All the reason in the world for Happy

In the last 24 hours I've been virtually mobbed with Happy:

• No rain
• Date with Hubby
• Live tunes
• Starry skies
• Outdoor fun
• Hope in the garden
• No rain

Yes, well, most any 24 hour period lately that isn't bookended with rain storms is a good one for me, and cause for at least mild celebration.

But the other stuff, that plain spikes my Happy and has me running circles with drunken glee.

Tuesday night Hubby and I went on an impromptu weeknight (nowayman!) date to see John Hiatt in concert at the Mountain Winery, a metaphysical little winery on the tippy top of a hill in Saratoga, CA. It is hard to imagine a more perfect, ideal, paradisiac, pure, sublime, utopian scenario than this night turned out to be.


Really, just reach-down-and-grab-your-soul-with-both-hands-and-squeeze kind of good. Not to be a total dorkus but I think I even teared up at some point in the evening as we sat, huddled together, four rows from the stage, listening to John sing Buffalo River Home, with a good dose of gin warming my veins, looking up at a starry sky above the heavenly reaching chardonnay vines. For me, it does not get much better than that without my wedding dress.

Date night with the Vaughans

And then this morning, I was greeted in the garden with some VERY GOOD NEWS. Things are not dead. Better yet, things are alive! And growing! And setting fruit! And, as we all expected, beginning to run amok.

Alive:

Pumpkinzilla's first, and someone rain bleached, flower

Growing:

Snap peas have finally passed up the top of the fence

Slicing cuke holding on for dear life

Setting fruit:

Snap peas

That, my friends, is the first cuke of the season. Right there. No, there. Right in the middle. See? See.

Running amok:

From above Pumpkinzilla

From within the Forest of Pumpkinzilla

Also, it looks like the lettuce is making a recovery, basil MIGHT actually be taking hold (it's a rough time when even basil is laying low) and I saw TWO blooms on my mini rose bushes. Oh, did I tell you? Hydrangeas are starting to bloom folks -- fannnnnnnccccccccccyyyyyyyyyyy.


So, what is one Finny to do with the overabundance of Happy? Why, sit in the yard and absorb it all over a three day weekend with a glass of wine in hand -- of course! I also was the lucky recipient of some very nice striped remnant fabric this week that I plan to pair with the leftover toile from my Backtack 3 project for any one of many potential projects: napkin/placemat sets, pillow cases, bolster covers, chair upholstery, cosmetic bags, travel bags, the possibilities are staggering really.

I also have a zippered wristlet for someone that I need to finish up and a Favorite Godchild who desperately needs something Made by Aunt Finny to cuddle until Finny can make it to sunny AZ to do the cuddling herself. Perhaps it is high time I put my newfound knowledge of softies to good use and fashioned a squashy friend for Ms. Emma? Yes, that is possible.

Either way, me and my Happy will be strutting around the homestead this weekend basking in the glory of it all and being extra thankful for a Monday off.