Chinese Maple - Blogithttp://www.blogit.com/Blogs/Blog.aspx/the-loanlady1082/The tree out front continues to strugglehourly12000-01-01T12:00+00:00http://www.blogit.com/Blogs/Blog.aspx/the-loanlady1082/236085That Chinese Maple tree has amazed me this spring. To think I almost gave up on that girl. Me and my morbid thoughts, less of them now to block the nutrients air and water. Life she has a sense of humor.Soup has Risen!http://www.blogit.com/Blogs/Blog.aspx/the-loanlady1082/235290Soup, our three legged desert tortoise has awakened from hibernation. A sign of spring truer than forsythia, because he can not be forced to bloom golden bells. He muddled around in his purple milk crate this weekend never opening his eyes. The signs to free him to the backyard. I placed him...http://www.blogit.com/Blogs/Blog.aspx/the-loanlady1082/227331More rain and surely mud slides to follow. I won't be home to fuss about my sandbags and drains this weekend. My neighbor promises to check on the back patio that can become a bathtub if the jacuzzi overflows from too much rainfall. When the bathtub fills the top there is no emergency sump drain,...http://www.blogit.com/Blogs/Blog.aspx/the-loanlady1082/221399Jumbo squid(s) about sixteen inches long washed up in Laguna and Newport beaches. I went down to take a look at the bugeyed monsters this morning. They look like I imagine my exhusband ought to appear. Ugly. But then I love calamari sauted, fried, or pan seared. Unfortunatley they are deader than...http://www.blogit.com/Blogs/Blog.aspx/the-loanlady1082/218289South Laguna has rust colored clay soil.The ground needs amending for anything to grow well. The last couple days rainstorm pulled this red topsoil off the hillsides and into the creeks. The slick mud quickly made it's way into the surf. The Red Sea as bright as those orange prison jumpsuits. The...http://www.blogit.com/Blogs/Blog.aspx/the-loanlady1082/217072The good thing about twenty days of rain in a month the automatic sprinklers are off and won't wake me up tomorrow Saturday morning. After work tonight I will cut the last of the roses, soggy though they may be. I will also bring in some lavendar and rosemary for the fire and for a steamy bath....Sweet smelling snow in my drivewayhttp://www.blogit.com/Blogs/Blog.aspx/the-loanlady1082/215874I had not been home in days. The children were away with their father on a ski trip.I dedicated my time to negotiating helicopters. That's another story. It has been raining for almost two weeks. Normally when it rains I concern myself with the nuttiest details. I hear this voice screaming " Mud...Rainy nights, I'm leaving the sandbags in place for a whilehttp://www.blogit.com/Blogs/Blog.aspx/the-loanlady1082/214085I knew a storm was impending. I just chose to believe it was going to pass me over. When winter weather is pending I have this pile of sandbags that I tow out to the front hillside and use to reroute the river that flows past the front of my garden. If I don't put the sandbags out there- the...http://www.blogit.com/Blogs/Blog.aspx/the-loanlady1082/210698Three fountains in my garden. The backyard wall hanging I recovered from a salvage yard. If I tell you the magazine that did a photo shoot with that fountain you will gag, hint she's doing time. They offered me cold cash to keep it, I only allowed pictures as I know they will be coming out with a...http://www.blogit.com/Blogs/Blog.aspx/the-loanlady1082/210025Bough hunting (countdown to Christmas- Thursday night the 16th we celebrate as the children leave on the 17th...). The moon was barely cooperating last night- she's only a tiny piece of a moon sharing little light. The Santa Ana winds chased away the stratus clouds allowing the stars to light my...