The Picture is of Big Sur

Pray for it, because this place is on fire and is one of the most beautiful of all the coast. Only a miracle will save it. There are 1600 fire fighters trying to fight this fire, and we need rain really badly here. God, we need the rain and like tomorrow.....Pretty Please?

Carma? Just for fun....

Once upon a time a space ship landed on earth, in Los Angeles. The little spacepeople took a look at the city, and radio'ed back to the Mother Ship that Earth was a terrible planet, where four wheeled beings were completely enslaved and infested with two legged parasites.

I thought it was time to resurrect this cute old joke. Author unknown.

H is for ?

H is for Health, Home, Hell, and Heaven but it's mostly for....
Hope

The old Testament describes Hope as a thief. I can see why this is true, though I like this poem about "Hope", by Emily Dickenson, much better:

Hope is the thing with feathers
That perches in the soul,
And sings the tune--without the words,
And never stops at all,

And sweetest in the gale is heard;
And sore must be the storm
That could abash the little bird
That kept so many warm.

I've heard it in the chillest land,
And on the strangest sea;
Yet, never, in extremity,
It asked a crumb of me.

This is the way the whole of nature lives, in a daily renewal that leaves behind what was and lives for the day that has dawned.

I hope (there's that word again!) to learn this completely innocent way of living in the years left to me, years that are fictional at best, but which unfolding to me day by day....As life always has.

Sorry for all the inconvenient spellings! The jeep was hit on the street, by the RV. I'm a little distracted. We are trying to figure out whether this is carma or karma...

Kitchen at 99%

 

 

 

 

99 % finished. All that is needed is the hardware, which consists of little acorn shaped pulls for the doors, and a hand pull of a cup like form with acorn and oak leaf patterns over the outside curve,for the drawers.

Top Picture: The sink wall, with the granite top.

Next down is the whole of the galley kitchen, with the cabinet on the end where a plywood shelf and little flea market table for the coffee maker used to be.

#3: the range side with the new hood, the lowered bamboo butcher blocks for me to make my bakery and candy making spaces, as well as a little prep for cooking.

#4: the last is a close look at the bamboo butcher block. Who knew it could be so beautiful. The back splash is travertine, sealed very well, and zero grout lined.

The kitchen has a jewel like quality to it. Everywhere I look there is a wood grain, a component of the granite, which actually does have tiny garnet inclusions, or a pattern in the travertine that is so beautiful that it takes my breath away. Everyone worked very hard to get this kitchen completed and have it be so lovely. The crew and the contractor have been supurb. They worked right through the 110 degree weather. I don't know how they did that but they did.

Ten, Eleven, Twelve... Happy Birthday Jazz

I can't believe we made it little guy. But here we are... I hope you know that you are loved, that somehow we have reached across the species divide and communicated it to you. You've been through a lot and we've had a lot of fun, too.

Do you remember riding the sky tram down Kirkwood, right up front with your ears blowing back like tiny kites in the wind? Do you remember the day we picked you up, at 10 weeks old, and you rode all the way home in the Bounder from the rockhound picnic, on the seat, curled up next to Poppa?

Thanks for staying with us so long, with a bad little heart and a dragon of a disease in your brain.

We sure do love you, Jazzie.

 

10 years old

 

11 years old

 

12 years old

Fraternal twin socks?

 

This reminds me of the movie, "Twins". But it's what I worked on today, the mate to the red one is almost to the toe, too. Isn't that special?

This snap ain't too bad, neither

 

And in this one, you get to see the new granite countertop. Whoot! It's beautiful stuff, and this rockhound is so happy to have it.

Sundyed Beauties Sheesh, am I blind...

 

Two big skeins, Summer Cotton "Poppy Dream", nearest camera, and Woolblend, Tanzanite Mist Lace is behind. These came from Ceallach Dyes who does ALL solar dyeing, and I must say these colors are delicious. The picture doesn't do the colors justice for richness mostly because I didn't want to intensify, just sharpen, the digital snap.

