Sunday Scribble - Deepest, Darkest

I don't go there
There is nothing there I want to visit.
Nothingness won't come alive - if
I don't go there.

A Day for Myself

Once in a while the work schedule allows us a three day weekend. Today's free day comes to me compliments of Cesar Chavez, a state holiday that honors his leadership of farm workers in California. Since I work for a state institution, I find myself embracing the rare opportunity to have a weekend that actually FEELS like a weekend. I can take one day to be totally alone if I like and do whatever I want. Kris and Don are at work and I have until 5:30-ish to create, make progress, and accomplish some of the things that I find myself too tired to squeeze in at the end of a workday.

A little late but at last the promise feature of Connie's beautiful sachet she made for One World, One Heart Give Away. Connie made three of these and I was lucky enough to win one of them. The fragrance is a heavenly blend of apples and cinnamon. I pick it up and rub my hands on it a moment and am left with the loveliest perfume. It smells totally delicious.

I've mentioned earlier that I have been bidding on eBay to start adding to my beloved Frozen Charlotte collection. I won my first Charlotte about ten days ago and in the last couple of day the little one and the big one have appeared on my doorstep. The blond Betty Boop Charlotte is 6" tall and arrived in this pretty pink dress. I've never seen a Frozen Charlotte this size and just fell in love with her. That she has strawberry blond hair makes her even easier to love. She reminds me of my Krista as does my little one with her sweet little 1920s style cloche hat.

A couple of months ago I received a little treasure in the mail from one of our "down under" friends. I promised her that I would return the treat and here it is. Robyn, this little box I've re-invented is for you. I will let you reveal the treasure held within.
























During Spring term, the Art Department offers a class that allows the students to imagine and create nature vignettes. All across the campus one comes upon unexpected surprises. Last week I found this reinvention of river rocks between the Music and Theatre Arts building. I thought it was one of the vignettes that I watch for every spring but I learned almost immediately that the rocks had been stacked by one of the music students. I never did find out who did the stacking but I love the results. Unfortunately, the gray on gray is hard to see. I hope the contrast is sufficient for you all to enjoy this bit of imagination at work.



My morning is creeping towards noon now. I have seven hours left to play just for me. I have a book to mail, a treasure to mail, a kitchen cabinet to paint and a closet to purge. And yes, these last two ARE play. When I'm in the mood to paint and purge, the experience always ends up a great success. I may even get out and sweep the backyard and shape the roses. Bye for now.

Sunday Scribbles - In the Kitchen

I looked at this prompts for days and felt a blank. I do not have a good relationship with kitchens. I'm not much of a cook, baking is a horror show, and even the in-progress conversion of stained cabinets to faux is stalled with great regularity.

It surprises me sometimes, my lack of interest in kitchen arts. My sister loves to cook. My brother makes PIES, for heaven's sake. Me? I missed that particular gene when it was being handed out. I've often wondered why that was. I have a legacy of cooking and baking in my background. Mom was brilliant. She baked, create magic out of nothing and always set a good table. She even had the whole shopping thing figured out. Shop? My trips to the store are daily to decide what will be for dinner this night. Oh, and don't even get me started on my freezer. You know that old Las Vegas saying about what happens, stays? Well, when my freezer happens to a piece of meat, it stays. Thank God for the defrost option on microwaves. In fact, thank God for microwaves.

My dad's parents were both bakers and my mom's dad owned a restaurant so I really don't get it. I never knew my mom's parents but I have enduring kitchen memories from my dad's folks. The big bungalow house on Thayer St. in Rhinelander, WI actually holds a lot of memories for me but today the focus is the kitchen.

Gram and Gramp's kitchen was a huge space. It was completely open in the middle with cabinets, counters, appliances and windows circling the space. In the far corner a door opened to stairs equipped with over-the-head pantry storage space. The stairs lead down to the cellar complete with a coal schute, a classic monster-in-the-furnace furnace, and endless shelves filled with gramma's canned goods. But it was the upper space that held the sweetest memories.

