To The Rescue

My week did not exactly go as I had planned.  It's not that my plans were all that exciting--Sunday afternoon hanging out with The Professor and then attending a Bible Study/fellowship with our good neighbors and other friends, Monday and Tuesday correcting papers and puttering around the house doing housework.  Just the usual quiet week.  Then there was The Phone Call.

1.  I can't imagine that there are even a few mothers (or even one) who would or could ignore a plea like, "Mom?  Can you come?  I need you."  Of course I jumped in my car and drove to San Diego because someone had fallen and broken her arm.  Mommies of pre-schoolers can't change diapers and shouldn't drive cars.  I spent Monday and Tuesday acting as a nanny and chauffeur.

2.  My drive south was easy and the scenery was as usual breathtakingly beautiful.  All.  Those.  Coastal.  Views.

3.  We managed to duck in to our favorite San Diego breakfast cafe (breakfast for lunch) between doctor appointments.  I love Mission Soma.

4.  There is a new little girl living in the home of friends in San Diego, waiting for the time when that family will become her forever family.  I got to play grandma, holding her and feeding her.  It was a precious time.

5.  Tuesday evening found me fighting my way through Southern California traffic to return home and teaching duties on Wednesday and Thursday.  Miraculously, I made it home in less than four hours, a record.

I'm returning to San Diego for another four days.  This time I'm not driving.  I'm taking the train.  Less stress.  More time to relax and do things like, you know, knit and read.  If I don't have an opportunity to respond to everyone who links to Friday Fave Fives, I apologize.  Always, I do try, but this weekend I may be a bit busy being the Mama to the Rescue.

Catching My Attention

This has been a quiet week.  I like quiet weeks.  During quiet weeks, life slows enough that small and amusing things can catch my attention.

1. Although our time was limited, The Professor and I spent a pleasant half hour walking through the California natives garden and oak tree woodland at Descanso Gardens in LaCanada-Flintridge.  You can scroll down or click on this link to see photos of those magnificent oak trees.

2.  Descending the hill toward the exit, we noticed an unusual sight in the tall trees.  Do you see it?



A closer view...

A fearless tree trimmer

3.  One morning I heard the distinct calling of quail.  Regularly, coveys of quail trail through our garden hunting and pecking for seeds.  This covey was congregated in our driveway.  As I maneuvered quietly out the door to catch a photo of them, of course I spooked them, and they scattered.  Quail amuse me.

4.  The week wouldn't be complete for me unless I had knitted something.  This week, I made more hats. 

5.  Outside the building where I teach three classes on Thursdays, there is a butterfly garden.  Between classes, I walked outside and found several children clustered around one of the beds.  They had discovered dozens of caterpillars chewing and chomping on the plants provided for their enjoyment.  Next week, we can expect to see many chrysalises (chrysali?) dangling from the stems of the bushes and then the week after, there will be butterflies! 

Just five faves from my quiet week that make me happy.

Has any little thing caught your attention and made you smile?

A Short Stroll

We had only a half hour to spare.  Descanso Gardens called to us and we answered.

I love strolling through the majestic California Live Oaks grove. 

Wooden Architecture

Rewood tree bark and needles remind us of our childhoods.

Near the exit, the heart-shaped autumn leaf thanked us for stopping by.

Back in October

I have certainly missed being a part of Friday Fave Fives for the past month.  Each Thursday evening, I would tell myself, "Get on the computer and just write!" But obviously, that didn't happen.  However, I'm back now! What have I been thankful for this week?

1. Opportunities to encourage students who have been struggling with their writing skills.  When I see their eyes light up, when they laugh instead of scowl about an assignment, it makes the planning and teaching worthwhile.  Even more than worthwhile, it makes me excited to continue teaching.

2. Emails, phone calls and conversations with special people who remind me they are praying for me.

3.  I had a great time on Saturday and Sunday joining other spinning and weaving guild members at Reyes Adobe Days in Agoura Hills (just on the northwest edge of Los Angeles County).  I spent two days spinning and explaining the process of taking animal fiber (this time it was alpaca) and turning it in to yarn.  An added bonus was seeing a former student who was working at the 'grinding corn and making tortillas' booth.

4.  The Professor and I make a great team during the week.  In the mornings he pulls me out of bed wakes me up, hands me a cup of coffee and makes sure I have my car keys.  In the evenings, I have dinner ready when he arrives home and then he even helps make a salad.  He's working extra hours in the performing arts dept at the university, attending rehearsals and planning the lighting for the fall production.  That makes for late nights, but we always manage to sit for a bit and relax.  It takes a great team to work and play together.

