The other side of the coin

you

know that

old

cliche

"it's always greener or the other side"

well,

here's

the deal.

My friend,

Sandy,

as in

"Sandy with the eternal lemon tree"

(from an earlier blog)

moved

with

her hubby

from Connecticut

to

SLO.

She

loves

that

"it is always sunny in SLO"

and

she loves

her

lemon tree.

She

did

not love

raking

the

fallen

beautifully

colored

Autumn leaves

from

her Connecticut

trees.

I

would

love

to rake

Autumn leaves,

I think.

Sandy read my blog

and sent

a couple

of pictures

of the trees

from

her

CT

home

beautiful, huh?

Nottie and her Ragamuffins

IMG_0023, originally uploaded by TTT with Toulouse.

Nope, not clipped yet!
.......but soon, very soon

looking for Autumn

Even though

I

am

a

California girl

from

September

to

December

I

pretend

that

we

(San Luis Obispo)

have

a

cool

crisp

colorful

mid-western-ish

New Enland-ish

Autumn!

our

house

becomes

alive

with

pumpkins

and owls

and silly

little

pumpkin

critters

that hide

among

the

fallen

(well, silk)

leaves


I

bake

pumpkin cookies

and

pumpkin muffins

butternut squash with honey

and

apple crisps

hearty soups

and

stews

To make it really

feel

even

more

Autumnal

(is that a word?)

Toulouse

and

I decide

to go

leaf

peeking

Once

the wine grapes

are

harvested

the

leaves

begin

to

turn

beautiful colors

That's the view

from

Edna Valley Vineyards

looking

towards

Islay Hill

:(

not too

many

colors yet

Some of

the leaves

are

changing

and some leaves

are not

here

and

there

Toulouse

and

I

will head out again

soon

to find

more

colors

of

Autumn

In the meantime,

I

am

off

to

eat

a

pumpkin oatmeal

cookie

with a cup

of

hot

mulled

cider

C'est la Vie

c'est

la

vie

that's life

what

a great philosophy!

when

we

are

filled with joy

c'est la vie.

when

we are

sorrowful

c'est la vie.

when

you share

a

lovely

glass of wine

with

an

old friend

c'est la vie.

or when you

watch

your

parent

take

his

or her

last breath

c'est la vie.

Melissa,

of

THE JUNK GIRLS

made

these

silver spoon

charms

just

for

Petit Soleil

we

LOVE

"c'est la vie"

it

is

our

mantra,

our

motto,

our philosophy

...

only at Petit Soleil

Silver Spoon

C'est la Vie

necklaces

$22.00 - $25.00

The Day before the Dog Whisperer cometh

Oh. boy!

the excitement

begins

with

"wanna go to the doggie park?"

Nottie

and the boys

can't jump

into

Mademoiselle

fast enough

there's

lots of

room

in

Mademoiselle Petit Soleil

for them

to

run

in

circles of excitement

or just sit and

anticipate

the

fun

ahead

.....

When one first arrives at the dog park

it

can

be

a

little

bit

scary

big dogs,

little dogs,

hairy dogs,

bald dogs

athletic dogs

and

lazy dogs

all

together

Huckleberry finds some little friends

and

then

this big guy comes to check out the sitch

Goldens are always safe friends -

They are

ALWAYS

nice

If you didn't notice,

you don't see

Nottie

making

friends.

She

had

some

"friend"

issues,

we think,

from her days

at

the Animal Shelter

so Nottie

decided to go explore

and where Nottie goes

so

follow

her

boys

John and I

had to

run after

Nottie

Huck and Phinn

as they

found

High School

cross country

teams

running

and

they decided to run with them

.....

So,

sadly

out come

the leashes

and

back to

Mademoiselle

to go home.

We did

show

Nottie

and her boys

the

"good"

dogs

good

dogs

listen

and sit

and fetch

and

STAY

We have

high hopes

for our

gang,

though

Tressie,

the dog whisperer,

comes

tomorrow

to

train

me

and John

how to

be good

dog

parents!

Watch for future updates

Oh my Gosh! How easy is Tortilla Soup?

I

do

believe

that everyone

that reads my blog

loves to

cook

and

bake

as much as I do

...

I figure

what the heck!

Maybe

all you foodies

have

forgotten

that

Tortilla Soup

has to

one

of the easiest

dinners

when

you have

no time

but do have

torts

and leftover

pork

or

chicken

or

beef

or

turkey

or veggies!

Fry up

some tortilla strips

I cut up a red onion and a few jalapenos from our garden

and after I took out the

crispy fried torts

I added the onions and chiles

to the pan

and sauteed them

until soft

I cut up a few tomatoes

from our garden

and added

them to the onion mixture

I added

leftover

veggie broth

and chicken broth

to the

onion mixture

(maybe 5 cups

or so)

We had leftover

grilled port tenderloin

(yum)

so I cut it up

and threw it in the soup

I tossed in chipotle,

garlic,

chile powder

salt and pepper

and a zucchini from our garden

and the

soup

simmered

for

oh,

hmm

about an hour

to serve

toss some of the fried torts

in your bowl

pour the soup

on the

torts

add some cheese

lime

more jalapeno

(if you dare)

So

yummy!

I wish I had had

an avocado

and sour cream

to toss and swirl

on top

It was still gooood.

Nine months old!

IMG_0244, originally uploaded by TTT with Toulouse.

Can you tell that these two scruff bags hate the doggie brush? I mean, Huckleberry screams like a baby before I even begin to brush - Phinn just takes off running and dives under our bed.
We are thinking maybe a dog whisperer might be helpful......
or maybe dreads!