It 's Been More Than a Year!

Dear Mr. Beachy, It's been a while but I just wanted to say "Hi". The roses were beautiful this summer. Thanks for all your help. And the gnomes seem to be happy and not misbehaving, thanks to your supervision. Hope I get to catch up with you soon. xoxo

Stand-Off at the OK Corral

There's so much writing needs to be done to catch you up. I promise - I'll sit down and do it ASAP. But for now I just wanted to tell you about two "pictures" that I couldn't take because I didn't have a camera.....but which were so good I hope I can memorize them into my brain.

The first happened at the close of my day yesterday. The kids and Hapapapa were in the play room and I went in to say good bye. The youngest little guy was standing up with a nerf machine gun strapped over his shoulder looking like a Revolutionary from the days of Che Guevara. Reminded me so much of my little girls growing up in the '70s.

The second image was this morning. I went out front early this AM armed with coffee and the lawn mower. As usual my yard work supervisors, Blue and Waylon, came out with me. As I've mentioned before, this is crow territory and when the crows are around they make a raucus for one reason or another. Usually it's because Blue is sniffing around the church property instead of staying in our yard. Today, even over the noise of the lawn mower, I could hear one crow going nuts. I looked up to see Waylon sitting in the middle of the street. Twenty paces down the street was a fat crow shouting out insults while sauntering back and forth like a sheriff threatening to draw his gun and fire. Waylon stood his ground and there ensued a five minute stare down. The crow finally turned and flew away. Waylon, always one to accept a dare, stretched out his right leg and licked it.

Palm Sunday

I keep checking this blog and there are no new posts!!! It's been a long month of mostly rain. Today turned out dry, warm, and sunny, but it started out with a power outage. I never figured out if it was just my house or everyone's. All I could think of is how much my life is tied to electricity. Blue and I made it over to New Season's and got a cup of coffee so I could plan my next step. By the time we got back home the power was on again. But just stop for a moment and think of the things you can't do without electricity.

Besides, no fresh coffee, you can't heat up the old coffee. You can't make toast. You can't turn on the tv or radio to find out if everyone else's power's out. You can't see the fuse box in the basement 'cuz it's too dark. You can't turn on Emmett's UV light. You think maybe this will be a chance to go on-line and check your facebook pages because your computer has 3 hours of battery back up. Then you realize you can't connect to the internet without electricity. You wonder if there will be a power surge that will destroy your computer and tv and everything else that power surges can destroy.

After drinking the coffee I felt much better, then made my own coffee and spiked it with 1/2 and 1/2 and whiskey for medicinal reasons only. Later there was sun and warmth enough to work outside. I've got a really bad cold but working outside was what I've been wanting to do, so I tried not to push it, but actually got a lot accomplished. The front lawn got mowed - major accomplishment. The strawberries and some plants from my daughter's house got planted. The compost bin got stirred and there are a zillion zillion worms in it. Some of them got liberated into the strawberry pot salvaged from a neighbor's move. And most exciting - we made a clearing under the big fir tree for an elfin family to use for their summer house. They are friends of Mr. Beachy, of course. We support housing for all!

My fingers are dried out from working in the soil. And they are aching, too. So this is a good place for today's blog to end.

The 7 Degrees of Bright

It has been raining almost every day, except for the days Ms. Nimblethreads visited. Even then I think it rained some, but she brought with her sunshine. Wasn't very warm though and that leaves me wondering if it will ever get warm here. Even rain is OK if it is a warm rain.

Despite the grayness a lot of flowering trees have blossomed out. Very pretty in a soft way against the grey-blue sky. The camelia is covered in cherry red blooms and they are falling off now so it looks like red flowers blooming on the ground in front of our house. Yesterday I saw two yellow things in the way back and thought they were scraps of paper that had blown in. I trudged back bundled against the wind and the soggy ground (the grass is too tall to mow in one pass) and found out they were daffodils!

All the grey has lead me to meditate on what I callThe 7 Degrees of Bright.Perhaps it should be especially in reference to Portland, although it may have no geographic boundaries. Bright sun hurts Portlanders' eyes after a winter of gray. It's just a fact. And it takes a bit to adjust.

