Glimpses of a Normal Week

How was your week?  Did the days fly by or were you just plodding along through the slowly moving hours?  It's important to remember with gratitude the moments of your days.  Here are five little events that cheered me up.

1.  Long lasting farmers market flowers.  This bouquet is still freshly blooming after more than two weeks.

2.This hat, which I knitted this week:

Sweet Eleanor

 in dark chocolate acrylic yarn

for a friend who is allergic to wool

3. Sometimes the writing class students greatly amuse me.  Three gems from this week's writing assignment:

 A new word (ala Edward Lear who put made up words in his poems)-- factivity: a favorite activity.

 "Everyone but teenagers, because they don't like anything, will appreciate this book."

 "Although your mother may not approve, ask your grandpa.  He'll buy it for you!" (about Captain Underpants)

4. Relaxing at home with a perfect cup of coffee.

5. A Sunday afternoon walk with The Professor up the hill near the local golf course.  At the top, we could gaze over the tangle of cactus plants, beyond the back half of the course below, toward the Santa Monica Mountains to the south.

A word of caution to those who hopefully will be more careful than I--remember that if you are photographing thistles in a stand of cactus, you should look before you step to the side or you might end up stabbing your leg with sharp barbs.

I hope you have enjoyed this little glimpse into Willow's Week.  If you want to join the fun of focusing on your five favorites from this week, click on this link to Living To Tell The Story.

Cat Tales

The local habitat at Willow's Cottage includes feral cats.  I have identified three young kitties.  They appeared more than a year ago, a light ginger kitten, a black kitty with a white bib, and also a mostly black calico cat.  Because they started at the same time darting around the cottage, up the bank and across the street and were the same size, we guessed that they all came from the same litter.  But other than that, neither we nor our neighbors have any more information about their heritage.  Ginger seems to be the alpha cat in the group. I caught him (her?) wriggling out from under my house one day.  We were both rather surprised by the other's presence.  I took immediate action to adjust the cover over that little hole since I really didn't want a feral cat living under my house.

Since my own grandcats are quite fond of catnip, I grow a pot of it in my back garden.  Harvesting and drying it, I give the catnip as little feline gifts to Touchy, Hobbes, Temperance and Rufus at Christmastime.

Last autumn, I discovered that the feral cats also like catnip.  They completely destroyed the plant I was growing chewing every leaf and branch and digging up the roots. Those cats!

So I purchased a new plant, moved the pot to a table next to my front door, thinking that proximity to the house would discourage Ginger, Blackie and Calico Kit. And so it did. For a while.

One recent afternoon, as I walked from the mailbox to my front door, I noticed that the catnip that had been nearly ready for harvest was eaten off almost to the roots!  Again!  Those darn cats!  I wondered if they got so stoned that the coyotes or hawks caught them lying around passed out and grabbed them for a quick and easy smoked cat dinner.

Just to be sure, though, I exchanged the catnip pot for one filled with peppermint. Then I brought my poor catnip inside to reside by the back door. There isn't any direct sunshine and it's inside the house, but the catnip seems to be reviving and settling in to its hot house existence.

I saw both Black Cat and Ginger wandering around this week, so either they made it back to their lair before completely passing out, or they found a hidey hole where they could sleep it off before heading home.  Blackie boldly trotted across the front porch, hopped up on the table and started to chew on the peppermint.  Then he stopped, sniffed, sat back on his haunches and regarded the mint with disbelieving eyes.  This was NOT catnip!  Disgusted, he jumped down and huffed off.

Evidently, feral cats don't like peppermint.  Have I seen the last of those cat tails around Willow's Cottage?

Another Friday

Another week, another Friday Fave Five.  After eighty-eight weeks of participating in FFF, I still look forward to posting on Fridays.  Thank you, Susanne, for your faithful hosting of Friday Fave Five!

1. There are few things more fun than spending a Saturday with a best buddy doing what we love to do: lunch out, a long walk on the beach, coffee at a newly discovered coffee bar.  While we were sipping our coffees on the outdoor patio, I noticed this:

How cool is that?  A Mercedes-Benz bicycle!  Evidently, the Beverly Hills police use these bikes to cycle around the streets and hand out parking tickets.  The man who owns the bike kindly allowed me to photograph it and try it out and he even took my picture!

