Mind Boggling Month

How do I reconcile all death and destruction that went on this month with all the good, creative events?  As the beautiful golden leaves of October gave way to the bare branches of November, friends and family gathered together to celebrate the harvest, and to comfort each other in their loss. 

Good news first.  Roger and I are heading up our respective organizations this year, he is Master of the Grange for the third year in a row, and I will be the President of the SJC Textile Guild for 2014.  They won’t be easy terms, we are lucky to have great boards to help us through. 

Roger has been busy this month, first he built a root “closet” in our basement—it has a fan that will come on with a thermostat to keep it cold enough for potatoes, etc.  Then he built a new craft table for me so I could donate my bigger worktable to a new food prep area in the basement.  Then he built a new front end on the outdoor boiler for our radiant heat system.  And he’s brought in a lot of firewood on top of that.

I attended a Micro-Macrame/ cavandoli workshop by a nationally known teacher, Joan Babcock from Santa Fe.  Since the class I’ve finished a pendant and two bracelets.  I hope to have earring to match before too long. 

Check out her work at Joan Babcock's jewelry 

Roger’s birthday fell on the day after Thanksgiving this year.  Two days packed with family and friends and great food.  Our friend Shann returned to the island after ten months bouncing back and forth between Fred Hutchinson and University Hospital.  She made an appearance at the Cask and Schooner and made all of our days.

friends celebrating Roger's 58th birthday

 The major event of this past month, my sister Jeannette and my quick trip to Kansas City for the funeral of our Aunt Ruth was really a celebration. My mom and my aunt Ruth were very close growing up so we felt it was important to represent Mom's side of the family.  Aunt Ruth lived to one day shy of her 97^th birthday and was beloved by her children, nieces, nephews, grandchildren and great-grandchildren.  It was a privilege to be a part of that.  Jeannette and I immersed ourselves in family lore for three days.  

Jones cousins at Aunt Ruth's funeral

Evelyn and Ruth Jones, ages 14 and 18
 

 A weird week of communication blackout overshadowed this county of islands this past month when the cable connecting all of our long distance and most of our internet was severed, supposedly due to an earthquake.  Everyone experienced the outage differently, I could call Orcas Island for instance, but not anyone on a cellphone in Friday Harbor.  Here is an article in the Atlantic Monthly that describes the situation pretty accurately.

Atlantic Monthly article

The news was bad that week.  For one thing, Eric’s beloved lab, Pepper died suddenly on November 5^th.  My father-in-law made a trip to the emergency room,  two of my aunts were in critical condition one in Kansas City and one in L.A. This same week we learned that a friend’s son had died in a head-on collision on Maui,, and a horrible typhoon hit the Philippines, killing perhaps 10,000 people.

It’s hard to discuss quince/apple pie and macramé in the face of all this mortality.  And yet, I feel so blessed, to be surrounded by all this natural beauty, the great people in the Grange and the Textile Guild and my yoga class, all our dear friends, and large, loving family.  It's incongruous.  It boggles the mind.

 

 

 

Passages

signs of Spring

We didn’t go to the ocean, we are not going to Maui, we are not in Florida or Sayulita, or New Zealand.  We stayed home this February.  Hunkered down.  We are getting things done.  This is the time of year to go to the dentist, get the car tuned up, watch the Academy Award nominated movies on Netflix, get the income tax information together.  In between wind storms, we look for signs of Spring.  Roger cut a lot of firewood.  I went through old photos.  And framed some of them for the family photo gallery in my stairwell.

Roger's side
 

Layer on to that all the regular stuff like book club meetings, grooming the dog, birthday parties, and long walks when the weather allows.  Roger rearranged his nursery and potted up hundreds of plants to sell at the upcoming Farmers Markets.

