The mornings are lasting a bit longer now it seems. Lately, it’s still dark when I get up – back to the shorter days of waning summer.

The beauty of the parts of California where I’ve lived is, although it has the ability to get quite hot in the summertime, normally the nights cool down some and the mornings are often quite pleasant. I remember when we used to visit Tucson, Arizona, or have our summertime conventions in Fresno or Bakersfield, California – that feeling of surprise when I woke up and the mornings were still in the mid- to high 80s. I knew then that they were not places I’d adapt to living in very well. I don’t “do” heat gracefully – especially when there is no break from it.

This summer has been a bit milder than usual. We’ve flirted with triple digits a few times, but mostly it has stayed below 100 degrees Fahrenheit. It’s been hot – but not as hot as it can get…and now, this morning, it occurred to me that we are in the days where the cool of the morning will last just a bit longer. It gets started sooner too, the cooler air in the evenings. Nice for my comfort. Not sure how that spells out for the farmers in the valley just below us, but I’m pleased with a restful night’s sleep.

The long wet winter we had was evidently good for the frog population too. We have had little frogs all summer long. Kind of fun to pour some water out of my watering can outside and have a little frog jump out. Much better than the dead mouse experience from a year or so ago.

Likely, we will have a few more weeks of the hot summer, but the promise of autumn’s cool evenings and shorter periods of heat during the day is within sight now. It’s like we’re on the home-stretch. I wonder if the pink crepe myrtle will have time to get her blossoms open before time for her leaves to start turning fall colors. She’s always been a late-bloomer. The white one next to her is in full bloom, and bees are happily tending the blossoms.

Nuggets Discovered:

• There’s a new (to us) frozen yogurt place in Angels Camp. It’s been there probably since the first of this year or a bit before, but it took us until August to give it a try. We now seem to be trying to establish a “Yogurt Friday’s” tradition there – a nice treat at the end of the week, and usually either a trip to the drugstore nearby or Starbucks for coffee beans is included. It’s a self-serve yogurt place – kind of like a section of one of those all you can eat smorgasbord restaurants – you get your yogurt, and then they have a salad-bar style lay out of toppings to choose from. After you’re finished making your masterpiece frozen yogurt treat they weigh what you’ve built and charge you accordingly. Fortunately, it’s not convenient enough to be going there more often than a couple of times a month, but it’s a neat little shop.
• They’re actually building a McDonald’s in Angels Camp in the same shopping center. Wow! I remember when we got our first McDonald’s in Atascadero – seems like 20 years ago or more now. I guess progress is making it’s way up into the foothills now.

I‘m going to be playing around with code on this blog just a bit. Hopefully I wont break anything, but just in case I do – that’s the reason.

Hope your summer’s moving along swimmingly!

But the sunflowers were even taller.

We made a quick trip back to my hometown the end of July. (Can anyone believe it’s already August for Pete’s sake???) My son and his family had their convention that weekend, and there was a bunch of garden to tend, and dogs to sit – so Smitty and I packed up the little car and headed south to ride herd on the dogs and keep the garden watered for a few days.

California had such a late spring this year, that the gardens seem to be just now getting to their peak. The drive down from the foothills through the San Joaquin and Salinas Valleys was full of similar sights – produce growing, and cherries and strawberry stands still going strong.

My son’s garden seemed enormous to me – compared to the two pots of tomatoes I’m trying to nurture in my back yard. His tomatoes have only recently set fruit and are mostly still green…except for a few here and there that are finally ripening on the vine. Yummy too!

There were a lot of squash plants going, beans, peas, peppers, pumpkins, artichoke plants, eggplant(!), and probably a few others I’m forgetting. It was all to be watered by hand – next year, he’s going to drip irrigation…and considering expanding his horizons and perhaps selling at a local farmer’s market. Hopefully there will just be a valve to turn on to water next year – and no hoses to drag carefully past the enormous squash plants. I sure enjoyed hanging out in the garden in the morning – and dining on fresh squash in the evenings.

Last month we took a drive up to Arnold, while Smitty worked as a Census man.  They were in the “double checking” phase of the census, and this is a quality control call.

On a rental cabin.

Where nobody actually LIVES.

