The Herons Are Back!

The Black-Crowned Night Herons are my true favorites among the herons. Usually they hang out at a little inlet at my lake. However, I hadn't seen them here since the late fall. I had no idea where they were gone until I discovered them at a smaller lake nearby sometime during the spring.

But when I walked at the lake a few days ago I saw these two guys - an adult one (upper picture) and an immature on. Both were just a few feet away from each other, perching on a floating piece of old tree trunk and waiting for food - fish or crayfish or whatever they like and can find here. You can see that the adult one has discovered something that clearly had his attention.

They can remain in the same position for a long time, not moving at all. They completely ignore people, but I've also found that some of them are more shy than others. These two weren't shy at all. They pretended not to see me and completely ignored me and my camera.

My contribution for Friday Finds - I'm so happy they're back!

The Hills Are Still Green

The last rain was almost a week ago, and since the day before yesterday it has significantly warmed up. Today we're expecting temperatures in the upper 80's. Hopes for more rain are quickly vanishing.

So how much longer will it be green like this? How much longer will we enjoy the sight of lush green hills?

I'm afraid those days are numbered. In some places I already see brown spots in the meadows, a sure sign that very soon we will have our "golden" (aka brown) hills back. You can guess what our "Golden State" is named for... gold? What gold?

At least we still have fences. Not even the drought can take them away.

And that's why I'm linking to Theresa's Good Fences at the Run-A-Round-Ranch.

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New mini journals that remind of summer and the beach

are arriving in my Etsy shop.

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Spanish Lavender

Spanish Lavender was new to me when we moved to the States. I was familiar with many of the English and French Lavender, but not this particular kind. At first I wasn't even sure whether I liked it.

At our old home I had planted the "other" lavender - "Provence", "Hidcote" and "Grosso". And while I still have them here - and love them dearly - when we moved to this house and I started transforming our front yard, I decided to give the Spanish Lavender a try.

Am I glad I did! I planted three "Otto Quast" lavenders, and they have taken off! The three plants are quite big now and form one big bush that is loved by the bees and the ladybugs. It smells heavenly. When the sun is behind the plants, the color of the leaves at the top of the flower are almost glowing. It is absolutely beautiful - so beautiful, that recently I bought the pink "Madrid". I hope it will turn out equally beautiful.

Do you have lavender in your garden? If yes, what kind? Do you harvest the flowers? Dry them? Tell us in the comments.

Sunday Gratitude for Seventeen Years of Joy

Today's Sunday Gratitude post looks a bit different from the others - it's about my gratitude for just one "thing" - but it's a biggie.

This week Kaefer turned 17. Seventeen.

I'm not quite sure how this happened... I mean it's not that long ago that I held her in my arms as a baby, then a toddler, an elementary school kid, a pre-teen, a teenager...

Seventeen years. Seventeen years of joy.

Oh yes of course, it wasn't always joy and blissful moments. There were tantrums, tears, "attitude", sometimes lies though very seldom, grumpiness, moping, the occasional drama. A rather usual list of a mother to a daughter.

But all in all, it has been mainly joy to raise a daughter, to see a sweet toddler developing into a confident girl, a goofy teenager, and to witness her growing into a lovely young woman. A young woman who is very concerned about our planet and takes care of the earth. Someone who wants to do her part and become an environmental engineer. She takes school seriously without being an overachiever and has opted to take German classes every Saturday morning for one school year to be able to get her German Language Diploma. She loves history and science; she's not so fond of writing essays for her English class. She can be a giggling, goofy teenager and dead serious the next moment. She has a group of good friends with whom she would like to spend more time if there were more hours in a day. She is wonderful with small children (her little German cousins love her) and enjoys her volunteering work with them.

She drives a stick like a pro.

She likes Jennifer Lawrence and Downton Abbey. She is quite "artsy", draws and paints beautifully, loves to work with polymer clay and sometimes sews her own clothes, be it for the homecoming dance or Halloween. She is quite inventive with her hair style and during the summer it's either barefoot or her Teva sandals.

And sometimes - way too seldom - she turns into a little girl again for a moment, curling up next to me and telling me that she loves me.

Oh, do I love her back... as we said when she was little, to the moon and back.

I am so very thankful for this biggest gift and miracle in my life.

What Color is Your Rose?

When Kaefer and I heard that "Downton Abbey" has inspired a series of new roses, starting with "Anna's Promise", we were determined to get one (and we did - it resides now in the big planting box at my clothesline). However, before we went to our local nursery to get it, we thought about what the roses of the other female characters in this beloved TV series would look like.

Mary would be a rich, dark red with lots of thorns; Edith a soft orange. If there would be a blue rose, it belonged to Sybil. Cora's rose is white with a bit of a yellow shade. The Dowager? Purple, of course. Daisy would be a very soft yellow climbing rose whereas Mrs. Patmore would be an orange rambler! Mrs. Hughes' rose is soft pink with a few shades of red. Isobel probably would be a darker shade of pink. And Baxter's rose would be white as well with a soft red edge.

