hump day nuggets :: falling

hump day nuggets :: little bits of the season in photos and words about the last week

I forget how much I enjoy this time of year.  The hillsides are slowly coming back to life with bits of green stretching to peek through the brown, crusty layer of dried grass that covers the sprawling farmland around us.  Wild fennel has gone to seed and the lemon-colored flower heads look like a mini-fireworks show exploding on the stretch of road between town and home.  The artichokes and sunflowers are spent and slowing shrinking into shells of their former, glorious selves.  It is time for a rest is what nature is telling me and I feel it, too.

nuggets.

:: Style.  School photos were scheduled for this week and the boy was all about setting out his outfit the night before.  This year's uniform consisted of slightly dirty cargo shorts, a button-down surfer shirt that says Rude Boy on the side, a green carabiner hanging from belt loop, a soaring eagle (or hawk?) pendant necklace, braided wrist cuff, electric blue shoes and his wild hair flowing.  Imagine it, if you will.  He tried to get me to say yes to donning his deep purple baseball cap with the missing button on top, but I felt that would have just taken him over the crazy line.  A mom does have her limits, right?  He looked like Grady and that's all I could want for a third grade school picture.

::  Jog-a-thon.  Grady has been hitting the streets in order to obtain local sponsors for the jog-a-thon at his school.  This year he wrote a little cheat-sheet for his speech and was a little shy in asking people to sponsor him.  It's hard to ask for money, but when he shared that this money would go to buy special art supplies and provide field trips for his third grade class - no one could refuse.  This is the only fundraiser that requires the children to solicit money and I think it's a really important lesson in teaching them that working for something, getting invested in the cause, performing the task, following up, sharing results and reaping the rewards is worthwhile.  He made a difference for his class.

It was a really warm day last Friday and he ended up running 19 laps (1/8 mile each) in about 30 minutes.  The principal was there spraying the kids with a garden hose as they went by and there was hip-hop music blaring from the school sound system.  He was so proud of his accomplishments and that his parents were there to see him run and take pictures.

::  Poetry.  I had the privilege to spend last Friday evening listening to the lovely and insightful poet, Mary Oliver.  She was witty, strong, wise, funny, insightful, calming and sharp.  If you ever have the chance to hear her read her work, jump at the chance.  It was amazing.

:: Chicken Model.  This hen's name is Kiki Larue and is named after my best friend (whose name is not Kiki Larue, but that's what G has been calling her for years).  Kiki's blond twin, Dolly, died a few months back from starvation and Kiki has been lost without her.  She roosts all alone on her perch and navigates the pasture all day by herself.  She has taken to hopping up to the highest point on our porch, stopping to survey the land, squawk for a bit and then elegantly fly down from her post and scratches & pecks just along the periphery of the rest of the group.  I talk to her a lot, but she just looks at me like I need to get a life.  Enough said.

:: Cooking.  I've been doing a fair amount of cooking around here and made my first ever pesto using Alice Water's recipe.  Spaghetti & meatballs just may be my new favorite Sunday night dinner, as there is really no better way to tuck-in a weekend than gathering around the table with a warm plate of pasta and recalling all that has happened in the span of a few days.  I also had a failed attempt at yogurt and not sure where I went wrong, but I'll try again.

Yes, another martini photo-op.  They are all the rage around here lately.

:: Reading.  All three of us are into different books at the moment, but we are all very much into reading right now.  I go through phases where I'm reading novel after novel (the phase I'm in now) and then I'll hit a wall and have to resort to magazines and cookbooks until the mood strikes me to delve into another book.  I just finished Joyce Maynard's At Home in this World: A memoir and I'm about to start Barbara Kingsolver's Lacuna.  Grady has been on a Roald Dahl binge for the last week and finished Fantastic Mr. Fox, Esio Trot, Revolting Rhymes, BFG and opened up The Witches this morning on the ride to school.  I love watching him go deep into a book and get lost in it.  Steve is having a harder time getting into the Tropic of Cancer by Henry Miller, but is giving it time and learning the meaning of a few new words in the process.  He has been the bedtime reader-on-duty for the boy and orates a chapter each evening from The Trumpet of the Swan by E.B. White.

