April Showers, Birds and Hikes

It's been a busy time here at Willow's Cottage and this is the first post I've written all week.  Time to catch up and think about the good parts of the week.  Friday Fave Fives really helps me do that.  Susanne at Living to Tell the Story leads us in choosing five things from our week that have helped us to be thankful and notice gratitude.  Here are mine:

1.  Encouraging words from friends concerning a difficult situation.  I meet weekly via zoom with friends.  We call ourselves the Art Girls (you can guess why).  Because I was stressed about something, they encouraged me and really helped me focus on the right way to handle things.

2.  The birds are back in force at my bird feeder.  I love watching them snack on the seeds I provide for them.  Birds make life happier and make me smile.

3.  More hikes.  It really is spring!  On Tuesday evening, the Trail Life troop hiked in a local preserve again.  Although it had been raining quite a bit this past week and the creek was up, we ventured through the mud and water, up and down the banks of the stream and had a great time.  (I'm the honorary grandma who hikes with them)  The best part?  Tall Boy was very solicitous for my safety as we crossed creek beds on rocks and climbed up slick and muddy edges, even holding my arm and escorting me along in front of his buddies.  Then we also had a fun hike at the local arboretum again.  Almost three miles.

4.  I guess I should be thankful for all the rain we are having.  April showers bring May flowers.  I need to just focus on being thankful that we aren't in drought.

5.  The spinning wheel is out and I've been working on some merino and silk fiber.  No photos yet.  But hopefully, in the next day or two I will have finished a skein of it.

Now I am off to watch my older daughter (she who is a rocket scientist) dance in the local production of Swan Lake.  Happy Happy Friday to you all.

January 8, 2025

If you have read my blog for more than six months, you will know that June and July were months that I spent three and a half weeks in Ireland, England and Wales.  Honestly, I just can't choose a few pictures from the hundreds I took while I was across the pond.

So I decided to share just a few photos from before I left on June 13th.

Trail Life Crossover ceremony with our grandsons The New Boy and Warrior Boy

A yellow finch in our garden

You know I can't resist taking pictures of barns and sheds.

January 2nd

Today is Warrior Boy's birthday.  He is fifteen years old!

Photo below taken February 2024

Evidently, last year in February I took lots of photos of birds.

Maybe my favorite photo of February 2024.  Cherry Valley Trail along the river in a snow covered landscape.

Random February Photos

 It is late winter.  February's weather is all over the place.  There's snow.  It comes and goes.

But we can still get out and walk the paved trails.

Then the snow starts melting.

Sometimes there is even blue sky!

The birds know spring is on its way.

And the early spring flowers are popping up.

Our first crocus!

These daffodils were trapped under a bag of mulch all winter.  They are so tenacious!  I moved the bag and found them already searching for the spring sunshine.

And of course, there are always barns.

February is for Cold and Ice

 Good Morning!  The sun is shining.  No accumulation of snow or ice is in the forecast.  Right there in those three sentences are three things for which I am thankful. And I haven't even begun my Friday Fave Fives list.  The world is so full of blessings that everywhere I turn my mind or eye, there is something to appreciate if I choose to notice them.  If you are a repeat reader at Willow's Cottage, you will know about Friday Fave Fives.  You can read and rejoice with me and others when we post and link to Susanne's blog.

1.  Last Friday after I wrote my FFF, Younger Daughter had a disguised blessing.  The ice and snow were making driving difficult and dangerous, but she had some important things to do at work.  But as she pulled out of her driveway, her car got stuck.  Really truly stuck.  So she had to consort to Plan B and work from home (managing a major online conference!).  The blessings here are that she didn't have to navigate the horrible highway situation; she didn't have issues with internet during the meetings; her neighbors saw her car in the street and managed to get it back in to her driveway for her.  I am thankful she was safe!

2.  The Professor knows I enjoy photographing birds, but birds do not cooperate for me to photograph.  BUT.  One morning, he tiptoed into the kitchen and told me to grab my camera.  This time the hawk did not immediately fly away so I was able to catch a couple of pictures.

3.  The New Boy had a birthday!  Can you believe he is now FOURTEEN?  We celebrated with birthday dinner at Olive Garden.  And of course, since he is fourteen, there are no photos of him.

4.  Being stuck at home with snow and ice everywhere was a blessing in that I was able to organize my notebooks on my garden plans and herbs information.  It took me the better part of two days, but now it is done. For Now.

5.  The ice and snow are mostly melted.  That is a huge blessing because our street is dead end and usually doesn't get plowed.

That wraps up Willow's Week of blessings!  

