More of the Same...blah blah blah!!!

Me again.... this is the point where you can run away!!! Feel free to do so...this is only marginally better than a great Uncle Showing you slides of his summer trip to the Muskrat Farms of outer Blazonia....RUN I TELL YOU....RUN NOW WHILE YOU HAVE THE CHANCE!! Too late.......

OK...my very favorite flower is the Gardenia... the smell drives me somewhat mad... so Richard has through the years bought me my own Gardenia Bushes...I have cared for...nurtured and loved each one...but they have each 'fallen' because of either the weather, heat, cold, the water, the location, neglect (while a friend watched our house over the summer) ...and so we thought we would try it again... Richard bought a beautiful 'flowering' Gardenia Bush for me last year...it had lovely flowers when he brought it home... Oh that plant was kicking butt...I was thrilled....and hey, it was doing GREAT ....till one day I went out to see that it had been totally stripped...I mean...ALL the branches were gone..with one single nearly naked branch hovering above the 'stubble' ...now I know Richard Loves to prune things...but this was going too far.... I stormed into the house screaming like a banshee accusing him of all kinds of things one being a no good 'Plant Murderer'.... come to find out....a small Pack Rat had taken up residence in our yard...and had been selectively pruning the nicest of greenery from our yard to pad her nest for babies....UGH!!! GRRRRRRRRRRRRRR... So of course I thought this was curtains for my beloved Gardenia... but with a little talking and loving care...I brought it back...and this is the first flower for the season and after the dreaded Massacre. The bush is now full of buds ...just waiting to make me smile with delight!

The second picture is of a surprise that Richard gave me a few days ago... Another of my Loves... 'Nightmare before Christmas'... OOoOOoOOo I love it so. So he bought me these two wonderful Busts (I love Busts) of Jack and Sally. So they now sit happily on my shelf.

The last is the Backside of the Bougainvillea and Jasmine...you can see the flowers better.

OK...now dolls.... Looks like we are starting on another Harry Potter piece just as soon as we return...

Will miss you all...don't forget me...and if there is cake...save me a piece!!

Hugs to All

Jodi

This and a whole lotta That!!

OK this is gonna be one of those Blogs that is jam packed with This , That and the Other!! Seems like so much to say and so little time to say it. Sounds like I am going off to war doesn't it... well, almost.... Richard and I leave EARLY EARLY Saturday Morning to drive 12 hours up to my sisters house in Northern California to pack and load her up and move her back to Lake Havasu, AZ with us.... until she gets her own place close by. We are very excited that she is moving here...miss her like crazy. But last evening we did some figuring out and came up with stunning facts...in the 7 almost 8 years that we have lived in L.H. we have made 19 trips back to GV for visits with my Mom and Sister... '19' ... ZOWIE!!! That's a whole lot of 12 hour trips...LOL...so needless to say we are pleased as punch at the thought of her now being here and not there!! The car is pretty pleased as well. So we will be away from the computer for a week...OMG!!! I am sweating already...Richard is fine with it...it is me who is the Cyber Junkie! But the sketch book comes with me again...a Great Audio book popped into the CD player , and lots of Road Food! Snack City!! ROAD TRIP... !!!!

So as I will be away...I am throwing things one here left and right as I will miss doing my daily posts... sniff sniff.

The above pics are more blooms in our desert garden... The Flower is from the 'sharpest' 'meanest' cactus in our garden 'Opuntia Versicolor' It just scares people when they look at it...but it's flowers are incredibly beautiful. The lighter color pink is 'Opuntia Leptocaulis' a less vicious yet still 'ouchie' cactus. The third is our 'Bougainvillea' and Star Jasmine on our back patio ...both blooming like crazy right now ...the smell of Jasmine is so thick in the air...I love this time of the year...it only lasts about 3-4 weeks...and I will miss a week of it... Richard HATES the Bougainvillea as the little dry bracks fall off and blow everywhere (mainly into his shop) ...pounds of them!! OOPS!

OK...still lots to say...will post another post...hey, that's right , I can post more than one a day...WOW, just realized that...hee hee hee!!!

Jodi (the never quiet)

The Cactus that would not DIE!!!!!

