Praise

Life has been fairly routine here, since I last blogged 6 days ago -- (has it really been that long? I guess.)  So what does "routine" mean, in my life now?

At night I often wake a couple of times to gaze at the myriad stars and planets cruising across our patch of sky between the trees; going back to sleep, I praise God for such glory.

This morning we woke just before the sun came over the tips of the redwoods; John started the coffee while I looked at my new emails.  Then I realized I'd not posted a new blog for a long few days, and so here I am.

So last Saturday, Julie came up for the annual picnic at Bracken Brae, bringing pasta salad, guacamole and chips to contribute -- and also bringing Danny D. (who made the guac) and his friend Kassandra, who made and brought me a Dragon's Egg. Kass is great, very intelligent and polite; we really like her, we think.  She makes the eggs out of different colors and shades of clay, and bakes them in an oven; and they are just beautiful.  Each one has a "charm" attached to it, so to speak; there's a handwritten little scroll about it, included in the colored mesh bag that holds the egg, and also a matching handmade bracelet.  My charmed egg was for Friendship; I put it right in my pocket, to bring me new friends, and put on the bracelet -- and off we went to the community BBQ.  I took my Italian potato salad; everyone brought something, and the Committee grilled burgers and hot dogs and provided the accoutrements thereof; and the irrepressible Peter, still a bit jetlagged but game, went out and bought a kids' wading pool and filled it with about enough ice to sink the Titanic, and a great deal of beer, soda, and wine. It was a great time had by all, with some little kids and some codgers like us, and everything in between -- about 25-30 people, and I liked them all.

Sunday and Monday were stay-at-home days; Tuesday was Market Day in downtown Felton, about 6 miles south, and we went down to check it out.  Great food stands abounded (Indian, Mexican, kettle corn, spiced nuts) -- and wonderful fresh produce.  We loaded up -- the white peaches were superb, folks!

Wednesday and (so far, Thursday) have just been organizing days; our offices are up and running well, the kitchen is really almost done -- filing the spices away this morning was exhausting, I think we have too many, maybe?

And throughout all six days, the weather has been salubrious; cool, even chilly, at night, very fresh and bright every morning, warm and breezy during the day -- and cooling down slowly at eventide, as we sit on our redwood deck and toast another beautiful day gone by.

Praise God from whom all blessings flow.

Cruz-in'

Friday off: 

every moving person has to have a free day, and this was it for us.  We drove down from the hills to the sea, and spent an afternoon in Santa Cruz, hippie capital of the world.  After much cruising around, trying to find the lunch bistro that Julie had highly recommended, we finally found a good parking place right across the street from "Cafe Limelight" -- the best doggone dog-friendly bistro I've encountered.  It's small and cute, and the little patio is filled with people towing dogs or children or both, but all well behaved, thank God.  We had a superb hummus appetizer designed by Farouk (who was also our waiter); and we split a panino/salad plate and a bottle of 'Flying Dog' ale.  Although dessert was superfluous, it was superb: again, we split a tall dessert glass filled with espresso, vanilla ice cream, and a bit of whipped cream on top, called "Affogatto" (I call it "Heaven and Hell" -- it's hot and icy-cold at the same time, and simply delicious).

After dawdling on the breezy, sunny patio, we had no time to go to see the film we'd thought to try, "Mamma Mia;" so we drove around and around again trying to find stores we wanted to check out; that's tiring, folks.  So we hit Trader Joe's for a stock-up shopping and then headed thankfully back up the mountain.  East or west, home is best, as they say.

Jan and Peter, in one day (Thurs., July 24)

At noon we picked up Ms. Realtor Jan O'Neill,  of the County Kerry O'Neill's, and drove down to meet Julie for an our-treat lunch at a small Italian bistro in Scotts Valley, "In Vino Veritas."  We didn't have any vino, but we had some nice pasta and a delicious baby-beet and egg salad (better than it sounds).  Jan and Julie have done so much, together and separately, to facilitate our moving-in up here, and they enjoy each other's company a lot.

In the evening while we were fixing our supper just after dark, a weird apparition came into view outside our new kitchen window: a ghostly figure, waving cheerily.  "John!" I yelled, "there's something out there trying to get in!"  Brave husband went to the front door, and lo: it was Peter the Hermit, home already from Merrie England and stopping over to say "I'm baaack."  After just a bit over a week, he'd had enough -- "It's 40 pence to the dollar there, dammit!" he moaned, and "Worst mistake I've ever made in my life!" he groaned (frankly, I doubt that, from the look of him).

But his mistake is our gain; we're delighted to have him back.  Little Ashley was having a bit too much of a good time in Daddy's cottage after he left, and we were a bit worried that things would be getting louder and louder as summer wore on (you know how kids are when the parents are away, I assume?)  That worry is now over; and Peter, who gave me the Clavinova piano before he left, you'll remember, is a great neighbor -- and I think he'll become a very good friend.

Going To Town (Tues., July 22)

Alas, there comes a time in every NoCal resident's life when it is necessary to descend to Silicon Valley to worship at the shrine of Fry's Temple of Doom; this was our day.

We started out in good cheer, as the sun was lighting the treetops; on the way down through Bracken Brae's trails and vales, we passed a denizen of the woods who was walking her dog -- and her bird, in a cage strapped to her back (Bird Dog Walk, I guess).

