Lily of the Valley

So, I'm about to seriously date myself here but I cannot help walking around singing this song:

and here's why.  We have a guest.  Her name is Lily and she is beautiful.



A beautiful young button quail who is being quail sat while our friends are on vacation.
I have always wanted a quail.  It's been nice getting to care for one this past week.  

 

Here she is walking around in one of my planter beds.   She loves this spot my gardeners have been neglecting.  A nice little weed patch to pick through and duck in and under the weeds and tall grass.  

My gardeners

 She's a very sweet, curious little button. I love to just sit there and watch her walk back and forth, take her dust baths and find tasty bugs to eat.  I also have to keep watch for the hawk whose smorgasbord my backyard is.

The chickens and ducks don't seem to know what to make of her.  The ducks seem suspicious, and I think she moves too quickly for their liking.  They keep a watchful eye on her.  The chickens, well who knows what they think, but they avoid her too.  

Another guest til the end of the week when she'll go home.  She also has quite the set of lungs on her.  Here's a short video I took of her calling out.  It's really quite loud, and she does this all night long, and most of the day too.  

Hopefully I wont drive my husband crazy with my Lily song.  I just can't help it.  And it makes me laugh.  Here I''ll leave you with a pic of my latest painting for sale on Etsy.  It is my wish for all of you...

Ok it's now 6:33 pm.  And I have to add a note.  File this one under more excitement than I needed in a day!...  Lily just flew the coop!  Those wings really work!  So we're sitting outside in the planter box dust bathing, eating bugs, etc when she decides to hop out.  Frightened by a Chicken (most likely Morpheus) who was looking at her rather ominously with one eye and being flanked by the twins and I she flew off!  Over the wall, over the neighbors whole house!  Every neighbor around me for at least a few houses in each direction have dogs.  PaNiC sets in!

Off we went knocking on neighbors doors with our very strange request (as if they didn't think we were strange enough) "Could you please go look in your backyard for a small brown quial?"  It's a good thing neighhbors are neighborly.   "How am I going to explain this one?"  I ask the twins who accompanied me......

Two doors down-- in the backyard of a neighbor with not one but two big not so friendly acting german shepherds was Lily!  We went in back, scooped her up and returned her to her cage indoors.  Phew!  Dodged that bullet, right?!  Thank goodness my friend doesn't read my blog.  She and her girls would be heartbroken if Lily was gone...  Only one more day to go too.


And this one's for you Suz:

  

Back in port we be!

our  campsite garden

The maiden voyage redo went so well we're booking another trip next month.  The Pink Pearl was a joy, a hit with other campers, and a pleasure to sleep in.

We did learn that overly shy people would not do well to camp in one of these.  We had our first visitor upon arrival, as we were setting everything up.  A nice man who was curious about our cute trailer.  He came right up and asked us about it, we gave him a tour, and he chatted with the hubby about her.

Of course we drew some attention.  People seem drawn to something.  A bygone era perhaps.  Possibly fond memories.   As if my crew doesn't attract enough attention normally, the Pearl draws people in.

Sobe had a great time, but definitely proved she is a
suburban doggie

I sat and stared at this interesting grouping
of trees forever

The kids immediately wanted to go on an explore

We played games

cooked various things over an open fire

had a little musical entertainment

The next morning:

We had one just like this when I
was a kid...

 We enjoyed watching a woodpecker do his thing on
this tree

the bitties were fascinated by how fast these
spun

Guess what she's doing???    (uh huh, you
guessed it!)

They enjoyed many treats, including Pixie Sticks
which we decided The Pink Pearl should never be without

This squirrel was nearby taunting Sobe

We even received the hippie stamp of approval!  A lovely hippie couple complete with hand painted vw bus like this one

Photo credit:  Marshall Astor from San Pedro, United States 

were overheard remarking "now there's a family you know is down to earth!  Keepin it real you know?!"

Photo from VooDoo Donuts online
merch catalog

 Love it!  They even came by to talk to us as we were packing up.


  Then came the "all you need is a '57 Chevy to pull her and it'll be perfect".  The hippie guy and my hubby then talked classic cars and they noticed his Voodoo Donuts shirt and we scored even more points!

By Mike McCune
[CC-BY-2.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0)]
via Wikimedia Commons

So the trip was definitely a success, and very much fun!  We have decided to attempt to take a trip every month.

Then we returned home.....  



As we entered the house I went to open all the windows and curtains as I do, and as I opened the back sliding glass door I was greeted by this....

Twinkie taking a dust bath

 Twinkie is the only one I eventually got a picture of.  All of the chickens and ducks were out making a snack of my planter beds.  So the first thing I did was round them up, get them back into their enclosure, then grabbed my camera...

 When I left all 4 of my planter boxes were completely covered with sprouting things.  All manner of things... it looked like a carpet of green.  It seemed most of our seeds had sprouted.

guess the mint was last on their list
(they have mint in their area so
this was nosurprise)

they even destroyed some of the
marigolds.

They did however leave the freshly planted African Daisies and Lavender alone.  But bit all the blooms off my columbine

                 which looked like this                                                      

  when I planted it.

So, there was much sadness.....    But then........




We did it!  We went and purchased this

Our 'new' 65 Dodge Dart

The Dart.  She still needs a name.  Havn't given it much thought yet.  She is SO much fun to drive!  And has all this charm, like manual windows and she idles pretty funky right now (the timing is off).  But this post is getting quite long, so more on her later.

                               ......  and we all lived happily ever after

                                                                      The End

Spring at the Geenies Lamp Studio

Aren't these gorgeous?  Blueberry blossoms.

Spring at the Geenies Lamp Studio

The bush bean sprouts 

It's spring here and I thought I'd give you a quick, but very picture full
update.   The kids and I have been out planting for about a month.  And look!  It's one of my favorite things to watch spring bloom, seeds sprout and fruits and veggies appear almost magically in our backyard.

Lettuce

check it out it's even in rows.  

there are about a million apricots already

the new nectarine tree with fruit on it

the plum tree is blooming!

I think Cleo is eating my
carnations!

Not sure who did it, but they bit this
beautiful mandevilla, a red flowering vine,
off at the roots.

the first fruit of our new naval orange tree

this is the rasberry
coming back to life

 the ducks and chickens ate one rasberry bush down to nothing last summer, so I planted this one.  I have to keep it all caged up or they'll do it again.

the apricots with the valencia orange tree in the
background

My posse

Mmmmm blueberries!

the caged in apple tree

the first hibiscus flower of the season

and the grapevine is returning to life

the marigolds to keep bugs away

These jasmine flowers are both
stunning and highly fragrant

Orange blossoms
the scent has been filling my yard for weeks

Pomegranate blooms

Almost all of the bulbs I planted last year
have been eaten.  This one made it
but between the bitties and the fowl it's
looking pretty sad.

I did not take pictures of everything.  There are more blooms, roses, fruit trees, etc out there.  The dwarf nectarine tree my kids snapped off at the neck has come back something fierce and is full of blooms!  I'm amazed that it survived it's beheading by basketball.