:: Soccer.  The season ended over the weekend and a series of 5 games were on the calendar starting Friday night.  Grady scored his first goal ever on Saturday afternoon.  I got all teary, as he ran down the field to hug a fellow teammate and celebrate.  He's waited almost 10 months for a soccer goal and he finally got one (he played indoor winter and now outdoor fall season).  Good thing he had on his lucky underwear, right?  What a great kid-moment.

All blurry photos...they were moving too fast for me to capture!

:: Wrestling.  G wants to wrestle, or as he calls it "fight", with his dad almost every day.  I don't quite understand it, but just know that I will not be a part of it.  As I like to tell the boy, I'm too fragile to do that with you.  Go see your dad.  And off he goes.  Mild insanity dominates our living room almost every evening this week.

:: Loving.  I'm enjoying this season and settling in, paying attention to the changes and shifts going on around me in nature and trying to be still...to just be.

I love being the person Grady goes to when he wants to relocate a spider.

I love that I purchased $1.50 worth of artwork from that same little boy over the weekend.

I love that when we exit the car I always ask - Shall we? And the boy always responds - I think we shall.

I love the late afternoon light in my home right now, as the sun starts its decent just west us.

I love the daily parade of turkeys that clumsily strut through our yard, as evening approaches.

I love neighborly visits.

I love coming home to gifted produce sitting on my porch.

Happy hump day, friends.

Song for Autumn

Song for Autumn 

by Mary Oliver

In the deep fall

    don't you imagine the leaves think how

comfortable it will be to touch

    the earth instead of the

nothingness of air and the endless

    freshets of wind? And don't you think

the trees themselves, especially those with mossy,

    warm caves, begin to think

of the birds that will come — six, a dozen — to sleep

    inside their bodies? And don't you hear

the goldenrod whispering goodbye,

    the everlasting being crowned with the first

tuffets of snow? The pond

    vanishes, and the white field over which

the fox runs so quickly brings out

    its blue shadows. And the wind pumps its

bellows. And at evening especially,

    the piled firewood shifts a little,

longing to be on its way.

Tonight I'm going to see the wonderfully talented Mary Oliver read poetry selections from her large body of work at the Wells Fargo Center in Santa Rosa.  I'm really looking forward to it.  I've been absorbing her books of poetry over the last three years and find them so comforting to read and re-read, especially before the household wakes up.  She always seems to find the perfect words to honor the natural world, the changing of seasons, loss and the excesses of modern life.  Should be a beautiful and inspiring evening.

hump day nuggets :: celebrate good times, c'mon

hump day nuggets :: little bits of the season in photos and words about the last week

We're having a bit of a schizophrenic October at the moment out here on the coast.  Clear, blue skies one day and then the clouds rearrange themselves and turn a charcoal grey and drop rain on us for hours at a time.  This is most definitely not our usual Indian Summer weather.

nuggets.

:: Anniversary.  This week we celebrated our 10 year wedding anniversary and returned to our honeymoon spot in Big Sur at the Post Ranch Inn.  In a weird twist of fate, I now work for the man/company that manages this incredible property.  Our room was luxurious, relaxing and romantic and completely off the charts (they upgraded us twice!).  The attention to detail at this property is impeccable.  We had champagne chilling upon our arrival (and in the lobby as we checked in), along with a personal note from the General Manager wishing us a happy anniversary and acknowledging our return.  Homemade chocolate chip cookies, cheeses, snacks, wines and the like were ours to enjoy on the deck overlooking the Pacific.  Multiple trips to the perfectly heated infinity pool overlooking the ocean, sumptuous robes, turn-down service for the most comfortable bed I've ever slept in, great bath products and a view to absolutely die for.  Yes, this was exactly what we needed to commemorate the last decade together.  Check-out was 1 pm and we checked out at 12:59 pm on the dot, so as not to miss a danged thing.  We'll do it all over again in another 10 years.  Yesiree.

:: The boy had a sleepover with our good friends and was spoiled with an after-school beach romp, made-to-order dinner of his favorite foods, arts & crafts, bedtime stories and a morning breakfast of a homemade smoothie with a side of bacon.  Talk about living the life!  Thanks Scott & Jill.  We couldn't have gone on our trip without you. 

