We’re baaack. And already in the weeds. Not surprising. The yard is full of weeds. The house needs things. The animals need things. I apparently need to do some work, both art and school. All good. Not doing school yet though. Sticking to art and the yard.
Can’t remember when I last posted…ah yes, we’d made it to Santa Ynez, but hadn’t done anything yet. Our rule was hike then relax. I mean, hiking is a form of relaxation in itself, but we wanted to make sure movement was a part of this trip, because the day job makes it hard to do anything but the day job. Hiking has fallen by the wayside. It’s easy to leave out the exercise, and we didn’t want to leave it out. SO. We hiked first, up in the mountains, where we found out that the Lake Fire last year had impacted part of the hiking trails.
It was beautiful out there and there were a bunch of people at the trailheads, but we managed to be quietly alone for a goodly portion of the trail. Which we prefer.
Burn was pretty obvious.
Apparently the boychild worked this fire last July.
We did a little over 4 miles. The weather was perfect…a little chilly, not too warm. The flowers were starting to bloom. Some of the oaks were coming back, some of the other stuff too. We didn’t see the pines coming back, but maybe it takes them longer.
After that, we headed out for a wine tasting. We wanted a pro-white-wine tasting and wandered around Los Olivos with a lot of really drunk people and dogs until we found a place that was more white friendly. Like white wine friendly. To be clear. We’d done a lot of reds at the last place and they’re not my favorite. The last place did give us an extra tasting though and then a great deal on two bottles of white. This place was interesting…different wines.
But he revised the tasting for us and we appreciated that. Afterwards, we were in the mood to feed some ostriches and emus (like you do)…
If you’ve been to Solvang, you’ve probably driven by Ostrichland and thought WTF. But you know, these guys are truly prehistoric-looking and fascinating up close.
Also a little terrifying to try to feed them.
It was totally worth it. We had dinner out at a place that wasn’t really known for its food, obviously. No amazing food this trip…oh wait, the sandwiches we had from the fancy grocery store…they were damn good. But otherwise? Eh. We did get apple strudel (well I did) from Solvang. It was good.
Then Sunday, we had to come home. It wasn’t a bad drive (knock on wood) for once…Los Angeles can be hellacious. Although this was interesting…
Let’s get that out there please.
I finished one Rooted tree (March block, Sue Spargo) on the way home…it’s the only one I worked on the entire trip.
I started the next one once I got home…
Once we unpacked everything and checked on all the animals and I ran to the store for essentials because the Man had to read a chapter and take a quiz and write an essay. The furry beasts seemed happy to have us home…
Poor pup. And I started quilting the piece I was working on before I left…
And emailing all the people I was supposed to deal with while I was gone. Fun times. I’ll be quilting today, getting vaccines, already took the dog to the vet and survived an earthquake in a building full of animals (5.2 just east of here…felt bigger). I even have pilates later. Although my stomach is not happy with me at the moment. Hopefully it’ll figure that shit out before I’m lying down and exercising. Just felt another aftershock. That one got a boof out of the dog. Hopefully I’m back on a normal blogging schedule now. It was nice to just check out for a week, but for some things, I really am a routines person, for good or bad.
Well I said that a week ago and I feel like that’s all I’ve been trying to do for 7 days. Mostly succeeding. No super long hikes like trips in the past, but lots of little ones. Plus reading, stitching, drawing, and staring deeply into fires. Also not having a clue what day it is, which is the absolute best thing ever. We didn’t do a long road trip last year because I had to pay to fix the flooding damage, and I really missed it. I’m glad we did it this year.
We’re not back yet, by the way. I just have some time while the Man watches some videos for school, and I’m not really in the headspace to draw…ironic since a quilt fully drew itself in my head about 10 minutes into our drive today.
So we left last Saturday and took a couple hefty drive days…California is beautiful, even from the car…especially in Spring.
We stopped in hotels in tiny spots off the main road, nothing exciting…although at one point, we were across the bay from the girlchild. I stitched the pieces I needed embroidered for a small set of quilts I will need to finish very quickly when I get back.
Here’s the San Rafael Bridge…
It started raining at some point on Day 2, which turned into a downpour. We ate leftovers in the deserted hotel breakfast area and hung out in the room. There was a plan to go out, but the rain put a damper on that. So I drew and stitched.
First I had to trace the second bit of stitching…love hotel rooms with irons and ironing boards.
