The Waterfall That Was

When I bought my house it came with a small pond (read: money pit). After two years of patching and repairing I had it taken out and (what was I thinking) redesigned and put back in. The pond is functioning beautifully this year. The fish are happy, the plants are happy, my wallet is okay with it.




The waterfall, however, simply refused to get with the program. When I ran the pump, the well leaked. If I didn't run the pump it became a breeding ground for mosquitoes. The waterfall is now a rock garden. And I'm happy!

Good Friends, Good Food = Great Day!

Some of the friends who had come up awhile back and worked in my yard were here today for a visit and dinner. Another friend from up here who knows them joined us. It was a fun day and evening.

It was triple digit in the valley and only 90 degrees at my home. We munched on appetizers, drank mango/banana margaritas and enjoyed the evap' cooler for a couple of hours and then, as the sun went down, we enjoyed the temp falling as well. By dinner time it was cooler outside than in so we moved out to the back deck. Grilled salmon filets & chunked up veggies along with a rice pilaf salad and a bottle of Barefoot Pinot Grigio made for a very nice outdoor summer dinner which we topped off with chocolate strawberry shortcake. Yummmmmm!

It was a perfect mix of friends who really enjoyed each other's company and dinner outdoors in my mountain setting. Good friends, good food, good time; can't ask for more than that.

They called me when they got home. When they left my house it was down to 74 degrees here, when they got home an hour later the valley had cooled to 90 degrees with an expected low tonight of 74. I love my mountain home!

Caught the Fever

I finally caught the fever. I am most definitely NOT a sports fan. Once upon a time I was a baseball fan. I loved the Dodgers and the Oakland A's, not necessarily in that order. I became a football fan but only when the Raiders and/or 49ers were playing. I don't know the players anymore so I've lost interest in these games and the rest - basketball, hockey, whatever do nothing for me.

I did get caught up in the games in the movie Invictus. Of course, I'd watch Morgan Freeman read the phone book while Matt Damon turned the pages. A lot of action in rugby. I'm not, however, channel surfing to find a rugby game to watch.

And what's the deal with the World Cup? I thought that was yacht racing. I've paid little or no attention to the World Cup soccer matches ... until today. I turned on the TV and the game was on. It was the beginning of the second half and the U.S. and Ghana were tied 1-1. The action was fast and constant and there was no violence other than some serious tripping. I was hooked, I caught the fever, I heard myself yelling at the TV. Here's a sport I could get into. The U.S. lost today. Figures!

An Addition to the Family

I'm still adjusting to the idea of my baby brother retiring this month and now I have to wrap my brain around baby brother being a grandpa.

My nephew and his wife gave birth to a beautiful little girl this week. Princess Ava arrived Wednesday morning at 4:51am, weighing in at 7# 10 Oz. I just saw the first picture of her and, of course, she's absolutely perfect.

We haven't had a little one in the family for years. My youngest grandchild is 15 years and my youngest great-niece/nephew (before Ava) is a teenager. This is my brother's first grandchild. Grandma & Grandpa are very proud and seem to be holding up well but then they've had since Christmas to adjust to the idea. I'm looking forward to meeting her in September when I go to visit with the family. Meanwhile, I expect pictures to be forthcoming throughout the summer.

It's a dog's life

Life can be hard. Just ask a dog with skin allergies. It isn't enough that the heat and grass and whatever's in the grass cause itching that drives you nuts, then you have to put up with the anti-itch sprays when you get caught taking it on yourself to make it go away by scratching. And, of course, there are the allergy pills that make you sleepy. Since that's one of my favorite pastimes, I really don't mind them. But the worst is getting caught chewing or when she checks and finds the raw spots where I've been chewing. Around the base of my tail and the back of my haunches get really irritated and no amount of spray or cortisone cream is helping so I chew.

This is the result ... the cats are laughing, I'm so embarrassed.

Remembering Grandma Julie

It's June. My twin step-daughters' birthday is next week. My friend Madeliene celebrates her birthday in June. Fathers' Day is next Sunday. And my mother-in-law's birthday was June 26th.

This lady was one of the most special people I've had the pleasure of knowing. She came from Italy as a child. She married and raised three children and, later, a granddaughter. She loved her children and her children's spouses, a ton of grandkids and great-grandkids and still had room in her heart for more. Neighbors and friends and their children all knew her simply as Grandma Julie.

