This week

Still no word on Erick. Thanks, everyone, for your thoughts and prayers. Please keep it up! One of the ladies in charge of prayer at Del Sol Church left a comment. I emailed them, and they are praying hard for Erick, too. He really, really loves his church, its members and his ministry.

This is a self-portrait that I found. Now you have a face for your thoughts. Erick is a terrific photographer; if you have a chance to visit http://www.hotbebop.com/, be sure to look at his artwork, OK?I went on the Garden Walk, and saw 9 of 10 gardens. It took me 5 hours, because I walked the entire thing. I'm estimating that was about 5-6 miles! I was amazed to discover that I can grow many of the things I loved in my Washington gardens--peonies, roses, iris, hostas, lavender, coreopsis, clematis and more!This house used all sorts of decorative accents. Here, they took some very old shelf supports and used them to garnish the garage door! Can you see the acorns? I bought one of the sculptures from this lovely, casual garden. They are rusted zinc silhouettes. I got the Garden Joy sculpture, which now graces my front yard.I noticed a couple taking photos of tree bark. Odd...so I inevestigated. This is what was ON the tree bark! ISH...what is it? We think it's a cicada coming out of the pupae shell? It was about 2" long, and bright green. It's hanging upside down. Check out the eyes! And the wings!I walked down to the beach in Santa Barbara on Tuesday--4.2 miles each way--that's 8.4 miles round trip, including hills! Yes, I was sore, but it was worth it. Here's one for the Glamour Don't file:Go ahead, take a closer look...what ARE those on her feet? And WHY black socks????This sand sculpture was really cool--it's dragon guarding its egg. Gee, I can barely make a bucket castle...this is really good!My primary objective in going downtown was to go to the Farmer's Market. Santa Barbara has a nice one. I found PASSION FRUIT!!!! Yippee, I haven't had passion fruit in over 20 years, since I lived in LA! I also bought walnut oil--it's delicious, and can be used in anything you'd use olive oil for. I bought some honey, and extra virgin olive oil, too. My pantry is well stocked.Then, when I got home, my neighbor brought me this bounty from his garden. Tomatoes, lemon cucumbers, squash, the biggest zucchini I've ever seen, and an eggplant! The tomatoes are delicious! I'm hoping to make curried squash soup tomorrow or Sunday, have eggplant for dinner, and I don't know how I'm going to eat all of that zucchini--can you freeze it? Want some?Fall must be here. I spotted this tree yesterday. Beautiful, isn't it?Today, Trish & I went for a walk and spotted the cat in the basket. Cute!Remember my old couch? It was perfect in Colorado Springs, but overwhelming in my new house. So, I sold it on Craigslist.This is my new furniture! The red chair was delivered by mistake, but I'm going to enjoy it for the next day or so, until they pick it up. If they'll sell it at a floor sample price, I'll buy it--I love it!

Here's the new couch! It fits the space so much better, doesn't it? Its colour is really close to the old sectional, but the lines are so much cleaner and more contemporary.

Check out my new bookcase, which matches the old one. I was thrilled to find it! I'm finally unpacking, slowly but surely (ignore the box in the corner, OK? And the man behind the curtain!)

I hope that your week has gone well. Again, please keep Erick in your thoughts--I believe that every thought and prayer counts. Thanks.