A Week In The South

Last week we were in Santa Barbara, having a good visit with my siblings and getting some things taken care of that were necessary. I had my yearly physical and mammogram and passed both with flying colors – my doctor practically threw me out of the office, I'm so disgustingly healthy.

We had a couple of good visits with friends; took my brother out for a belated birthday dinner at the funky cook-your-own-steak restaurant in Carpinteria (The Palms); and saw the "Harry Potter VI" film at the beautiful Arlington Theatre. We got to Mass at Trinity, our dear old parish.

On the way down, we stopped overnight in Carmel Valley, and did some research on venues for the 2010 family reunion (the RU-10 Blog is almost up and ready, and everyone will be alerted when it is published).

Now we're happily back home in our dear cottage; and we are trying to finish up all the little odds and ends of chores that need to be done for this season – so that we can take the entire month of August "off" and just enjoy the beautiful summer weather on our deck overlooking the forest.

I have lots of good reading saved up for that time, including an anthology of James Baldwin's nonfiction and the newest McCall-Smith novel about Botswana's "No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency." We will do some local excursions to places we haven't checked out yet, and begin a regime of daily morning walks. I plan to get back to regular daily piano sessions – and writing exercises to prepare for the first book of my memoirs (which will grow, I hope, out of my September visit to my childhood's home in Ann Arbor).

As part of my writing work, I will try to keep this blog going with a sort of Summertime Pastorale, to record what we hope will be a much more peaceful August than our last year's moving-in process could allow. (If I get too flowery or effusive, please send me a nasty comment-note and I'll tone it down!)

Summertime, No Blues

We love summer in the mountains: clear blue skies, temperatures around 75 F. with light breeze – and very warm in the midday hours on our back deck. The Glorious Fourth passed almost unnoticed up here (by us, at least). There was a kids' parade on Route 9 last Saturday, but we abstained; stayed home and had a very restful day. On Sunday, Joe and family came up for an all-American Barbecue (hot dogs, cornbread and beans, salad stuff and watermelon); otherwise we did little celebrating on the outside. In our hearts, of course, we were quietly celebrating a great Democratic president and the newly seated senator from Minnesota!

We are getting ready for an excursion down to Santa Barbara next week; I have my annual physical checkup scheduled there, and it will be a chance to visit with siblings and friends. So even though we don't like to be away from our mountain greenery, we will enjoy a little Southern (CA) hospitality, I'm sure. We plan to stop overnight on the way, in Carmel Valley, and will research the venues available there for next July's family monster rally.

John still has too many chores on his List, so I've declared a Month Of Jubilee, for August. We have promised ourselves that during that time, we will do no chores beyond the absolute daily necessities; make no lists; tote no barges, lift no bales. We need to practice the ancient and honored art of Doing Nothing (Guilt-Free). I'll let you know how that goes! But if we can't make ourselves take a real "Stay-cation" this year, it's my opinion that we just need to get away, next summer, for a month. To this end, I'm wondering if anybody would like to trade homes with us for next August? As long as this trade was fairly equal (i.e., the trader lives in a nice place, is reasonably neat and fair with our property, and trusts us with theirs) I think it might be a great idea for all concerned.

Any interest? send me an email, or leave a comment below!

One Year Anniversary

We are celebrating! We felt that our first wonderful year in Boulder Creek deserved a special observation, so we have given ourselves a holiday – no work, no list-making, no administration; just fun.

We began with a little breakfast of fresh OJ and a short-stack of fine pancakes with warm fresh raspberry sauce. This repast was followed by the unexpected arrival of some big trucks with tree-men, and we watched them take down a couple of dead oaks in the neighbors' yard. As the noise became rather obnoxious, however, we decided to drive down to Santa Cruz and have a fancy lunch at an excellent Italian cafe in the center of town: we had a wild arugula and prosciutto salad, shared a small appetizer bowl of fresh clams in a wine/butter broth; and I had a half-order of cannelloni with a glass of Veneto pinot grigio (John had a mixed-seafood pasta). When we got home, neighbors came by with a dozen fresh eggs laid by their hens this morning -- another benefit of living in the country! Tonight we'll have a bit of bread and cheese and share a bottle of champagne, and we'll be off to sleep in the beautiful, cool evening that follows a delightfully sunny and mild day.

