Good Afternoon All!
It is 10 minutes away from the afternoon here on the Central Coast.  It was a beautiful day yesterday and promises to be another one today (although I don’t think it is going to be as warm).
I wanted to show you a succulent plant my sister made for me.  Years ago, my sister, my daughter and myself gave our Mother this water feature for her house.  Oh, she loved it and ran it all the time.   Personally, I thought it sounded like someone peeing, but who am I?
Anyway, when Mother moved in with me, the fountain moved in too.  I put it out on my sunporch –away from the living room and also where I just had a concrete slab so the spraying water wouldn’t go on the carpet.
After Mother died, funny thing, so did the fountain.  I got another pump, but it just wasn’t the same. So it was just sitting outside, and one visit my sister looked at it and said, “You know what would go good in there?”  And thus here is my new succulent plant in a really unigue container!

Have a great afternoon where ever you are!  Linda

Easter has come and gone for another season.  It rained here on  Easter Sunday, but this week after the sun is out and the temperatures  are on the rise.  Pretty soon it will be time to get the shorts out and  dust them off.  Today the Santa Ana Winds are blowing so the skies will  be exceptionally clear and beautiful.  A little hard on the allergies  but you can’t have everything all at once.

I have this really good friend, more like a sister, who told me that I  should get a Meyer Lemon tree for my new patio.  She said they do  terrific in a pot.  I went to my favorite nursery and got one this  week.  It is about 2 feet tall and already has some blooms on it.   Remember that song from ages ago, ‘Lemon tree, very pretty; and the  lemon flower is so sweet’?  Well, let me tell you, that little tree with  the pretty blooms is just that!  Now I am considering getting a second  one.  The guy at the nursery said I wouldn’t have to re-pot it for at  least 6 months but I found a pot I like so it has a new home.  When I  get my pictures out of my camera and into the computer, I will put a  picture of my new tree on this blog for you to see.
So far it is the  only addition to my new patio, but I will be taking pictures of the  progress as I decorate it.Spring is such a nice time of year.  Everything is growing and the  hills are green and beautiful.  Enjoy all of your afternoons and I wish  you a great day.  Linda

As I sit here in my sunroom looking out onto my back yard, I realize another month is slipping away.  How fast the time is going now.  It seems like time just crawled until you finally reached 21, and then it sped up.  Now, it is zooming by!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!  And I am not the only one thinking that!
It has rained here the last couple of days; of course, after I watered the backyard on Sunday!  I guess that’s kind of like washing your car and then it rains.  Can’t complain, the hills here are beautiful, all green and makes you feel good.  Soon they will be brown, but they are still pretty.Yesterday, one of my grandsons turned 6!  He lives just around the corner from me, so I walked to the birthday party.  He picked “crab” for his birthday dinner (his other favorite is rib-eye steak–can you believe that of a 6 year old???)  I made his cake, he wanted a marble cake and his mom to make it, but she was so busy, I volunteered!  She brought me the cake mix, and can of frosting with sprinkles to put on top, and lots of those tubes of frosting that you can decorate with.
He wanted a “rectangle” cake this year; how easy was that!  So I got it baked, cooled and then began to decorate.  Spread the chocolate frosting on from the can; and sprinkled it with the sprinkles, and then grabbed a tube and in yellow, wrote “Happy”  then in blue, wrote “Birthday” then in red, wrote “Grayson.”
I tried my hand at some little flower things at each corner, but gave up after that!  Took it over while they were gone; and then when that 6 year old saw it, he said:  “Wow, Grandma did a really good job; I didn’t know she could decorate that good!”
Just goes to show you how special little kid’s eyes are!Until next time, Good Afternoon!

I wish I could sit here and tell you that I had the most wonderful afternoon in the sun, but truth is I spent most of it in front of my computer screen.  I watched a 2 hour webinar on a new project I am starting for my online business venture; and on top of that I spent all morning in front of that screen.  I ought to be cross-eyed by bedtime.

