365 - Week 26......Catching up!

The day after the wedding I headed out to one of my cousin's house. He recently designed and built his own house and it's beautiful! And yes, it helps that he's an architect and I really enjoyed seeing all the neat details he thought of in the design. These are his two dogs and one is a new addition, a cute little puppy. The older dog isn't too sure of the little one, but the latest report is that she's warming up to the little pup. The little girl is another one of my cousins but I didn't even recognize her because it been about 12 years since I last saw her. The bottom two shots were taken outside the house at night when I was just playing around with some long exposures.


Monday morning, several of us headed out of the city to visit a farm-ranch-thing that belongs to another cousin's in-laws. I could go into more detail about how people are related, but just know that I have lots and lots of cousins (1st, 2nd, and 3rd generation) so it just helps to say "cousin" and leave it at that. Ha!
On our way out there, we stopped several times to get out of the cars and walk around and take pictures. WOW. It's lovely out in the countryside. And yes, in case you're wondering, it DID rain that day. Gloomy but beautiful.



I don't know what these flowers are called but I found them on the side of the road. Again, Google needs to get moving with my idea.


In the first shot, that's my cousin on the left and my dad on the right. Once we finally arrived, we were immediately greeted by this cute little thing, the puppy.
Ok, the bottom right picture - they served this to us with crackers as a snack. It was amazing! It's mango ceviche and so easy to make. I will definitely have to try making this again some time.


Ok, random shots of people. In the first one, that's two of my aunts and a cousin. In the top right one, my mom, sister, cousin, and cousins's brother in-law in-law. No, that's not a typo. In the bottom left, that cute little kid lives there. He wouldn't talk to me - I'm so sad. Bottom left - my cousin again. We were both standing in windows and we both looked out at the same time.



After a great lunch, we went out to see the land and to see what they produce. Heaven!! They grow rosemary and roses and corn. Two of those things are way high on my favorites list! The rosemary field smelled amazing and it was so fresh. I wanted to just sit in the field and start nibbling. But I controlled myself.
Then we entered into the rose greenhouse-thingie. They had about three of these!


The top left is what I call the Rose Graveyard. It's a pile of old roses that just didn't make the cut. But I managed to find a few nice ones even if they didn't have any stems. Top right - do we look village-ified or what?


Back at the house, the guys were packaging the rosemary to be sold. Loved the smell! The far right shot is the owner of the land, my cousin's father-in-law. He was jolly and a delight to be around.


My trip was too short and alas I had to leave. The morning I left, I wanted to get a few last shots. I don't know if it was there before if I'd never noticed in previous years, but my aunt's bridal picture was hanging in the guest room. I don't remember how old it is but I'm guess it's something like 60 years old or so. I just HAD to get a shot of it so I moved it to a different room and moved furniture. And then I asked her to get in. It's so important to preserve history.
As you may know, I tend to like dogs. I mean, like, a lot. This little character, Bonnie, took a while to warm up to me but she finally did.