Saturday, December 31, 2022

New Year's Eve 2022

New Year's Eve Dinner - Compliments of Neighbor S!

A very rainy New Year's Eve here in southern California!

My daughter and I had a rather relaxed day, today.  We picked up our last grocery order of the year at noon and I did another load of laundry in the afternoon.  During a break in the rain, I took some photos of the back garden:

Looking Straight Down from the Back Door

Looking Right - the trellis with the passionfruit vine

To the Right - all the way down along the wall

Another Look Down the Garden to the Back Wall

Looking Left - at the side of the garage
and a glimpse of the area behind the garage


Mama Cat Sleeping in the Blueberry Plant Pot

Daughter and I had some of the mini croissants we bought for brunch.  Then, in the evening, neighbor S provided us with a wonderful dinner of barbecued meats (pork ribs, beef, and chicken), chicken wings, rice, bread, lavash flat bread, and several desserts (jello, homemade gata, and homemade Napoleons)!  A feast!  I gave her a small packet of chocolate truffles in return.

It is 10:30 p.m., now, and daughter and I are watching the New Year's Eve countdown show on TV.  We will toast the New Year with cranberry juice or orange juice and I will boil some milk on the stove and make a little milkrice.

On this New Year's Eve, I thank all my blog friends for reading my blog and for taking the time to comment.  You have all been very kind and supportive and I consider you all as friends.  I wish you all a wonderful New Year's Eve and a very happy New Year. 

On this last day of 2022, I am grateful for:

- Having lived through another year in relative good health
- For my daughter's good health and being able to have her home during this time
- For family, friends and wonderful neighbors such as S
- For the community of blog friends
- For the blessing of rain at the end of a year of on-going drought

Today's joyful activity was enjoying the lovely dinner provided by S.

Happy New Year, everyone!

18 comments:

  1. Thank you for your years of blogging. You are an inspiration and such a positive force, and I feel very fortunate to have found you in blogland. I hope this is a wonderful year for you and your daughter.

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    1. Thank you, Celie, for reading my blog and leaving me such lovely comments! You are very kind and I admire how giving you are of yourself to others, always being there to help your family when needed. I always look forward to hearing from you and I hope that you will continue to read and comment on my blog. :)
      I hope that this will be a year filled with blessings for us all.

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  2. Happy New Year. I enjoy seeing your garden. You have so many features to visit in your garden.

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    1. Happy New Year to you, too, Mary-Lou. :)
      Thank you; I took a few more photos of the garden to share in another post. Quite a few of them turned out rather blurry, so I might have to retake them!

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  3. Happy New Year to you too Bless, and to your daughter, and a huge thank you for your friendship this year.

    Your feast, courtesy of S, looks so good! I'm sure you both enjoyed it.

    Rain on the first day of a new year sounds promising. It still feels strange to hear you mention that it's been raining over there, but long may it continue for you. I love the photos of your back garden as well. Are they the start of a new monthly series to match the ones of your front garden? I hope so. xx

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    1. Thank you, Eileen, and wish you a very happy and blessed 2023!
      My daughter and I enjoyed our New Year's Eve feast!
      I am so grateful for the rain we've been receiving! There was a very light sprinkle, earlier today, as well, and more rain is in the forecast for next week! After that, there's no more rain in the forecast for the rest of the month!
      Thank you; I took a few more photos of the back garden, but, they are for another post - quite a few of them turned out blurry, so I need to retake them. I still haven't quite figured out how to focus properly with my cell phone! But, I like the idea of doing a monthly update on the back garden, too! Maybe on or about the first of each month?

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    2. The first will be great but make sure you don't overload yourself as that's about the time when you also have your balanced month post, the monthly photo challenge and the SPSH/WPSH link ups. Whenever you choose to do it, I look forward to seeing how your back garden progresses in 2023. xx

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    3. Yes, you are right; the first of the month might be pushing it. Maybe a little later in the month. :)

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    1. Thank you, Nil. Happy New Year to you, too. Hope you are keeping well. :)

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  5. I can sense the joy that S has in giving you treats and meals!
    The garden looks so fresh with the benefit of the rain. Mama Cat thinks she is a mulch cat!
    We had a quiet day. I watched a live Mass in the morning, made soup for lunch and did some more of the jigsaw later. In the afternoon DH and I tried to tie up a broken branch on the bush in front of the porch. It's an old bush now and the weight of the wet snow caused the break and also broke two branches on the wild honeysuckle bush. While we were on the porch, we were assailed by a squirrel who kept me busy by coming back again and again for a peanut!

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    1. S and her family are so kind and generous!
      The garden doesn't know what to do with all the rain it has received! Mama Cat appears to prefer the blueberry planter to her box! Maybe the box got wet for the rain.
      Sounds like you had a very nice New Year's Day, Bushlady. My daughter and I, too, worked on our jigsaw puzzle, today! I hope the branch you tied will stay up. Too funny about the squirrel and his peanuts!

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  6. My goodness - that is quite the NY's Eve spread from generous neighbor S. I am sure you and your daughter enjoyed all the goodies.
    Thank you for posting these views of your back garden. I always enjoy seeing different areas and now, in winter, the pictures show the "bones" of the garden well even as many plants are looking very lush and green from your recent rains.
    Thank you for your new year's good wishes. I wish the same for you and your daughter. And thank you for writing your blog. I find is so enjoyable to check in with you and see and hear what you've been up to.
    Happy New Year

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    1. It was a very generous spread and yes, my daughter and I have been enjoying it! :)
      Glad you enjoyed the peek at the back garden. I am planning to post monthly updates on the back garden as well as the front, this year!
      Thank you, Debra; I enjoy writing my blog and it is so gratifying to know that people actually read what I write and seem to enjoy it. :)

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  7. That's quite a feast! A very Happy New Year, to you and your daughter. Xx

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    1. Yes! It was quite a feast and we are still finishing up the last bits of it!
      Thank you, Jules. Wish you and yours the same! May this be a very good year for us all.

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  8. I love your blog. I always feel that there is a hug in it. Mama cat looks so intensely asleep and so pretty. She must feel very safe around you.

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    1. Thank you, Lyssa! That's such a lovely thing to say about my blog! Mama Cat is very comfortable around me until I reach out a hand to her and then, she gets spooked and backs away. She's fine with me getting as close as a foot away, but, I can't even try to touch her!

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