This is definitely a diversion from the garden, but sometimes a little diversion is good for the soul. It was a busy day, and while the garden is thriving, the grand babies were on the agenda today! If you hadn't guessed, I love sparkle. And so, most of my rosaries are very sparkly. The one from Notre Dame is the most stunning. And it has such a story behind it. As I told you in the video, my husband bought it for me when we were in Paris, at the iconic Notre Dame Cathedral.

I always like to have a well manicured, and festive border garden in front of our house. It's especially important to me around the holidays. And the holidays all come in a clump at the end of the year. But no worries -- we'll be ready for them!! However, there are a few holidays throughout the year, that we also like to celebrate with garden decorations...and the Fourth of July is one of them. Robert wanted to do his woodworking magic and make decorations for the border -- b

I had to edit out the funniest part of this video. I'm just too vain. More than 2 minutes of the video was me bending over the garden, weeding, and hoeing, as I carefully till the soil to get rid of weeds and other unwanted volunteers. So, 2 minutes of the video was of my backside!!!! I thought about keeping the video in, because it was pretty funny. But I just couldn't. Plus, it's not professional to do gardening videos of your backside. If you're an avid garden video consum

Baby Coraline was able to join us for taste testing on Day 2! She got a little upset half way through, so daddy had to take care of her. Nonetheless, we were able to finish off all thirteen of our tomatoes. Jenny and I mostly agreed, but it was fun when we didn't! I do agree with Jenny when she says it's a matter of preference. I like sweet tomatoes, and Jenny like more "tomato-ey" tomatoes. And that's just fine. If we were to have asked Biff, her husband, about which tomato

Well, Cora napped through Part 1 - but she will make a brief appearance in Part 2! It was too fun to taste test with my Jenny. Jenny is a great cook and has a very discerning palate and an even more impressive vocabulary - so her tomato analysis was quite fine tuned! I was surprised by the final results of the taste test. We tallied up our scores, and then ranked the top six tomatoes from the 13 entries. You don't want to miss Part 2 of Tomato Testing with Jenny and Jill!!!

It's never wrong to put aside chores and love up the little ones. And that's exactly what I did today. There will be plenty of time for laundry and dishes, and stove cleaning. But only this one day when Cora is this old, that I can hold her while she sleeps. I'm positive I made the right decision. Tomorrow! Tomato taste testing with Jenny...and maybe a guest appearance by my Corabelle!

Just barely made it through the day! If you listened to the end of the video you know why...I'm currently doing an overnight clean of the oven! It's not been super hot during the days, so the mornings and evenings have been great for gardening. Currently, I'm spending my time pruning and planning. I haven't planted anything since my big spring bonanza, and I think it's time to refurbish a few things. The front border needs a refresh, the iris garden needs help, and I'm ready

Here's the books we're loving this summer! Share yours with me and I can build a list for our gardening community! Jill's Picks Outlander by Diana Gabaldon ( 1st in a series ) Still Life by Louis Penny (1st in a series) Pillars of the Earth by Ken Follet Middlemarch by George Eliot The Last Thing He Said by Laura Dove The President's Daughter by Bill Clinton and James Patterson While Justice Sleeps by Stacey Abrams Caste: The Origins of Our Discontents by Isabel Wilkerson Rob

If you've watched the video you will know why I'm saying that my house is now full of glitter, and it will be awhile before we are sparkle free. But I don't care. I used to have a sign on my office desk that said, "If you don't sparkle, I'm not interested," and I still feel that way! My husband just walked in the door and said, "I see that you've got the summer solstice glitter all over tonight; you're going to have to wash that down tomorrow." And I said..."I don't care! I

Top 3 Children’s Birthday Ideas from Jill If you haven’t had the pleasure of attending one of Jill's parties, you should know that she always hosted the most spectacular birthday parties for her daughters. On today’s blog, we’re going to talk about three fabulous birthday ideas from parties my mom has thrown in the past. 1. “The Nancy Drew Party”: For this party, consider sending all your guests an entire book to read before they attend—say, Nancy Drew and the Secret of the O

Such a big day! Spending time with Julia is always a joy - but to be spending time with her as we plan her wedding is double the delight. We didn't really do a good job of wedding dress shopping today because we hadn't properly planned for the excursion. Because Julia surprised me with her visit, I didn't know that she would be here, so didn't make any bridal salon appointments. Nonetheless, I thought it would be fun to pop into a store just to start the process. We will have

OOOOweeeeee! It was hot hot hot today! Parts of my garden are still feeling the effects of the heat: the bell peppers definitely, my smurf tomato, my bacopa is a little dry, and my dill did not make it through. But this is what being a gardener means. We live with nature, whatever it brings. And there will rarely be perfect weather. Some things will thrive, and bring great joy, and others will not. And of course, your watering system will fail you just when it gets the hotte

Let me start by saying that the tour that I do in the video is only a partial tour! I'm sure that there were spaces in the Chinese Garden that I did not see, or was unable to explore. That's because 1) I didn't have a map to tell me where we were going...I just wandered! 2) We had Baby Abby with us, and we only lasted as long as she did...so we called it quits when she was ready to go. I didn't mind. It was fun to have her there with us, so that was a small price to pay. The

Pepper Harvest {Guest post by Jennifer Bickett Hubbell} In March, my husband Biff planted peppers and tomatoes in our backyard container garden. Our daughter was born shortly thereafter, so we were grateful that my mother Jill watered the plants while we were in the hospital! Now Coraline is 2 months old and flourishing, and so is the garden. We have lots of green tomatoes that are starting to ripen in the sun, but the pepper plants already have veggies ready to go for us.

The Disneyland Campus consists of three separate parts: 1) Disneyland ( born 1955 ), 2) Disneyland California Adventure and 3) Downtown Disney ( born 2001 ). There is no entrance fee for Downtown Disney - it's exclusively an outdoor Disney themed mall. There is a separate fee for Disney California Adventure, and in order to "Park Hop" you have to pay a higher price to visit both parks -- but...hey, it was my birthday! So we splurged and park-hopped! The second pa

Too much birthday celebrating and not enough time to write! I'll catch you up soon!

So much to tell you about our Disneyland trip! But no time tonight! I promise to fill you in soon! Enjoy the video!

Life is busier than ever! And I'm retired! My garden looks great and is generally doing well (although I plan to complain about my tomatoes soon) but I've not been able to spend the time outside that I would like. I can see the weeds creeping in, and the roses that need pruning. I can see the soil that needs tilling, and I've still got plants to get into the ground! Plus the front border needs replanting ASAP! So much to do! But first. DISNEYLAND! Robert and I grew up with Di

We are crazy about our youngest daughter, Julia. She is the miracle that we thought was not possible. And to see her so happy with Dan as she is engaged, delights us. Can't wait to browse Bride magazine with you, Julia! Wishing you years of happiness ahead!

Whew! I'm beat! Today was a very big day at our house. The movers came to deliver the contents of Jackie and Matt's apartment from Berkeley. Our dishwasher was delivered and installed...did I tell you that the day before Baby Abby moved in with us our dishwasher stopped working? Honestly. But the biggest news of the day is that Baby Abby has decided that she is all in on solid food! She ate an entire bottle of sweet potatoes today...more than she has ever eaten! And she squea