The cotton is going to be something for someone I know who cannot wear wool, just as soon as we find a pattern, and the wool lace weight is going to be a shawl, a very large shawl.

I have Gretchen first, then Birch, and the Aran Sweater, plus all the little projects that try, now, to bite my fingers when I reach into their bags. They don't recognise me anymore. I'm getting more and more afraid to put my hand into the Aran sweater bag. It's pretty hefty.

The kitchen is about a week's work away from complete. Looking at it the other night, I was thinking this looks a little bit like French style of cabinetry. It's time to make those big ceramic chickens! Yay! And I have the molds for them, too!

Combat alert!

I strain at the bit to stay out of politics here, as you know, since well, let's face it, it's a killer. But if I ever get close to McBush, I'll just have to spit up on his wingtips. Hopefully he won't call ME a female dog. Then I would get arrested, DH would get arrested, you know, the whole ugly he said, she said routine. Tata!

The only other news is the 110° weather here, starting last Friday and ending yesterday, This was caused by someone forgetting to turn off their oven in Utah. You know who you are, so don't try to deny it. The weather guy, and they are all smart meteorologist now, said so, so it must be true.

Try to smile at something today, and remember to look for beauty in the most unlikely places. Even if you have to make a water puddle in the back yard and pour a little drop of olive oil in it, for the color spectrum, let there be beauty in your day.

And, life is not as bad as you think it is, it's usually worse. Just be happy you cannot see all the things that crawl around on your skin, for instance. Happily, they are too small to be seen even with 60power lenses. Is that good news or what?

Guess Who Came to Dinner

 

This is a baby golden mantled ground squirrel, or at least I think it's a golden mantle. It's very tiny and sweet and is eating apple peelings set out on the paver for the jays. The squirrel is renting a "room" in the tortoise den, and also seems to have a highway from there, under the lime tree, to a tunnel that leads to another garden. Ah, the Wild Life of Suburbia.

A Promised MEME .. stolen from Sarah-Hope's blog

1. What were you doing ten years ago?

Ten years ago I was fighting a private war, that long road that striving for Unconditional Love usually travels. I kept my own council, sealed my shattered little heart away, not trusting anyone with the knowledge of the path I'd chosen. I had to deal with problems that had gathered for many years. There were decades of steely eyed looks of false friendship from jealousy, xenophobic people, and other strange psychic illnesses clothed in human forms, that stepped all over my soul, and dealt out a shit load of rejection.

I was able to take the shattered pieces of my mind and heart, so trusting and innocent at first, and patch them back together over time. Patience, prayer and a strict attention to detail in the mending, as well as all of the love of my own little family, has insured that the once fragile sense of safety in my mind was again whole. I could love with the complete and beautiful extension of Unconditional Love, a birthright of all humans.


2. What are five non-work things on your to-do list for today/tomorrow?

*Read a book that is a bit scary but fun in a black way. Accordion Wars by e. annie proulx. I'm half way through the book and am beginning the think either this accordion brings very bad luck to the people who happen upon it, or I should just settle in and feel sorry for the accordion, and all it's own bad luck. I hope that you'll read this book and give me a full report on how it ruined your moods! No no.. don't read it. The daily news is really enough, and isn't that what we are trying to escape from by reading? No knitting is getting done, but a heck of a lot of obsessive reading to find a glimmer of HOPE in the life of one of the human characters. I might have called this book, Accordion Assassin.

* Eat well. My diet excludes some very wonderful and delicious foods and beverages, no dairy, no legumes, no wines, no coffee, but what I can have I enjoy to the utmost! I read lots and lots of Vegan foodie sights because I actually don't like meat. I have to eat it, but I do NOT like it much. I think of the animals when I eat it, say a quasi Native American prayer for it's life, and just eat it. It's protein.

* Watching a movie called "Saving Grace" yet again before having to send it back.

