Weekend Coffee Share; Mini Vacation Fun!

Welcome to my weekend coffee share and I am sitting in my daughter’s apartment not far from the cafe where I took this photo of my coffee in Orcutt, CA. It is so beautiful up here on the coast with the best weather! The high’s here are in the low 80’s and at night cools to the 50’s. We went for a cool morning walk this morning as it was foggy with the marine layer which has been rolling in each evening. Such a nice relief from home which is in a heat wave this week! Crazy, we picked a good week to visit.

My daughter can’t come home and visit as they still have restrictions on traveling as she is in the military and not allowed to venture fair. Not worth detailing all that out but since we are just over three hours away, it is not hard for me to take some vacation days which I need to use anyways and we just drive up and stay with her and this visit we did some shopping for my grand kids and put together care packages which will thankfully be delivered on my grand daughters birthday! I am SO EXCITED WE were able to get that all together yesterday.

Today we ventured out and traveled up the coast to Pismo Beach. I took some photo’s I will share and a short video of the Pacific ocean and some pigeons that thought we had food for them. 😀 In Pismo Beach they have this AMAZING cinnamon roll shop which is thankfully open for take out only. It’s called Old West Cinnamon Rolls, and oh my, we bought an original, a pecan and one with cream cheese frosting and then split them up to share! ❤

After we cut up the cinnamon rolls and began to eat them my daughter says we should have taken a photo! Darn it all, I wish I took a photo but my hands were so sticky even though we had plastic knives and forks I couldn’t get my phone out and didn’t want to stop eating them to be honest. So DELICIOUS! I was able to get some photos of the beach after cleaning up!

It wasn’t too crowded thankfully as you can see not very many people on the board walk to the pier. The pier is closed but the beaches were open and you could see people kept their distances from each other which is good. There were some surfers too. There were plenty of shops and restaurants open. Masks are mandatory everywhere in CA so we always wear them on all outings. The restaurants here in California are all serving outside with all the tables with umbrella’s or easy ups to block the sun. I feel really badly for all the business’s so it seems this is working pretty well. All the fast food joints that have drive thru’s are drive thru only and the other ones like this cinnamon roll place only allow 4 customers at a time into the building and there are plenty of lines out the door waiting to buy food. These are crazy days but it seems to all be working! I always carry wet wipes and we always wash up when we get home. It was a FUN morning!

The pigeons were being fed by some people nearby and thought we had food too! Nope!

After enjoying our cinnamon rolls and walking around a bit we then headed up the coast to a small farm that had some goats and chickens, cows, typical farm animals – Avila Valley Farms. You could buy food to feed them but what we went there for was the farms store. I bought some raspberry pepper jelly, honey which is from a local beehive and some peach salsa. I wanted to get unusual items to try as they are all made locally. There was so much to choose from, fresh produce, my daughter bought a bunch of items that she needed so it was a fun stop. We bought fresh artichoke’s and are cooking them up now as my daughter and I LOVE FRESH artichokes. (The men in my family won’t touch them!) We boil them and eat the meat off every leaf and then devour the heart! YUMMY! We are having a salad with these beautiful, delicious artichokes.

Thank you for joining me on my weekend coffee share adventures! We are traveling during the week as I will be working Saturday and Sunday night shift so we travel home tomorrow. I thought since I missed last weeks coffee share I really wanted to join in this week. I am so happy to be able to visit with family and spend time with them really fills my heart and makes me so very happy! I hope you all have a wonderful weekend and if you are sharing coffee I will make sure to stop by and join you.

Happy traveling Grandma and Mom,

~Diana ❤

My Weekly Smile; July 29, 2020

Welcome to my weekly smile and as I set out on my walk this morning it was wonderful to feel the sunrise on my back. It was a nice 60 degrees and as I passed the school across the street there are many trucks delivering dirt or whatever they need to fill in a new parking lot. So many trucks coming and going and as I walk I feel and hear the rumble of their diesel engines as they idle waiting their turn. As I pass all this organized chaos I finally get far enough away to hear nature that is out cackling away. The roosters crow in neighboring yards and the morning doves are cooing away keeping me company as I walk the block. I giggled as one rooster cock-a-doodle doo went hoarse near the very end. Haha, sure made me smile as I took in the morning! 😀

