The Letter Q

The Alphabet Photo Challenge letter of the week is "Q".

"Q" on the old "Antiques" sign hanging over my staircase.

Some of the Quilts I have...

This is one that I have hanging on a ladder in my craft studio.

The crochet bed cover was made by my grandmother.

I got this one from a church rummage sale...

I made this one for my daughter when she moved away for college...

This is an old yoyo Quilt that my mom inherited and gave to me.

I have no idea how old it is.  It's really big!

 Here's another photo.  It has a lot of colors in it.

 I made this one to hang over the loft wall above our living room.

The colors are better in person.

Quinoa

 Quartz

Q-tips

Quick release on one of our bikes.

Quirky new wine bottle cover I got last night.

It's an actual sock!  I couldn't resist getting it.

Happy Fall!

I'm so excited!  I finally figured out how to put text on a picture!

I know, it took me long enough.  I've started playing with Picassa.

This is a photo from one of our trips to Zion.

Happy Fall, everyone!  :-)

Pretty Pink Post Plus

This week, the letter for the Alphabet Photo Challenge is "P".

It's a Positively Perfect letter with a Plethora of Possibility.

And, an opportunity for alliteration...which I love to do.

A Pink sea shell...

Pink Purls on Pink Pointy needles...

 Pink Posies on Porcelain...

Pink Patterned Pillow...

Penelope's Pink Padded Paw...

Plus, Probiotic Pills...

A Positively Pleasing Project with a Precisely Perfect Product.

Created by a very goofy blogger!

O is for Ocean

Looks like I ended up behind on the Alphabet Photo Challenge again.

But, I have a very good excuse...sort of.  I've been gone.

But, this might make up for it...the letter this week is O and...

I went somewhere that starts with "O"!   The Ocean! 

Hubby is lucky to work near the ocean.  And, one week every ten months or so, he has to work at night.  So, to avoid him having to make the hour drive home in the middle of the night, we took

our RV down to Carlsbad (northern San Diego county) and stayed by the ocean.

It was only about 10-15 minutes from his job.  That was much nicer for his drive "home".

And, we were able to escape the heat at home and enjoy perfect weather...about 75!

We made very good use of the day time hours.  One morning, we rode our bikes to Cardiff, turned around and had a delicious breakfast at the Encinitas Cafe.  Then, we made another stop at Pannikin for coffee.  It's right on highway 101, in an 1888 Santa Fe train station.  Isn't it cute?!...

The inside is fun too.  This is what you see when you walk in one of the doors...

They have a cute, old fashioned looking store that sells coffee, tea, teapots and other fun things.

Then, you turn to the left and follow the line (they're always busy) to place an order...

Their bakery case was overflowing onto the counters with yummy looking treats.

Some were even gluten free!  I had to resist because I was still full from breakfast.

More fun things to look at above the coffee making area...

What a great use of an old stove...they use it to hold cream, sugar, honey, etc...

Their coffee is delicious.  But, I think it's a little weird that they serve a hot vanilla latte

in a large glass....there's no handle and it's TOO hot to hold!  I had to use several napkins

to pick it up.  I was hoping for one of those big cups with coffee art on top.  I love those!

We went outside to sit down and enjoy our coffee.  Parked at the curb was a 

TV news van with their tower up.  They were getting all set up to cover a story...

There was a group of people that had started early in the morning for a run from Camp Pendleton to San Diego for a children's charity of some kind.  It was fun to get a behind-the-scenes look

at what it takes to get a news story.  We heard them making arrangements to meet

 the runners at the finish line later that day.  They were going to run about 46 miles that day.

This adorable little dog was waiting outside for it's owner.  It was so cute!

Our RV that was just a little cabin in the woods a few weeks ago

became our little cottage by the sea this week.  

Yes...that's the ocean right behind it!

Salsa seemed to love the cooler weather.

She took naps on her little pink hammock every day.

We could tell that she was thoroughly enjoying the shade and the cool ocean breeze.

Hey...this starts with O...sort of...it's an Old tree!

I had hoped to bike more but I'm not used to my road bike and the long ride earlier in the week

made my neck too sore to ride again.  But, the week was filled with lots of other fun stuff.

Hubby did more riding in the mornings and boogie boarding in the afternoons.

I went for walks and beach combing for more rocks to crochet lace around.

Of course, I did some knitting, a little shopping, and relaxing.

We finished our stay with a walk along the beach this morning.

The water temperature is really nice right now.  Ahhhh!

We really enjoyed watching birds...especially the different sand piper types.

There were teenie tiny ones, larger gray and white ones, and big brownish ones.

The bluff to the left is where our RV was parked.  We heard the sound of the ocean

all the time.  And, we enjoyed sunsets and and watching the moon set every night.

There are stairways like this one that lead down to the sand.

The lack of crowds during the week (and, since school has started) was wonderful!

The size and shape of the waves improved a lot today and there were lots of surfers.

You might be able to see some of them if you click on the photo to enlarge it.

Well, there's my O post.  It's not a lot of things that start with O.

It's one very large thing that starts with O...Ocean!

And, it was much more fun than some of the things I had planned on like olive oil and onions.

I didn't even take my camera out of the case....I used my cell phone for pictures.

The Letter N

The letter for this week's Alphabet Photo Challenge is N.

It's surprising which letters end up to be more challenging and which ones are easy.

I would have thought that N would have been a piece of cake but it was tough.

