Moving along the project

P1040222.JPG
Originally uploaded by egret's nest.

This morning, Greg asked me what I wanted to do about my birthday. His gift to me is still my camera! :) But he wanted to help the kids get something for me. My mind was still on the painting I did yesterday and I suggested getting the wine barrels set up. So, we did.

Of course, the kids had to tell me that they were going to give me some stinky, old, used socks for my birthday first. Aren't I raising little angels?

We went off together -- all of us, including Ruby. In one of the nearby towns, there is a nursery that sells wine barrels -- 2 for $40. I have been coveting them for years. Well, today was my day. We got two barrels, three big bags of soil, and some geraniums.

Fresh burst of spring color!

The barrels are real wine barrels -- the ones we got had red wine in them. They are fresh from the winery and just cut in half. That's it. So, there is still a strong red wine smell to them and they are full of mold and mildew that's been growing on them. But they are huge and beautiful. When we got home, Greg moved them to the backyard and I hosed them out and then bleached them and hosed them out again. They looked great but I must say the aroma of red wine and bleach is an interesting one.

I'm sparing y'all the picture with the green mold in the water!

The next step was drilling holes in the bottom of the barrels for drainage. Needless to say, I called on my big, strong, burly, manly men and told them to bring power tools. They came running!

Greg did the drilling. Gage tried to turn the barrel over for me. Not gonna happen. They are HEAVY!

Next, I filled them with the soil and called the kids to help me plant. We dug and planted the beautiful little geraniums (really pelargoniums rather than scented geraniums) and watered them in.

Throughout the day, I kept getting distracted by the birds. They could care less that I was out in the yard -- or even standing within arms reach of the feeders. The feeders are outside my kitchen window and therefore are very close to our deck and back door. These brave little birds were coming and visiting and chirping at me despite my proximity.

Ruby also stayed with me for the entire project -- Ruthie took this picture of her. She's wonderful company!

A great early birthday present for me. (Ruthie took this picture)
Tomorrow . . . 43 years old.

Life in the Rainforest

Redwoods on the golf course across from my house.

I love living in a temperate rainforest. We live at the southern tip of the west coast's temperate rainforest. Temperate Rainforests are less well known than their tropical counterparts!Our dominant trees are Coastal Redwoods. We normally get around 60 inches of rain a year -- the highest year I've lived through was 111 but people died from the rain that year and we'd rather not do that again, thank you! (Mudslides are not our friends!) This year, to date, we have had 12.5 inches (our rainfall year starts in October). This is upsettingly low for the end of January which is usually one of our wettest months.

{Interesting historical record of Boulder Creek rainfall totals}

So, bottom line as pleased as we were to get a couple of days of rain, it's not enough. We need days on end of rain. Usually by this time of year, we are complaining about the mold on the windows and counting the mushrooms growing in the yard, not worrying about dry skin and wondering if we should turn the sprinklers back on. It's a wild year, alright.

In other news, we got our game table yesterday. It's wonderful. Of course, now we have to move lamps, make cushions for the chairs, figure out what this means for the rest of the living room but it's all good.

Look, Gage is dealing us up a hand of Crazy Eights!

Quiet Thoughts

The creek behind my house: Boulder Creek.

We bought our house in 2001. This view from our back deck -- which hangs over said creek -- is one of the main reasons we bought this house. This changeable creek runs year round but its character changes dramatically over the course of that year. In fall, it is a tiny trickle. In spring and summer, it is a beautiful flowing creek with deep pools for swimming, ducks, fish, and crayfish. In the winter though, it changes and takes on a new life. When storms rage here, our sleepy, quiet stream turns into a violent force of nature. The water levels swell, it flows downhill at breakneck speed. When we step into our backyard, the roar of it is deafening.

Same view, during a winter storm.

I love the beauty that surrounds us. I honestly think we live in the most beautiful place in the world but I never take it lightly. We haven't had a huge storm like this yet this winter which is a becoming more unusual as January is generally when winter really starts going here. Still, this view never ceases to amaze and delight me. At times, it brings me peace and then other times, it can fill me with energy and awe.