2. Just in time for Mother's Day, another friend sent me a lovely package filled with her hand made soap.  She knows I prefer her lavender scented soaps to any others. She has recently developed a formula for  shea butter soap.

3. On Mother's Day, all my children checked in during the day to wish me a 'Happy Mother's Day'.

4. The Professor asked what I wanted to do and I debated, oh maybe ten seconds, before declaring that a drive down Pacific Coast Highway to Malibu Gardens Nursery was my idea of a perfect Sunday afternoon in May.

5.  Home cooked meals. Fortunately The Professor and I like eating leftovers which means that we cook only a few nights during the week and then we choose what leftovers (soup, stir fry, crockpot meal) we want the rest of the time.  Because most of our food comes from our local farmers market, we're loving our fresh flavorful meals (even on the second or third days!).

I've  shared Willow's Week with you.  Please leave a comment and share one happy, thoughtful, delightful event in your week. You can also join us at Susanne's blog to link up with other FFF blog post.

Have a happy weekend!

May Seventh, Friday Fave Fives

Welcome to Friday Fave Five!  Do I state this every week?  Do I say, "I love Fridays because of Fave Five?"  I think so!  Join Susanne and friends at Living To Tell The Story to review the points of gratitude in this first week of May 2010.

This may be a record of some sort in the experiences of Willow's Cottage. I did not take one single photograph all week! Carrying my camera around everywhere, I still didn't shoot one picture. (This is NOT one of my faves.) My mind has been elsewhere.

1. One place my mind has been dwelling is in the designing of a couple of sweaters, including the denim wool remake from recycled wool that I wrote about a couple of weeks ago.  Designing does not come quickly or easily to me so I put a lot of time and thought in to it.  In the end, a friend provided me with a copy of a pattern from a magazine that I have misplaced.  I traded her some dried beans I don't plan to use for her time and effort in finding the pattern.  I have kind and lovely friends.

2. Another place my brain has been is in the future, next academic year, actually.  As we plan our next year's curriculum and classes, my boss/colleague and I have been working out plans and schedules.  One result is that it is clear I am going to need a little home office/desk of some sort.  While I've been searching online for file cabinets, cute storage boxes and desks, I've been looking around the cottage to work out how I'm going to fit a desk in here.  Any ideas welcome! I suppose this can be considered a fave because planning and working out an organizing problem is interesting, if challenging, to me.

3. I love my nephews and nieces!  One of them reached a milestone this week.  He graduated from law school!  I'm so very proud of him and it is reassuring to know there's a 'lawyer' in the family.

4. I had been counting weeks until classes were finished for the school year, and I discovered on Monday that I was one week off. I actually have a week LESS left in the semester than I thought!

5. The Iceberg Rose in my garden continues to bloom.  My quick estimate of the number of buds and opened flowers, based on counting a section of the bush, is more than fifty!  This photo was taken last week:

Willow's Week went whizzing and whirling so quickly!  How was yours?

More Garden Tour

As promised, I am showing more photos of the Garden Tour.  Please be forewarned that this post is picture abundant.

Garden One is a children's paradise.  The owners have five grandchildren who regularly enjoy swimming in the pool, eating marshmallows roasted in the fire pit and playing in the various small cottages located around the property.

The garden is mostly covered with rocks, stones and pathways.  There are patches of ground dedicated to vegetable plots and citrus trees.  Also spread around the pool and cottages are themed gardens such as an English cottage garden and a native Australian garden. Undoubtedly, those grandparents are sharing their love of gardening with their grandkids.

Garden Two is a quiet and tranquil garden that focuses on unusual groupings of Asian plants.  I love this clump of opaque green reeds.

Even the occasional flowering tree displays unusual blossoms.

Garden Three is a happy garden and full of color (owned and designed by our friends), whimsical yet practical.

The family birds greet every guest with chirps and trills of welcome.

I so enjoyed looking at the three raised bed square foot gardens and discussing them with the owners that I forgot to photograph them.  I promise I'll return and get pictures during the summer as the lettuces, spinach, tomatoes and borage flourish and cover each inch of the beds.

Garden Four is divided in to three zones: front entry, entertaining patio (with outdoor kitchen) and a large sloping back garden.  When you have large side areas to landscape, vinca minor can be a great groundcover, especially if you add other plants for interest and variety.

In order to save water in a dry climate, these owners concentrate on planting cactus and other water saving plants.  I don't know the name of this behomoth.  There are at least three of these giants scattered along the pebble pathways leading down and around the perimeter of this very large lot.