Aunt Donna, cousins David and Karen visit F.H. for the first time

 Visitors arrived from North Dakota.  We are having better weather than there, right?  Aunt Donna and cousins David and Karen showed up one weekend.  Last time we saw them was at the Noonan, North Dakota Centennial celebration in 2007. (click here to see picture of Travelers Hotel in Noonan.) Donna’s husband Robert died right before Christmas so her son David took Donna out west to visit family.  That same weekend, we received word that Donna’s brother (Roger's uncle Don) in Renton suffered a stroke and subsequently died so it is a good thing that she came out here when she did.

prayer flags in the trees at Thornbush

 

I’ve been reading a lot, between watching movies.  Read a book called Joy for Beginners set in Seattle, about a woman who survived cancer and celebrated by rafting down the Grand Canyon.  She challenges each of her friends to take on a new skill or task that, wouldn’t you know, changes her life.  This was a novel.  But I have a friend who recently rafted down the Grand Canyon.  Now she finds herself in a cancer ward in Seattle.  Family and friends are rallying around as can be expected but it is just another reminder to cherish these Very Rich Hours.  Even in the gloom of February.

5th Anniversary of my Retirement

Hired at Metro 8/9/77 retired at K.C. 1/31/08
 

This month marks the fifth anniversary of my retirement from King County Metro.  It occurred to me that I have now been retired longer than I was Supervisor of Scheduling. Wow.  My successor, Jon, has been a supervisor a year longer than me.

2013 begins with a New Year Celebration with the gang.  Here’s a pix looking down from above. 

I didn’t realize that we had instructions to all wear blue. . .

 Father-in-Law Al turned 87 and celebrated with a visit from Lil and Bree and Guy’s family. 

Miles and Austin size up the pony ride

 

Niki shows Al and Bree pictures from her phone

I wanted to show a picture of the loading dock that Roger built last Fall.  It has an outdoor sink perfect for bathing the dog, also we’ve moved the worm compost system here from its original setting behind the shop.  The dock has been very handy for many projects.  Here’s a picture of my willow harvest this winter.

Four kinds of willow plus some plum

 

The weather this winter has been fairly mild, but we have had a few frozen days.  Here are some pictures—of the frozen waterfall at Eric’s and a picture of the path to the pond—compare this to last July’s picture.

 

 

 

Click on to enlarge

 

Roger has been busy rerouting the railroad around the boiler to meet up with the new loading dock.  He has also been collecting up to 18 eggs a day from the two chicken flocks.  And he’s been getting the nursery ready for Spring.  The Grange is busy making plans for the year including a seed exchange.

 I managed to finish a basket this month.  And I got to go to our annual spa retreat with Liz, Jeannette, and Michelle.  And last weekend R and I went to Seattle, visited the new new MOHAI, and celebrated Diane’s big 6-0.   Mine will be coming up soon enough.

Celebrating the 60's

 

The month of January was filled with family, friends, projects, natural beauty . . .

 

It looks as though this retirement thing is working out just fine.

  

What I've been up to

Gosh it's late February already.  I'm sure you're all wondering what I've been doing in the dead of winter.  As last we left it, we were pretty much snowed in for a week.  Lovely, lovely time.  But then the events that were postponed bumped up against other events and I feel like I've been double-booked ever since.

Karen Z, Carol C, and Victor O at Janey's Retirement Party

I've been on a couple whirlwind trips to the Mainland, one fun (Janey's retirement), one not so fun (dental work).  I've been weaving at a workshop on Orcas for a few days.  I've been to several parties, the playwrights festival, and a lot of meetings.

Susan M working on Doubleweave Pattern

And in between all of these things, I've been painting my upstairs bath and bedroom.  Bright colors. 

Outside, the weather improved quite a bit and has actually been quite mild since last month.  That all came to an end this weekend when it started snowing again.  Roger and I have been chipping up all the tree branches and shrubs we put into piles last July (sometimes it takes us awhile).

Note snow on lens of camera

We also started a tree house for our grandkids!  First, cut off a Willow Tree a few feet off the ground.  Then let the willow sprouts encircle a floor attached to the stump.  Place gangplank from higher level across chasm to "crow's nest".  Begin weaving basket using willow sprouts as stakes.  In a couple years, ya got yourself a treehouse!

This month also marked the beginning of my first book club since retirement.  Five of us met at my house for a dinner of West African cuisine as we discussed Little Bee by Chris Cleave.  It'll be a great success if its only half as good as the ones I've belonged to in Seattle.