When we picked him up the next day he was somber and sad.  He was stung by a yellow jacket, again.  This is his third sting and he was really bummed.  It's a wee bit odd that every time he has been stung - I'm nowhere around!  What is that all about?   He shed some tears of sadness about the sting and a few more of joy that we were home.  He missed us.  A lot.  

My mommy guilt for leaving him pushed me in the direction of indulging him on Saturday.  We decided to spend the day inland and visit the Charles Schulz Museum in Santa Rosa.  

::  Inspired.  We did a little research before our trip to the museum and discovered that cartoonist Justin Hillgrove was going to be the featured artist.  He creates a wonderful series called Imps and Monsters.  We learned he is a self-taught artist with four kids.  He paints every day (with acrylics) in his garage, usually with his two year old.  He used to paint scary monsters and, upon having children, softened the monsters up and they morphed into the sweet series he has today.  He was really kind and his son sat next to him creating his own comic book while his dad fielded questions about his art and his process.

G was shy when asking his questions, but truly interested and really liked his work.  He quickly gathered his art supplies and started about his business of drawing in a brand new sketchbook.

To say that the boy was inspired would be an understatement.  He immediately put pencils to paper.

And didn't stop drawing all day long.  He found a bench in the museum and knocked out four or five monsters.  He buckled himself in the car and immediately set about creating story lines for his creations and naming them.

When we got home he went straight to the table and put the finishing touches on all 25 of his monsters by adding color to them.  He was so proud and wanted to show anyone who would take a look at his book.  He is calling it Nymphs and Monsters, as an homage to Mr. Hillgrove and his cartoon clan.  You can see more of G's work here.

I love watching this boy's creativity unfold.  He tells anyone who will listen that he is an artist.  And he is.  His confidence is definitely puffing up as the date to his art show is approaching.  He spent two hours in a private lesson with his art teacher on Friday and moved to a new medium with acrylics.  He loves it and says he has more control over his paintings now.  His teacher shared that he painted a yellow jacket in jail.  Art imitating life, again.  I can't wait to see that one.

:: Harvesting.  The remainder of the weekend was spent gathering what I could from the garden.  Here at home the artichokes are in full bloom.

My garden plot at work is going crazy with zinnias, chard, tomatoes & basil.  I used Alice Waters' recipe for pesto and the family liked it.  I would add fewer pine nuts next time and more basil leaves and garlic, but it worked.  I had to decrease the olive oil to 1/4 cup, too.  Grady ate every last bite (which is a major feat in and of itself) and had no idea what pesto even was, but assured me it was delish.  Yes.  We will try this again and again.

 I picked the last of our Asian pears and apples on our property and then popped over to the orchard at my office to pick as many Bosc pears as I thought we would eat this week.  They are so sugary, grainy and sweet.  Dipping them in caramel with fleur de sel sounds like a must-have dessert.

My parsley went to seed, but I think it makes for a pretty little bouquet.

My 82-year old neighbor (she would hate knowing I refer to her this way, but I feel so lucky to know and live by her) gifted me with more tomatoes this week.  Her little garden really produces!  I decided to slowly oven roast them in olive oil, salt & pepper.  When I woke up at 2:30 am and pulled them out of the oven, they were a bit crispier than I had wanted.  I decided to put them in a glass jar and added a bit more olive oil to soften them and will use them like sun-dried tomatoes.  My house smelled delicious and that's probably why I woke up at that ungodly hour.

Snowflake surrounded by lazy snakes

And the cockroach strikes again

:: Pranks.  Yes, the pranks are still on around here.  I found snakes in my car today and cockroaches in books, my purse, on my pillow and on my nightstand throughout the week.  The boy could not be more pleased with himself.

::  Star Wars.  Well, it was inevitable, he is totally into Lego Star Wars figurines.  When he doesn't have his head stuck in a book or drawing, he's playing with these little, tiny guys.  He methodically takes them apart and then puts them back together every day.  The huge Yoda was acquired from his best friend and is "teaching the star wars' guys science, mom".  Right.

:: Library.  We hit the Sebastopol Library on our way back from the museum this weekend while monsters and cartooning where still fresh on his mind.  I love how whatever he is passionately into at that very the moment is reflected in his books, movies, CD's, fashion choices and his artwork.  

