In the fading light, I thought this little snow peeping rock and weedlets was charmingly fresh and sweet.

We said our goodbyes to the White Mountains after a lengthy and frustrating argument over whether there was enough daylight left to get out of the snows, by trapped, or just go full steam ahead down yet another snowly hillside where there was supposed to be a "track". Three against one prevailed and we made it out of the mountains in time to stop for gas and start back to our base camp.

Well, it seems a lot of the blue agate was still under the snow. We tried a few road cuts and found a really great piece out in front of a local General Store in the tiny town of Luna. It was too big to carry away without being noticed, and it was not for sale. ;-)

This is the good road. That is the jeep that rolled later on in the night. Total loss, no one seriously hurt. After two hours on bad snow filled and lonely roads it was conference time.. Where is the agate? The light faded as we pondered our next move.

We had to four-wheel-it down thirteen miles of barely visible roads that were getting icier by the minute and that was just to get to the regularily maintained roads. The strong feeling that it was just too early to be going for agate that was still covered with snow began to sink into the more intent member of the group.

Luna Blue in New Mexicooooo

We had done all the "dry" and comfortable stuff. All of us had sat amongst the cow pies with our little agate collecting buckets and forked sticks, poking around in the dust for treasure. We had slithered under the "bobwire" fences and gotten a seat full of stickers. All of us were tired from trudging up the mountainsides for the rainbow agate (major joke played on readers of an unmentionable set of "Rockhounding in Arizona" booklets) some whiley writer had used to sell a book.

We had gazed at the form of Locomotive Peak trying to figure out what they were thinking when naming it. We needed something to get that a seeker had to really go a long ways for and something a little more exotic. We picked Luna Agate as a target material.

Out came the maps and we took time to study them while we ground away at our little troves of Amydules, those little drips of white agate that sometimes show up imbedded in basalt. We wanted something with a little color in it. Luna Blue sped to the top of the desirables list.

Luna Blue is incredible stuff. It's really blue, and blue is one of the most rare colors of agate. We had to try for this, and it was only about 300 miles away. Imagine the fire in our brains!

Here's a link to what it looks like, and believe me, you want it when you see it. And this field trip was held in June, a full four months after the one we ventured out to the snows in.

.California Federation of Mineral Societies

I came back and patched this broken link. Now the Luna Blue trip is in the archives at the CFMS site. All you need to do is click on the "Field Trips" Button just under the wording for CFMS, at the top of the Header. Then look for the "Archive of Field Trip Photos 2000 to 2005". And there you will find the Luna Blue trip. The pictures aren't as clear, but it shows pretty well what that material looks like.

The mud and the slush awaits us...

Leaving again soon for another eating party. hehe

Yesterday was a busy day

First Ceramics club and chatting with all my friends there, and then we took the doggie to his groomer.

DH and I snagged a lunchtime salad at the food court at the Mall, and bathroom accessories for a redo of our little green bathroom. What fun, shopping for new stuff!

Then it was off to buy some shorter circ needles at a local shop ( Two Sisters Ana Ewe ) and snagged some DK superwash for socks at a 30% discount. Yeay! I need the shorter circs for the mystery shell. I've been courageously trying to read the confusing little bits and pieces of how to make it. It's getting clearer.

Today was a drive behind DH to drop off a vehicle, bring him back, a rush to a mammo gram, go shopping at home depot for more new stuff, stop off and renew my business registration, and home to type this out with a promise to do the the Luna pix again, and then get ready to go eat with rockhound friends. I'm taking my pino grigio slaw. I call it "mine" because I don't use pino grigio vinegar. Far to expensive!

Oh yes. And I actually got to wander around Trader Joe's with DH. They have five hundred kinds of cheese in there I bet. I don't get out enough. You can tell this, I bet.

South from Tucson

We had decided that we'd seen enough of the show at Tucson and bought enough rough for a good long while, so DH and I took off for the Four Metals Mine near Nogales. In the books it said that there was good collecting of Rhodocrosite and pyrites at this mine. We do know that a person shouldn't believe everything they read and now it's sort of our motto. What we did find was an abandoned mine shaft and roads that where most likely used by "coyotes" to ferry their charges across the back country and into the cruel deserts to the east of Tucson.