OK...so we have a lot of cacti in our yard...what can I say, we LOVE Cacti! Raised them even when we lived in Oregon! Anyway...some people bring home stray dogs, stray cats, old 'things' with a 'FREE' sign on it in someones driveway.... Richard...he brings home Cacti!! He sees a species he does not have...well, he SOON does have it!! People around here are always cutting cactus up and and throwing it into the nearby desert... so he 'rescues' it as he calls it!

Well this is one reason our back yard is full now... so recently HE started 'trimming away and the 'trimmings' he brought home over the years... One is an Opuntia (above picture) ...it grows fast and BIG... so he trimmed away and gave pieces of it to neighbors. ... well, this one little piece apparently feel off and was not discovered on the ground until we saw a Big Yellow Flower on the ground...investigated and saw that this one single Opuntia Pad...detached from the mother plant was displaying the most beautiful single flower.... now mind you...it is not rooted, has been laying there without water or soil for some time... but somehow it managed with all of it's strength to send out the most beautiful flower! Just made ya smile...and feel there was a moral in there somewhere! And then...when a honey bee found that single flower and made use of it's pollen...well...it simply made our day.... had to share!

Have a Great Tuesday

Jodi

Dumbledore Finished...at last!

We are at last finished with our Dumbledore Commission...whew! Several little intermissions later...we have at last (or I should say Richard) photographed Dumbledore and will now get him ready to be carefully boxed and ready to send to his new home.

We are very pleased with how he turned out...and as with anything...photos never look as good as in person...I just wish you could see the tiny tiny details that just tend to show up as 'mini blurs' in the photograph. I am not even sure the 3 photos above will go bigger when clicked... so I have uploaded about 12 different photographs on our PBASE Gallery just in case... 1:12th scale miniatures are indeed hard to photograph. He is just at 6 inches.

http://www.pbase.com/creagers/dumbledore_in_miniature

Thanks everyone for hanging in there through this process of creating this piece... it was indeed a true labor of love...

Now onto the next...

Have a Good Evening

Jodi and Richard

Happy Easter Egg!!

Easter is such a lovely time of the year...for so many reasons. Of course there is the obvious Religious Meaning of Easter... but also there is the Colorful , Hopeful Promise of Spring that drips from the very word ... Easter.!!

Growing up with Easter in my house was always fun ...My Mom would hide dozens of colorful eggs around the house and yard... now I was never really sure WHY she did that...I mean, wasn't that the Easter Bunnies job??? Even as a young child I questioned to myself the fact that Mom was not only shopping for the Eggs, but also Dying and decorating them, storing them, hiding them and even a week later finding and discarding the Old Stinky ones that I failed to locate in the yard originally .. I mean, doesn't this rabbit have ANY responsibilities at ALL?? He has managed to find a way to convince all these homemaker Moms to do his bidding... and then he shows up on the scene Easter Morning with a Big 'TAAAA-DAAAA' and a few hollowed out Chocolate Bunnies and stuck together jelly beans in a dime store basket with shiny grass (is grass shiny??) and then expects all the kids to sing his praises through the immortal words of "Here comes Peter Cotton Tail...hoping down the Bunnie trail...hippity hoppity Easters on it's way" ...who is he kidding!!! I think we all have a bone to pick with Mr. C.T. ... sure he can don a dapper brightly colored plaid jacket and bow tie with the best of them... show up on the scene Easter Morning ...get his atta boys and not show up again for another year... but can he boil an egg... can he dye an egg... does he know where the best sales on jelly beans are, does he clip coupons or would he even bother to hide eggs in extra special places ...and would he even have the slightest clue as to what my favorite color is for my special Easter dress??? NO I SAY!!!!

So this Easter Message is a BIG SHOUT OUT to all those Easter Moms and Dads out there in the trenches... dying those eggs, hiding them at 3:00am in the yard with a flashlight, for creating those brilliant Baskets that are always filled with their kids 'favorites'... and for making everything perfect... and in the end giving ALL the Credit to some Fluffy individual ...knowing their Kids 'Believe' ...and for keeping that magical belief for as long as they can....

WELL DONE PARENTS!!! Give Yourselves a Big Pat on the Back.... now go make yourself a Mimosa and relax...your work is done here!

Hoppy Easter to all the Grown Up Kiddies out there, may you always find that last jelly bean at the bottom of your basket.....

Jodi