Weekend Coffee Share; July Fun In The Sun!

On July 17, 2021 By DianaIn Living life, weekend coffee share18 Comments

Welcome to my weekend coffee share and how would you like your coffee today? Or I have tea or juice, apple or cranberry today? I can’t believe it is more than half way through July. And we are feeling the heat and I am always thankful when there is a breeze which makes being outside a bit easier. I wanted to share my teeny tiny garden and I actually just threw some tomato seeds in my container with some fresh fertilizer and thought maybe they will grow and if they don’t that’s okay too. I’ve been so darn busy that this year it’s just going to be tomatoes, and even though I long for a fruitful garden it takes work.

I want to give a shout out to all you wonderful gardener’s out there because you all ROCK! I supposed when you garden (and you are good at it) you become efficient, and you are probably organized and so it all just falls into place for you and your schedule of watering is on point and on and on… perfect gardening techniques I am finding takes practice, and so I mulched around the sprouting tomato plants and I know the container is being watered and staying moist more evenly (I hope!) as I know this is important too.

*Tomato plants growing big and tall! I have 4 plants in one container, I hope that’s not too many?*

Haha, I already pulled out a plant early on as I knew I should thin out the container. I then thought let me see what these 4 plants do and I can always pull one or two out if needed. But now that they are getting so big, I want to see what they will provide! They have plenty of room, so I think they are okay. It is great fun watching them grow and I have other plants and flowers I water so I am always outside doing something.

My hubby is almost done with the retaining wall in our backyard, YAY! What a job, but it looks so much better which is wonderful. We will wait until fall to think about landscaping shrubs or ground cover plants. I want to plant some trees too. We have such mild weather here in Southern California I really don’t have to worry about planting in the fall. As I am talking about being outdoors you must know the next subject I want to share is my trail rides and my horses! I’ll start with a video I made today and a shout out to my weekend coffee share peeps! Haha, I hope you all know I say howdy to anyone who stops and visits here! You are all WELCOME! I hope you enjoy! 😀

We were chatting away and as we headed down this street I thought let’s make a video. My girlfriend took out her phone to take a video of me since I am never in my videos ~ how sweet! She accidentally hit slo-mo so her video was all in slow motion, oh dear, haha! Maybe next time she can make one and I can use to share! Thanks for trying pony sister, there is always next time! ❤

After I returned to the barn I hosed off Chloe as it was already pretty hot out and then I turned my attention to Murphy. So I will share some photos and I made a little video with Murph too. It was a fun morning at the barn. It was another pony sister’s birthday. There were cupcakes brought for the birthday and they were delicious. (We like to call each other pony sister’s because of our love for horses! If you have never met a horse crazy gal, well you are reading her blog right now!) 😀

*He LOVES people and attention which I am sure you can tell. His nose is super soft and I love kissing his nose when I can!*

Silly selfie video, but it was fun to make! I was trying to get his whole head in the view of my phone. I did pretty good, but what I am most impressed with (myself) is I was able to give him a kiss and got it on video! Haha, I have tried with Miss Chloe before and there’s just a way that you need to hold your phone. I had so much fun working with him today.

I wanted to wrap up my #weekendcoffeeshare with I connected with my oldest sister and we chatted and I think I have figured out a date to visit her in Colorado. I need to check out airline flights and figure out all the details and this will be at the end of August so I have plenty of time. In just a few weeks I will be heading to Arizona for my grand daughter’s 6th birthday! YAY! She is getting so big and I am so excited. I will say that I kind of wish she was born in the fall or winter, haha, just because it is so hot in August! It’s all good, and I’m so excited my daughter will be joining us too! I hope you all stay cool, safe and healthy!

Horse or pony crazy cowgirl!

