Short Trip Filled with Good Things

This was a nice trip down to the Bay Area. The weather was beautiful and I got to see Mom again. She is doing much better. I think that her trip to the hospital made such a bad impression on her that she has willed herself to feel better. She is on oxygen all the time now. You can see the huge canister next to the bookcase. She calls it the "atom bomb" and doesn't like it in her room. What a funny lady she can be. She has filled her room with many of her belongings from the house. Each time she goes over with someone she brings back more things. The CNA's joke with her that they are going to have to add on an "addition" to her room, soon, so she will have more space to put her things. Mom says if she can't be at home then this is how she makes it feel like "home". They are the nicest folks and take such good care of Mom. They don't seems to mind all the things that she has accumulated. They are so understanding. It makes such a difference to Mom.
A dove is sitting on two eggs on the front porch of the rest home. This bird chose a hanging basket and there she sits (left bottom photo) looking at me and hoping I don't get any closer. I saw Mom everyday and that dove was always there. Mom can see this nest from her window and she is hoping that she will see the babies when they are born.
It was a busy weekend. Saturday we went to our favorite "once a month" store, Room With A Past, on 3rd. St. in Walnut Creek and on Sunday we drove to Berkeley, to an Art Festival at the Live Oak Recreation Center. Lots of beautiful handmade things: Wonderful jewelry, hand crafted one of a kind items that were very beautiful and expensive. The weather was really warm, for Berkeley, and the venue was a lovely park in a residental area at the north end of Shattuck Ave. We had a nice time .

Asilomar; a beautiful place to be.

"Asilomar with her many trees,
Her silvery water,
her ocean breeze.
Her sand dunes white
arise with grace:
Oh! Nature lovers,
it's a wonderful place." ~e. briar, m. weber & a. eatwell~ 1935~

...and it was. My sister and I drove from Lafayette, on Sunday, down hiway 101 to Monterey and into Pacific Grove. The Asilomar Conference Center is a refuge nestled in the dunes and forested shoreline of the Monterey Peninsula. It is a wild preserve founded by a group of women that were determined to build a community that would support education and improve the lives of woman in the early part of the century. They helped create a retreat for the YWCA that would be available to anyone who wished to gain knowledge and learn new things to improve their lives. Julia Morgan was the architect for the buildings. The buildings are of the Arts and Crafts style and only local wood and stone was used. More recently apartment style rooms were added with all the modern emenities. There is a spirit and a feeling of pilgrimage when you arrive here. There is a feeling of refuge that quiets the business of life and gives you permission to slow down.

The view through the doors of Merrill Hall at dusk.


This was a trip that almost didn't happen. Mom went into the hospital on Friday morning and we had decided not to go. I arrived two days early thinking that we would just cancel the trip and I would spend the week at my sisters. Mom, although having trouble breathing, told us we should go and the doctor said that he was sure she would be returning to her care home in a day or two. He told us that she would be all right and that we should attend the workshop because it was only 2 hours away and Mom would probably be in the hospital until the day before we would get home. On Sunday we decided to go.

I got home yesterday afternoon to my little house on the hill. The Prospector, Maggie, Carl (aka,the pupster) and Annibel were all here to greet me. It is so good to be home. The goats were a bit distant, but that's to be expected. Brownie kind of ignored me but Bart told me he was glad I was back. I will be going back down to see Mom in a week or so unless there's an emergency, then sooner.

Tomorrow I will tell you about the Art and Soul Workshop, our teacher Nina Bagley, how much fun we had and how Mom is doing.

Cookies for a Good Reason?

I bake cookies for a lot of reasons. Sometimes for no reason at all. Yesterday I baked cookies out of guilt..., for the Prospector.

"Guilt? Why is that Farmlady?" Well, I'm leaving for a whole week, again, and I just thought that I should do something nice for the man who will take care of everything here and hold down the "fort" while I'm gone. This is not to say that I only make cookies when I'm leaving town. I don't need a reason to bake. I bake "Just because" most of the time.
But this time I'm going away for fun and frolic. My sister and I are going to the Art & Soul Retreat in Asilomar, Ca. near Monterey and Carmel. This is a workshop/festival on the grounds of the Asilomar Conference Center right on the Pacific Ocean. It's so amazingly beautiful. I stayed there years ago for a choir festival and have wanted to go back again ever since.

So the cookies are a part of my guilt for leaving; a bit of nervousness about what to expect when we get there; and just plain excitment.