The next day, we had a few hours to waste, so we searched for the Bertella Kildow Skinner Grove in Humboldt Redwoods State Park, which involved parking on the side of a road and hiking using two different topographical maps to figure out where the grove and sign should be. I know we were in it at multiple points, but couldn’t find the sign. It’s possible things were burnt in the 2003 Canoe Fire? Who’s Bertella, you might ask? I think she was my great great aunt? Or maybe three greats. I had these two old lady aunts who were awesomely strange in my childhood, and this was their mom, who I think died before I was born? Or soon after. But Jeanne and Bernice were definitely around.
We finally got into the campground just as it stopped raining, which was good, because it sucks putting tents up in the rain. As it was, the site was pretty muddy and damp and cold, but we enjoyed it.
I stitched in the campground too. We hiked in the AM, then more in the PM. Nighttime was for fires and drawing.
The Man had some moments…
Before showering. Definitely. In his creepy stalker stage.
The sky. It’s up there.
The Eel River…
Glorious weather for most of it.
When I was a kid, we traveled all over the US, but we never really were allowed to stop at the weird places. So the Man and I kinda try to do just that.
Legends of Bigfoot. And us.
After Humboldt, we headed for Sonoma.
More gorgeous green. I finished the embroidery that night in the bungalow.
So those are ready to be appliquéd into a quilt.
We hiked in the morning.
I scared a deer while peeing in nature.
Or it scared me. Hard to say.
This deer could not give a lesser shit about humans…
Which I appreciate. Also I never get good quail photos.
Plus our quail are much skinnier.
Flowers everywhere. Then we spent some time (and money, let’s be honest) at the Gundlach Bundschu winery (oldest in California)…
Beautiful day, needed a nap after. No shock. Did more drawing in a cocktail bar later…
I actually started drawing this over a week ago and just kept adding to it. I also started stitching a tree in Sue Spargo’s Rooted block of the month. I think this is the March block.
I worked on it today but forgot to photograph it. Today we left Sonoma and stopped in San Francisco to see the girlchild and her visiting friend, who worked with USAID, fuck you to the dumbasses cutting jobs without considering real live consequences. We had lunch…
It was nice to see them in person…from there, we negotiated all the Friday traffic past places we visited two years ago, maybe three? Down to Santa Ynez/Los Olivos, where we are now, researching hikes, wine, and ostriches. Plus donuts, due to the campground having a Donut Kebab van that just set us off on a donut tangent that has not been satisfied.
The cravings are real. The Man has an essay to write on Sunday, so it’ll be a bit of a kamikaze trip home so he can read the chapter in the book he didn’t know he needed. It’s fine. And I have things to finish too that I am currently ignoring quite well. I finished one big book and read two smaller ones so far, spent 12 1/2 hours doing the embroidered words, plus 4 drawings? All good.
We are currently sitting out by a fire pit, listened to Great Horned Owls and getting tired.
It’s almost the full moon and we’re ready to enjoy tomorrow.
We spent the weekend camping. The district gave us another random 3-day weekend. Pro: we missed the day after Halloween. Con: Grades were due, so if I hadn’t been super over-prepared and graded everything the weekend before this one, I would have needed to grade over a 3-day weekend. Sigh. Anyway. Random days. Always fun. It was nice to not have to try to leave right after school and get up there in the dark. We did a lot of sitting around (and then moving around because it was cold. We had a great campsite…
A little isolated, especially since about half the people that had reserved spaces didn’t show up.
Why? No running water. We got the email a week or so ago and figured we’d been there before…there are pit toilets…just no showers or faucets. So not ideal, but cheap.
Canyon live oak…huge acorns. Like walking on marbles.
We had a bet that someone would get hit by one this weekend…they were constantly falling and just missing us. Definitely hit the car and the tent, but missed us. At some point, scarab beetles were also falling from the sky…Saturday night when it started to rain (water most of the time, with an occasional beetle).
It was definitely chilly…around 34 degrees the first night. Put all the clothes on and start a fire…and then draw.
The next day, we hiked. We had (well, I had) grand plans, but the Man’s back was acting up. We did 4 1/2 miles (the longest…probably a combo of elevation, his back, and my continuing viral crap). We started in Doane Valley but didn’t hike there most of the time.
We saw a weir and were supposed to see waterfalls, but access was iffy. These clouds were coming in…we knew we were getting cloud cover, but all the rain had left the forecast.
Ah well…forecasts are iffy.
Cool tree dropped in the middle of the trail.
