Creekside Bungalow  -  12/4/12



Autumn is fading into winter...



After eleven months of painting, scraping, hauling, hammering, sawing and shoveling, our little bungalow is all spruced up and ready for company.  Here are some photos of her new look:



Our magnificent Mulberry tree...and lots of leaves.



The living room with a new rock fireplace and sleeper couch:

 The large bedroom with king bed:

We have listed our little "Creekside Bungalow" on Vacation Rentals by Owner (www.vrbo.com) and Enchanted Vacation Rentals (www.enchantedvacationrentals.com).  Please be sure to let your friends and family know about this adorable little house.  It is the perfect weekend getaway and includes luxury spa robes, Pottery Barn duvets and towels, Starbuck's coffee and a bottle of complimentary wine.  You also get a bowl of juicy apples to feed our resident horses Snickles and Beau  -  or enjoy one yourself!

The bathroom:

The smaller bedroom with queen bed:

The kitchen:

But the best part of all is relaxing creek side, sipping a glass of wine as you enjoy the soothing sounds of San Antonio Creek.  I mean, does life get any better?

We are planning a lovely celebration at the Creekside Bungalow in the spring and you will all be invited.  Until then, have a wonderful holiday season and a healthy and happy New Year!

Our love,

Susie and Fred

Batman, our neighbor cat.

The Little House on Creek Road

Bird Blog  -  8/16/12

Honestly, I never intended this to be a Bird Blog.  I ashamedly must admit that I used to snicker at the birders in Arroyo Verde Park with their khaki shorts, knock knees, and binoculars.  I was unkind and uninformed.  Little did I appreciate their passion for our endearing feathered friends.

A Flicker

Yet here I am writing a blog that is supposed to be about our little house refurbishment, and instead seems to be all about birds.  Finches, Juncos, Hawks, Orioles, Woodpeckers, Spotted Towhees, Titmouses, Starlings, Doves, Ring Neck Pigeons, Scrub Jays, Flickers, Grosbeaks, Quail, Owls, and Swallows, and others yet to be discovered.

A covey of Quail clean up the spilled seeds.

So today is no different.  However, today I am not so very pleased with some of my little bird friends – namely a renegade band of Goldfinches.  Oh yes, they are quite innocent looking no doubt.  They put on quite an act of “look how cute I am” when they are perched at the bird feeder.   And their likability factor is off the charts when they are splashing in the bird bath.  But I am here to tell you everything is not as it appears.  DO NOT BE FOOLED BY THEIR CHARM AND JOIE DE VIVRE!

I have documented proof that there is a band of Goldfinch hoodlums who are terrorizing my sunflower plants.  And I don’t mean the flowers, I mean the plants.  For some mysterious reason these Goldfinches take delight in shredding the sunflower plants of every ounce of leaf on every single stem.  No, they are not eating bugs on the leaves, they are eating the leaves!!! 

                              

And I have come to find out this is not an isolated incident.  It is epidemic on the world wide web.  People are afraid to leave their homes.  Children live in terror of walking to school.  The elderly fall victim to their attacks.  Ok, I’m exaggerating, but it really is a problem and they really are eating everyone’s sunflower leaves.

             

Trying to look innocent.

Evidently one of the tried and true antidotes is spraying them  with Concord Grape juice – the leaves, not the birds.  It seems it is not agreeable to the Goldfinch palate.  I may try this although the image of my lovely flowers dripping with sticky purple grape juice is not very appealing.

If any of you have a suggestion or alternative solution, please let me know.

Batman, the neighbor's cat, would love to take care of the problem.

A Love Story – 6/14/12

WARNING:  THE FOLLOWING STORY MAY BE TOO MUCH FOR PEOPLE WHO DON'T LIKE SLITHERY THINGS.

This is a love story.  It’s a story about longing, passion…..and destiny.

It begins with a lonely gopher snake, inching forlornly along a garden path seeking his one true love.

Searching for love.

                                A leery Titmouse watches from above.

                               

Perhaps the love of his life is somewhere in the luscious green grass.  Perhaps she, too, is winding hither and thither, desperately seeking the love of her life....two lost souls slithering toward their awaited destinies.

