Back Up

Thank you, everyone, for your encouraging words and for checking in.  I am fine, now.  I wasn't very sick or for very long, but I needed to get healthy fast because I had a reunion to attend AND I have company.  Here's a little happiness to share:

Always make sure you are headed in the right direction.

Watch for the small things--like a tiny feather on a hummingbird sage.

Lessons Derived from a Near Catastrophe

The Springs Fire in Southern California burned much too close for my comfort.  Three Hundred Feet.  The Professor stated, "This is the closest I ever want to be to a major wild fire."  I concur.  After the fire burned and blew through our neighborhood and moved on toward the university where The Professor teaches and then to the Pacific Ocean, I sat and contemplated my reactions and the lessons I learned.  Here are four although I'm sure I will think of many more through the next week.

1. A prosaic day can turn climactic in an instant.  One word from our neighbor changed our direction.  We decided to continue on to our jobs but take what few things we felt we absolutely needed to save in the somewhat unlikely event that the fire would directly affect us.  (This was at 8am before anyone in our neighborhood realized just how fast and furious the fire was moving.)

2. All the planning in the world may not make a difference in what I choose to take with me.  I have an emergency list.  I totally forgot to refer to it.  Truthfully, we felt there wasn't time to spend on packing the cars, not because we needed to leave immediately due to fire danger (as did our friends who live in University Glen), but because we were taking simple precautions for our peace of mind before leaving for our respective jobs.  We packed our fire proof security box, genealogical information, photos, our laptops, external hard drive, camera, and various cables.  As I was driving away from the fire up the freeway, I realized that I had left the camera cord, check book, current bills, some cash and my favorite jeans (in fact, we took no clothing at all).  For the future, I need a better plan.

3. The stuff we left really didn't matter.  We have each other.  That's enough.  However, I've been thinking about our stuff.  Among my friends, I am known as the simplicity girl.  They know I maintain a simple house and don't shop for fun.  Perhaps other people wouldn't notice, but over the past few months things have crept in to my house, but other objects have not marched out, so the net number of possessions has increased.  This is not because I am going out on buying binges; it's just inattention to what's happening.  I need to pay more attention and be more pro-active in this area.  If that stuff doesn't matter, it shouldn't be taking up space in my house.

4. I've been feeling overwhelmed with a few areas around the house.  Mostly, I just don't want to deal with the huge task of organizing, filing, and scanning the photos which have collected here.  Somehow, I became the 'guardian' of many of the family photos from more than 100 years ago.  I want to share them with my family.  But there are so many I don't know how to approach the problem.  Also, I have those file folders full of background information about our families.  Truly, I'm interested in putting that genealogical information into a single readable document, but it's going to take a major block of time to accomplish that task.  Finally, I have planned for a long time to prepare a detailed personal property list for insurance purposes.  Fortunately, I didn't need to use it last week.  It's time to get over feeling overwhelmed and just do these jobs.

Hopefully, I won't have to face this problem of evacuation and possibly losing my home to a natural disaster again for a few years unless of course there's an earthquake.  (We are actually more prepared for an earthquake and staying in our house without services than we are for evacuation.)  This has been a wake up slap to get my house in order.  It was a hard lesson that ended well.

Did you notice that I didn't even think about my yarn and knitting needles?  I know those can be easily replaced.  However, how would I have been able to survive those days and nights without something to keep my fingers busy??

Because It's Nine PM

Because I am hoping to post something here on my blog every day this month, because I was lazy and preferred to sit in a coffee shop with my husband and contentedly sip a decaf soy mocha (no whip) this afternoon, and because I spent two hours with seven sweet pretween girls helping them improve their knitting skills, I have not prepared a fascinating paragraph for publication.

All I can say here is, "This evening I walked two miles,"  which is exciting to me since that is farther than I have walked in the past nine weeks.  My severely sprained ankle is finally healing!