I close my eyes and I can picture their huge metal flour bin rolling open, his metal flour scoop dipping in and filling the mixing bowl. Grampa would pull and push and kneed the dough to perfection, let it rise, do it again, let it rise again and ultimately make the most exquisite bread. After the bread was out, I would wait patiently while it cooled enough to slice and then he would present me with the heel of the warm bread all drenched and dripping with butter.

As a baking and kitchen story memory, it could all stop here and it would be perfection, but my gramps was also a wizard at making donuts and not just any donuts. You haven't had donuts until you enjoy them deep fried - golden crisp on the outside and pillowy soft on the inside. I trace my love for plain donuts to this memory. Present me with a plate of amazing fancy donuts and I will always reach for the unglazed old fashions and the buttermilk bars AND the donut holes. The last thing grandpa would always do it finish up by dropping the center of the cut dough into the vat of superheated cooking oil. To this day I will always think of hot donuts and holes left to set and release the excess oil into the brown paper bags he would lay out on the counter. And as a final flourish, he would sprinkle a few with confectionery sugar. But to this day, it is the plain ones with their luscious aroma and crisp texture that live in my memory.

I have to VENT

I try to be even tempered most of the time. Too much trouble comes from just letting it rip but right now I am just so PISSED. Yes, you read that right. Smiling and sunny Annie is PISSED and venting about it.

My job keeps me buried under mountains of paper and deadlines most of the time. I rely heavily on my work study student to be here and do a lot of the legwork. I had a terrific student for three years but she graduated last year. The replacement has not been nearly as reliable.

She didn't show up last week for three days. She was sick but didn't call to let me know. Now this week she isn't around AGAIN and no call. In the meantime the deadlines are crowding me, deliveries and pickups are being delayed, posters and fliers aren't getting posted, mailings aren't getting done and I'm having to call the theatre department to find out if there is anyone who can run an errand for me. Thank God there is always a student around drama to help pick up the slack. If I did all this myself, I wouldn't be at my desk 3 hours out of 8 everyday. In the meantime, I have faculty coming in venting at me because things that need to be done aren't getting DONE.

I am sooooooo PISSED!!!!!

Signs of Spring

Thoughts from a memorial

Friday I attended the memorial of a man I had worked with for 15 years. We didn't work in the same department. I am in music. He was in art. But I saw Bob most everyday and more than once over the years we would laugh and visit together in the art department's office. We often would grumble and gross about the latest administrative foolishness that was going on and how it would effect the staff. The old trickle down effect, you know.

It's sad to think that I worked near him for 15 years and yet knew so little about him. In the art department, it is a given that the technicians are artists in their own right. They are the ones who make the equipment work - the kilns, the silk screens, the myriad tools of the trade and the mediums that we use to make ART.

It wasn't until his memorial service that I knew that Bob was a glass artist and wood crafter. It wasn't until his memorial service that I knew that he had three children (not the two I thought) and there were grandchildren.

I always thought Bob was younger than I am. He looked younger. Bob was 61 when he died, two years OLDER than I.

I feel sad that I know more about him in death than in life. Not guilty. I know I didn't do anything wrong. But I feel sad that I never asked him about his own creations. It almost feels like an oversight since my closest friends know that if I want to know about something, I generally don't hesitate to ask. For some reason, that all eluded me with Bob.

But Bob was a modest and quiet person. It makes sense that I wouldn't necessarily know details of his life. But there are a few things I DID know about Bob.

He loved his family. He loved working around the students. He was always there to help and problem-solve. He was deeply thoughtful, always thinking things through carefully rather than giving a careless and incomplete answer.

Not a bad legacy to leave behind Bob. We will miss you.

All glasswork by Robert "Bob" Varin.

My Lucky Day

Sometimes things just come together. Just a few days ago Corey asked at the end of one of her posts what it was we loved to collect. My DH would have a single word answer for this question. Everything. Yes, DH who keeps very little married a woman who has a hard time letting go of things. In my defense, he would agree though that I have improved - somewhat. The big problem is that when you have so much it takes a long time before making a dent in the pile becomes visible.

