Happy 4th Birthday, Wellington!

It was four years ago today that we moved into our lovely Wellington.  Is he just precious?  In honor of his fourth birthday I made Beef Wellington for dinner.  And the whole city celebrated by having the first Farmer's Market of 2014!

Happy Birthday, Wellington!

Ducklings at the Harbor (a Video)

Since the video has been reduced by Blogger, I uploaded it to YouTube.  The quality was reduced there when they took out the shaking, but it's a better quality than this video.  The best part of the video is the sound.  It's so peaceful down there with the birds chirping.  And that little wayward duckling at the end climbs aboard the duckling island with his siblings.  So cute.

 

Find the YouTube version here.

What's Blooming?

Last week The Dot gave these two little rusty metal birdies to The Hub for his birthday.  The one on the right seems to have collected a present for the one on the left.  So cute.

Walked down to the water again.  The tide was low.  It's about 75 degrees here today and absolutely gorgeous, as usual.

Here is the little bird bath and The Hub watering some flowers.  That's the neighbor's garage wall in the background.  Wellington was originally built in 1918 when it was common to build the garages along the lotline in the alley.  It's pretty quaint.

This little wall is looking lovely this year.  The window boxes hold most of my culinary herbs.  Two different mints, two different basils, oregano, thyme, yellow and red strawberries.  There are a couple of sages growing along the wall and of course, rosemary on the ground.  In the picture above this one you can see the bay tree that I bought in about 1995.  It's to the right of the bird bath.  It was stunted because it was in a pot for years and didn't get enough water.  But I love that it isn't huge and taking over everything.  It's much happier in the ground.

A very tranquil spot to relax.  There is a fig tree in the pot to the right of these chairs and an avocado tree in the pot to the left.  Just little dashes of shade.

The cactus in the pot on the ground is blooming yellow-orange.  I'm sure I have pictures of him in previous posts when he was on my kitchen window sill.  He's so adorable in the evening when he closes up his little flowers.

I am in love with this Japanese Snowberry.  Little dainty dangly white flowers, then he gets cute hard seed pods that hang from the branches.

Wellington is full of delights.

Good Morning, Wellington!

On a scale of 1 - 10, how happy am I?  The Dot asked me that this morning.  The answer is apparently 8.5.

This little baby geranium was just a little snippet I plucked from a pot in Carmel last May.  We went there for The Dot's birthday.  I spent a large percentage of the day plucking snippets.  Many have taken.  And this little guy in his little pot on Wellington's front porch is just adorable.

Speaking of Wellington, isn't he just looking splendid?  The answer is, of course, yes.  Maybe you shouldn't love a house this much, but Wellington is one in a million.  And I just can't help but be crazy about him.