Now, a birding question. With this amazing creek nearby, should I provide water in my yard in the summer for the birds? Or assume that they can get water from the creek. In winter, during storms, it isn't an issue. Water is everywhere -- a pool of it would be quite redundant. But in the summer, are there birds who won't go down to the creek for a drink.

PS. Oops! I got caught (as evidenced by the comments) in an editing trap. I originally wrote a post about American Idol. Then I decided that it wasn't saying what I wanted it to say and I dumped it and wrote this post. But, people saw it, commented, and now their comments make NO sense whatsoever! Sorry! So, to recap . . . we watched AI last night as a family. Good: love the show. thought Jewel did a great job. Simon was actually quite decent to people. Bad: I hate it when these delusional people think they are going to win the contest and they are so untalented as a singer that they shouldn't have made it past the screeners. There is a meanness in letting them through that I can barely stand. I'd rather skip the auditions altogether and watch just the contest after they are chosen. And, I really worry about the poeple that they televise who are clearly mentally ill. Didn't see any last night but the previews look as if we'll be seeing some tonight. :( I do, however, get an evil, mean glee out of watching people who claim to be fanatics of the show and think they are going to get on -- that woman at the end who has all the episodes on tape. Isn't she paying attention? You can't just be an okay singer. You can't even be a good singer. To make it, you have to be an amazing singer and have showmanship -- you have to have or be able to develop the package. It's your favorite show and you can't see that? Wow. The funniest one though was the Lion girl. Seeing her sing the Cowardly Lion song was amazing enough but hearing her sing OTHER songs that way . . . {jaw falls open}. And, words I never thought I'd hear myself utter . . . Poor Prince. That medley of his songs. Wow. There was one woman singing one of his songs (the one with the tie who may have been in that mentally ill category) who she was nearly done before I recognized the song. Amazing!

Happy New Year!

My daughter and I just made breakfast for the family! We baked a coffee cake. The recipe is below:

New Years Coffee Cake
Ingredients:

• 2 cups Bisquick mix
• 2/3 cup of milk
• 2 tablespoons of sugar
• 1 egg (we substituted 1 mashed banana as we were out of eggs)
• 1/4 Streusel topping (recipe below)
  

Cinnamon Streusel Topping:

• 2/3 cup Bisquick mix
• 2/3 cup packed brown sugar
• 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 4 tablespoons butter (firm)

Mix all ingredients in small bowl until crumbly (we used the food processor to make this easy). Reserve until end.

Directions:

1. Heat oven to 375 degrees.
2. Grease 9-inch round pan
3. Mix together ingredients above until blended.
4. Mix in 1/4 of the Streusel topping.
5. Spread in pan. Cover with remaining Streusel topping.
6. Bake 18-22 minutes or until golden brown.

New Years Cleaning

I have spent the last couple of days -- and will spend a bulk of today -- helping my children get clean and organized for the new year. Day before yesterday, my daughter and I spent 4 hours cleaning her room. We felt SO good when we were done!

Glimpses of her room:

Yesterday was my son's turn. We didn't finish in 5 hours! We had to get ready for our New Year's Eve Party and left a HUGE pile of clothes on the floor. We are beneficiaries of a hand-me-down clothing stream. My best friend has a son who is just over 2 years older than Gage. He is downstream from a woman with a serious shopping addiction. She only buys the "best" and she buys lots of it. What her son is finished with goes to my friend's son and then to Gage. We then pass it back and it goes to another family with twin sons a year younger than Gage. I have passed on clothing with the labels still on them. It's amazing! So, we have to go through and try everything on and sort into "donate" "pass on" "save for later" and "put away."

In progress:

I hope to continue this effort into other areas of the house for the rest of the week. My office/laundry room/studio is one such area that needs my attention. Our bedroom and bathroom are another. And, then there are some cabinets that need some SERIOUS attention -- linen, kids' bathroom, all the kitchen cabinets! So, that's my plans for starting the new year!