* Enjoying breathing in and out, watching the birds in the cape honeysuckle, and enjoying my eyesight no end!

*I will be taking surrepticious peeks at the kitchen when the cabinetmakers are at lunch or on breaks. When they leave for the day, I will sneak back in and turn on the new countertop lights, dim them with that cunning new switch, and be enchanted by their mysterious power over my imagination. At night, the dim lights make the kitchen look like one of the officer's quarters (apartments) on the spaceship Enterprise.

3. What snacks do you enjoy?

Malt balls. Those enormous malt balls come out of a dispenser at Henry's and other HIGH END (lol) Health food stores. I also like Soy Dream as well as tofuti chocolate frozen dessert. Pie! Chocolate cake, filled with raspberry creme, frosted with chocolate slathered on THICK, I tell you.. thick!

4. What would you do if you were a billionaire?

I would set aside money for the family, for education, housing and emergencies. That's a big family we are talking about here. The rest would go to local and national or international environmental orgs, organic farmering orgs, alternative energies, and, particularily to grant writing experts who do pro bono work so that cities the size of San Diego don't sit on their hands and let big government grants for things like treating empoverished diabetics slip away. This just happened and it was worth some millions to the agencies starving for money to treat the growing army of the poor. It should never happen, and some of the money would go to insure that it doesn't happen in any California city. Money would go into agencies that are buying land to save it from improper uses, saving land like farm land, wet lands, heritage lands that should be allowed to go back into wildernesses. If there's any left after that, DH and the family and I might go to Italy and live there for awhile. Anyone want to come along?

5. What are some of the places you’ve lived?

Summers in Ohio as a child, otherwise, California. All in the Southern half, though I am and always was, at heart, a Central Coaster.

6. What are some of the jobs you’ve had?

Carpenter- earned clothes and college money
Frosty freeze-earned my guitar -love that thing.
Library-pocket change
Telephone operator-roof and food
Yarn Shop-earned my yarn and knitting machine
Fabric Shop- what else? Fabric!
Teacher's Aid- fun with kids. Yay! Love kids!

7. What peeps do you want to know more about?

George Clooney. Not as a hunk, mind you, but here is the guy who made the movie, "Syriana". I respect that a lot. I would have loved to meet Beverly Sills for a chat. Both Galbraithe and Keynes, as I want to know their take on modern American economic unrealities. You know them as, "Voodoo Economics", from the Reagan meltdowns.

A funny picture saves sanity

 

A friend just sent this to me, thank you J! I had to post it so I could get over my giggles! Enjoy all you Geezers!

Tiny Dancers, tiny beauties

 

Nearly anyone who has a Home Depot in the same town knows these flowers. They are on the spider plants, airplane plant, aka the "I'm not sure what the botanical name" is plant. They are about an inch across and dance around in the breezes on the long stems of the baby plants. I think they are delicious looking, like satin.

Saturday Sky, June 14th

 

We actually had some clouds! That's unusual for June, usually it's just a deep marine layer that burns off mid-day and is called,locally, June Gloom. I like it a lot because it keeps things cooler. Alas, we are getting tropical weather for longer periods each year. Sallyjo, I should go back and read Edgar again too. Maybe there are other clues about why this, and why now... The Political sorts of things... you know?

Upper Cabinet Door Design

 

The cabinet makers put their hearts and souls into their work. These guys are great! The cabinets are hickory, which is a very hard wood and it gives me the feeling of being in tune with at least some of my ancestors, those from the hardwood hills of Virginia.

I promise this is the last picture before the "after" ones. These glassed in doors will have teapots gleaming out, and there will be little glass chickens peering out the windows, too. At last, they have a proper and relatively dust free home.

New Blog list feature and kitchen blurb.

Hello hello.. I'm trying out a new blog list feature from blogger. I hope that this makes things easier to follow IF you actually do follow links from here. Anyway, it's fun.

EDIT: Now that I've actually seen the above, it is so out of here..... Doesn't suit me at all...

