Would you look at the calendar! It's December!

Wow. December. How'd we get here so quickly? We had a good visit with son Jake and girlfriend over Thanksgiving. November is typically the wettest month up here and it all seemed to come down during Thanksgiving week. But we took advantage of the one dry day on Friday to visit Port Townsend and if you have to be out on "Black Friday" that was a good place to be. Otherwise, we stayed close to home and enjoyed the visit. Thanksgiving dinner was a definite winner this year. The menu was largely the usual fare: roast turkey (brined), mashed potatoes from our garden, gravy, candied sweet potatoes that came out perfectly for once, homemade cranberry relish, homemade rolls, dressing made with fennel, prosciutto, pears, and toasted hazelnuts (a new "favorite"), and brussel sprouts sauteed with chestnuts, prosciutto, and shallots. Of course there were pies: pumpkin, pecan, and Banoffi. Something for everyone (with seconds!). Today the Autumn decor will disappear and the Christmas tree will go up.  December is official.

The weather has turned dry for a projected, extended spell. Historically, in our few years of experience up here, December has been the coldest month. It is certainly the darkest. We are dark by 4:30pm and still dark at 7:30am. Once the Solstice comes around this month, the light will start to reappear and I look forward to that. With the cold weather comes more frosty mornings and John took the first tumble on the steps this year. He lived to tell about it, but it was a reminder that slippers do not have the appropriate traction needed in this season. We got some tread strips and will apply those to the steps this weekend.

Work on the new gate mechanism began this week. Some pretty substantial black posts, approximately 4 inch square by 10 feet, have been placed in preparation for mounting the actual gate. They will likely finish the job next week. John will take advantage of this dry weather to make some more progress on the shed's gutters. My wall hanging quilt is complete so I am without a current project. Time to take a look through the accumulated "things I want to do" and see what calls to me. Today we will go to the monthly Farm Breakfast and meet up with friends there for a hardy chat. Then we have some errands to run and household duties to attend. The aforementioned Christmas tree will make its appearance today or tomorrow, and Christmas cards will be readied for mailing. There's a nice rhythm to all of this and a familiarity to it that I enjoy. Guess that's a good thing...

Tail of the Dragon

We went to the crafts fair yesterday as noted in my last post. For most of the time, we wandered and looked. I marvel at the creativity of people and their talent. Near the end, we stopped to look in a photographer's booth and found something we didn't know we needed (which is almost always the case when you're "gathering"). We ended up buying this stunning photograph for the wall.

It's called Dragontail Reflections. You can see more of the photographer's work on his Web site. The shot was taken at the Enchantment Lakes near Leavenworth here in Washington. There's a glacier there in the center and to the left is the Dragontail. He had some beautiful work and it was the premiere showing for this new piece. While we were in the booth "sealing the deal", about 5 more people came by and asked about this piece. Very nice...

Just around the corner....

It's cold. Today it is predicted to stay in the 30s for the day. But then I look at Fairbanks, Alaska, where our beloved house/pet sitter just moved and it's -41 degrees. That's "minus" 41 degrees! So, we won't whine about a mere chill in the air. Late November is the wettest time of year up here which means, unfortunately, that next week over the Thanksgiving holiday, it will rain. That being said, most of that rain falls in light showers and needs only a hood on a jacket as you go about daily doings. And that concludes the whining portion of this blog post.

John traveled last week and arrived home on Thursday evening. The hard-headed brown dog and I carried on as usual in his absence, though the absence was noticeable. And Roosevelt found that sleeping on the bed when the house is chilly at night is not such a bad thing after all.

With Thanksgiving coming up this week, and visitors arriving on Tuesday, there are some preparations to prepare this weekend. There are menus to plan and food to buy to actualize them, as well as some general tidying up around here. But we don't live by chores alone, so I will drag John to a huge craft show (Actually, he has offered to accompany me) today or tomorrow. I have forewarned him that this is a "gatherer" event, not a "hunter" event, meaning that I will browse slowly through the hall, not "go in, buy something, and leave". And he will need to do whatever it is that hunters do while waiting on the gatherers to gather.

The fence-fixing folks promise to call sometime next week to arrange a date to do the necessary repairs on the gate. And, depending on the rain, John will continue to work on those pesky gutters for the shed. There's an issue with the sealant and temperature and that's about all I care to know.