But, they wanted to make sure whoever submitted those details got them straight – and that was Smitty’s job.  Keeping things straight.  So, he donned his workin’ man blues, and his Census ID and off we went to Arnold to the rental cabin section.   Tough job – but somebody had to do it!

The drive up was beautiful.  Spring had arrived so late this year, that they still had dogwood flowering at the higher elevation.  Ours had long since finished that beautiful phase and moved on to the pretty green leaves they show for the bulk of their season.

It was cool up in the mountains too – a nice break from the warm valley temps.

On the way down the mountain, we noticed that the Red Apple fruit stand was open. This little place is a neat stop on the road either going or coming from Arnold.  It belongs to a ranching family and it’s not open all year round – but when it IS open – they’ve got apples for sale from their farm, and other produce, as well as a few other things like applewood for your wood-burning stove, a mint-cocoa mix – (it looked like cocoa, sugar and broken up candy canes) in mason jars topped with a scrap of fabric and a ribbon and a few other unique items.  We  bought some apple syrup and some not so good end-of-the-season Fuji apples that I turned into applesauce.  (The applesauce was great. )

It’s a nice little stop-over.

The reason we did it?

They make apple donuts.

Smitty’s friend Steve the Carpet Guy has parted ways with Dr. Atkins more than once because of these donuts.  So, since they were open this day, I  suggested we stop in and let me see what all the fuss was about.

There are few things that put a smile on the face of Smitty – he’s a sobersides kinda guy – but you hand the guy an apple donut and he’s a happy camper.  I gave the donuts a “C+” – but I’m not much of a donut lover, so a person really can’t go by my opinion here.

We went to the coffee house “Common Grounds” in Valley Springs.

The coffee shop opens their terrace up to locals who want to have a little “concert” of a Friday evening. So, our friends performed this particular week.

I brought the knitting bag – since I rarely leave home without it – but most of the time was spent just listening and toe-tapping to music being performed by friends of ours.

Steve the guitar man started things off with songs us Baby Boomers were familiar with – and later his son Eric, another friend Ryan and then Kevin and the girls performed.

It started getting dark, so pretty soon it was time to wrap it up, but someone in the audience requested to hear Robbie sing a few songs.  Robbie usually performs too, but this night he wasn’t planning to.  Steve loaned him his guitar, and Steve and Robbie did a couple of impromptu songs for an encore performance.

A good time – and lots of good coffee were had by all.  Not a bad price for a concert – the cost of a cup of coffee.  (And it’s the good stuff too – they buy their beans from Milone brothers in Modesto – the ones Smitty had blend his “Big Mike Blend” – which they now call “Breakfast Blend” and have regular customers who serve it in their restaurants.)

So, back to the performers here – Eric, age 16 – is pretty amazing to watch. That boy can flat play a guitar.  (I can’t help but wonder how amazing he’d be with music that I actually enjoy – because he made “metal” sound good and normally I just hear “noise” when I hear that type of music.)

I also wondered what in the world the drill was for.  Most of the evening went by and then finally the question was answered – why for playing the guitar with of course! (click pictures below to enlarge).

Who knew??

Murphy the miniature Aussie and Tula the French Bulldog were in the audience as well.  Tula was a bit shy and she tried to hide between everyone’s legs.  She was mostly just wanting to be picked up and held and protected from all the adoring fans she was gathering.

It was fun.

Hope we get to do it again soon.

It’s that time of year again! Of course, I have dedicated friends and family who don’t wait for it to be sunny and warm out – and they diligently use their clotheslines all year. My frugal friend Joanne doesn’t even own a clothes dryer anymore. She’s got a nice cable system set up in her garage (as do I – and I got the idea from her) to dry her clothes on. I just don’t have the patience to wait during the cold winter months for things to finally get dry, so tossed them in the dryer during that period. My mom has one of those neat little umbrella type clotheslines that she uses. It is “rotary clothesline” so if a breeze comes up, her laundry get’s kind of “tumbled” in the wind – making for much softer drying. (No cardboard towels!)

