Cloud Candy! :)

For as long as I can remember I've been fascinated with the sky! Sunsets; rainbows; sunrises; storms; and cloud formations all have an affect on me, and remind me that we have an all-powerful, caring Heavenly Father Who is aware of us, wants us to be mindful of Him and include Him in our lives, and loves us perfectly! :)

Yesterday evening I decided to capture some of His love in my lens, in the form of clouds! :)

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This last cloud formation reminds me of cotton candy! Just like cotton candy is candy to our tongue, clouds can be candy for our eyes! :) Hope you enjoy them as I do! :)

Have a great day everyone! :)

Will This Stray Stay!? :)

We have a stray cat that's been coming to our garage to have her kittens! The first time, she had four and they all died. This time she arrived around a week before they were born so she was able to have better nutrition since I've been giving her food and fresh water every day!

Yesterday I stopped hearing their voices and thought she lost her litter again. (They're a week old today.) This morning I was surprised to hear at least three voices mewing! She'd moved her kittens to another location, and so far they are fine! :)

She still doesn't trust me to be near her babies, but the trust is growing between the two of us!
She's been allowing, even encouraging me to pet her, and today followed me out of the garage as if she didn't want me to leave her yet! I squatted down and she laid by me and happily took in all the affection I gave her! :)
I hope as the trust grows, she will eventually allow me to see and handle her little ones. She left after her kittens died, last time, and I'm hoping she will decide to stay this time. I want to get her fixed when she's done nursing, and have her continue on as our cat. If the kittens make it, I will either try to find them good homes or will have them fixed and keep them, too! So far my Honey's leaving the decisions up to me. :)

I call her Cali, since she reminds me a bit of a calico cat. She's been working her way into my heart, to the point that I'd like to see her stay with us and call us home!

Will this stray stay? ... I guess that will depend on if I'm working my way into her heart too! :) Here's hoping! :)

Tomato Talk! :)

The little seedlings are growing up and today Cal took a minute to assist me with my idea for getting them staked! :) Since this is the first time I've ever grown this many plants, and didn't have enough cages to go around, I needed to come up with an inexpensive way to give them support! Each has a tall bamboo stake, and today we put fence posts at either end of the two rows, and wound string around the rows, all the way up the posts! As they grow I will continue to check the plants, to keep them growing within the support of the string. This is an experiment that looks like it may work! We're feeling hopeful! :)
Since they are all indeterminate plants, and will continue to grow until it freezes, we staked them with continued growth in mind! :)
As well as being inexpensive, we think it actually ended up looking kind of nice, too! :)
Fruit is starting to appear now! :) Here are some Sun Gold Cherry Tomatoes, growing within the row! :)
The "seedlings" growing inside the greenhouse are doing amazingly well, so far!! (Do you remember the photos I posted when I first planted them in the greenhouse, where they were so tiny they difficult to see?) They are exceeding the height of the tall cages now, and I hope the tall bamboo stakes will be enough to guide their growth to the end of the season! :)
There's fruit growing inside the greenhouse, as well! :) Here's the Sweet Million cherry tomato I'm anxious to try! :)
This is Moskvich, an heirloom tomato that's supposed to be very tasty! I'm more than willing to give up form for flavor! :)
The Juliet salsa tomato is proving to be a real winner, so far! If the fruit tastes as good as this plant grows, and produces, I'll be growing her every year her seeds are available for purchase! :)

... Who knows, maybe I'll even get brave enough to try my hand at saving my own seeds! I've come this far, learning how to grow tomato plants from seed successfully in western WA, so why stop here!? Maybe the saying is true, ... "The sky's the limit!" :)

Happy gardening everyone!! :)

Moth Magic! :)

If you would like to see what moths are in your area, try leaving a porch light on overnight, and take a look at the lit area the following morning! :)
You may be amazed at the variety you see! :)




Look closely or you may miss the ones who seem to magically blend in to their surroundings! :)
Pretty amazing! I wonder what it would be like to be able to do that! :)

Happy moth viewing! :)

Life's Meant To Be Enjoyed! :)

As a proud "Nom" (gram), please allow me to share a little about our grandson, Brennan! He knows the art the enjoying life! He loves animals, and especially dogs, like the rest of the family! Since we have a new canine family member that especially loves kids, their last visit was interesting! :) Coal couldn't resist licking Brennan's head and Brennan enjoyed the canine affection, and I even overheard Brennan thanking Coal a time or two! :) Poor Mommy and Daddy had to give Brennan a shower, once or twice, after these two had finished playing! :)
It was impossible to keep the two of them apart, especially when they took so much joy in each other! :)

