I like to shop. . .so does Dulee!

“A dog is the only thing on earth that loves you more than you love yourself.” ~~Josh Billings

Dogs, even cute little fluffy white Bichon Frises, are not welcome in most stores but Pet Smart is the place for dogs, so that’s where Dulee had his first shopping experience.  He walked into the store on his leash but all of the animal smells made him crazy so a ride in the shopping cart turned out to be the best way to go. (Dulee: Oh man, do I like all of those smells!)

Back home he is too exhausted to even look at his purchases so he takes a nap on the back of the sofa.  (Dulee: Napping is one of my favorite activities-right up there with sitting on any available lap!)

Awake, he checks out his new Kong. . .maybe he won’t lose this one! (Dulee: they think I lose my Kongs but I really hide them-not easy since our home is a 5th wheel RV)

Wide awake now. . .his favorite treats!   (Dulee:  Every time I go out for a walk I get a treat – sometimes I tell them I have to go out even if I don’t so I can get a treat.)

We even shopped in the clothing section at Pet Smart and found a bright red slicker raincoat.  (Dulee:  I don’t want to look like a sissy but my hair-yes, I have hair not fur-gets really bedraggled when I get wet.  I think I look pretty cool in this red slicker although I’m not sure about that hood.)

Here he is, with all of his purchases (Dulee:  I noticed that they also bought a big bag of dog food which is why we went to Pet Smart in the first place.)

RV’ers refer to Camping World as the RVer’s department store. Last week we had an appointment to have the motor on our automatic awning replaced.

Of course, while the rig was being worked on, I had to go into the store to browse.  I noticed the sign on the door “We welcome your pet.”  Ah, Dulee can also shop! (Dulee: good, because the fifth wheel door was open and it worried me when the worker kept coming in and out.)

Our home in the shop at Camping World.

His lambskin sleeping pad was a bit large for the basket. (Dulee: I have no problem squeezing into small spaces.)

Dulee:  Hey, they have a whole section for us dogs!  (But we didn’t buy a thing because of our recent trip to Pet Smart.)Licking his chops… (Dulee:  I see something edible across the aisle!)The long day of shopping ends with a nap with his favorite rawhide bone. (Dulee:  I am so worried about where to keep my bone – I must constantly move it to keep it safe.)

“If you don't own a dog, at least one, there is not necessarily anything wrong with you, but there may be something wrong with your life.” ~~Roger Caras

We rescued Dulee through Bichon Furkids Rescue. In addition to shopping trips he also likes his trips to the groomer!  Here he is fresh from the groomer.  (Dulee:  I was wandering the streets in Orange County when the kind folks at Bichon Furkids Rescue saved me. Then I had to persuade Gary & Betty to choose ME ’cause I heard they were also considering a cute little girl Bichon named Alexa.  I knew I had a forever home when we drove off in the truck-yeah!)

"Dogs laugh, but they laugh with their tails. What puts man in a higher state of evolution is that he has got his laugh on the right end." ~- Max Eastman

Laugh today!

Birthdays are ok. . .but I love birthday cards!

I recently had a birthday. . .presents, lots of phone calls, e-mails, Facebook wishes and dinner with special family and friends.  I don’t like a bunch of fuss so it was exactly the kind of special day I enjoy. (what I’m not enjoying is that increasing chronological number which seems to crank by faster and faster!!)

Even though I love electronic greetings, there really isn’t anything that can take the place of a birthday card which is delivered either by hand or old-fashioned “snail” mail.

Kelle knows how much I love the ocean (I grew up in North Dakota and didn’t even see the ocean until I was a teenager) and Adirondack chairs.  This three-dimensional card is cute enough to hang on the wall. . .which I did! 

Gary always does REALLY well in his card choices.  This is nice on the outside but the verse inside is THE thing:

My friend Linda (who also happens to be family-aren’t we lucky?) sent this. Like Kelle she has a knack for finding the perfect card.

Handmade paper from sister Micki.

Lee, another friend who happens to be family, and I both love, yes really love, cheesecake.  She is a New Year’s Day birthday girl and several times I did make cheesecake but many other years have bought the “blue box” cheesecake from Trader Joe’s.  YUMMY!

From the Fresno Five (son and daughter-in-law Russ and Denise and grandkids Stanley, Mary and Will.)  This card is ME!!!  I’m quite sure that Denise picked out this perfect greeting!

Don’t you just love kid’s writing? 

Too funny:  son Russ addressed the envelope but forgot to sign the card!