I learned today from my friend, Cindy at What's That You Said, that cleaning everything thoroughly is an asian tradition for New Year's. She helped clean her dojo from stem-to-stern this week.

My New Year's Resolutions:

Home:

• re-institute a home management system (ala FlyLady -- I use her system as a loose guideline and modify to make it work for us!)
• plan 2007 calendar with camping trips and work weekends (working around the house!)
• research native plants for backyard landscaping
• put together a household emergency kit and one for each vehicle
  

Writing:

• write poetry weekly
• participate in One Deep Breath, Thursday Poetry, and Sunday Scribblings.
  

Family:

• take on one Miller Mission a month
  
• send out Family Annual Letter this year!

Kids:

• supervise kids' personal hygiene better
• create weekly chore schedule for kids and supervise it

Self:

• Continue to watch what I eat
• Take regular (daily?) walks -- take my camera and call it birdwatching! :)
  
• Layout clothes the night before -- use extra time in the morning to put on makeup!
  

So, overall, this is a plan to recover from two years of putting my schoolwork first. I need to capitalize on my half-time job (leaving me more "free" time) and make sure that we get back on the right footing. So much has gone by the wayside over the last couple of years and I want to make sure that we are ready for the future. It's also about being more actively involved in our lives -- rather than letting life happen to us. I've learned, in the past, that if I make goals and talk about them, I can make them happen. But, if I don't plan, make goals, and talk about them, nothing moves forward.

My wishes for my family and for all of you in this new year is to have a happy, healthy, fulfilling 2007.

PS. As a New Year's Treat, my birds are treating me extra well. I captured two male Anna's Hummers actually sharing the feeder. One was immature -- father and son? The other treat is that my chickadees are back! I let the feeders go over the holidays -- but cleaned them out the day after Christmas -- took the little darlings THIS long to come back and visit. I'm so glad to have them back!

A Quiet Day in the Dark

Around 3AM, the wind finally had its wicked way with the redwood forest that surrounds us and our power went out. Turns out that about 50,000 homes in the greater bay area lost power and about 5,000 in our little town (that would be about all of them!). So, we were not alone!

So, we had a quiet day at home. Well, as quiet as it can be in a neighborhood with generators blaring away! We live in a redwood forest and get all our rain at once. The power goes out a lot every winter.

Still, I had a big fire going and I sat and read most of the day curled up in a big, comfy chair with a mug (or two) of mocha watching the fire and reading. The kids (four of them from time to time) made it difficult but I managed to block them out. I read Julie Zickefoose's new book, Letters from Eden. And, all I can say is WOW! What a book.

Here is my review at LibraryThing.

The wind was amazing most of the day and I had the pleasure(?) of watching as a particularly fierce wind blew through and a branch came down from one of the redwoods. It was huge and scary! About 30 feet long and about 6" in diameter where it broke off the tree. A true widowmaker. Thankfully, it hit the road (with a clunk) when no one was going by. Greg went out and moved it and called Ruthie inside -- she was riding her scooter in the driveway. Better safe than sorry!

Updated Christmas Tree Bird Count

Inspired by recent discussions, I went to the half-off-invitation-only sale at the cute little shop where my mother-in-law works and got myself some new bird ornaments. Here they are . . .

{All my bird ornaments on Flickr}

Christmas Tree Bird Count

Glass Bird with Tailfeathers
Originally uploaded by egret's nest.

Laura at SomewhereinNJ offered up a challenge to count the number of bird ornaments on your Christmas tree.

Mine is paltry but I've only been "into" birds for a year or so. Perhaps it will grow over time.

The first bird is my glass bird with a feather tail. It clips on to the branch. It's very sweet.

The next one is the most seasonal. A Partridge in a Pear Tree.