It started raining around 5:30 PM, so I cooked under an umbrella…there’s a photo of that somewhere.
This guy hung out most of the time…
We did actually manage a fire…it wasn’t raining super heavily in the early evening, so I used the umbrella and drew…
Some election anxiety. Here’s the drawing without the blurry smoke/fire stuff…
And the other one…
I love the time to draw. It was too cold to embroider. I read a lot. It rained all night. At one point, water was dripping onto my head in the sleeping bag, so we moved everything down. It was really wet in the morning, so we just packed up and came home. It wasn’t bad…it just made the last night a little uncomfortable. We went to bed early because of it. It’s fine.
I’m still feeling off…the virus has not left. The cough is there and bad when it’s there and often not bad. Wait it out? Not sure I want to be back on antibiotics so quickly. So I’m tired…after three days off work. No surprise. Next weekend is also 3 days off (Veteran’s Day)…maybe it will help me recover.
Meanwhile, I haven’t been tracing because I finished off a bolt of Wonder Under and went to open the new one I’ve had in my stash for a while, and it’s different. The paper is much much thicker and the fusible web is very thick too, very plasticky. I didn’t have time until yesterday to go to Joann’s and they didn’t have any, so I ordered some online, but there’s a lot of reviews that say this thicker one is the new version? I’m not sure, because when I look at the label, it has “W1” on it and it came from Walmart, which has some weird versions of things. The one I ordered is a smaller bolt…apparently that’s how we make money now. Make everything smaller and charge more for it. We’ll see when it comes…whenever it comes. Trying not to add Wonder Under anxiety to election anxiety. Or to-do list anxiety.
I did fix my pants. The pockets had holes where they were attached to the pants (typical stress point), so I patched on the back, but for whatever reason, it wasn’t holding well, so I stitched them as well. It’s my brain that wants to make them eyeholes on my ass.
OK. School. I know what I’m teaching today…not sure about the next THREE days, but today is set. Not sure if I’ll have to head back to Urgent Care…holding off until I see more evidence that this thing is not on its way out. Hopefully clay this afternoon…starting something new. And if I can’t trace tonight, maybe it’ll force me to make the wings for that ceramic piece, right? One can hope.
Straight up, I started this yesterday (well I downloaded a bunch of photos and cropped and resized them) and then totally forgot about it in the overwhelm of doing things. I thought I had written it…or at least part of it…nope. None of it. And I need to leave in like 10 minutes to go work on ceramics until my doctor’s appointment. And there is no way I’m finishing this before I go. I still need to finish the closet (that damn closet!)…we got the doors shortened (thanks to my ex) yesterday and back in…I was going to paint them outside, but installing them was enough of a pain in the ass that I will be painting them in place. Let’s not discuss the hallway, or the fact that I will be at school twice next week before I have to be back for real, and I have to be back in 7 days. And I am (as always) so incredibly not ready. I got 17 emails about required videos I have to watch (again. for the 22nd time…oh I guess sometimes they change over the years.) and who the new hires are districtwide (APs and principals). My principal’s email will probably come later today…or not. I’m not sure it matters. It only matters in how many meetings I’m going to have to attend. So far, one hour, plus a morning of professional development, plus another day of who the fuck knows what. And prep time. Although I didn’t have to take my room apart this year, so prep will be pretty easy, I think. Maybe. Y’all know the copier will be broken no matter what.
Anyway, I got home from San Francisco late Tuesday night and spent yesterday trying to be functional…kind of like all summer. Here’s some of the San Francisco stuff…back to PIQF…a few more things I didn’t post before…this by Carmay Knowles.
This bug is a detail on a piece by Ann Horton…
OK, I guess I’ll show you the whole thing (although the bugs were my favorite part).
There was a whole series of older pieces by Marilyn Bedford, created from paintings she had done.
And I know I posted some of the Social Justice Sewing Academy quilts earlier, but here is one of my blocks…I only did the embroidery…
There was another one but I didn’t notice it until someone else posted the quilt. I think I’d seen it before.
My fabric haul before Britex…mostly African textiles and aboriginal prints.
I was hyperfocused on owls and feathers apparently. Plus some kantha samples. Not sure why. Don’t question the artistic brain. The boychild sends us fire photos sometimes…although there’s no actual fire here.
