California Living

In my humble opinion the Central Valley is the most beautiful place in California.  You have all sorts of agriculture, the weather is nice and it is so colorful with flowers, shrubs and trees.  After living in Las Vegas for almost fifteen years I really appreciate it here all the more.  This morning I picked oranges off of our tree again and just see how pretty they are...

Yummy!

The other day I posted a picture of some mystery vegetation coming up in the yard.  I took another picture of the same spot this morning for comparison.  Here they are...

This is the first picture I took.  Just a little bit of dark reddish vegetation coming up through the dirt.



And this is the one I took this morning.  There is a little bit of green showing on the tips now. 

It will be fun to discover what this turns out to be.

I  planted some geraniums and lavender in the front yard.  I'm trying to get some color in the yard and I have a soft spot in my heart for geraniums.  I'm sure I will be adding more geraniums and spring progresses. 

And in the back yard I added a Creeping Myrtle...

Springing Up All Over

I pruned up some plants in the front and back yards yesterday and discovered some mystery plants popping up!  My neighbor Lupe and I were talking across the back fence this morning and she told me she thinks some of them are tulips!  It will be fun to see what they finally turn out to be.  A couple of hours ago Lupe appeared on my front porch, she brought me two tulip plants that she bought at Home Depot!  She tried to sneak up and leave them and run but Gunther told on her.  She brought me a yellow and a red tulip!  It is so nice to have such sweet neighbors.  After Lupe and I had coffee and she went home I went out and took some pictures of our  front and back yards so I can see the transformation as spring sets in and as we make changes to the landscaping over the spring and summer.  I don't know what many of the plants are in our yard so it will be fun to learn and discover what is growing here. 

  Mystery bulbs popping up in the back yard.

 I'm pretty sure that these plants along the side of the garage in the back yard are Agapanthas. 

 More mystery plants in the front yard.  Tulips maybe?

 My cute pink flamingo that my father in law made me when we lived in Las Vegas.   

 I was so excited to discover this plant in the front yard!  The tag attached to it says it is a Hydrangea!  There are two of these in the flower bed in front of the "sittin' on porch"

 The north side of the house looks pretty sad right now but there are seven rose bushes growing here and I am planning on putting some Hollyhocks here too.

This is some mystery vegetation coming up on the north side of the house in between two rose bushes.  I have no idea what is growing here but again, it will be fun to discover what develops.

Cathie



Spring is Near

While driving to Sanger this morning I was amazed at all the orchards that are in bloom that were not in bloom on Friday!  I don't know what these trees are but I just had to share them here because they are so beautiful.

This last picture is the Tulip Tree in my neighbors back yard.  I just couldn't help taking a picture, the tree is just breathtakingly beautiful.  I hope you enjoyed this little taste of Central Valley agriculture.

Cathie

Week-end Get Away

This weekend we took the first of what I hope will be many week-end trips to Angels Camp.  My parents live in a beautiful log home set on five amazing acres of natural beauty.  I was born in Angels Camp and spent the first five years of my life living there.  We could not have picked a better or more fun week-end for our trip.  It started out Friday night at the Elks Lodge in Sonora for the Italian Club dinner.  Wonderful food and a really fun time.  Saturday morning I had the special pleasure of taking a ride with my dad in his 1934 Ford four window coupe.

Daddy is one of the directors of the Angels Camp museum and we went into town to the museum.  Daddy had to drop off a piece of wood and I got to mosey around looking at the wonderful history that was in front of me. 

These are just two of the dozens of wonderfully restored wagons and carriages on display at the museum. There are so many fabulous displays and exciting plans for expansion.  I am anxious to witness these new plans unfold.

This is one of the stained glass windows from the original St. Patrick's Catholic Church.

And this is a painting the the old church.  My parents were married in this church and I was baptised here.

This is the old water wheel that produced hydroelectric power for the stamp mills around town.  My father told me that my mother used to play on this water wheel when she was a little girl!

This is a picture of the entrance to Utica Park in Angels Camp.  The statue is of Mark Twain. 

  On our way home from the museum we stopped at the grocery store and ran into two of the Raggios, Lauren Whittle and my cousin Maria and her daughter Kristen.  Auntie Elda came out to the log home Saturday afternoon and it was really wonderful to see her.  Saturday night we went to the Italian Catholic Federation Valentine's dinner.  I got to see my Auntie Eleanor and Uncle Dan that night as well as my daddy's very good friend Bob Hillis and his wonderful wife Chryl.  What a joy it was to see Bob again and to finally meet Chryl.  Chryl is a scrapper and we could have talked for days about our passion for the hobby!!  As with any function like this there was a raffle and then they had something I had never heard of before... a 50/50 drawing.  The drawing works like this, they sell tickets, in this case they used decks of cards, the cards get torn in half and you keep one half and the other half goes into the hat for the drawing.  The organiztion keeps 50% of the money collected and the other 50% is given away in 10%, 15% and 25% prizes.  Well, Auntie Eleanor won the 10% prize!  And I won the 15% prize!  If that wasn't wonderful enough my mom won the 25% prize!  It was a great night for the Darby, Hollins and Petithomme families!

Around one o'clock this afternoon my Aunt Betsy came out to my parents and I got to visit with her for a bit.  She brought some wasabi flavored seaweed and it was delish.  I will be making a trip to Trader Joes in the very near future!!  I also spoke with Uncle Henry on the phone.  He is having surgery next Wednesday at Stanford to have his hip replaced.  While I was sad not to be able to see him I am sure that the next visit to Angels Camp he will be feeling much better and I will get to see him.  As with any good time it came to an end entirely too soon!  I wasn't sad leaving though because unlike my last several visits to Angels, this time I was not going back to Las Vegas but a mere two hours and forty five minutes away in Fowler!  What a joy knowing that we can go back again and again. 

These are some pictures of the property immediately around the log home. 

And these pictures are of the warm, cozy and inviting inside of the log home.

My very talented cousin Micheal Darby did this wonderful brick and plaster effect on the upper walls of the stairwell. 

 This is one of my mother's beautiful quilts that she makes.  This particular quilt is draped over the railing of the loft.

For any of you Fresno peeps reading, this buffalo head used to hang in Fresno Ag Hardware when they were located on Blackstone Avenue.  Jake Norsegian, a friend of my parents is the hunter that shot this buffalo.  Several years before he passed away Jake gave this to my parents because he felt that the log home was where it now belonged.  My parents lovingly name the buffalo AJ in honor and rememberance of Alta and Jake Norsegian.

This morning there was a blanket of fog.  These pictures were taken looking out off the deck towards a little valley that is below my parents property.  It was quiet and erie.

Thank you so much for reading this and I hope to add many more week end getaways!