My walks through the orchard

I take walks twice a day though the orchards around my house.

This is one of my walking areas earlier this month.

The trees are full of leaves now and give a nice shade.

I can't imagine a prettier place to walk.

Sprinkles and Petals.

Last weekend in the Central Valley of California, it's sprinkling.

The almond trees are blooming and some of the petals are on the ground looking a bit like snow. Birds are singing and looking for a mate.

It all makes me feel a bit sleepy.

Hubby is still in bed but he's going to work tonight (graveyard shift), and I still feel like snuggling up with him before he has to leave.

Harvest Season and Writing

It was my turn to blog on Romance Books 4 Us Blog.

http://romancebooks4us.blogspot.com/2014/08/harvest-season-and-writing-by-janice.html

Blooms 2013

Some of the reasons my allergies have been keeping me indoors.

It's beautiful, but I sneezed my head off for two weeks and hadn't felt like doing much.

Thursday's Thirteen: Harvest Season

We live in the middle of a almond orchard and it's Harvest Season which means...

*All photos were taken by me or my daughter

1. All these lovely almond blooms

2. That opened in the early spring time...Fell off.

 3. The nut has matured during the long hot summer.

 4. And the almonds have dried and the outer shell popped open

 5. Dried Almond

6. Almond cracked open and ready to eat.

The Harvest begins on Thursday Aug. 30, 2012, which means I get woken up bright and early by the machines shaken the bejessus out of the trees and hear the hiss of almonds hitting the ground.

7.  In my home garden, we're also grown tomatoes

8. Green peppers

9. Which turned finally to red peppers

My daughter cooked them with chicken and pasta, yummy.

10. There's several orange trees on the property, which makes an awesome orange Julius.

11. My husband and daughter's favorite, grapefruit. 

12. We have a few strawberry plants

13. Which keeps us in strawberries, yum!

Do you do anything special during harvest season?

Thursday's thirteen: Blooms

Since its nearly Easter, I thought it would be nice to show thirteen of my Spring blooms photos. (All photos were taken by me and are owned by me.)

1. We live in the middle of an almond orchard.

2. Every spring we are treated to the most wonderful sight!

3. all the almond trees burst into bloom like popcorn, every March

4. The scent is amazing. The almond blooms smell like honey.

5. I'm always sad when the blooms fall off the trees and cover the ground like a sprinkling of snow.

6. My daffodils are the first to bloom a mere day or two before the almond trees.

7. My fancy daffodils bloom a few days later, but are very nice to look at.

Especially gathered together into a bunch 

(that's my hand at the bottom of the photo).

8. Here's another shot of my daffodils with my (haunted) house behind them.

9. one of my favorite vines is the jasmine vine. When they bloom they're lovely sweet scent fills the air. My old vine that I had transplanted died because of the frost and I bought myself a new one and planted pretty little pansies around its base.

10. My husband liked it so well, he wanted me to do that for the other side of gate and arch. So he bought me another vine and more pansies. 

11. Here are both of the side together. You can see my little metal American flag on the left and my hubby's navy flag (they gave him at work) on the right.

12. one of my flowers that wintered over in a pot is blooming.

13. My strawberry plants are in bloom. 

And that means strawberries will be next!!!