5.  Lovely Southern California October beach.  I needed to feel the sand in my shoes, the sea breeze in my hair, the spray on my face so I drove down to Ventura's Marina Park to eat my lunch between class and tutoring.  It lifts my spirits.

What one thing stands out to you this week?

September Knitting Fun

I did knit a lot in September while I wasn't writing on my blog.  Twenty-four hats.

Oh, it was fun. I just cast on 72, 80, or 88 stitches and commenced working round after round after round.  Then eventually I would decrease for the crown and presto! Another hat.

The reasons for my knitting all these hats are three-fold.  I am on a mission to use up my yarn stash.  I sell my knitted items and donate the proceeds to THIS organization.  And in early December, any unsold hats I send to a group in a cold climate to give as Christmas gifts to kids who need warm hats.  It's a win-win-win situation.

Another benefit of all this, it's just fun.  Normally, my favorite color is not orange, but I really like these.  Oh yeah, aren't they fun?

Carmageddon II

Carmageddon I wasn't much.  Neither was Carmageddon II which occurred this weekend.  We slipped into Los Angeles on Friday before the main transportation artery on the western side of Los Angeles was closed and mostly stayed away from the freeways on Saturday and Sunday.  By the time we were back on the road this morning heading north, the 405 Freeway was open again.  Everything was back to normal in the Sepulveda Pass.

You're welcome.

This Weekend

This last weekend of September, we are resting quietly.  Because our friends are traveling, we drove down to the Beach Cities of coastal Los Angeles to doggy sit.

We are walking the dog,

enjoying the sunny day.

Well, that's not all we're doing but it's the only part of the weekend that doesn't involve sitting in the loft correcting papers and prepping lessons for next week.  And knitting.

Oh Hai~

I think I'm back.  And it's not even the very end of Silent September.  I have four more days.

We've spent our spare time visiting with our son.

And reading. And knitting. I've been knitting, that is.  We've both been reading.  And teaching.

I'm hoping to resume posting on a bi-weekly basic.  Emphasis on 'hoping'.

What have you been doing while I've been in self-imposed blog exile?

Didn't Mean To

Honestly, my silence on the blog has been unintentional.  I didn't mean to ignore this space for more than two weeks.  It just happened.  Next Wednesday, I begin the 2012-13 school year for teaching writing and composition to elementary aged homeschool kids in my county.  Working from my home (ie. living room) and teaching in three different cities in the county, I spend a large amount of time either maneuvering around my home/workplace or driving to and from classes.  Right now, my living room looks like a paper supply company's storage unit. That's because I have the papers for six classes tidily strewn in orderly piles around the room so I can collect and collate everything I need for the 30 weeks of classes.  That includes the many reams of paper I photocopied at my boss/friend's house last week.  In addition, my brain seems to be locked in to one channel:  school prep.  It's not that I haven't done anything else in the past few weeks. I have.  It's just that I've had no mental energy left for public writing.  Hence, the blog silence.

Unfortunately, I fear that this period will turn in to Silent September.  Six classes in three locations in two cities means I will be busy and focused on setting up my yearly routines.  The Professor has started back to teaching also--fourteen and two/thirds units at the university plus a drama dept. play that is already in production for which he is doing the technical bits like lighting. That means he's a bit busy himself.  I'm not going away forever, just for a couple more weeks until I have settled in to the schedule.  I hope you'll stop by occasionally to check in and let me know you're still thinking of me.

Gearing Up

It's almost School Time.  I'm trying to ignore it, but Time has a way of ignoring me.

1.  Weather change.  It has been hot (for me, anyway) the past two weeks, but on Wednesday the temperatures dropped and the weather has been practically perfect.

2. On the weekend, the fruit guy at the farmers market gave us around fiften pounds of his 'culls' which were bruised of blemished and he couldn't sell. This week I made a batch of peach/nectarine freezer jam, put up seven quarts of frozen peach/nectarine slices (think: fresh fruit pies in November!), and dried six trays of plums in the dehydrator. That's a big bunch of fruit preserved for fall and winter! And if I'm working in the kitchen I can ignore the date on the calender that says it's almost the end of summer and time for school.

3.  Monday a spinning/weaving friend came to visit.  She agreed that the changes I'd made in my selvedge edges were a great improvement and she gave me some more pointers.  Maybe I will figure out this weaving business.

4. I've been working on lesson prep for the school year and I discovered that I had made a big mistake in the yearly plans starting just before Christmas that had a negative trickle down effect all the way to the end of the school year. That's the bad news. The good news is that I caught it before I had made any more changes and now it's fixed. The fave is that it only took 3 hours to correct which truly is an easy fix.