And last, the most spectacular bird ornament . . . my peacock

I love the way he is looking over his shoulder at his spectacular tail in self-admiration! They do seem the most vain of birds.

So, that's it. My Christmas Tree Bird Count is just three but it's a start!

Thanks, Laura, for a great idea!

Edit:
In trying to find a source for the peacock, I found these interesting options:

• Merck's Family Old World Ornaments
• Bronner's (I've actually bought things from them and been happy with them)
• Christmas Forever Peacock Ornament (this is pretty close but . . . )
• Their other Bird Ornaments
• Swallow's Quest Peacock Ornament
• FOUND IT!!! On eBay, of course! Let the bidding begin . . .
  

O Christmas Tree!

O Christmas Tree!
Originally uploaded by egret's nest.

O Christmas Tree!
O Christmas Tree!
How lovely are thy branches!

I am so proud of our tree this year. We did it together as a family -- which is a change since usually I am the only one who can decorate a tree correctly! :) (Let go of the control, Liza!) Our tree is eclectic -- filled with ornaments collected over the years that are special to each of us. This year, the tree is huge and holds all our ornaments beautifully. Really, there are only a few that I didn't put on the tree and they will be scattered around the house in other ways.

And, now the countdown begins -- getting ready for the holidays. Oh joy!

Running room

Running room
Originally uploaded by egret's nest.

An empty room can
contain so many ideas
or just running feet



written for One Deep Breath's Weekly Haiku Prompt: Containers

Final Result!

Whole Living Room
Originally uploaded by egret's nest.

We are pleased with it. The yellow is muted and warm and glows. It could be more even but perhaps the mottling is part of its charm (she said, hopefully). As always, I see all the flaws but most people won't notice them. We decided against putting the black leather recliner back in the room. It was done and it served it's purpose.

When I was pregnant with Gage, my father's father died. My father's mother died when I was pregnant with Ruthie. Thus, I inherited a little money. We used it to buy a huge black leather recliner. I sat and rocked young Ruthie (my kids are 18 months apart) through many a sleepless night and then continued on with Gage in the same way. The chair had heat and massage which was blissful when I stayed in it all night by choice towards the end of my pregnancy. And, of course, it worked beautifully for nursing babies as well.

By the end, the massage and heat no longer worked. The seat cushion had a tear in it and we found we weren't choosing to sit in it anymore as it just wasn't comfortable! So, when we took it out for the carpet cleaning, we decided it didn't need to return.

In a perfect world, we would get a big wrap-around leather sofa with room for the entire family. We often all pile on the couch at night to watch TV, curled up under blankies, and cuddled together. A little more room would be NICE. But, it isn't a perfect world so another black leather chair may in our future. We'll have to see what turns up.

Yellow Walls and Chicken Nuggets!

Yellow Walls
Originally uploaded by egret's nest.

In the insanity of excitement of getting our carpets cleaned, I had the brilliant idea of painting the walls. The walls in my living room that soar up ridiculously high. So, I told my husband -- who SHOULD know better -- and he thought it was a great idea. I wanted to pull a shade of yellow out of the stonework of the fireplace and give the room a warm glow. He liked that idea and wanted to make sure that there was enough contrast with the white beams and trimwork. "Go bold," he said.

And, so I did. And, the result was YELLOW walls. And, not in a good way given that most of our furnishings are black, white, light wood, and a blast of red. Sigh. What to do. I have been watching a LOT of Debbie Travis' The Painted House lately so I got brave and went and got a sandy color of paint and a LOT of glaze. And, after some failed experiments, I ended up pouring a quart of sandy paint into a gallon of glaze and rolling it on the walls. The result wasn't EXACTLY what I'd hoped for but it worked. The room is still yellow but now it glows rather than glaring. I'm pleased. The trimwork around the windows (mostly) got a new coat of high gloss white last night. Greg will scrape the windows clean and it should be ready for furniture again. THANK GOODNESS!!!

And, then we can finally decorate for Christmas. I'll document everything with my fantastic new camera.