We will be taking a 3 day class from Nina Bagley. It's called Mystorian Necklace & Book Workshop. Nina is a gifted jewelry artist who I have come to know through her Blog: Ornamental. She is an amazing artist and we have always wanted to take a class from her. We are really looking forward to this trip.
Tomorrow I will drive to my sister's house, see Mom and stay overnight. Sunday we will drive to Asilomar and check in. We will be back in Lafayette on Thursday and I will stay there until Saturday or Sunday to visit with Mom and have dinner with my son.

This is going to be so much fun!!!

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Cookies: Oatmeal, cranberries and pecan with orange peel. Same recipe as chocolate chip cookies but substitute dried cranberries for choc. chips and pecans for walnuts. Um, um good!

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A note: Nina's dog Aspen died last week and she has been very, very sad about losing him. If you could leave a comment to console her I would appreciate it. These creatures are so much a part of our lives and when they leave there is a gate left open for a long time. I just want her to know that no dog will ever take Aspens place but there will be another animal that will need her love..., and love her in return. I know where of I speak.

From the Foothills to the Ocean, in style and chocolate

I dread the arrival of summer here in the Foothills. It gets so hot up here. I love the heat for maybe 2 or 3 reasons: my vegetable garden early in the morning, wading in the Mokeulmne River looking for gold and the evenings with it's fragrance of the oaks and manzanitas. That's about it. From late June to almost Halloween it's just nasty, horrible hot, hot, hot here. I've never gotten use to it and always try to rationalize why I continue to live in such a furnace. I guess I put up with the summers so I can enjoy the rest of the year. Where else can you take long walks in winter and not have to worry about a freek snow storm? Only here do I wake up to deer drinking out of the water bucket we leave for them and coyote songs. So now, thanks to my sister's generosity, I have an escape. She offers her lovely second home to everyone, but I get priority treatment: After all, I am her only sister....., and she lovvvves me. Right sis? (That was all a bit too ingratiating wasn't it?, but when the summer heat is involved, I'm shameless.)

Even though it isn't summer yet, I jumped at the invite to spend a couple of days with Sis at her place. The weather was cold, windy and mostly sunny. We had such a good time. Mostly just relaxing, but we did manage some shopping. On our way over we hit a few places in Berkeley, down on 4th St. Great stores and good food! Then In Pacifica there is a Ross store. From Sur La Table and Anthropologie.... to Ross: from the sublime and expensive to the "Oh wow! What a deal.!" store. We bought some food at Safeway( and lots of chocolate) so we wouldn't have to leave once we settled in. We had a good dinner, watched T.V., gave each other a back rub and did our stretching exercises , then, with no guilt at all, we ate CHOCOLATE.
The next day we drove around and looked at all the little cottages and homes tucked up into the canyons over looking the town of Pacifica, lusting over a few of them. Then we took a walk on the Pacifica Pier. This took great bravery on my part because, and I hate to confess this, I'm extremely afraid of the ocean. Yes I am! My camera has become my lifeline and seems to take my mind off of where I would never be if I didn't want to take pictures so badly. I have been on this pier twice and I always get a bit shaky out there. It was very windy last week and the waves were huge. About half-way out they roared under us and shook the pileings and the whole pier vibrated. Taking photos didn't overcome the panic and I said something to the effect of "That's it. I'm going back." Then, I thought about a strong earthquake hitting the coast and swallowing that pier and tossing it into the first ocean trench it could find. I was out of there. There is no "good" reason to be out beyond the sand and serf when you can see it from the shore. That my belief and no one will ever change it. Sis was very kind and followed me back to the parking lot, but I know she was smiling...., and thinking, " My big sister; the brave one. " Dad would have called me a "Landlubber". He was in the Navy.
We went back to her place and ate CHOCOLATE.

Two days at the coast: Over the bay bridge to Pacifica.

Short Trip

I'm going down to the Bay Area to see my Mom for a few days. She's going to be 90 years old this July and has taught me a lot about how to be a brave senior citizen. She has always been my shining example of how to be a really good mother and beautiful human being. I try to go down every month and the time that I spend with her is a gift. I'll take some pictures and post them when I return next Thursday.

There was an eclipse of the moon last night around 7:00 p.m. but we didn't see it because of the clouds. Sacramento did and a lot of the valley towns. We must have been too close to the mountains and too far under the clouds because we missed the whole thing. Darn!

Earthquake centered in Wells, Nevada; 6.3 mag. this morning.