Mid April Faves

It's Friday afternoon.  The sun is peeking out from behind grey rain clouds.  It's time to pause in my week and focus on some good things from my week.  Some weeks are momentous and some weeks are just normal.  This one has been mostly normal.  And I'm thankful for that.  Here are five fairly normal things for which I am thankful this week.  My Friday Fave Fives:

1.  We've had a weather wild week.  Fortunately, as far as we can tell, nothing broke, fell over or flooded.  I am definitely thankful for safety in wild weather.

2.   Garden started.  This week, I tempted the temperatures and planted my tomato, spinach, and kale starts in the garden.  Then I added basil, marigolds and cilantro from the local nursery.  We did have those very strong wind/rain/thunderstorms, but the plants have declared, "We're not dead, yet!"  Hopefully, everything will survive and thrive.

3.  On Tuesday, we drove an hour north and met our friends who drove an hour south to meet in the middle for lunch.  We always enjoy our time with them as our friendship goes back more than two decades from when we attended the same church, and she and I worked at the same Christian school (different campuses).

4.  Another fun thing about driving to meet them is that we took a 'scenic alternate route' and enjoyed seeing another section of our new to us state.  And there were barns to photograph!

a fancy red barn

two old faded red barns

a falling down barn

5.  Last night, I finished the Fair Isle sweater that I've been knitting.  My handspun yarn, hand dyed by me, and now knitted into a sweater.  I am hoping to get some photos taken soon.

And that's a wrap on this week.

Five Wonderful Things

Friday Fave Fives

Piano tuner

Model train show

Snow blower

Birthday

Haircut

This is what I wrote first.  My ideas for what to post for Friday Fave Fives. (Follow the link to Susanne's blog to join in.) Sometimes, this is how I formulate my thoughts.  And, really, do you need any more detail that this?

Well, I'll give you more details, anyway.

1.  After so many moves in vans and pods, my wonderful piano has needed extra care.  So what does The Professor do?  He gives me the Christmas gift of having my sweet strings tuned. My piano was bought by my dad for my mom in 1983, and I inherited it.  And now it sounds wonderful.

2.  The Professor wanted to attend the model train show with our younger grandson, our Little Warrior.  Younger Daughter and I tagged along.  Best part?  Watching how much fun the guys had.

3.  The Professor decided that a snow blower was the best answer to clearing our driveway and front walk of snow.  He's been excitedly watching the weather, waiting for a chance to use it.  Finally, this week, it snowed!  And as he brought that snow blower out for its first time, he was greeted by our neighbor and his brother who were clearing his and our sidewalks.  Bonding over snow blowing.

4.   Younger Son's birthday was this week.  Since he lives a long long way away, we called and chatted with him.  Oh, he was so cute! (he still is)

5.  Because of being stuck at home for two weeks in isolation,  I missed my appointment for my haircut.  Finally, this week, I was able to get in for a new appointment.  Haircuts may be boring, but, oh my, they are so wonderful.

Batik and Roses

How was your week?  I hope yours was full of blessings!  Here we are in April.  It's really April.  Almost Easter.  This first week of April was mostly a quiet one here at Willow's Cottage which was totally fine with me.  I am sharing my week in Friday Fave Fives with Susanne.

1.  I took a rest day and accompanied a friend to the studio of a batik artist.  My friend had commissioned her to transform two old white linen tablecloths and give them new life as vibrant batik creations.  Having lived in Indonesia, I have a deep love and appreciation for batik.

You can choose most any color or combination of colors from the samples.

Kathryn Hermann is an artist who lives with her art.

Tying up the citrus tree with blue batik scraps

THE damask rose

It smells heavenly

Of course, when I photographed this bloom, I was sure I would remember its name. Huh.  It's a pinkish lavender orchid.  I think.

Oh yeah.  My kind of garden art.

This guy looks real, doesn't he?

2.  Rain.  Twice this week I woke in the night to hear 'pitter pitter pat pat patter' as rain dropped onto our parched earth.  Rain on the roof, on the car, in the street, is the sound of my childhood.  Obviously, I wouldn't want to listen to rain every night, but this week it was a wonderful sound.