Winter is just around the corner. The Olympics are wrapped in a shawl of clouds as snow has begun to cover them. The Cascades have accumulated more snow and the ski resorts are reporting 30 inches for their openings this weekend. There are some colorful  leaves left on some trees and they might last out the month. Fortunately, we will still have the green of the conifers throughout the winter. It's a pretty good place to be...

Crisp Outside, Cozy Inside

Ahh....a busy week has come and gone. We've got the estimate for the gate repair and have accepted the price. Hopefully, this won't be a regular repair and, done properly, it will last more than 3 years. I hope they can get it done quickly as our driveway has seen more traffic in the past two weeks than in the two plus years we have lived here. Granted, it's only been a few and most of them have been delivery trucks, but I have become unused to sudden and unexpected knocks on the door. Seclusion (solitude) seems to agree with me.

The weather has turned to more rain and chillier temperatures, more in keeping with Autumn and the upcoming Thanksgiving holiday. Something about chilly weather seems more in sync with a turkey roasting and football on the television. And one of the reasons to live here was to have more seasonal weather. Speaking of that, today I will put the emergency equipment back into the car. Last year, that sudden snow that caused me to take 4 hours to travel home from work occurred on the 22nd of November. Better safe than sorry, eh? Hopefully, "Snowmageddon" won't happen again this year. Snow is nice, but then it should melt. In any event though, I am more prepared than I was last year. And on the home front, we didn't get an on-demand generator this year, so we'll hope for few and short power outages and manage with the candles and battery-powered lamps when needed.

Chores were the order of the day yesterday. That's the usual agenda for Saturdays. Today I will tackle the garage and try to get the treadmill set up for use. I should be able to move some "stuff" around to make that happen, but the shed is already "off-limits" I am told for any more storage out there. Seems it feels cramped to the resident handyman. I'm sure once we have installed some shelves, a loft, and a workbench, it will be quite spacious. Here's a picture of the shed in its present state.

And here is a picture of the gate (lying in the leaves at the left) just up from the little blue reflector. You can also see the stone post.

And another of the driveway across the road. The leaves have fallen in great quantities this year and the colors have been so vibrant. It's the cozy time of year...

The "Home" Team

Well, the broken gate remains in a broken state but is out of the way, at least. That sympathetic repairman did arrive and he and his helper removed the gate from the bottom hinge and placed it to the side. We're waiting on an estimate to fix it which requires constructing a legitimate post on which to mount it with legitimate metalwork to support it. If we involve a stone mason (because we choose the option to reconstruct it within the stone pillar and have to rebuild the pillar), that will automatically raise the price about $5,500. So...we're going with Plan B where they will construct  posts right behind the pillars, leaving them intact. Like I said, we're waiting for the estimate.

Meanwhile, we have had the gutters cleaned and the driveway regraded as we prepare for winter and rain. So far though, the weather has been pretty nice through October and here we are, in November, and it's still quite pleasant. Temperatures have fallen and we get to the high 40s during the daytime. Chilly, but fresh. The leaves won't stay on the trees much longer.

John has been home the past week and will remain for this week as well as payback for his two consecutive weeks of travel. Finally, he got to experience the "call of the wild" when he took Zoe out for her o'dark thirty duty call this morning. The coyotes were partying and yipping up a storm in the woods. And when some rustling started in the bushes at the edge of the clearing that passes for our lawn, he and the Z-dog retreated to the house. It's an eerie sound they make.

I have a massage scheduled for this morning and then I hope to spend the rest of the day focused on completing a quilted wall hanging. I have the applique done and it's on to adding the borders, building the layers,and then quilting it all together. I'll put some soup on to simmer so dinner will take care of itself later. John is working on putting the gutters on the shed and that will be his project du jour.

It's going to be a busy week at work for me. Having John here will be nice. It has been nice. As you can see from all the "maintenance" that was done, there's a fair amount of householding that is better accomplished when there is someone available to manage that. Harder to do when juggling work/home schedules and demands on my own and remotely. Go Team Grant!

Stuck at Home...