I’m smiling as my teeny tiny garden is really flourishing. I get so EXCITED! The tomatoes are waning and I am thinking all my watering may be a little much for the one tomato plant – but that’s okay because it has given me plenty of tomatoes and since the two bell peppers are thriving, it is now time to see these babies grow bigger and I will have a ton of bell peppers as I counted over 20! I will be giving some away to my friends as I can’t eat them all. I know I can cut them up, flash freeze and then store in freezer if needed. But I want to share them too. They make me smile! 😀

I am also excited this week as I am going to see my daughter and have the rest of the week off from work. My youngest son and I will be driving the 3 hours or so up North to spend time with her and buy presents to send to my granddaughter. My granddaughter turns 5 next week and so we will send a nice care package and virtually celebrate this year and I have to say I feel truly blessed to have these beautiful grand children in our lives. I am hoping that I will be able to visit these grand babies next month as my son is trying to plan a weekend where I can baby sit so that he can take his wife camping in northern AZ for some time together. I am excited, and can patiently wait for a date. Here is that cute grandson, growing every month!

Teddy is such a cutie patutie and as he is still so small, it makes my grand daughter look so big. I can’t believe she is turning 5 years old. ❤ As these weeks fly by (can you believe it is the end of July?) I can’t believe it will be August next week. I have been following the weather very closely the last month or so and I did not realize that in AZ it does not cool off at night. It will cool from say 110 degrees high, down to 90 degrees at night! WOW, and if it is say 101 degrees high, it will go down to 80’s at night. SO HOT!

I asked my son if it was like this last year, he said he thought this year is worse but they have only been there a couple of years. He was saying it felt like when you are snowed in and you can’t go out, with Covid and now the heat – they are stuck in the house. It is hard to go for walks with the kids when it is 90 out at 8pm. UGH! this does not look like a place where I want to retire with my horses. We are weighing all options and are starting to look at other options. I don’t think my son with his family are going to make AZ their permanent residents, who knows what the future holds! I have to consider everything, so we are taking our time. I was just shocked how very hot that state is at least the lower half of that state. Northern AZ is higher elevation and better weather. We have time. (as I complain how fast time flies! Haha!)

Thank you for visiting my smile post! What makes you smile? I just had to share one more bloom. This photo is a small bud which just makes me smile. I hope you all are doing well and are healthy and happy. I know we all have our struggles in this life so to stop and smell the roses (couldn’t help myself from using that phrase, hehe) is one way to slow down and take in the day. Have a wonderful week! Stay safe ❤

Happy Smiling Grandma,

~Diana

My Weekly Smile: July 22, 2020

"There are no gardening mistakes, only experiments."
                                                                       -Janet K Phillips

I love this gardening quote because I feel like I make mistake after mistake but really I am learning and so to look at it as experiments as I learn brings me great confidence. I so appreciate the advice that I get along the way of my gardening adventures. I am okay with mistakes, I know that they are like steps in the learning ladder! My smile for this week is gardening success. After I mulched my container where my veggies are growing my bell peppers are taking off and are about an inch in length as you can see in the photo. Now the soil is staying nice and moist and I am seeing some healthy growth!

I am so happy, and it makes me want to continue in this container growing adventure. I have two more containers that I can use to grow more veggies which I will have to do some research to see what would be good to grow at this time of year. I am just one month into summer so if I buy starters I am sure there is a lot to choose from to grow. Fun to think about my teeny tiny garden!! I love being outside as this makes me smile too! I do have one more special smile I want to share, courtesy of my dear hubby.

I am a huge Food Network fan and watch so many cooking shows. I really like the competition shows, they are fun and entertaining to me and I realize this may not be everyone’s thing – but it is definitely right up there with my favorite thing to do as I sit and relax and crochet! Watching these shows (I record many of them) is my way of relieving stress in my busy schedule. I have one other of Ree Drummond’s cookbooks, so now I have two. I just love her cookbooks with all the photos and her food is very good. My sweet hubby makes me SMILE with this wonderful surprise!! Now I need to make him a nice meal. Comfort food with LOVE! It will be my pleasure to return him the favor with a lovely dinner! ❤ ❤ ❤

Thank you for visiting my smile this week. I am getting ready to go out and take care of my horses and wanted to get my smile post together to share!

Happy gardening smiles with a surprise!

~Diana ❤

Weekend Coffee Share; Gardening and Outside Fun!