I set up two offices in my house, one in a spare bedroom and the other in my enclosed sun-porch.  Both rooms face west so they are the warmest rooms in the house in the afternoon.  The sunroom has wall-to-wall windows so it really gets nice.  I found these really cool shades (pleated) that you just stick on the top of the window and you let them unroll to where you want and secure with a clip that looks like a fancy clothespin.  I got them at Walmart and they were really inexpensive.  No curtain rods to mess with and when they wear out you just pull them down and do something else.

This is the middle of the week and I am sure all of you are looking forward to the weekend.  It is going to be absolutely beautiful here so I am going to be outside enjoying the springtime.  All I have to do is hold up the leash and my trusty companion, Howie, will be right there to go for a nice walk.  He loves walks and he even is happy just to go for a car ride.  He is almost 8 years old and he is a border collie.  His very favorite toy on the face of the earth is a tennis ball.  My sister, who plays tennis, is my supplier.  I have hundreds of those yellow things and that dog never gets tired of them.  He doesn’t even care if you only throw the thing 2 feet.  What a life that dog has.

Anyway, I hope all of you had a great afternoon today and see you soon.  Linda

I just love Springtime and Daylight Savings.  My newly landscaped front yard is growing and starting to bloom.  I live on a corner so all along the sidewalk on the outside of my picket fence are shrub roses with rosemary plants in-between.  As a ground cover, there are nice big rocks to discourage the neighborhood dogs from using my yard as a powder room.  It seems to be working, except for the one time my own little darling, Howie, just marched right on over the rocks and did his business.  Inside the fence are a variety of beautiful plants and shrubs, all of them are bloomers and fragrant.  Then there is the patio of concrete with a lattice border around and this is where I plan to spend this spring and summer enjoying myself with a good book and then; of course, there is Happy Hour. I am interested in some new recipes for drinks and snacks.  I do make a really awesome salsa.  And, I love to cook Mexican food.

So, if you happen to be in the neighborhood, stop on by for a sit down in the Afternoon Sun and have a bite and a sip.  See you after the next sunrise.  Linda

The rain is gone, at least for this week.  At least that’s what the weather predictors are promising.  I would love to have that job.  You never get fired when you are wrong.  And, no paperwork.

It’s time for me to start thinking about what I want to do with my new patio in the front of my house.  A table with chairs and an umbrella to start, although I wouldn’t be using the umbrella for a while.  And a nice comfortable lounge chair so I can enjoy the warmth of the sun.  I can picture myself spending the afternoon with a good book.

There is a lot of room out there so I am going to put a water feature for sure and containers with plants for color.  I haven’t quite decided which direction I am going with the plants, but I am leaning toward succulents.  But, I am open to suggestions.  I live in Central California near the Ocean so the weather is pretty mild here, but it does get cold and rainy in the winter.

My backyard is also going to get a small patio and there are fruit trees there.  The yard is small and I am going to plant a lot of flowers with loads of color.  Then when I start to spend my afternoons in the sun, I can choose from the front patio or the backyard.

For today, I am just thrilled that the sun is out and it is going to be nice and warm.  Daylight savings time has started and the days will be longer.  A great day to be thankful for and to enjoy for all.

Springtime is just around the corner so I thought I would start my blog with that in mind and talk about Afternoons and things that I enjoy.  Wouldn’t you know, it’s raining like gangbusters here in Central California.  I really like warm weather, and I don’t mind when it gets hot.  I just had a patio built in the front of my house this winter along with a major landscaping.  I will post some of the pictures in a later blog.  One of my plans is to spend time out there in the afternoons and enjoy the outdoors and the sunsets.  I love to read so my next big purchase is going to be some patio furniture.  Hopefully, my next blog will be to tell you that the rain is gone and the sun is finally out.  A pleasant and good Afternoon to all.  Linda

Sun in the Afternoon is going to be a blog enjoying the afternoon sun — wherever you are!