He’s still at the Park Fire today…33 days? I’m not sure. By the way, I did start this in the morning, went to ceramics, was manhandling the top part of the piece to make sure it would fit in the bottom part, did fine, until it slipped and the damn left arm broke again…in a different place. Fixed that, painted more of it, set it to dry slowly, and went to the neurologist. Interesting that. No, he doesn’t know what the visual disturbance is (but he’s calling it a hallucination, so I am crazy, right?), so I’m getting more tests. One of them requires me to sleep only 4 hours the night before and we are starting school and there are only appointments Monday-Thursday AM. So I do the thing and then go teach on 4 hours of sleep? Ah shit. OK. Fuck me. ANYWAY.
The girlchild had made me a dog water bowl (the cats are enjoying it) in her ceramics class…
She didn’t want to ship it–afraid it would break–so I took it back in carryon. It’s cute!
More street art.
I love all the murals.
Saturday, we went to MOMA…I posted a bunch of stuff on Instagram, but really enjoyed the Kara E-Walker installation, even though two parts weren’t working.
The Zanele Muholi exhibit was also amazing…great photographs, but I did really love the bronze piece.
I had never seen any Yayoi Kusama in person and there were two, so that was cool.
Also, I was really bad at taking pictures of people, so if you know the girlchild (or her SO), there they are.
The tunnel was by Olafur Eliasson…
Definitely prettier on the way back. An interesting version of a flag…by Marlon Mullen.
I really enjoyed the 15-20 minutes we had in this…
I almost went back on Monday, but got kind of stuck in Golden Gate Park (mentally stuck really). It was very cool. Plus here’s a video of a Bruce Nauman neon piece…
Monday, I had some plans. Girlchild was back to work, so I was on my own. Headed out to see some contemporary quilts in an office building in the Financial District…I do love Margaret Fabrizio’s work…
Fun to look at.
There were two other artists, Joe Cunningham and Adia Millett; I posted pictures on Instagram of those too. From there, I shopped at Britex and then headed to Golden Gate Park…I wanted to see bison in the city.
They were pretty far away and very much not mobile at the time. The girlchild had recommended the Japanese Tea Garden, and I knew the DeYoung Museum was in the same area, so I headed in that direction…this is part of how I hit 9 miles of walking that day. Yes, I did figure out the bus system, but there isn’t always a bus. The park has a golden mile that is longer than a mile and has bits and pieces of art along it. A series about California climate decisions…this is the bad choices direction; the good choices had that sequoia living to 250 years old.
Meanwhile, the Park Fire is raging.
This piece was part of a series…I never saw the artist info, but this was my favorite…
Also the favorite of small children and teenage boys. When I got to the garden, I decided to buy the gardens ticket and go see all of them…I thought the botanical garden would be the best, but it ended up being the one I got lost in (should have gone back for the map); the Japanese garden fed me lunch at 2:30 PM…
Damn good tea…also, yes, I did read my book for a while.
And the conservatory was the most interesting, with all the carnivorous plants, mostly Nepenthes…
And like I said, botanical garden…take the map…
I realized my phone was dying and I needed to meet the kids for a soccer game (I wasn’t playing; they were)…
So I mapped things and there were locked gates where the map told me to go…
So I mapped again and got some chai with a plug in the wall…
Got the phone back up to 50% (yes, I have a charger brick thing, but I couldn’t find it…read back to the post about moving everything out of the bedrooms into the living room and there’s a bunch of stuff I still haven’t found)…then ran (not really) for the bus…if it had been on time, I would have been 30 minutes late to the game, but it was early, so I ended up in a Lyft.
I do still love watching her play.
I do not miss 4 games a weekend though.
It was a long, exhausting day. I packed up all my crap and stitched for a bit…
This is Sue Spargo’s Rooted block-of-the-month…I had appliqued everything down last year (it was easy to do that), but hadn’t done any of the embroidery. My stitching friend said I should take 6 blocks with me; I took 3 and barely worked on this one. I’m still appliqueing stuff onto the center block borders for Homegrown, so it wasn’t ready for embroidery.
I was up early the next morning so the girlchild could drop me at the train station…I went south to visit a friend who happens to own some of my quilts…I had never seen them hung in her house, so that was cool.
Very colorful hallway…
Nice to see them again…
We hung out all day and ate and talked and walked…and then I flew home. And it’s taken me all day to get this post done. Yikes!
