...snippets of December.

December came and went much too quickly. So much to do and savor and create that I let my time tick away without sitting and sharing.
It is truly amazing how much can be stuffed into one month.
Here is a small look at all I've been up to during my favorite time of year.
Hope everyone had a wonderful holiday season spent with family, friends and those you love.

...Thanksgiving.

Almost everything has been chopped, sliced, diced, stuffed, and baked,the turkey is in the oven and I have a moment to sit and wish everyone a wonderful Thanksgiving. Of all the holidays, this one brings us together to celebrate the love of family and friends.
To you and to those who are gracing your table today...Happy Thanksgiving.

...November.

"Fallen leaves laying on the grass in the November sun bring more happiness than

the daffodils."

- Cyril Connolly 1903-1974

...a Happy Halloween.

"I've survived 2 Halloweens so far with Mom, and she promised she
would NEVER make me wear a costume...but my Uncle Greg is visiting and well...you can see for yourself what position I'm in.
I have never been so embarrassed!!" - Lexie

I know I will be apologizing for this with extra treats and biscuits for days to come.
Hope everyone has a safe and happy Halloween. - Pat

...thought for a Sunday morning.

"Just living is not enough", said the Butterfly.
"One must have sunshine, freedom, and a little flower."
- Hans Christian Anderson

...a "Pat's eye view".

click image to enlarge
For the first weekend in a long while, I woke up with absolutely nothing on the agenda. How glorious! Wandered out to the back yard with coffee and camera in hand, sat in my favorite chair, breathed deep, and took in the morning. Today is promising to be a hot one, the tail end of our Indian Summer. I'm not one for any day above 78, and this one should be building to the 90's. So with that in mind I settled in to enjoy the cool beginnings of the day. Daydreaming about the pumpkins and falling leaves to come, I picked up my camera and took some last summer shots of the garden. I decided to shoot only what I could see from my chair. A "Pat's eye view".
Hope you all have a wonderful weekend.

...the first day of fall.

Fall has to be without a doubt, hands down, my favorite time of year. As the summer hangs on to all that she can, calling in her cousin "Indian Summer" to linger a bit longer, I can still detect through her heat, the unmistakable scent of fall. Pristine blue skies, billowy white clouds, and crisp breezes will soon fill the air. Right around the corner will be all the colors of her season...orange, yellow, red, brown and the subtle shades in between. Pumpkins will grace front porches sharing space with the odd scarecrow, spider-web, and black cat. All in the efforts to treat or scare away the little goblins of Halloween. Chrysanthemums will pop up where bright summer annuals used to be and wreaths of autumn leaves will hang on front doors to greet the friends and family we are blessed to share our tables with on Thanksgiving.
It is truly a season as rich as the colors it wears.

...the Farmer's Market (part three)

Flaky, buttery, crisp, chewy, savory and sweet. I'll take one of each! From the wonderful croissants to the incredible focaccia combinations, nothing beats the bread booth at the market. His combinations are amazing from the Blue Cheese Walnut bread to the Kalamata Olive Piccolo. I can never leave without something and try to choose something different each week. There is something so romantic leaving with a baguette sticking out of my straw bag, some sunflowers, fresh greens and a bottle of wine.
Kind of makes me feel like I've spent the morning in Tuscany,or Provence...
and I didn't even need a plane ticket.

...the Farmer's Market (part two).

Fruit! Juicy, succulent, sweet, and full of sunshine. Always best in it's natural state, fresh picked and full of summer...however, as I walk past the baskets of peaches and pears, I can't help but think of pie...or a carmel pear tart... or maybe a blueberry crumble, hot from the oven, crisp on the edges from burnt sugar and butter! Can't forget fresh homemade strawberry shortcake, topped with warm sugared cream! Oh my!
What is your favorite?

...the Farmer's Market (part one).

Saturday morning, coffee in one hand, camera in the other, I trotted off to the Farmer's Market...what a feast for the eyes!! I took so many pictures that I decided to post them as a series. First...vegetables. This is only a smattering of the bounty that was to be had. Boxes, and baskets overflowing with the ripeness of summer. One of the best things about the markets is that choices are seasonal. Summer brings the sweetness of heirloom tomatoes, colorful squashes ripe for the grill, and salad greens dressed with eatable flowers.
Grocery stores are intentional. Armed with preplanned lists we push our carts through the isles knowing a well thought out recipe awaits us at home. Meandering through a farmers market one is inspired, on the spot, by the choices available to us on just that morning...often times picked fresh a day or two before. Maybe a zucchini tart, or a panzanella salad! What ever is available that day can become that weeks special treat. And even if you don't buy anything, just soaking in all the color and wonder of what a few seeds and a bit of sunshine can produce is a wonderful way to spend the morning!

...the Queen of the Garden.

