Busy Week

Friday Fave Fives from Willow's Week.  I thought that my first week of retirement would be filled with hours of contemplating my future projects and considering which ones to move to higher priority.  Oh well.  Lots of my plans were changed and that's just fine.

1.  I didn't expect to be driving all over the place this week.  But that's how it all turned out.  Son #2, Dr. Mike, was here for two days before leaving for another adventure in Western Australia. (Maybe I should rename him "Indiana Jones".)  So that involved two trips to Los Angeles plus some fun side trips to favorite stores where he could gather his supplies.  Any time spent with our boy is a fave since we don't see him on a regular basis!  Even time sitting in the car is treasured time.

2.  An added bonus was that while Dr. Mike was choosing the right back pack and the warmest sleeping bag, I found a great shirt to wear while I am hiking this summer.  It's UVP treated, long sleeved, but also thin enough to wear in summer.

3.  We didn't expect to be attending a friend's memorial service.  We had a trip to our old stomping grounds where we attended college and where we lived during some of our early married years and where we attended church during our home assignment times.  We found out on Wednesday night that a celebration of the life of one of our very dear friends from those years (and from The Professor's childhood) was on Thursday evening.  So we drove the 1 1/2 hours to participate in her memorial service.  So many of our college friends were there that it seemed like a college reunion, too.

4.  The Professor turned in his grades at the university so we truly are on summer break!  We thought he would be finished on Tuesday, but he decided that spending those days with Dr. Mike was more important, so he finished on Thursday, but still before the deadline.

5.  I have been looking for some pots to use for plants outdoors on the patio.  Finally, we found some at our local garden store.  When I couldn't decide which to buy or find two identical pots, The Professor said, "Just get them both."  So I did--because you can never have too many cute pots for even cuter plants.

Query:  has anyone of you switched to Windows 10?  There may be a desert of photos displayed here until I figure it all out.  The above pictures are displayed solely because The Professor is a wizard of technology.  So far, I am not a fan...of Windows 10.
 

It's a Wrap

Happy Friday!  Happy Friday Fave Fives!  Here is Willow's Week...

1.  The door on my front loading washer broke.  As I was pulling it open after it finished a load of towels, the plastic handle snapped.  It wasn't completely detached, but I couldn't open the door.  As I stood there contemplating how I was going to rescue those wet towels from a moldy, mildewy death, suddenly I had an inspiration.  One might call it a McGyver moment.  DUCT TAPE!  Duct Tape will hold that handle together.  Duct Tape fixes everything.  So I did.  And it does.  To be sure, this is merely a temporary solution, so in the next few weeks, there may be more Faves on the subject of either new washers or repaired washers.

2.  "You are invited..."  My nephew's wife is imminently expecting their first child.  Last weekend there was a baby shower.  So I nudged my sister-in-law into accompanying me on that perilous journey to Los Angeles County to celebrate this new addition to the clan.  Other sister-in-law was there too and we had a gay old time laughing together and hanging out with the grandmas to be and the aunties, too.

3.  Congratulations to me!  As of this week, I am RETIRED!  I taught my last regular writing class.

4.  The end of the year is always fun and the students were in great form as we closed out the year.  We played Mrs. Willow's IEW* Jeopardy which they love. They shared goodies and also showered me with lovely gifts.  Obviously, they are aware that I love my coffee because there were a couple of caffeine related gift cards.  *Institute for Excellence in Writing--the curriculum I teach.

5.  I think the best gift I received was orchestrated by my most creative teenage helper who is practicing to be a TA.  She secretly arranged for all the students in the Thursday classes to write notes to me which she printed and bound into a book of memories. So. So. Sweet.  I will treasure it forever.

Willow's Cottage on a Tuesday

I have a new coffee mug!  The rule here at Willow's Cottage is one in, one out.  I've needed to replace one of my morning mugs which has developed a crack.  So I found just what I wanted at the potter's stall at Topanga Banjo and Fiddle Contest on Sunday.  All my favorite colors!  And yes, the coffee tasted great this morning!

You can never have too many photos of the California state flower!  These poppies volunteered this spring in my back garden.  I love the yellow and orange combo.

The delphinium is blooming its little heart out.

