Gardening for the totally clueless

The Great Tissue Paper Mystery is solved; I'm making paper flowers. I'm very pleased with how they're coming out. I googled "tissue paper flowers" and got some ideas, then set off on my own. They're pretty easy to make and I can provide directions if anyone's interested. I'm pretty sure Mr. G would take pictures. I'll have to wait til my broken thumb nail looks a little better though; I don't think there's anything I can do about the unattractive age spots.
I think I mentioned earlier that I'm planning a memorial celebration for dear ol' dad to be held here in SoCal in the fall. I wasn't sure what to do about flowers, and then I got the idea to do the decorating with a Mexican theme, since my dad loved Mexico and had taken several trips there....including driving his old 1957 VW bug all the way to the tip of Baja California with dear ol' mom. So the flowers will be big colorful paper ones and I'll look for some tablecloths in a variety of colors. I'm having lots of fun making these. The condo is starting to look like a flower market.

So today I had lunch with Kathy, an old friend from high school. She was in town doing lots of work on a rental house she and her husband own in the area, and she seemed happy to take a break for a walk down to the beach for lunch (not Chinese). She was interested to hear about my China trip, and we even talked about my trip to Antarctica back in 2001.

Kathy said she and her hubby enjoy traveling around the USA and Canada mostly.

"Have you been to the Grand Canyon?" she asked.

"No, never," I replied.

"How about the Black Hills?"

"Not there either," I said.

"Well, certainly you've been to Montreal."

"Nope," I said with a little grin. "I hate to say it, Kathy, but I guess I haven't been anywhere."

I'm thinking of embroidering these penguins (or as we fondly call them "pengies") on a patch for our family Christmas tree skirt. When I started the skirt, many years ago, most of the patches were childlike designs with references to BCG and TG. But now I'm thinking of adding some adult themes and including our travels. I won't have to invest much in thread for this one. Lots of black, lots of white, a little blue/gray, some yellow and a pinch of orange.

And just to follow up on something I wrote about before China, I'm pleased to report that Mr. Gadget followed my advice and did not pack his dorky black socks.
Sensible shoes with sensible socks. What a guy!