                               

Alas, in all the fields and all the meadows in Ojai, they spy each other in front of The Little House on Creek Road.  Their eyes meet, their heartbeats race in unison. 

He serpentines up to her and introduces himself.  She coyly gives him a knowing sidelong glance.  They intertwine and the courtship begins.

                               

He gives her an enticing bite and she is engulfed in snake-bite ecstasy. 

                               

She invites him into a cozy little gopher hole and he follows, captivated by her charms. 

                               

He checks to make sure no one has followed them. 

Cameras fade to darkness and the sound of violins floats on summer breezes.

The End

Actually there are love stories all over our little acre.  Mr. and Mrs. Blue Bird fell in love here and raised their family in our Audubon house.   It was a treat watching the two of them swoop over the grass in the evenings to catch the flying critters for their younguns.  Unfortunately we were out of town when the little ones took flight.  However,  we did get to see the young Swallow leave their nest. 

We must make note of a correction to a previous publication.  The adorable little bird identified as a Flycatcher is actually none other than a Titmouse.  Thank you loyal follower Roger Conrad for bringing this to my attention.

Yes, he loves to eat his sunflower seeds on the cat's tail.

 Note:  The Little House refurbishment is moving forward.  We have actually finished the kitchen and are now tackling the living room.  I will be posting photos on the next blog.

Until then, much love,

Susan

The Little House on Creek Road

Ojai, Oh My  -  5/21/12

               

Have you ever had the feeling that someone up there was trying to tell you something?  Like, it’s time to slow down, take a deep breath, smell the roses and stop painting and scraping?  Well, evidently I wasn’t listening ‘cause last week I tripped over a metal pipe and dislocated my shoulder.  Fortunately it hurt so much that I reflexively (is that a word?) screamed and popped it back in.  At least that’s what the bone doctor surmised when I told him my story and he looked at the x-rays. 

But back to my story.  There I lay on the ground, on my back (I had managed to flip myself over), stomping my foot because I was so ‘efn’ angry.  Fred saw me from a distance and thought someone had told me such a funny joke that I was laying on the ground, holding my stomach, stomping my foot in hilarity, unable to speak.  Once it finally dawned on him that that wasn’t likely, he came running over to help me.  This I was thankful for because I could not get up without his help or the rental of a mechanical lift. 

Scene of my fall, just a few yards away.

So, that’s my story.  But, let’s make lemonade.  The good part is that it is my left shoulder and I am not left-handed.  That leaves me with one good right hand and arm for painting and scraping.  There, you see, there is a bright side to this story.

But enough of my story (you can tell I really want to talk more about poor me, but that will have to wait until the end of today’s blog – see below).  I promised I would share with you photos of the plants and flowers that adorn our little acre, so here they are.  I have put captions on them if I happen to know what they are:

The beautiful Locust trees.

Locust bloom.

I have had much fun planting flowers and adding "ranch" accents to the yard.



Can't go wrong with Gazanias



Tiger Lilies

 

Something yellow by the metal barn.

Somehow as I was wandering around taking photos of plants and flowers, I found myself next door at what we have always called The Big House, the home where my parents lived for so many years.  My sisters Patrice and Ramona have done a beautiful job of carrying on mom’s tradition of seasonal flowers and shrubs.  Here are just a few:



Mona's perennial garden.



The Iris garden.



Patrice's shade house & koi pond.

 As you may have noticed, there are far more beautiful flowers next door than on our little plot.  The nice thing is that I get to go visit those flowers whenever I get the urge.  It’s a good trade off.  Mona comes over and watches the birds at my bird feeders and I wander through their gardens.

For those of you who would like to know the outcome of my spill, it is this.  An MRI is in the works and in the meantime I am wearing a sling to keep my arm stable.  No more popping out of the socket, thank you very much.  Physical therapy is scheduled to begin June 5^th, which seems a tad far off but I’m sure Kaiser Permanente has more important things on their mind than my sprained shoulder.  I’m not in a great deal of pain except at night when I want to sleep and my shoulder wants to throb.  But they gave me some nice little pills for that.

So I have slowed down.  I am taking time to smell roses and write my blog.  I am trying to practice less zip and more zen.  Yes, I got the message - but couldn't there have been a better way to deliver it?