What happened to October?!

I know, I know... I've been a bad blogger! A thousand pardons. Where DID October go? Well, I spent part of it in California, attending the McDougall Clinic's 10 Day Live-In Program in Santa Rosa (a most awesome experience, so more on that later!), and the rest of it was spent doing the usual - dealing with the fire aftermath and Fall Cleaning, both of which continue (though much has been accomplished fire-wise, and it's slowed down for now as we merely await the contractors who will tear down the old shop, prep the new pad and erect the new building! Yeaaa!)

We also brought Mocha home the day after I returned from CA, though we had to spend a lot more time cleaning up all the fire debris in his big pasture. But that's all done, and he's once again enjoying the run of the place and we're so happy to have him home again! We again send huge thanks to our friends Sue and Morris who took such good care of him while he was an evacuee, and Mocha sends a big shout-out (whinny-out?) to his dear friend Bugs! :-)

All the other critters are doing well, and I'll try to do better about blogging! For now I'll leave you with some photos taken at the Luther Burbank Home & Gardens in Santa Rosa, CA, one of our fun McDougall Program field trips. For those of you who may be unfamiliar with him, Luther Burbank (1849 - 1926) was a horticulturist who introduced more than 800 new varieties of plants including over 200 varieties of fruits, many vegetables, nuts and grains, and hundreds of ornamental flowers (including the Burbank "Idaho" Potato, the Shasta Daisy and the California Poppy.)

The Luther Burbank home...

In the gardens: Susan from Colorado, Perry from Australia, me, David from Sacramento...

One of Luther's beautiful roses...

The Gingko Biloba tree...

And finally, Yours Truly, dwarfed by Luther's huge prickle-less prickly pear! (We ate a piece of the fruit for dessert that night!)...