Irises? Irisi??

More iris blossoms are making their appearance. One poor thing was all set to bloom the day we got hit with scorching Santa Ana winds, record temps in the 90's and ash from the Springs Fire - the trifecta of 'kill that flower'. Oh well, maybe next year I'll get to see what color it would have been.
My little corner of heaven - irises and miniature pansies.

In better news - the blooms on these three survived and they are gorgeous.

 Fanfaron -

 
Wonderful World - 

 
and finally, Rock Star, my favorite so far. 

 
Five down, nine more to bloom!

Sunshine Dress

This morning, Leia asked for a new dress to wear in honor of Auntie Rachel's last day with us. So being a good granma, I whipped this up for her in about an hour.

Total 70's flashback in color, length and style.

Leia picked this 'cheater' fabric last week at Joanne's. One seam (sewn twice, since I misjudged the width the first time), two straps and voilà, a pretty little dress that Leia loves. I'll add a decorative fabric flower or two later, along with a ruffle or some lace along the hem.

But this was just perfect for lunch and a movie with Auntie Rachel.

 

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Mother's Day

A few pics from my GrandMother's Day. My poor kids; it really is all about the baby grands these days, at least in pictures.

Rachel flew out from Colorado for the weekend, but left Addy at home.

I thought Addy might be upset at being left behind, but judging by this picture John sent, she's handling it just fine. It probably helps that she has Dad and Grandpa Jim wrapped tightly around her little finger.

It was great watching Leanne, Travis and Leia running around and having fun together while their aunts and uncles talked. Sure wish everyone lived closer so we could do it a lot more often.

 

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Top 40

And the hits just keep on coming. This used to be my kitchen faucet, before it snapped off in hubby's hand this morning.

Guess what just moved to the top of home improvement replacement list? It couldn't have waited its turn nicely? Sheesh. 

Is this year over yet?

Not That Big A Deal

Usually it's a fairly big deal when your fence blows down in a wind storm (the same storm that fanned the Springs Fire).  
But the way our year has gone, the fence ranks only as a minor nuisance, 
  
well behind the slab leak and 5-hour fun-with-plumbers day;
 
installing a new washing machine when the old one flooded the house and garage before dying;
  
guest bathroom tear-down/remodel after the water pipes gave out and flooded that room (seeing a theme here?);
 
installation of a whole-house, expensive but effective and unfortunately necessary, burglar alarm system;
 
and my new wall oven, part of the kitchen remodel, but we'd hoped the old one could hang on for another few months.

Thank heavens for Handy Hubby or we'd be in the poorhouse right about now.
 
Personally, I'm ready for this year to be over.

Marigolds, Pumpkins and Worms - Oh, My!

Auntie Marie spotted a pumpkin plant at her nursery and immediately thought of Leia, whose favorite season is when PUMPKINS!! are on the ground. 

We added marigolds as a companion plant - they help keep bugs away from the fruit -

 

and earth worms for soil improvement (and because they are cool.)

  

PopPop did the hard work,

 
breaking the soil and adding the grow poop soil amendment, 
with just a bit of "help" from Leia.
  
Then Leia and I carefully built two hills for the pumpkin plants, 
 

and surrounded them with marigolds, which Leia planted all by herself.

 

A little watering with her new purple watering can, 

 

also courtesy of Auntie Marie, and we were good to go.  

 

Leanne got up from her nap just in time to flip a little dirt and pose for photos. She was having so much fun, she didn't even mind that Leia had "borrowed" her favorite sunglasses.

 

And now?

 

Happy girl and I wait patiently for the pumpkins to grow and water, water, water!  

Iris Days

One by one, my iris are blooming. In my mind, I pictured them blooming all at once, with fields and fields of blossoms arrayed across my front yard. Not asking much from 14 little bulbs, is it?
 
 This one is Wonderful World.

 

Wish we had time this year to go visit their home fields. 
But a trip to Vacaville, on a weekend, before May 12 is probably not in the cards. Maybe next year . . . 

Backyard Treasure

We often forget about the cool things that are almost in our backyard. One such is Moorpark College's EATM Zoo. The exotic animal training and management program started in the early 70's. We took our kids to visit when they were young but hadn't been back in years.

The zoo has grown since then, needless to say. We took Leia for a visit today and she loved it - from Cowboy the parrot, who performed tricks and 'mimicked' words,

to the blue-tongued skink in the animal show (the color is a defense mechanism; bright colored things in the animal world are often poisonous, so even though the skink isn't, predators avoid them. Cool, huh?)

to Clarence, the 90-year-old, 500 pound Galapagos tortoise.

Students were available everywhere to answer questions - and Leia had lots to ask. She got to help make treats for birds and monkeys - wrapping food in rolled up newspaper that the students then put in tubes or boxes for animal enrichment.
Monkeys, singing dogs, birds, lions, sheep, water buffalo, and more. Short drive, inexpensive, and fun. Yep, we'll be back soon.

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Plumbing

Warm floors in my bathroom were the first hint that we had another water leak under our slab. The first one was 10 years ago or so; it was expensive back then so we anticipated major $$$ this time. The first estimate didn't disappoint -$3200?!?!?! I think not. 

Second estimate was less than half that. We had another company come out and pinpoint the leak(s), so the plumbing company could do minimal damage to the walls during the repair work. That was the theory anyway. 

 

First hint that this was a big job - two plumbing trucks arrive first thing in the morning. Things seemed to be taking longer than anticipated; at about the 4-hour mark, I overhear the main plumber tell his helper, "Take it all out and start over . . ." This was after they tried turning the water back on and we had water shooting up to the ceiling everywhere.

 

At the 4.5 hour mark, the main guy says, "Ohhhhhh, there's 2 leaks. . . ." So they brought in another plumber, and called the guy who did the "pinpointing" to come back and recheck his results. Turns out he made not one but two "oopsies." 
 
When our house was built, 30 years or so ago, the original plumber crossed the pipes at - wait for it - not one but two manifolds. So today's plumbers did all their original work on the wrong pipes.
 
The good news is I think they've got it fixed, plus I have new valves for the washing machine and a new water pressure valve - and pretty copper pipes - at the front of the house. And the flooded bathroom carpet? It probably needed replacing anyway; it was at least 6 months old.
 
The bad news? The plumbers blew past their original estimate and we still don't know how much this is going to cost. But at least I have pretty new pipes and clean floors from mopping up all the water. How's that for making lemonade?