Book club is tomorrow - at my house.....and I don't think I'm ready.  (Then again, I don't think I'm ever ready....)  I did finish the bookmarks.  We read "Gray Mountain" by John Grisham - not bad!  The story line was good and the writing was good, a little plot twist at the end....

Not my favorite bookmark though.  I couldn't come up with anything from the book except the title.  I did a snow capped mountain for "Wild" and didn't want to repeat myself, and "Gray Mountain" was set in the Appalachians, so....a little different mountain this time.

The garden is coming up!!!!

Girls Trip!!!!  Veronica, Meredith and I went on an IKEA trip last weekend!  I'm looking to set up my sewing room, and Meredith's husband suggested I start at IKEA - they had a showroom set up as a sewing room.  Unfortunately, they no longer have it set up, but I still got plenty of ideas!

Here's a bookcase I was looking at - a couple of these put together (in white) to keep my fabric and yarn enclosed (no dust/cat/dog hair).

One thought for a cutting table - a table top on adjustable saw-horse type legs.  Less floor space when not in use, and can be raised up for a cutting table and lowered for a 'real' table - extra space for feeding guests.

Here's another version of the bookcase - raised off the ground a bit, and narrower.

An I love this light fixture!

Our 'haul' when we got back to Veronica's....

We all got one of these - a napkin holder with a weight.  (And yes, that's a glass of wine, and yes, bug spray - relaxing after the trip and trying not to be a snack for the mosquitoes).  Veronica left it out all night, and the napkins were still there in the morning - even with a light wind.  Pretty good!

Well, it's started.  I put Mom's house on the market last week.

It was a flying trip up on Wednesday - I left work at noon and met the realtor at 3:00.  Sad......

But I had someone to cheer me up.....I was putting stuff away from the weekend trip, and Picot found an empty bag.

A couple of shots from above Hat Creek on my way to Susanville.

I've got the garden in!  (Almost - I still want to find some lemon cucumbers......)  

I took yesterday off to catch up on my weekend chores after my Ft. Bragg trip, and got the garden cleaned out, tilled up, fertilized and planted.  I even got new planters for the pool area (forgot to take pictures of them though) and filled with petunias.  Here's what I started with:

I have eggplants and zucchini here, along with my mature artichoke (which is going to Margene's house - it takes up too much space in my garden.)

I have 5 tomato plants here.  This year, I need to look into ways to reinforce them - cross wires, or something.

And I have beans, cucumbers, green peppers and one jalapeno pepper plant here.

My artichoke has a bud on it!

The kids and I went over to Ft. Bragg this weekend to visit Ronna - a nice trip over all.  We took the RV - mainly to see how Alli would do on a longer trip in it.  She did fine until we were about 15 minutes from home - and I didn't blame her - I was tired by then too!

The lakes were full over in Lake County - where there is usually a beach at Lucerne had someone fishing over it.  It rained on us most of the way from Williams to Ft. Bragg, but it was partly sunny once we got there.

We went down to Van Damme (Not sure of the spelling there....) beach to walk around.  Alli stayed dry, but had fund trying to get wet.  We had to watch her like a hawk....

Mr. Alex was a bit camera shy....

But I got one anyway...

The beach was full of kayaks and scuba gear - it is abalone month, so there were lots of divers, and someone was having a diving class on the beach.  There was a dog running around on the beach, and I didn't get a picture of him, and I should have.  When I noticed him (a black lab) he was putting his head underwater in a tributary running into the ocean, obviously trying to pull something out.  He eventually did - a huge rock.  The rock was about 5 inches by 8 - huge!  He then ran over into the middle of the lecture being given on the beach, dropped his prize, and proceeded to roll around happily in the sand.  During all of this, his owner was patiently trying to get him to 'come here' - which wasn't working a bit. Too cute!  He really didn't want to go home, and gave his owner a true battle (without actively running away, just not coming when requested.)

Here's one of the 'sea caves' just off the beach that the kayaks go out to.

Margene and I took the kayaks out last night after work - the first kayak trip of the year!  It was in the low 90's yesterday here, so the temperature was perfect - but it was a bit windy at the lake.  

This is from the Marina - we started to put in at our normal launch spot, Brandy Creek, but the access was locked!  Even worse, I started to pull in before I realized it was gated off - and I was pulling a trailer with the kayaks!   I have a new personal first - backing up a trailer.......and after several tries (okay -LOTS of tries!) I got us turned around and we headed to the Marina.  The parking lot was almost empty, so there was lots of room for me to park there (without backing up...)

Considering this is 'in' the Marina, the water is already pretty rough....

The geese are sitting on nests all over the islands.  There were a few out, but most were on land.  We probably saw 20 nests, just from the water....

I guess you would call this 'red neck wine and cheese on the lake'.....

We got back to the truck as the sun was setting.  By the time we got out to the highway, it was dark.  What a great "after work" treat!