Then we thought what color our own rose would be. Mine would be orange with shades of soft pink and Kaefer's would be orange as well with specks of red. My daughter...

What about you? What color is your rose?

Sunday Gratitude

"Every moment is a gift" - I just read this yesterday evening in a book, and I thought this is so true. When I look back at the past week I can see many moments that were a gift.

Our friend D, who has cancer and just finished her chemo, joined us for dinner one evening. We spent a wonderful time together, laughing a lot. I admire her attitude, she is so inspiring. Her surgery is in May and we all hope that things will look so much better for her afterward.

I spent a few hours with my friend K. We meet every Wednesday and just do some creative stuff together. She usually works on albums for one member in her family, and I brought my knitting this time. I'm currently knitting a summer sweater for Kaefer for her 17th birthday later this week. She chose the yellow sparkly yarn and I chose the pattern that I found on Ravelry. My "moment" was when I arrived at K's home and her dogs just stormed to the door to greet me. So heart warming!

When I came back home around 2:30pm that day I found a deer lounging in the shade below my kitchen window! That was a surprise. I am used to them coming into my garden and fill their bellies, but settling down for a siesta? That was a first. It then occurred to me that this actually meant I had achieved with my front garden what I wanted - a wildlife habitat!

The garden gives me many beautiful moments - butterflies twirling from flower to flower, scrub jays nesting, hummingbirds feeding on the nectar, orioles chatting, California towhees hopping through the plants, bees buzzing around the Spanish lavender. It provides many, many moments of gratitude.

And I'm happily planning my backyard. The past three years I mainly focused on the front garden, but now I will also work on my backyard. I want to change it into a beautiful garden as well, also a wildlife habitat where birds, bees, and butterflies find food, water and shelter. It will certainly take some years. At the moment it just has a dead lawn, some border beds, a few trees and raised beds. I love to spend lazy Sunday mornings searching Pinterest for ideas - so much inspiration to find there.

One morning I also managed to walk around my lake and I saw one of my beloved Black-crowned night herons. He was just a few feet away and thankfully stayed long enough for me to take a couple pictures before he took off. It was so beautiful to walk the trails around the lake. It always feeds my
soul.

So much to be grateful for. What about you?

Hanging Out

Growing up in Germany we always dried our laundry on the line. The attic of our apartment building was a huge space where each family had an assigned area where we put up the clotheslines and hang our clothes to dry. On hot summer days it took only two hours for the laundry to dry; on cold and humid winter days it took at least a day.

As a child I loved to go up to the attic with my mom. I usually handed her the colorful clothespins while she was hanging one piece of clothes after the other. We always talked while doing this and I felt quite important as her helper.

Later, when clothes dryer were introduced they didn't find the popularity as here in the States. One reason was that our clothes weren't designed for dryers; the other was that clothes kept longer in good shape when they dried on the line. Apartment buildings usually have special laundry rooms where you can hang your wash on the line - either in the attic or in the basement. When Kaefer was born we had the laundry room in the basement and it worked out beautifully. Whenever possible I dried our clothes on a special clothesline rack on my balcony.

So when we moved to the States I was introduced to a dryer and I hated it from the very first moment. While I do see its convenience it lacks the fragrance and the freshness of clothes dried on a line. Lucky for me, our landlord came from China and there was a clothesline in the backyard. The only time I used the dryer was during the winter.

Then we moved to our home and had to leave the clothesline behind. I reluctantly threw my laundry in the dryer or I used the clothesline rack that I had brought from Germany (the one that I used on the balcony). Unfortunately that rack had become rather old and wasn't very stable anymore - it toppled over whenever there was a bit of wind, and it's quite windy where I live! It was frustrating but still better than using the dryer.

But finally I had enough! I asked the Geek whether he would built a clothesline for me. I had found some beautiful idea on Pinterest and showed him what exactly I was dreaming about.

This wonderful guy built it for me.

This is anything but a flimsy clothesline. This one is made of solid redwood (the same wood we built our fence with) and it has a height which is comfortable for me (I am not the tallest person). The Geek put clothesline tighteners up as well so that the lines are always tight. There is nothing loose here!

On one side he built a huge planting box with a trellis - those are leftovers he still had from building the rose trellis two years ago. By now there is a beautiful clematis in the box as well as a stunning rose. It looks wonderful (no photos yet).

On the other side he built a "seat" for the laundry basket (no more bending over!) that is strong enough for a person to sit on.

In this Etsy shop I found a hand sewn clothespin bag that now hangs on the line and holds almost all of my clothespins. This was the finishing touch to perfection!

I can't tell you how happy and thankful I am! Now I enjoy laundry again. Hanging the wash on the line is almost meditating. I can listen to the birds, feel the wind in my hair, smell the freshly mowed grass in my neighborhood. I am so very happy.

I do think I have the best husband in the world.