Getting back to Corey's question - I though about it for a while and it suddenly hit me that it was my little collection of Frozen Charlottes that was the real answer. I had quite a few of these via my grandmother and over the years they were lost and/or broken. By the late 70's I had one left that I kept in a wooden basket filled with bits and pieces of shells, cacti skeletons, and small rocks. It was after my cat decides to take a romp through my room and disrupted the top of my dresser, that I lost this last vestige of my grandmother's gifts to me. And that is when I realized their true value and I started looking for them to recreate my collection. I still have the broken bits of my last one.

I haven't added to my collection for a while mainly because when I find them now in antique shops and malls, they are wildly overpriced. But after Corey's question, I was inspired to start looking for these little treasures on eBay. I found a few that I decided to watch and then bid on one whose times was running out. And lucky me - this morning I found a message telling me that I had made the winning bid.

My little treasure is being mailed to me tomorrow but here I share her for you all to ooh and ah over. Isn't she sweet? I have three more now that I'm bidding on. Wish me luck.

Courting

photo taken outside the campus library last Thursday.

Birthday meme

Meme: The term "meme" (IPA: /miːm/, rhyming with "theme") was coined in 1976 by the biologist Richard Dawkins to refer to a "unit of cultural information" which can propagate from one mind to another in a manner analogous to genes (i.e., the units of genetic information).

A Meme in today's world is a short list of curious questions that one "tags" a friend with; it propagates via blogs, email and web sites. This particular meme comes to me via The Bemused Muse: Ok Toni, I'm sorry I didn't ask permission before I lifted this.

Here are the rules:

1. Go to Wikipedia and type in your birthday, month and day only - or another history resource if your date has slim pickin's (like mine did)
2. List 3 events that occurred on that day.
3. List 2 important birthdays
4. List one notable death
5. List a holiday or observance (if any)
6. Tag five of your friends.

My birthdate - November 18th

Three events that occurred on this date:
1626: In Rome, St Peter's Church is consecrated
1883, four standard time zones for the continental U.S.A. were introduced at the instigation of the railroads.
1963: The Bell telephone company introduce the first push button telephones in the United State

Two people who share my birthdate are:
1909: Johnny Mercer, US composer
1923: Alan Shepard, First American astronaut in space - and my personal favorite along with Gus Grissom

List 1 death - there were a lot to choose from and this one struck me as most interesting
Gia Carangi, supermodel junkie, died of AIDS 1986

List a holiday or observance. (if any) - OK, it's not precisely a holiday, but it was listed as an observance and historically it was a rather big deal event. Not to mention, I think this is very cool.

Mickey Mouse debuted in Steamboat Willie at the Colony Theater in New York on Nov. 18, 1928.

And an additional Birthday just FYI -Minnie Mouse's Birthday is also November 18, 1928...same as Mickey Mouse's

Tag 5 other bloggers.
Tagging people seems to not work well for me. It's sort of like throwing a scrapbooking party or tupperware party and two people show up - Maybe. So, if this meme appeals to you (and it actually was pretty informative), consider yourself TAGGED

Bridal Shower Memories

It seems like this week I've written about everything about the trip and various odds and ends since then except for the POINT of the trip. Between cold/flu recovery and second dental surgery that is still uncomfortable three days later, I just haven't been able to focus on the reason for it all.

I went to Oregon with high expectations and very much was looking forward to meeting Erin's family. I knew I couldn't possibly be disappointed. After all, we love Erin. Quanah thinks the world of her family. What could go wrong? Well, in fact, absolutely NOTHING. We had a terrific time. Erin's family was warm and welcoming.