Looking forward to March we planned more home improvements, another retirement to celebrate,  more meetings and parties to attend, and the best of all, helping take care of the twins when our grandson arrives in the world.

It's a Blizzard!

Christmas 2011

Bjorn's family joined us for the Christmas weekend.  It was a wild and fun time as holiday weekends are meant to be.  Roger's dad Al and brother Eric as well as my sister Rosalie and her husband Tom joined us for Christmas dinner.  Next year, we will be enjoying the company of our new grandson as well.  He'll be nine months old and ready to tear into that wrapping paper.

The following weekend we hosted our long time friends from Seattle for a New Year's celebration.  As usual, we had plenty of great food and conviviality. 

Then, at the first Grange meeting of the new year, Roger was elected Master in what might be considered a landslide.  He has been busy creating committees and taking stock of building maintenance needs ever since.  Being elected Master means that many people believe in his leadership abilities.  He is very committed to proving his constituents correct.  2012 is setting up to be a noteworthy year.

Every January I join my friend Liz, sister Jeannette and other friends for Spa Day at the Olympus Spa in Lynnwood.  This is a tradition that goes back more than ten years.

tour of Olympus Spa

The following week, I spilled hot tea on my HP Laptop and ZAP! no more computer.  A week and several hundreds of dollars later, you are now witnessing my first blog on my new Acer laptop.  Thanks goodness for Rockisland support and their ability to save all my files, pictures, contacts.  Let this be a lesson to all of us about backing up our files and not drinking tea around valuable electronic equipment.

This week it is all about the weather.  After teasing us for several days with light little flurries, the weather gods gave us a bit of a blizzard this morning.  Temperatures in the mid- twenties (stop smirking, Linda)  I must have passed some sort of threshold nearing the fourth anniversary of my retirement from Metro, because I'm not even interested in following the news about how many artics are jack-knifed all around Seattle.

I



view from bathroom of 2008 snowfall

Yes, it has been four years since my retirement from Metro.  Four years full of craft, home-improvement, socializing, communing with nature, doting on my dog.  I'm living the life I've dreamed about for over thirty years.  Wouldn't trade it for nothin'.

Thornbush in Winter



It's busy.  No lie.  Whoever said this was the slow time of year had no idea.  It's not just sitting around watching American Idol and Glee on tv in the evening.  First there's the regular, the mundane that still must go on:  finding firewood and building fires, feeding the chickens, grooming the dog.  Add to that the on-going projects:  working on the carport (forever), building a new gate for the nut grove, and getting ready for another year in the garden.

Greenhouse veggie starts

bamboo and willow gate



where gate will go (after deer trashed the last one)



There are the regular meetings at the Ag Resource Committee for Roger, yoga for me, plus the burgeoning community and volunteer involvement:  helping to move the co-op into the larger building, rejoining the Grange (I'm now the "Grace" Pomona), Winter Farmers Market, Soroptimist Fundraisers, and on and on.  Now that I'm the SJ Island rep for the Textile Guild I have board meetings on the ferry, monthly meetings at the library, and quarterly meetings on the different islands-last month on Shaw- to attend.



Then there are the classes. Right now, Roger is attending a two day class called Holistic Management for Farming. holistic management link Last weekend I took a two day willow class from Katherine Lewis of Dunbar Gardens of Skagit County.Dunbar Garden Website  My friend Monique from Seattle joined us and did a great job with her very first basket. 



That's Monique in front row on the far right



And I attended an amazing class on double weave in January from an expert from Santa Fe, Jennifer Moore.  Here is her website: http://www.doubleweaver.com/workshops.html  This class involved going to Shaw to borrow a loom, going to Orcas to warp the loom, then three days of ferry riding to attend the class on Orcas, then returning the loom to Shaw.

And then there is the ever present looking for signs that winter will end soon and Spring will begin.  It is 34 degrees outside and sunny.  A walk around the place finds that the daffodils are about six inches high, the hellebores and heather are blooming, the Indian Plum is leafing out, and I am "forcing" two vases of red flowering currants to bloom in the house.  Four more weeks until the Spring Equinox.