My friend Jackie and I both love angels and fairies.  This is a Leaning Tree design by Malcolm Sanders. Love the verse inside:

You see those lights dancing

above the earth,

twinkling in the sky?

Those are not fireflies and stars. . .

those are the faeries calling your

imagination out to play.”

Seraphina

A couple of years ago when I started opening  my cards, one after the other had a shoe theme~~I love shoes and everyone knows it!

Old cards from Gary:

From the 60’s.  Smoking was still widely acceptable.

 

We know that Gary gave me this card because he signed it but neither of us can even fathom this strange style and verse!  Chalk it up to “we were young.”

I’m ok with birthdays if they mean I will continue to receive special cards!

“How old would you be if you didn’t know how old you are?”

~~Satchel Paige

Birds and a cat. . .

This morning, as I caught up on blogs I follow, one of those uncanny coincidences seemed to emerge; a focus on photographs of birds and cats. 

This photo, taken near Port Aransas, Texas was an accident—just snapping away!

I took this at Paradise Pond in Port Aransas.  Maybe a Blue Heron?

Inky adopted us several years ago.  When he first showed up he was mostly a flash of black that we saw going and coming from under our deck.  I started leaving him a couple pieces of dry dog food and soon he was a fixture on the deck.  He now has his own bowl, his own cat food, cat treats, and, courtesy of our friends Gina & Harold, he has a bed for his naps! 

He periodically leaves “treats” at our door, usually parts of gophers, mice, birds, maybe even a lizard. Last week, to our surprise he left us---yes, beep-beep---a Roadrunner!  He is a good hunter, but Roadrunners are really fast!  How did he do that?  Plus, we very rarely even see Roadrunners in our area.  (I took a picture of his present  but will spare you that image.)

What’s next Inky. . .a wild turkey or maybe a Canada goose?

There are so many Roadrunners (official name is Greater Roadrunner) zipping around that it’s not too hard to get a picture of one in Big Bend National Park in Texas.  This guy took off shortly after I took his portrait!

Beep-Beep!

P.S. No, they don’t really go “beep-beep.”

Book Lovers. . .I am one

This is today’s Real Simple Daily Thought.  I always have Gary on one side and Dulee on my other but I have also ALWAYS read in bed and am definitely a book lover.  Oh, and look, on the night stand is a teapot and cup of tea. . .one of my other big fav’s!

Dulee, twelve pound white Bichon Frise, on our bed.

My morning cup of Earl Grey tea.  My daughter Kelle gave me this beautiful cup.

Books and reading in bed---a good thing.

Button, button. . .Mom’s buttons

Today it has been 16 years since we lost my Mom.  I still think about picking up the phone to call and talk to her! 

A few weeks ago I went through a box of buttons I saved from her many many and sold these fourteen.  Since I am definitely not a blinge-type girl I chose to auction the rhinestone buttons on E-Bay. When the auction ended I had made $5.98!

One of Mom’s button boxes was this wooden codfish box.  I’m thinking she made lutefisk with the codfish---no, my sister, brother & I did NOT eat smelly lutefisk!

A couple of really pretty vintage red buttons.

Mom was a recycler before recycling was called recycling.  She tied matching buttons together with bits of thread, string or yarn, sewed them by hand onto index cards or miscellaneous pieces of button cards.

Vintage buttons on original cards.  Isn’t the red triangle button cute?

I love the lady in a hat graphics on these 1940’s era Luckyday button cards. “The talk of the town” and imagine, only 5 cents!

LeChic toggle buttons possibly circa 1950’s. . .  25 cents!

As I wrote about Mom’s buttons I did some Googling and learned that button collecting is a hobby!  There is an online Google group called Button Bytes and even a National Button Society founded during the depression, which numbers 3,000 members who preserve and study clothing buttons; even exhibit and receive awards for their buttons and collections.

I’m quite sure that, even though Mom had a LOT of buttons, she didn’t consider herself a collector but doesn’t an item become a collection once you have more than three of them?  Mom had a button collection!!

Good Saturday Morning

 

I found this on the Nubia Group blog I follow  (And they state that it is OK to share – how nice of them!) and thought it was a good quote to start the day and the weekend!

Good Morning. . .and Good Weekend!

Spring has sprung?

My narcissus are blooming so Spring must be here!

I accidently moved the setting on my Nikon to “P” and got this interesting composition.  I will have to spend some time reading my manual to see just how/why this happened but I like it!

Cute teeny bitty purple flowers blooming in a pot with other plants.