This was all a bit unusual for me. When you consider the fact that my immediate family is composed of eight people (Don, Krista, Quanah, David - my brother and his wife Yolanda, and my sister Marcia and her son Zach) and that Susan and Mark (Erin's parents) have seven children, several themselves married with children, you see that this might be a little intimidating for me. Oh, and let's also consider this; Don has no living family except for one very removed cousin he has not seen in a few years. So big family gatherings and all the family dynamics that come into play is very unfamiliar territory for me. But Susan was a dear and seemed to understand that it could all be very overwhelming and she took very good care of me while I caught my balance.

Kris, on the other hand, dove right in. Later in the party a picture of the sisters included Kris, Erin, Colleen, Erin's two sisters-in-law, plus one niece. Sweet Mary, who would have completed the picture, was elsewhere.

Sweet Mary attached and detached herself to Kris through the party.

Sisters and daughters and grandmothers and GREAT-great-grandmothers each visited a bit with me. I was stunned to see so many women, so many generations. It was truly amazing. All in one room we had granddaughters through great-great-grandmothers. I think I got that count right. Five generations of women, all together, all laughing and sharing, all handing off babies from one to another.

I'm still a little stunned as I think back on this joyful moment in time. I'm already imagining the wedding where there will be more family and FRIENDS, even a few from the groom's side. LOL I think we will have to share the groom's side of the church though at the wedding. But, No problemo. The more the merrier.

I embark on my second year

Dawn outside my window

A Tale of a Duck

Once upon a time, there was a young duck. She looked high and low as she sought the perfect nesting spot.

One day the young hen found what looked to be the ideal spot for nesting. It was soft, high up, sheltered, and safe. It even came fully decorated in her favorite sky blue pink.


But the young hen wasn't sure so she continued her search.

















She searched high and low but nothing seemed quite right. And then she found it - the perfect spot. It was hidden, protected from the two-legged creatures that shared her world, and was sheltered from wind and rain. She just KNEW that it was the ideal hidden spot. So she set about gatherings leaves and fluff to make a warm nest.


At last her task was complete. Her home was made and she settled in.


But the hen was young and inexperienced. She did not have the wisdom of an older and wiser hen, a Mother Goose if you like, to rely on for advise and guidance. So in a very short time she discovered that the two-legged creatures in her world were not the real threat to her home. In fact, the major threat came from beneath the shrubs and stole in during the dark of night.

Foxes raided her nest leaving nothing but table scrap remains.

In sadness and resignation, the young duck and her consort lightly waddle off, hopefully a bit wiser and prepared to make better choices as the season of life progressed.

A Window with a View

There is a part of California's Interstate 5 that is tedious to drive through utterly beyond belief. It is the area between the bottom of the Grapevine at the southern end of the Central Valley and extends to the 580/205 connection which leads you into Stockton and the Bay Area. After that it is all about TRAFFIC.

But north of Sacramento and particularly north of Willows heading to Redding and above, something magical happens. The flat farmland changes to rolling farmland, grassland, and range land. It is surrounded by the Shasta National Forest and the Sierras to the east. Snow is so close you can almost taste it. For all the world, it reminds me of Wyoming. It feels just plain HUGE.

On the other side of Shasta, the farmland continues. It is rural in the extreme. After Redding there is nothing but small town exits that lead you somewhere else. One would think that this would be more tedium but in fact, what I found was miles and miles of interesting farms and barns. And so, I started clicking through my passenger window. Fortunately the sun was to the west and I was pointing east. The return trip was not nearly so photo-rich because of the sun and reflection. But here below are some of the wonderful barns of northern California and southern Oregon.

Ruins

After a 12 hours drive from Turlock, CA to Forest Grove, OR, we arrived with plenty of daylight left for me to spot a most unexpected sight.



The trip was target-rich for barn scenes from Willows, CA north. Once we were above Redding, CA the landscape became almost entirely rural. I have several barn pictures I will post tomorrow but tonight the building that captured my attention as we entered Forest Grove must stand front and center.



I've tried to find out a little bit about this house and perhaps I will have more to add here tomorrow if I get a reply from the Chamber of Commerce. The little I did learn is from Susan and Mark, my son's future in-laws. I haven't been able to determine when the fire occurred but it seems that two sisters lived in the old house and cared for their mother. One of the sister may have been a bit odd as she seems to have been a character around town.