I don't expect that many of you would go down into an old gold mine but if the opportunity presents itself, don't ever do it, please. Several years ago, when I was a very young rockhound, I had just returned from a day of exploring gold mines and having the time of my life. My rockhound friends were agast. They told me hair raising tales of how silly idiots, like myself, had fallen hundreds of feet down vertical shafts that had been covered over by the dust and grit, while the planking that the miner's used to cover them slowly rotted away and left a death trap for the unwary. I always look longingly at them but never, ever, go in them anymore.

The places that we go to in the desert are so quiet. There's nothing like it, even the ocean is not this quiet. There's something mystical about this silent peace.

This is the road in. The mountain where the mine entrance is can't be seen from here. I think the border with Mexico, at Nogales, is not very far to the right, either. The Border Patrol has it's hands full around here.

The road back out. Jeeplie got a nice work out this day. this and the previous picture are two parts of a panoramic snap.

View out to the west from the top of the tailings.. This time we really got out there...

This yellowish mass is the tailing pile from the mine and in it we found pyrites and a few little pieces of rhodocrosite, a very pretty pink and black material. The mine entrance itself was just across the road from this tip. I could hear a radio playing mexican music very, very softly. That made me try to hurry DH up with his digging. Then came the coffee smells. The hair on the back of my neck started to stand up a bit then. I knew we should leave, and we did, indeed, meet the border patrol on the way out. They were in a very big hurry.

That mountain top is where we were headed. This is the Four Metals Mine in very Southerly Arizona. There was a smashed pickup a ways up the road and it had been there sometime. The road got really bad right there on the left and we didn't go up any farther. We were all alone out here, except, we found out later, for the prey. The border patrol was hunting these hills on the day we were there. Remember the mine? There were illegals inside of it, and I could smell their coffee. I had a very bad feeling about all this, so we left soon after that.

And this is a good road. See the narrow part down at the bottom? This is a grade of about 40 degrees. It was fun. Really...

When you see one of these, don't go in there....

Knitting today

I've been in a funk about this waiting, waiting, waiting for DH to get the final word on retirement, and actually wade his way through the flood of paperwork and turn-ins for himself and others at work who are his responsibility.

I've been eating the wrong things and feeling the effects. If the body swells, so does the brain. Knitting is the cure, so off I go! Today it returned to summer temps of the mid 80's. Perfect timing! Gah! Please pass the Prozac?

Next will be the part of the trip where we went to Luna New Mexico in search of Luna Blue Agate.

I will put those pictures up tomorrow. Our friends rolled their jeep on that trip. They had a very hard evening getting home, too, and we got really worried. We both had cell phones but they didn't turn theirs on. *sigh* We weren't very far ahead of them on the road home but it only takes five minutes to be completely oblivious of what is happening behind you, believe me.

Knitting? Oh Man. I am not doing much of that at all.

Evening was definitely coming, so this last picture was taken. Then El Jeffe, a gentle man who had spent a long time studying all of the desert flora and fauna and was an expert botanist, invited us into the little museum for a drink of cactus pear juice. It was tasty and tart. Prickly Pear Cactus is one ingredient used in Jamaica drinks that you can get at taco shops.

El Jeffe didn't really study botonists! LOL!! Had to change that!

These faux adobe walls surrounded all the various beds and all the desert plants had representational plantings. Even the creosite bush and the Joshua trees. It wasn't really all just cactus. See the ladders leaning on the side of the wall? There is also a ryanna, if that is the word, to the left for shade. I've forgotten a lot of Hacienda talk.

The sun was getting low at this time, and it made everything glow softly. It took us a long time to find the place in the huge expanse of land below Bisbee. The reason we found it at all was that a kindly Federal Express employee on his busy rounds showed us exactly how to get there on one of our maps. Then he gave us a page out of an old phone book with the address right on it, with a map to go with it. What a nice kid! He does is parents proud I tell ya...

One of the little treats for the eye along the walls

The plastic bags on top of the saguaros keep them from getting frostbite. If you look closely you can see the pointed opuntia paddles on the cactus on the right, and the features holding recycled glass and pots along the wall.