The kitchen cabinet doors are being installed on Monday, and the granite counter tops are in and ready for the sink to go in on Monday, too. I really want to see what the bamboo butcher blocks are going to look like, having never seen that before. The workmanship on these cabinets is *kisses finger tips* wonderful. Having waited 20 to 25 years for this to occur, I'm thrilled by the luxury of it all. I hope the kids like my style as they will surely inherit it!

I will do a MEME from Sarah-Hope's blog, as promised, as soon as my brain returns from sabbatical. And there is the ABC along for H, which I am having a lot of trouble with. Hell seems to be the word that is most significant in my life, since the word Home is not. This is not my home, which is not to say that I'm not grateful, but Home is where the Heart is. It ain't here. I want to be with the rest of the progressive sign carrying anti nukes in Santa Cruz, thank you.

There will be a Saturday sky shot, as today was a beautiful partly cloudy, edge of a tropical storm sort of day, sunny, warm and humid. Edgar Cayce was right. California is getting more tropical every year. tata til later.. Hugs and Kisses! More Chocolate! More Beer, even, if you like that best!

Oh! An Up, just for you downers..

DH would feel left out if I didn't show you this incredible Colbert shtick, just in case you were on another planet when he launched it.

Colbert's Famous New Energy Drink

Enjoy!

Luann, this is for you...

Another Kitchen, Long ago..

 

This is one of my favorite pictures of my daughter B.

T'other Way.....

 

And, until they are completely finished, this will be the last you will suffer through.

At silver class I finally "glued" the back onto the pendant. I've got some pictures to make a sort of tiny lesson, not of the actual soldering-that would be like watching someone's green paint drying- but of the process. Some people may not have actually seen this process, one or two I'm sure. That's the sort of boring life a rock grinding, blow torch loving maniac lives and it must be documented! Now back to my book with my Little Brave Heart in my lap.

There's another fire in the Santa Cruz Mountains. It's appalling. If it was a firebug, I'll gladly kill it myself. We can smell smoke here. This is the last down.

The old bones are gone, and the new bones are in

Yesterday

 

Today

 

Today was a very strange day, up and down up and down. But, heck, that's what life is all about, beginnings and endings, change forever from the time the first little ray of God's glorious light strikes your retina. I am very happy about the new kitchen, it's going to be beautiful. Everyone worked very hard today to get this and the end wall cabinets in place and wired for light. There is going to be so much light in this new kitchen that my sore old eyes will be rejoicing.

The down part is that Jazzie's heart is very enlarged since six months ago, but THEN, the up part is that his lungs are still pretty clear. This means that with good care and making his life worth living, we can keep him for awhile longer. He will be twelve on the 27th of this month. I don't know how to celebrate it, but we'll think of something special. If EVER an angel inhabited a dog's body, this is one of them. I am thankful, oh so thankful that he came to live with us 11.95 years ago.

I just started reading Annie Proulx book, Accordion Crimes. If I could find rest for my mind in knitting, I would be doing that. Knitting anything (even complicated LACE!)leaves me just too much time to think about the two "Dicks" in the White House, Cheney and Bush. Oh yes, dieting will do strange things to one's tolerance of political criminals and brigands, and leave one with very little patience with with the idiots elected to oust them. They should have been impeached. No two people have deserved it more.

Let's see, what was that question again?

I stole this from my friend Sallyjo's blog. I thought it was a cute idea. I do not feel superior at all. In fact a 1930's man would have got the boot.

100 As a 1930s wife, I am Very Superior Take the test!

I think it's because I have a man I didn't want to kill and bury after the first six months. Ya, that's the reason. He's a really nice man.

This diet is making me cranky. I did try for a little garden beauty this afternoon but ended up with a tiny golden blur suspended between two fern fronds. It was an incredibly little garden spider who suns herself there every day. I'll try again tomorrow provided the birds didn't get her. Spiders aren't as skittish around cameras as wild birds, or the family dog.