She was a best friend to me. She taught me things that my own mother didn't know and so couldn't teach me. From her I learned to not be afraid to love and to not be afraid to show my feelings. I learned these things in time to pass them on to my children. My in-laws, my husband, and I used to go camping together and while the men were off doing whatever, she and I would cook, play cards, and take walks, and laugh. We enjoyed each other. She taught me to crochet and taught me tips and tricks to make cooking simpler among other things. She didn't swim and was afraid of the water. She'd stand in the shallow end of the pool and would get furious when Grandpa tried taking her toward the deep end or even away from the pool's edge.

This family celebrated everything and anything and congregated at Grandma & Grandpa's home. Grandma and I cooked, served, and then sat out on the patio and drank wine together while we let everyone else clean up. We watched stupid movies together, did jigsaw puzzles. A favorite pastime was a trip to Pic' & Save, the discount store that is now Big Lots, where we might spend 2 hours and buy nothing or spend a half an hour and $5 each and come home with absolute treasures. We shared secrets. I knew I could tell her anything and it wouldn't go any further ... and I did.

Grandpa passed away in 2002 and her eldest son, my husband, in 2004. Grandma went to join them last year. I loved her very much and I miss her.

Good Weekend

I've been cleaning out the shed the past couple of days. Our local SPCA is having a yard sale next weekend and the weather is reasonable so it seemed a good time. I discovered where all the mice were living during the winter and what they were living on. Did you know mice like birdseed, preferably finch food since niger seed is more expensive than wild bird seed. Sunflower seeds apparently are another good choice. I thought they were packed better than that but ... oh well. These little critters ate the styrofoam cups and the coffee packages packed in a critter-proof container, they didn't much care for the coffee just the packaging; maybe I should have left decaf for them, and they nibbled on some papers that, fortunately, weren't of any importance. They left finch food and sunflower seed shells scattered all over (not to mention droppings everywhere). Since, thanks to the gophers, I'm on a vendetta anyway I decided a couple of Decon packets were in order. The good news is, I didn't find a single spider. I can handle mice, hate spiders. The shed is cleaned, the dumpster is a third filled, and the items for the yard sale are ready to go. Productive weekend.

It's kinda fun going through packed away stuff every so often. I find a few smiles every time. Not all my memories are in the chest in the back bedroom. I found some fun things boxed away in the shed as well. There're pictures of the grandkids when they were babies and youngsters and Grandpa had them out in the pool teaching them to swim or at least not drown, family pictures from summer visits and Christmas' past. I came across the box of little doo-dads that we thought were important or cute and that we picked up and gave each other at one time or another. I've been through these enough times now that it didn't take the better part of two days (or even one) like it used to for me to go through them. And it gets a little easier each time to cull things out. It's funny how the importance of various items diminishes as the years pass. It'll be cool to walk into the shed and be able to reach what I went in there for. I realize it won't last, but that's what spring cleaning is all about isn't it?

Time to take Kate for her walk, feed her and the felines, and hit the shower. I think after church tomorrow I'll devote the day to Mary Higgins Clark. Her new book arrived this week and it's been calling to me.

Watch the Scoreboard

Okay - Now it's war! I've overlooked the mounds and holes in the lawn, the worst of that is watching for holes so I don't step in one and fall. I really don't care about the tunnels into the half wine barrels. I simply didn't plant them this year. The flower beds are a whole different story. Finding an occasional mound or hole in a corner or against the wall is disconcerting and frustrating, but live and let live.

However, when I saw the main stem of one of my dianthus' disappear and be replaced by a large mound of dirt ... well, now it's war. Gophers = 1, me = 0 ... so far. I know I'll feel guilty later but I'm off to the nursery for gopher bait.

Got a Ticket in the Drawer?

Today Katie & I did our semi-monthly Therapy Dog visit at an elders extended care residence. We've made friends with all the residents but have grown close to one in particular. This month is Madeliene's birthday. She's in her early 90's and I wish I were as clear-minded and as sharp as she is. We decided that my next visit, Kate will stay home and I'll take Madeliene to the local casino for lunch or dinner and a maybe a little time at the slots. She was really pleased and I told her that this would be her "ticket in the drawer." She was delighted with the term; she'd never heard it before.

