Tiered California Citrus Garden, $50 Designer Jeans And More
My cousin, Billy in Redlands has the most beautiful California citrus garden. A few days ago, we were there admiring it. I want to show you the garden he designed and the sweet tribute to his late wife.
There is also a delicious cookie recipe (worth breaking any diet for), the $50 jeans outfit that I wore for the trip here and a light, enjoyable movie that I watched recently.
It Sunday Faves time with Cindy and Annie.
Tiered California Citrus Garden
When you get to Billy’s home, he has personalized his automated gates on both side with reproductions of his late, wife Janice’s oil painting of lemons. It’s was fabricated by Rick Beck, Metal Works in Yucaipa, California.
I think Janice would love this although she was so modest (more about her here).
There are oranges, grapefruits, lemons and other fruit growing around the garden. This is February and everything looks so lush.
And there are Camellia flowers galore…the housekeeper had lovely arrangements of them all around inside the house.
Old-Fashioned Chocolate Date Cookie Recipe
Our cousin is a well-respected estate planning lawyer at Fullerton, Lemann, Schaefer & Dominick, LLP. We had our trust updated (make sure to do that if you haven’t to avoid a costly probate and give clear direction to your heirs).
Laura, an executive assistant there is an amazing baker and we got to have some of her famous cookies. She said they were supposed to look more like pinwheels but they were chewy and tasted delicious.
The recipe for the Date Pinwheel Cookies is here.
Velvet Crumb Coffee Cake
Here is another winner that she made: Bisquick Velvet Crumb Coffee Cake. We had it for breakfast with freshly squeezed orange juice from Billy’s garden. Feels homey and retro.
From Laura: “My mom was tiny, skinny and yet had the BIGGEST sweet tooth I’d ever known (dear Janice came close!), so I learned to bake at about age 8 or 9. Turning me into a baker accomplished two things: helped my school-teacher mother teach her daughter fractions, AND it fed her sweet tooth!”
$50 “Designer”Jeans From Quince
This is sort of a mix of high and low. The Quince jeans are comfortable with a nice stretch. I wore them on the airplane here (but with sneakers, a pullover and no belt).
kitten heels (on sale $75) • brass hoop leather belt • Quince stretch straight leg jeans ($50) They come in three lengths: 26″, 28″. 30″ These are 28″ with 27″ waist. • old short sleeved turtleneck (similar) • Chanel Refillable Crystal Lipstick (a crazy splurge and its surprising how many of you have bought this–but its cheaper than a trip to Paris).
What To Watch: La Dolce Villa
This is enjoyable due to the beautiful Italian scenery and fluffy story. “A successful businessman travels to Italy to stop his daydreaming daughter from restoring a crumbling villa.”
That’s my cousin’s California citrus garden and more!
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Let’s see what my friends have discovered this week:
Mary Ann, What a gorgeous citrus garden and lovely tribute to his wife. We are so lucky with citrus here in California.
I love this look on you with the jeans and heels! I need this coffee cake- and dates are so good too..
xo
Hi Mary Ann,
What a gorgeous garden, so beautifully maintained. To have all that citrus is gift that keeps giving.
I love, what your cousin, Billy did to honor his wife, Janice’s painting talent. I’m sure her memory lives on in everyone’s heart. She was so young when she passed away.
Have a great time during your travels. Seeing the fire destruction must be hard.
It is a nice honor. Janice was so talented.
What a fabulous garden your cousin has!! Love those jeans! I am watching La Dolce Villa right now!!
Which Quince jeans did you buy, Cindy?
Hi Mary Ann! I love your cousins citrus garden and how sweet to have a plaque with Janice’s paintings
made for the gate. When I saw that on Instagram I didn’t know how that was made…how lovely!
Those jeans look amazing on you! Brent and I watched La Dolce Villa on Valentine’s Day… you can never go wrong with a movie set in Tuscany!
Enjoy your time in California!
Xx
That’s a nice thing to do on Valentine’s Day!
Thank you for sharing your cousin’s beautiful garden; we lived in Riverside’s hilly area for 10 years, and I loved taking the “back road” through the canyon to Redlands. The BEST part of inland SoCal was the amazing citrus (and avocados) that grew there: we kept only 5 trees/plants when we renovated our 70’s home and garden, including an AMAZING Tangelo and a sweet Kumquat!
You look fantastic in your kitten heels and Quince jeans, Mary Ann!
I almost included a coffee cake for my recent Girlfriends Tea, so I have my eye on the Velvet Crumb Coffee Cake — Bisquick was a staple in our 60’s-70’s pantry!
Your movie suggestion has been on my radar for a bit: great scenery is a fair substitute for substance ;-} and my Italian husband is sometimes willing to watch non-ACTION to take him back home for a couple of hours!
Ha! It’s a nice break from action shows.
That is a beautiful garden – and sweet tribute to your sister. My (Texas) grandmother made Date Pinwheel cookies – old fashioned and worth the effort. Thanks for sharing your SoCal trip – Juxtaposition is dreamy.