Today...

I see hundreds of things I should be doing outside today, and I want to, really, but it's cooold outside and it's going to rain again...*whine*. I'm not complaining about the rain, truly, but it's cold outside and it's going to rain again...*whine*

I don't know if it's going to rain here or not, but I feel *whiny* myself today, Sherry. Maybe it's something in the CA air...or a new "whine flu" going around.....

Yep, 'whine flu'...I'm going to go make thick French Toast and later Pineapple UpsideDown Cake and then maybe ginger cookies also....how's that for indulgence? (and lottsa carbs...lol..) Carbs are good for whine flu.....

Yummmmm....sounds like a great treatment plan to me!
Ravioli with sour cream and parmesan here, I think.....

That's good, too...we'll do beef ribs for dinner.
Actually, today is getting better, it's warmed up and the pink jasmine is starting to flower, the brown boronia is flowering and the climbing butcher's broom is flowering so things are smelling good. And...my much loved cistus are flowering..tough, drought tolerant, smell wonderful and beautiful, can't go wrong there....

And the cistus skanbergii is flowering (pic). I finally found a couple of spots to plant my cistus Frank Birch, but it will take a couple of years, I'm assuming, for him to reach his full height. I haven't grown that one before, so I'm anxious to see how he turns out. Anyone here growing that one and have a pic at full height?

I think I had that one, and it didn't last long for me. I do have a little low-growing bright pink one that does well here, but we're still in daffodill and hyacinth season "up north", so no photos.

I'd whine too, but it would make my throat hurt. : - (
Good thing I can type or I'd be signing. YS succeeded in giving me his sore throat. Coughing up icky stuff, and running a fever. I promised some hummers that I'd clean their feeders and refill them. Which I've done. One last trip outside, to hang the feeders and I'll be inside keeping warm, and napping. Meanwhile DH is watching home improvement shows. : - )
Your kitchen must smell delicious, wcgypsy. Make the kid help you with the copy and paste. It won't hurt him. Bribe him with some of those yummies you're cooking. LOL! (ouch!)
Hey, ima. Was hoping to get some photos today, but it's gone cold windy and gray.
Nice photos wc, I think your garden is a little bit ahead of mine. So I am enjoying your colors. : - )
WIB!
SW

It rained all day yesterday here and is raining now...and cold. 41*

"Chicken Ole" for dinner...courtesy of DS. I call it Mexican Lasagna with chicken. Chicken, salsa, peppers, cheese etc, layered with tortillas instead of pasta....baked in a casserole dish. Excellent.

No clue how she makes it, but it's superb.
I traded her the casserole for sweet peas I started for her. The seeds took all of 5 minutes...so I scored !

Another cold morning...unless the sun comes out, I don't think I even want to go outside. Is this what they call Winter?

This would be an ideal time to go hunting for walking sticks...take your scissors with you !
The east coast people are laughing at what we call "winter".

Fortunately I've not seen any evidence of the walking sticks here, but do want to chart their progress in case they come closer. I can't believe I wasn't even aware of them or the problems they're causing...especially so close. I gotta get out more..lol...I'm a hermit here with my plants and my books, don't know what's going on in the outside world.....

Also...I have to admit that I'd be a bit squeamish about cutting any living thing in half with scissors and the fact that they placidly drown without struggling bothers me also....

DH calls me 'killer' - anything that threatens home and/or garden is a goner, though I don't like to watch anything suffer so it has to be a quick and sure method. SMACK!!

I'm all for getting rid of those critters who give me so much problem. I've been having a war with wooly aphids that won't quit although the thing I've found that works for them is pretty ecologically OK> YOu can use it on food plants. We have wasps here and they are a problem I can't get rid of. It makes eating outside miserable which is too bad because we have a lovely backyard. It's been pouring off and on here. Sorry SW about your sore throat. I think that i have that one too. Good for you for taking care of the hummers though. AFter all a promise is a promise. :-)

My hummers are mad at me; I took a tumble a couple of weeks ago and haven't been getting around well. I just took down the last skanky feeder today to get it cleaned up and will refill and hang tomorrow. They've been dive-bombing me with complaints whenever I was outside (which wasn't often). Not very sympathetic little buggers, are they?

That seems to be getting easier to do as I get older..."taking a tumble". I did that in a rather clumsy fashion in the garden some months ago and either sprained or broke my wrist and it apparently won't be the same again, but then neither will the rest of my body...lol..I hope you did no permanent damage. DH is the hummer feeder here, he's much more reliable than I. They have lots of flowers to visit and yet spend lot of time at the feeder.

Well, it must be a disease - my feeders were empty and grungy and I just got them all cleaned and filled again. Doesn't happen often, so I hope they forgive me. Expecting orioles any day now.

imapigeon,
I'm so sorry to hear you took a tumble. Something I know how to do all too well. I just don't jump up as fast as I used to. Sigh.
The weather here has been crummy, wet, cold and windy. Brrr.
I had to be out in the weather yesterday, anyway, and I did get a few photos.
Spirit has a close encounter with a cactus and is being difficult about letting me remove the spines embedded on the top of his muzzle. Brat dog. I know it hurts.
KC, I am so frustrated that I'm going to resort to ant spray on the outside of the gh, to keep the aphid and mealie bug population in check. Sigh.
My Godson is a God Send in some ways. He's going to help me to get the gh bad bug free.
I discovered that pretty yellow hummer feeder holds twice as much nectar as I thought it did. So I only got one hung up. Haven't seen them, because I haven't been outside much.
At least I'm feeling better now, and plan on getting some long overdue house chores completed today.
Just hope that my outside babies didn't get too cold last night. It's finally up to 50 degrees here and windy. I know the people back east have it far worse than we do, but dang it, I can't function when it gets this cold! BRRR!
WIB!
SW

Just had to share this. I've been after DH to build a wall unit in our living room, but didn't want a free standing wood unit, so I came up with my own idea and he executed it brilliantly. We're not sure about the colors right now. The inside of our house is white on white, so this is a real departure. We're going to live with it a while and then either change it or just paint the rest of the room a lighter tone of the gold (they call it Spice). The cabinets with glass doors open with a push and the lights (LED strip lighting) go on automatically. The display cubes have lights, too, but they can be left on. The electronics are on roll out shelves so he can work on things when needed. We'll tweak it a little, but we're pretty happy with it. Isn't he wonderful?