A friend of mine taught me the term years ago. It was June and my husband was ill with lung cancer. He'd just had major surgery and had been in the I.C.U. for about a week. The doctor had opened him up and couldn't do anything for him but close him up again and try to keep him from bleeding out. Now he was just trying to keep him alive so we could try something else and keep fighting that horrid disease.

There was an announcement in the paper that Harvey Korman & Tim Conway from the old Carol Burnett Show were going to be appearing in town in October. These were two of Larry's favorites so I bought tickets. I took them and the announcement to the hospital, showed them to him and said, "check these out, but you have to keep improving and be well enough to attend." When he finally came home, the tickets were on the refrigerator door. My girlfriend explained that these were his "ticket in a drawer" and that when used they had to be replaced by a new "ticket" so he'd always have something special waiting for him. We replaced those with tickets to a movie he really wanted to see and then with a weekend trip to the coast. Knowing he had a "ticket in the drawer" gave him something to aim for and helped keep him going. He had a "ticket in the drawer" when he died. We had made reservations for another weekend at the coast and his son had bought tickets to an air show; he never got to use those tickets, but he knew they were there for him.

For the first couple of years after he died, I used to keep a "ticket in the drawer" or two for me so there was always something to look forward to and then I got busy with the day to day stuff and I hadn't thought about it for some time. But Madeliene reminded me today that we all need to be sure that we always have a "ticket in the drawer".

All Creatures Great and Small ...

"All things bright and beautiful,
All creatures great and small,
All things wise and wonderful,
The Lord God made them all"

The news programs are leaving me sick at heart. I sympathize and empathize with the people who are taking the hits from B/P's negligence and carelessness. I grieve for the families who lost a member to the explosion(s) on the rig. But my stomach turns and my heart breaks every time I see what's happening to the birds and sea life and other critters being destroyed by those who were given stewardship and assigned the caretaking of the "lesser" creatures.

In all fairness, I know it's not just B/P or just the oil companies, there are plenty others who neglect or just plain abuse the animals entrusted to us and I would hope and do expect that there's a very special place reserved just for them.

I've been told that only humans go to Heaven; animals have no souls. Now, first of all, if there are no animals - it's not Heaven. Second, maybe the only ones really entitled to enter through the pearly gates are those animals, be they pets or wild, who may or may not suffer at our hands and yet give us their unconditional love or, at the very least, do us no harm, intentional or otherwise. My four-legged family members are all enjoying extra hugs.

Katie and the walking rock

I'm an animal person, that's a given. One of my favorites is the turtle. When I was a youngster, I used to spend a lot of time at my aunt & uncle's. One summer, while visiting, I found a box turtle crossing the street. It was a fairly busy street and this was a fairly slow turtle, even by turtle standards. It had nail polish trim and a hole drilled into it's shell so it had been part of a family at one time. It also had some cracks in its shell which told me it had been injured in some way. I took it home to my aunt & uncle's and cleaned the injuries and gave it some lettuce and carrots and then did what every kid does ... "can I keep it, please?" My aunt, figuring the turtle would wander, agreed and I had a pet. I named it, what else?, Myrtle.

It, like most turtles,was focused and intelligent. It stayed in our backyard until it was time for me to return home. I convinced my mom to let me bring it with me. Her rationale was the same as my aunt's, it would wander. I had that turtle for 3 years. Did you know turtles hibernate? I didn't either that first year and thought it was gone. In the spring, there it was waiting for a handout. Did you know turtles are affectionate? Who'd have guessed. Myrtle learned to recognize my voice and would come out to greet me when I called. That little head would stretch w-a-y out so I could stroke it.

I'm reminded of this because I heard Katie barking in the back the other day and she isn't a barker as a rule. I went out to see what was bothering her and saw her barking at a large rock. Upon closer inspection, the rock was actually a large and beautiful turtle. Kate was really confused by a rock that could walk and that stuck a head out at her. By the size and shell, this one had been around for a few years. The turtle was on a mission and focused but the direction of travel would have led to the road so I brought it to the side yard, gave it some lettuce and carrot and water, and watched as it snacked and then headed down toward the creek. Kate sat watching and leaning her head from one side to the other still trying to figure out what that "thing" had been.

I pretty much take for granted the deer, coyotes, raccoons, quail, woodpeckers and other critters that I share my home with, but this was a cool treat. It's one of the reasons I'm so contented here and why I so enjoy my view from the porch rocker.