5.  It's back to school time for the university, too.  The Professor has been diligently working on campus this week preparing for his full complement of classes for the fall.  It's always fun to attend the Librarians' Reception for faculty and staff which always includes a yummy appetizer buffet complete with chocolate fountain and wine bar.  The best part of the reception is meeting the new faculty and greeting the people we haven't seen for a few months.

This is a short and sweet update on Willow's Week.  I'd love to hear how your week went and the little blessings and points of gratitude that you noticed.  Susanne has a link up on her blog to share Friday Fave Fives and you can join in if you want.  Photos are all from the Orchid House at Los Angeles County Arboretum in Arcadia.

Reflecting

Just in case anyone had any uncertainty on the topic of whether I have a fascination with reflections, here is more evidence that I am enthralled with pictures within pictures (not that anyone really needed any more evidence).

This window at Mission San Juan Capistrano is reflecting the courtyard garden.  Note the wooden beam across the top of the window and the stucco walls, both of which are typical of early California mission buildings.

Isn't this a most whimsical view of the 'gathering place of the community' in early San Juan Capistrano?

Follow this link to Toby's blog and Whimsical Windows, Delirious Doors.

This Week In Time

It's Friday and it's Time to capture the past week in words and pictures.

1.  Perhaps you know (or perhaps you don't) that I used to live in Indonesia.  Our family lived in a very remote area on the western half of the island of New Guinea which is an Indonesian province called Papua.  Sometimes those years seem so very far removed from my life today but the experiences and events of that time certainly changed me and shaped the perceptions and lives of my children.  My older daughter found this article written by one of the pilots who flew us in and out of our helicopter only allocation and posted it on her Facebook page.  I loved the comment she wrote and the response from her older brother which I am sharing with their permission.  Scroll down through the comments at the end of the article and read what the passenger in the story had to say as well as others who were 'on the ground' that day.  I'll just state that while I was never in a stalled plane, I certainly experienced my share of scary situations involving sketchy weather.  Mission Aviation Fellowship pilots are indeed some of the best in the world!

Older Daughter: 

Brings back some memories of some tense moments while flying in helicopters and single-prop planes, though I experienced none as dramatic as the one detailed in this article. The missionary pilots in Papua are some of the best pilots in the world. Recently, I was chatting with my parents and remarked on how many people we had known who lost their lives while serving God in flying those skies. My parents told me, "That is one of the most dangerous places in the world to fly. Didn't you know that?" No, as a small child, I was full of trust, in God, in the pilots, in my parents. I did not know that it was dangerous to fly; I always felt perfectly safe. And with people like Uncle John Miller (and so many others - Dave Rask, Paul Bergen, to name a few more) at the controls, I WAS as safe as humanly possible. The Lord did the rest.

Older Son:
I don't think I ever realized how dangerous it was either. The grace of being a wide-eyed child, I guess. Of course, it also helps me handle some of the flying I did in Afghanistan a little better too. The Blackwater Aviation mail plane flying in between the peaks of the Hindu Kush mountains has few thrills compared to flying over the Papuan Jungle in a helicopter with the doors off.

2.  In keeping with the sub-theme of Papua, The Professor and I were 'special guests' of the 1st-4th graders at their after-the-Wednesday-night-church-dinner meeting where we shared what we did when we were living in Papua (linguistics and Bible translation) and showed these very curious kids some fun things like pig arrows, bird arrows, string bags and batik sarongs.

3.  Today is August 17th.  It's Indonesian 'Fourth of July', their Independence Day.  Selamat Hari Kemerdekaan to all my Indonesian friends!

4.  OK, on to other things.  Sunday I went to the Ventura County Fair and spent a few hours spinning and talking with people who stopped at the booth for our local handweavers and spinners guild.  It's always fun to explain that 'No, spinning isn't a dead art.  There are still lots of us who spin and weave.

5.  Finally, I received a text message from Older Son telling us that since he is currently in LA and has evenings free, we can drive down to have dinner with him this evening.  That's where we'll be!  So excited!  So much to talk about!

This has been Willow's Week in just five little faves which barely touch on this lovely week.  Susanne hosts Friday Fave Five and you can join too and share what has blessed you this week. And yes, I know the photos have nothing to do with the topics, but I decided to put them in just because I like them.  All of them were taken at or near Mission San Juan Capistrano.

Look At This Window

The Amtrak train stops in San Juan Capistrano, California on its way to San Diego.  When I was visiting there, several trains made their scheduled stops.  Having taken this same train from Camarillo to San Diego, I know the passengers are watching out the same windows that we are staring at.  Even the sign encourages everyone to "LOOK" which is of course what one is supposed to do with a window.

Linking to Toby's Whimsical Windows, Delirious Doors.

