First Friday Fave Fives of August

 Friday again already?  That's what happens when it's summer and the days are filled with gardens and birthdays and warm evenings.  Friday creeps up on you and then you remember---it's Friday Fave Fives!  So much to be thankful for!  The link will take you to Susanne's blog where you can join us in sharing all the blessings of this first week of August.

1.  For our family, summer is filled with birthdays.  This past week we celebrated Older Son and Younger Daughter, the two bookends, eleven years apart.  Happy Birthdays!!

Chaplain Dan

2.  I finished my granddaughter's new afghan.  The one I knitted for her ten or eleven years ago when she first joined our family met a sad end when a dog got ahold of it.  Maybe some day I will try to mend it, but in the mean time, she has this new blankie for cuddling.

Does it fit?  Is it soft and comfy?

Yes!

3.  Athena, our new Berner grandpuppy, had her first vet visit this week.  I got to go along.  She did great.  After both dogs had their shots, we rewarded them with 'pup cups'.

Yes, she thinks she's my lap dog.

4.  Work is progressing in our back garden.  Tall Boy has been mowing the lawn, but he is also helping with other chores.  This week The Professor and he moved the bird bath to its more permanent spot.  There is an issue with the top and stand not fitting well, but they assembled it anyway so the birds can have their water.

5.  Our butterfly and bee garden seems to be attracting the birds, bees and butterflies.  We found this beauty resting near our patio (maybe drying his wings after 'hatching'?)  I am so thankful for the amazing natural creation around us.

Bonus:  we got in a walk one evening when it was cool enough to take Sawyer and stay under the trees on the path.  We found another heart leaf.

This tangle of branches enchanted me.

Do you see the P?

I had to grab a photo since our last name begins with P!

Where's Your Focus?

Well, this week included fires, riots, dissension...but I can't focus on those things.  I choose to put my focus on the good things in my life, the blessings and the things which make me grateful.  If I do nothing else here at Willow's Cottage blog during the week, I still post my Friday Fave Fives.  I have to.  I need to.  It blesses me.  I hope it blesses you, too.

1.  I have had three face to face meetings this week!  In person!  We (mostly) observed distancing.  But oh!  It is wonderful to really SEE people!  First was our small group from church.  Just the women.  For Sunday lunch.  It was in a back garden, under a jacaranda tree, next to the avocado orchard.

2.  Then my Bible Study small group met at our leader's home.  Just six of us.

3.  One afternoon, I told The Professor, "I miss your sister, and I want a burrito."  (Note that I said I miss her first.)  So we set up an early dinner at a park near her home.  We picked up the burritos and a taco for her then sat and chatted and laughed until the cold wind blew us back to our car and her to her home.

4.  (Notice a pattern here?)  We got to go to church on Sunday!  We wore masks while we sang, but that's ok.  It was wonderful!

5.  I took a total of two photos this week.  One was to verify I had ordered the correct book for a study I am doing.  But I liked the other picture.  How often do you find a hawk sitting in someone's front garden?  As we walked past on our daily walk, it hardly moved until it decided we were too scary and it flew into a nearby tree.  How I love seeing all the wildlife that lives around my neighborhood!  The photo is a bit blurry--but you can't be choosy with a hawk.

So this sums up Willow's Week.  Just another quiet Covid week.  Stay safe and well, my friends.  And focus on the blessings!

Mother's Day in May

Hello from Willow's little cottage!  It is May and Friday and almost Mother's Day.  It's also 2020, and life is not normal.  Let's put some normalcy into our week and focus on what we are thankful for daily and weekly.  Here is Willow's Week in FRIDAY FAVE FIVES (the link for you to join us).

1.  It has been really hot (for us) this week!  I am thankful for air conditioning!

2.  What we see on our walks.  This week, we walked in the back part of the (closed) neighborhood golf course.  That's where we see deer and bunnies and geese.  Sometimes, we see birds like hawks, owls, quail, and egrets.  And road runners!  The picture isn't great, but Road Runner took off with his crest and tail feathers sticking up.  We don't often get to see the road runners, so that was fun.