My idea of brightness is this: with 7 being the brightness of God and 6 the brightness of sun reflecting off the ocean or snow; 5 is a bright, sunny day with few clouds in the sky. 4 is the artificial brightness of headlights from oncoming cars at just a certain angle or turning on the bathroom light in the middle of the night. 3, 2, and 1 are the subtle variations of a Portland day.

For example, today the brightness is at 3 degrees - certainly gray outside, but with a crisp whitish sky. 1 is the murky dark ecru of daylight in the rain with just enough light to let you know it's daytime. That leave 2. The other day I experienced 2 as I sat in a parking lot waiting for the rain to subside enough to run into Goodwill. The rain was gray, the clouds were several shades of gray with a bit of grayish white. And then there was a fine strip of blue that radiated with 2 degrees of brightness - BEATIFIC and exilerating even at a mere 2 degrees. Ah, God is good.

And Then It Is Spring

Well, I'm not going to guantee that spring is here for good. It's been cloudy and grey, grey, grey here for a couple weeks. And I can't recall the last day that it wasn't raining. This morning I opened the front room curtains and noticed that the camellia by the front porch had several blooms on the side facing the morning sun. Later I see that my plum tree is popping out blossoms. This is cool, think I. Now the sun is out and my wanderlust is nagging at me to get outside and soak in some vitamin D. Don't think it's dry enough to mow the lawn, but maybe I can plant some seeds. Mr. Beachy will be happily surprised when he wakes up!

February Saturday Ramblings

It's cold here. Very cold. The hummingbird feeders were frozen when I woke up, so we made refreshing all the bird feeders a priority.Much to their delight! Then I watered all the plants and fed the fish and Emmett. Then I tried to get all my tax stuff together so they can get done. Then I made spaghetti for dinner. And now it's 3:15 and I'll be on my way to Mass soon. It seems like it has been a cold, grey day that has gone past far too fast. There's just a gloom hanging over it. It is staying light a little later now, but it will be dark soon after I return from Mass. And I sadly feel like I'll be sleeping through Mass today.

The bright side is that I do have a free night and may work on the ancestory tree. And I only have to wrap and address the packages that have been piled up in the living room since Christmas. They're finally all together. The delay has been for many reasons; the biggest one being that I was still making doll clothes for one of the children on my Christmas list. I was just enjoying taking my time sewing.

I grew up cynical. From my earliest years I believed that if I asked for something for my birthday or for Christmas, I wouldn't get it. I felt like I had a much greater chance of getting what I wanted if I didn't ask for that specific item. Strange to be such a cynical little child. But one Christmas there was a doll for sale on the top shelf of the little store my dad and I would visit almost nightly for bread and milk. I was probably about eight years old. My dad always went for a walk to "the little store" after dinner and accompanying him was one of my favorite things. He walked fast. I think he said the military stride was 100 steps per minute, but now that sounds like an exageragtion. I had to take 2 or 3 steps for each one of his, but still I loved it. "The Little Store" was really one of two stores. One was around the block and then up a block to the corner of Trisket and Warren Road. The other was up our block, across Lorain Ave., then down a little past the lumber yard. We called the owners by their names, but I would really have to scrounge to recall their names now. One was short, stocky, and cheerful. The other was lean and tall and always wore a white apron and not real friendly to kids. The doll was at his store. I really wanted that doll. It was a teenage doll, before Barbie's time, maybe 14 inches tall with high heels, short curly hair, and a French name. I didn't get to see it up close, I guess because I never thought to ask anyone to get it down from the shelf. One night we went to the store and the doll was gone. Shoot. But I figured I'd never have gotten that doll anyway.

Christmas came and I did get that doll! Not only the doll, but tons of clothes that my mom had made for it. It was such a wonderful gift. And how does one play with a doll like that ... you dress it and undress it and dress it again. I think the French name on the box was Monique; I named her Yvonne. It might have been the other way around! It still amazes me that my parents were able to buy the doll without me knowing and that my mom could sew all those little clothes with my two little brothers, ages little and littler, under her feet.

Maybe my proclevity for making doll clothes has something to do with working through the cynicism that grey, cold, February days conjures up in my soul.

