98 degrees here yesterday

It was 98 degrees on our front porch yesterday afternoon when I got home.  However, upon entering our house, I found it refreshingly cool!  No, we don't have super insulation.  What we have is a lot of shade on the south side of the house.  We actually have 42 trees on our property and the front porch and yard are both completely shaded by trees.  So, that helps to keep the house cooler.  Today it is supposed to make 99 degrees.  The boys next door already have their air conditioner blasting away.  We haven't needed to turn ours on.  Hubby bought a dual set of the tall, standing fans from COSTCO and the one in the living room moves the air just enough to provide a nice breeze.

I do remember a few spring break times when it was in the high 90's, but I don't remember it being THIS hot THIS soon!  ACK!  What will summer be like?  Al, I think you were wise to leave and head home!  I have to take the kids out for PE 4 afternoons at 2:00 and believe me, even they were wilting yesterday, although we did get a good game of jump rope going under one of the shade canopies!

And, I saw my first gecko last night.  Yup.  A BIG one, too!  We seem to have several families of them living around the house.  I love to see my little night visitors.  They love to crawl up the screen in the kitchen, right above the sink.  They'll stay there and catch the moths that are attracted by our kitchen light.

So, that's all the excitement from here, for now.   :-)  The kids go home an hour early every Wednesday so that we can have staff meetings and professional development, so I can hardly WAIT to see what excitement awaits us this afternoon.

These flowers are from my neighbor's yard.  She's a professional landscaper.  Unfortunately, she has SEVERE knee problems and has to use a walker now.  She's thinking about retiring soon, too.

And, here's her mailbox:

If you are wondering about her dry lawn...No, she didn't plant rye grass this year.  And, YES, the city is now after her.  Can you believe it?  Here we are in California's WORST drought in years, and the city is after her for not planting a rye grass lawn!  She told them to ... "stuff it".  Now, they've given her until June to provide either a lawn or to cover it with rock...sigh...Cities can be a real pain in the patootie!

Bronchitis!

Yes, my cold of last week has now turned into bronchitis.  I cough every morning, noon, and night. ...sigh...I really was hoping I'd skip getting this sick, but it was not to be.  And, yesterday, by 11:00 a.m., I was completely exhausted.  And, I had another 3 1/2 hours of school to get through for the day, plus 29 overly active kidlets!  I made it, but it wasn't easy.

We didn't even have dinner here last night. I fell asleep for an hour about 5 p.m. and hubby was awake.  Then, I was awake until 9:00 and HE fell asleep, so no dinner for the two of us.  It's not like we both couldn't skip a few meals!  :-(

More photos of my sweet peas.  Yes, in April!  I didn't even get them planted until January this year and with the heat, they have just grown and grown.  I also fertilize them with horse manure tea, which I make up frequently, so they have plenty of organic matter and nitrogen!  :-)

Can't you just smell them?

Twice in one day~Our World Tuesday~040814

Blog posts, that is...don't get excited!  I was bored yesterday morning, so I went around with my camera and took photos of some of the flowers in the yard, and some of the birds at my feeders.  I ran out of food this morning, so the birds only got a few bits of seed this morning, but I stopped and bought them more birdseed and there are doves, sparrows, and finches out there now.  Last year and the year before, we had a family of grosbeaks show up, but I haven't seen them yet. I don't think they were here until May maybe?  Our World Tuesday for April 8, 2014.  To visit OWT, please go to:    http://ourworldtuesdaymeme.blogspot.com/

 Yes, these are my sweet peas in the back, along with dog fence.

I always enjoy seeing the doves at the feeding stations.

When do you post?

If I'm going to post something for my blog, I do it first thing in the morning (usually).  But, during the school week, that isn't always possible, so I'll do it the night before.  Today I have to rush, buy gasoline, and get to school early.  It's the first day of the new state COMPUTERIZED testing and I have to get my instructions ready and be prepared.  30 kids need to input their ID numbers (oye vei!).

So, yesterday was our granddaughter's 1st birthday party.  Her actual birthday is today, but we are all working.  They had a big party for her and a colleague of our daughter's made her a huge birthday cupcake and 4 kinds of cupcakes for everyone to enjoy!  A good afternoon was had by all, but I was asleep by 7:00 last night!  My cold sure took it out of me.

And, that brings up another issue:  I haven't been this tired and rundown since I last had pneumonia.  I mean, I've had COMPLETE FATIGUE.  Like mono.  Like pneumonia.  And, I've got to make it through 5 days at school this week.

I think I'm going to stop at the health food store and buy some wheatgrass and a smoothie this afternoon!

Deep Canyon 2011 pics

Well, I started up to the horse ranch today, but I didn't make it.  First, I only had two gallons of gas, much to my horror!  There is NO WAY I can make it up the hill on two gallons of gas.  Second, I am still so exhausted from my cold that I was frankly too tired to make it all the way.  Oh, well...maybe it was for the best?

I did look for wildflowers, especially lupines.  I spotted a very few scraggly clumps of them.  They honestly aren't even worth stopping to photograph.  They are very light and thin.  The lack of rainfall this year has really hindered the growth of wildflowers.  Not much snow, either, up on the mountains above Deep Canyon, although Toro Peak did get a nice dusting this week.

So, I returned home, disappointed.  I went through my archives to find these photos from 2011, 3 years ago.  That was the last time we had a decent wildflower crop.

I may head out again this afternoon, if I'm not TOO DANG TIRED, but I'll have to wait and see.  It's a 35 - 45 minute drive up to the horse ranch and I doubt I'll make it that far, but I may just drive up a short way and take some photos...ALL of these are from March of 2011.

Rancho Los Olivos ~ Good Fences~040414

We found this beautiful gate and fence up in the little town of Los Olivos, which is next to Solvang.  Beautiful, eh?  Good Fences for April 4, 2014.   To visit Good Fences, please go to:   http://run-a-roundranch.blogspot.com/

A bridge and a hidden tavern

We drove home past Lake Cuyamaca and off that road, hubby remembered a little tavern where we stopped for dinner over 39 years ago!  That man sure has a memory!  We wandered back into some beautiful forest and looked up to see the bridge we had just crossed.  I couldn't get the whole thing with my lens, however.  We found the tavern, stopped, and took a walk among the old buildings there.  Turns out, the road had once been an old stagecoach route.  I can't even IMAGINE horses going down that steep, curvy road, but I guess they did!  Very interesting little place to stop.  We didn't go in for coffee because we were both anxious to get home and avoid as much traffic in Los Angeles as we could!