~Diana ❤

Weekend Coffee Share; Aug. 22, 2020

On August 22, 2020 By DianaIn blogging, weekend coffee share29 Comments

*Welcome to my coffee share where we share what’s been happening in our lives. Can I get you a cup of coffee or tea? Too hot in my neck of the woods for a hot beverage. How about a cold brew?*

Welcome and come in out of the heat. We can social distance in our family room as it is miserably hot outside. We have been having such hot weather, but what makes it rather unbearable is the humidity. We are spoiled southern Californian’s and do not do humidity, we just don’t! Haha, we melt and complain and wish this would all go away ASAP! Hopefully it will and then I can stop complaining. 😀

I feel badly for my little tiny garden. I try and keep it watered in this heat. I don’t mind if the bell peppers are done, I went ahead and picked what I could and will let them ripen more on the counter. I actually have a lot and am not sure what I am going to do with them all. Funny, I picked this veggie to grow as it’s not my favorite, I can eat them but I like tomatoes better. I can just cut up a tomato and eat it with a little salt sprinkled on it, but a bell pepper? I know I can chop it up and use in my salads, I’ll have to look up some recipes! 😀

*There is one very green tomato. Not sure if it will ripen up as my tomato plant I thought was done but there are a lot of new sprouts on it so maybe I will get more tomatoes. We will see!*

*My honeysuckle is blooming! I LOVE the smell of these tiny flowers!!*

I love my honeysuckle. My hubby accidentally butchered one side of my honeysuckle plant. It is like a big bush and where he chopped it all off it has taken a long time to come back. It is finally coming around and starting to bloom. I asked him to not cut it any more and I will have to carefully prune it. It usually blooms in the summer, such a welcome beautiful blooming plant! The smell is so sweet, love me some honeysuckle!! ❤

*Getting a break in the heat! Just arena turn outs this week.*

It’s been so stinking hot that I was only able to trail ride once this last week. I only had one day I could get to the barn early at 8:30 am so we could try and beat the heat. My girlfriend and I rode and got these ponies some exercise and I will say by the time we got on it felt too hot, but it was under 90 degrees, just the humidity made it feel hotter. I suspect we won’t ride again until end of next week. The heat should subside soon, hopefully! (Trying not to complain too much!) 😀

*This was after our ride earlier this last week! Then they got a nice bath!*

Thanks for having coffee with me today. It has been a busy week with work and all the animals. I feel a bit drained because of this heat (I just can’t help myself, it does zap your energy – darn heat!) I also am covering for a vacation at work. My days off were last Monday and Tuesday, then I work Wednesday through this coming Monday. I am working this weekend, which means I need to wrap up this coffee share so I can get to bed! I hope you all have a wonderful weekend. I will stop by and have coffee with you if you are sharing and if not have a great week ahead!

Trying to stay cool!

~Diana ❤

My Weekly Smile; July 29, 2020

On July 29, 2020 By DianaIn Love being Grandma, weekly smile6 Comments

*A new rose bloom! Makes me SMILE! Love roses perfume!*

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!)

*One more rose photo! So happy I have some new blooms!!*

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

On July 22, 2020 By DianaIn Gardening, weekly smile21 Comments

*Welcome to my weekly Smile! What makes you smile? My bell peppers are growing!*

"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 have two bell pepper plants with lots of fruit!* 😀

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.

*My hubby surprised me with a sweet card and Ree’s cookbook! Yay!*

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!

On July 17, 2020 By DianaIn Living life, weekend coffee share27 Comments

**Weekend Coffee share is a time for us to take a break out of our busy lives and enjoy some time catching up with friends (old and new). Please grab a cup of coffee** ***or tea and share with us!***

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. ❤ ❤ ❤

*My huge Ivy on my front porch! It’s VERY HAPPY!!*

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! 😀

*Gracie and Chloe enjoying a turn out in arena!*

*One of her favorite things to do, eat!!! Especially grass! Mowing machines!*

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

Weekend Coffee Share; Summer is Here!

On June 20, 2020 By DianaIn Living life, weekend coffee share14 Comments

She is clothed with strength and dignity
and laughs without fear of the future
                                                    ❤ Proverbs 31:25

I am sitting here enjoying my cup of coffee reflecting back to all the summers that have come and gone. Boy, has there been a lot of summers. Haha, I am getting old (but feel young) and don’t really want to count them all but I will say I usually have really fun summers. We live where in the summer it gets a bit hot but honestly, you can’t beat the weather here in Southern California. There is no humidity and we are close enough to the ocean that the nights cool off really well. There is a lot to do in the summer if you have the time. I am not retired, so I have to take vacation days to enjoy any extra days off to explore or enjoy weekend retreats. 😀

As I am finishing my coffee, may I get you something as we sit outside enjoying the cool morning? We are still in June and so we usually get a lot of marine layer that rolls in and keeps us cool. Us locals call June “June gloom” Haha, it is very welcoming as it is the last of the cool weather as we approach July. I am feeling more confident each day I see all the tomatoes growing in my container. I am watching a lot of Youtube videos learning lots about tomato gardening. I didn’t realize there is so much to this to get the best out of your plant and fruit! I have grown before, but my plants were tiny with barely any tomatoes. I am learning a lot this year!

