September 2, 2008: Ah.............................September is here! Wow, I can feel the cool mornings and evenings and I know something is afoot!! The seasons change, and what a wonderful time it is. The renewal of time in our span of life is refreshing. I mean that Fall is here, and I can feel it in the morning and evening air. There! Is that better?? I hope so. We had a wonderful lunch with one of our daughters today, and we had a chance to visit and find out what is new with each of us. We have been going to this particular restaurant for many years and we love it. It is a family operation and the same people have owned it for a long time. What fun! I found the most beautiful yellow butterfly on the patio carpet, it was not alive. I do know that most butterflies have a very short life, but this beautiful one..............I don't know what happened to it. I will keep it among the geraniums........It is too beautiful to dispose of now. I wish I had had the chance to photograph it while alive. I do not like to see death overtake such a beauty. But we know life moves on, and that happens. I was doing my daily morning check of the geraniums and found the most interesting Crab Spider on the Americana Dark Red blossom. The color was rather cream like and if you would like to view the photo I took with my Macro lense(EF-S60mm f/2.8 Macro USM) click here. I hope you find it interesting. Some people are afraid of spiders, but I look at them as a phenomenon of nature and enjoy photographing them. The evenings are shorter now, and one can feel the night coming on earlier. That is a sign that Fall is soon upon us. Do you have your firewood ready for the winter? We have a pretty nice pile out back and are ready when the cool weather comes. How restful and wonderful is a fireplace with a fire on a cool fall/winter evening. I posted a new photo for you today on the opening page, it is of Lavender Blizzard. I really like the lavender color of the blossom. It is a magnificent hue. I hope you like it. I have also posted above on this page, some new quotations for fall and kept a few of the old ones that were there. I especially like the one about what Grandmother told the person. Makes lots of sense to me. I like Margaret Mead's quotation below. I fit into the category; we are immigrants in time; I like that. It is thought provoking. Yes and is true, often we live in an age that is far different than what we knew before. All for today. I hope your week is going well. Ours is. Enjoy!-BT, September 2, 2008

August 30, 2008: I have been out and around in the garden this morning. The iceberg roses needed a bit of trimming off the brown spent blossoms, and the tomatoes needed picking and watering. We found several of the delicious Better Boy tomatoes today. They are so delicious! Also the geraniums needed a bit of grooming, taking off the old blossoms, so new ones will form. The geraniums like the cooler weather it seems. They are perking up and putting on some new growth. It is about time for their monthly liquid fertilizer again. The humidity is with us today. It feels a bit sticky and moist. The bud worms are out in force in the geraniums and one must watch for them carefully. The hummingbirds are about in large numbers it seems, buzzing and zooming about in pairs near the feeder. Our little one is out there again near the feeder today. It is fun to see him. There are beautiful thunderhead clouds over the nearby mountains, white columns of cottonlike clouds, a streak of pink here and there run through them. What a beautiful sight! I hope you have seen the new Destiny ivy geranium I posted on the opening page today. What a color!! Destiny is also one of my early geraniums when I started my garden a few years ago. If you check the links you can find "Destiny" and view some of my earlier photos of that wonderfully bright and neon blossom! Have a great Labor Day weekend. Are you reading a good book? Or are you one of the many campers out there in nature? Wherever you may be, enjoy!!!-BT, August 30, 2008

August 26, 2008: Have you seen the new Hummingbird photo that I posted on the opening page the other day? I must say I love the photo, not because I photographed it, but because this little Anna's Hummingbird is a regular at the kitchen window these days everyday. You see, the hummingbird feeder is just outside the window hanging from the eaves area, and the little one has found a geranium plant to sit on while he waits. What is he waiting for? Well your guess is as good as mine, but I have read sometimes Hummers become possessive of a feeder and try to claim it for their own. Maybe he has done this. Whenever he is there on the geranium stem and another Hummer tries to come in for a sip of the sugar water mixture in the feeder, he lets out an alarming sound, and it is high pitched and easily recognized as an alarm sound. I love photographing Hummingbirds. I must admit I am taken with the beautiful and very dainty bird. They are so graceful and we really enjoy having them share our environment with us. It has been a warm day, an end of summer type of day, and we really like the weather. It is coastal and a marine layer type of weather most of the time. But that is fine with us. We like it. I also posted some new hummingbird photos on the "Hummingbirds 2008" page, available from the links list at the bottom of the opening page. I hope you will take a look when you get a minute at that page. When I photographed the new photo on the opening page I was about 4 feet from the little bird. I used my Canon EF75-300mm 4-5.6 IS lens on my Digital Rebel and worked over the photo with a photo editing application. I like the results. I like the quotation by Henri Cartier Bresson: "Photographers deal in things which are continually vanishing and when they have vanished there is no contrivance on earth which can make them come back again." It is so true with photographing birds, you had better be ready to use your camera as the bird could fly away at any minute, and you have lost the photo. I always try to be ready whether it is butterflies, hawks or hummingbirds. Time moves quickly, and if they leave, you have lost your photo! Well enough of that. I am only an amateur photographer who is self taught and learns by experiencing. This is my wife's and my anniversary week. It has been a wonderful long time! 43 years, and we will have some meals out, talk about our Grandsons in Ireland and our lives together and our next trip to Ireland! What more does a couple need?! We are indeed blessed! Enjoy!-BT, August 26, 2008