So, I'm stuck in my house. Seriously. Seems the large iron gate that keeps others out of our driveway is keeping me in! Apparently the hinge at the top pulled out of it's anchoring pillar after I arrived home last night and the gate, once closed, can no longer open. I was tempted to just muscle it open and leave it, but considered its weight and size and the likelihood that it could somehow end up on top of me (Murphy's laws, you know) and used up what bit of common sense I had to back away and leave it be. So, I will work from home today and try to locate a sympathetic repair person to come out and fix it asap. Ahh, home-ownership. Meanwhile, John will arrive back in mid-afternoon and I have engaged a friend to pick him up from the drop-off location.

It's not entirely a bad thing to be "stuck at home". I like being here. Right now, the leaves have finally turned a blazing gold color and Autumn is definitely here. When I got up at 4am one morning this week, the temperature in the house was 62 degrees.Unfortunately, 4am has become more usual than not as Zoe needs to go outside at that time. Somehow, we have to find a way to re-train her lest we be getting up at 3am once the time changes! I suspect we will just go along and take her out, then return to bed for a few more hours.

I haven't seen or encountered any wild critters while John has been away this week. But a bear was sighted near one of the elementary schools locally. Where I had tornado drills as a youngster in school, they have bear precautions here. Parents are alerted to come and pick up their children. What happens to those kids with parents who both work, I wonder?

This weekend will bring some usual errands. The gutters for the shed need a day to get installed. It's been dry this week and, hopefully, we'll get a dry day this weekend. The shiny red tractor wants one more trip to cut the grass before more serious weather starts. Tonight we have plans to go to dinner with some friends and solve the problems of the world, no doubt. But for today, I'm stuck. And I don't mind that a bit....

Enjoying the Layover

John was in California last week. He returned Thursday evening and today he will travel back down for yet another week. So, life at the house has been (thankfully) quiet. He arrived back home to Autumn in the Northwest - in other words, rain. And now that he's off again, the week is promising sunshine.

We went to the annual Quilt Show yesterday. This year was a Civil War remembrance theme as well as all the usual show-quality quilts on display. Some real beauties. I especially enjoyed some that were embellished with hand-stitched embroidery. Since my little chickens are all finished (and the first one was sent across country yesterday), my next project is a wall-hanging with a Northwest theme.

So, another quiet week is in the making, but Thursday will roll around soon. Meanwhile, I'll enjoy some additional reading time, frequent walks with the Z-dog, and I'll leave the light on for our traveling man. All aboard...

October Fly-By

Lovely, busy week. Lots of things to take my attention at work. John was home so the household was well tended. We went out to dinner in the 'burg Wednesday night. Our favorite restaurant there (Sogno di Vino) has "date night" on Wednesdays and Sundays with a special menu and special prices so it's a nice break in the week. The near calamity with John's car tags was averted when they arrived on Wednesday. He made the 2 mile trip to collect our farm share vegetables that afternoon and thwarted Murphy and his laws. Despite traveling to and from the airport and freewheeling about town for the nearly three months the tags have been out of date, it would be that 10 minute round trip down the road when some sheriff would be out keeping the peace on Miller Bay Road and pull him over for those all-but-flashing law-breaking tags. But the tags arrived and we're law-abiding citizens once again.

Autumn is simply brilliant up here. The temperatures have been in the high 50s - low 60s and it promises to be a dry week. The moon was full this week. Yesterday, the sun was shining and the air was cool and refreshing.Finally the trees have turned colors. We put away the furniture on the deck and the porch and attempted to clean the gutters in preparation for winter. We'll have to get a 30-foot ladder that feels secure or some daredevil with a cherry picker to clean those on the second floor. I could ignore them and pretend that they are in fine working order except for the small plants growing out of two places. It's fairly obvious that regular maintenance should be done regularly.

John planted several rows of garlic and shallots to quietly grow during the winter. We're harvesting the last of everything else in the garden. Every year we learn more about the needs of growing things up here. His next project will be to get some gutters up on the shed and rain-collecting barrels attached to them (before the rain starts in earnest). My day will involve a massage (therapeutic), retrieving some new prescription sunglasses that have arrived, and taking a final look for dog-related Christmas-themed items. Tonight, a friend and I are going to decorate a small Christmas tree for auction at a fundraiser and its theme is "Santa Paws". And I will continue to work on my menagerie of chickens that have taken over the sewing area upstairs. I have 22 of the delightful little creatures waiting now to be stuffed with lavender, stitched closed, and eyes attached. Then they will be sent near and far, tucked into boxes at Christmas.

