Every Blooming Thing

       Summer is a special time for blooming things.  Blooms appear on plants, and on trees.

We have several Crape Myrtle trees in our yard.  This one is my favorite because of its deep pink color.

Vegetables are also blooming and producing their fruits.  Here are two Jalapeno Pepper plants I have been babying for months.

At the end of last season, I planted the two hanging moss roses.  It took until this summer for them to be in full bloom.

Our latest addition is a Plumeria tree that has just started to bloom.

Here you can see its stalk showing that it is a tree.

I hope to transplant it next year, so that it can continue to grow taller and add more branches.  This one does need protection from frost, so I will have to watch it carefully.

70TH BIRTHDAY BOY

             Paul, with Loretta Holstein, one of his dearest friends.

I loved every minute of the party.

Paul's friend Tony and his wife.  Tony worked with Paul for 30 years.

Friends from high school with Duane and Jeannie.

Paul's grandson Alex who was the bartender for the evening.

Best friends forever, and hunting buddies.

Blogging

I was having lots of trouble doing my blog and publishing.  So, Heather told me to use Google Chrome to do things with my blog, so here goes.......

Thanks Heather!

Spectacular Seafood

Last weekend we decided to take a mini trip to Sunset Beach, just to be by the ocean for a couple of days.  We are already missing San Simeon.  Here is Duane at Captain Jack's Restaurant in Sunset Beach.

Captain Jack's is known as one of the premier "beach" seafood restaurants, for good reason.  We started out with Oysters on the Half Shell, which were to die for, along with the homemade seafood sauce, horse radish sauce and vinegar.  After a wonderful salad with homemade dressing, I had the lobster, and Duane had the blackened Copper River salmon.  Both dishes were excellent, and we had never tasted anything better.

This picture, taken into the light, did not turn out too well (thank goodness), but behind me is Huntington Harbor.  The restaurant's ambiance was fabulous.  Good views, antique nautical paraphernalia, and that good old cozy feeling of old wood.

Thank goodness for Captain Jack's, which was only 2 blocks away from our motel.  Going there made our otherwise unpleasant trip worthwhile.  Here is a shot of where our room was----the last top floor balcony suite on the right.  This was advertised as a King bed suite with a Harbor View and private beach.  Well, this unfortunate beach is the private one, and it was none too clean.  The suite was tiny------our bedroom is larger-----and it had a smell that wasn't just the sea air.  Oh yes, and we were thrilled to find that the noise of Pacific Coast Highway permeated the room all night long.

After our dinner at Jack's, we walked the two blocks to the ocean.  It was a very nice beach, but the motel had it filmed as a Virtual Tour of the Harbor, indicating that this would be the view from our Suite.  Whatever happened to Truth in Advertising?  Oh well, we just came home early to enjoy our own shimmering pool, lush gardens, comfortable bed, and peace and quiet........

Star Spangled Fun

Any holiday that we get together, we always have a ball with the kids.  Memorial Day was no exception.  I always try to give them an item to wear, and this year it was leis and star sunglasses.  As he was leaving, Scott put on my gardening hat, and with the sunglasses, he looks quite spectacular.

The kids did a lot of swimming, but Reese wouldn't go in farther than the 2nd step.  He was highly entertaining, however, making everyone laugh.  He even rearranged all of my garden ornaments.

Duane with Scott after grilling the "brats" which were the highlight of our barbeque.  Scott and Kim and family loved them so much that they made their own and had a second barbeque the next day.  The guys are properly attired in their leis.

Such a good picture of Adam and Melissa.  Too bad she was about to blink.  I must have asked her, "where is your lei?"

Good for Adam.  Has both the lei and the sunglasses on.  He also brought homemade beer to the barbeque which was enjoyed by all.  Will homemade wine be next?

Folk Art?

Our latest endeavor was to recycle a piece of board that we had taken off the house because there was mildew in the wood around it.  This particular piece had our house numbers on it.  We added a metal butterfly, and painted some flowers.  Does this qualify as Folk Art?