Speaking of which. I let Ruthie cook dinner for herself and Gage last night. She wanted to and wanted to -- particularly give me a break which is the type of sentiment I want to encourage in my daughter and son!!! -- so I guided her through the process of making chicken nuggets. She set the table for the kids, poured their milk, got them veggies to eat, and dipping sauces (ketchup and ranch) and proudly served up her first home cooked meal.

Yes, I was mighty proud of her!

Are the Clampetts moving in or moving out?

Is it more absurd to store your furniture in the entry way
Originally uploaded by egret's nest.

Neither! We are getting our carpets cleaned. All my living and ding rooms furniture can easily be stored in the entry way to my house -- or as my mother dubbed it, the lobby. You can't see it in the picture, but there is a path to the front door that is easily navigated.

Getting the carpets cleaned yesterday was SO wonderful. We bought the house with white carpets in it. White! We had, at that time, a 3 year old and an 18 month old. Our decision was to live with the carpet until we couldn't stand it anymore and then to tear it all out and put in something more practical. Well. Best laid plans.

Now the kids are nearly 7 and 8-1/2 and we still have the damned white carpet. So, each year before the holidays, we have it cleaned. My mother-in-law pays for it and we gratefully accept. It feels sooooo nice to walk in and see the carpets clean that you can ALMOST understand why someone would pick that color to begin with -- almost!

Two things happened with the cleaning though.

1. The kids went wild with the wide, open spaces. Running and wrestling ensued.

2. I went wild with the wide open walls and decided that we needed to paint the living room too. My husband (whom I count on to talk me out of such things) thought it was a swell idea -- even when I started talking about such insanity as paint techniques and pulled on my Debbie Travis overalls.


Insanity, you say? Here is my living room . . . it's so big that one shot won't give you the full impression.

(There are more interior shots here).

I've been watching Debbie Travis and have been inspired to make bolder choices. So, I chose a yellow color out of the stonework of the fireplace. Greg suggested I be bolder than I intended so it contrasted enough with the white beams, etc. So, I did. It was clear upon putting up the samples that the yellow was too yellow. No worries, I'll do a glaze technique over it to make it look like linen wallpaper. It'll be gorgeous!

And it will. But OH MY GOODNESS that's a lot of wallspace to cover with paint and then cover again and then drag a brush through. And, that is a tall ceiling and did I mention that I'm afraid of heights?

I'm really hoping that in the light of day, a 2nd coat of yellow doesn't seem necessary! Fingers crossed.

While I was at it, I painted an accent wall in the dining room green. Now that turned out good and was an accomplishable goal for one day.

But, it will look gorgeous when it's done. This is what resulted the last time I lost my head and did a paint technique on these walls.

And, yes, my friends, that is the world's largest TV. It's 80 inches and great -- although you have to be across the room from it to see it and we worry about neighbor's being distracted and driving into a tree when we watch it with the blinds open!

So, with that, I leave you with a link to a post at 10000birds to a great poem about birds and the depths of winter . . . {click}. Enjoy!

What happens when a simple drive . . .

New Dining Room Table and Chandelier
Originally uploaded by egret's nest.

. . . turns into a life-changing event.

Greg and I drove down our little valley yesterday. Our goal was to see what our local used furniture store had in stock. We forgot that it was a Sunday and since it was church-based store . . . they'd be closed. Oh well, it's a beautiful drive and since we had to get gas anyway, we stopped and loaded up on iced coffee and donuts at the gas station.

I know that lowered our sales resistance somewhat.

We stopped at a favorite little "antique" store which mostly sells reproductions at this point. Inside, they had this huge "old farmhouse table" with two teak benches. We did not need the benches but we have needed a new table for eons. This is not a great table but I think it's going to suit our needs fabulously. It's meant to look like an old farmhouse table and so they've put in a lot of "character". I suspect that at somepoint, I'm going to take it out on the deck and sand the heck out of it to put the "character" into it in a more authentic way but still. It's nice. Long and strangely lean (which as a mother with children, I kind of like -- I'm constantly reaching over to someone's plate for some reason). It goes with our Ikea chairs nicely -- in fact, Greg is going to go get us some more now that we can seat so many at our table. They don't sell the green anymore but I think a couple of reds and a couple of plain pines will do nicely.