August 23, 2008: The fog and overcast were in this morning when we got up, and it was almost coolish! I photographed today, the geraniums are wonderfully bright with their colors now. Each day I bring in some of the flowers for my wife to adorn the table in our Belleek vases from Ireland. That is the pottery with the shamrocks on the vases. We have always liked them. They remind us of Ireland. I have posted some new photos on the opening page today. And not only is there a new photo at the top of the opening page, but I have started to post some new photos down in the middle of the page, so do scroll down and check the dates under the photos for new ones. These are the restful, sort of sleepy days of summer for us. We sleep in until we want to wake up; it is nice after all those years of working and being up at the crack of dawn to go to the job. I love it!! We have a new refrigerator, the old one being ready to be put out to pasture. And lo and behold it has an icemaker. Our plumber came and connected it up for us and we have ice being generated by the system now, and it is neat and in my view a modern miracle 8-))))))))))))). No more old ice cube trays. We have never had an automatic ice maker in all our years of marriage, nor did my parents. It definitely is a fun "toy" for us! 8-))) Labor Day is near. Are you traveling? We will stay at home and enjoy life here. We are happy to do so. Also we have a lovely new couch that my wife selected. She is very good at this sort of thing. She has a great eye for color and patterns. Now this is a neat sofa! In checking past documents, the old replaced couch was here in our house for 28 years!! Is that possible?? Yes! A 28 year old couch. It was time for a new one for sure. We are happy and blessed. Do enjoy Labor Day and the week to come. Take some time to read some poetry or listen to some favorite music. Go outside and admire and perhaps photograph some beautiful flowers. Enjoy your day!(read the quotation below by that great entertainer Eddie Cantor, it is so true!)--BT, August 23, 2008

August 17, 2008: It is a beautiful Sunday! A cool breeze rustles in from the sea. It is nice. We had a video chat with our Grandsons in Ireland on computer. How fun! Spanning the vast distances over the Atlantic we saw them on the computer screen and chatted a bit with our Daughter and the boys. We love to be able to do that! When I was a boy of course, we had none of the technology that we have today. I remember our first TV set and there were just a few channels in black and white! Wow, that was long ago. Now some of you readers may be figuring out my age!! Well that is ok with me. 8-))) I photographed two of my favorite new geraniums today: Americana Deep Red and Martha Washington Maroon. They are fantastic! Their colors draw your eye to them immediately in the garden. What tints they possess! Have you noticed them yet on the opening of the web page? I hope you have. I really like them! It rained all day in Ireland we learned on video chat. It seems they are having lots of rain this summer in Ireland. It is such a green land with its pastures and fields of cattle and sheep. We love going there and seeing the Grandsons and family. It is a fun trip. Today my wife said it felt like Fall. I think that too, and as I said before here, I feel Fall just around the corner and down the street. It will come soon. My firewood pile is in good shape and we will have our first fire when the cool fall evenings come in. It will be a cozy fire and will remind us of the Ireland days when we would nestle around the fireplace in my Daughter's sitting room there far away. How time just slips away. I think of a country western song, don't remember who sings it, but it is about "how time slips away." And it does. We take life a day at a time when we can. We have a wedding anniversary coming soon. It is a big one, but not yet to 50 years. It is a wonderful partnership! We will go out to dinner somewhere and enjoy the day and evening. How fortunate we are to have each other and our Daughters and Grandchildren. We are indeed blessed! I hope you like the new flower photos today. I am going to leave you with some quotes about autumn/fall. For, it is coming; I feel Fall in the air!! Enjoy!!--BT, Aug. 17, 2008