Take care, keep knitting. It's the only real sane thing to do when you cannot ban the criminals -and you know who you are!- to some desert island, Not a paradise mind you, but a real desert. They all seem to want the deserts very very badly. Let's give them the deserts!

Celebration at the Baths in Fyros

Happy Birthday B! Would you look at that cake? It went wild! You can't even see it. Ryzom did some pretty spectacular things sometimes. Anyway, I would bake you a cake if it could live through being sent UPS. Have a Happy Day!


Look what the candles on the cake did!

Everything! Freaking Everything!

Small Sand storm.. It is advised that you stay indoors and not read this blog.

There is going to be a four day wait for the kitchen cabinets but I am not unhappy about it. It's so that the finish can be given a chance to cure properly, and who can argue with that. This gives me a chance to go to metalcraft. I've missed it the last two weeks, last week for a doctor's appointment that was made months ago before the time slot of the metalcraft class was carved out of the day, so to speak, and week before in order to be here to pick out paint, countertop materials, wood, and various other details that I couldn't entrust to DH who is not able to see the full spectrum of colors. Tan, green and yellow all look the same to him.

I'm still trying to bring myself to smash the remaining green ware. Some of it is so darned cute that I don't want to give up on it. If all the pieces were to turn into stuffed toys overnight, my dilemma would be over.

I've not been knitting at all. To add some snap to that otherwise obsessional activity, I ordered yarns from a solar dyeing maven in the Northern Realms. She has been trying to mentor me through doing this down here as well, but her yarns just are so delicious looking that they are irresistible. Of course this breaks the yarn diet! *Rolls Eyes* Diets are made to be broken.

I really try to be all nicey nicey on this blog and not mention the real world. But we live in it. In fact we are mired in it. I am grumpy because I can only have malt balls on Sunday, a self imposed draconian regulation that has me with no one to blame. I'm also grumpy because I wanted a woman candidate running for president, and I wanted Bush and Cheney impeached, and I didn't want Corporations to have the rights of individuals under the law, and I want the damn Writ back and the Constitution, and I didn't want our country going through another war for that black and sticky stuff that doesn't even taste good much less smell good. It's not called crude for no reason.

Just watch all the hedge funds buy up the world's farm lands and the grain elevators and the fertilizer companies and drive small farmers completely off the planet. BUT!! We can fight back by supporting local farmers, and all their products. We have to do this for our children and ourselves. We just have to.

Happy Birthday L. We lub u. You are not part of the title. I don't freak when I think of you. I smile.

Remembering the good times of Ryzom, and you This is sort of a birthday cake, lights up and multi colored.

Cold weather reddened Jade Plant

 

For those of you not from this part of the country, The Jade Plant will withstand some pretty heavy frost but it will turn a delicious red on the edges of the fleshy "leaves". It is a beautiful plant when it's huge, and some of mine are nearly six feet tall with huge trunks. I love the way one tiny paddle will fall and start another plant. The Jade plant can be trained into a sort of Bonsai, as well. I really love these plants. The plant to the left is a cactus, and the one to the right is a barrel cactus, grown from a seed. It is 24 years old and my mother gave me the seeds. There were two of them in a kit from a nursery in Nevada. Legacy plants, those... They both survived.

Enjoy your gardens. I wish everyone who lives could enjoy the peace of having a plot of land and be able to raise on it what they need for themselves whether, whether it's flowers fruit trees or a kitchen garden. And be able to hold it in UNTROUBLED Peace. Wouldn't that be heavenly?

Lovely tiny flowers for my Salad greens

 

Society Garlic.

Kichen colors. Diet, Birds, Books

 

It was too cloudy and damp to paint today, but this is the first coat, which will probably look pretty much like the next one. Isn't it fun to watch someone else's paint dry? On the monitor, because of the gray skies and the flash, it is a little too yellow, but in real life it's a nice pale sage green.