I think it is fun to learn about gardening. I think container gardening is a great way to start, plus I don’t have to worry about gophers and I do not have any other critters that climb into my containers. My girlfriend who lives in a different area, about 15 miles from where I live planted veggies in a couple of containers last year and once the plants started to sprout up (she started with seedlings) something jumped into her containers and ate everything that she tried to grow! Maybe ground squirrels? She never saw the critters but needless to say she gave up after several attempts. She ended up giving me her containers. She is having better luck with fruit trees! How is your coffee? or can I get you something else? The sun is still not out, very overcast today.

*A combo photo, place mats are complete and started another baby blanket that is pink!*

I loved crocheting these pretty pastel placemats for my daughter. They are like doilies all connected only not as tiny as real doilies. They will be cute on her table in her apartment. I also am starting another sweet dreams baby blanket and this time it is for a girl! I just love this pattern and it stitches together quickly and I LOVE seeing how it comes together in a different color. So many babies this year!! This really eases my stress being able to create and make all my crochet fun creations. I thought I would share my latest projects.

I must say as we sit and chat enjoying this cool morning that my emotions and thoughts are all over the place. We are trying to figure out the best way to move to Arizona and oh my goodness, this is not going to be an easy thing to do at all. I find myself feeling anxious because this all takes time, and I feel like a little kid wanting answers and decisions right NOW! But that’s not how this is going to work, we need to take it one day at a time. SO I waffle back and forth with, screw this idea, this is HARD – to I can’t wait to move to where cost of living will be better and I will be close to family and friends in AZ and feeling excited. Holy Smokes! I need to think about our future as we age! Shoot…. I find the process frustrating. And that’s all I will share about this subject right now. Thought it would make me feel better sharing, haha, its just tough to know what will be best for us and our future. On to what I know makes me smile and keeps me sane! 😀

*Little patches of grass are delicious! Haha!*

Chloe and Zack running lose in the arena for exercise! Pretty ponies!

Oh my goodness! This day is so exciting! I FINALLY figured out how to upload a video! I am so silly. I have been trying and trying and finally found on the editor I am using the video icon. I take a lot of videos so ya’ll beware! You might being seeing a lot more of these. I have trail rides to share too. I get so EXCITED over silly things but I have been wanting to share videos of my horses for a very long time. (I am embarrassed to say how long, haha, I’m so happy I finally figured it out). I hope it plays correctly when I publish for everyone. All I can do is try and see if this works!! YAY!

Thanks for joining me for coffee this weekend. I showed you my tiny garden and enjoyed sharing my craft projects. We then chatted about the future, what is in your future plans? And finally we drove just over a mile to the stables as I turned out the ponies! I had so much fun with ya’ll!

Have a wonderful weekend!

~Diana ❤

Weekend Coffee Share; My Tiny Garden

On May 31, 2020 By DianaIn Living life, weekend coffee share11 Comments

Welcome and how are you today? I am having a nice cup of morning coffee with my oatmeal and english muffin with jam. I have bananas too, would you like to join me as we finish out this weekend and this month? Yesterday was my son’s birthday, and wish I could have been in Arizona to bake him a cake! That would have been divine but it was not in the cards and with all that is going on totally understandable. I miss him very much. I also miss his wife and 2 children too, so much my heart aches but we stay in touch as much as possible. How’s your coffee? or would you rather have some tea?

Before I get into my tiny garden photos my husband and I had an interesting conversation last evening. He got a call from a very good friend of his in Arizona and they asked him to ask me if I would be interested in living on 37 acres in Williams, Arizona? He explained that they were looking for themselves when they realized this is also horse property and wondered if I wanted to have a horse ranch there! WAIT, WHAT? I told my husband YES! This is just all thoughts from our friends, but they are thinking of purchasing the land. It would be 2 1/2 hours from my family there, much closer than where I am at here and the weather there is wonderful because it is higher elevation. It is only 35 miles from Flagstaff, Arizona which is a bigger city and I could find work there. Oh my, this is only the first conversation but if it were to come to fruition, it would be a dream come true. Enough land that I would have my own trails to ride on with my horses!! I just had to share, it may not happen. Maybe talking about it will get the ball rolling in that direction. Maybe?

