This is what’s left of my inheritance from my maternal grandmother.  A chicken salt dispenser that I have had perched on a kitchen shelf for the last twenty years.

What’s even weirder?  What I actually received twenty years ago was a box in the mail.  The box was full of figurines, but no one packed them in bubblewrap, so all the figurines were broken.  Bambi with three legs, no-headed bunnies.  Etc.  It was truly a sad scene. 

The chicken survived the journey, only to do a swan dive onto my concrete floors last week.

Goodbye, Chicken. Go join your buddies in Figurine Heaven.

Happy Jack-o-Lantern Day!  Seen in Marengo, Illinois.

Oh gosh, I really shouldn’t divulge this, but as a kid I was the BIGGEST reader of Hardy Boys, Trixie Belden and The Bobbsey Twins.  But then I got a camera and my mystery-reading days dwindled. 

But recently Noah and I have been tearing through any mystery show that was on Masterpiece Theatre.  There, now I’ve really gone and revealed too much…you thought I was out and about, but nooooooo, I just sit at home on my couch watching Miss Marple and Poirot.  And Wallander…amazing cinematography on that one (although it can be kind of creepy and makes me nervous about visiting Sweden).

 

Here’s my mom giving her cat Gracie a comb over.  Before you go feeling sorry for Gracie, just know that she is giving an A+ Academy award winning performance.  She’s fine, she just a finicky little Persian kitty who likes to mew about anything. I shot this a few years ago and this image still causes me to giggle.

Here’s the second part of the snorkeling story.  Here I am.  Not snorkeling.

This is the day after shooting a three-day wedding in Marfa in the extreme heat of May in West Texas.

I’m resting.  I might even be sleeping.  Thanks for Alina Prax for capturing my horizontal moment.

Here I am snorkeling at Balmorhea Springs.  See me?  I’m over there…on the left.  I’m wearing a red bathing suit.  Photo by Alina Prax of La Dolce Vita Photography.

Two dogs, looking for love.  Or food?

Vertical plants!  Flora Grubb in San Francisco makes these walls of succulents.  I’m known as The Cactus Lady to my friends, so this wall had me in awe.

Oh the excitement!  Baby swans!  Notice how Mom and Dad are keeping a sharp eye on us, foiling my desires to take a little birdie home with me.