The only “problem” with the whole thing though – the clothespin bag. Those are fine if you have a clothesline that you can hang it on and push it ahead of you as you pin your laundry up. But if you’re going around in circles, or reaching overhead or reeling line in your garage – sometimes the clothespin bag on the line just isn’t as convenient as it could be.

So – how about a clothespin apron?!

At first my mom and I were thinking a “vest” like thing, and then we remembered “back in the day” aprons were a pretty good utilitarian piece of clothing. So, a simple search on Google turned up a couple of pages with the basic apron. Pretty easy to figure out, but if you’d prefer a pattern, I hear there’s one in this book:

I made my mom’s a little bit different – instead of a cute little sash to tie, I decided to make kind of a “belt” out of the fabric I’d used for the apron and some D-rings.

Since we were using quilting cotton type fabric, this apron has everything doubled – the pocket and the apron back – but if I were using a more substantial fabric like denim, canvas or a heavy twill, that would not have been necessary.

The pockets are very easy to get into and take things out of without allowing the pins to spill out. You can even clip them to the pocket if you needed one handy.

Inspiration for this project found here:

• Nice tutorial here.
• A bit more history on this little apron here.

Have you ever noticed that our pets seem to gravitate towards the guests who aren’t necessarily “pet people”? It rarely ever fails – if we go visit friends, their cats and dogs all are drawn to Smitty. He doesn’t necessarily NOT like critters, he’s just not necessarily a critter person. A couple of seconds before I snapped this picture, he had one dog on either side of his chair. Right before the shutter clicked the pup darted off after something even more interesting than a large talking human. “Roxy”, however, sat mesmerized wondering if he would also happen to have a tennis ball on him to throw for a new fur-covered, four-legged admirer.

This particular day, we had a storm blow through. It dropped half an inch of rain in a few minutes time, and we were kind of wondering if our friends were still planning to have us over, or if it would be called off. As it turned out, the rain skipped them except for just a little bit, and it stayed away for the entire time we were there. Next day, it was back and dropped another 0.8 inch at our house.

It has sure been an exciting winter/spring around the foothills. One of the local reservoirs that we’ve been kind of keeping an eye on, has come up to finally cover over the old dam that usually likes beneath the waters. It was completely exposed just a few months ago. We went up there to see it last weekend, and found, not only was it finally under water again (the area over on the right hand side, where those floaty things are is where the old dam lies beneath) – but another local had taken that opportunity to serenade the wildlife with a little fiddle music.

That’s kind of how things fly here in the foothills of the Sierra. Folks are taking the time to actually experience life as it happens.

It’s quite different from the hurried pace of city life. I guess that may be why so many who live here have moved here from the larger cities. They’re refugees…”refugin’, if you will” (to borrow a phrase from Ulysses Everett McGill) and enjoying the opportunity to watch the water levels rise in their local reservoirs.

Frog Jump – or the Calaveras County Fair – is coming up next week.  We still haven’t been to it since I’ve lived up here.  Hoping to rectify that this year.  If it happens – no doubt there will be pictures to share here.

What a pretty day it was.  Perfect weather for being outside.  We went in service in the morning, and then after lunch we went down to the park and took a walk for a bit.  We had planned after that just to go to the local feed store for some ant spray – the little darlings are out in force now that it has warmed up.  After the stop at the feed store – where there were troughs full of peeping baby chicks to admire while we were being waited on – we decided to drive over to Sonora.

Smitty’s friend Scott, who works for the coffee folks, had told him about a new coffee shop that is carrying their coffee, so we’d been wanting to go try it out.  Off we went.  (It also just happens to be a hop skip and a jump away from the yarn store – so of course there was that to look forward to as well.)  Evidently, we just missed a lot of traffic and congestion earlier in the day.  It was the Sonora Rodeo – which they ring in with a big parade on this street, and then everyone heads over to the fairgrounds for the big event.  This made parking in town not too bad this time – since all the action was elsewhere today.  There were of course the usual amount of tourists doing the shops on the main street, but Sonora Joe’s was pretty quiet.  Well, except for one patron who was in there holding court and talking loud enough for everyone’s attention.