FABULOUS!!! And I love the colors. The rounded edges on the wall unit are a really nice touch!

I painted my living room a Behr color called Torchlight, which in the can is screaming yellow. But when it's up on all the walls, it's surprisingly neutral. Then I painted an accent wall dark purple. "Departure" can be good!

I'm proud of my DH, too---we inherited a Murphy bed from a friend, and it's been sitting in our son's old room for 2 years. We wanted to turn it into a guest room. We kept "discussing" this project because he said the only way to install the bed was to take out a side closet wall, which I didn't want to do. So finally he got a round tuit, and has been working the room for a week. He installed the Murphy bed on a different wall, moved his drafting table into the closet and modified it so it will fold down against the wall when guests are here. It's not all done yet, and after he's finished everything has to come back out so I can paint, but somebody could actually sleep comfortably in it tonight!

Don'tcha just love "visible progress"?

LOL - you're the only other person besides my mom who says round tuit - and she actually has one!

One thing I don't like about the paint - the terra cotta color on the inside looks almost mauve when the lights are on. Still, it's very new to us and that's why we want to live with it a while. Since the kitchen, dining room and living room are all open, we'll have to find a way to blend the rooms - that's what makes me nervous!

Visual progress is great! But I have to hold DH back a little - he's like a horse that smells water and wants to race to the barn. That's one reason we have lots of touch up to do! :-)

Kudos to John, he done good....I think you're going to love the color and it's going to change everything inside, so John's going to be kept busy for quite awhile.The exterior of your place is bold, so go for the interior also...chnage is good and doing one thing always creates an explosion of other ideas.

Thanks for the encouragement, Sherry!

Yes, what Sherry said. lol

KC,
DH did a wonderful job! I only wish I was that talented! Good design on the cabinet, and while I really like the colors, if you are used to white on white, it might take some getting used to. If you aren't happy with the way the terra cotta color changes, you might try mixing a little of the terra cotta color with some glaze, or just going to a lighter color. I think you are right to leave it as it for now.
ima, your DH sounds pretty wonderful too! BTW, around here we also say round tuit. I used to have one, but DH lost it (on purpose!), so now I give him Honey Do's. He finally fixed the kitchen sink last weekend, and was very proud of himself. (Can I roll my eyes here? I've been after him for almost a year to make these repairs, I'd have done them myself, except he keeps hiding the tools.)
A Murphy bed! I love them. I don't know why I do, but I like the way they hide in the wall, and you have extra space in which to do stuff.
All I did was clean out and sort recyclables. Gee what fun. Had to be done though.
Also what wc, said. She has some good points, and over time I think that the colors will grow on you.
Best to all this day!
WIB!
SW

How nice to have such handy hubbies! The unit your DH built is beautiful KaperC I love the colors. I have a friend who has painted every wall in her house a different color of orange and it's surprisingly comfortable and restful. Who knew???

Doss, that's funny, because I was worried about it having read that for restful space like a living room, cool colors were recommended. We were looking at color chips and saw these colors used in a kitchen, but we liked them so much decided to try anyway. And we DO find it a cozy color combo! LOL

My friend was always complaining about how cold she was in her family room, even when there was a fire going. It was gray when they bought the house, and well-shaded by trees. I talked her into painting it a toasty gold, and WALA----it didn't feel cold to her any more!!

How talented John is, our big screen tv has spent it's 5 year life on a drafting table in our living room. Granted, the table is covered from top to floor in a table cloth that matches the wall behind it, but what I wouldn't give to have a wall like that. Our ceiling slopes so a niche wall would work great (we could have a very little opening for the thermostat, lol). My desire for form and design makes no sense to the other 2/3 of this house's people population.

I love your colors and think a light shade of that gold would probably look good. I am not afraid of color, so I will share this picture taken as we were moving in here of the bold colors I chose. The foreground is DD's room with stamped horsies over the door. I also painted 'grass' floorboards and a sun on the ceiling. The next room is living/dining room with red feature wall with the rest of the walls and ceiling being shades of taupe. Next is my quilting/crafting room with the tuscan gold walls, but it was difficult making the transition from red to gold with the bullnose walls. Then, the most jarring, is the 2 tone shade of aqua/turquoise in the master. I have never been a blue person, but I can think of the tropical seas I have visited before living in the desert. Our bath is a boring spa gray, DD's is lilac with big bold squares and circles of primary colors. Kitchen is pale yellow and the laundry has bits of all the leftover paints! No white left here, but for doors and trim.

Great job, QG! We will have the same problem making transitions, but I'll worry about it when the time comes.
Talk about color - my pottery teacher is nuts about an architect/designer named Hundertwasser - take a peek at his use of color:

http://www.8bitmagazine.com/colorful-architecture-by-fhundertwasser/

Hey, I used the colors of the dirt outside when painting the rental. The different shades of dirt became my color palette. It all flows together.
WIB,
SW