I have the family name but will wait to post it until I can confirm the story of the family who lived there and the circumstances of the fire that destroyed the house yet left is standing.

By the time Sunday morning had come around, there was no question in Don's mind but that we HAD to stop by the side of the road so I could take a picture. As we approached, Don spotted a clearly defined driveway and turnabout at what was at one time the front entrance to the house. Without a thought regarding private property, in we drove.

It was apparent that someone was maintaining a clear cut area around the building. This kept weeds and grass down and I suppose thereby inhibited the growth of a fuel source against future fires.

I was surprised this house was left standing. In California it would be down. Lord knows we don't want to deal with liability in lawsuit-happy California. At the least it would be surrounded by a security fence. But no - here there was a slight but futile effort to protect what was left evidenced by the blue and green tarps.

I do hope that the chamber of commerce answers my email with some interesting information. Somehow I think there must be quite a story waiting to be told about this old house.

Update on the last four boxes

Frida has been talking to the people in Ghor a lot these past days - all flights in and out have been grounded for a week due to bad weather. Fortunately the orphanage has recieved the first five boxes, plus (from an organisation called IOM) matresses, blankets,and wiring plus generator so they now have electrical lighting and hot water. There is now some effort going on for a new building.

Frida indicates that photos should be on their way as soon as the people up there recover from the humanitarian emergency that the terrible weather is causing. She's been helping them try to organise emergency medical evacuations etc.

The other boxes are probably in Kabul waiting for a break in the weather so that a plane can land in Ghor - two of her team members have been stuck there for days now, so they are all very impatient for the air to clear!

Taking a Break in Willows

Several months ago, Corey and I started having virtual meet-ups for tea and coffee in the mornings (well, MY mornings anyway. LOL) But Friday at 6:50 a.m. in the little town of Willows, CA, it really happened. The place: Starbucks. The players: Corey and AnnieElf (c'est moi!) We were joined by Don and Krista in the festivities. Our schduled stop of 30 minutes turned into 90 minutes. It was definitely a "Let the chatting begin!" moment.


We had so much fun, exchanged small gifts and we had to laugh. I gave Corey a tile coaster I had made a while back and she gave me a pretty stack of eggshell blue and rose printed COASTERS. Great minds think alike. We both were thinking of packing and traveling light.

Just as we were about to leave, we got an extra surprise. Sacha was out and about with his grandmother and they stopped in at Starbucks expecting that we would be long gone and they would not be interrupting. Well, grandmother was almost right and I'm so glad about that "almost" because now I have this wonderful picture of son, mothers and grandmother to treasure and share with you all.



Online, Corey is poetic and mystical. She brings dreams to life and poses fanciful but probing questions. In LIFE, Corey is laughing, outgoing, absolutely BURSTING with life. My favorite picture of her dancing in her great purple/blue dress is exactly as she is in real life.

Corey, those 90 minues were the best. I can't wait for summer.

Leaving for a mini-vacation

We are leaving tomorrow morning around 4 a.m. for a 12 hour drive up to the Portland OR area. Our objective to join Erin's family for her bridal shower. Our son and Erin are getting married in June and we will be meeting her whole HUGE family for the first time.

I'm also meeting Corey briefly at Starbucks in Willows, CA. OK, I know I'm repeating myself but can you say "excited"?

So . . . sometime Monday we will be back, we'll get rested, and then I'll drop back in with a trip report and pictures. Oh, and so sad but rain is expected for the entire weekend and when rain in predicted in Oregon, well, it HAPPENS.

See you all again in a few days.

Peaceful Moments

Sunrise and Almond Blossoms













And the tradition continues. Kris and I love going to the teashops around town. Here she is in her hat du jour. Later it was replaced by her favorite top hat. I love the pretty red and pink feathers of this one.

Every year in late winter to early spring the mating dances start and each year an experienced female finds her way to the protected greenery of the patio garden.