I couldn't think of anything for a while and was tempted to post the word "Nothing".

All kinds of words came to mind that start with N but they were all more descriptive than 

things to photograph....like Nonsense, Nice, Naughty, Never, Nifty, etc.

Then, I thought of Needles.  Here are some vintage ones...

That's all I could think of for about a week.  Then, I thought of Nuts...

Another kind of Nuts...

And, Nails...

And, how could I have not thought of this first?...My dear Nel, Nellie, Nelster, Nellerooo...

All nicknames for Penelope...the greatest kitty ever!

In this picture, she's laying on the part of the chair that is normally under the cushion.

The Naughty doggy likes to flip them up.  Nelly decided it was a Nice place to hang out.

I think O might be a little easier.  Lots of things are coming to mind for that one already. 

Mini Vacation and the Letter "L"

Our summer has been so busy that trying to fit in a vacation has been challenging.

We squeezed a mini vacation in last week.  We stayed fairly local to reduce travel time and cost and maximize our fun and relaxation time.  We went camping about two hours away near Big Bear Lake.

I decided to use the trip to take pictures for the Alphabet Photo Challenge.

So, this is a vacation and a photo post all in one.  The letter for this week is "L".

The weather was warm...hot in the sun...but about 20f degrees cooler than at home.

That was a refreshing break.  Day time temps were around 80f.

Here's a Lovely view of part of the Lake from the north shore...

We stayed up there from Sunday to Friday.  Here's our Little traveling Lodge...RV...

Some campers arrived Later in the week with this tent trailer.

It's like staying in a Loft or a tree house.  Pretty cool, I think.

We did some reading, played cards, assembled a jigsaw puzzle, ate and drank, 

crocheted, knitted, biked, hiked, shopped and Lounged.  My daughter spent many hours

in the hammock and read.  I finally got a chance to try it out before we Left...

We stayed at Pine Knot Campground which is right next to our favorite Local ski resort, Snow Summit.  We Literally could walk down the road in our campground and right onto Snow Summit.

They've been doing a lot of work this year to turn it into a bike and adventure park when it's not ski season.  They were doing some work on the east side and had rows of ski Lifts Lying in rows...

Since they were just sitting around and not working...I called them Lazy Lifts...

We headed over to the Big Bear Discovery Center one day for a visit.

They have a bronze sculpture in front of a Large Bear...

Inside was an adorable Little bear to welcome everyone coming in...

There were some structures (for shade??) out front with benches under them.

I thought the shadows were fun and made some interesting Lines...

From the Discovery Center, we set out for a hike on the Cougar Crest Trail.

We hiked about 5 1/2 miles that day.  It was hot but there were a lot of 

great things to see along the way.  Like this Large old tree...

Little, baby trees...

Interesting and beautiful Lines in the trees...

Lichen...

Lizards...

A Little rattler!  Hubby almost stepped on it.  It was stretched out along a rock in the

middle of the trail.  It was quite small and easy to miss....until it rattled and started to move! 

The top of this trail provides spectacular views of Big Bear Lake and the surrounding mountains.  

There are several benches at the top.  Here's my daughter Looking at the views...

We spent one of our mornings riding around the entire lake...18.6 miles!  Whew!

Here's one of the Lovely views of the Lake and surrounding Landscape.

And, that mountain bike...it was my Lift around the Lake!

I had to get a picture of this old Lodge in Fawnskin (a community on the north west side

of the Lake).  It's fascinating!  I'd Love to know the history of it. I wonder how big it is inside?  It's Looks quite Large.  How wonderful it would be if it could be fixed up and running again.

Little and Large bird houses on the side of a tree...

Little pine needles...

Long pine needles...

Little Oak Leaves.

Large Oak Leaves (a different variety)...

Lines on a Leaf... 

My daughter and I went shopping in the Big Bear Village one day.

I saw this pretty Little butterfly while we were there.  Look at the Lines in it's wings... 

Hollyhocks seem very happy up there.  This one was in front of a restaurant in the village.

There's a bee hiding inside!  And, Look!...more Lines...

More Hollyhocks...more Lines and what a Luscious red color! 

Little Daisies...

Little but Larger Daisy...

Lots of even Larger Daisies...  Pretty!

We're officially about a month away from the time we'd normally see Fall color.

But, somehow, some of the trees are already starting to change.

I Love all the beautiful colors of Leaves in these trees...

This tree was breathtaking in real Life.  The color was intense and stunning!  It glowed!

I Love the rich red Leaves.  They Look so pretty against the white trunks and branches.

Our mini vacation was way too short!  But, it was wonderful to get away for a few days.

It gave us all a chance to be together before our daughter goes back to college.  I Love that!

And, it's always great to spend time in nature.  I can never get enough of either!

The letter "L" has been one of the easiest and most fun letters so far in this challenge.  The whole family enjoyed playing along.  We were surprised at how many words we use that start with "L".

I repeated quite a few in this post but I think I used quite a few.  Hmmm...I'm curious...  I think I'll list them out to see.....   lovely, lake, little, lodge, later, loft, lounged, literally, lift/lifts, lying, lazy, large/larger, lines, like, lichen, lizards, look/looks/looking, landscape, left, local, love, long, leaf/leaves, luscious, lots and life   ...I think I got them all.   Wow...that makes 31!  That was fun!

For anyone who's interested, photos were taken with my Razr cell phone and Canon Rebel.