Today is a quiet Saturday at home.  We had pancakes for breakfast because I had the urge for homemade pancakes made from scratch.  They turned out exceptionally well this morning.  It has been awhile since I’ve had this urge.  I think its because we’re finally settling in.  Just a thought. We do not have plans for the day.  The kids will be with their aunt at the mall and just spending some QT together before she goes back to Italy.  The hubby will be doing his thing and is planning something for later this evening.  I’m not yet sure if its just a guy thing or if the wives are going too.  I’m sure I’ll find out once plans are settled.

On the quilty front, I’ve got some news – I got the backing for my secret project!  I was pleasantly surprised to receive it last night instead of next week.  I bought more of the fabric that I couldn’t use for the secret project but thought it would be a great backing.  Because of my last experience I purchased the fabric from Amazon, instead of fabric.com.  Apparently, the fabric still came from fabric.com.  I’m not sure if it said that anywhere (I wasn’t paying attention) but that’s where it came from!  And it only took 4 days to get to me!  I ordered it on Monday, the 16th and received if Friday, the 20th!  Amazing, I guess ordering from Amazon provides you with a better experience than ordering directly from fabric.com.  I even got a nice letter hoping that I had a good experience with this order.  Kind of made me think they read my not so nice review last week.  I don’t think so – but it was very coincidental.  Because it’s a secret, I can’t post a picture of it. 🙁

I joined a local guild!  I went to the first meeting a couple of weeks ago.  I hope they have a lot of sew-ins and mini retreats like my guild in Fremont.  There were a lot of people so I’m excited about the possibilities.  I also want to join the LA Modern Quilt Guild.  I don’t consider myself a modern quilter.  But it will be nice to not be the youngest person in the room!  The problem is that their meetings are all the way in the Pico area the first Monday evening of each month.  That means a good 1 hour(++) in traffic for those of you not familiar with LA traffic.  It’s not technically far (probably 15-20 miles from me).  And once you get past the traffic, I’m concerned about parking.  There are a lot of concerns so as much as I want to join, I haven’t been able to move past those two items to get me to a meeting.  Maybe next month. 🙂

Since I do not have pictures of actually made things or pretty fabric.  I’ll post pictures of my fruit trees in our backyard.  I’ve been seeing so many pictures online of snow covered outdoor furniture and icy mailboxes… here’s how we fare in Sunny Southern Cali today.  Not to make you all jealous or anything – but to give you hope that spring is on its way for y’all.

Grapefruit
2/21/15

First up, is our grapefruit tree.  It’s laden with ripe/ripening fruit and is ready to be picked.

Lemon Tree
2/21/15

Next is the lemon tree.  We’ve been enjoying the citrus smell of the flowers from this tree for the past few weeks.  The great thing about a lemon tree in Southern California is that we get lemons pretty much all year long.  But there are some times in the year where there are a lot more than usual.  That will probably be the case in a few months and I will need to make something with it.  I actually already picked all of the ripe lemons within reach last week so the picture doesn’t really do it justice.  But there are a lot more ripe ones higher up and I will need a ladder or a fruit picker to retrieve them.

Orange Tree
2/21/15

Similar to the lemon tree, our orange tree has had really delicious smelling flowers the last few weeks.  The flowers are now mostly gone and we are starting to see the little green oranges coming out.  There are a few early oranges that are on the tree and I’ll be picking them soon to try them out.  I love fresh squeezed orange juice.  At our old house we had a Valencia orange tree and it ripened in January.  So every Saturday in January/February I would juice a bucket-full of them for the week.  It was SO good.  These are not Valencia oranges and I’m not sure when they will ripen.  I’ll just have to periodically pick one to try it out.  ;0

Fig Tree
2/21/15

The fig tree is still bare. But the green is starting to come out.  I’m not sure if it’s the leaves or buds or flowers.  This is my first fig tree and I’m not sure how it’s cycle goes.  This one will be ripe around August/September.

This is how they will look when they ripen…

  Figs from Fig Tree
August 2014

Ripening Figs in Fig Tree
July/August 2014

I never knew how sticky figs are just by picking them from the tree.  And a milky substance comes out when you do so.  That substance looks milky but is VERY sticky. ;0

Mystery Tree
2/21/15

I’m not sure what this tree is.  When the leaves were on I thought it was a plum tree because it looked very similar to the plum tree at my parents’ home.  But there hasn’t been any fruit during the entire time we’ve been here. Granted, it’s only been since July of last year but that is enough time for a fruit tree to have produced something.  Unless its a fruit tree that produces early in the year like apricot which is April, May, June.  Anyway, I didn’t think that it was a fruit tree and could possibly be just a big tree.  However…

flower on mystery tree
2/21/15

I found this flower.  I think it’s a fruit tree… only time will tell what kind of fruit tree it is.

We’ve got a guava and an apple tree too but I couldn’t get good pictures.  Maybe next time.

Happy Saturday, it was a bit overcast this morning but the sun is out now and I may spend some time outdoors.

🙂
Melanie