Mothers, Sons and Sunsets

Happy Friday!  Here is Willow's Week in Friday Fave Fives.  This edition is mostly about Mother's Day.

1.  None of my children live within the same state where we are, so holidays aren't often celebrated together.  Chaplain Dan's military assignment brought him to within 100 miles of us last weekend, so we happily hopped on a couple of Los Angeles freeways to drive to where he had a couple of hours free before he returned to Arizona.  So I got to spend a bit of Mother's Day weekend with my first born.

2.  I posted the above photo on facebook on Mother's Day and was delighted to see that it received more than 100 likes/loves from friends.  Yeah, I know it's facebook, and it's not like it's hard to 'like' a photo, but it still made me happy.

3.  Although they are spread out across the US (and sometimes the world), my four adventurers always check in with me on special days.  I wonder if they know how much those phone calls mean to me.

4.  I always love a sunset.  May and June are great months to photograph sunsets here because the seasonal fog which creeps in most evenings creates interesting shapes in the sky as the sun sets.  This photo was snapped from the car as The Professor was driving home from our meet up with Chaplain Dan in Orange County (#1).

5.  I hope you like bug and caterpillar pictures!  Here is a monarch butterfly caterpillar (larva).  In spring they are usually crawling all over our milkweed plants and devouring all the leaves until nothing is left of the poor milkweed.  Evidently this one was either scouting for more leaves or searching for a spot to build its cocoon as it was meandering aimlessly around my patio which is completely devoid of milkweed.  Which end is his head and which his tail?  Why would I choose caterpillars as a fave?  Well, I like them.  They're cute.  And they're fun to photograph.

They're Everywhere! They're Everywhere!

          After writing a bit on Friday about jacaranda trees, I have been noticing them everywhere.  They're in the Trader Joe's parking lot.  They are growing along the freeway.  Obviously they have been planted in the dead spaces at the on and off ramps on The 101.  I've noticed those gorgeous towering blooming branches in the neighborhoods next to mine, along the avenues, and at the doctor's office.

          We moved to Southern California in February 2002.  That first spring I saw purple trees.   In that grey cement and black asphalt wasteland which is called Los Angeles, all of a sudden, there was purple.  Purple everywhere.  Magnificent purple trees lined the streets.  Then the blossoms dropped all over the grey and black and transformed it into a fairyland of lavender pathways.  As suddenly as the purple appeared, it disappeared.  I forgot about them.
          The next spring, those invisible trees bloomed again and everyone exclaimed about the 'jacaranda trees blooming'.  It seems that when the jacarandas bloom, it's a rite of passage from winter to true spring.  I assumed that 'jacaranda' was a Spanish word for a Spanish or Mexican tree and was pronounced 'haw-ca-rawnda'.  But, no.  The name originated from the Guarani language (in South America) and is pronounced 'jack-a-randa'.

          Evidently, people either love them or hate them.  They're big.  They're bossy and like to take over.  See those huge pods hanging down in bunches?  It turns out that they're messy, too.

Since I don't have to clean up after their messy throw-everything-on-the-ground-when-they're-done-with-it ways and I don't have to hack-saw them down, I love them.

May!

I was truly tempted to title this post May Day!  May Day!  I think everyone in the Northern Hemisphere is happy that May has arrived bringing spring and flowers and showers and sun.  I know I am happy that's it's May.  It's also Friday and that means celebrating Friday Fave Fives with Susanne.

1.  These trees!  Every year I look forward to finding the first blooming jacaranda tree of the season.  Usually jacarandas bloom in May.  They burst into brilliant purple after standing in nondescript anonymity all year long on streets and in parking lots.  

2.  May Gray.  Normally I'm not a fan of gloomy gray days.  But in May and June our climate is highlighted lowlighted by 'early morning coastal fog and low cloudiness'.  The clouds help keep the late spring/early summer temperatures down.

3.  Because of visitors coming, I put extra effort into having my whole house clean and uncluttered at the same time.  Usually I will focus on one part of the house and then the rest is ignored and gets cluttered up.  But visitors prompted a whole house pick up.  The cleaning isn't the fave--the tidy house is.

4.  Quiet mornings when I can sit and relax while sipping my coffee.

5.  Birds.  They chatter.  They chirp.  They sing.  I love listening to them.