For all of you who have shepherded us to this peaceful valley, and for the Good Shepherd who watches over us all, we are eternally grateful, today and forever.

The Miceman Cometh

Some of my dear readers may be wondering: "Whatever happened about the Mysterious Mouse Infestation of the past winter?"

Yes, it was mice, not rats – for which we are devoutly grateful – that were sneaking around, gobbling up or distributing chocolate peanuts, at Christmastime. Our "ratzinger" gizmo trapped a few of the critters, in the space of a couple of months, and there has been no sign of any activity since. But today we had a professional exterminator come out to have a good look around and make recommendations for critter-proofing the house and grounds.

The good man did give us some free advice, and allowed as how this is Their Territory, and we must learn to co-exist with the forest denizens. However, he did not suggest that we offer them food and shelter; he showed us where and how to beef up our house-armor (inserting clumps of steel-wool where needed, clearing a couple of outside areas that a mouse might interpret as a sort of welcome mat, etc.) He gave us a list of foodstuffs that must not be left out uncovered. He inspected some suspicious little dust piles along the ledge of our bedroom "barn wall" and assured us that it was not termite issue -- it might be carpenter ants, but it might also be very old stuff that just shakes out of the tongue-and-groove construction of the wall with our occasional little temblors up here.

All this service (he was here for a half-hour) and advice, and he does not charge a cent; he said he likes to be helpful and also knows it's good will: when we do actually need him to do something we'll be inclined to call him, and then he will charge for work done. I like this policy!

Actually we have had little to no observation of "outside pets" coming inside; it's summer, and they are enjoying all the fresh air and free woodland foods. If we get some uninvited guests when the weather turns cold, later in the year, we can call our friendly service, and he pledges to be out here within less than 24 hours to help us.

I can say philosophically that I am at peace with the understanding that we have moved into "their" forest, and that one of the exigencies of living in such beauty is that we are sharing the space with the natives. But they didn't pay for the cottage: and I know Leenie and Greg would certainly not want us to lower the drawbridge for anything with four legs (or 100, in the case of a centipede) – they might even have some two-legged potential objections too! So behave yourselves, friends, when you come to visit!

The Sweat-Equity Pit

Quite a few years ago there was an amusing/horrifying Tom Hanks film called "The Money Pit" – about renovating an old house. Since that's what we've been doing for the past two months of springtime, I can relate. Although we haven't spent scads of money on this project to which we set ourselves, we have worked hard and put in a lot of time; but we are almost done with The List.

The two major projects were redoing the awful floors in the parlor and guest room – and reconfiguring and creating space-saving built-ins out in John's little studio (The Doghouse).

To get the floors done, we had to move everything out of the two rooms, including all the books and the bookcases, all the "tchotchkes" in the curio cabinet and the cabinet itself, etc., etc.  The cottage has looked like Moving Day for a few weeks, with boxes of books and decor stuffed into various corners of the place and furniture piled into other rooms. We were "floored" at first by the task of choosing the right shade of green for the floors, to blend with other walls – and still another tint for the parlor alcove. But we triumphed, I think: we are very happy with the final results. The actual work was done by a local professional painter, thank God – and we had a couple of days of rest at our beloved Merrybrook cabin while that was going on.

John decided to save a lot of money by renovating his studio himself; and he really worked! But that too is almost ready for prime time; and I'll take photos this weekend of that space and the changes in the cottage, for an album to send to all who might be interested.