Painfully Quiet

The past seven days I have not ventured out beyond my door except for two doctor appointments.  It has been a painfully quiet week of elevating and icing my swollen and bruised ankle.  Finally this morning I decided that if my ankle hasn't healed in a week, then maybe, maybe, I ought to have my doctor have a look at it.
Incredibly, I was able to get in immediately to see the doctor because of a cancellation.  And just as incredibly, a friend was available to zip over, pick me up and take me to the doctor's office.  I am so thankful for

1. a timely appointment and

2. friend in need who is a friend indeed

Immediately, I was sent to the x-ray lab and now I am awaiting the results.  Maybe, maybe my ankle is broken, but maybe maybe it's 'just' a sprain.  I see that I was wise to call the doctor.

However, the entire week was not lost in a morass of pain and pain-killing pill popping.  While I was doing all that elevating and icing, I also spent my days working on lesson plans and

3. I am as finished as I can be at the beginning of a school year.  When I was bored with that, I played around on my laptop,  learning some new tricks, organizing files and deleting others that I no longer need.

Through all the hopping, crawling, grimacing and learning to handle the neighbor's borrowed crutches,

4. my wonderful and patient husband has waited on me, washed dishes, cooked meals and done laundry, all while he was working his own very full teaching schedule.

5.  Mostly I am so very thankful that his position provides health care for us so that when mishaps happen, we can simply pick up the phone and call the doctor.

That was my painfully dull and quiet week here at Willow's Cottage.  It was a week to be reminded to be careful what you wish for.  I had wanted a quiet week at home to focus on the essentials.  It seems I got just that.

Thanks to Susanne for providing a venue for posting Friday Fave Five every week!

Added later:  the diagnosis is 'severe pain sprain', so now I'm just waiting until Monday afternoon to see what further measures need to be taken.

Also, like Ellen, I am having problems posting on many blogs.  If you wonder why I haven't been around to read your FFF or other posts, I have been.  Unfortunately, whenever I submit my comment, I'm rejected.

What I'm Wearing

My current favorite shoes

I had no idea that crocs could be so cute and so comfortable.

More Treasure

January 1947

Knitting for Baby, 1948

Knitting for Men, 1950s

Mittens and Gloves, 1950s

Treasure

Through the years and from several different sources, I have accumulated a substantial library of old knitting, crocheting and crafting books. During the Christmas visitation of my daughters and sons, I pulled out several boxes and bags, opened them up and offered any and all patterns and books to the girls. Because both girls (well, they're women, really) love vintage clothes and are quite knowledgeable about style, they love the pattern books and enjoy playing the game, "What year was THIS published?"

Wanna play? Try to guess!

A) What is this? Cinderella?

B) Four beauties!

C) Clues to the decade include the mustache, shaggy hair and that wristband!

D) No fashion era should ever include reptile accesories!

E) Black and White

I enjoy perusing the old books for ideas and comparisons in style, shaping, and fiber, so I find them interesting and inspirational. I just don't need 50 or 60 books! Is there anyone out there in blogland who would like some? I'll be happy to mail off a box of old patterns to the first person who asks for them.

Golden Opportunity

I realize that I'm in the minority, but I like Christmas Fruitcake.

And the fruitcake I like best is this golden one.

Lots of nuts and even more fruit. Lemon extract. Apricot brandy.
Stirred, baked, and mailed to me with love.

Flower and I love our fruitcake!

We Went To A Baseball Game

Take me out to the ball game!

Take me out to the crowd!

Buy me some peanuts and crackerjacks,

(umm, ice cream and cotton candy for me, please)

I don't care if I never get back!

Root, root, root for the home team,

(well, actually, I'm a Dodgers fan...)

If they don't win, it's a shame.

(Sadly, the Padres lost)

For it's ONE, TWO...

THREE strikes! You're OUT!

At the OLD BALL GAME!

