The last catch of the year!

Well, this is the last catch for this year. We took a little side trip after doing errands today and fished for about an hour and came home with this 2-1/2 pound rainbow trout that was stocked from Idaho! The real treat came when we filleted it and the meat was bright orange...that always makes for a tasty fish. We will be enjoying this for our New Year dinner tomorrow. Hope it is a sign of things to come in the New Year!

Merry Christmas friends and family!
I hope the season will wrap you in its warmth and fill your days with love and happiness!

The cookies are baked

I made the famous Black and White cookies that Philina told me about and they turned out pretty good, if I do say so myself. I used Martha's recipe with a few of my own changes and some more changes for next time. I would add a little lemon zest to the cookie dough and make the chocolate frosting with a darker chocolate...I also discovered that you should add a little water and a little more corn syrup when you add the chocolate to keep it shiny. I put some sugar sprinkles on the white frosting to try to make it look Christmasy, but I don't think it is necessary. It would look very classy with some silver or gold balls down the center. This was a fun project that I think I will have to repeat and play with soon. I think you could make the white frosting pink and maybe swirl a heart in the center for Valentines Day...Oh the ideas keep going from there.

Here is the last cart of roses ready to be put away and tipped and sprayed. The roses seemed to go pretty fast this year even though we had less people working on it. I guess because it didn't rain much and make us stop. Of course, Michael and Jim may not agree...it may have seem like a neverending process to them. They were troopers and constantly tried to keep us all on task to get the job done. Next is the fruit trees that will be coming in next week...now that is when the really hard labor begins...the roses were just a warm up!

Now the roses are tucked all snug in their beds. All watered in and sprayed and waiting for spring to push out their leaves and open their buds and surprise us all with their beauty and grace. I can't wait!

Cactus at Almaden Nursery? Oh, my!

I came to work and saw a display I didn't think I would ever see here. Customers keep asking for them so I guess we are meeting their demands. I sure hope we have a warm winter or we could have some cactus to replace. They do look pretty cool and prickly!

This is the front row of my garden plot I use this row to grow most of my flowers and herbs. Since this picture I have had to pull the orange zinnias because they are starting to get mildew, but I have added some new things that will enjoy the cool damp weather of fall and winter.

A few of my favorite things!

These are pictures of my favorite plants currently growing at my garden. I have pulled out a lot of things and started my fall planting.A new yellow echinacea~

Bishops Children Dahlia ~ these got about 4 feet tall!

My favorite garden Phlox ~ comes back reliably every year!

I planted these turnip seeds two weeks ago and today I thinned them out and covered them up along with some lettuce, carrots and radishes. With all the lettuce and spinach scares lately it is nice to know I have my own crop that I know what it has been fed and watered with.

The Catch of the Trip

Here we are with the biggest catch of the trip. We caught these in the Walker River. They were farmed trout that had been fed a special diet and stocked the night before we caught them for a company the paid for them so that their employees could have a successful fishing trip. I don't know how they did, but we did well! The fish are delicious too. The meat is pink and tastes just like salmon! We aren't sharing these unless you come by for dinner.

Native Brown Trout

Small though he was, he was large on color. We let him go so that he could grow up a bit more.

Michael makes a catch on 2 lures that are as big as the fish. We were surprised at the little fish that were biting the big lures, but this one actually got 2! Crazy...we did unhook him and let him go...hopefully he found something real to eat.

Caples Lake

The sky was such a beautiful blue. Especially after coming from smoggy San Jose. We didn't catch many fish here, but the view was intoxicating.

September, 2006

We went on a little vacation where we spent a few days fishing at lakes and streams along Highway 395 between Minden and Bridgeport. This is a picture of me at Twin Lakes which is at the back side of Yosemite. I am wearing my Frog Toggs, very stylish for a fisherwoman don't you think?

This is one of the waterfalls we saw that day. The falls were all running full force because of a wet winter and a lot of snow melting. It was a beautiful day!

Michael is getting pretty wet as we hiked up to Bridal Veil Falls in Yosemite.

Here I am with a little trout that I caught in a stream on a recent trip to Yosemite.

Here is another one of my favorites. It has been sold too. I created a few more with some of the same plants for myself at home. There are some coleus in here that are sun tolerant, but I still grow them in mostly shade.

I have been potting up these pots at work to sell at the nursery. I am having a lot of fun doing it and it helps sell a lot of plants...plus a lot of my pots have sold.

Here is a carp we caught and released. It took me about 15 minutes just to bring it in.

Ferne's Big fish! Caught in March 2006 at Shadow Cliff. We had this one smoked. It weighed over 10 pounds.

Michael is admiring a Magnolia at Gamble Gardens. There were a lot of varieties in full bloom that day. This one is called Molton Lava, I believe.

Here is Michael trying a new style of fishing after everything else failed allllll day long! This didn't work either, but it was relaxing!

Christmas at Andy's house!

Here I am with Andy and Rob. Check out how tall they are!

First Harvest of 2005

These are my early vegetables from last year before the tomatoes took over.

Tidy Tips

Bleeding Heart Flowers

Happy Valentines Day!

I grew these in a pot last year. One of my favorite flowers

Ferne's little fish

Here I am after a successful fishing trip!