A pink morning

Good morning. I've been thinking about this pink verbena for the last few days. So today we have a pink morning.

It's very hot here in Southern California this week, today is a high of 81. Which might not sound like much, but when it is usually 72 with a cool ocean breeze, the hotter temperatures are very noticeable. There is no breeze, no air conditioning and no clouds to break the heat from the sun even for a moment.

Hopefully it will break soon and we can go back to the weather I prefer to brag about!

I also found some newly blooming fuchsia. Fuchsia has always seemed to me to be hard to grow. Until now. We have these plants as 'leftovers' from our wedding. I'm so thrilled they are not only still alive, but that they are blooming!

And lastly, the sky was just such an incredible shade of blue, which means the ocean will look fantastic today, that I had to stage a photograph.

Here is my coffee cup (a gift from the World's Best Mother-in-law) and that fabulous sky.

New tomatos from old tomatoes

Who knew you could regrow tomato plants? I have always thought that a tomato plant gets one chance in the year and if you get tomatoes, that's great but if you don't that's just too bad! Well, this year I planted my tomato plants in March (because I live in Southern California and the weather is never cold), and I have had tomatoes coming out of my ears. So of course I hand them out all over the neighborhood. One day Rita, our next door neighbor, says, "Hey, you know you can put a cutting in water and it will sprout roots."

"No way," I say.

"Absolutely, go and try it."

So I tried six cuttings. Six cuttings because I'm never sure if I'm doing it right. Apparently I am!

Not only are my cuttings surviving, but they're flowering, sprouting new fruit and ROOTING! Victory! So now I have a few tomato plants to pass over the fence to Rita!

Hopefully, much to my Pennsylvania residing father's dismay, I will be eating vine-ripe tomatoes in January! I love So. Cal!

A misty morning

I love to see what the morning looks like when I open my eyes. This morning it was an exceptional find. The deck had a heavy coat of dew.

I found the remnants of a nighttime spiderweb. The dew droplets were dangling ever so delicately.

And a beautiful sky.