So, before going to Day Three, let's go back to Day Two. My husband Jim asks me to join him in his official duties as San Diego's Volvo Club president to visit the La Mesa Village Car Show.  I drag my feet on this one -- I would much rather stew over work issues, right? -- but  … [Read more...]

My husband says that I am a workaholic.  It’s a fair depiction of my nature, however much I protest.  I have lots of vacation, but I take it sporadically.   There is a process for getting into vacation mode.     The Day Before  One of the symptoms of an approaching nervous … [Read more...]

Every day I become more and more enchanted by the garden and the elements it hosts.   Take a Monarch butterfly, circling the butterfly weed.  I am like a little child when they fly by.  I have to run down the stairs to get the camera, thinking all a long the way I should always … [Read more...]

  The biggest challenge we face these days is keeping order in a house that frankly has none.  Likely never will.    Our life is caught in a chuckhold.  I really don't know who is the alpha dog lately because so many are vying for the spot, namely Merlin and Tucker.  I … [Read more...]

  The true harvest of my daily life is somewhat as intangible and indescribable as the tints of morning or evening.  It is a little star dust caught, a segment of the rainbow which I have clutched.  ~Henry David Thoreau, Walden I do not do well with surrender, how much I … [Read more...]

I have few regrets, but those that remain haunt me.  I wonder on  a  life where I do not look over my shoulder, instead look forward.  Of course, this takes lots of work.  For the most part, I am as flawed as they come.  There have been missed opportunities on many fronts -- … [Read more...]

I try to think about nature and my part in it.  I go about my daily tasks like I should, but lately I have given thought that maybe I have not quite done enough.   I take much for granted.  The bloom of a rose, the tried and true unfoldment of a Mexican sage bush, the steady buzz … [Read more...]

This old rose is at least 20 years old.  Given a careful pruning and replanted, it finds new life in Merlin's Garden. … [Read more...]

Some of you may recall my post from May 8 of a mystery plant that for the life of me I couldn't identify beyond my strong suspicions  it was an agave.  But what kind of agave? Thanks to our friend, Tom Henry, owner of Orchids de Oro in Los Angeles, I found the name to our … [Read more...]

      Living involves tearing up one rough draft after another.  ~Author Unknown The opportunity to start over again is never more apparent than in the garden.   If we give up on the garden, we give up on ourselves.  There are simply no excuses.  All we need do is take a … [Read more...]