New Beds and faux adobe walls and AZ Cactus and Succulant Research Center

Everywhere there were small works of art, like this recycled barbed wire made into a cactus. The whole place was filled with little nooks and crannies of discards made beautiful.

If you look deeply into the picture you will see the back wall of the Research Center. All materials used in this wonderful place are recycled from job sites or left overs from tear downs. Strolling through this garden we saw some really unusual Opuntia cactus with pointed paddles.

A trip out to the Southeastern Corner of Arizona

Anyone who doesn't love the desert would be bored, but this area of our country is very fascinating to me. There is so much out here and the geology is practically naked before your eyes, and even well preserved, except for that really wet spell that lasted several thousand years since the volcanoes were formed. I wanted to show the trip we took to Luna, New Mexico, and to the Arizona Cactus and Succulant Research Institute below Bisbee but the picture string got so long! I will do that tomorrow.

The man who founded and built up the Garden at Arizona Cactus was a wonderful rustic person, and very gentle as well. He and his volunteers built everything there out of recycled materials and did a beautiful job of it. My pictures hardly do it justice. We were informed earlier this year that he had passed away suddenly and no one was sure what would happen to his life's work. I am hoping that it can be saved. He wrote columns for the local paper and also sent out an amusing newsletter every month. Buenos Noches El Jefe! Via con Dios!

A closer look at the scaling going on around the plug.

I wanted to show this basalt plug that was weathering along the road. This was formed in the very long ago volcanic phase of this whole area of the desert floor. I love Geology. It really is the history of our home.

I just thought this old fence was interesting and a remnant of the past. Just around the corner from here, the rancher had hung a whole string of old horseshoes on his fence for passerbys.

As you can see we are way out in the back of beyond, but there's a ranch down there and you can just see it.

This butte in the distance has a colorful name, but I can't remember it at the moment. I'll plug it in later. There is one mountain called Locomotive Peak, which is on the LazyB Ranch, which I'll show you later.

The cinnabar mine. This is an abandoned open faced mine, I will show you the entrance to a dangerous mine later, in the heart of the agate area. If you guessed that the red area is the ore, low grade it turns out, you were right.

The road was getting rockier but still a good road created by a mining company for their cinnabar mine in the next picture. We stopped near here to get a picture of the Basalt plug that was weathering away by the side of the road.

The main highway can barely be seen out between the two hills on the right. We are on our way to a ranch that is in the Rockhounds Dig area provided by the BLM.

This little brute is a wonderful 4x4 and she took us all over the back country two years ago, from snow to the hot desert floor.

Spam thinga

I'm sorry that anyone who posts has to use the spam blocking gizmo. I hope that it doesn't present an obstacle to the kind people who post, just to the spammers. I'm always interested in hearing from humans and not bots, because all humans are brothers and sisters of the heart. Well, hmmm.. maybe not those politicians and their pals who are intent on ruining the fun of being alive for the rest of us.

Three posts in one day is some sort of record. I must really have that cold that was trying to take me down yesterday. Feels forehead. Going to go knit on the dusty *cough cough* "vintage" - thanks Marji- afghan. It's the gold and white one from an earlier page.

Afghan here

Half way down the page..

New Ball winder and a New Umbrella Swift

I ordered them and they should be here in a week or so. I hope they come on or before my scheduled Mammogram so that I've got something to take my mind off that annual torture racking. I got the ones from JoAnn's with some of the 50% of coupons. I get these little tips on availability of tools and yarns everyday from Knitter's Review, one of my favorite spots for both sorts of yarns and fun tales and peeks into spinners' and knitters' lives.

I would have gotten the ones from Oregon Woodworks but they were way over my budget. I need to keep the money for a spinning wheel which DH says that I can have as soon as I find out if I can actually sit at one long enough to spin very much. A car wreck and being thrown from a horse did my back in by the time I was 27. The twins at 29 almost didn't make it because of that. I rested a lot when I could. Life has been fantastically good. I keep the little starry broom and dustpan handy for the negative thoughts that come out of the corners of my mind at times. hehe

Celebrate!

