The Garden

New Look!

Well here it is the new blog design for my posts. I hope you like it. My daughter Sylvie
is my web designer. She is such an angel.

This is Sylvie with her youngest son, Marcel. My youngest Grandchild. This pic was taken on my birthday on January 12th. We had such a great time and visit.

That's me, opening presents. So much love, good food and great fun.

Marcel and his Uncle Jon.

Sylvie's Richard and my David. They did all the cooking and clean up! Good men.

Jon and Marcel getting warm by the wood stove. I like the glow of the fire on them.

Well, that's about it for now. Just wanted to let you know that I got my new blog design and share some birthday joy with you all.

See ya soon! xo Colette

January Rhododendrons

There are 800 species of Rhododendrons. The International Register lists more than 10,000 named varieties of which perhaps 2,000 varieties are currently available. Botanists have arranged species into series and sub-series, one of these series includes plants called Azaleas. (copied from Sunset Western Garden Book).

As far as I can tell from the descriptions in the garden book, this is a Cornubia which it says blooms February to March. These seem a bit early but close.

We've been having a bit of a warm trend in our weather so maybe that accounts for the early bloom.  I haven't lived in this area long enough yet to know the bloom times of things. 

And here is one more beach house....           Wishing you all a relaxing week end. xo                                                                                                                                                        

Coastal Living

My daughter and her family are making the trip today from Los Gatos to see us. They're coming to help celebrate my birthday which is on Monday. I am so excited to see them again. I know I wont have time to post while they are here, so thought I'd do it now while I'm waiting for them to arrive. I've barely made a dent in all those photos I mentioned a couple of posts ago. So I better get crackin'.

This yellow two story house is one of my favorites. They have an ocean view from the windows on the right side of the house.

As so often is the case...this photo was taken on a foggy-sunny day.The ocean lies just behind this home.

A close-up of the same house.

This one sits very close to the ocean.

We are living in a fishing town. We see buoys every where.

A tiny beach cottage.

Another of my favorites. The beach house and guest house. So sweet.




The ocean actually reclaimed part of this land. The street just drops off at the end there.

A cafe sign close to town.
And that is it for today folks. I'm off to finish cleaning my house and making ready for house guests. I'll post photos of the visit in a few days.
Meanwhile....have a delightful, healthy week end. xo Colette

Robin And Flicker

We've been happy to hear and see some of our feathered friends coming back from the far northern areas to over-winter here with us.

I saw this lone robin outside our bedroom window a couple of days ago. Lots of bugs and worms around all those dead leaves makes for a tasty robin lunch. I love the sweet song of the robins.

You may remember the bat house from a previous post about our bat problems (Going Batty 6/9/08). Once the owners got the bats out of our attic, the bats took off for other locations. They did not like the bat house idea at all.  This flicker seems to have found it a handy place to light while taking a shower in the rain.

A close-up of Mr. Flicker.
I hope all is going well in your back yard.

xo Colette    note: new blog design coming  soon!

Holiday Photos

The holidays are behind us, and now I can get back to my blogging. I have quite a few photos that I've saved up in files that need to be posted before I loose track of them. So in the next few weeks and months I just might get them all posted. I've missed being here on my blog with you. I'm so excited to be back!

And now for some photos...........

We had a bit of a white Christmas here at the coast!

 We had company.... two of my son's and their daughters. This is Kevin, his daughter Adriana and her Uncle Tim. It rained a lot when they were here so the covered porch came in handy.

Jonathan enjoyed the company of his nieces. Adriana and Seanna (Tim's daughter).  Jonathan is really big on family.  Me too!  We had such a great time. Good food and great company.

That's it for this time. Hope to see you again real soon. May we all have a peaceful new year.

xo Colette