Out of Fiber

Fiber optics, that is. Yesterday morning, road construction workers about 2 miles from Willow's Cottage cut through 1,000 feet of main fiber optic cable, causing a loss of phone, internet and cell phone service in a large part of our county. Instead of cruising around on the net, I painted patio furniture (wow, that's a long slow job) and spun up some more of the superwash wool I purchased at the Knit and Crochet Show in Portland in May. Sometimes, it's not so bad to be deprived of instant access to the universe.

No Alcohol Allowed

A rule

more honoured
in the breach

than the observance.

El Matador State Beach

Malibu, California

Shhhhh...

It's a secret! I'm on my way...somewhere.

My bag is packed; I always take only one carry-on.

Yes, I have my camera and back up batteries and memory.

Knitting? Check.

Books? Check.

It's been rather hectic here and I haven't been around to visit my fave people. So sorry. Teaching (California state testing again this week) and tutoring and packing has kept me off the computer and out of blogland.

I'll be back soon.

In the interim, here is a little eye candy from the hummingbird feeder

and a blossoming tree.

Update and Thanks

Thank you to all who commiserated with me on the occasion of my forgetting my camera. It was a truly sad situation. Everywhere I looked I saw photo ops jumping out at me. The light was perfect that day, everything sparkled, we were touring a beautiful part of the city.

Thank you too for your concern for The New Boy. His mama reported last night that the fever was gone.

I haven't found out today how he is. We often communicate via email or IM and I have not been online on my computer since early this morning. The sad truth is that I am sitting at The Professor's laptop and he is at mine, doing assessments and, possibly, damage control.

So, tonight at Willow's Cottage, there are no photos, no IM. I guess I'll just get out my knitting and sit and knit. A pleasant consolation.

First Things First

My new camera.

CANON POWER SHOT SX110

I've had the camera a week and have taken about 200 photos. I'm reading through the manual and learning some things about how it works. My old camera was a Canon also and so a lot of the functions are similar. I looked at the Canon SLR something something, but I was not comfortable with the small viewer, so I think the SX110 is a good compromise.

Second Things Second. Road Trip!

I traveled by car through nine states--California, Arizona, New Mexico, Texas (Panhandle), Oklahoma, Missouri, Illinois, Indiana and Ohio. My traveling companions were Kiti and The New Boy. When The New Boy wasn't eating Cheerios and crackers, gazing out the car windows or napping,

he read books and played games with his grandma.

I returned from the road trip late last night (Saturday) via airplane. I flew from Ohio to Atlanta and then all the way back across the continent to California. I nearly had the 'opportunity' to stay the night in Atlanta as the flight was overbooked, and for some reason my seat assignment got dropped between the time I printed out my itinerary last week and when I arrived at the gate. Such are the adventures of traveling...

A few quick impressions: I was amazed at the size and diversity of the continental United States! So many different geological formations and climate variations! Desert, high and low. Plains, flat. Mesas, high and also flat. Hills, rolling and bare and tree covered. I was pleased at the friendliness of the local people. In each state, the residents were proud of their homes and generally friendly and helpful. I was yes-pleased, and thanked, and ma'amed in gas stations and hotels and restaurants all along Route 66.

Albuquerque, New Mexico was a highlight. We stopped for lunch and a break to allow us all to stretch our legs out, breathe clean high desert air, and soak up some sunshine. The architectural details of the city reflected the shapes and colors of the surrounding terrain.

But now it's time to walk back in to the first grade classroom in the morning and focus on a couple of projects at Willow's Cottage.

Road Trip

I will be driving this week.

Going EAST on a road trip.

(Yeah, I know. I can't go very far WEST before I drive in to the ocean.)

Not taking my laptop.

But taking my new camera.

As Christopher Robin said, "Bak Soon."

A Heart Happy Day

Happy Valentine's Day to everyone!

I am posting in the evening because we didn't have electricity most of the day here at Willow's Cottage. It caused inconvenience but for The Professor and me, it's not a disaster. We lived for many years without electricity when we were in Indonesia. We just unplugged the laptops and refrigerator and left to walk at Ventura State Beach. A nonfat hot chocolate and a good walk made my heart happy. So did spending the afternoon with The Professor.