:: Reading.  I didn't make our monthly Babylonian Book Club meeting, but I did read The Paris Wife by Paula McLain and really liked it.  I could totally picture Paris in the 20's and it reminded me that me and the husband were there almost a year ago next week.  I could quickly recall the city in my mind and it unleashed a lot of vivid food and drink memories, too.  The book also spurred me into ordering a few classic Hemingway books from the library, as I've never read a lick of his writing.

My little bunny rabbit.  Or beaver.  Or woodchuck.

:: Loss.  The boy lost another tooth.  That brings the tally up to six baby teeth...gone.  He yanked it out himself while we were watching Secretariat (an 11-letter word, by the way, just in case anyone else crazy out there notices things like this...) last Saturday night.  He was quite pleased with himself and promptly took to putting the tooth in a Star Wars Lego Man secret compartment contraption, wrapping said Lego with a large rubber snake around his bedpost and thinking himself real clever.  He wanted to scare the tooth fairy.  I'm pretty sure this was his way of saying he thinks I'm the tooth fairy, without really saying it.  That's okay.  I did him one better...I mean the tooth fairy did him one better and left him a crisp, new $2 bill AND a plastic cockroach under his pillow.

:: Over it.  My husband was over my haphazard flower and eroding vegetable beds in the back of the house and went ahead and removed every last plant over the weekend.  It was time.  It was an unruly mess back there and when I came home and saw what he did - I felt relieved.  He spread the extra straw we had and put the beds to bed for the winter.  I like the order of it and it feels quite appropriate given the end of the summer season and the jumping into the autumn weather we have happening at the moment.

Our week was full and lovely.  I hope yours was, too.  Feel free to share in the comments below.

Happy hump day out there.

10 Years of Us

SL,

You proposed to me on a park bench, just after midnight, in Havana, Cuba.  Oh, yes.

10 years ago today we said I do.

A funky little wedding ceremony at the Madonna Inn with our dear friends and family.

We honeymooned our way up the coast on Highway One.

Our decisions to sell our home, quit our jobs and buy a business at the end of that blissful week were all good ones.

No regrets.

New life, new community and, then, a new baby.

Our family now complete.

My love for you is big, honey.

I can't wait to see what the next 10 years hold for us.

Happy anniversary.

Love, 

Me

hump day nuggets :: and then there were six

hump day nuggets :: little bits of the season in photos and words about the last week

It's true that I like to romanticize the fact that we live in the country and pretend that I mostly fit in.  This week was a lesson in humility and putting myself in check.  Who am I kidding?  I was born and raised a city girl and as much as I try to expand my horizons in the animal-husbandry department, I am snapped back to reality every few months and reminded of the fragility of life and my role in it.

nuggets.

:: Indian Summer.  The temperatures hit the high 90's in Valley Ford last Wednesday and it was seriously scorching at our house.  No wind and no air conditioning rendered me sleepy and useless by mid-afternoon.  Luckily, I received an email from a friend in Bodega Bay to meet her at the pool after school and I jumped at the chance.  The boys quickly jumped in and started a fierce and aggressive water polo match with a tennis ball.  Ouch.  Gave an entirely new meaning to the phrase "in your face".  Water gun warfare was next and creative diving rounded out the afternoon.

:: Production.  The hens have been laying regularly and providing us with an abundance of eggs.  G has grand plans for his egg money.  Skim board is at the top of the list, along with Star Wars Lego sets.  This wish list is constantly being updated.

:: Word.  This boy has been a reading non-stop this week.  He checks out around five books from his school library each week and ends up only reading a few of those selections.  He peruses his personal library for favorites and stacks them at the end of his bed, retrieving the next one on deck as soon as he's near the end of the one currently in his hands.  We also visit the Marin Bookmobile twice a month and he amasses more graphic novels, reference books about mammals or nature and the occasional "baby book" that is easy reading.  His teacher announced that he is now allowing the students to check out books from his classroom library and that really excited my little bibliophile.  

:: Sunflowers.  I planted these beauties late this summer from seeds that were a little wet and moldy.  I planted anyway and hoped for the best.  I got the best.