Bowie in the tent, playing…
And this…yes this…
I did quilt for a while during a Zoom this afternoon. I am going to go patch the holes on the closet doors so I can either prime them later tonight or tomorrow morning. Tomorrow, there is nothing…oh no, I lied. Pilates in the AM (not my favorite day or time, but the only time I could get) and dentist in the afternoon…I think one of my crowns was loosened during surgery (breathing mask instead of tube). Eye doctor on Monday. Then school stuff Tuesday and Thursday, in for real on Friday. So I need to finish quilting this weekend and figure out what binding is going to work. I also need to do a couple of school-related things (ugh). And yardwork and painting…because the hallway still isn’t painted dammit. Ugh. UGH.
But this evening, I have a lovely artichoke for dinner, plus I’m going to quilt some more and read a bit and maybe paint. I don’t know. Painting in the dark is difficult for me.
I have appreciated this summer…although we didn’t really go anywhere and camp, and I did have to deal with a lot of house stuff, but I did lots of ceramics and fabric and reading. I got to hang out with the girlchild, which was cool. I didn’t work. I was so burnt out after the last school year. I can’t say I’m ready to go back (I’m not; I never am), but I am hoping this year will be less of the bullshit and more doing what I know and am good at…we’ll see if that’s how it rolls. Also I need to change the damn calendar to August.
A blackberry/pistachio croissant…but no chai. Ah well…only so much sugar at once, right? Not sure how long it will take to write this. Maybe in more than one coffee shop today. Pro of traveling: I can sleep in because no dog/kitten in the AM. Also I’m trying not to fill every moment, which tends to be how I roll…mostly out of necessity, although maybe choice.
Yes, I’m still in San Francisco…and if you’re a friend of mine and I haven’t contacted you, know that I am trying to be present with my kid…she’s been here for over a year and it’s my first visit. That said, I did go to PIQF on Friday for a few hours…and promptly ran into 3 San Diego folks. There were a few quilts that caught my eye…
Jan Soules’ Finding Neverland #7: Fanfare…I had just read an article about her Neverland quilts, so it was cool to see one in person.
All the Social Justice Sewing Academy quilts…two of the blocks I embroidered were there, which is always cool to see (2nd row from left, 3rd down).
I actually didn’t see the other block until someone else posted it. Not sure I photographed it. This blogpost is just gonna get written in pieces all day. I’ve finished my croissant and tea and am moving on to an exhibit of quilts in a random building. So I need to figure out how to get there. My kid and her SO were good about bus training me (so much easier than San Diego’s public transport)…so I’ll head there and write more later. Or I’ll write on the bus!
I found a few good vendors for fabrics I find difficult to locate at home, so that might have been the best part. I did see a few more quilts I liked, but my iPad is ancient and doesn’t like to load photos, so this is all you get.
Friday night I met up with my daughter and her boyfriend, and we had dinner and drinks out, with a giant hike up Divisadero in between (Uber and Waymo were too expensive…totally got a workout there). None of us woke up early on Saturday, but eventually we made it to a farmers’ market and then MOMA, which was really great. More pictures on Instagram, but here’s me with the girlchild and some of Yayoi Kusama’s pumpkins…
We only had about 2 1/2 hours…I’m considering going back today to listen to the whole Ragnar musical thing, but probably won’t. It was beautiful though. The girlchild cooked Saturday night, fresh from the market, so good. I’m staying at an Airbnb that’s about a 10-minute walk from her, and they are nice enough to walk me home at night (something about not sending me off alone into the dark).
Sunday we hiked up in the Tennessee Valley, drove across the iconic bridge and hiked out to the ocean.
Hopefully I’ll get a better picture of the bridge today…although it’s cloudy and delightfully cool again. Can’t complain about cool weather in July.
I needed a nap after that (and really good pizza…pizza, then hike, then nap). We had great Indian food for dinner and then I drew and read and watched some show.
Can’t explain the drawing, sorry. There’s a headless cat in there. Hoping to do some drawing today as well. I did a little embroidery Saturday, lots of reading. I’ll see them tonight for soccer and dinner, then hanging out with an old friend tomorrow and home tomorrow night. I love hanging out with my kid and getting to know her SO better. I also love not having a work/home to-do list at the moment. Getting off at the next stop…saving the draft!
I managed to see this exhibit in the Mills Building in the Financial district….first…no second stop of the day
I love Margaret’s work, especially how she incorporates existing items into the pieces, such as the umbrella in this one.