Email from DD with the new wheel

Oh my... I got an email from my DD who just bought a Louet wheel, and she is asking me to help her learn how to use it. I have never used a wheel so this is going to be quite a learning curve. I will be studying all my little books like a demon trying to get any hints I can about it. I've done hand spindling and so has she, a lot of it, and spinning on a wheel is supposed to be very like it but faster. I think the main problem she is having is that she is not pulling out enough fiber in the pre-draft.

Meanwhile I will be practicing my own spindling so that I remember exactly how to pre-draft for that. I was taught by a right hander and so that is good. I can't imagine trying to convert to right handedness now to help my DD.

We started on the plumbing yesterday. And a little electrical. This is going to be a very interesting two months. Having the water off just for that few hours was not very nice. hehe.

Four more days til DH's retirement. We are going to have a lot of fun, "God willin' and the Crick don't rise." I plan to do a heck of a lot of happy dancing.

Another something to do for others.. Sweet Homeless Animals...

Misti gave me this link a long while back, and I let it get buried in my brain fart file. As I was cleaning up the computer one late, late night.. early early morning... it popped up at me. This is the perfect solution for all the acrylic yarn that has been tucked away in three bins since the 80's yarn hording job I had at a yarn shop. I would buy up all the odd balls. Yes, it's a sickness.

Have a look?

Hugs for Homeless Animals

What day is this? Friday? Should I thank God?

This can't be a knitting blog anymore. I don't do enough of it!

My sister came today. We had tea and sympathy, and cookies - very bad because of our low carb diets. We joke about pink death, i.e. Sweet N Low, and yellow death, i.e. Splenda. We keep pink and yellow death packets together now in my little blue sweetener cup. I admire my sister. C, if only I could help you more, but it's not in God's plan for me to lift this from you. I might be too old to see it through to the end. You never know five minutes from now where you will be, either. I could be hit by a falling airplane part five minutes from now, or a blood clot could be an inch from my heart creeping slowly up to it.

Is this morbid or what? I think it's time to knit some on the cheermeup pink sock.

My sister and I laugh a lot about all the things that occur in our daily lives, and sometimes we laugh at the things that occur in the news. It's good to laugh at what happens in the political news. Laughing at politicians helps you keep a sense of purpose in counting your blessings. You are happy and feeling blessed that you don't have to be at least a half dozen people that are in the political news, and you can do this every single day. It doesn't get much better. Is it Miller time? Oh! sorry I am too full of tea, and those cursed chocolate chip cookies.. I forgot.

I'm dragging out the "vintage" 1980's afghan to knit on it for awhile. I like the colors. Also, it's almost finished anyway, and I can do a victory dance sooner than if I knit the little pink lacey sock.

More knitting blogs... yeay!!!!

I would put them all up if blogger wouldn't blow up. I think it's fab to follow everyone's progress through the world of knitting and spinning and all the rest of the running about with sharp objects that is done.

Now that I have the ball winder in the bag, I am going to go in search of a new swift that isn't metal. The metal one scratches the table. Yes? I can tell DH that and get away with it?

I want him to make one like I've seen on the web. Shhh.. I can't say what kind. It will be like the metal one but made of wood. heehee

This could take a couple of years!

What Dog are you?

I found this fun thing out there somewhere. Thought you might like to try it.

I am not knitting at all today, since I was up all night. Mostly I cleaned out the computer.

Have fun.. I am a Keeshond. I think that's how it's spelled but today is a very sllllooooowwwww day in the mental department.

WHAT DOG ARE YOU?

Lastly, the more common color of magenta and red. This one didn't bloom this year either. I'm bringing you guys two starts, if I am not mistaken. We will see how they handle the cold. hehe

Large Salmon colored Eppy that I think has bitten the dust. I didn't get a lot of blooms this year from anything because so many of them were still under the trees until a few weeks ago.

Delicate and large yellow. I don't have all the names because they are all hybrids from plants from the Eppy Society sales.

A Giant White that is supposed to only be open at night and usually is. This was a cloudy day and very early in the morning.. The blossom is easily a foot across the petals.

A small pink that actually has a name.. Padre Pink.

A flurry of Photos of the Eppy's for B!