August 16, 2008: The fog and overcast were in last night and this morning. I like it, knowing it will clear off by noon with beautiful summer sun! How better can it get!! The humidity is with us again today, a bit sticky, but one can feel the summer creeping through the area, with Fall just on the outskirts of time waiting to arrive with its blustery winds. I love that time of year too. Today, in the garden I fertilized some of the geraniums and roses. The iceberg roses are doing so well, robust and strong stems and beautiful snow-white flowers. The garden is looking good! That makes a gardener happy. Our Grandsons have returned to Ireland, and by all reports the rain is coming down and rather heavily at that. It was a marvelous visit, and getting to spend time with them and their Mother was wonderful. What a great time!!! I have been reading Haiku today, and I have always enjoyed it! When I used to teach, I always had my students working on Haiku, and they produced some very creative verses. My favorite Haiku poets are Issa, Buson, Shiki and others. They lived in the 1700's and 1800's in Japan. They were masters at the craft and became well known for their talents. I also find reading Haiku is very peaceful. I like that very much. Summer is fleeing it seems to me. We had lightening storms a few days ago which is unusual, but no rain. The country continues to be very dry. I hope for early rains as we really need it. One of my Grandfathers when he was alive was a cowboy. He ran great numbers of Hereford Cattle on his ranch in the desert. At some time, he discovered an artisian well on the ranch property and that really helped his water shortage out on that desert ranch. My Mother told me that story a long time ago. Remember if you are regular reader of Minutia, I have told you about the ranch in earlier writings. What a wonderful place for a boy to enjoy and explore. And I did!! We went there many times, and I will never forget the visits. I hope your weekend moves along well. Ours seems to doing just that!! Do enjoy the day and make it the best day! I want to share a bit of Haiku below from the above artists today. --BT, August 16, 2008

August 7, 2008: It is a beautiful and very sunny day and a bit warmish. But that is summer! And we love it and so do the geraniums and other plants. It is a great and very healthy climate for them. Our time with our Grandsons is coming to an end soon, and they will fly aboard that silver bird, the airplane, to span the continent and the ocean to their home. Life must go on, and it does. It has been a wonderful time with them and their Mother. Life blesses us daily and we are grateful for sure. The summer has flown by it seems, mid August almost!! It will soon be school time for kids, and days of mall trips, lunch out at a favorite cafe and the like for we who no longer work at a job. It sounds great! So many of the geraniums are exhibiting their wonderful and lovely colors now: Rocky Mountain Violet, Salmon Queen, Regal Camelot, Candy Cane, Sundance, Destiny and many others. Geraniums rule the plant world as l see it with the varied and bright hues of their blossoms!!! We were out in the tomato garden a bit ago picking Better Boys, Red Cherry, and Sweet 100's. Their flavor is delicious. It is the time of tomatoes now in the midst of summer. I come from a long line of midwestern farmers, and often I review my genealogy files and read of them. They came to an area and developed it and their farms and were very successful at what they did. I am always in awe of them and their accomplishments. I hope your day has been a good one for you. --BT, August 7, 2008

August 5, 2008: We have just returned from a car ride, going down south about 200 miles to visit family with the Grandsons and our Daughter. It was a fun visit, and the boys got lots of swimming time in the pool. They really enjoyed that. I posted a Salmon Queen on the opening page, and I hope you enjoy it. As some of you may know from past Minutia entries, Salmon Queen was one of the first geraniums, if not the first one, that I bought when I started my terraces and gardens. I love the pink and the footprint inside of the petals. How beautiful! The monsoonal weather has returned and it is a bit sticky today with clouds in the sky. It is a lovely day. I finished potting 3 new geraniums the other day, and they appear to be doing very well. The new Sage and Lavender plants are really growing and well established now. I like to see new plants growing nicely. It is a good feeling for a gardener. We are having a quiet day(well, almost with the Grandsons 8-))))))))))))))))) as we all are a bit tired from the trip. But we shall remember it for a long time, as time together with loved ones is treasure time, never to be forgotten. One of the people we visited on our trip was a family member who is 92 years old, very alert and we enjoyed spending time with her. It was a pleasure! I hope you had a fine weekend. Did you read something? I have been trying to catch up on newspapers, but the news seems not to have changed in 2 days. That is the way it is, I think. I have found a photo of one of my Grandmothers with my sister and me(an infant), taken a long time ago. How precious it is to me, seeing Grandmother holding me. I wish I could sit down with my Grandparents and talk to them today, but they are in Heaven. I shall hold them in my mind and heart forever. Grandmother was a teacher for many years like myself, only in rural areas. I treasure this heritage. Enjoy the day and have a wonderful week.--BT, August 5, 2008.