Joe Cunningham’s work has really interesting lines throughout, whether quilted, painted, part of the actual fabric, or as a thin strip of meandering fabric…
And I was introduced to the work of Adia Millett here too…
I love that a local business building is celebrating quilt art. OK, I’m going to post this now from the Financial District. Got more tea, planning on Britex Fabrics (0.2 miles), maybe some bison, maybe a boat ride. Not sure what else. I would like to finish my book….with lunch? And maybe draw somewhere. We’ll see.
Sitting in an airport, drinking tea, waiting to board. I may or may not have enough books or stitching for this trip. I always bring too much of everything, but my bags seem very light. I’m going to San Francisco to see the girlchild, which is cool.
Yesterday, I managed (in the sweaty heat) to paint the closet, sew a backing together, wash and dry batting, clear out the entryway, wash the floor, and pinbaste that big quilt.
Yes, that’s a cleared out entryway. You should have seen it before.
Ready to be quilted when I get back.
I also spent some time underglazing this piece…
There are a couple of cracks…it dried too fast. I shoved a bunch of damp paper towels in there so hopefully it won’t be too bad when I get back. The bottom of this is already on the green ware shelf and will probably be ready to fire when I get back.
Speaking of fire, the boy child is now at the insanely huge Park Fire near Chico. I don’t expect him to be home any time soon. This fire was started by some dumbass who has already been arrested. Humans can be really stupid sometimes.
So my plan for today includes PIQF and dinner with my kid and her SO. Probably there will be some reading on the plane. It’s too short a flight to try to draw or stitch, but we’ll see. I’m looking forward to cooler weather for sure. and a new view for a few days…
OK. Made it home. It was questionable for a while, but it all happened. The girlchild is sick so I’m taking all my meds, hoping my middle-school-trained immune system is strong enough to counteract hanging in a car with her for hours plus all the other exposures, because surely, she got it from the same people we were all with all weekend. My first day back at school, I wrote 5 referrals for the kids who couldn’t figure out how to deal with a sub…kicked them out for the egg drop. Got pictures taken and labeled during class of the egg drop materials. Got kids through their assignments (it helps that I overthink every day…the pro of an anxious brain is that I plan a class period in my head about 700 times before I actually teach it. This is also a con.), got packets done for the sex-ed opt-out kids. Need to set up materials this morning for the egg drop; I have one set for each table, but need to be ready to swap out stuff if necessary. I had to sub my prep period yesterday, but luckily, it was mostly a good class and I was able to post the things I needed to and start the seating charts for sex ed. I let them pick one friend to sit with, but then, you know, not everyone picks each other and some kids don’t pick at all, and there’s always too many boys in my classes. I had to kamikaze to the dentist after school while calling pre-anesthesia to make an appointment for the REAL pre-anesthesia appointment, which is before the REAL anesthesia. Gotta make a list of all my meds and supplements. IDK why my surgeon doesn’t have access to the same list I have to review with my doc, but they don’t. It’s annoying. Then I went to the ceramics studio to make sure my stuff hadn’t dried out, picked up my glazed pot that I forgot to photograph and isn’t that exciting anyway, and then went to Costco for the eggs for today. Dropped those back at school in the fridge so I wouldn’t have to do that this morning. Realized as I got back into the car at 5:30 Pacific Coast Time that I was hella exhausted. Like bone-tired. Ah yes. Because it’s 8:30 PM East Coast Time and my body isn’t really sure which time it’s on. Came home, napped, laid around half-dead for a bit, got up, made dinner, made seating charts. It took a massive amount of willpower to not just go to bed, but to come in here and iron for 24 minutes.
Got the other side of Christmas lights done. From a week ago. It’s a start.
I stitched on the plane once I finished my book and my bullet journal for the week. I finished the last house block for Sue Spargo’s Homegrown…
While watching Barbie. It had its pros and cons.
And I started the centerpiece…
While watching the first half of The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes or whatever that title actually is. I didn’t draw at all this weekend. Didn’t have the energy or the brainpower. I constantly have to explain why I stitch other people’s patterns when I’m sitting somewhere or traveling. Mine isn’t very travel-happy. I couldn’t have ironed anything on this trip. I have taken stuff to cut out before, but only when it’s at a very controllable stage. I won’t do it on a plane. Too much possibility of losing pieces. Everything I have going is at the ironing or stitchdown stage, so not portable. Plus I don’t have to think about this pattern at all. Someone else already thought it all out for me.
Kitten was glad to see me…
She didn’t eat much and wouldn’t take her meds while I was gone. She doesn’t do well at the moment when I leave. But she’s bouncing back.