3.  My favorite time of day is sunset.  I love the painted skies!

4.  I also love watching the moon rise above the mountain ridge behind our house.

5.  Did you notice that three of the four Faves are about nature?  I love God's creation.  He was the first landscape architect and shares His beauty with us.  My mother was the first person to constantly share her love of nature around us, and I carry that in my earliest memories.  "Oh, look!  The mountain is beautiful today!"  "See the beautiful forest?  There are fir trees and ferns and flowers!"  "Oh!  The ocean is so blue today!"  I'm thankful that my mom instilled her love of nature in me.

my mom in her early 20s

HAPPY MOTHER'S DAY TO ALL THE MOMS!

Focusing on the Good

Hello, Friday.  It is Friday, isn't it?  Or is it Thursday?  I don't think it's Tuesday.  Well, I'm just going with Friday cuz it feels like Friday.  And I feel like doing my Fave Fives.  I know I didn't do much all week online as we are still processing our situation.  See below for an explanation of my last comments last week.  But I am back and choosing to Focus on the Good.  HERE is the link to Friday Fave Fives.

1.  Food pick up and share.  Our local food share is working differently right now.  My sister-in-law usually volunteers there, but even she can't go in to help.  So we all stood outside and handed our bags to workers and they returned them filled with food (from Trader Joe's!).  We reserved a few apples and other fruit for us and dropped the rest off at the home of a young couple with two children.  A bag of apples got left at our pastor's door.  Few things make me happier than sharing things like food with other people.

2.  More masks.  Every time I decide I can set aside the mask making for a few days, I get a notice that someone needs a mask.  One day, The Professor and I drove around and delivered  nine masks for medical staff, three masks for a family who is imminently expecting a new baby, and several other masks to various friends.  This morning, I heard that an older man in our church needed a mask.  The Professor had already cut one; I quickly sewed it up, another friend picked it up, and it has already been delivered.  That's team work!

3.  Nature.  One of the advantages of having a closed golf course on the edge of our neighborhood is that the wild animals have decided to take back their territory.  I watched two hawks soaring above the course; they were screaming at each other, obviously both hunting for the same rabbit.  Deer and bunnies are showing up to eat the green grass.  Even the coyotes are becoming braver and walking the course in daylight.

4.  Garden.  The weather is finally dry and sunny, so I have been able to be out in my garden.  For me, a garden is a source of beauty, solitude, serenity, and self sufficiency.

5.  Coffee!  A few weeks ago, our coffee maker died.  The Professor researched and ordered a new one, but we didn't expect it to arrive until the end of April.  (Fortunately, we have a french press.)  But it was delivered this week and we have been enjoying some excellent coffee made with our new coffee maker.  (And THANK YOU to the Amazon delivery guy who dropped it on our front porch.) Coffee makes my day begin with happiness.

Thank you for all your kind comments and your prayers for us.  I can share with you now what happened.  Our 'adopted' son from Uganda passed away very suddenly at age 29.  Everyone who knew him was shocked.  Daniel was living and working in Doha, Qatar.  We had sponsored him through a program called Ugandan Lambs.  He was an orphan, and we had the privilege of sponsoring him since 2004  through middle school, secondary school and technical school, helping him prepare for his career.  He was an unusually charismatic, encouraging and responsible person who spread joy, kindness and God's love to everyone he met.  His smile would just light up any room and include everyone.  The Professor had been in a zoom Bible Study group with him less than two days before he died.  We were in the process of helping him get a student visa and attend college in the US. Now we are awaiting news of his funeral and burial in Uganda.  How can one express the sorrow of missing 'a son we never met'?  I can hear him saying, "O! Wuw! Mummy!  Heaven is amazing!"  Daniel, I look forward to sharing our experiences of Heaven with you some day.

"How precious in the sight of God is the death of His saints." 

Psalm 116:15.

Good night, sweet prince, and flights of angels sing thee to thy rest!”

Shakespeare, Hamlet

On My Walk Today

What I saw on my walk on the hill above my house.  This morning it was sunny, mild and breezy, just perfect for a quick trek along the deer paths through the dead dry bush and grey stones.  I came across a white beehive which had honeybees hovering around it.  I had no idea there was a beehive up there.

