Beaches and Swings

Oh poor us. We spent the weekend in Carmel-by-the-Sea. My boss is such a kind and generous person he let us stay in his little get-a-way place (which happens to be bigger than my every-day place). We had two perfect weather beach days. Anyone who knows anything about Carmel-by-the-Sea knows what good luck that is. There was one small thunderstorm, maybe 5 minutes long, just enough to help put out the fires that happened in the area.

Little J wants to move in with the boss. For these things especially...



The Swing ....

The Beach

Stop to Smell The Roses

In the early 1970's Dad started a Rose Garden at the Community Church of Monterey Peninsula. He moved on to many other churches and left roses here and there. Here's a photo from the Annual May Rose Garden tea in 1994. Dad always liked to visit his old gardens. I am sure he would be pleased to see that today the garden at CCMP still thrives, almost 40 years later. I'm betting this just a small sample of a Dad's rose legacy.

Mission Blue

It's been a year since my dear friend passed away. Her daughter and I spent the day doing all her favorite things... we started off with the Big Duchess of teas, played every Flambeau tune that's ever been recorded, visited her old neighborhood, climbed to the top of the city on our windy mission, and finished off with chili dogs and hot fudge sundaes at Fentons.

A day of memories, mixed emotions and final goodbyes to a dear dear friend and mother. We miss ya, Micky. You're free to fly with the butterflies now.

"Come to the quiet place where your soul is refreshed, your mind is soothed and your heart is restored. Linger with Him and He will give you peace. "

Reviving Uptown... and others

Once in a while the preacher's kid syndrome emerges in mysterious ways and I post an entry that might seem to be a bit sacrilegious (not to be confused with sacreligious or sacrilicious as defined at urbandictionary.com). I figure Dad always had a good sense of humor, including when it came to his profession, so my minor little quirks aren't meant to be offensive to anyone. In the interest of being an equal opportunity blog, it's time to balance out these little indiscretions...

A few months ago I decided it would be appropriate for Little J to experience a bit of religious education. I have to admit that part of this decision could be based on the guilt that comes from taking my own children to church only a couple of times in their entire upbringing. I further admit that those infrequent visits came about only because we often visited Dad and occasionally those visits happened on a weekend. Church attendance was a mandatory event within that territory if we wanted to please Grandpa.

Over the last few years Lil' sis and I did our 2 step church routine, attending Christmas and Easter services at several churches in the area. When I looked back at those visits, I figured First Presbyterian Church of Oakland would be a good fit for Little J, mostly because of the wide diversity of the congregation. What I have since discovered is that it is a good fit for me also.

In hopes of connecting with the revitalized neighborhood that surrounds this church, especially the 20-40 year old generation, Rev. Stokes has started a new weblog, Reviving Uptown. I'm hoping he experiences a huge success in these efforts.

Save my seat next Sunday, sort of halfway down the aisle, on the left side please.

Belated Birthday Tribute

I didn't forget Mom's birthday yesterday. I knew it was the day, acknowledged it in my own way, but neglected to pay any tribute blogwise. Lil Sis took care of it and I snagged the 1921 photo off her blog. Mom would have been 87 but sadly died at age 52.

Wutz an Epert?

Halfway through my morning newspaper (yes I still read paper print... what can I say it is a 50 year habit... plus sometimes my only exercise is that daily trek down the long steep driveway to retrieve the local paper), I knew I hadn't had enough coffee. So I refilled my favorite mug and went back to check the fine print. Yep, I really had read it right. There it was, in the headline, in bold print, clear as day: "Eperts". Now, I know all about E-mail but what the heck is an Epert? Could it it be another one of those "E"ventions, perhaps something or someone trim, stylish, bold and maybe a bit saucy? I did read the article and in my opinion, the answer to the first question in the headline is a definite "No"...TMI (you do know what that stands for, right?).

Gold Panning

On the way out of town after the KarflukiFest we stopped to check out some gold panning and found this little nugget.
We also found the perfect babysitter.

Karfluki

Most people went to the KarflukiFest for the Tempest Celtic Rock birthday celebration. We went to see Tom Rigney & Flambeau. It was the best performance, proven in my humble opinion by the number of dancers in front of the stage. Interesting enough Tempest did the opening act for the Sundogs years ago and guess who was in the Sundogs. Yep, Mr. Rigney. A special bonus for this beautiful day, I happened to drag Lil Sister to the Karfluki Fest. Wouldn't you know, she purchased two raffle tickets and won the grand prize... a Fender steel string guitar signed by all the artists of the day. Way cool for her. Now she just has to learn to play it.

Who Says I Can't Grow Anything

I've spent most of my early spring pulling out blackberry bushes from the area above my house. They grow rampant and hadn't been trimmed in years. I finished the job barely 3 weeks ago and now see the remaining shoots have already sprouted up taller than the corn that Little J planted in their place. The deer ate the tomato plants that hubby put in. Even the pumpkins didn't sprout. I have a feeling the spindly little carrots will disappear too. OK, so I give up. I'm going to let the yard to it's natural thing. Even if 90% of the hillside is this...Yep, that is my fine crop of none other than Poison Oak. Itch itch itch.

Mating Calls

Such a commotion up on the rooftop today, on my day that I work at home. At first I thought it must be raccoon mating season. There was such a ruckus. Plus what I thought were the unmistakable raccoon mating calls. Three times I went out to check. Three times I did not catch any wildlife action. Was wondering if it was my imagination. But, the cats were acting kind of squirrelish, running back and forth from the front door to the back door, howling like cats in heat. They obviously were confused too. Finally, I caught this little critter out in the driveway with the basketball... 2 points for not dunking it down the chimney.