Looking Up

#18 Looking Up

My sister-in-law once commented that if we don't look up, we miss an entire world of activity and experience.  She was of course talking about the fowl life.  The drama of birds flying, fighting, swooping and swirling often occurs above our heads and we have no clue anything is happening in the avian world.

My youngest daughter was fascinated with the birds which sit on wires, perching in groups.  One Sunday morning, she pointed them out and we decided that they were attending 'bird church'.  The term stuck and to this day we refer to those flocks as 'bird church'.

If you're not 'Looking Up', you are missing out!

December Faves, Take Two

I love Christmas, but it is also a stressful time.  This month it is more important than ever to focus on for what I am thankful.  Thanksgiving may be so-last-month, but giving thanks is always a current event.  Susanne's Friday Fave Fives is a great venue for doing that.  As I stare at mud everywhere on my street and in my neighborhood, I have been reminding myself of this quote I read last week (my paraphrase):  Be thankful for the many things that are right, and don't focus on the few things that aren't.)  Yes, my neighborhood is a mess.  But we are safe.  If you google mudslide, Camarillo Springs, California, you can read more about it.

1.  Strong and willing helpers were definitely a fave this week.  We had to move our piano.  Although it is a smaller upright spinnet, The Professor and I can not move it ourselves without help.  We asked around and could find only one young big strong guy to help us (huge shout out to Jason who is awesome!).  Then our dental assistant replied to our comment that we were stressed about moving the piano--as she was cleaning our teeth---her husband is big and strong and willing to help. And they brought another strong and big guy with them.  So we the guys got that thing moved right in up the five steps and into place in its new home.  They also moved all the book boxes (they asked, HOW MANY boxes of books do you have???) and the book shelves in less than a half hour total.  What a blessing it was for us to have found willing and strong helpers.

2.  As of Thursday afternoon I am on Christmas Break!  No more explanation necessary.

3.  Oh, those students of mine--they are hilarious and adorable.  One set of classes wrote poems and made cards.  One girl wrote a cinquain poem:

Ms. (my last name)

You're very nice.

I think that you should know

that I love you. Have a Merry

Christmas!

4.  This hawk has been hanging around.  The little wrens and finches aren't thrilled, but I think he's quite handsome.

5.  Blogger got hacked this week.  Did anyone else have a problem?  My blog spent about a day redirecting to some ad site.  The Professor did some research and found out where that issue was and knew google was working on the problem.  I'm thankful it's fixed and I can just let someone else do the fixing.

Have a happy weekend!  Hug the people you love, and be gracious to the people who are grumpy.

Birds and Bees

I am not the only one who loves the gardens at The Getty Villa.

Lucky things.

Gratitude in the Midst of Busyness

Even when I have busy, tiring weeks, I feel it's important to pause to reflect on gratitude, to focus my thought on thankfulness.  This is why I love the following quote: 

“In daily life we must see that it is not happiness that makes us grateful, but gratefulness that makes us happy.” Brother David Steindl-Rast

 And this is why I love Friday Fave Five which is hosted by Susanne at Living to Tell the Story.  Here are my five favorite moments from Willow's Week.

1.  I cannot tell you how much I love homemade raspberry freezer jam.  I make my own.  I love it on toast. With peanut butter.  My lunch sometimes often includes a simple slice of toast with peanut butter and jam.  And raspberry is my favorite.

2.  Herons are one of my favorite birds.  Fortunately, I live in an area where herons are abundant.  This guy was posing for me recently at Channel Islands Harbor.

Along the creekbeds, I watch for them as I drive to work.  This week I spied a white heron (is this an egret?)  in an unusual spot.  Not in its normal habitat.

(full disclosure here: this is a heron I photographed at San Diego Zoo)

The white heron I saw this week was confusedly wandering, lost and bewildered, along my street.  While it is true that I live two blocks from an artificial lake which is in the middle of a golf course, this bird was seriously out of its preferred environment.  But he/she/it was so cute. I just had to slow down, stop, open my window and shoot some photos.

3.  Every day as I cross under the freeway (Hwy 101) to access the onramp, I look to the right up the road and over a field of citrus trees and in front of it at a row of poinsettias growing tall and semi-wild.  It thrills me every time I see the brilliant red blooms glowing over the dull greens and browns of a Southern California winter.

4.  Another walk. Ventura Harbor this week.

5.  The internet.  After being without internet at home for almost three full days, I am happy to have access again.  It's a little freaky how dependent we are on technology to work, play and communicate.

That was my week.  Busy and filled with compositions to correct, but also filled with blessings when I searched for them.