The above photo was rather over exposed in the hot afternoon sun.  Focusing closer on the individual columns of small flowers, I was able to catch the brilliant blue more accurately.  I have seen purple versions of this plant around Southern California, but this is the only place I've seen these cornflower colored ones.

I love Garden Tours. Enthusiastically, I gather ideas and become acquainted with new plants that grow well in this mediterranean climate.  An added benefit is unexpectedly running in to acquaintances as we travel between the various destinations.  The best part, though, is appreciating the beauty and knowing I won't have to do any of the watering and weeding. All the fun and none of the work!

Friday Fave Five, April 30th

Here we are again. It's Friday! And it's time for (insert drum roll) Friday Fave Five hosted by the lovely and gracious Susanne!  Go on over to Living To Tell The Story and check in with our constantly growing group of thankful people.

Wow, what a week it has been at Willow's Cottage!  I am not sure I can limit myself to only five favorites. (I also am not sure that I will be able to upload any photos today since I updated blogger and may have difficulties with new formats.)  But first I want to say that whenever I have one of THOSE weekends when I don't get around to visit everyone, I always feel sad. I really do make an effort to visit everyone who links to Susanne's FFF, but I missed out last weekend because, well, because:

1.  The Professor and I spent all day on Saturday at UCLA.  Yes, that big magnificent university in Westwood, Los Angeles.  The LA Times hosted its annual Festival of Books with UCLA and on the university campus.  Because Chaplain Dan was on call, The Princess came with her parents and a friend, and the six of us attended interesting and stimulating lectures by many different authors, grabbed lunch with thousands of our best friends, toured the book stalls and finally stood in line for a half hour to sample the world's best ice cream sandwiches at that locally famous Diddy Riese's.

Amazingly, I didn't purchase a single literary volume, although I was certainly tempted by Captain Richard Phillips' account of his time spent as a hostage of Somali pirates after I heard him speak at one of the lectures.

2.  The local hospice hosted a Garden Tour on Sunday. We thoroughly enjoyed our three hours of walking through five gardens.  Especially meaningful was the third garden--a home grown backyard garden belonging to our close friends T and D.  I'm hoping to post more photos of the gardens over the weekend (once I figure out blogger).

3.  Years ago, an Indian neighbor taught me to make kefir/yogurt.  I made my own yogurt until we moved to an Asian country where it was impossible to procure fresh milk.  Then I just never got back into the habit of preparing my own yogurt.  Why would I, when Trader Joe's carries such marvelous Greek yogurt?  After I received my dehydrator birthday present last month, I noticed that the owner's manual gave directions on how to make yogurt.  So. I made Greek yogurt this week!  Yummy!

4.  Knowing that my two girls are great friends who love and support each other makes this mother's heart happy.  MamaMia spent last week helping Kiti and The New Boy move to a larger apartment.  You may think, O how nice. But really, it's a major accomplishment considering that it takes MM as many hours of travel as it does me to get to Kiti's city and state.  I love seeing how my kids love each other and sacrifice to help their siblings.

5.  Speaking of kids, the two male siblings each called his mother on the same afternoon, just to check in and say hi.  Yep, Mom's heart was bursting with happiness!

6.  Oh, and speaking of the dehydrator (see #3), I received a book called The Dehydrator Cookbook from a blog friend who found out I had  a new dehydrator and had never used one before.  Thanks, Kathie!

I need to stop here at five, umm, six faves. But Willow's Week was so full of blessings!  How was your week?

Garden Tour

Five local gardens in three hours.

Proceeds benefitted the local hospice.

It was a perfect afternoon.

Each garden unique, unlike any other.

Large outdoor playrooms.

Quiet zen like gardens.

Happy peaceful gardens.

Even a little desert habitat.

A good time was had by all.

Especially the resident turtle.

Friday Fave Five, April 23rd

Friday is here again and so is Friday Fave Five! Welcome!

1. I am proud to announce that The Professor not only survived the fifty-five mile bicycle Ride for Literacy, he finished in great shape and time!

2. Our garden is growing! Soon we'll be enjoying kale, lettuce, peas and other green yumminess.

3. I had fun this week recycling a sweater that I am going to reknit into a more appropriate and better fitting garment. I posted details of how to unravel and old sweater and prepare the yarn for reuse on my new knitting blog.