Quarantined

This grandma is yucky sick. Little Gus has been sick almost since Christmas and I finally got the germ. Drippy nose, restless sleep, can't wake up - just roll over and switch channels. Blah blah blah . . . should be quarantined.

Little Fish

Just a comment on these little fish....Don't you just love them? I LOVE them! If you wiggle your arrow near them, they'll follow you and if you click on the pond you can feed them. Genius!

Sunday Morning

Greetings from Mr. Beachy and me! We've had a busy Sunday morning and now we are settling down to relax and enjoy the day. It has been raining cats, dogs, bicycles, and trucks. so much rain that Noah's Ark would be afloat by now. Mr. Beachy and I spent the early morning sweeping the water off the porch and then trying to sweep away a huge lake that was growing by the back door. We had to take down one of the bird feeders, because it was full of water. The seeds had filled up the drainage system and it was disgusting!

We had to towel Blue off 3 times before 9AM because of course she had to be right in the middle of our outdoor activities. Now she is curled up at my feet, smelling meatballs cooking in the pan. They are "grandma's famous meatballs" for spaghetti, loved by short people especially. Thought I'd make some up to put aside in case I have any dinner guest of short stature this week.

And we decided it's time for an Irish Coffee, so that is brewing, as well.

We've gotten quite addicted to bird watching since the January second bird count. I'm posting some of the photos I was able to take. Unfortunately I don't know the technique needed to arrange or label the pictures, so they'll all be in a group and you'll just have to guess which bird I'm talking about.

It seems that some days we have tons of birds passing through in flocks, and somedays we see and hear no one. One day it was pouring rain and a flock of starlings and a flock of robins were busily hunting for worms. They covered the front lawns like sheep grazing on a hill. I took a photo of one bird that was among the group of robins. It might have been a juvenile, but I think it was another type of bird just hanging out with the robins. My camera slipped, just as I clicked, and so the picture's blurry and his head is missing, but I thought it's worth while to post it in case someone can tell what it is.

The hummingbirds come to the feeder so much lately that I think they may have started nesting in the nearby laurel hedge. I'm trying to take pictures of them to see if I can start telling them apart. They are called Anna's Hummingbirds. I'm not sure if they stay here year round, or if they fly up to Alaska in the summer.

I'm hoping to become a little brown bird expert, but I'm not getting there fast. I still haven't captured my elusive little brown bird on film - the ones that are living in my brush pile and run through the grass so quickly that I think they are mice at first glance. They might be Pacific Wrens, but I have to get one to hold still for a second to study them better.

The Brushtits are here and a pair of red-bellied sapsuckers. They all came for some suet we put out. It is suet mixed with peanuts and hot sauce. I think they like the hot spices because they didn't flock to the other suet I've had in past years. Of course we've seen many English Sparrows, House Finches, Chickadees, and Juncos; so their photos are included here if I have any clear ones.

Wishing all a day of rest.

New Year, New Plans

Already nine days into the new year and Mr. Beachy and I are trying to organize our lives enough to make new plans. Yesterday and today we had time to be quiet and watch the birds while planning out our activities for the new year. The Jeep's "check engine" light is on and won't fit into the mechanic's schedule until Tuesday. That is keeping us trapped so to speak. Very good for us, because we both have a tendency to just leave the house and not come back until dark. Well, I must say, going "out" is more an addiction than a tendency. Today our only venture outside was to church and to fill the bird feeders. It is wet and chilly here, so it's been nice to have a soft chair in the corner of the kitchen from whence to anchor our activities. And it was a treat to see a flock of bush-tits enjoying the suet we put out. They are the cutest birds. Remember the one that got separated from the flock one year and stayed the winter? I wonder if he was among the flock this morning. One garden project that we'd like to do now is to build a small stone wall along the walkway where the rain water runs off. This could shore up a shade garden, plus keep the soil from eroding onto the walkway everytime it rains. I guess it will take measuring and carrying stones from somewhere down on Johnson Creek. We also want to buckle down and get serious about a play structure and sand box to use this summer out back - even more important than planting a garden because flowers and plants return every year, but children grow up and soon disappear.