Welcome to my yard from Spring as I reminisce. I am missing my roses, they are not blooming right now and so I thought I would feature these beauties. It is amazing how this rose starts out a darker yellow and pink and then fades as it ages and opens up as you see these two roses blooming next to each other. They are heavenly! Can I get you coffee or tea? Iced is my preference on these warm summer days. As we sit outside enjoying this beautiful summer day and chat, I will tell you how I am looking for tomato recipes as I am getting a lot of tomatoes! Lol 😀

I am loving all these tomatoes and my neighbor is growing them as well and has given us eight more that are in my fridge. The lighter ones you see in the photo I just picked today. I read that it is good to pick them as they start to turn and then you can let them ripen on your counter. They are absolutely scrumptious!! I have been eating them on salads and in my sandwiches but I want to use them in some recipes. I know I can make salsa and spaghetti sauce. I looked up baked tomatoes and the recipe I found looks delicious! I’ll let you know how it turns out if I bake them. (Basically, they are stuffed and baked with breadcrumbs and Parmesan cheese, garlic, you know…. all the good stuff!) I am also thinking of making homemade ketchup. I LOVE ketchup! Do you have any good recipes when you have a lot of tomatoes?

My teeny tiny garden – container gardening is working out very well. I have mulched it and I think its helping tons. The plants look very healthy and I know it might look crowded but the bell peppers don’t take up much room. I have two bell pepper plants and one tomato plant. I knew I would have a ton of tomatoes with just one plant, and I didn’t know if the bell peppers would grow well, so I guess that’s why I got two of the bell peppers. You never know what will live, and I haven’t killed a tomato plant to date! I wanted to share a couple more photos of some plants that are looking great. Can I get you a refill? I better get more iced coffee, cafe mocha is my go too..

These really are house plants but the weather is mild enough here where I live that they thrive really well completely in the shade outside on my front porch. I have two of the variegated philodendrons on my porch along with an ivy and of course the arrowhead.

I have a story about the Arrowhead. My hubby came home from work one day after our second son was born and walked into the house and I will never forget I was washing dishes and he walked up to me and asked me how I was and I just burst into tears!! I could not stop crying, and he was very consoling but the hormones raged and the postpartum blues had hit me hard. Usually about two weeks after birth I just can’t control my emotions. The next day he came home with a beautiful plant arrangement. It had a small palm and this arrowhead philodendron, and it meant so much to me that he bought these to help soothe my hormone depression. This arrowhead that is thriving on my front porch is 31 years old this year! AMAZING! I think all my potted plants on my porch are well over 20 years old and going strong. ❤ ❤ ❤

Oh dear, I hope I am not boring you with all the plants. The plants are looking so great it just makes me smile and so in turn makes me want to share them. Since we are outside, how about we head to the stables and we can turn out the horses! GREAT IDEA! 😀

Thank you for visiting today and I enjoyed our visit together. It is great to reminisce and to share my garden adventures. I would have shared baked tomatoes, now that would be a perfect lunch! I hope you are enjoying summer, I know I am the best I can.

Happy gardening horse loving gal,

~Diana

My Weekly Smile; July 14, 2020

We are half way through July and summer is here, definitely no bones about it, it’s SUMMER! ! We’ve crested 100F (38C) several times through this last week. It is to be cooler as we head into this weekend. I’ll take anything under 100 degrees as I spend at least 2 hours each day outside with my horses. With my work schedule I am sometimes getting to the barn near noon, so silly hot but there is almost always a breeze which helps and I must take care of those cute ponies! My smile is for hot summer days and pony fun!

Not only is my smile for summer days, it is for summer fun eating home grown tomatoes! Not only am I getting some nice tomatoes my neighbor has given us some of theirs and so I am sharing with my girlfriend at the stables. My dear friend Maria suggested I mulch the bell peppers which are with the tomato plant and so I mulched them yesterday. I have been watering them a lot with the heat and there are many flowers on the bell pepper plants so we will see if they grow some bell peppers soon. Weeks ago one plant grew one bell pepper which I chopped up and froze. I haven’t taken any photos of my veggies lately. I’ll share this next weekend.

I’m smiling as I finish up my pink baby blanket and looking to make these cute little crochet cactus! Oh my, so much cuteness! There are 12 different cactus that I think will be so fun to stitch up and have a collection of cacti! I plan on giving some away as well. They should stitch up fairly quickly and am looking forward to making something new.