:: Yard Sale.  We had a neighborhood yard sale this weekend and I noticed late on Sunday that Grady was trying to sell his parents.  $3 each.  No refunds.  Sold as is!  Nice try, young man, nice try.  And While I don't frequent many garage sales, I sure did have a bunch of stuff I wanted to unload.  My hopes were high and quickly dashed by the end of Saturday when I surmised that I would probably not be selling most of my wares but, rather, donating them to the local thrift store.  Either way, it motivated a purge in our household and that was a good thing.  It also gave me a rare opportunity to visit with my neighbors and spend two days with my son without a long to-do list of things that needed to be done.  There were still many thing to be done, but the list went out the window this weekend.

:: The weather started to change Saturday morning and we had short, intermittent showers and then bursts of sunshine and puffy clouds.  I worked on my tan and read an entire novel this weekend, so all was not a loss.  I also got to watch Grady in action and interacting with strangers.  He was priceless and invited many people to his art show, as well as trying to sell one of our chickens for a dollar (no takers).

Game of Jenga is way better than any Playstation

:: Rain.  Well, the week ended with dark, ominous looking clouds hovering overhead.  On Monday, it rained all day.  What a difference a week makes.  As I type this, we are having a downpour.

:: Pranks.  I am only now beginning to understand the humor and shenanigans of an eight year old boy.  The potty humor, the endless knock-knock jokes and the pranks are non-stop.  The fact that he keeps planting the same snake in or near my bed every single night is serious fun.  I give him the requisite scream or squeal and he is rolling on the ground laughing until I think he's going to hurt himself.  It does not get old for him.  I actually love it, but pretend to be appalled.

Soccer season is almost over.  Grady is over it, but I loved it.

Tomato porn for your viewing pleasure

5 ounces vodka, 1/2 drop of vermouth, shaken w/ two olives.  Yes.

:: Chicken nuggets.  I know, I know, bad joke.  A lot happened to our flock this weekend and I'm sad to say we now have only six hens.  We lost Brownie, one of our oldest hens, and Miss Tricky, the egg-hider I mentioned last week, to a raccoon this past Sunday (or should I say real early Monday?).  It's a long, icky story and in the end the raccoon was accidentally locked in the hen house overnight and stuck on a pole up near the ceiling.  One of the hens was maimed and the other killed on the spot.  Steve had to finish the faceless hen off at the break of dawn and then try to figure out how to get the crazy raccoon out of the hen house.  

I'm happy to report that I had the wherewithal to call our ranching neighbors and ask for help.  I mean, let's face it, we are not chicken farmers and needed the big guns.  Literally.  Our kind neighbor came over, shot the raccoon and even took the bloody remains of all those little animals that perished with him.  He is my new hero.

What do you buy a man that kills a raccoon for you?  It's going to be a tough thank you gift for sure.

Grady immediately took to illustrating the murderous raccoon

The hen house has been reinforced and reconfigured.  Another lesson on the circle of life has been given.  My husband and neighbor showed me that I'm a wimp when it comes to raising animals on this little, wild, one acre plot of land that we own and love.  I'm having a hard time with the loss of two of my sweet little clucking hens and feel real bad that I played a part in the raccoon having access to their home.

The boy processed all of this beautifully, as children often do.  I guess I will follow his lead.

Happy hump day.

Happy Anniversary, Blog.

Happy four year anniversary to this blog.

I started writing here four years ago and used this space to jot down silly little things that happened to me and my family.  My first blog post was about a fried chicken debacle that took place at the Valley Ford Hotel and you can read about it here.

I wanted to have profound thoughts and words about why I use this space to capture my life and the lives of my family and friends, but I'm empty tonight.  Not empty in a sad way, but just can't give it that much thought.  I spent most of the day selling things from my household at a yard sale.  Somehow this evoked a lot of feelings and emotion from me.  It conjured up a lot of thoughts about why we amass stuff and what it all means in the grand scheme of life.  Pretty heavy thoughts for a silly little yard sale, but it weighed me down most of the day.

I look forward to more meaningful moments in the coming year and less stuff.

I hope to learn more about photography, HTML and what makes me tick.

I want to have more adventures with the important men in my life.

I want to capture it all.

I want to live it, enjoy it, laugh about it and remember it.