The fact that he also loves spending time with his "Papa B" made his joy that much sweeter! :)
Brennan has a laugh that is contagious! The other day he asked to call me and when he got on, instead of talking, began fake laughing on the phone to me! I couldn't help giggling, which made him laugh for real, which made me laugh harder, so before long we were both laughing on the phone without a reason or a care!! :)

He is such a delight! :)

When I was a young mother, I remember hearing grandparents say how much they loved their grandkids! One grandmother even said she never thought she could ever love anyone more than her kids until their grandchildren came along! I couldn't fathom that and, when she saw the disbelief in my eyes, she assured me the day would come when I'd have grandchildren of my own, and then I'd understand! :)

Well, ... they were right that I love my grandsons as much as I love our kids!!! :)

Life is an amazing journey! ... It's meant to be enjoyed!! :)

In Robin Retrospect! :)

I heard a true story about how a man was observing a mother bird with her young. He noticed that the babies were getting older, and when she got a worm, they came running to her side to be fed! To his amazement, she waited for them to approach before quickly swallowing the worm! This happened several times! She'd get the worm, they'd come running, and then she ate it herself! Soon they caught on that if they wanted a worm, they needed to watch what she did, and develop the skill of obtaining food for themselves! :)

This was a good mother! She knew the greatest gifts she could give her young were the skills to do for themselves, as they became old enough to develop independence! :)

As the man watched it occurred to him that this same process also applies to us, in many ways! When our little ones are small we do everything for them, and as they grow, we begin to teach them how to do things for themselves! It would be a disservice to them to continue to hand feed them when we should be teaching them the joys of developing skills and independence for themselves! :)

At some point, a good mother knows her little one will no longer be little, and she must be about training this child the skills to fly on it's own! :)

There was a mother I knew who had a son with downs' (sp.?), and she worked patiently, teaching him how to catch the city bus, take it to a place of business, and return home! They did this together for a couple of years. This training took time! Eventually, he was hired in town, and was able to take the bus to work and back by himself! He was proud of his accomplishments and greatly valued his independence! :)

I suppose one of the hardest things a mother can do is watch her child fly away! Yet the blessings of knowing that child is able to be successful on their own is invaluable!! :)

No sparrow falls to the ground that the Lord isn't aware! The greatest thing I've tried to teach my kids, is whether I'm in this world, or progressed on, - they always have Someone to turn to, Who is always as close as a prayer! :)

It's The Little Things! :)

I find it's the little things in life that bring joy! Like the .99 cent flags I purchased that have added a festive feeling to our front deck and remind me of the great blessings that are mine and others who are privileged to live in this blessed land! :)
Or the first little fruit starting to form on a greenhouse tomato plant after some concern on my part that I will ever see tomatoes growing inside the little frame! :)
I've done all I can think of to do, like opening both doors on warm days to let in a breeze to vibrate the blooms; post flower baskets by the door; ...
Positioned a flower pot and lavender plants inside to encourage the bees to notice the tomato blooms; ...
Even put little lavender plants between each tomato plant, in hopes of seeing bees drawn to the tomato petals! So seeing fruit beginning to form is a little thing that brings me relief and joy! :)
I also had some concern that the cranberry plants may not bloom this year since I was gone during winter's cold spell, and wasn't here to cover them! It's the branches that reach up that put on the fruit, so they can get frozen bad enough to lose the coming year's crop! So imagine my pleasure when I noticed our cranberry plants in bloom! It was also my first time ever seeing cranberry blooms! So That's what they look like!! Dainty little things! :) I sighed a prayer of thanks! Looks like we'll be enjoying cranberries from our garden this fall! :)
Notice this rose blooming in spite of the dappled light I have her in! "When there's a will there's a way!", as the saying goes! She was in full sun when I first planted her, but over time her location has become more shade than sun! I'm still trying to decide if I should move her! :)
All I have to do is Look at our hammock to feel myself begin to relax! :) It's the little things! :)
Due to our wet Spring we have mushrooms in the yard, still. This is the largest one I've ever seen! :)
How fun to see blooms from one of my sedums! It reminds me of a flashing fair ride! :)
It's such a little thing, but so touching to me, to see my dear canine friend wanting to be where I am! :)
It's the little things in life that matter and add up to great things! Like brave men putting their lives on the line to sign the declaration of independence; and brave men and women throughout history putting their lives on the line to protect our liberty and freedom!

As my little flags wave in the summer breeze, I'm filled with gratitude!

Happy 4th of July Everyone!! :)