And our new chandelier looks gorgeous over it. We spent two hours last night swagging it over to the right place above the table. The architect who designed our house was -- in my not-so-humble opinion -- a moron in many, many ways. So, fixing the light fixture was a necessity. I think it looks good. I took some clearer pictures of it as well but I think the warm glow in this picture better shows how nice it looks. Now I have to get the rest of the house looking this good! :) That's my "job" this week in the afternoons when I'm not working!

Redwoods on Golf Course

Redwoods on Golf Course
Originally uploaded by egret's nest.

Peace reigns again at my house. They did not catch the bad guy yet but since he's a local and knows the area, they have decided that he is not hanging out here but is probably hiding with friends somewhere. They'll just wait for him to slip up now, I guess.

So, we're enjoying a restoration of peace here. Although, I have to say, we're all locking doors again. We'll probably do that for a few weeks until this blurs to a distant memory.

We live on a golf course in the beautiful Santa Cruz Mountains. We aren't golf course people (whatever that means) but this isn't your everyday average golf course, either. This is the kind of place where you'll see the old duffer in the plaid pants playing right along with an aging mountain man with a huge frizzy beard wearing overalls. It's an unusual place. But utterly beautiful. Aside from the golf balls that regularly threaten the health and safety of our automobiles, I find that I love living on a golf course.

Of course, this view from my front yard doesn't hurt. :)

Manhunt in my backyard

manhunt in my backyard
Originally uploaded by egret's nest.

I know the pictures are terrible but here's the story . . .

My son and I are home alone and we hear voices across the creek. I go look and there's a man out there in the woods. I realize he's a sheriff and he has a gun drawn. Oh crap. I close the door and as I do I hear him say that he saw someone running through the woods. Great.

I figure I'd better let my neighbor know as her kids often play in the backyard and in the creek area. As Gage and I are walking over there, a sheriff drives by in an unmarked car and tells us that there is an armed man in the area and we need to go back to our houses.

So, we run back into the house. And, I see that there are now two sheriffs with rifles in just on the other side of my fence, on this side of the creek. Yikes. As I reach for my camera to capture the surreal moment, they start moving and I can't get the shot. One of them hops my fence and is on my deck that looks over my waterfall on the otherside of my big redwood grove. He walks back towards the house and gestures to me. I open the slider and he asks what our address is. He nods and I call Rosie into the house (well, I gestured and she could see me well enough to figure it out). He hopped the fence again and they moved up the creek. That's what this picture is --- super zoomed in (no tripod, of course). They had a dog with them as well. They moved up the creek and out of sight. So, CHP, Sheriffs, State Park Rangers, and even CDF firefighters were combing our neighborhood. Eventually, things quieted down and I took Gage to soccer practice. I have to point out that the entire time the golf course was open and golfers were doing their golfing thing. Quite the juxtaposition (SAT Word!!!) -- golfers on one side of my house; men in body armor with rifles on the other side of my house.

They are all still here. Greg came home early because he couldn't reach me (he didn't have his cell phone, mine isn't charged, everytime he or anyone else called, I was on the phone so it went to voicemail, etc., etc.). Just as he got home, the cops went door to door again. They searched our motorhome and 5th wheel this time with rifles drawn and german shepherd dogs. Rather intense. I'm really glad that Greg is home. He poured me the last of my Glenfiddich scotch and we watched TV after we made sure every window and door were still locked and talked about every minute detail.

He's probably holed up in the woods for the night and they won't see him tonight but they are staying here all night to keep him in the woods. There are more bad photos including a mug shot of the guy in question on my Flickr account. [click]

Big excitement.