On to my teeny tiny garden. But this tiny garden sure brings me big smiles! I believe I will get a few tomatoes and bell peppers. So far so good!

*My beautiful blooms! They make me smile!*

I will be doing some gardening work this afternoon and prune my roses and spray them for aphids. I use a mixture of a couple of drops of dawn soap in a spray bottle with water. It doesn’t hurt the plants but really gets rid of those darn bugs. We have an over abundance of earwigs this year, and have seen a fair amount of lizards which are eating those bugs. The roses continue to bloom and I believe once I prune them I will get some new growth with more blooms in the coming months!

I bought a small plant for my daughter to put on her patio table. I was surprised she had the same assorted plants as a canvas photo in her bathroom. Like minds think alike, and it was a purchase on a whim. I had to share, Love my daughter so much!

My explanation of the above photo is enough. I will say though that when I placed the plants on her patio table she told me she would probably kill them. I almost said, well at least you have a photo of them to enjoy! Hehe, these are rather hard to kill, and so hopefully she will have some success with them. If not, its all okay. She is doing really good, and I am so excited to hear where her next assignment will be. She will be moving at the end of this year.

*My son sent this and he set one of the brothers in a little sit up chair they bought the baby. I thought it was adorable and he said he sat there for a few minutes! Silly Kitty!*

Those brothers are just the best cats and to me very comical. I know I have shared some really wonderful photos of them, sleeping together is just so cute. When he shared this photo it made me laugh, its just too funny! He looks rather content even though he did not stay long in there, he is so mellow! I really enjoyed sharing coffee with you today. I really can’t believe it will be June tomorrow. The time sure flies, and I am looking forward to the summer but praying we don’t get too much heat. It can get pretty darn hot, but I think we will be okay until July. Have a great week!

~Diana ❤

Weekend Coffee Share; A Very Busy Week

On May 16, 2020 By DianaIn Family is important, Love being Grandma, weekend coffee share27 Comments

*Thinking about my Grand babies every day! I can’t help myself, he’s my lead in to my coffee share!*

Welcome to my coffee share where we share the weeks happening or what we will be up to this weekend. I have had such a busy week, I think I am getting busier instead of what most people have been doing and that is staying inside and probably fighting boredom. I am not trying to defy the staying at home orders and those that follow me know that I am a essential worker and work full-time in a Veterinary Lab and I own two horses. So I am always on the go and I enjoy my gardening too! Can I get you a cup of coffee or tea? I just had to share baby Teddy again, to be able to hold him in my arms, oh my, just thinking about that makes me sad (because I’m so far away) and joyful all at the same time! Love you grand babies!! Missing Alice, my grand daughter too. ❤

I have so much to share! I have my tiny garden which is in containers this year and I am having really good luck and so far nothing is dead and things are flourishing. I am going to share some photos as I should get tomatoes and hoping for some bell peppers too! I am really excited.

*This is my tomato and bell pepper container. The photo on the left I just took this morning and the photo on the right was taken last week. What growth in one week! I am so excited they are thriving!!*

*Photo on the left is my tea rose which hasn’t bloomed in a few years! It has been going crazy with blooms. On the right my container of flowering perennials. Pretty!*

I got help this last week with weeding. My hubby gets out there with his weed wacker and boy, he makes tedious work go much faster by using this tool. He has a nice gas powered one which he tackles all areas where we have tons of weeds that grow. Then I tend to the roses with pruning and I water too. At this time we don’t have too many things growing that need watering. We use to have automatic timer watering but that was back when we had a front lawn. We are definitely conserving water since the lawn is long gone. We are going to landscape eventually with a water friendly decor. Not sure what that will be, or when this will happen, haha, something on our to do list for our house!