Jasmine, honeysuckle, tuberose, frangipani. All beautiful,white,creamy flowers that fill the air with amazing perfume. All stars of the garden in their own right. None however can come close to the Queen of them all...the Gardenia. Her flower has graced the wrist of many a young girl at proms and homecomings,her petals probably still dried and pressed between the pages of some long forgotten book. She has watched countless weddings from the lapels of anxious grooms everywhere, and has gained worldwide fame as the flower gracing the hair of the inimitable Miss Billie Holiday. Some have tried, unsuccessfully, to recreate her fragrance and capture it in bottles for purchase. All this, yet she can still be content to grow in the humble yards of those who choose to take the time. Mind you she is difficult and fickle to grow, often times dropping her buds well before their time. She doesn't like too much sun, can't quite take the shade, takes a huge amount of patience, but rewards those who dare with her intoxicating fragrance and creamy white petals. She lets us bring her into our homes to float serenely in crystal bowls, imparting her scent within our own four walls.
Next time you pass her at your local nursery, consider taking her home.
I guarantee, with a bit of love and patience, you will be rewarded ten times over.

...evening rain and a double rainbow.

Taken at 8:00 this evening, after a light summer rain.

...a 4th of July parade.

Everyone loves parades! There's the Rose Bowl with it's wonderful floats made from flowers, the Macy's Day Thanksgiving parade with it's big brass bands and huge caricature balloons , and of course the Hollywood Christmas Parade (which is celebrating it's 75th birthday) All of these have pomp, circumstance and tradition, but none can beat the true American spirit of a grass roots 4th of July parade! The wonderment in the young children's eyes of the horses, fire engines, cars and marching bands! Things we all watched when we were little, and who's spirit I still try to hang on to today. I guess I'm just a sentimental sap at heart, but in our world of stress and pressure it is so wonderful to take a moment, slow down, and be a part of all that is
red, white, and blue.
Hope you all had as wonderful a day as I did.

... a bouquet from my garden.

"People from a planet without flowers would think
we must be mad with joy the whole time
to have such things about us."
- Iris Murdoch, A Fairly Honourable Defeat

...a quiet breakdown.

It was inevitable. Bound to happen sooner or later. All the signs were there. Late nights talking to friends, too much shopping, searching for information he just had to have, hardly ever taking a break, rarely sleeping. He'd gone for a whole year without a cough or a sniffle. Holding my memories for me, keeping my secret passwords. He had such a photographic mind, he could bring up visions for me long forgotten and would help me to open up that creative place no one else could reach. I hope it's not serious. "Just exploratory", they said when I signed his entrance papers. They would call me if they had to open him up to have a closer look. It was harder than I'd thought, leaving him. Just a week they thought. I week would seem like a year without him. I lingered for awhile, tempted to take him back home, denying that there was anything wrong. After all, he is my voice. Oh sure, his friend "Dell" is letting me speak through him, but it's just not the same...I miss my MAC.

...a glimpse through my window.

In order to see birds, it is necessary to become part of the silence.
- Robert Lynd

I woke up on Saturday morning knowing I needed to make a Birthday card for a dear friend who loves all things "bird". I had been trying unsuccessfully for months to sit quietly in my back yard and capture some fluttering friends to add to my photo collection. With three finch feeders and a forest of trees and flowers, you would think this would be easy. Absolutely not!
What elusive little creatures!
Well, as luck would have it that Saturday morn, I woke to an unusual amount of chirpy chatter coming from outside my bedroom window. There on the bush outside, were dozens of tiny little birds, scurrying for their breakfast. They seemed to be enjoying an avian gourmet feast. I ran to get my camera, and of course when I got back, not a feather in sight. There I stood for what seemed like eternity, camera to window pane, waiting patiently for their return. As you can see, I was rewarded by one little fellow who landed on a piece of garden art and turned, almost posed, in my direction. Maybe he knew just how wonderful he would look on a card, and what pleasure he would bring to the Birthday Girl.
Thank you little bird, I am very grateful.

...my return from a break.

Mother's Day in the garden. My birthday cake.

Birthday bouquet, peony's and tulips. Greg.
Lexie in the meadow. My nephew Daniel.

Wow! It's amazing how fast time fly's. It wasn't intentional, I didn't plan it, and most of all didn't realize how long it would be, but I took a break. So much has gone on in since my last post... I celebrated my 49th birthday (yes the last year of my 40's), had a Mother's Day lunch in my garden; At Mom's request, had a wonderful Indian dinner for her Birthday; Greg, my friend/brother/partner in crime has returned from his home in Panama and is now staying with me. I have worked on a couple of custom card projects for clients, and watched my youngest nephew graduate from High School (where did the years go?) I cleared my head (which needs a lot of clearing these days) on the trails and meadows with my dog Lexie. She tends to benefit from my de-stressing aids. Somehow a dog in full motion in an open field tends to relax the human mind. Thank you to those who e-mailed and asked about my whereabouts and if all was OK.
It's so warming to know that there are those out there who care.
I'm back, all is good, and will post often.

...the little things.

"Enjoy the little things, for one day you may look back and realize they were the big things."
- Robert Brault

...hippity hoppity, Easter's on it's way.

I must have been about 7 or 8 when I wrote this, so this letter is 40 plus years old.