This is one of Luna’s most commonly seen facial expressions…
Not sure what she saw (but I suspect it’s usually a demon behind me, based on how she looks).
The ex found a duckling…
It’s OK; he has since found the owner. Apparently another one is wandering around somewhere (not good…we have coyotes). Crazy times. My yard has had all the normal wild animals, plus a chicken, an elderly deaf and blind pug, an injured crow (my neighbor dealt with that), random dogs and cats, but no ducks. Yet.
OK. Well. Today I do 50 egg drops…well, just under that. Plus pilates, which my creaky post-travel body really needs, although after the 500 squat lunges I did a day going up and down the steps in that rental house, my knees are still complaining, but the muscles are fine. I still haven’t watered, so I need to do that tonight, plus take the trash out. And then start grading all the late work. With only 12 days of school left, everything gets rather panicky. Must do it all NOW. Hoping the sleep evens out soon, and the stress too. Too many health issues on top of all that. The next person who asks, “so what are doing this summer?” might get punched. RECOVERING DAMMIT…from a really tough year. Plus doing all the things I haven’t been doing. The floors are disgusting, there’s drawers and cupboards and parts of the house that need a ton of work. I need to paint at least one room and the hallway, plus all the carpet. I don’t want to think about the rest of it. We go back to school so early this year, it just sucks. Anyway. So I’m gonna think about that later, and make sure there’s plenty of hikes and ceramics and quilting and whatever else makes me feel better. And be hopeful about the medical stuff because it’s really stressful to think otherwise. Plus read a ton of books. Sound like a plan? And go see the girlchild in San Francisco. All good.
I’m writing this on a plane back home that I was about 50% sure I’d miss…traffic leaving Maine was hellacious. It took 4 hours instead of 2 and we risked a bathroom stop even knowing that might be why we missed the flight.
Spoiler: we didn’t miss the flight. Girlchild and Boston not-traffic saves the day. There’s girlchild taking some lake time. More lake time would’ve been nice. Ah well. Another week would have been nice too.
Animal friends included turkeys, a porcupine, Canadian geese, and a loon…and cute little racing chipmunks.
The smaller fam. There are bigger fam pix but I can’t deal with all of them right now. This is me, my parents, my daughter, my niece, and my brother. Pretty sure it only matters to those who know us. I’m proud of this kid for making it through and finishing up. She rocks…
There’s my kid again.
And the loon…although I feel like I have a better pic of it. Ah well. Trust.
I stitched during baccalaureate, graduation, and part of the family bits. Too tired to draw all trip, unfortunately. Something about having to get up at 4 AM my time multiple mornings in a row. I’ve actually almost finished this block now…
I started that tree at baccalaureate and did not finish until last night. Three hours? But meditative and calming.
House from the lake. We had 11 people and at least 4 snorers, so there was some movement at night to manage sleeping.
Girlchild and her cousin…five years minus two days apart. Missed the boychild on this trip…
Anyway. We’ll be home soon enough. Still tired. Man that doesn’t end. Tomorrow I have a dental appointment and I need to make a Costco run for eggs for the egg drop. Thank goodness for a fam that’s fun to hang with, and whom we love even when we’re all irritated at each other. Now I need some more caffeine…and a nap.
So. I’m not in Southern California. I spent a million hours yesterday traveling with my parents and then my daughter 3,114.6 miles to the side of a lake in Maine, near where my niece is graduating from college. My dad broke an airplane seat on the way, we met the girlchild’s sweet guy, ate dinner in Boston, and drove through two states to get to this cabin (cabin???) by a lake, where I’m sitting right now. Staring out at the water and the trees and trying to remember how to relax. Really, my brain is gonna make me go finish inputting grades. It’s OK. It has to happen sometime and I’ve had some good relaxation time so far.
Here’s a weird jellyfish glass/metal sculpture in the Boston airport.
There was nothing good to photograph on the plane. I spent a goodly amount of time grading stuff. Pro: it’s done. Other Pro: Alaska Airlines realized their internet crapped out multiple times (I started reactively saving the doc every 3 minutes at some point) and refunded me the $8 I paid to get my job done. Con: Well, work. I did finish my book yesterday, so I’m not feeling too bad. I even napped. Barely.
Weird fact: My brother and I are currently reading the same book, Everyone in My Family Has Killed Someone. Not a planned thing. Just happened. Weird, huh? We are both liking it.
Here’s one view of the lake. It was more polleny this afternoon. We have two, technically three docks and some boat-type things.
