My Recent Travels - Part II (Lake Tahoe, Reno & Carson City, NV)

These are a few photos from the second half of my recent travels.  If you have a few minutes, I'd love to share these with you.  After our work was finished in Modesto, California, we were off to Reno, Nevada while seeing some beautiful sights along the way.  Here we go ...

Still in California ...

Lake Tahoe Beach View - California Side

I'd never seen Lake Tahoe before.  Wow!  It was beautiful!  Rocks are some of my favorite souvenirs, so I picked up a few precious rocks from the water near the dock on the left side of the pic. 

I enjoyed a delicious scoop of home made peppermint ice cream while standing here.  I was amazed with the color of the water;  such a beautiful blue! :-)

Lovely Lake Tahoe

Lovely Lake Tahoe

Reno, Nevada

I do believe Reno is the biggest little city in the world.  It was all dressed up at night with glitter and glitz!

Sagebrush

Fernando, who is a local, told me sagebrush is the Nevada state flower.  No daylilies around here!  However, I did notice some beautiful lavender growing, but wasn't able to snap a pic.

On the way to Virginia City

We were finished with work early on the last day of our trip, so we took a little drive to Virginia City, which is where Bonanza was filmed.

Along the way to Virginia City

Along the way, I bought jalapeno peanut brittle and jalapeno salt water taffy to take home.  Apparently, I'm the only one who has developed a "taste" for it (most of it is still sitting on the counter). It does have quite a KICK!

Interesting ... don't know how I took such a crooked photo ... I'm still not sure it's the photo that's crooked.

 Maybe this is the result of too much jalapeno peanut brittle (I had to sample it)! lol

Virginia City

 Here we are in Virginia City - the Wild West!

Local Shop in Virginia City

Leaving Virginia City

Leaving Virginia City

This is beautiful.  I just wish I'd never watched "The Hills Have Eyes."  I tried not to think about that crazy movie!  I picked up some precious souvenir rocks here too. :-)

One the way back to Reno ...

 

Hope you all have a great week! :-)

My Recent Travels - Part I (San Francisco, California & Modesto, California)

I recently went on a whirlwind trip (business), but managed to see some lovely sights along the way.  As usual, I snapped lots of photos.  Here are some pics from the first half of the trip, which I'd love to share with you if you have a few minutes:

After landing in Oakland, we went straight to Pier 39 in San Francisco, California (one of my FAVORITE places) where we managed to see quite a bit in a short while. 

Pier 39 Entrance - San Francisco, California

Love this crazy crab!

Boudin Bakery - San Francisco, California

 Famous for their sourdough bread, a portion of the original 1849 mother dough is still used in each loaf of sourdough bread baked at Boudin's.

Boudin Bakery - San Francisco, California

Boudin Bakery, San Francisco, California

They bake more than sourdough bread here ... these cookies caught my eye.

Pier 39 Farmers Market - San Francisco, California

I noticed similar super California strawberries approximately 17 years ago on my first visit to San Francisco with my husband during which I fell in love with the city, and have remained smitten ever since (as some of you already know). On my first visit, I didn't sample any of these luscious looking strawberries, so I corrected that on this trip (they had the cutest little sinks at the market to wash the fruit in).  These plum sized strawberries were the best I've ever tasted!  I'm sure it didn't hurt that I was standing on Pier 39 in my beloved San Francisco while tasting them. :-)

 Pretty Mixed Planter on The Pier

You can count on me to spot the flowers ...

The Enlightenment Shop

The Sock Market

 Like the catchy name... and the pretty hanging baskets.

The Sock Market

The Crystal Shop - Pier 39

 I loved these jellyfish paperweights.  

Maybe Santa will bring one this year. :-)

Another Beautiful Planter - Pier 39

The blue flowers are such a striking color.  

Does anyone know what they are?

Pier 39 - San Francisco, California

I thought this was a beautiful view.  The weather was also beautiful.  It was 66 degrees in San Francisco during our short visit.  After a couple of hours at The Pier, we were off to Modesto, California where there was much work to be done.

I snapped this photo while having breakfast in Modesto at The Mediterranean Market & Grill when I realized this striking flower was fresh!  Oh, my goodness!  How stunning!  Once I had my "flower fix," I was set for the day.

I'll post "My Recent Travels, Part II" soon.  I'm off to finish unpacking my bags (my steamer trunk ... lol).

 

Hope you're all having a great weekend! :-)

Encore! Encore!

Friends, I have some very exciting news to share with you!  The Daylily Gods are shining down upon my garden!  A daylily encore performance to beat all others is going on.  Maybe, standing on the deck yelling “Encore,” “Encore!” helped a little bit (one of my "Lucille Ball" moments).  As I began to accept that the daylilies were slipping away for yet another year, to my surprise, scape after magical, bud laden scape began to appear.  Is there a daylily dance to correspond with the rain dance we all know of?  If so, please direct me to the nearest daylily dance studio ... I'm learning this one (no, I will not do this dance in front of the neighbors ... lol)!  Just wanted to show you the current performers, so let’s have a look:

'Orange Crush'

'Beautiful Edgings'

I don't know the name of this inherited beauty.

'Lemonberry Truffle'

I don't know the name of this inherited golden truffle.

'Jesco'

Until next time,

Happy Gardening. :-)

Chit Chat

Yesterday, while out and about with Mr. DS, I spotted this treasure ...

a mesmerizing vase ... it beckoned me from across the department store.  I wandered helplessly toward the gleaming lovely as if it were a mirage in the desert.  "Wouldn't this be the perfect vessel for a lily?" I thought. Once I reached this sparkling treasure, I marveled over it for a while.  Then, I glanced at the price tag, which caused me to quickly "snap out of it" (approximately $650.00).  Price tags are no fun!  It's a treasure all right.  Oh well, the dream was fun while it lasted.

After this, we were off to

look at electronics.  I resisted the urge to set each Nook Tablet, i Pad and Kindle Fire I saw to Daylily Soup and leave them that way!  I don't know what came over me having such thoughts!  Good marketing scheme though ... don't you think?  I can just see the headlines:  "Daylily Soup Bandit" strikes again. ;-)

Don't you just love Starbucks?

Time for a little caffeine.

A front row seat (in the air conditioning) for a delightful, mini Fourth of July parade full of enthusiastic, patriotic children.  Lots of them were on stilts ... amazing! 

Then, I had to pick up a few "paints" for a blank canvas I just happen to have again.  Yes, most of the tall bearded irises had to go due to non performance.  They don't like the warm winters down here.  I did keep my prized 'Rip City' who never disappoints though. Here are the "paints":

'Red Rocks' Beard Tongue

'Garden Spice' Carnation

'Prairie Splendor' Coneflower

'Peacock Cherry Red' Phlox

Missing tag on this one ... think it's button flower.

'Prairie Sun' Black-Eyed Susan

Blank Canvas

I'll keep you posted on the "painting." I'm on vacation today and have already been working on this.  It required early morning gardening to beat the heat.  I require part shade and don't perform well in full sun or high temperatures (been hanging around with the shade loving plants too long). lol

'Halloween Magic'

And, finally, I'll leave you with a bloom 

from one of my encore performers in the daylily garden. 

There has turned out to be quite an encore this year.

Happy Gardening! :-)