My Favorite Things

But I'm not Oprah, so you won't find a basket of these under your chair.


The first year I've had tomatoes that look like they (I hope!) will ripen!  I also love my portable fence section that I'm using for a trellis right now.  Those 5x3 sections have a lot of uses!

  

My rain barrel -- doubles as a redneck splash park for the kids.



I love, love, love my flower garden!  It's full of masses of brown-eyed Susans, lupine, and a bunch of other anonymous flowers.  I also love finding surprise visitors out there, like this bee and grasshopper.  Right after I took this picture, the bee tried to land on the flower the grasshopper was on, but he kicked at her, and she startled away.




I have a sparrows' nest right outside my window in the carport.  They've nested there for years, but this winter a windstorm cleared out all three nests.  One pair rebuilt and have raised a noisy family this summer.  I love the sound of the "pio pio pio" in the morning.




Who doesn't love frogs?  These fellows have been living on our kitchen counter all summer.



Cardamom is the spice of the gods, I'm sure.  Just the scent of it in my spice cabinet makes me feel wealthy.  It's delicious in chai, coffee, bread, rice, and anything else.

Many years ago I got rid of my beautiful matching dishes and collected mismatched, brightly colored ones instead.  I like variety.

This is my newly redone bedroom.  I painted over the old manufactured-home wallboard (the paint is the color of peach smoothie), replaced the thin plastic wood molding, ripped out the mauve shag carpet and painted the floor brown, then put in new curtain rods, curtains, and comforter.  I didn't put my niece there; she rolled herself into the photo.