Our new raised garden beds are fantastic!  I highly recommend the extra effort and expense.  We have tomatoes of all sorts, cucumbers, squash, arugula (blossoms in 1st pic), spinach, basil, carrots, and onions.  Every day is a garden adventure and not a chore at all; look at that view!
   Sam, our red Border Collie, and Benny, our only male cat, love to garden with me.  They keep me good company and hopefully chase away any slithery critters that may be lurking.

   Well this is a different kind of Christmas post!  It's summertime in Uruguay and the bees are buzzing, the flowers are blooming, and the birds are chirping their little bird brains off.
I'm still not used to a summertime Christmas, but it's hard to not be jolly in the beautiful sunny weather.  (even without the holly)
   I've been out and about with my camera lately.  There are so many images to capture.  I've complied my favorites for a Christmas delight.  There's no better way to feel love than to be out and about in nature.

   Uruguay has a huge amount of birds.  I like birds, but have to admit I'm a little bit scared of them.  Irrational fear, I know.  The old Hitchcock movie, The Birds, forever ruined me. This morning Gracie, our Border Collie, and I decided we were going to be birdwatcher photographers.  Gracie has a huge heart and an abundance of patience.  She's the perfect birdwatcher.  I, on the other hand possess a semi-big heart for birds, and little patience for waiting to photograph them.  
   We positioned ourselves on the side porch where there is a large bush with branches shooting upwards.  The birds love to perch there and swoop in to eat the cat food on the porch table.  The cats have become oblivious to them after the first 100 unsuccessful tries at catching one.  Gracie, being very intelligent, always watches the cats' attempts and saves herself any wasted energy trying to catch birds.  She prefers to watch.
   The birds didn't seem to mind that we were there.  The only hesitance came with actually landing on the cat food dish and eating.  They passed on that, but posed on the branches for photos.  They were secretly hoping that Gracie and I would get ever so bored and leave.
   And so - after all these years of taking photos, these are my first serious attempts at birdies!  Gracie agrees that we should to this again!  (We have no idea what these birds are!)

Fried Okra                                          Pesto Sauce                                 Tomato Tart

     ​We finally had a garden!  I loved my garden in Texas so much.  I worked for years getting it into shape, making it beautiful and lush, and loving every minute of doing so. 
    One year our neighbors cut down all their cedar trees and fed them into a chipper machine.  They had a HUGE pile of cedar chips and said I could have as much as I wanted.  I drove our old Chevy truck up to that pile, loaded the truck bed, and shoveled those chips onto plastic sheeting, making walkways all through the garden.  I'm not talking one truck load; I'm talking about 30!  I did most of it myself, I'm proud to say.  It was worth it for my garden.
I also built an "Aggie" compost bin, named after the bins that Texas A&M University developed from cement blocks.  Of course, I painted grape bunches and flowers on mine!
I cried big, old fat tears when I had to leave that Texas garden and I've been missing gardening ever since.  But now we've made one here.  It's out by the barn, so a bit of a hike to get there, but it has a great view and good soil.  What more can you ask?

“You can dance in the storm.  Don't wait for the rain to be over before because it might take too long.  You can do it now.  Wherever you are, right now, you can start, right now; this very moment.” ― Israelmore Ayivor
The clouds in Uruguay are amazing.  I had forgotten how clouds could look, until I really looked at them here.

     Wouldn't you know it? - The first summer spent in Uruguay was the hottest summer in 30 years!  My quest to buy an air conditioner is now EPIC.  A neighbor bought several "splits" (air/heating units that hang on the wall).   He liked them, so I asked him to contact the installer for me.  Well, with flurry of Christmas preparations, that got pushed to the back burner.  
​     The day after Christmas, I met up with said neighbor at a pool party and barbecue.  It was about 95 degrees and I was not glowing as a righteous Southern Belle should.  I was sweating like a pig.  I'm afraid I grabbed him by the shirt and not thinking before speaking, I said in a very loud voice, "I am too old to be this hot!"  That got lots of laughter all around and made my temperature rise even more due to the reddest face on Earth!  
     He whipped out his phone right then and there; hot and sweaty Southern Belles can be very scary.  Two days later, I had an air conditioner installed for the bedroom.  Very few private homes have central air and heat (unless you are very wealthy and can wait weeks for replacement parts).  Growing up in the South, I had lived with central cooling and heating systems since I was a child.  Old habits are hard to break, but  being without has been a mostly pleasant surprise.  I've learned to watch the skies and certainly talk about the weather more often.   Of course the day after it was installed, the weather turned cooler for a week.  Ahhh….nature.

   I had alone in Uruguay for two months, while my husband was back in Texas taking care of business.  I was fairly proud of myself, guiding the builder and his team every day and staying all alone at night - except for my two best buddies, our Border Collies!
   I hadn't gotten spooked at night; it was supernaturally quiet and easy to sleep.  Sam, the Border Collie, decided that our bed was his bed of choice the very night after Hubby left for Texas.  Gracie slept on the floor at the foot of the bed, but Sam even claimed Hubby's pillow!
   One night, we were all nearly asleep; the bedroom windows were open to let the cool spring breezes inside.  All was peaceful, but THEN!!!  I heard voices; it sounded like dozens of people were chatting.  Sound traveled in the country, so I could not determine where the voices were.  The dogs seemed undeterred...
    I looked out the window and was greeted by thousands of tiny lights.  I seriously thought the aliens had landed and they were all talking!   After all, I was not much of a country girl.      What do you think the mysterious voices and lights were all about?
   FIREFLIES and PARAKEETS!!!
   In my defense, I'd never seen fireflies but once, and then only about a dozen of them.  Had I ever heard parrots chattering at night in the trees?  No Siree!  They honestly sounded very human. 
   The dogs slept through the entire near-abduction...