We didn’t get here until 11:30 PM last night…long day. So far, my brother, my SIL, the two nephews, my parents, and my daughter are here. The boychild is working this weekend, so no go. The niece is the graduator. My SIL’s parents come in tonight. Full house. Only two bathrooms.
The parents wanted to go to LL Bean today, so we did.
Girlchild was excited about the giant boot.
I was excited about the sale on Camelbak packs…got a small one to replace my 22-year-old short hike pack. This one has sharks on it and is even smaller, better pockets than the old one. I’ve been looking for a while…mine has holes and wear in the straps. Plus it was on sale. Always nice.
We made it back and I tried out one of the kayaks.
Wind took my hat at one point, but I rescued it. I’ll go back out a few more times. Kinda windy, kinda wobbly, but a nice form of exercise.
Lots of people sleeping this afternoon. Girlchild is cooking dinner for me and the parentals tonight as the rest are out with my niece’s friends…
I’ve been reading a bit. Gonna think about a walk, then input those grades from the plane, and then maybe draw or stitch. My brain, body, and blood sugar are all off from travel and time change. But it’s nice to be away from stressful things, even if it’s stressful getting here. So many pine trees…
A day late. That’s OK. I was in the mountains. I forgot it was Friday. Today is Saturday. If I keep telling you what the days are, maybe I will remember them myself. I have doctors’ appointments next week; I have to remember to go to them.
We were up on Palomar Mountain for a couple of days…one full day really. It was nice. It was cold. There was still snow up there. We had a discount to stay in a really nice yurt and it was cool.
These are nice yurts (Baileys on Palomar)…take advantage of discounts if you can. We had a mid-week discount. I’m pretty sure it’s snowing up there right now though, so I’m glad we came home yesterday.
Inside was warm, sometimes too warm. But nice.
My drawing brain was mostly out of it. This one isn’t going anywhere.
And this one might. Maybe.
We couldn’t get a fire started the first night…pretty sure the wood was wet from the previous storm. The second night, after 5 firestarters and some weird juju of frustration (the Man’s, not mine…or the fire’s, for that matter), the fire started and kept going…me drawing by the fire…
The Man telling me about something circular…
It was cold out. I think this was still firestarter fire, not real fire.
Eventually we got cold and came back inside and got violent and slappy with this game.
I won.
That was after hiking to Palomar Observatory, which I’d never been to. The hike wasn’t hard or long…well, it was 5.3 miles with 800 feet of elevation. So not too bad. Certainly my legs were feeling it yesterday.
Those are some really big acorns…
My app says Canyon Live Oak. Acorns and their caps fascinate me. I brought caps home. Dunno what I’m going to do with them.
It’s funny, I only saw the observatory once from the hike until we were on our way back.
It was cool. San Jacinto in the distance…definitely snow up there too.
It was a nice day to hike…mostly not hot, mostly not too cold.
Definitely at elevation snow. Not a lot by the time we got there.
I stitched a little too…finished this block.
I remembered a chalk pencil for the bike. Started another block while I was there.
Forgot the proof of life picture. Yes! We were in the same place together.
It happens.
We came back, cleaned up, I peed some dogs. The one on the right is hunting bees. Or bunnies. Hard to say which.
Stood in line for 3 hours at a quilt store that’s closing so I could use up my gift card and my mom’s too, because she showed up halfway through and handed me more. Then held my place in line so I could find more stuff to buy. She’s a good mom. I’m supposed to be at the ceramics studio right now but there was a full on flood-level band of rain that came through and dropped like half an inch of rain, so I didn’t drive in it. I will now, because I think that band is done and I can wait out the next one. There’s an art opening at Oceanside Museum of Art tonight, though, and that’s gonna be a slog if it’s still raining this hard. Ah well.
Last night, I suffered cats. Lots of them.
They missed us. And then I finished trimming this one…
Time to sort and then to iron. Meanwhile the girlchild and friend camped in the Northern California band of this storm last night. They were not washed away.
There is a tent under there. There is also a rain fly. The tarp is just extra. I wonder if there is a tarp underneath as well? Hmmm. Did we train her well? Maybe not.
OK. Art opening tonight. Ceramics studio for now: gonna see what came out of the kiln plus do another level on what I’m building…maybe start something new? I need to be back here by 3 PM I think. Ugh. I’m sure it made sense to sign up for things weeks ago, but today’s brain is not up for it. Typical.
Kathy Nida 