I found these on the same zip drive. If only my organization was better I would find the pictures of the little baby torts when all seven of them sat on my sandal one day at the park.

I wanted to show this to my DD's and came across the file in the zip files. This piece is now in Australia so they can't go see it. =0)

Pictures get bigger!

I've never said anything about it but all the pictures on the blog can be enlarged just by clicking on them. I'm sure you have all figured it out already but wanted to make sure. hehe

#2 is the pink lacey socks.. I haven't done anything with them since I started knitting bandages.

Aran Isle sweater ribbing. It's from an old Bernat, I think, on the web. I'll list the URL a bit later.

UFO's Oh My!

OK. I have chosen.

#1 I have the green Aran Isle sweater. It's picture (just the ribbing) is beside the ailing potted African Violet, and I will plug in a link to it pronto. I plan to get two rows a week and get the stitches divided up on the needles tomorrow. This will happen because I'm going to read less on the web and actually KNIT MORE!

#2 The pink socks.. another already pictured project. This is the fill in..

#3 The mystery sweater. Just let me tell you that I have to figure out a pattern first and practically write it out so I don't forget anything. It came as a "sketch", and I've never done a top down all in one before. This will take a lot of patience on my part to work out.

Ok. I will go get the pictures of the other two and punch them up..

5 idiosyncracies

Karen tagged me when my comments feature was turned off in an attempt to crash some spambots.

Only 5, Karen?

1. I will never admit to being depressed because I never, ever feel depressed. Even when it seemed ever soooo obvious to everyone else around me that I was. I...am....not....and never was depressed I tell you! It made for some very interesting situations with doctors who tried to give me anti- depressants. I would throw them away and eventually get over it anyway. Yes, I can spell denial. Am I still in it? I will laugh my way through the most awful stuff because I see it as the only way to the other side. tee hee

2. I hate to look in a mirror. I just hate it, and will avoid it even when brushing my teeth or combing my hair. I have this horror of what I will see. I think this started in my teens and I expected a zit to pop up everytime I caught a look.

3. I like my feet. I think they are very cute. They are the only things on my body that get my approval.

4. I can't stand to be late. This must be from the time that I went home with a friend after sunday school and forgot completely about time. My father was going to beat me I just knew it, (he didn't) and I've tried to never be late again.

5. I worry myself sick over anything and everything that could happen to the kids, the world, the dog. I've made him neurotic, but thankfully the kids escaped it. Obviously the world has, too. Now I am almost a hermit, *wink* , but I'm a hermit with a very nice DSL connection.

Now I need to tag someone? Let me think...

Pugknits!

Spambots have found us

Though they leave "friendly" emails, Spam bots have found us; so to save yourselves aggravation just don't click on their links so that they can't pick up your settings. I will clean them out as soon as I see them. I think it's the counter that is responsible.

Spammers really have no interest other than to sell you something, and since I want to keep the settings for comments on general, so that you all can post, they can post, too. That is the biggest deficiency of Blogger.

Starting on the Aran sweater patterns this afternoon, and working on the eyelet edging of the tank top, with the pink socks in reserve for the third project for the UFO group. I hope to post those pictures of my mothers gardens, if the survive the scanning, later this afteroon for you Pookie.

is this Friday?

I finished a bandage today; I'll never make the size 10 crochet cottons ones again. They drive me mad. The next one is started and is peaches and cream. I'll not bore anyone with pictures of their whiteness. They are white, very long and I am happy to make them.

My sister came over today and we watched the movie "Smoke Signals". It's always a good film to watch when you think that life has gotten pretty painful in America. This reminds you that there is a whole other Native American culture that has suffered longer and harder than any European one. Also, if you want to be schizo, just try to reconcile having a foot in both cultures and growing up in the Los Angeles Basin.

The UFO group, that the newest button is for. is going to help this slacker get some of the other WIPs done. If you don't post once a week, they send the posse, and yes, their Lassoes are knit from the scratchiest Shetland wool that can be found and they ride Yamahas. hehe

Now, the UFO pile is sickeningly large, but I will choose the Aran Isle sweater for Hubby, who deserves to be first on the list. The mystery sweater, whose pattern is still a mystery to me, also, will be the backup project for times when I can't take another stitch on the Aran without wanting to run out the door to a pub.