These pink blossoms were actually quite small and about the only things blooming on the hillside.

As I neared the area where sprinklers were watering the ivy (yeah, ivy isn't my idea of a great option either), I noticed brilliant orange flowers arranged along vines which were growing out among the ivy.

I'm not sure what this plant is.  Now I have a fun project--identifying the mystery vine.

Bzzzzzz

Because I reacted with intense itching and swelling to stings when I was a child, I have an uneasy relationship with bees.  I find them to be very interesting insects.  According to all reports and my observations, they are industrious little things, always winging to and from their hives, delving into blossoms to search for a little more pollen.  When they return home to their hives, they turn that dusty pollen into creamy honey.

Although I have stopped eating sugar (white or brown) in my diet, I occasionally indulge in consuming a little honey.  I am thankful that bees make honey.

As long as they buzz loudly around the flowers in my garden so I can hear them and avoid their stingers, honeybees will continue to be my friends.  If one of their less wise members decides to sting me, all negotiations will cease.  Then there will be war.

A Thankful Month, Day 23

I am thankful today for Google Reader. I am putting names and urls into Google Reader this weekend so it will be faster and easier for me to visit everyone's blog!

Are you having a good Sunday?

Spend some time outside looking UP.

Days Five and Six

Days Five and Six of Thankfulness in November:

I am thankful that I live in a beautiful place with a mediterranean climate. These are the mostly dry hills in the Santa Monica Mountains. Even a little rain greens these mountains that rise from the Pacific Ocean.

Today is Our New Boy's monthversary. He is nine months old today. I am so thankful for him and love him so very much. Here he is nine months ago, nestled in his grandpa's arms.

He is growing so much! He can stand up by holding on to objects and there is no stopping him now!

Have a Happy Thankful Month!

Thank you so much for the kind and thoughtful comments about my 'hot chocolate' day. I was comforted by you and your words of concern.

Day Three

I had a hard time deciding what to choose for my thankfulness post today. There are so many things! When I start listing my blessings and what I'm thankful for, I keep remembering others and that leads to thinking of yet more blessings!

I finally decided on this:

I'm thankful for yummy autumn vegetables like ACORN SQUASH! I would show you a photo of the squash I roasted this afternoon with butter and salt, the squash halves looking like green and yellow boats floating in the metal pan, but, well, we ate them. I think I could eat baked acorn squash every day during autumn!

However, I don't want you to read this post today and go away wishing for a photo, so here is a picture of autumn colors: a little mushroom peeking out from a blanket of fallen and dried leaves.

I'm expecting a little wee folk to pop out from under the 'shroom and hop up on the button head and wave at me!

Camarillo Regional Park

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What a Difference

What a difference twenty four hours--or even twelve--make in our weather. I woke in the middle of the night to the sound of raindrops pit pat pitter pattering on our roof. The rain clouds blew in after we went to bed. By Super Bowl time this afternoon, the skies were clear again, the strong offshore wind having blown the dark clouds east.

After church this morning, we drove down Pacific Coast Highway through Malibu to meet up with Mike and give him, among other items, his Moss Stitch Urban Scarf and matching Hat, and have lunch with him.

On the way home, north on PCH, we pulled off at Sycamore Cove to check out the coastal part of Pt. Mugu State Park. Yesterday, when we were hiking, if we had turned left instead of right after we left the creek bed, we could have walked down hill all the way to the Pacific Ocean, to Sycamore Cove. We would have walked down this trail and passed this old sycamore tree.

We could have crossed the highway and walked the hundred feet to the sands of Sycamore Cove Beach. Yesterday the waves would have been lower and there would have been no white caps on the surface of the water. Today the wind was whipping up the waves, spray and sand along the coastline, blowing the palm fronds sideways. In Santa Monica, we had to swerve into the right lane to avoid--I kid you not!--a large tumbleweed!

The weather forecast says we may get more rain (30% chance) tonight and the winds will continue to gust. Tomorrow? Who knows?