A Kiddie Pool In The Garden : Best Idea Ever
The last few days we’ve had a lot of visitors, and the kids have all loved playing in the kiddie pool we put up in our garden. It’s a quick fix, we definitely will be looking into something more permanent… but we were late to the game this season and this was the only pool we could find in all of eight stores! 
From left to right: Stephanie, Lillie, Skylar, Janessa, Michael & Liana
At The Fair
At The Fair, originally uploaded by Phae.
In my family it has always been tradition that we visited the Stanislaus County Fair each summer on my birthday, July 30th. This year the fair dates were moved up to accommodate scheduling changes at the state fair level.. so our plans changed for one of very few instances in my life. It’s odd to think that the fair is already over!
I hear the dates are still up in the air for next season, here’s hoping I can get my birthday back!
Anyhow, we had a great time. You can check out the rest of the photos from our evening at the fair here.
Goodies From The Summer Garden
Goodies From The Garden, originally uploaded by Phae.
I love the summer take! We’ve just finished up with the peaches and apricots. We’re also harvesting bell peppers and acorn squash daily now. Soon we’ll have cantaloupe and watermelon ready for harvest.. and our pumpkins are already getting really big!
The only downfall to a summer garden: the heat! I can hardly stand to go out there at dusk to dig around amongst the garden spiders to harvest in the 100+ temps. Ouch! (And yet, well worth the effort. Vegetables just can’t taste better than straight from your own garden!)
San Luis Wildlife Refuge
Yesterday we spent the afternoon exploring one of our family’s favorite haunts- the San Luis Wildlife Refuge, which is 7 miles north of Los Banos, California. I don’t think I’ve ever been there in the dead of summer, and we found it much changed from our usual Spring visits. Everything was overgrown so much so that the topography was almost foreign to behold! The waterways were either dry or covered in flourescent green algae. Fowl and mammals weren’t so easy to spot, as they were hiding from the heat as we should have been. (We got SO hot!) But insects and butterflies were everywhere! This sweety was kind enough to sit still long enough for me to train a lens on it. 
There are lot’s more photos from the trip up on my flickr account. Including: bunnies! turtles! that algae I told you about! And lot’s of texture/layering type shots… probably my favorite thing about the California Wetlands is how it layers; green waterways lined with purple weeds, beneath gold thistles, beneath brown reeds, beneath green grasses, beneath wicked valley oak trees, beneath a bright blue sky flecked with the largest egrets and hawks you’ll ever see!
Sorry I haven’t been around for a bit again. I haven’t been feeling well. Working on that.
What I Want