Now here's a nice piece of driftwood.  Hmmmmm?  Any suggetions?  Right now I call it my walking stick.

As many of you know, my favorite color is orange----thus the orange front doors.  Country Living here we come.

San Simeon Parts I and II are reversed.....

Those of you who know me well, know that I would not be able to reverse San Simeon Part I and II.

So, why not post one more picture.........:))

Me, in Morro Bay before checking in at The Best Western Cavalier Inn, San Simeon.  As usual Morro Bay was colder than a well digger's boot........at least the sun was out.

San Simeon Part II

We loved the elephant seals (except for the smell).  They spent their time sleeping in a row next to one another, flipping sand up, and arguing.

Here's my Wildlife Photographer husband taking pictures of the hundreds of seals on this beach.

Quite a variety of shapes and colors.  This type of scene goes on for miles along the beach.

After getting our fill of seals, we visited the San Simeon pier, once used by William Randolph Hearst for delivery of the materials to build his Hearst Castle.  Since we have both seen the castle a couple of times, there was no need to do that again.

Back on home ground at the resort, you can see our room approximately above Duane's hat.  Also, a piece of driftwood that I found and used as a hiking staff.  Another item in the photo to the right and behind Duane, is a firepit, one of three that they would make fires in each night at sunset.  People would sit on the chairs and huddle around it.  We didn't see the point, especially since it was cold and windy.

Another side trip was to a town called Harmony which only had 18 residents.  They actually have a Post Office, and a couple of artisan businesses---a glass blower and a potter.  It was fun to poke around in the quaint old town which reminded us of Southern Indiana.  All in all, we had a very nice time, and hope to return to San Simeon in the future.

San Simeon Part I

This is our first view of San Simeon Beach as we entered our room.  Despite threats of rain, the weather was perfectly clear all three days we were there.  How much fun is that???

One of the motel's two pools was below us, and since it was quite chilly at night we didn't have any unwanted noise.

At several places along the small cliff overlooking the beach were these signs, "Hazardous Bluff"!  They loved signage at this resort, and we also saw "Dangerous Trail" (this was a narrow path leading to the beach from the parking lot.)  Even if you slipped off the trail, you would only fall a few feet, but as a senior citizen, I could see the reasoning behind the signs.  There was also a rickety stairway leading to the beach which I thought was more hazardous than the trail.

This old, and quite beautiful Monterey Pine was right next to the dangerous trail.  Lots of pretty trees in the area, as well as magnificent rocks, both large and small.

Here is a selection that I accumulated during my stay.  My sister loves collecting rocks and I plan to send her a few.  Which ones would you like Darlene?

One of the things we did while we were in San Simeon was to go to the Elephant Seal Conservation Area.  In this picture they looked a lot like the rocks on the beach, but as we went on, it was wall to wall seals.  The docent told us that these were all females with their pups.  The males were apparently in Alaska on a feeding frenzy.

Hippity...Hoppity...Happy Easter Day!

Any time family members get together at our house, we have a lot of fun.  This Easter was no exception.  The weather was perfect, the meal superb, and the kids provided lots of entertainment.

Before the festivities began, we took time out for a 3 generation picture.  Maddie was all excited about the upcoming egg hunt.

I always put out a lot of books for Reese, who just loves looking at them, and having you read them to him.  Check out the new hat!

Adam and Melissa did a great job, as usual, hiding the eggs.  By using a yellow egg with yellow daffodils makes finding a bit more difficult.

Reese really got the hang of it this year, and carried his Easter basket the whole time.

Even Elmo the Egg showed up, much to Reese's delight!

Maddie had to clear some obstacles to find her eggs, but enjoyed every minute of it.

After the hunt, the kids found candies and puzzle pieces in their eggs.  What a clever idea Heather had with those puzzle pieces.  The kids enjoyed putting their puzzles together, and it gave the adults a little breather.

Happy Easter to all, and to all a Good Night!