The end of summer doldrums arrive.

I..... can't..... seem..... to..... move.....faster....than.... a.... slug on ice.

I don't want to knit, blog, eat, think, or do anything but read mysteries that are not too bloody or otherwise nasty. I want to find a hobbit hole and stay there with my books and a freezer full of dove ice cream bars, at least til summer is over.

How will I knit enough on a WIP to report weekly to the UFO group that lured me with delicious finished products done by those who have picked up their needles and marched off to victory? I fear having to wear the word "Slacker" written across my forehead, so that it reads backward in the mirror, a daily reminder of my sin of sloth.

I watered all the rooted ones. They were sad but now they are happy. This is a good thing as they are so innocent and so helpless. Where else can they go?

Trying to spin and knit more....

I got out my spindles because I want to make more pink yarn for a hat, and also, I want to finish more on the three, make that four, wips I've now acquired.

Pugknits put me on to an ebay sale on a Majacraft Gem.

I am not link enabled yet, though I try. I've tried again...we shall see what happens. I HATE HTML tweeking most times.


I'm looking at the Gem and at a little Louet. First I have to find out if I can even stand.. er sit and spin at a wheel long enough to make it worth it. My DH and sister are doubtful but then I'm pretty stubborn when motivated.

Got the mystery knitting swatched, and a strange thing occured. The gauge is perfect on the recommended needles. This must be Kismet. I hope my Karma is actually getting better. That would be good...

New text color from a different chart

Yeay! I found my other HTML color chart buried in the debris in another folder. I hope this is now lots easier to read.

The wannabe software tech is now happy, and she will get herself some breakie and go knit more on the next bandage.

Some Answers and News from my tech support... me...

The comments post failed so I am going to try to answer two comments here. I think it might be the new driver that was downloaded today. The joys of computers ... *sighs*

Hi there Ohioan Friend. Wish you could go cool off in the Pacific, and cool off you would because the temps are usually around the mid sixties, for the water. It's pretty chilly! Though we live inland we are still within reach of the "Ocean Influence", as the meteorologists like to say. The sea breezes that reach our mesaland keep it bearable and we look forward to them every evening. Ohio, ah, I love the Ohio farmland but know little of the cities, because my Grandfather's farm was pretty far from them. Oh yes, it's so terribly hot and I feel for all those who are suffering from it. August should start a cool down for you, I hope. Thanks for peeking in.

ana, I'm glad that you like the new background color, and I'm definitely going on a search for a new font color today. I tried out a few yesterday and they were actually worse.

I live in San Diego, inland a little from the beaches. In Uni I had friends who lived in Venice so ended up visiting there from time to time. I love your whole area. In truth I love California from tip to tip as long as a traveler can stay on the beaches, Mountains, and Deserts in some areas. Los Angeles, the City, is not a favorite thing. The traffic is pretty horrid.

Ah, yes, the stories. I'm trying to re-create some events that I think were interesting about pets, rockhounding, family background stories, other hobbies so as to cheer up people and entertain a bit. My children can read about things they've never heard me talk about so that will be good. I don't mind sharing as much here as I would at a gathering of, let's say, new people at a picnic or party. It's been fun so far.

New Color but still a sea green. I love the Ocean!

Gosh that was easy! Too easy.

In keeping with the sea theme, I've used this color. I'm hoping that it makes it more readable for the dear lady who is bothered by the dark colors. I really didn't like it so dark but never had come across the proper and TEENSY bit of HTML that was all it took to change it.

My Sister came over today and she is still very tired, took a tiny snoozer, but she is a lot more cheerful today. We really joked around like the good old days. She is my sock model when DH isn't around or the socks are too small.

Today was a knitting day. Finished the bandage, rolled up the tweed yarns in yon piccy and oogled more spinning wheels on other blogs, lusting after several knowing that I'd never have but the one so best be careful here, and sorted out the instructions for knitting a t top from Fran. She trusts me. Gosh I can't let her down or refuse that gauntlet she threw down before my feet in their candy colored socks. Thanks fran!