First Day without malt balls, and WITH lowered rations, as in a half bagel for breakfast. No fruit on the salad at dinner. The little flowers from the lemon geranium and society garlic will take the place of fruit, for interest. Hopefully I'm not allergic to either of them. Flowers in salads is such a romantic notion, eh? Takes the sting out of not being able to have dried cranberries which are insanely calorie ridden but oh so delicious.

I'm expecting to hear from the contractor about why he wasn't here today. I find this all charming because basically here is a man young enough to be my son who treats me so respectfully, somewhat like an elder, which of course I am. He's such a nice fellow. So far, things went so quickly in the kitchen remodel from the get go, that it was time to take 10, as is said. The marble (Edit: what was I thinking? It's granite!) is beautiful. It's not exactly how the small sample looked but it will look good with the cabinets. Having waited for 30 years for this, I'm very patient about getting it finished.

All the Scrubjay babies were out and about, tugging at the cactus roots and pounding peanut shells into the ground as they had seen their parents do. The parents are still feeding them when they do beg. The lady, she works at the San Diego Zoo, who lives behind us has a big tray on top of her cages just for the wild birds. So many come by now. The towhees where on the fence again, and must have successfully built another home. I have to confess, the pictures of the bird at the corn is actually an adult. The eyebrow tells no lies.

I'm reading "Seabiscuit", the book by Laura Hillenbrand, and it's fantastic. The history of the development of racetracks and safety equipment, mingled with the stories of the jockeys up through the decades, is so intense in places I just had to put the book down. It brought back some memories that I didn't want to relive. But it also explained some things about how jockeys and anyone who loves to ride can actually keep riding even though they are badly injured. There is no feeling short of actually flying that comes close to how being on a big horse running -flying- across the fields feels. It's wonderful. Just don't fall or get thrown. :)

Doctors, Bird life, kitchen update, and the weekly Spam Report

Well, the doctor that I'll never see again (long story) but who was once head of Rheumatology, says that my knees look like they will go the distance. This means, that for me, the treatments are working, and my medicines are good to go, and I can hopefully avoid knee joint replacements forever or until I die, which ever comes first. And, if I am careful and cut back on my food, I can even lose some weight. That means one malt ball instead of three for a treat, and a half bagel in the morning. There is practically no fat to cut out of the diet since we eat so little meat, and absolutely no dairy. Lol. So, of course, the first thing I did was come home, weigh myself, eat three malt balls and read all the food blogs! Yes, their scale was right. Dammit!

We will have the second coat of paint going on tomorrow. THAT is when I will take pictures of the "new green". The cabinets are ready on Monday, the granite top is done, and the contractor is rushing off his feet, juggling several jobs. He is not twins but I bet he wishes he was sometimes. He said his wife thought the granite was for their kitchen. I'm thinking that I remember being the child of a contractor. It was a little like being the proverbial child of a cobbler. teehee. Since I was raised in the same house as a busy, admittedly nut case contractor unlike, in any way, this one, I am inclined to be kind and patient. Also, I haven't got four children running around trying to eat everything that is not nailed down, either. I would just have to farm them out to relatives if they were here. Not really. We'd just go camping!

The baby Scrub Jays are growing up well, and learning new songs. They will start making a noise that sounds like an adult jay, and it declines into a long bubbly sound that is almost like one a warbler makes. One of the babies is a lot younger than his nest mates so that Jay is still screaming to be fed while the others are out grubbing up stuff on their own. They all take baths and drink from a portable "bird bath" made up from an old table in the patio. It sinks in the middle so I filled it up with water once I saw they were drinking some rather nasty looking water that had accumulated from the plants being watered there. Ick ick ick.

Spam season! Mrs. Rosemary King wants to be my Dearest Friend. Somehow I just do not trust that woman. And Dr. Christian C.Ibe wants to take me into his confidence. Oh, I so need a confidential letter from someone who thinks I'm worth a lot of money. If he only knew that I've actually decided that it was time to try to suck money off of Blackwater's big government tabs and use it for things I like instead.