We assailed the tortuously winding Bear Creek Road route to the Valley, and came dizzyingly down into Los Gatos -- the other Capital of Cute, sister city to Capitola on the Coast, I guess -- where we repaired to The Great Bear Coffee House for a shot of courage to face the day (cappuccino, that is).

Our first foray was to a mall in the area that had the biggest damn' Target Store I've ever seen; I was too overwhelmed to buy anything but a couple of boxes of Kleenex, but John bravely purchased a few things we needed.  Then it was on to the glorious Bed, Bath, and Beyond store, a few paces further along our road -- I could probably lose all of our fortune in a place like that, but we restrained ourselves to a few necessities.  (Leenie, I'm going to use your gift certificate there for a real duvet before winter strikes our hills.)  

At last, we reached the goal of the pilgrimage:  Fry's Electronics, the Church of the Silicon.  If it looks like an Egyptian temple on the outside -- and it does -- the theme is carried through with verve as you ride up the outdoor people-mover and into the darkened entryway, where spiffy uniformed  and well-informed lackeys await your every question.  I don't need to tell you that John really worshipped well there -- and on the way out, we passed a huge (plastic) statue of the Pharaoh Dog -- seriously, he was canine of features and all golden -- but not a Retriever, I thought -- unless he was meant to symbolize the retrieval of our funds into his vault.

Sated and pooped, we headed home, up out of the Valley of the Mammon and back to our etherial mountain aerie, thanking our Creator for bringing us safely back to Heaven.

A Day With My Baby Daughter

(Don't sniff, Julie dear; I can still remember you toddling about the yard on Pintura Drive, clutching your stuffed rabbit, your little ponytail bobbing and your laugh ringing; sorry, kid!)

So Julie came up to the mountains yesterday morning, bringing Farm Market treasures (blackberries to die for, oh yum!) and we had coffee and cinnamon loaf, and took a lot of photos of our work-in-progress here at the cottage -- and for Teri, lots of horticultural shots which I will leave her to label for us.  It was a glorious, bright day, with a cool breeze; and we girls went to lunch at Rocky's Cafe, one of the many little munch-out spots tucked away under the redwoods up here, before she returned to foggy Seascape.

This may not sound like a big deal to you, dear readers: but all I can say is that it was, for me. The sheer luxury of having leisure time to spend with one of my beloved kids is so far the Number One benefit of being retired at last.

from Country Club to Cathedral

This morning at 9 AM we walked down a trail to a lovely picnic grove, where the Bracken Brae organization holds its community meetings.  This one was called to discuss the advisability of installing water meters -- presumably to monitor water leaks in the lines, but we suspect it is really to start charging each homeowner for water based on actual usage -- and perhaps even to link our area up to the San Lorenzo Valley water system, as drought continues to ravage our private water supplies here.  I'd hate to see that latter thing happen, as the water here now is ambrosial and the "city" water is just OK -- anything's better than Goleta water, of course.

Anyway, the various discussions ensued with good will, and we really liked the neighbors -- they are of a sort you can imagine meeting at a town-hall gathering in pioneer days; strong, enthusiastic and intelligent pioneers of the redwood forest, in sum.  I'm glad they are so fine, as we all depend on one another up here for emergencies small and large, and we have to be able to cooperate.  There was a lot of discussion about the necessity to maintain the cohesiveness and rapport that has always been part of living in B.B. -- there was some fear that individual meters might create individuality!  But I don't see that being a problem.

Anyway, when the discussion got too much for me, I just sat back on the picnic bench and watched everyone to see how the interactions were, and looked up, up, up into the spires of the redwoods and thought, "I've never been to a community meeting in a cathedral before!  This is glorious!"

I came home and baked a bunch of chocolate-chip-oatmeal cookies for all of them: they went off to do some minor repairs about the property, and John took the cookies down to the grove and joined the workers at their planned lunch, and is now off helping dig a water trench or something.

Retail Therapy 2 (July 18, 2008)

Before I get to the retail part, let me remind you all that it will be very good therapy for all of us to get outside this evening just at dark, and have a look at the Full Moon!  (howwwl!)

So yesterday we did two kinds of shopping, one hated and the other loved.  First the bad part: we had to stock up on some boring household necessities like nails and pails at Ace Hardware, and tiskets, taskets and wastebaskets at K-Mart.  This chore was eased mightily by a fine outdoor patio lunch at a little Heavenly Cafe on the road to the shopping center.

But after lunch, we went to our local antiques/used-stuff store, and this part I loved!  I found a Perfect Chair for my Victorian escritoire -- a copy of a 19th century style that matches the desk almost exactly but is much sturdier than a real Victorian piece could be by now.  It's got lovely silvery-green patterned upholstery on the back and seat, in very good condition -- and the sight of desk and chair sitting near the French doors leading out to our back deck makes me just long to sit down and write a modern Jane Austen novel.....  We also found a fine small dropleaf table that will be just right in our breakfast area of the big kitchen; now just need two chairs for it; and for $1.00 each, I completed our happy shopping experience with two lovely floral-printed bone-china tea mugs.

Yes: it's time for "elevenses" -- and I'm going to make some tea now and get John to stop building the two new bookcases -- workers must rest!