How’s your coffee, need a refill? I forget for some it may be dinner time, but then I know many that drink coffee with their dinner! I would be drinking ice tea with my dinner, speaking of dinner I need to figure out what’s for dinner? I digress, I really wanted to share my busy week with all the horse back riding I’ve been doing. 😀

I have been asked by a really nice horse woman at the barn I left recently to help her with her horse. She is around my age and new to riding (hmm.. I keep forgetting to ask her background with horses, I must ask her the next time we meet) but needless to say she has had some scares, falling off a time or two and has some fears and does not feel confident especially riding the trails. NO PROBLEM I tell her, I will help you gain confidence and tackle your fears!! She has hired me to ride her horse and give her lessons. I am taking on more, but it is something I am very passionate about, HORSES!

*This is Ava, my clients horse. I am not in the training business but will help when people ask and this mare is a ton of fun to ride!*

I am having a ton of fun riding this pony. This photo was the first day I rode her and after this day I lengthened my stirrups as they are rather high for western, I had to ride her “English style” in the western saddle. The horsey people who follow me should understand. I think I will just write another blog post about my horsey fun and training, and giving lessons to this super nice lady who just wants some help with her horse. She wants confidence and I told her I would love to help her. The little extra money I will earn will go directly to my horses, their grains I buy and shavings for their stalls. It will mean some extra time out of my days off but worth it I think!

*Crochet linen place mats for my daughter! So FUN!*

I keep so busy, if I am not at work which is night shift, at the stables most mornings, tending my garden mid-afternoon, I am probably crocheting before I head to bed! I need to fit in sleep on my work days but some how I manage. I Love crochet and my daughter bought this yarn and it is fine so I can make these pretty place mats. When I visited my daughter last weekend we went online shopping and she found this yarn in pretty pastel colors. Perfect for her house and I may need to make some for my house too! I’ll have to buy more yarn! FUN!

I’ll finish up by saying that I am enjoying our beautiful Spring weather. We have had only one heat spell where the heat spiked and now it is much better. We have had mild heat this month and I am very happy about that. I was able to visit the ranch and ride out on the trails today with my girlfriend. I’ll close with a couple of photos of my silly horses. Fun, fun, fun! I hope you are having a good if not great weekend. I’ve so enjoyed having coffee with you and sharing my busy week and am getting in some relaxation this weekend!

*Haha! Love my horses! Miss Chloe and Zack giving ya’ll a lick! What a great shot!!*

Happy Grandma Cowgirl!

~Diana ❤

Weekend Coffee Share; My Tiny Garden and Thinking of Family!

On May 1, 2020 By DianaIn Living life, weekend coffee share17 Comments

Welcome to my coffee share, can I get you a cup of Joe? or are you in the mood for some herbal tea? or Ice tea? It’s been very hot this last week, but I must say today and this weekend the weather is very nice and so this makes me very happy when I am out riding my horses! I am going to enjoy this weekend with the warm weather before it heats up again next week. We are close enough to the ocean to where it will cool off at night and we get coastal fog that pushes inland and cools things off. Thankful for this cooling affect as it makes these Spring days beautiful! 😀

I am really happy I started my tiny garden. So far I haven’t killed anything and so far no animal or varmint has eaten anything! I am doing good, this is week one. I am getting some new growth on my veggies as they settle into their new home. And the perennials are super happy and are blooming again! They were blooming when I bought them, then got very sad when I transplanted them, then decided they liked their new home and began to bloom again!! YAY! I am SMILING from ear to ear! Thank you tiny container garden! ❤

*This is my veggie container. I am seeing some new growth! I am so EXCITED!*

*I am SUPER HAPPY with my perennials! Look at all the pretty flowers! Makes me smile!*

*My roses are blooming! I need to trim them up and buy some rose food!*

I enjoy my gardening and need to get out there and do some weeding. Lucky I am doing container gardening so I just need to remove weeds around the containers. Since I am watering more often it is making the ground soft so the weeds come out pretty easily. I also need to trim my rose bushes. Some are blooming nicely and I know it will help the plant if I trim some of the older blooms. Maybe I will do this tomorrow as the weather should be nice and not too hot. High tomorrow 82 F (28 C) which is so much cooler than this next week it will be 102 F (39 C) YIKES!