Dear Mr. Easter Bunny,

How is the Easter egg coloring going. I read in a book that there was once a bunny who wanted to color and deliver some Easter eggs, But his only trouble was that he couldn't read the colors on the paint bottles. I you told him to color the eggs yellow with pink spots. he would color them red with purple spots. But he went to school and learned to read. I heard that he got to work for you. How is he doing?; Please tell me, what is your first name? Well I've got to be going now. So hope you and your wife and your children,(if you have any) have a very happy easter. Love, Patricia XXOO

P.S. i am leaving you an egg.

My favorite,and most insightful view into my adult personality, is the upper right hand corner:

Instead of leaving two eggs under my bed leave them on the chair by my bed. Thank you.

Guess I was kind of bossy even way back then!

Happy Easter everyone! Love,Pat

...natures cradle.

I stepped out the back door this morning to let Lexie out, coffee cup in hand, still blurry eyed from sleep, my main goal..not to trip up the stepping stones. As I looked down, something caught my eye...the tiniest little cluster of something gold. It looked like the seeds from my wildflower packets had spilled into a morning web...but seeds don't have tiny little legs!! It took me a split second to go back in the house for my camera! See for yourselves.
Guess I have a few new tenants in my back yard garden!
(click on the photos to enlarge)

...in your Easter bonnet.

VINTAGE 1960'S MCCALL'S PATTERNS

When I was growing up, Easter was always a special holiday around our house. Maybe it was because spring was in the air, or perhaps it was the deeper meaning of the day, but there was always a special anticipation of that particular Sunday. About a month or so before, my Mom and I would go to the fabric store and pick out the pattern for my Easter dress. There we would sit at the big round table with all the other homemaker moms. I could barely lift the over sized pattern books over to my side of the table but I somehow seemed to manage. I hoisted over Butterick's, McCall's, Simplicity, and the best of them all...Vogue. There we would sit for what seemed like forever, turning the pages, patiently looking for that one special dress. Once the decision was made I loved going to the big file drawers and searching for the pattern number, always fearing that someone before us would have gotten the last one if it's kind and we would have to settle for second choice. Next came the fabric, bolts and bolts of colors and patterns and textures to choose from. I'm sure that Mom (who I found out later in life, wanted to be a fashion designer) steered me to the appropriate choice, but she always managed to make it seem like all the decisions were made by me. I couldn't wait to get home and marvel at how the thin pieces of parchment colored paper would end up becoming my favorite dress of that year. Looking back,
I wonder if Mom knew what wonderful memories she was helping to create.

...all creatures great and small.

Nature will bear the closest inspection. She invites us to lay our eye level with her smallest leaf, and take an insect view of it's plain.
- Henry David Thoreau

...Mary vs. Rhoda

In the mid to late seventies, my high school years, I did a lot of babysitting. I loved kids, had a way with them, and figured it was an easy way to make money. Saturday nights were always booked in advance and came with a much higher rate of pay, probably because it dipped into what ever social life us girls were trying to strive for at the time and as we got older, good babysitters were hard to come by. I really didn't mind though, and it was largely due to the Saturday night TV line up. Once my little charges were in bed, I raided the fridge of their parents and settled in for an evening with Mary, Bob, and Carol. That's Mary Tyler Moore, Bob Newhart, and Carol Burnett. What amazing female role models for a young girl of 16. Mary and Rhoda with their own apartments, independent lives, and great jobs. Emily Newhart, whose quick dry wit and intelligence enhanced the relationship with her husband Bob, and Carol Burnett, who showed us that there was humor in every little thing, it was all in how you looked at it.
I loved them all.
For us girls there was always the question of Mary vs. Rhoda. It went without question that all the guys voted for Mary, therefore most of the girls wanted to be Mary, but I was always a Rhoda fan (after all didn't she get Joe in the end). I could relate more to her sarcastic sense of humor, quirky fashions, and thought that being a window dresser was the most fabulous thing on the planet! I planned to move to New York and design the windows of all the great department stores.
But with Mary, there was always her "M". Is was the one thing of hers that I coveted, begged to have, and for some reason, never managed to get. Even at 16, I knew that initial hanging on the wall of her apartment meant more than just a decoration. It wasn't until recently that I realized, without intention, I had acquired several things in my own home with my initial "P".
I guess if you wait long enough, you really "might just make it after all."

... natures crayon box.

The Earth Laughs in Flowers
- Ralph Waldo Emerson

...the first day of spring.

It's official, today is the first day of spring! It might not look like it through the clouds and fog, but there it is, ready to bust out of winter and begin it's glorious season. What better way to begin the equinox, than the Flower and Garden Show. I've taken the day off of work, have my camera packed, my note pad ready, my comfy tennis shoes on, and am off to be inspired. Can't wait to share what I find.
Until than, Happy first day of Spring.

...the signs of spring.

Remember those movies we saw in school, the ones in Botany class that were filmed in fast frame to show us how things grow. Well, right about now when I walk through my garden, I feel like I'm watching one of those movies. It's amazing how fast things grow this time of year. One day just the bud of a hydrangea, smaller than my pinkie nail, a few days later leaves an inch and a bit long. I few more months and the yard will be brimming with color and pageantry. What a show Mother Nature is, and it's free for all who want to watch...she doesn't even make us buy a ticket!