3.  The Professor has been busy most evenings with tech rehearsals and dress rehearsals for the play for which he is lighting director at the university (this is his moonlighting job).  I miss him being around but I have savoured the quietness of just sitting and reading* and knitting.  *reading may include reading of student compositions

4.  Decluttering.  I declutter rooms in my house on a regular basis.  You know how stuff just sneaks in and piles up?  I have to wage constant war on the creeping clutter.  Last week as I was cleaning the master bath, I noticed some medicines I had been overlooking.  You know how your eyes just pass over something because it has been there for so long?  We went through all those old meds and were able to toss all but one bottle into the plastic bag which I then dropped off at the local police station.  Decluttering makes my heart happy because I love a clean, simple, uncluttered space.  [Stay tuned for more decluttering--I may be in the mood...]

5.  I've been puttering around in my own little garden this week.  Mostly I have pulled weeds and dumped a few pots which had dead plants in them.  But I picked the first rose.

I hope you will take a few minutes and ponder your blessings and focus on what is on your gratitude list this week.  

What's Boring and What's Not?

I recently had a conversation with a friend during which we were discussing what people think are boring and interesting topics of conversation. We concluded that our conversational topics were often determined by the talking habits of our parents or by our professions or passions.

In her family when she was growing up, if you talked about the weather, you were a supremely boring person. Then, in that humorous twist of fate, she married a farmer and their daily conversations are always about the weather because their livelihood depends on the weather--will it freeze tonight? will there be enough rain, too much rain?

In my bus driving/bus company owning family, roads, destinations, and driving routes were a sure topic of conversation at dinner, in the car, everywhere we were. My father, uncle, cousin, brother would discuss how to get from A to B, whether it was faster or safer to go via C or D. They could discuss (argue) for hours, and maps would be pulled out and unfolded, pointed at and written on. I thought this was normal behavior for drivers, so when I met and married The Professor and he already had a nice map collection (and still does and keeps adding to it since you can never have too many maps) it only made sense that 'real' drivers carry maps and discuss (argue) about routes to take to wherever we are going and wherever we have been.

My friend was a passenger in my car last month and told me later that I talked about places and how to get to them from where we were at the moment on various Los Angeles freeways. Hmmmm--have I turned into my father or my brother? It's true I usually consult my map (one of the many in my car because as you know you can never have too many maps) before I leave and I regularly check LA traffic if I have to drive to LA (www.sigalert.com). Mike (and others) often call us and ask, "Are you at home? Can you check sigalert? I'm stuck at...." Sigalert and Mapquest are marked as favorites on both our computers.

My question is: do you talk about the weather or traffic conditions/roads/freeways?

What do you talk about that you think is a normal topic of conversation?

One of Those Days

Sometimes late autumn days in mediterranean Southern California fool you. You think it's summer. Pure blue sky. High 80s.

I woke up yesterday to One of Those Days. A shirt sleeves and sandals day. Clear, clear, crystalline, azure and turquoise day.

One of Those Days like when Farmer Bill out in Iowa is sitting in the living room listening to the -10 degree wind whistling around the corner of the barn, delaying his tramp out to the barn through three feet of snow to milk the cows by watching a UCLA football game on TV and he sees the blue sky and hears the announcer tell the world that the temperature is 78 degrees. He looks at that screen and yells out to his wife in the kitchen,

"Martha! Start packin'! We're sellin' the farm and movin' to California!"

Which is what my great grandparents did except they went to visit some relatives in Oregon on the way to California and loved the Willamette River Valley and never left. My cousin Donna and I are the only ones who ever made it to California.

And yet. And yet. The great weather comes with a price as the world saw last month. It doesn't rain much and wild fires are a constant threat.

I hear it when people talk about the weather about the fact it hasn't rained but 4 inches here since LAST fall. I sense the tension in their voices, see the wariness in their eyes.

Are the Santa Ana Winds going to start up again this week and bring more hot dry winds to drive sparks in a fiery fury that will burn our forests, our towns, our homes? AGAIN.