Grandkids R 2G2BT

 










Jack repairs the greenhouse. Ashley feeds the goats and horse.

Is awesomer a word? Well it should be. —unknown

Spring poem...

Spring is here
It brings good cheer
Robins chirp
Frogs burp

The flowering cherry & plum trees are blooming. You have to catch them fast, because it seems like the flowers disappear in a flash. I hope the sun is out tomorrow so I can get some shots before the blossoms drop & everything leafs out. I love the predictability of the seasons here. I hope it never changes. I hope the globe never warms.

Annual Paper Organization Project

Once a year I attempt to organize my paperwork. This year it's gotten away from me again. I threaten with colored file folders and fashion labels. I get special boxes for hanging files. This time I got a stick and hurled epithets, even some of those I learned at logging camp. Finally, I realized that I'm retired now. I don't have to give a rat's patootie anymore. I made tea & sat down...the papers lay down quietly with an occasional riffling sound. It works for me.

I'm thankful...

to be breathing, on this side of the grass. Whatever comes, comes.

Quote by Ron Perlman

Grandkids R 2G2BT...

top photo by Laura Davis
bottom photo by Ellie Thomson





Our Ellie & Jolie are so dang cute.
And it looks like somebody has a Hipstamatic app on her cell phone.

Emergencies

The older I get, the harder it is to keep calm through emergencies. I move like a robot through the days—leaving a trail of wrappers & receipts. I lose my cell phone & keys in the dark recesses of my purse. I stack bags of garbage in the laundry room & forget to take them out. I throw my clothes on the closet floor & when I need to dress, roll the pile over, like a dung beetle, until I find something to put on. But that will change this morning...Bob is better...still in the hospital with wires & tubes, but much better. I'm so grateful & can now take out the garbage & hang up my clothes.

Murphy's Law

items are from Cabela's website





When we moved to our condo, we gave away all of our camping gear. So, of course, last summer we decided we want to tent camp again. We went to Cabela's and now have a four man tent, Coleman stove, cookware, extra wide cots, air mattresses, sleeping bags good to 20*F (as if), many tiny plastic bottles, a cooler with wheels and a come-along handle, and a Dutch oven in cast iron. I should make a list of the rest of the things I will need: compass, bird diary, multipurpose tool (with knife, corkscrew and tweezers), kindling, eyelash curler, iPhone survival app...e Book Reader...Kit Kat bars...etc.

Wildlife

Nisqually opens with new boardwalk and estuary.




This guy (or gal) made such a perfect model—I thought maybe his (or her) feet were velcro'ed to the stream bottom. I love it when this happens because usually by the time I get my cell phone out of my purse, drop my keys and loose change, and clean my glasses, the subject has picked up in disgust and left. Although, in retrospect, Bob took this photo with his Nikon 5000. He's always ready, organized, silent and sneaky. The animals puff up and present their best profile. Most of the wonderful photos I post on this blog are his (the strangely misshapen and unnaturally colored ones are mine). We make a good pair.

Just call me grace...

We were in Vancouver, BC on Saturday morning, on the way to breakfast, when I tripped on a curb and fell onto my knees. Shit oh dear, as they say. The two Bobs helped me to my feet and I went on my way with my dignity battered—not to mention my knees. By Sunday morning they had all the colors of a Wurlitzer jukebox and I expect they'll get worse for a couple of days (the knees, not the Bobs). It sure is apparent that doing this at age 69 is a lot more problematic than age 16...

Profound sadness for Japan...

 Juan de Fuca Plate









Since I posted a story about Jack's school volcano, and pictures of Mt. Kilauea, there has been word of what happened in Japan. If only we could make disasters "unhappen". We're watching the news each day and are stunned all over again.
Here in the Pacific Northwest, we live on the Cascadia subduction zone (also referred to as the Cascadia fault), a type of convergent plate boundary that stretches from northern Vancouver Island to northern California. This is a similar fault to that in Japan.

Beware of the dangerous stranger...

I shot pic 1
Wild woman 2
Wild woman 3



We spent a couple of days in Vancouver, BC & spent some time in the Museum of Anthropology at the University of British Columbia. It's packed with amazing specimens from all over the world, but especially West Coast Indians. Here's my favorite character. She's enough to keep any child in line.

In Kwakwaka’wakw mythology Dzunukwa (also Tsonoqua) is the “wild woman of the forest”. She is venerated as a bringer of wealth, but is also greatly feared by children, because she is also known as an ogress who steals children and carries them home in her basket to eat.

Source: Cryptozoology

Volcano assignment...

It’s not just any mountain...it’s Mt. Kilauea & it’s HUGE. Jack nearly wore out his patience applying a cement like substance to it, what with the crater and all the divots & channels. It looked like the real thing covered with drips and splatters. When I left, they were having a discussion about the best way to produce an explosion...it had something to do with baking soda, detergent, coke, mentos and dry ice, or maybe it was root beer, aspirins, vinegar and lighter fluid. I know they’ll get it sorted out. Jack wanted to put a tiny town at the bottom of the mountain to achieve a sort of Pompeii like effect, but nobody wanted to help with the tiny houses.

Be sure to see the photos and video clips of the real Kilauea from the U.S. Geological Survey, they're spectacular.

PS: His presentation at school was a hit, with lots of dry ice vapor flowing this way and that. He's going to give us a personal demonstration.

Delectable Raw Blueberry Pie

This recipe came from a cook book called "Hunger in the Kitchen", a publication of the elementary school on Vashon Island about 30 years ago. Raw Blueberry Pie was contributed by my sister's daughter, Caitlin. It's never failed to rack up the compliments. The only down side is that there are never any leftovers.

Baked 9 inch pie crust, cooled
4 cups raw blueberries
1 cup water
1 cup sugar
1/3 cup flour
3 tbsp butter
1/4 tsp salt
whipping cream or ice cream

1) spread 3 cups of raw blueberries into cooled crust
2) Cook until thick—1 cup blueberries, water, sugar, and flour
3) Put mixture in a blender and add butter & salt
4) pour over raw blueberries
5) let pie set for 4 hours or more in a cool place
6) top w/ whipped cream or ice cream

Obloquy

I always wanted to use that word, but could never work it into a conversation. It means defamatory or censorious statements, especially when directed against one person, and I have no idea where I learned it. I know it says "one person", but I always relate it to the crows scolding from the wires outside our condo. I found this photo from our trip to Cannon Beach which called obloquy to mind...although it looks like one bird doing the vilifying. Oh, there's another word to add to my list of favorite words for today: orotund, plump & fractious.

The calendar is not our friend...

It always starts out clean & pure, its days pristine, ready for activities to be neatly entered. But here it is—only the beginning of March and I still haven't lost 10 pounds, or cleaned out the back closet. Three times we've booked multiple events on the same time of the same day. More than once we've scheduled so many events in one week that I want to lie down on the floor and stare at the baseboard. It makes me feel weak and unassertive.

I remember a book I read about a woman who became morbidly anti-social and for every minute she spent talking to someone, she had to have recovery time locked in her room...for example, opening the door for the fedex delivery = 10 minutes in her room, actually speaking to the delivery person = 30 minutes, etc. I'm not there yet, but I feel it just around the corner...I'm putting a hot plate and tea kettle in my room, just in case.