4. The performing arts department of the local university where The Professor is on the faculty did several performances of "The Heidi Chronicles" this past week. Of course, we attended because usually The Professor helps out with the lighting design. For this production, we were just part of the audience. I enjoyed watching the set crew and performers work with the abstract stage set moving staging cubes around between scenes.

5. Ellen is in town for a couple of days packing the last possessions she has here. We enjoyed tea and then dinner at an excellent little Italian restaurant. Spending a few hours catching up on family and personal news was truly the best highlight of my week. Hopefully, we'll be able to meet up again for lunch before she heads to LAX.

That's a wrap on Willow's Week! What ONE event from your week reminded you to be grateful? Join our hostess Susanne at Living to Tell the Story and share your faves from this week.

The Three Rs

Reduce, Reuse, Recycle

What do you do with an underworn sweater that doesn't fit but was knitted with beautiful yarn?


You pull the sweater apart, unraveling six large skeins of gorgeous denim colored wool,

so you can reknit it into another sweater that will fit better and show that beautiful yarn to better advantage? Recycle. Reuse. Reduce the stash.

See more photos and read more of the story HERE at my knitting blog.

Friday Fave Five- A Gentle Week

Friday is here! Susanne at Living to Tell the Story hosts Friday Fave Five every week, giving us an opportunity to share five events of our week for which we are thankful. Join us in looking for gratitude in our every day lives. You can participate by posting at Susanne's blog.

1. After enjoying two weeks of Spring Break, I slipped quietly back in to the school routine. Gearing up for the last six weeks of classes, last weekend I glibly ignored the papers that clamored to be corrected and the lesson plans that needed to be planned. Because a friend was competing in the Southern California Junior Bach Festival, we drove to Ventura on Saturday afternoon and enjoyed listening to an hour of Bach Minuets, Preludes and Fugues while gazing at beautiful stained glass windows.

2. After Bach, while The Professor rode his bike (in preparation for the 55 mile Ride for Literacy he's participating in this weekend), I strolled along the beach path at Ventura Beach State Park. The yellow flowers were blooming brilliantly.

3. The week passed gently. Heirloom tomatoes and basil seedlings were planted.

4. Students were tutored, papers were corrected and a pot of tea was enjoyed at my favorite tea shop All Things Tea.

5. A little knitting, a little walking, a little reading filled my evenings. All in all, Willow's week was wonderful.

How was yours?

Friday Fave Five, Two Weeks' Worth

It's Friday and time for my favorite post of the week: Friday Fave Five which is hosted by Susanne at Living To Tell The Story.

Because I was traveling and visiting my New Boy last week, I missed posting FFF, so this week I am combining the past two weeks of Friday Fave Five. Remembering back to the week between Palm Sunday and Easter, I want to share two special events.


1. Just the day before I left, I received a phone call. The caller was an employee at our local Trader Joe's grocery store informing me that I had won the weekly give away for bringing my own bags to the market. I have been taking my bags and filling out the little raffle ticket for YEARS and had never won anything. Even if there were no give away of a new reusable bag and $25.00 gift certificate, I would still take my own bags to the store, but the tantilizing opportunity to maybe, just maybe, win that prize some day added incentive to my resolve. But after several years, I wondered if there really was a weekly winner. Imagine my surprise and joy to find I'd WON! Yay, Trader Joe's! Go, Me!


2. Since I'm not an enthusiastic flyer, I arrived at LAX somewhat concerned about my lack of an assigned seat. I had to check at the gate for my seat assignment and that usually means being relagated to a middle seat in the rear of the plane which is not the best spot for a reluctant flyer. The customer service agent earned extra brownie points from me for working to get me a great seat--on the aisle, right behind first class! In fact, on all four connections during my trips to and from The New Boy's city, I sat on the aisle in the front section of the plane.


3. The days and nights I spent with The New Boy and his mama were delightful. We enjoyed one afternoon at the Zoo.

There were tigers

and monkeys

and bears,

Oh, my!

4. The New Boy is growing up so quickly. No longer is he a baby. He is a little boy who loves to be outside playing in the park. He is curious about everything from red trucks and fire engines, from airplanes to the gray squirrels racing through the grass from tree to tree.

