I just can't get over these tomato plants.  The one in the back and the one in the front were planted on the same day.  The one in the back is towering over the top of the cage!

(Confidential to Jason:  Doesn't kitty look majestic?!)

This tomato plant?  Planted on the same day.

Here...these tomato plants?   You guessed it!  Same day.  Why so different?  The ones closest to me our taller than Scotty; but look at the ones just to the right here....so tiny!  It's really so strange!

Looking at this picture...aren't the flowers so pretty?  They remind me that....

We still have visitors!  When they showed up last weekend, I was so (happily) bewildered.  What could they possibly see in our underdeveloped patch of land?  The flowers above were planted last year, virtually ignored, and now lookit ~ so pretty.  It makes me wonder if they're suddenly so stellar because that's what bees do...make things flourish.  I know bees travel far and wide to get their pollen, but still, I have to believe our little gardens are majorly benefiting!

One of the things their arrival has done is to make me so much more aware (and appreciative) of all the plant life.  The green bin they've moved into is under a pine tree, and for the first time ever, I realized how gorgeous these purple blooms are that become pine cones.  I'd never stopped to notice such a thing!

There's also a wee-bit of blooming going on inside ~ my fabric!  This is the fabric I won in a giveaway at Beautiful Beatta's blog last fall, and I'm finally going to make it into a quilt.   I'm joining Carmen for a quilt along...this will be the first quilt I do from start to finish!  Wish me luck.  It's six weeks, and each week to tackle just a part of the project.  This was the week the wash and iron the fabrics.  Check.  It's never too late to join if you want to throw your hat in the ring!


Alright.  Just so you know.  As I was writing this up and waiting for pictures to upload, we got another nasty (but quick) jolt.  Earthquake.  There were two last Thursday night, too.  Almost exactly the same time.  All three have been between 2.5 and 3.0.  I'm a native Californian, so I won't even get out of my chair for less than 5.0, and even then, I wait to see how long it will last ~ I perk up, but I'm not going to get hysterical.  It could be over by the time I finally stand, so why break my neck hopping up?  Anyway, when I came home tonight, Erik said, "Earthquake weather."  I'm pretty sure he did it to tease me, as it is one of my long-standing pet peeves (right up there with stickers on fruit) that any time it gets "muggy" in the Bay Area, some dork starts in on 'earthquake weather' (I assure you, there is no such thing) but man....now I'm wondering!  The epicenter last week was less than 2 miles from our house (we live ON the Hayward Fault, I'm telling you) and this one I'm seeing here was also 2 miles away (in the other direction) and at 2.5.  Even when you're right on top of a 2.5, it's not a whole lot of shaking...but man, they're just loud when you're that close.  You hear it before you feel it, even.  Anyway, all this to warn you, that I'm fairly certain I feel a hey-I-updated-the-earthquake kit kind of post coming up.