We got our coffee and a scone – Smitty got a Cafe Milano and I got an Americano.  They did a nice job with the Americano, and Cafe Milano is always a good choice.  The place is well stocked with those Torani syrups – and they do Italian Soda drinks.  Their prices aren’t too bad.  The scones were “real” scones – not the real sweet ones that I prefer.  But it was a nice little stop, and we will definitely look forward to stopping in there next time we’re in town.

Well, “Spring” changed it’s mind for a week or two in April, and a winter storm or two stopped by – but it appears we are back on track again for May.  The hillsides and meadows are covered in wildflowers and the red bud trees are in full bloom.  This picture is of a rose bush over in Fairfield at the Assembly Hall there – taken in April – and just after I snapped the picture it started to rain.

Our rainfall totals are the best we’ve had in a few years, so what a relief!  It’s great to see the streams running again – and folks down there panning for gold.  I wonder how much they find when they do that – but it’s always fun to see them out after a good soaking rain has come through the foothills.

Our friends have started a blog.  It’s called 40 Years of Frugal.  40 Yrs of Frugal shares tips on how to trim your living expenses, and live a clean/green lifestyle.  She’s one of my favorite people.  You really should see her garden.  It’s always a treat to stop by there and see what’s blooming/growing.

And while we’re on the subject of other folks’ blogs – here’s a recipe we tried this week from Homespun Living.  When next I make it – because boy is it yummy – I will be cutting the rhubarb into smaller pieces.  I don’t really like big chunks of rhubarb to chew up.  Too tart for my taste.  She is absolutely right though – serve it warm with a scoop of vanilla ice cream on top.  Oh baby!  That’s GOOD eatin’.   Smitty bought a SMALL container of ice cream since I’d gotten the idea I just had to try this recipe.  That way we weren’t left with a bunch of ice cream to eat after this foray into calorie-laden cuisine.

On the garden front here – we’re container gardening again.  Not really much planned though except another attempt at tomatoes, and we found some potato starts 90% off at Lowes – so we have those also in containers.  Eventually need to move them to something larger, but mostly I just wanted to get them PLANTED in something – since the whole 90% off thing was because they were at the end of their shelf life and had started growing in the bag they were packaged in.  I also found a grape vine in the same predicament that day – doubt it will actually grow – but planted it anyway.

I’m hiding the things I want to survive out front (hiding them from the deer) amongst my herbs.  The flat leaf parsley has gone to seed though, so I may be having to re-plant that soon…unless it reseeds itself.

Arguably the most beautiful season – arguably because I think it ties with Autumn and Winter.   Summer – well, summer’s just plain hot.  And busy.  And probably has it’s strong points too, but we’re just too hot and busy to notice them.

So, anyway – back to springtime.  Just barely getting started and it’s just plain beautiful out there.  Nothing like a nice wet winter to fill the creeks and streams up and give the wildflower seeds a reason to germinate.

The beginning of Spring flowers – like daffodils and apparently flowering quince – have reached their zenith already.  Now we’re seeing iris and fruit trees blossoming – and all the other trees beginning to leaf out.

The grass is thick and cattle have been moved over to the pastures to graze it down.   Ponds have filled up – so I’m sure the mosquitoes are rejoicing.  Hopefully the dragonflies are too.  And – the hummingbirds have returned!  My porch is buzzing with them fighting over the feeders.

Just down the street from us, we walk past the most charming little home built on the bank of a creek.  The rock wall that borders their yard is covered with moss and a renegade camellia bush blossoms like it’s in a well-tended garden as it sits on the bank of the creek next to a scrub oak.

I wish I was a braver photographer.  This place is so nice but I don’t want to go all papparazzi on them so I just take a picture here and there of the edges of their place.

It’s got just the right amount of interesting things in the yard without looking cluttered, and you can tell that someone with a good eye for design has worked hard to make it look like a peaceful and even a little bit playful garden.  This wall runs the width of their property.   This view is in the direction of the street, so just behind me was the creek.  The creek that the camelia bush had evidently decided needed a bit of embellishment…

They also have a dead tree that they made into a bird-house tree.  All of the upper limbs have a bird house of various sizes attached to them.  I think it sits outside what might be the kitchen, although hard to tell that or if birds actually make use of it.  It makes you smile though – so mission accomplished as far as I’m concerned.