Rocky Road

Today we had a play date at a friend's house. The landscaping in the front of the house is full of these rocks, which to the eyes and mind of a preschooler, transform into a 'crystal garden'. So the kids fill their little brown paper bags with the prettiest 'crystals' they can find from the rock garden and then run off with their bag o' treasure to the back yard to create hours (well, maybe 1/2 hours) worth of adventures with the loot. Which makes me feel a little bit like being a grown up sucks, because to me? They're just rocks. Ethan & his friend made a long, windy road out of their rocks (and one weird asteroid-y looking tree pod).




Also? It is *possible* that my kid needs a trim. But just a little one.

Gizdich Farms 9/6

I like that he believes in making wishes. Even if it's on a random piece of straw from a bale of hay instead of a dandelion.

The Sunday Creative--Time-worn

I cannot tell you how badly I wanted to photograph books again for this week's challenge. I've got some that certainly fit the description--college-era copies of classic English novels that were most likely purchased used, already softened under someone else's fingers and fading to yellow around the pages' edges ; but, sigh, I don't want to be a one-theme wonder here. I am hoping to add to this post as the week goes on because time-worn items are one of those things that just call to me when I've got my camera around my neck.

But for today, I'm going to post her:

She came with our house. We are not really angel people. As in, would never in a million years consider buying a garden-decor angel. Ever.

But our landlords are. And we love our landlords. When we first came to look at the house we're living in, the walls were rife with angel decor and pretty crosses. As we're Jewish, this isn't really our bag. But these people are a special kind of nice in so many ways, rather than turn us off (it's not like they were leaving all that stuff up on the walls when they moved out, obviously) it gave me a good feeling about them. I like spiritual people. I'm not always thrilled with uber-religious people (like when they try to foist their beliefs on me), but I like spiritual people. And I could tell our landlords just liked feeling surrounded by the eyes of angels (not "surrounded" like they needed to be on a TLC documentary show about hording angel tckotckes, but you know, a pair of protecting, loving eyes in many of their rooms kind of thing). It was nice.

The weekend we moved in, we started filling the rooms, and walls, with our own stuff. And immediately it felt like home to us. As I brought Ethan's riding toys out to the backyard, I noticed this little stone angel sitting on the bench at the far side of the yard. I have no idea if our landlords just forgot to pack her in their rush to get to their new home, or if they intended to leave her here to keep an eye out for us. I could have wrapped her in newspaper and packed her away in the garage somewhere, with the basket-ball themed wind chimes they also left behind, but I didn't. For some reason, I keep her sitting there on the bench. I figure if they did leave her as a kind of guardian angel for us, it would be kind of a thoughtless thing to do to pack her away. Whether I believe in that sort of thing or not. Good Karma is good Karma, no matter what you believe.

Day at the Beach

he's such a little guy and the world is so vast around him, but holds so much promise. I love how the sun is shining off of the incoming wave in this picture and how he is standing riiiiight at the edge of the water, not sure if he's going to race in to meet the wave as it crashes or if he's going to let it come to him. Watching him find his way in this world, even in the littlest of ways, is my greatest pleasure in life these days.

Oh, Hai...

In this house, we have our own personal twin-set of LOLcatz. This is one of them; Echo. We rescued him and his brother, Crash, about 1.5 years ago, from a no-kill shelter where they'd been for what we assume was most of their lives. Yes, those little white things are totally his oversized fangs sticking out of his mouth. Thankfully he's a bit more civilized and dignified than most toddlers, and does not bite.

The cats are an even more challenging subject than Ethan because of the darkness of their coat, the lighting of our house and the blinding speed with which they become bored by my camera, or, alternately, become so enthralled by it that they decide to nudge up against it and leave their nose prints on my lens. Super.

But I keep trying to take their pictures anyway because I find them so gorgeous and they are such bottomless pits of unconditional love, it seems like they ought to get their fair share of my camera in their face, too, just like everyone else in this family.

Locally Grown

Doesn't get any more local than your own backyard. This year I've only got one little tomato plant. Next year, I plan having a row of them, as well as cucumbers, beans and everything else to make our own salads. My grandmother was a gardener and a part of me feels a connection to her, to my past, when I am digging in the dirt and getting the smell of ripening tomatoes on my fingers. I hope some day to have a garden worthy of the one my grandmother grew in her front field every year of my childhood. But for right now, it's pretty cool to have kept this one plant alive all summer long and to see that there are still a dozen tomatoes still ripening on the vine.

Pumpkin Spice...

I'm not proud of my Starbucks obsession, but I own it. Most of the year, I can be found starting my day with a tall soy, extra hot, no water chai tea latte and have been known to feel surly and off all day when I don't. I have managed to cut back my order, which used to also include an "extra chai" in there somewhere, but seriously. That's the best I can do. And today being September 1st, the unofficial first day of fall (and a balmy 95 degrees here in Nor Cal--not exactly fall-ish weather), Starbucks unveiled it's Pumpkin Spice latte for the season.

I won't say I dreamt about it last night, but I will admit that it was almost the very first thing I thought of this morning. I know, I know. Remember, I said I wasn't proud. But I knew that my first Pumpkin Spice latte of the season would also be my picture for the day--it was just that kind of a reunion, you know? Picture-worthy & representative of my day.

I'll probably indulge in them for another couple of days and then go back to my chai until it is actually brisk and autumnal out there--it's a shame to waste that pumpkin-y goodness on sweltering still-actually-summer days.