July 27, 2008: I have added a new zonal geranium to the garden. It is Rocky Mountain Violet, a fantastic hue-rich neon like shade of color! It is in the west garden with some of the other zonals. Did you notice the richness of its color on the posting of the opening page? I hope you did. It reminds me of French Quarter ivy geranium in the tint of its blossoms. I printed an 8 x 10 in. copy of my print of the Swallowtail Butterfly and have framed it. It is the one where all you see are the wings buried in the alstromeria blossoms as it feeds. I feel so lucky to have been in the garden with my cam when the butterfly came in for a drink of nectar!! Those are the moments photo people live for with this hobby/interest of photography. It was warm today after the overcast burned away. The geraniums continue to do well. They had their monthly dose of liquid fertilizer the other day. I think they will be doing well throughout the summer. The weekend ends. We have a birthday in the family to celebrate tomorrow, one of our daughters. Exciting, and it will be fun with the Grandsons here and her Sister here too. I hope your Sunday went well. Ours did. The Grandsons are so active and busy. We had a card game of Fish, you remember that game from your childhood don't you?? I sure do. What fun. Enjoy the week as it arrives tomorrow. --BT, July 27, 2008.

July 25, 2008: What weather, all I can do is give thanks for where we live and this coastal influenced weather we have. I happen to think it is the best! We love it. My Grandson found a dead baby mockingbird on the patio the other morning and announced it to us all. I knew we had a nest in the cypress near the patio as the parent birds had been going in and out of the tree often these past few weeks. As to how the baby bird came to be in the patio we do not know. But any death diminishes the earth, and it is a tragedy in the animal kingdom. It reminds one of how fragile life is for all of us inhabitants of this giant blue marble called earth! One must enjoy each day, try not to take the news too seriously, and appreciate the life that you have. Our visit with the Grandsons is going well. It is an enjoyable time, and they are very active playing and running and kicking the soccer ball. Am I keeping up with them, you ask!!! 8-)))))))) Now that is questionnable! Maybe! 8-))))))) I posted a new Colorcade®Red geranium today on the opening page. Its color is luminescent and very lovely. I hope you like it. I like to tell my Grandsons about some of the memories that I have from my childhood with my parents. I have begun writing some of them for them to read someday----those World War 2 memories of the air raid practices we experienced and the rationing of sugar, coffee and all those things that were in short supply, and stories of my 3 Grandfathers, 3 interesting men that I knew very well. Isn't it so true that, "Life is made of memories." And we never forget them. What a blessing. Well, enjoy your day, and if you wonder why I leave the flower photos on the opening page so long, it is because I enjoy them and really like them myself. How can one miss getting good photos when you have the multi-colors of geraniums!!! Have a great week. It is almost over, take care, enjoy!--BT, July 25, 2008

July 22, 2008: The warm weather has eased in to make it really feel like summer! How lovely it is. There is a slight breeze in from the sea, making it doubly refreshing. We picked some of the ripe tomatoes this morning and they have a very good flavor--you know--like a bit tart, that home-grown taste that you only get from the garden. I photographed the Royal Dark Red ivy geranium, beautiful in the sun. It is posted on the opening page today. It is blooming nicely now in July. What a fantastic color!! I so enjoy the geraniums and the work that goes with raising them. They respond well and I take pleasure in being a gardener. What fun, and how pleased one feels with successful gardening. That sounds like the title of a book someone should write, "Successful Gardening", but maybe they already have!! 8-)))))) We are having much fun with our Grandsons, right now one is playing a game on the computer and the other is outside kicking the soccer ball. What fun! How did your week start for you? I hope it was a good solid start and very postive for you. In the next few days we will visit museums, malls and who knows what else with the Grandsons. That also is fun! Take care and enjoy the day and the week.--BT, July 22, 2008.