Since it is such a beautiful day (and Spring must be here!) I decided to pot the succulents I bought last week.  I painted the three cheap (or is it better to say inexpensive?) clay pots with craft paint.

I am usually careful about saving and sticking the labels to the bottom of the appropriate pot but mixed them up!  The Hibotan is easy to identify since it is the only cactus, I know that the tall flat one in the right pot is a Flipping Flapjack (don’t you think it looks like pancakes?), so know that the other three are either Sedum Brown Bean (maybe the dark green in the right pot-it looks sorta kinda like a bean?), Moonglow or Rainbow Elephant Bush. The two in the larger pot are cuttings I “stole” so I have no clue what they are.

This Anna’s hummingbird joined me while I was doing my potting.

The Anna’s Hummer frequents our area year round. (The following is from “Hummers – hummingbirds of north america” by Millie Miller and Cyndi Nelson)

So I am enjoying this February Spring. . .of course I am in California where one season is not too much different from the next!

Happy Spring!

Riding the rails is an adventure!

For an occurrence to become an adventure, it is necessary and sufficient for one to recount it.
Jean-Paul Sartre

One of my traveling hobbies is visiting and photographing Carnegie Libraries across the country.  Naturally I haven’t gotten around to many of the 89 still remaining in my own state of California so before sister Micki took me to the Oxnard AMTRAK station we stopped at the nearby Carnegie Library (now the Carnegie Art Museum.) This elegant structure was built in 1906-07 with funds granted by Andrew Carnegie. The section to the left of the Doric columns is an addition which blends seamlessly with the original building.

Across the street we checked out the Oxnard Veteran’s Memorial.  Each of the pyramids is dedicated to a different war.

Our reflections in the World War II pyramid.

This trip from Oxnard to Salinas was an adventure that started off with the train being about 40 minutes late and ended with arriving in Salinas  1-1/2 hours late.

The train was crowded so my assigned aisle seat would have felt cramped but since I had already decided to ride in the Observation Car I went straight there after having my ticket taken by the conductor.

I love to people watch, at the mall, at restaurants, Costco is great and just anywhere there are people, and the train has proven to be a perfect place to observe all sorts of unique and interesting characters.

As I sat down in the Observation Car I noticed two men who reminded me of a Hispanic version of George & Lennie in John Steinbeck’s Of Mice and Men.   They were speaking Spanish so I couldn’t understand their conversation but the younger “Lennie” seemed to be looking to the “older” George for guidance.   I imagined Lennie saying to George: “I got you to look after me, and you got me to look after you, and that's why."

When I finally able to nab a seat on the ocean side of the observation car a down and out  kind of  guy sat in a seat near to me and struck up a conversation.  “What is a lady like you doing traveling alone?”  Was he trying to pick me up?    I just don’t know?!  After I had quashed any such notion we had an interesting conversation.  His story is that he is going to be rich when he publishes his Sci-Fi novel.  So far he has the first 2-3 chapters in his head all ready to put pencil to paper!  He also shared that he would like to have a wife but only wants an Oriental because she would be submissive and take care of him!  I rolled my eyes at him at this statement!  (I later saw him try to strike up a conversation with an Oriental girl - she shut him down very quickly)

While we were talking a  man who earlier had been intently watching the ocean stopped to tell the down and out guy about his embarrassing attempt to buy beer during the stop in San Luis Obispo. He walked across the street to what appeared to be a restaurant, walked in and asked if they sold beer.   The answer, given with a real chuckle, was  “No, we don’t, this is an AA meeting.”  Turned out that it was an antique store used for their AA meetings!  When down and out guy  left the older man told me that down & out was his seatmate and had tried unsuccessfully to sell him his watch. He did sell it to another passenger for $30 and then bought beer.

Another trip I talked to  Travisteen Helms who I learned is a composer of blues, jazz and country songs.

I also heard another 30-ish passenger say that he was on his way to see his Mother whom he hadn’t seen since he was 12 years old, some 20 years ago. Must be quite a story there.

Riding the train is an experience! During the four months of train trips back and forth from Oxnard to Salinas I observed some real characters. On one trip someone died of a heart attack. Another time, after several announcements that drunk and disorderly conduct was not be tolerated, the train made an unscheduled stop to turn a drunk and disorderly person over to law enforcement!

A Pacific coast sunset taken from the train.

It is SO good to be home; we are hopeful that this is the last trip for this reason!  Gary had leftover pizza from Casa Sorrento – yummy!

Life is either a great adventure or nothing. Helen Keller