20 is the day I have been planning for since last summer. Showing off the Casa Gardens on the San Clemente Garden Club's annual garden tour. The gardens were ready and 600 people bought tickets to attend. The day was drizzly and overcast but that did not dampen the spirit of garden tour goers.
It was a really long day but so fun to visit with lots of people I knew and hear the wonderful comments about the gardens.

Baby Tegan

Randy and Staci added a baby girl, Tegan, to their family on Friday.
We drove up to LA to meet her when she was 4 hours old.

Proud grandparents of our fourth grandbaby. She has dark hair, unlike Siena with her blond hair and blue eyes. The little sisters will be quite the pair. We look forward to many happy times with them.

New Grandbaby

Randy and Staci's baby girl arrived this morning. She is healthy and too cute. We held her for a few precious minutes. They will send an announcement for us to pass on.

Garden Club Luncheon

Today we had 60 + club members attend the installation luncheon on our deck. It was a beautiful day with overcast/breeze then sunshine and probably 75 degrees. Nice for an outside event.
We celebrated many accomplishments that our club was recognized for this past year. We recieved 15 awards from the State level of garden clubs. We were tops in our class in the State of CA in awards! I won first on a Bluebird award I submitted and helped with another one that won first place.

Here I am with the incoming California Garden Club State President, Maryanne Lucas on my right and our club Secretary, Lori Johnson.

My garden, ready for the visitors...wish I could show it as I see it :) This is the 'dry river bed' going through the herb garden with the fountain and papyrus at the very top of the photo. The pink Cala lillies (front right) were given to us by Nicole and Mark for our anniversary 3 years ago and this year they decided to shine :)

Casa Before/now

We are gearing up for the 'coming out' of the Casa gardens on Saturday when they will be featured on the annual San Clemente Garden Club Garden Tour. We expect 600 people!
Just a couple of Before/now shots to share with you.
Before: This is the herb garden Jan 08 when I started working at the Casa.

Now: Here is the herb garden a few days ago. We have artichokes, borage, basil, scented geraniums, curry, tarragon, onions, chives, oregano, thyme lining the walkway and red lettuce that is bolting but I think it looks cool. We planted most of this garden in Nov. 08. The trailing Rosemary on the wall has been there for some time. We keep it trimmed to look like water flowing over the wall.

Before: I took this photo of the Spanky garden the first day I started working at the Casa, mid January, 08. Many of the 'green' plants were large weeds!

Now: Took this last Thursday. The Spanky garden is a Children's garden with plants that have fun names and smell good.

Garrett's 3

The birthday boy Garrett! Celebrating his birthday.

Here we are with our 3 grandchildren at Garrett's birthday party. Lots of fun things to do for all the guests.

And the next granddaughter is showing herself in this photo. Randy and Staci are expecting a baby sister for Siena in a few weeks.

June 1988 and 2009

We celebrated Garretts 3rd birthday at the Perez home on Saturday.
However, since our 3 adult children would be there, I wanted a photo of them with Mike and I. Sorry spouses and grandchildren. Just wanted to have some fun with this.
I found this photo from June 1988. We went to a Dude Ranch for vacation. Here we are on the front porch of our cabin, dressed and ready for the Country Dance evening! Check out the boots :)

And here we are on Saturday, June 6, 2009. Celebrating Garretts birthday in the back yard. We are so fortunate to have our children within 1-3 hour driving distance and cherish the times we can be together.

Great Grandma, Grandma and Grandchildren

Nicole brought the grandchildren to my Moms. We met for a Siena transfer. We all love sharing Siena while her mom is on 'bed rest' waiting for the next baby girl.
Here I am with all three of my grandchildren at my Mom's home in Fallbrook. Gotta grab every chance for a quick photo when they are all together.

My Mom, and Aubrey, 5, Siena, 2 and Garrett turns three on Friday.

I took them for a walk in Mom's Cherimoya orchard. They are sitting on a roll of wire.
I think this is the cutest photo!

Exploring the orchard with sticks and looking for bugs.

Pink paint anyone?

Well, the mauve approach did not work. So, Plan B. I happened to look in our paint cabinet and found left over living room paint-enough to paint the new laundry area...
We still have more work to finish the area-install the counter top (you see it on end at the left of the photo) and paint around the outlets. Will post final photos when finished.
Just been really busy gearing up for the Garden Tour at the Casa and the Garden Club installation luncheon on our deck in 2 weeks. Mike has been back in Atlanta for a 2 week long trip. He is looking forward to the end of this 3 month long consulting commitment.
Can you use a gallon of really nice quality pink...I mean mauve, paint!