July 19, 2008: Today the overcast and fog was in. Now late in the afternoon the sun is out for a bit, but not long I bet. The fog lurks off the coast and we are very near the sea. I don't mind as I like this kind of weather for we know the hot weather will return and bake everything. I find in my photography, I am going a bit afield from geraniums. Oh, I have many geraniums and photos of them and take new ones several times a week. I just went out to the back terrace a half hour ago and took photos of Free Style White geranium, it is doing so well and has some nice blossoms. It is a continuing project though, and I enjoy it immensely. Did you see the Pandora blossom on the opening page today? It is new there and what a beauty, if the photographer is allowed to say so! 8-)))) Also the Anna's hummingbird on the wire basket with the Alstromeria---I have seen various hummers do that very thing. I think perhaps he/she was resting, they require such large amounts of food daily to survive, and to fly and hover they move their wings thousands of times a minute, so you see, maybe rest was needed there. We have guests coming in from Ireland next week, and we will love having them with us. Our Daughter and Grandsons will be here for awhile and how blessed we are to have their company. I will update you on our fun times and activities while they are here. I hope your weekend is going well. Ours is and we are enjoying it. Take care and enjoy your time with your loved ones.---BT, July 19, 2008.

July 16, 2008: The weather is changing, I can feel it. The moist air of the monsoonal clouds is leaving and the air is drier. Will hot weather come our way? Maybe, it sure feels a bit warm today. Yesterday I potted some new geraniums. They were ivy and zonal geraniums, and I gave them a good bit of liquid vitamin B after I was finished. I hope they do well. The plants are healthy and look good. The fire camp is gone and the fire is 90% contained. They say another week is needed to bring it completely under control. But at least it is long gone from the populated areas. That is wonderful! Our new Sage plant and Lavender plant that we planted some time ago are doing well in the ground. The Lavender has that wonderful smell about it--a bit like lavender soap. Nice! The Iceberg Roses are really blooming and growing tall now. They are healthy and doing well. I hope your week goes well. Ours is, and we are thankful for it! I posted a new Vagabond ivy geranium and a new Promise ivy geranium on the opening page of the web site and I hope you like them. I have been doing some genealogy on my family line and yesterday, thanks to a distant cousin, found a man who was a college professor, minister, and chaplain during the Civil War. How exciting it was! I have quite a few ancestors who were in the Revolutionary War, the War of 1812 and the Civil War. They were here long before we became a country. I am proud of them and what they did for our country. Have a good close of the week and enjoy!!! BT, July 16, 2008.

July 10, 2008: The fog was in this a.m. and the air is cool. How wonderful and living through the ash and hot days/nights of the firestorm just a few days ago. How lucky we are here in this small village-not one house was lost and the fire approaches 10,000 acres burned. You can see the huge blackened areas on the mountains where the fire scorched the environment. It was wild! We are safe and what remains of the fire is quite a distance away from us. But there are other areas with houses on which the fire fighters are working! It is not over yet. My thoughts again today turn to summer, and other than the fire, the summer here on the Gold Coast is wonderful! We love it, and I have posted some new summer quotations for you to enjoy. They are above near the title of this Minutia page. There is one by Longfellow and one by Lowell. I hope you enjoy them and turn your thoughts a bit to summertime and how wonderful it can be. I posted a Freestyle White ivy blossom I photographed this morning. It is beautiful, and has a wonderful majenta footprint in the blossom. My geraniums continue to amaze us with their unreal hues and colors. But they are real, and nature continues to show its beauty! I have posted a page for July, 2008, you will see the button on the opening page under the Minutia button. No flowers on it yet, but some nice summer quotations. Check it out, I will post some flowers there soon. We unpacked our evacuation box today, but have our "evacuation list" at the ready if we need it. Living near the Red Zone, one is always prepared to leave if we have to. Ok, take care all, the weekend comes soon! Can you see summer slipping away? I can. It is almost mid-July, then August then the Fall. So goes the life. Time moves, doesn't it, but I have said that before. Make each day a new beginning, if you can. Enjoy, BT, July 10, 2008.

