July 22nd: Progress with the blog site problems

Chris on Yesterday's Dream,
catching, on Lake Champlain 

I don't have much new going on but have made some progress with the blog site. My technology wizard nephew Chris, helped me find out why we couldn't open the pictures and a way around it. Actually, he discovered that clicking on SOME of the pictures would let you enlarge all of them, but you had to get the correct one. Obviously not the way it was designed, but it helped him figure out what I could do until the software is fixed. So hopefully, you will be able to easily enlarge the pictures again in new blog posts. It is still very difficult to move text, but it's readable! Picture placement is also difficult so I'll just put them where they want to go!

I finally finished the puzzle. It's a pretty cool picture with a lot of sea life if you look closely. I had fun putting it together.

My landlords, Scott and Mara, invited me for a glass of wine. They are delightful people and I enjoyed getting to know them. They love going to Italy and gave me a lot of information about travelling to Italy. I already wanted to go after listening to Rebecca talk about her trips, but now I definitely see a trip to Italy in my future. Gee, I wonder if Rebecca would want to come with me? 

Scott and Mara have two very friendly dogs. They informed me that one likes to eat the figs off of their fig tree. I said, "You have a fig tree?" There was a small fig tree in the corner of their front patio. I told them Rebecca had a great fig tree in her former house's back yard and the figs were great. Scott went over and picked three for me to take home. They're delicious. 

Fresh figs from Mara and Scott

My balcony gets a lot of sun in the mornings. Also it overlooks a "glass house". When I was on the balcony, or even in the kitchen, I felt like I was staring at the neighbors. Also felt like I was in a fish bowl with them looking at me. The glass doors on the bottom floor open all the way, which is great for them, but it felt like they were on top of me. 

When we finished adding the ivy layer to Rebecca's fence we had some Ivy stuff left over. Rebecca, said, "You could use these leftovers on your balcony." I thought, "Great idea". Of course I also recognized an ulterior motive when she said, "Well you need to just take all of the leftovers!" Not easy to get rid of "Stuff" in Studio City. As it turned out I was happy I took all of it. We used some for a dog fence in Matt & Wendy's back yard to keep Trevi and London from roaming the neighborhood, and I used all of the rest on my balcony.

Glass house viewed from my balcony

Ivy shade/privacy addition

I have continued my walking routine most days. It's getting too crowded at the beaches on the weekends so I just walk in the neighborhood. That works fine, I just miss the good workout of the massive stairs going down to the beach. I walked past a beautiful tree with orange blossoms. Once again, I have no idea what kind of tree it is but it sure is pretty. A little further I passed the house with the giant peacock sculpture in the front yard. It's fun just to walk around and see new things all the time.