Wild Boars

I dragged my pitiful, heart-broken self out of bed this morning and went about the business of settling back into life north of the border. The cat posse were all waiting for me in the kitchen. All lined up in a row. Tails high and smiles on their faces. I decided a day of manual labor was needed in order to snap the mind back into place. I mean I can’t pine away the rest of my 60-day vacation can I? Especially when I only have 16 days of it left.

Nothing snaps me out of a funk faster than working outside. I was breathy and nervous approaching the front garden, certain a wild boar with great shining tusks was going to rumble out from under the tangle of penstemon and salvia and gore me. It didn’t happen. Not because there isn’t a wild boar rooting around under there, (anything’s possible in LA afterall) but because I decided to pot geraniums instead. Fat cheerful pom-pom geraniums in shades of pink, red, and orange. Poked around a bit in the new succulent bed adding California poppies. Started some new succulent pots. In other words, sissy gardening. Not like my sister, Dottie who is a SERIOUS, ground-breaking, plowing, composting, hay-mulching, soil-tilling, wheelbarrow-toting WOMAN.

Here she is in the back of her house preparing what will be her vegetable garden in Kansas. Look at her go! She took a break from this back breaking labor long enough to scoot over to a Mexican restaurant to meet up with my mom and other sister, Carol (you know…the one who climbs under tables) so they could all practice Spanish. My mom is a native Spanish speaker and Dottie is fluent. Guess what kinds of things they taught Carol? Yep, curse words. I was shocked when I heard what they had done. If I would have been there you can bet I would have put a stop to this. Carol is so impressionable. I hope they didn’t get her to do any tequila shots. Sometimes I think I’m the only level-headed one in the family.

Later in the afternoon I made a Paula Deen peach cobbler. My neighbor made chicken and dumplings. We swapped. A little of this for a little of that. It’s awfully nice to have friendly neighbors who like to cook and love to share.

I didn’t work in the art journal after all, but did take some photos of a completed page and some in progress. Started some new mailart. Took a photo of my completed travel journal, the pages of which are now filled to the brim with inky words chronicling my trip to dreamland.

And finally I zoomed here and there in the blogosphere to do some catching up. I dig the journal pages of the boundlessly creative Judy Wise. Seeing all those words spilling off the pages is so cool. Oh…and I want to find a perfect birdnest just like the one she found! She has also posted some incredible artwork from Artfest.
I also share a new blog discovery from Mexico – San Miguel de Allende in fact. Chockful of wit, humor, musings on life in Mexico, and gorgeous photos. What could be bettah?