The menagerie.........

Around my house it is the "cat days of summer" There is a rumour around town, that if you have 4 legs, fins , fur or feathers, you get free room and board at Gina's house.......All these cats and dogs have found me...As you can see they have a tough life....
This is Mr. mittens meow stripey....

This is the newest addition, it took 4 months to get him to tame down, but now he is a pussycat.

My daughter and her beloved Dinky the donkey.

When we go to the pond for a picnic....it is always a parade, there are quite a few still out of camera range.

My 8 year olds photography.

Of course we all know Molly....M-0-0-0-0-0-0-lly as she is called, has NO idea she is a sheep.

SHhhhhhhhh.............

This is ol' sweetie pie, he wandered on the land a couple years ago, hardly walking and starved to death. Now the old boy wont let me move without being underfoot. He is a good boy, but extremely old I think.

AHhhhhh the last hurrah of summer. These days are going going gone.....We will start dropping down to frost soon at night.....whaaaaaa I love summer.....

This is my beautiful Sheba....She actually likes Winter much better than summer. She likes to just lay in the snow. Her coat will double in size as fall ends, and winter arrives. She also eats twice as much in the winter. I watch the butcher sales like a hawk .....She eats better than anyone else in the family.....Meat everyday.!!!

This big boy is TANK.....for obvious reasons he got his name. He is just one huge lug of a dog. And of course built like a tank.!!!!
This is a picture of my beloved Grandma. She is heaven now, and wraps her wings around me daily. She was always so supportive of WHATEVER I decided to do. When I wanted to save the mountain lion, she was right there by my side. Bless her heart.

That little baby grew and grew and grew until he hit 250 pounds !! It is amazing how big these animals get. He is the sweetest most beautiful mountain lion ever!! He passed last summer from old age (19) . I know he and grandma are crusin the clouds together, right next to St. Francis.

China Town

Well I returned last night from a week of traveling around China. Kelly and I visited our factories to work on the new designs. And gain some new sources to work with for the latest additions to the Peacock Park Design repetoire.

I always travel with a suitcase full of diet pop. But as you can see here, it is now available in even China. It tastes close, but no cigar. It has a sort of aluminum after taste...but hey, it beats nothing....But they drink it WARM.....yuk...have you ever had really warm pop.???? it is like a fizz fest going down. Anyway non the less I was still grateful.

Doesn;t this make you hungry just looking at it.......I was craving octopus on a stick aren't you?

This is from a kind of flea market in hong kong. I think these were targeting the american market??? The perfect fathers day gift. I cant imagine any man I know wearing any of these...look closeley they are male thongs.

Free bananas........I know why they grow so well here....It was a cool day at 98 degrees!!!!!!! and only 90 percent humidity!!!! Noone has air hear except for the very very priviledged. It is litereally like living in a greenhouse.

We are so fortunate to live in usa. I think so much is just taken for granted. Everyone should see how the other half of the world lives if ever given the chance. Some never leave their little village their entire life. So they have NO idea of what else the world has to offer. I just want to take them all home with me.

This is one of the factory owners, he is an amazing craftsman. I am in awe of his talents. He can replicate the antique finishes that I so adore to a tee.

The chinese people are so polite with manners galore, as you can see be this sign. They are just grateful that you see it.

This is a cab drivers wonderful "green" air freshener. He has a little tray filled with white orchids so the air vent will blow the scent to the back. I complimented him on the arome of the cab. He was very proud and then gifted an orchid to Kelly and I.

We made it back to Hong Kong for more appointments and to find fabrics for the new line of sachels and carpet bags I am working on. This was the view from our hotel window. Not bad eh?

Okay, this you need to see to believe. In China they don't use scaffold to erect buildings like we do. They simply tie pieces of bamboo together and keep adding it higher and higher as they go.

Even if the building is a skyscraper, it is wrapped in Bamboo scaffold. It is AMAZING!

This is why we have billboard laws in USA. If not, I think our roads and highways could be this cluttered.

Kelly and I couldn't resist these hard cased animal print suitcases. I know, we will look like the safari sisters if we travel together (which we do alot!) But as dorky as that looks, we still decided that it was too cool not to get them. So here we are with Benny who insists we have a 5 year guarantee...hahaha. Like we will ever fly back to hong kong just to return a suitcase.

The terrain is fantastic in China, and the view from the airport windows is even worth staring at.