This has been a day of sunshine and wind, a calm between two rainstorms.

My plum tree is confused. It thinks spring has already arrived.

My brother and others in the Pacific Northwest are reporting snow!

Here it's snowing plum petals.

Potpourri Post

Some days there is so much going on in my life and in my brain that I have to stop, take a deep breath, and organize it all. The blog posts that come out of such days, I usually call popourri post days.

The weekend was a whirlwind. Friday I enjoyed my first Saturday and puttered around in the garden. I pulled some weeds, fertilized the citrus trees and potted plants, repotted a couple of plants that have overwintered. I pulled out my seed packets and realized I had no parsley. So I drove down to my local nursery but all they had in parsley offerings was Italian and I want to plant curly parsley because the curly plants are more flavorful. The Professor and I called the day done at about 4pm and took off to enjoy a cup of coffee--just because we could.

Saturday we were up and around and as I posted, Out and About. The family is involved in sifting through the possessions of a relative of The Professor's who recently passed away. I loved the stories everyone told about having their photo taken by this burro as they were growing up.


And because I never met a dish I didn't like, I photographed some wonderful old china plates that were sitting in the drainer drying, waiting to be packed and sent to the person who will most love and cherish them.

I'm sure someone will ask if I knitted on the drive on Saturday. Well, yes, I did. No, I wasn't driving and knitting. The Professor was driving. I was working on a little blue neckdown cardigan for the newborn son of one of my teacher colleagues. Did I take a photo of it yet? No, not yet.

Sunday after church was spent running a couple of errands, eating dinner, preparing for the week ahead. Do you do that? Spend some time on Sunday making sure you have work clothes for the week, checking that you did all your prep work for Monday?

Today in First Grade we celebrated Groundhog's Day by going out to check and see if we could see our shadows. Since the temperature was cruising up toward 86 degrees and the sky was clear, yes, we saw our shadows, and then we spent 20 minutes tracing each other's shadows with colored sidewalk chalk on the black asphalt playground. A good time was had by (almost) all.

After teaching and tutoring this afternoon, I just came home and did housewifey things--vacuumed the carpets, swept the front porch and rearranged some furniture out there to accomodate our neighbors' patio furniture that we are babysitting while they have some rennovations done.

Some days, boring is nice.

Out and About

We'll be OUT in east Los Angeles County and ABOUT family business today.

No time for photos. No time for blogging. Not much time for knitting, except during the drive there and back again.

Grey and Rain Last Week

Into each life some rain must fall,

Some days must be dark and dreary.

Henry Wadsworth

#28

Today is Son #2's birthday.

His name is Mike, he is an engineer, he's a wicked poker player and a great volleyball player.

Twenty eight years ago, I had no idea who or what he would be. He was a tiny bundle of preciousness, a gift of grace from God, born early and small in the middle of the jungles of Papua, Indonesia. I think he had a happy childhood, playing in the jungle, learning from me to read and to add and subtract, swimming in the tropical ocean.

I know that vacationing in the Baliem Valley of Papua and gathering fossils from the river banks, living among primitive tribal peoples and observing their humanness and sameness and their differences to all the rest of the world made a deep and lasting impression on Mike. So much so that anthropology has been bred into his bones and blood. So much so that when he decided to look at graduate schools and career changes that anthropology, the study of those first neighbors, first friends, is pulling him in to an area of academia that, while it has surprised others who know him less well, seems to me, his mother, a perfect fit for the little boy who carried his bows and arrows around the village in a string bag, who learned to build fires the Moskona way and burned his eyelashes off playing with that fire, bamboo tubes and kerosene, who rode in an airplane before he rode in a car, who was called by all the people in the village 'Manir Meyokda' (the little village chief) because he was one of their own.

I'm excited to see where this next year takes my #2 Son.

Happy Birthday, Mike!