On to my family – I MISS MY FAMILY! There, I said it and it is the truth! I know I will be able to see them hopefully sooner than later but I am thinking about them every day. I am actually messaging my daughter while I am writing this post. I just toggle back and forth from WordPress to Facebook messenger and I am finding it really FUN! I miss her so much! AND I miss my grand babies! ❤ ❤ ❤ ❤

*Oh My, Teddy is growing! I have not met him in person yet! Darn it all!! SOON I hope!*

*This is my home screen on my phone! ADORABLE! My sweet grand children!!*

I’ll say it for you, AWW, I love them so very much and I cannot wait til the day where I am heading to their house in Arizona! I think its time for another video chat with them so I will contact my son and see how they are doing and if we can chat this weekend. Baby Teddy had his 2 months shots this last Wednesday and he was upset and grumpy that first day but was much better the next day so he should be feeling good this weekend. I’m excited. I really am so thankful for all of our technology.

I hope you enjoyed my coffee share today. I so enjoy sharing with you all and I hope this coffee share finds you well and doing good. I have to thank Eclectic Alli for hosting our meeting place for our coffee shares. I am not very good at creating a link, it should be here and if it works there will be other coffee shares to read. I well end with my other pretty rose photo!

Have a wonderful weekend!

Happy Gardening Grandma,

~Diana ❤

My Weekly Smile; April 29, 2020

On April 29, 2020 By DianaIn Living life, weekly smile12 Comments

I have a lot to smile about as this week is half over and last week I was so busy I was not able to write my weekly smile. So this weeks smile will include what I was working on last week. It has been a whirlwind of events as my girlfriend and I have moved our horses to a new stable in our horse town in Norco, CA. While we were preparing the stalls at the new stables we needed some shade cloth that we put up in front of the stalls to help shade and keep our shavings from blowing away when it gets windy. While at Lowe’s I decided to buy some plants/veggie starts to plant in my containers. I am so happy I finally was able to get my tiny garden planted, so I have two things to SMILE about this week! YAY! 😀 😀 😀

*My veggies if they survive and the bunnies don’t jump in and eat them!*

*Pretty flowering perennial’s in another container!*

*My third container I put a Calla lily and Iris. I will split them up as I have a fourth container if it gets too crowded for them.*

I Love to garden partly because I am outdoors and I am a neophyte learning as I go with gardening and just try the best I can and sometimes I have a green thumb, and sometimes not so much. I try to fit so much into my busy schedule – working full-time – owning two horses and dogs, cats a house to clean – oh my, I am getting tired thinking about it all! Then I add gardening which takes care and some love or it will not do well. It so makes me smile when I go out and see the flowers bloom and/or the tomatoes grow! I will keep you posted now and again on how my tiny garden grows!

*They are enjoying a turn out at the new ranch!*

*My girlfriends horse Gracie and behind her Miss Chloe walking around and checking things out!*

We were able to spend as many days as we needed to fix up the new stalls at the new ranch. We moved some railroad ties to the front of the stall with some shade cloth to help keep the shavings on the ground from blowing through the pipes and out into the aisle or another stall. We will still lose some shavings probably but this will help keep a lot in our stalls. We get winds here that are very strong called the Santa Ana Winds! So it was worth all the work we put in and am grateful the stalls were empty so we could work on them. We moved a week early after putting in our 30 day notice where we were, mostly because my girlfriend and I were able to take extra days off of work. (We are essential workers in the medical field).

We moved because my girlfriend really needed more shade for her horse as she has aged, she has some sun sensitivities and with my two horses I should be able to save a few dollars. I wanted to help her out and this place is a nice place and sometimes it is just nice to change it up! I Love the stables I was at, there are always pros and cons at any facility and I will not go into all of that here. I think sometimes a change is needed, enough said on that subject! We now need to give the horses time to settle in and they are doing just that! ❤

*Miss Chloe is such a good girl and I am so blessed to have her, love her so much!*

Thank you for visiting my smile and I hope you are all doing well. I am so enjoying my tiny garden and my horses as they get acclimated. I like how they can look out over their stalls at this new place! The old place is nice but the pens have a link fencing that they can’t look out over the doors or fencing. It’s just a nice change and they can even scratch each others back if they wanted too. I hope you all have a great rest of your week!

Happy Gardening Cowgirl!

~Diana ❤

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Tag: #gardenphotos

My Weekly Smile; July 29, 2020

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My Weekly Smile; April 29, 2020