He astounded me by counting from one to twelve, pointing out the 'red atagon, Meema!' (translation: red octogon stop sign, Grandma), and reciting his colors. The current favorite dvd is Thomas the Tank Engine, which he seems to enjoy watching without stopping, over and over, day and night.

5. The last evening, we met a friend at the local coffee spot and sat next to a very pleasant group of knitters. As you know, if you pull out knitting needles, other knitters will find you and strike up a conversation with you like you are old friends. Imagine my delight to discover that one of those knitters had purchased and knitted up Sweet Eleanor, the cabled cap I featured on my blog here a few weeks ago. The hat was designed by a friend of Kiti's and all proceeds go to help a little girl who has cancer. What a small world! What a wonderful world of knitters!

Susanne has a link on her blog where you can post your FFF or just click to read other FFFs.

Now I am home and relaxing on my last day of spring break. How was your week?

Spring, During Which Yellow Appears on Southern California Hillsides

A few days ago, my neighbor and I were admiring the flower covered hillsides surrounding our community. I commented, "The giant coreopsis are beautiful this year." She looked at me in confusion and said, "Giant coreopsis? Aren't those mustard plants?" "No, I don't think so. Mustard flowers are smaller, and I think the blooms are a lighter yellow," I replied. But then I looked around again and wondered what spring flowers really were blooming.

That little conversation got me thinking about our Coastal Southern California Spring Flowers. There is certainly a preponderence of yellow. For most of the year, giant coreopsis looks like raddegy deformed cactus. It grows in incredibly unlikely spots such as the edges of cliffs and in rocky crevices as well as steep hillsides. Only during the short rainy season does it bloom, sending bright yellow daisy like bouquets reaching toward the blue sky.

A shorter shrub blooms at the same time. I think this native California plant is a marguerite daisy, but I'm not sure. I did spend a bit of time researching in both books and on the web, but I didn't find any photo identification. These bushes are everywhere in the hills and along the country roads and sometimes grow mingled in with the giant coreopsis. On Saturday, The Professor and I stopped at the Chumash Trail head near Mugu Rock on Hwy 1 along the beach so I could photograph these flowers close up. As I was walking through the brush near the trail, a hiker stopped on his way down the path to warn me that he had just seen a very large snake slither into the very section of underbrush I was approaching! After he showed me a photo of the snake he'd taken, we determined that it wasn't a rattlesnake but merely a non poisionous king snake. Nevertheless, I decided that my photos of these daisies by the trail were sufficient.

These giant coreopsis may own the best ocean view real estate in the county!

You can just barely see some little flowers in the bottom left corner of the photo above. Those are wild mustard. In the photo below, you can compare the size of the blooms with the stones, broken abalone shell, and cigarette butt. Even though the mustard flowers are tiny, they bloom profusely at the same time as the 'daisies' and the coreopsis and when all three plants are scattered all over a hillside, it's not easy to tell them apart from a distance.

What I am sure of is that it is Spring in Southern California, the hills are carpeted with yellow flowers, and they are beautiful!

Friday Fave Five, Spring Equinox 2010

Hello! It's Friday and Fave Five time. On Saturday, we reached the Spring Equinox and crossed over in to Spring! What moments and events have blessed you this first week of Spring 2010?

Here's my list:


1. I must admit that I am rather excited today as I write this FFF. My Spring Break has arrived, and I have two full weeks of vacation!

2. Plane tickets were purchased this week. I'll be flying away to spend 6 days with The New Boy and his mama.

3. Game nights with friends are always fun. The Professor and I joined several other people to play Bananagrams and other games on Friday night. Do you know Bananagrams? Played with wooden alphabet tiles, the game is what I term 'expanded Speed Scrabble'.

4. For the past several years, I have had a different Spring Break schedule than The Professor and any of our children who might be taking college classes. This year is no different. The Grad Student is here for a few days at the end of his spring break and has enjoyed hanging out during the day with his dad who also has this week off. They kindly drove over to share lunch with me on Thursday. A few extra hours spent with 'my boys' is really special.

5. California's state flower is the California Poppy. Usually, poppies are bright orange. But some of these butter yellow poppies reseed in my back garden and bloom every spring.

When I see the poppies blooming, I know that Spring has truly arrived!

I hope you'll pop over to Susanne's blog Living To Tell The Story and join us for Friday Fave Five.

First Blooms

Spring is an exciting season, full of new beginnings. Like this first bloom on Mayflower.