Camping Trip

San Onofre State Beach is in northern San Diego County.  Tucked into the coastal area of Camp Pendleton, the Marine Corps Base, it is the perfect place to spend a week camping in August, which is where we were last week.

1. We biked every day.  One day we rode north to San Clemente with our lunches.  That was an ambitious trip for me.  But I did it!  The beach views were stunning and fortunately it was easy to be distracted from the many ups and downs of the bike trail by the scenery.



2.  Camping just isn't camping without a campfire.

 And s'mores.



3.  San Onofre is close to San Juan Capistrano which is about 20 miles north past San Clemente.  We decided to tour the old California Mission San Juan Capistrano, famous for its faithful swallows.  Years ago, we had visited the mission but we returned and spent several hours walking around the ruins, gardens, and museum listening to the audio tour guide.  It's just an incredibly beautiful place.



4.  The last evening we were at San Onofre, our youngest daughter MamaMia brought the two little ones up to camp overnight.  Neither child had ever been camping, so they were very excited!  What excited MamaMia most? (not really, but her enthusiasm was obvious!)



"Oh Daddy! Oh Daddy!  Thank you for the booze!"

Note: MamaMia is an adult :)  Nevertheless, I did 'card' her before allowing her to choose her own mini-drink.  It ain't easy bein' a foster mom.

5.   Is there anything more lovely than a beach sunset?

These were the highlights of Willow's Week. It was a great getaway and we returned to Willow's Cottage happy and contented (and a little bit dirty, smokey, and sunburned) and grateful for the opportunity to enjoy one of the most beautiful places in the world.  Here is the link to Friday Fave Five on Susanne's blog Living to Tell the Story.

Mission Statement?

The hanging on this blue door in San Juan Capistrano, California might be the mission statement of the family who lives here.

Faith

Family

Friends

Fairness

Forever

I like it.

Linking to Toby's Whimsical Windows, Delirious Doors.

No Entry

Do Not Enter

An incredible view of The Pacific Ocean can be seen just a few steps inside this gate, but the casual passerby is not welcome.  This is private property just a block away from The Biltmore Hotel in Santa Barbara, California.  Even so, the seaside garden and classical pillars evoke a sense of antiquity and peace.

Linking to Toby's Whimsical Windows, Delirious Doors.

Spending the Day With Thomas

Some weeks are formed more by activities and others by conversations.  This past week my thoughts have been focused on the quotes by one man.  At a graduation ceremony, I heard a quote by Thomas Merton which took me to the internet to read more about the man and find more of his wise statements.  Here are five which struck me:

1.  “To be grateful is to recognize the Love of God in everything He has given us - and He has given us everything. Every breath we draw is a gift of His love, every moment of existence is a grace, for it brings with it immense graces from Him.


Gratitude therefore takes nothing for granted, is never unresponsive, is constantly awakening to new wonder and to praise of the goodness of God. For the grateful person knows that God is good, not by hearsay but by experience. And that is what makes all the difference.”

― Thomas Merton

2.  “To allow oneself to be carried away by a multitude of conflicting concerns, to surrender to too many demands, to commit oneself to too many projects, to want to help everyone in everything, is to succumb to the violence of our times.”


― Thomas Merton

3.  “We live in a society whose whole policy is to excite every nerve in the human body and keep it at the highest pitch of artificial tension, to strain every human desire to the limit and to create as many new desires and synthetic passions as possible, in order to cater to them with the products of our factories and printing presses and movie studios and all the rest.”


― Thomas Merton, The Seven Storey Mountain

4.  "Advertising treats all products with the reverence and the seriousness due to sacraments."


― Thomas Merton

5.  "Be good, keep your feet dry, your eyes open, your heart at peace and your soul in the joy of Christ."


― Thomas Merton

If you want to know more about Merton, you can read this biography on Wikipedia.

I realize that this is an unusual way for me to write about my week for Friday Fave Five, but I just wanted to share.  Thanks to Susanne for hosting FFF.

Window Reflections

I happened on a fascinating window reflection last week.  Taking a photo of a stained glass window in the Queen Anne Cottage at Los Angeles County Arboretum, I ended up with something very unexpected.

These are the two windows in a photo taken directly in front of them which includes the metal mesh bars which protect them.

After snapping that shot, I realized I could see the windows better in the reflection in the mirror across the room.

Then I walked around the corner and took a picture of the windows through another window on the side.  This was the result.

The red and white painted trim on the outside of the porch reflected back from the side window while the stained glass windows are brightly backlighted from sunlight shining through them.

Whimsical?  Yes!

Linked to Toby's Whimsical Windows, Delirious Doors.