The furnace just kicked in again. It was 64 degrees in the house when we came downstairs this morning. That's my threshold for supplemental warm air. Time for breakfast and then on with the day!

Liking this Autumn season...

A friend of ours came over yesterday with his tractor and front loading scoop and helped John distribute the very large pile of dirt at the end of the driveway. The dirt had been removed form the site where the shed stands now and there was a lot of it. Despite John's protests that he could manage it with his cart and shiny red lawn tractor, I went ahead and enlisted said friend with his bigger toys. By the end of the day, John admitted that, yes, he could have done it with his cart, but it would have been Christmas 2012 before it was done! So, that's finished and now we can call the driveway guy and get him over to re-rock the driveway before winter.

This same friend, who is a retired police officer, also noticed with his police officer eyes that the license plate tag on John's car is woefully out-of-date (since July). Did we miss a renewal notice somewhere? Turns out there's a hefty fine for that so it was renewed online at once and the car is grounded until the new tags arrive sometime this week. I've signed us up for email reminders going forward. The good news is that in this state, license plate tags are not very costly (less than $45). The fine is over $500 so the ROI is worthwhile for renewing.

While John was away this week (as is usually the case), another critter made my acquaintance. Curled up for a warm nap in the basket next to the front door where we kept Zoe's towels for those rainy days was a rat! I discovered it when I was wiping my feet and noticed something move in the basket. Did I mention that it was next to the front door?! I retrieved a long handled broom from the garage and gingerly tipped over the basket from a safe distance. He emerged sleepily from his cozy bed and wasn't in too much of a hurry until I began my fierce yelling and pounding the porch with the broom handle. On our next trip outside, Zoe immediately scented and tracked him to the propane tank where a game of dog and mouse ensued for a good 10 minutes until she gave up. My ultrasonic rodent deterrents have seemed to work in the garage and the house. Outdoors presents a different challenge.The basket is gone and we are on high alert status against furry creatures. It's an uneasy state of affairs.

Today we will move some more "stuff" from the garage to the lovely shed. It promises to be a nice Fall day. The week, however, will turn to rain for most days. It will likely be that light Northwestern rain that requires a light jacket and a hood if you prefer to keep hair dry. I'll make some roasted butternut squash and shallot soup for dinner. Autumn is my favorite time of year. 

And the Beat Goes On...

It feels like most of last week was spent at work. The evenings were quiet and relaxed. But the daily grind defined the week.

That ended pretty abruptly on Friday as we drove to the airport after work to retrieve Karen and Gareth. We enjoyed having time to spend with them both. The monthly Farm Breakfast was yesterday, so we took advantage of that and introduced them to that experience. And since Old Mill Days was happening up at Port Gamble, we went along to watch some of the lumberjack contests and see what other woodworking crafts they had in place. The evening concluded at the Four Swallows restaurant on Bainbridge Island which is our favorite special-occasion place. It was John's birthday, so a special occasion it was. It's Sunday morning now and John has pulled the airport duty for the return trips. I'm off to the grocery as soon as I finish typing, and laundry has been started. Lots to do before the daily grind starts again.

John is off to California tomorrow. The weather is promising rain on most days next week and temperatures in the high 50s. October 1 marked the day we used the heat in the house. I thought we might make it longer, but our warm weather offspring found it a little cool up here :-). I think we'll light the fireplace pilot light so we can just take the chill off that room in the evenings for a while and avoid the whole-house heating.

The shed was completed last week and some of the things that were stored in the garage have already made their way out there. John is planning to build a workbench and I am planning to have him build window boxes for the two windows. There are still the gutters to install as well. It will be a busy October for my handy handyman.

Onward

Finally, John is here to stay for the week! He has traveled three weeks in a row and it got a little tiresome for us both. The house seems much less "full" when he's not in it.

The shed is almost complete. All that remains is to shingle the roof and install the skylight. John will add some gutters for the rain barrels and inside he will make some kind of loft for (yet more) storage. The skylight and the two windows will allow us to winter some plants or plant some seedlings in there as well. We still have to figure out what to do with the (really) large mound of dirt left from digging out the area. A small tractor and front loader would be nice about now. Next up, we call the driveway guy and get that done before the really big rains (and snow) arrive.