July 8, 2008: We could hear the rumble of the diesel engines in the fire trucks all through the day and evening as convoy after convoy went by on the way to hot spots in the fire area, going back and forth east and west on the road behind our back garden, some 40 feet from our back door. We were glad they were there as they saved a huge number of residences in our city from the fire. It was a close call. We were not evacuated but very near to areas that were. We had packed some boxes and were ready. Now the south perimeter of the fire is delared safe and fire out -- along that side, but fire still burns in the NW and the E up in the mountain areas. One counts their blessings daily when in this situation. Each day it was virtually raining ash from the fire which is over 10,000 acres at this time burned. We are ok, and have daily power outages as the main transmission lines for electricity run through the fire area. But we have flashlights and lanterns and make it ok. Imagine that will go on for weeks as those main lines are somewhat damaged. Amazing how one takes it as normal having electrical power. What did our ancestors do without it? My answer is :They did fine!. I believe that. We have been doing some more genealogy on the family and have found 2 new cousins, related by past ancestors and it is always a thrill to do so. I have been scanning photos of my paternal Great Grandfather, my Grandmother and my Dad. How precious these photos from the past are. They really stir ones interest in finding your ancestors and their descendants. Did you notice the new button for "Garden Vistitors" on the opening page under the "Minutia" button"? Do click and go visit the page and view the Sphinx moth that I found on the side of the garden wall. He appeared tired and ash covered and needed some 'down' time, as we all do at some times in our lives. He stayed there a long time that day, and later was gone. Early on in the fire I wrote an email to friends and family about the situation. I want to share that with you. It follows. The figures on firefighters and acres burned have been raised since my email. My only thought today is "Be thankful for what you have." and "Count each day of your life as a blessing." For as Carl Sandburg said, "Our lives are like a candle in the wind." Our heroes are the firefighters who saved us all. Blessings on them all! They are the ones who are doing the good deed everyday, and we shall not forget them. Enjoy your day and count those blessings!!-BT, July 8, 2008.

July 5, 2008: Our 4th of July was an unusual one! We are under fire watch with a huge brush fire in our area. Many homes have been evacuated, and at the moment I am writing this, I hear the "thump-thump" of the big CH-46 Sea Knight helicopters of the Navy, which are assisting crews on the ground with water drops on the fire areas. They are a bit close to our house, but is reassuring that they are there dropping the fire-stopping water drops! This has been going on all week, and in the evening the "sundowner" winds have come up to blow the smoke and fire down slope. Today we have seen several active areas up on the mountains, with the helicopters working those areas. Every night we have a power outage, lasting from 4 hours to just 30 minutes last night. That is because the main electrical transmission line providing electricity to us passes through the fire area, and the electric company crews cannot get into the fire area to repair any problems. So somehow the electric company reroutes power to us as they can. So we have lots of flashlights out and scattered around the house where we might need them. It appears the fire will be here for several more days as is so large. And the evening winds complicate the issue, so here we are. Nearby housing has received evacuation alerts(they are to be ready to go at a moment's notice) but we have not yet. Those are just across the street from us! So we have packed up some things and are ready if necessary to go. The local high school is the evacuation center to provide a place for evacuees to go. We hope we don't receive the evacuation order. We shall see. Otherwise all is well here. Each morning I go outside and wash the ash off of the leaves of the plants(geraniums, agapanthus, iceberg roses, sage, alstromeria and so on)! There always this week is what seems like "tons" of ashes all over everything. Pretty messy. So our life goes this week. We are thankful for the fire crews who are working to put this huge fire out. We couldn't do without them!!! I posted a photo today of a new agapanthus stalk. What a beautiful shade of lavender! I hope you 4th of July went well. Enjoy and have a good week. --BT, July 5, 2008.

July 1, 2008: Well, here we are July 1!! Wow, where does time go? Have you ever asked yourself that? My Mom always said that the older one gets, the faster time seems to pass, and I think she was right! What a beautiful day today! Wow, summer is definitely here, and I was out in the garden among the plant terraces completing a drip irrigation project on one of the terraces. It is finished! And it will be so nice to have it operational when the hot days of summer come, and they will definitely come!! I added a new photo of the Americana Deep Red zonal geranium today to the opening page. The color is exquisite! And that does not do justice to the fantastic hue of the blossoms. We just got the plant a few days ago and love it!! My wife, who is very talented with colors and hues and many other things, actually selected the plant and we are so happy with it. What color!! And there also is a new photo of French Quarter ivy geranium on opening page. It always will be one of my very favorites!!! It felt good to get the old gardening clothes on and the sun hat with SPF protection on and get out and sweat and get a bit dirty doing the drip system. I always take an iPod and listen to Johnny Mathis or Sarah Brightman or Alan Jackson or the like to pass the time and enjoy some great music when I garden. It was a good work day, but I feel tired, but that is good. If you feel tired you know you have put in a good day on whatever project you are doing. We have continued working on genealogy and I added some people and dates to our data base. With July 4 coming up, I thought of our several ancestors who were soldiers in the Revolutionary War. It makes me proud to think that my ancestors were in on the founding of our country. How neat! My family was here by 1650 and settling on the east coast of the continent, so they were in on the beginnings of the land. I hope your July 4th is a good one. It is always a quiet one for us, and we like it that way. Schools are out for the summer and you see the students in the malls and all around. Summer is with us!! Enjoy the 4th and take care. Below a quote for you. I usually feel this way when I get out and garden as I did today. My wife says just like a little boy, but perhaps like my Grandsons. They love to get out and play outside. Well me too. That is my gardening!! Like a little boy!! 8-)) Take care, BT-July 1, 2008.