We've also had to break down and buy a few furnishings for the newly spiffy interior. The former parlor chairs (which Leenie scornfully calls patio furniture and Souffle more kindly dubbed "engineering style") are out, and two lovely Queen Anne style recliners are in. A great secretary desk graces the entry foyer, and John uses it for household work-space; I use it for storage of linens and such in lower drawers, and our collection of steins and cups from our days in Germany in the upper, glassed-in shelves. I also found a nice little oak dinette table and chairs, for the parlor alcove..... The old and infamous leather sofa that lived temporarily as a guest-room bed has been given away to a single mom who desperately needed furnishings; and in our now much less cluttered little Sanctuary Room, we have our bookshelves installed against one long wall. We bought a very clever ottoman that takes up almost no room but expands into a single bed – for the use of any pilgrim in need of a quiet, peaceful retreat. I still have my writing area here at the lighter end of the room by the window; and I'm looking for a comfortable chair to go with the ottoman, for a reading corner by the library shelves.

Well, you may see the photos soon; and as we work to finish everything up by the one-year anniversary of our moving-in, on July 1st, we are looking forward to a lazy, quiet two months of summer ahead. It's been quite cool up here during these past months, for which we are extremely grateful; but as the warmer days are coming, we hope to be relaxing on the back deck in days to come!

Go Slugs, Go!

It's been a Zoological Morning in our little woodland home. John found his first Banana Slug (proud mascot of UC Santa Cruz) on our property; and a confused bird flew into his Studio as he was working with the door open. The slug moved on (slowly) but John says it really looked like a wiggly banana, very bright and shiny yellow (eewwwhh).  The bird was stunned (but not nailed to a perch) and then it shook its little feathers and flew back out again. I only thank God it wasn't me in that Studio!

In other news, I will also go (faster than the slug) – to Ann Arbor, home town of Fran and the University of Michigan – in mid-September! I reserved my ticket this week, and am getting very excited about Recherchezing Les Temps Perdus in preparation for writing my memoirs. My high-school buddy, Diane, still lives in Michigan and will come over to spend a day with me while I am there – it will be a great help to have two minds digging into our respective memory banks for juicy stories, and it will be a lot of fun to get together again with her after all these years.

In preparation for the trip and the writing task, I am working on a couple of teaching tools for writers of autobiography:  Natalie Goldberg's "Old Friend From Far Away," and "Courage and Craft" by Barbara Abercrombie. Both full of excellent exercises for waking up memories and learning to write them down.

As soon as we're really done with our Spring Turnout of this house (by the end of June, we hope) I will buckle down again to daily writing and discipline.  Meanwhile, the house is still in a bit of an uproar, but we're working on it every day and ought to have it ready for a "before an after" photo album soon!

Babysitter Story, Chapter 2

No doubt it's really silly to refer to this weekend with Josh as "babysitting." He is not a baby, and doesn't require much "sitting." I fix meals for him, and keep him company (and make sure he gets to bed finally, after the lengthiest getting-ready process I've ever seen in my life). 

Friday evening after he and I had an early dinner, I bargained with him: "If you get all ready for bed now, we can watch a movie together before you go to sleep." He was pretty fast with the process, based on that deal. The great film biography of Johnny Cash, "Walk The Line," was on CBS, and we watched it together. Josh asked very well thought out questions as we watched: "Exactly when did all this happen?" was one of my favorites -- the 60s costumes probably made the timeframe look like a long-bygone era to the lad! He asked about the problems and pain that ensue with drug abuse, and was interested in how June Carter's care for and love for Johnny made a good man out of him eventually.

On Saturday morning, Josh came downstairs and asked, "May I watch some TV while you fix breakfast?"  I said, "Sure, it's Saturday, want to watch cartoons?" He replied, "No, I like the Discovery Channel."  He watched a program on wildlife during Arctic summer, and we discussed it as I fixed a pretty good pancake brunch with fresh fruit and yogurt.

In the afternoon, Aunt Julie drove down from Seascape and went with us to Monterey to see the brand-new (and wonderful!) Pixar film, "Up."  It will be much loved by all ages of kids and adults, I predict.  We did a little shopping afterward, and I took us to dinner at P. F. Chang's (Josh ate a huge plateful of Shrimp in Lobster Sauce over rice -- after some hearty appetizers, of course.)

I think that at least I've partially redeemed myself after the rocky start to this grandma weekend!