My best friend over the last 5 days.

Mom had Penne Bistecca: Sliced sirloin, mushrooms, roasted red peppers and spinach, in a Dijon cream sauce.

And I had the Fettuccine Pesto e Pollo: Grilled chicken, artichoke hearts and basil pesto cream sauce, topped with pine nuts. It was really yummy except I woke up in the middle of the night with terrible heartburn. : (

I received some filters that I ordered, one being an infrared (IR)filter so I experimented a bit. Note the blackberry sucker vines that are snaking their way across the patio. I will comment on those later in the week.

The objects of Nora's desire. During one of the breaks we took, we were sitting on the patio and I kept looking at those blackberry vines and their unrelenting quest (and the progress they were making) towards taking over the entire backyard. It motivated me to go get my nippers from the garage so while Nora and I yakked (and I finally convinced her to go get a container and pick some of them!), I nipped back those damn vines! I was able to cut back enough to fill half my yard debris can. The problem is, they don't collect yard debris again until NEXT WEEK. : ( What a de-motivator. I could have really gone to town on those vines, some of which were as thick as a quarter.

Here she is in her nest.

Somebody has another nest... I discovered another of Phoebe's nests when I was picking berries. This one is under a cool canopy of blackberry vines. That must have been where she was during all those HOT days when she wasn't sprawled on the patio...

Sheriff Mike welcomes us to the Cowboy Party!

Natalie pours herself an excellent margarita at the self-serve saloon.

The youngun's (Xavier and Bryce) exercise their gymnastic talent.

Kimber assists Natalie at the self-serve saloon while the cowfolk converse and chow down on some good eats.

All the cowgals gather for a quick photo op.

The birdies have hatched! You can sure tell--at this stage--that birds are related to dinosaurs. Kind of scary looking creatures if you ask me. Do you remember how many there were? Can you see all of them in this photo?

My masterpiece--YUM!

OK, so this is my bleary-eyed at 1am try at working with layers in Photoshop. I was trying to merge three images into one. Obviously, I have a lot of work to do...but a pretty good end to week four.