And who are you, my pretty?

Ah, the glorious days of summer, "tra la" ...

The strawberries are ripe - and these are Strawberries with a capital "S" - from a local produce farm out in the county -I was there bright and early (well, 9:30 is bright and early for me on a Saturday) this morning to pick up two flats of these gorgeous little beauties.

The woman who was "watching the store" said her boss and his wife had taken a flat to a local fund raiser auction last night - it fetched $250!!

Wow, and I only paid $18 - what a bargain.



This is the view from our kitchen window - If you click on the picture to biggify it, you will see an animal standing right in the center of those trees - at first I thought maybe one of the neighbors horses was our - then I remembered that they don't have horses anymore -






It's Bambi's mom! - and she had one of her friends with her - they were up there the better part of the afternoon - just munching away on the neighbor's apple trees - boldly ignoring the foil streamers that were, I'm sure, supposed to scare them away - We've been here for almost 17 years and this is the first time I've ever seen deer so close to our house - They don't seem to like the sheep though, so maybe they'll stay out of The Shepherd's garden. Time will tell, I guess

Holy cow, it's cold outside!

I'm glad I finally sent my sister the scarf that I crocheted for her last spring.

(Of course I tied in all those loose ends before I sent it!) And it make me realize that is one of the reasons I like crocheting with variegated yarn - you get all those color changes without having to tie in all those ends!











Things at work have been, oh, well, we'll just say, stressful... - They laid my assistant off yesterday. So, for the last 48 hours, I've been on somewhat of an emotional roller coaster - alternately feeling like "I can do this!" to feeling like "I am so overwhelmed!"

Now I have to spend two days packing up all my stuff because they want to clean the carpets on Thursday. I'm so far behind because of new software and "etc." and now I have to take two days of work to pack and unpack my stuff so they can move my desk? Does the little frowny face made with the : the - and the ( come to mind here?


Ok, so this was the closest picture I could find to fireworks - kind of looks like one of those big ones that go way out then sparkle down, doesn't it?

Well, the fireworks are for my 25,000th visitor! Wow! And it was someone who lives way up north in Canada who visited here about 7 p.m. Pacific coast time. If I don't hear from this person in a day or so, I'll go to the next one and the next one. For they and Michelle won my prize (ok, so it was a bribe) of gourmet chocolates from our local chocolatier, Chocolate Necessities.




One good thing did happen today. FedEx ground delivered my new bottle of Christian Dior "Dolce Vita" Eau de toilette. The description say it contains apricot, cinnamon, peach, clove, cardamom, bergamot. ("Tester" - comes without the fancy box. )

I have worn this fragrance for a long time - maybe 10 or 12 years...it is getting increasingly hard to find. I used to be able to get it at Costco packed up in a plastic box in one of those designer fragrance towers that they have - but then it was only available at the Bon (now Macy's) or Nordys - and then only on line - now it is hard to even find it on line - mostly get an "out of stock" message - but every once in a while I'll surf the web and go looking for it. (it must be available someplace in the world because you can still get "Tester" bottles. Go figure...) All the reviews I have ever read about this fragrance give it about a 14 out of possible 15 - people who wear it, love it and will go to great lengths to find it.

The day after Thanksgiving I hit the jackpot and found a site (www.unlimitedperfumes.com) that had it in stock. Even though I still have about 1/4 of a bottle, I whipped out my credit card as fast as I could and bought it right there on the spot! It is my Christmas present to myself - my one small luxury - I don't buy purses or shoes or fancy clothes - but once or twice a year, I get my 3.4 ounce bottle of perfume. I think I'm worth it.

I hope all my friends in the snowy weather belt are staying in where it is warm and dry. Guess I'd better get to bed - I have to go to work earlier now to do the tils for our retail store...I don't do real well at "0 dark 30" and that's what time I have to get up now.

10,000 AND STILL COUNTING!

Thank you to everyone who visits my blog - we went over the 10,000 visitor mark on Site Meter this week! (I downloaded Site Meter in late May 2007) I find it very interesting to look at the Site Meter map of the world and see where you all come from.

You never know what you'll find here - maybe the rhubarb - or maybe the rhubarb pie






The cats and the sheep are living in harmony - like ebony and ivory.









And the flowers come and go with the seasons.

Thanks again for visiting. Hope you'll leave a note now and again, so I can stop by and visit you too.