Age related angst?

I've reached an age where I don't look too far forward into the future, and I certainly don't want to be embedded in the past. Now comes the time for what the great spiritual leaders have taught humankind to do, live in the moment. Now that I've wasted all the time I did looking forward to something in the future, I learn this lesson?

Perhaps I need a spinning wheel, and I need it very badly.

Look what I dug out of the stash. I wanted to make a sweater out of this bulky but there's only 500 grams and that doesn't amount to much I'm told in the way of yardage. Sigh.. So, since it's a tweed and not soft enough for next to the skin wear, I guess I make a vest out of it. This came from my friend's stash who was a weaver so it's far too late to try to get anymore. I will get out the ball winder and wind 'em up.

The Cactus Pete story, and other memories....

I promised to tell you about what I remembered about a place called Cactus Pete's when your Grandmother and Grandfather and I first came back to California after my Dad was released from the Veteran's Hospital on the East Coast during World War II. He had almost lost a leg in an air raid in France.

When my father was badly injured and sent back home from the war in Europe in 1944 we came back to California, my mother, my father and myself and started up life here once more. I was nearly 3 years old by the time we came back. We first settled in a little store front along Garvey Blvd that once housed an ice cream parlor. That's where the first Christmas I can even remember was celebrated. I can remember standing up in my crib and seeing a very small and sparkling tree filled with tinsel and little colored paper things. And my mother had made some sort of garland for it also, and had taken soap flakes or something and made snow in the windows.

Later on that year, by some sort of miracle, despite a housing shortage that was severe, the house the ice cream parlor adjoined came up for sale, and my parents bought it. I still have the iron gargoyle door knocker from the round topped Spanish style door as a memento.

It was an amazing and beautiful little house. Before our home had to be divided into two parts ( to house another family because of the housing shortage) my mother made it beautiful with her midwestern thrift and farm girl expertise, hand sewing curtains and draperies that she acquired from who knows where to fit into her little home. This is the house that the 14 foot Christmas tree came home to when the man selling it told my father that if he could get it home on that bicycle he was riding Dad could have the tree for two dollars. The ceilings in the house where vaulted ceilings. The tree was really huge and it was made glorious with lights, tinsel and some ornaments that my grandparents had sent out to us from the East for our second Christmas in California. This is the tree that Sol, my friend for my whole childhood, made a little steel shaving ball that we hung every year on our own family tree. Do you remember me telling you about where it came from and what it meant to me?

Another amazing thing about this house was that it was right across the street from a place called Cactus Pete's. There were lath houses there than seemed to stretch farther than my little legs could carry me. In the heat of the southern California summer it was cool and shady inside, and the buildings were filled with the most amazing collections of plants. I was forbidden to ever cross the street without my mother or father, so I would wait patiently for them to take me over to see the endless rows of green and strange little plants.

My father worked weekends repairing and building more lath houses, and just generally helping the owner, Pete, move plants and soils around. Everything was done by hand with wheel barrows and shovels and hand tools at that time. I vividly remember my father cutting his hand on a saw blade one day and my becoming frightened that ALL his blood would come out. I was afraid because I knew that he had barely survived the war that sent him home walking with a cane.

Cactus Pete would give my mother and I little bits of his plants and tell us how to grow them in sand or let them root in an overturned flowerpot till they sprouted little red or white roots. These little bits of plants were almost as miraculous to my mother as any seed, as they grew into plants from a fragment of a leaf. She learned a lot of growing arts for cuttings and layerings from Pete and some of the other crew who worked there. She was raised on a farm and her mother had taught her how to root hard wood cuttings from all the various favorite plants like roses, hydrangeas, and other flowering bushes around the farms. Grandmother grew elderberry and many berries from starts such as that, and so did my mother. She filled every yard she ever spent time in with over flowing beauty.

I want to tell you more about your amazing Grandmother and will share more of her stories as I remember them. We all get this love of the rooted ones from her and I will try to find pictures of some of her gardens. They are rare and black and white but they might be a delight to you.

Here is the plant I was telling you about Pookie. You can just see the babies on the edges of the leaves. I'm growing you guys some.