I’m going to end with a memory photo that popped up with the sister kitties. These cute kitties are my son and daughter-in-law’s kitties. I am thankful I am able to take them and enjoy their company as they now live with me, hubby and my youngest son. This was when they were just kittens 4 years ago. How can you not smile! 😀

Enjoy the rest of your week and I hope you have some things that make you smile. I have enjoyed sharing with you all and stay cool and safe.

Smiling pony loving crochet crazy gal!

~Diana ❤

My Weekly Smile; July 9, 2020

I usually write my smile post either on Tuesday or Wednesday but this week has gotten away from me, and here it is Thursday. My smile post this week goes to my big sister. We had the best sister chat this week and I wanted to dedicate this weeks smile to her as she made me smile and it was so GREAT catching up! I don’t want to offend any of my sister’s and some of my sisters read my blog posts – so sending LOVE to all and if I haven’t chatted with you, maybe we can catch up with each other this weekend! It’s never too late and always WELCOME! ❤ ❤ ❤

We live in different states. I am one of 6 children and we occupy 5 states in the Western United States. We all moved away for one reason or another from Southern California where we grew up. I am the only one left here and miss my family so much. I actually had wanted to travel this year and was hoping to visit each sister and brother and along the way make it a celebration as this year I turn 60. BUT those plans got canceled and we all know the reason why. So I plan on phone chats more often and catching up with them all before to much more time passes. 😀

I just wanted to share how family can be so supportive and how much I miss everyone. Talking with my sister really put a huge smile on my face, and is I believe the best therapy especially when Mom and Dad are in heaven. My sister’s and brother are all a blessing, and I should reach out and connect more often. I am so thankful for the ones who keep in touch with me with my blogging as we actually exchange messages each week. I think this blog post will surprise them. SO I AM GOING TO TELL THEM, I LOVE YOU SO MUCH!! HUGS! ❤

Happy Smiling Sister! 😀

Love, Diana

Weekend Coffee Share; July 4th Weekend!

May peace, love, and happiness always be with you! 
Wishing you a very happy Fourth of July ❤

Welcome, I got back from my first walk in about a month. I was giving my knee time to heal and it is progressing nicely. It got a little sore as I was on the last leg of my walk which was just under a mile which I didn’t mind because I knew it was a good sore. Meaning I need to strengthen my knee and I know I didn’t over do it, just got it working so that I can get back to my normal walks. I took a few photos when I was out this morning. It was a nice 65 degrees (18C) this morning which is so nice to walk when it is cool. The high today is expected to be in the 90’s – 96 (35C) to be exact and believe it or not as long as it stays under 100 degrees it is tolerable to be out and with my horses.

I forgot to offer you a some ice coffee or tea? I am thinking it is summer and already pretty warm and so the iced drinks are just so refreshing. It’s definitely summer and we try and ride early to beat the heat and am hoping we don’t see too many days over 100 degrees. We don’t ride when its that hot, and we try and keep the ponies cool by hosing them off on really hot days. My girlfriend and I have been enjoying this weekend and trail riding on our ponies. I was able to take a short video I will share. I have so many ropes to take care of when I am riding and taking Zack along ponying him that I have to be careful. Chloe is a steady trail horse and the trails we ride on they know very well. I am very grateful having such great trail horses!

Our 4th of July trail ride! LOVE our ponies!

I hope the video plays correctly. I know the last one worked fine. It is so FUN to share, we have such a great time and our ponies bring us much joy and happiness. I say this all the time and can’t say this enough. We have such a connection with these giant beasts, they rely on us to keep them in a safe place and we in turn try and be gentle, kind and give them guidance in a way that is respectful for both horse and human. They really understand so much and they always amaze me how smart they are and how we can actually communicate with each other. So MUCH FUN!

Thank you so much for enjoying coffee with me today. This weekend we celebrate Independence day and I can’t believe how different this celebration has been this year. We heard and saw some far away fire works from our front porch. There was plenty of fire works going off around the neighborhood (which is illegal) but plenty still fire them off which I know can scare many animals. My horses do fine, I have one dog that gets nervous but they did great as we keep them near us through the worse of the fireworks going off.

I hope you all have a relaxing weekend. I hope you were able to get outside even if it is a walk around your block. I think being able to get out of the house and doing some sort of exercise is so important for your mental health. I am not an expert mind you, I just know that one needs to get some fresh air and keep moving no matter what age you are, this is so important and can sure bring smiles your way, I know it does for me! 😀

Happy 4th of July Weekend!

~Diana ❤