June 28, 2008: Another beautiful day here on the Gold Coast! There is a gentle breeze blowing and the wind chime in the garden sounds with a very contented melody today. I have been out in the garden working on the geraniums and the tomatoes! What fun. How relaxing it is to get some dirt on your hands and trim, water, talk to, and groom the flowers. I like it very much. I converted some geraniums from the terrace to hanging baskets and moved them to the front garden for more sun. They will do well there. And those plants from the front garden found a new place on the back terrace. The Maiden Red Regal is fantastic and very beautiful. I wonder how large it will get? Its cousin, Regal Camelot, now in full sun, is blooming voraciously! How beautiful it is! I love it! This is one of the plants one of my daughters gave me a few years ago and it is growing wonderfully! The birds are all over the garden. I have noticed 3 house finches in the same place in the front garden and wonder where they are building their nest? I am sure that is what they are up to. And our resident Mockingbird is singing at this very minute and I am sure he/she has a nest in one of our shrubs. We have found them there before in previous years with their beautiful light green and brown spotted eggs. Click here to see the nest with eggs last year, scroll down on the page until you see them. What a beautiful sight nature has given us. The tomato vines are so tall I have to repeatedly tie them up as I told you before. I have been growing them for many years as my Dad did a long time ago. I learned a lot from him, even how to grow tomatoes. Isn't it amazing and wonderful how much we learn from family members over the years; and how lovely it is at a rather advanced age that we remember that and appreciate it so much as I do!! I hope your weekend is a good one and you are enjoying it! We are. I send my best to you and yours for a fantastic and enjoyable weekend.---BT, June 28, 2008

June 25, 2008: What a nice cool day it is! That is what I like. Even the plants are looking peppier! They seem to like the cooler weather. The hot weather does to them what it does to us--wrings out our energy and requires us to hydrate-drink more water. I am trimming geraniums back on the back terrace this week. This will stimulate growth and they will do better, in the long run. It is very noticeable. I have been watching the dry weather in regard to the geraniums. They received their monthly fertilizer just the other day, and they will respond with wonderful and very colorful blossoms! It is a constant job, checking the tomato plants and tying up the spreading and gawky branches to the stakes which I have placed in the garden. More and more tomatoes are forming, and we ate the first Sweet 100's just the other night in our dinner salad. The flavor was incomparable!! We know the tomatoes often in the stores are ripened in hot houses, and the flavor is not there, but we buy them anyway as tomatoes are great in sandwiches etc. I have moved the Minutia to this Minutia 4 page as I do not know what kind of connection many of your have. I wonder is it dial-up, DSL or something else? I don't want the page to get too long. If you want to open Minutia 1, 2 or 3 (previous pages) you can find the links at the bottom of this page. It's lunch out at one of our favorite cafes today, and how nice that will be. It is a cafe that we have gone to for years, and even took the Irish Grandsons to a few years ago when they were here. We expect them to come over for a summer and were just talking about replenishing their toy bin with soccer balls, puzzles, model trucks, action figures, books and the like. How fun is that!!!!!!!!!!! They are great Grandsons!! And we are so fortunate to have them. Enjoy your week. Someone said, "Today is the beginning of the rest of your life............." or something like that. I don't remember who, but seems to me it is true. And someone else said, "Make each day the beginning of a new life." Some may say these are too idealistic, but they sure are worthy of a bit of reflection and thinking about. Enjoy your day.--BT, June 25, 2008.