Yes, Please

This dish is billed as "California Bennies"--no Canadian bacon for us vegetarians. Instead, yummy avocados. This was enjoyed (by me) with a delish Bloody Mary--see it peeking out in the right upper corner?--that came garnished with pickled veggies on a skewer. (Little-known fact about me? I could eat my weight in pickles; it's really rather alarming how much I love all things pickle.) By the way, the restaurant is called JSix, in the Hotel Solamar.

Oh, and if you don't want eggs, you could order this:

Tallulah-Palooza Friday

Sometimes I walk by a room and do a double-take when I see this. Tallulah Mae. Sitting. Alone. In the middle of a room. What in the world is she thinking about?

Mmmm-Kay . . .

Not sure quite what this is about ... What do y'all think?

Crow-Nanigans

Ah, yes, Crowzilla, enjoy your bath ...

And your drink of water ...

"Who, me?" Yes, you, the one who might have had a hand (foot? claw? beak?) in this...

Those are baby lavender plants that have unceremoniously been removed from the ground. By the crows. Why? You'd have to ask them...

Avocado Green, But No Harvest Gold

Check out these absolutely picture-perfect avocados. I mean, really--that is the illustration next to "perfectly ripe avocado" in the dictionary. They were grown, perfectly, by B.'s perfectly lovely and charming executive assistant. The perfect liquid in the pit pit? That's perfectly yummy olive oil, of course. Mmmmm...perfect!

They perfectly match our avocado (actually, it's really more sage-y) breakfast nook table and banquette. They do not match the black, white, and brindle dog, who is demonstrating perfectly here the art of passive-aggressive begging. For a bite of avocado. Or a drop of olive oil. Or a speck of pepper. Perhaps a grain of salt?

Sweet Pea-ony

This post is for my friend who leaves sweet comments as My Two Cents: your favorite flowers are MY faves, too! Here we have another peony (alas, they're gone now from Trader Joe's) ...

Le sweet peas--I planted seeds this year, like I always do, and nada. I'm blaming it on the gophers (all gardening disasters are henceforth blamed on the gophers). I did have two volunteer plants come up from last year, and I put in a six-pack of sweet peas, because I love them so. For months, nothing. Finally, about three weeks ago, sweet peas! Nothing like I've had in the past--I'm used to cutting whole trugs full of them, every day--but even a few make me smile.

A garden rose, which can apparently defy gravity (twice Blogger published this photo like this, even though it's horizontal in my photo album. Sigh.).

And an impressionistic photo of wisteria, the closest I could come to lilac. Too bad this post isn't equipped with Scratch-'N'-Sniff!

Tallulah-Palooza Friday

Tallulah Mae is hoping to be cast as ET in the remake ... I do think I see a resemblance...

Poppicus Graphicus

Isn't this poppy amazing? Just so graphic ... I planted a hodge-podge package of seeds I bought at the Museum of Garden History in London, and amongst them were these poppy seeds. That was about six years ago, at least, and they reseed every year, often nowhere near where plants were the year before. So pretty and ephemeral: the blossoms last about a day, so I enjoy them while I can.

Hummmmm...

My parents have a hummingbird feeder on their patio in Phoenix, and it seems to be quite the popular watering hole. There are at least 4 different birds/species who drink out of it. (At our house we have, I think, 3 birds, but to me they all look like the same species, Anna's hummingbird.) So, there is this little cutie above...

My parents have named this dude "King," because he definitely controls access to the feeder. I believe he is a Costa's hummingbird... And now that I look at the picture on the linked page, the one above may be the female Costa's.

There's also Mr. Squatty here...

And this one, which, even though the photo is blurry, looks to me like yet another species.

Incoming!!!

P.S. This is my 300th post! Wheee . . .

Some Old and Cool Stuff, Christmas in June Edition

OK, so I kinda have a reindeer fetish--don't ask me what THAT'S about! (You can see more of my reindeeriana in previous posts here and here.) I especially like these little blue-eyed ones, which are probably Japanese (though not marked).

And what's not to like about this Santa? I HAD to buy the box of ornament hangers just for the graphics...

You Bet

B. and I joined the Mission Hills Garden Club on a little field trip last weekend... Can you guess where we went? I bet you can't...

These glorious roses are from a David Austin rose test garden...

Et voila:

Now you know: it was a trip to see the gardens on the grounds of the Barona Casino. Our group was given a tour by Kathleen Eagle, who is head of Ornamental Horticulture for the property. Amazingly, they use all reclaimed water, which is great; in the Chef's Garden they also grow some of the organic vegetables used in the steakhouse. Afterwards, we were all treated to buffet lunch--yum! A fun day, and the hospitality we were shown was truly appreciated.

Happy Father's Day

To my own special father--who I still proudly call "Daddy"--happy happy day: thank you for all the dips in freezing cold swimming pools (if there was water, we HAD to get in it, no matter the time of day or ambient outside temperature), all the rides on roller coasters, for fixing things that broke (this includes putting together dollhouses and doll cars and doll beauty parlors), and mostly, thank you just for being my daddy. Happy Father's Day.

Tallulah-Palooza Friday

You know the Elvis song "Trouble" (link plays video)? "If you're looking for trouble/You came to the right place/If you're looking for trouble/Just look right in my face..."

Well, this is Miss Tallulah's "trouble face." This means she either has been or will soon be a) whirling like a dervish; b) tossing socks and shoes in the air; c) nipping at your heels and trying to herd you (she does have Cardigan Welsh Corgi in her lineage--really!!); d) dipping into a play bow while barking at the top of her lungs; e) all of the above.

You have been warned . . .

Breathe Deep the Gathering Gloom...

. . . Ahhhhhh . . .

Land of the Giants

First up: look at the size of this rose--my handsome and handy hand model, B., is demonstrating the size (it's not my rose so I don't know what kind it is).

My other most helpful assistant, Miss Tallulah Mae, is here to show us the scale of these ginormous buttons, which are larger than her black, shiny, kissable nose.

Did anyone else watch Land of the Giants? I don't remember watching it, but I know that I usurped my big brother's Land of the Giants lunchbox, seen here.

You Say Potato, I Say Potahto...

Check out these lovelies: for a brief time, we here in SoCal get to enjoy peonies (we can't grow them, alas; these came via my sweet B. from Trader Joe's)--or "pie-o-nees," as some like to call them. Whatever you call them, they're heavenly.

Author Author

Apologies for the darkness of the photograph above: the man on the right is Khaled Hosseini, author of The Kite Runner (which I read and liked quite well) and A Thousand Splendid Suns (which I haven't read). Mr. Hosseini sat right next to B. on Saturday night at an event at UCSD (he was honored as UCSD Alumnus of the Year). He's very nice, very quiet . . . A lot of folks (many of them female, I might add) came up to him asking to have books signed or have their photos taken with him--it was like seeing the literary equivalent of a rock star. By some accounts, The Kite Runner has sold 10 million copies and been published in 42 languages.

I felt a bit weird about having my photo taken with him, so I "Kinneared" him--you have to read the link to a hilarious post on one of my favorite blogs, The Yarn Harlot, to understand what that means!

Tallulah-Palooza Friday

Er . . . um . . . hmmm . . .

I have no words for this, really.