Hard but satisfying labor

We are making some changes for the comfort of our new old motorhome. We have had -- for the past several years -- a canopy deal over our 5th Wheel trailer to keep it dry and undamaged by golfballs and falling redwood branches. But, that's not good enough for the motorhome. The FMC must have better so we are getting two new metal carports (Like these). The back one will house the motorhome and the front one will be double wide and will house two cars side-by-side. The FMC will be able to drive through both to it's little spot. We had to move a gate and dig up some debris (dirt) in the driveway, move a planter bed, and otherwise do some serious manual labor.

So, of course, we called on my inlaws. They love this kind of thing -- really! And, we all worked at it. Greg got a new shovel and pickax. Our old shovels are . . . old. The old pickax had actually fallen apart completely. And, we spent a few hours on it. We took a break for lunch and ate some amazing deli sandwiches that we made ourselves. The kids helped too -- digging and shoveling dirt and leaves into the wheelbarrow.

We got enough done for the carport people to deliver the carports now with no problem. Eventually, though, we'll finish it up by adding in a planterbox along the neighbor's fence and a rock retaining wall along the rest of the driveway down and around the mailboxes. The retaining wall will also have a planter box component to it as well.

My mother-in-law and I also tackled the front beds. The person we bought the house from had put in an English Cottage Garden in our front yard. Myself, I called it the Deer Salad Bar. I have replaced most of the inappropriate plants (like rosebushes -- ever seen what a deer can do to a rose bush in just one night?) with Lavender. Deer don't like lavender but I do. There were still a few Agapanthas left though. Agapanthas are very popular landscape plants because they are so hardy but deer do love them. I, however, do NOT love them. I don't like the flowers and I don't like they way they take over a garden and make it their own. I also don't like the way any tiny bit of root that you leave in the soil becomes a new Agapantha plant come spring.

Anyway, we dug the buggers out which is difficult work. There were two big clumps and then some "volunteers" from where I had dug out past clumps. Agapanthas are so tough that the clumps that I dug out 4 years ago and tossed on a mound of dirt for a friend who wanted them to come pick up (only she never did) are still growing happily sitting ON TOP OF THE DIRT! Evil plants! We found some volunteer Lavender plants coming up in one spot and replanted those. We put down some weed cloth and put fresh redwood bark over the whole thing. Finally, I hacked back my lavender. Lavender benefits from a good hacking (like 1/3 off!) once a year. It's hard to make yourself do it but the plant is much happier.

It looks so nice. See . . .


Oh, and last thing . . . after giving it great thought. Laura, this is a picture (not a good one, mind you) of what feels like home to me.

These cabinets came from IKEA. They were among the first furniture that Greg and I picked out and bought for ourselves that weren't hand-me-downs. They house our special books and art that we have collected as well as Greg's extensive music collection -- the right hand one is almost exclusively CDs. In front of it to the left is our Taos drum that we bought from the artist in Taos. On top of the cabinets are two amazingly beautiful duck decoys carved and painted by my grandfather. To the right, along the hallway wall, is the start of our picture wall. The first framed piece is our wedding invitation and next to it framed on top are the kids' birth announcements. It's the first thing you see when you walk in the front door and when I take a moment to appreciate it, it definitely feels like home.

Per Request!

One of the massive Redwoods
Originally uploaded by egret's nest.

More redwoods. More looks at my yard.

Unfortunately, redwoods are breathtakingly gorgeous and very large -- well, that's not unfortunate, unless you are trying to take a picture of them.



It is difficult to get an idea of how big and impressive they really are. Coastal Redwoods (the kind in my yard) are the tallest trees in the world. The ones in my yard are 2nd growth. This area was almost completely harvested for lumber 100 years ago during the rebuilding of San Francisco following the 1906 earthquake. So, the trees in my yard are young'uns. In Big Basin State Park (9 miles from my house), there are old growth redwoods. They are amazing and wonderful. Here is an interesting article from our local public library.