Summer is almost over....

First off, I can't believe how much time has gone by since my last post!!!  Wait, haven't I said that before???!!!!!   YIKES!!!!    This year is just flying by.....

 

We have definitely been busy, having fun as well as getting thru the daily grind of work and chores.

 

Let's see, I will back up a bit and see what has been happening in our little corner......

 

Work has been a bit of a challenge..... more from dealing with management then finally getting back to full duty.   I have been back to full duty for 2 weeks and I am getting a better feel for my new route, now that I am doing the entire route every day.   It is very quiet and a little bit boring.  I really miss my customers downtown where there was always something happening.   I really do need to get a radio or something to liven up the silence.....

 

We took off for a couple days and went up to Idyllwild, which is up in the mountains near Palm Springs.  It is really pretty up there and very peaceful. 

We looked at the houses for sale in the real estate office window.....Hmmmmm, we could afford to live here......but, and that's a BIG BUT....some of the house pictures had SNOW!!!!! That made us think again......maybe NOT!!!!  :-)

We only stayed overnight, but we happened upon an outdoor concert.

Fun to watch.......

 

The next morning, we got to see this little fellow right outside our window.....

Soo cute!!!!!

 

Check out this mantle in our room.  All carved!!!  Way cool!!!

On the way home we stopped off at Lake Henshaw.  

This place has a lot of memories for me.  When we were little my mom used to come here to fish.  The 3 of us kids were set loose to do whatever..... (back in the old days when you could let your kids run loose) - We would run all over the place down by the water.  I can remember picking all these terrible little burr stickers and putting them in my little brothers knit cap and them putting it on his head.  He would be picking stickers out of his hair for ever.......

This picture is for you Shawn.   :-)   LOVE  YOU!!!!

 

We went to the Moonlight Amphitheater with some friends and saw "My Fair Lady" - That was soo much fun.  I am really liking these musicals.  Sorry, no pics allowed.    "Catch me if you can" will be coming out any day, hopefully we can go see that one.

 

Carlsbad has a really neat craft fair a couple times each year and we decided to stroll thru one morning.  I had been looking for a thumb ring and thought it would be nice to find one from a local artist, rather than buying one online.  I lucked out and 1 of the vendors at the craft fair had some that I liked.

It is super comfy, I almost don't know I have it on.  I just like the look.....

 

The gardens have been going nuts!!!!  I have picked soo much zucchini!!!!

One day when it was overcast and cooler I baked 8 loaves of zucchini bread....found a recipe and tried several variations to see which one I liked best.

You can see the piece missing from each kind... hee hee  I always try to make it a little bit healthier by using applesauce instead of oil, or using less sugar, or Demerera sugar instead of white sugar.   I make notes so I know what works best.

 

I still have TONS of zucchini, but it has just been way to hot to turn the oven on.....maybe early in the morning will work.

 

We started to wonder if something might be wrong with our avocado tree.  The canopy on one side is very thin and the tree just wasn't looking that great.  I started doing some research online and narrowed it down to maybe too much water.   Sure enough, we started checking different areas around the tree and the ground was WAY too wet.......then we wondered if we might have a broken pipe under ground.

Mel got the fun job of finding where the pipe ran (good thing I had taken lots of pictures when we were putting the irrigation in) and he dug down to find the pipe.  

 

No leak anywhere, but we think maybe we had the irrigation running for too long and we had an overlap of water systems.   For now we have cut back on the time and got rid of the overlap.  Guess we will have to give it some time and see how things look in a month or so.

 

My sister and niece were out for a few days so it was nice to see them and visit for a little bit.  I haven't seen Kaitlyn for about 5 years. 

She is growing up!!!!

Along with the zucchini, the basil plant is growing like mad!!!

It is a gorgeous plant......

What do you do with soo much basil?????

Make Pesto!!!!!   YUM!!!!!

The plant is completely grown back already, so time to make more pesto......

I found out though that you need to blanch the pesto to keep it the bright green color.
 

Experimented with quinoa and pesto and little tomatoes from the garden.....YUM!!!!

Are you getting hungry???   hee hee

 

We'll we are getting the last of our stuff together and our to-do lists crossed off, we head to Indonesia soon!!!!

 

We have been gathering stuff to take for the camp.  They always need medical supplies, school supplies, clothes, etc.   We are also taking some fun stuff for the kids - balloons, stickers, etc.   

 The suitcases will be FULL, but the great part about that is that we will empty them when we get there and then on the way home we stop in Bali for a couple days and I can fill them back up with batik fabric!!!!  YEA!!!!!!

 

That should just about catch up what has been happening here for the past month.   If I don't post before we head out, I will post as I have time from Indo....

 

Enjoy the last part of summer!!!!!