The kitchen cabinets got their knobs and handles installed. Lesson learned: handles are a lot more tricky than single-hole knobs. It took most of the day to get it all done; 32 knobs and 14 handles. Today I'll stick with sewing chickens, getting a massage, and watching some football. Less is definitely more on the weekend. We attended the annual fundraiser event last night for the Humane Society. Incredibly, we came away without buying anything. But we have a soft spot for this organization and were happy to see them raise over $44,000 for their medical fund. They do good work there.

Our own resident animals are well. John took Zoe to the vet Friday to see why she is shedding three times more fur than ever before (and to discuss her anorexic state). She has lost 4 pounds so a new food was prescribed and she gave it a hearty thumbs up for the first two days. This morning she is holding back, waiting to see what else might be on the menu. The vet also thought her thyroid might be at the root of the shedding problem so a small dose of medication was prescribed to boost her level. We'll see what this month brings. Meanwhile, Roosevelt continues his strict surveillance of the garage for errant mice. So far, with the new audio disruptive devices in place, his security rounds have not turned up any of the small terrorists.

Our weather gave one last shout-out to summer last week with temperatures in the high 70s. That all came crashing down about 3am this morning when, as predicted, the wind came up and a new front came in bringing rain and cooler weather for the week. John rose to the pressure yesterday and mowed all the lawn/meadow/jungle clearing. There can't be many more of those mowing days left in the year. Next weekend we look forward to a visit from both Gareth and Karen and hopefully the weather will behave. Until then, it's business as usual....

and "Just Like That"...

Summer has given way to Autumn it seems. We are promised a few more days next week of temperatures in the 70s, but our 80s are gone and abruptly so. It will be in the low 60s again today and the rain has begun. For good measure, we had a power outage in the night just to get us in the proper Autumnal mood. Last weekend I canned more jam as John continues his mission to denude all the blackberry bushes. It's unlikely he will succeed, but a man has his dreams, right? Meanwhile, the blackberries continue to show up in the kitchen and so far the freezer is managing the overflow. I also tried my hand at making dill pickles from the hearty supply of cucumbers that we have received from our Farm Share. If they turn out well, I will distribute them to pickle-loving friends and family as we won't be able to consume them all. By "we" I mean "me" as John won't touch the things. Our own garden is yielding a few beets, some carrots, and loads of John's beloved runner beans. Whether we manage to get any winter squash is still up in the air. There are two wee squashlings on the vine, but they have a long way to go and will have to do it during the Fall with much less sun and cooler temps. We have a fair amount of shallots and will enjoy those if Zoe doesn't eat all the tops. In spite of a reluctance to eat her expensive prescription food, she enjoys hopping into the garden bed and munching on shallot greenery. Go figure!

The hard-headed brown dog has been, well,,,hard-headed, of late. She obviously feels much improved but has become picky about eating. Not wanting her to decline, the humans in the house are trying all kinds of things to entice her to her food bowl. Whether it's old age and loss of appetite or part and parcel of her chronic kidney state we don't know. But she is confounding us with her stubborn stance. And I thought cats were finicky!

Our shed started going up last week.On Monday, I arrived home to a large hole dug in the lawn/meadow/jungle clearing. Since there's no level ground on the property, and since we didn't want the front of the thing to rise 6 feet above ground (that's a bit tricky for getting the shiny red tractor inside), a backhoe was called in. There are pictures at the end of this post. It has steadily progressed through the week and will be finished by the end of this one, we are told.Then we'll have to figure out some landscaping. Amazingly, the backhoe missed cutting through the invisible fence wire in that corner! Literally a quarter of an inch more and it would have been severed. John tried to map its location out before the digging began, but carrying Zoe's collar while touching the sensing posts turned out to be a bit of a "shock" (or in the invisible fence lingo, a "correction"). We decided to just go with the flow and if it was severed to deal with it. Fortunately it survived.

Knobs and handles for the kitchen cabinetry have arrived! They are a lovely brushed nickel finish. Two years into the house, they will make a nice "improvement". I will work on installing them over the next week in the evenings while John is (yet again) in California. For the third straight week, he is traveling south. Less than ideal, but necessary. It's always nice to have him home and out of that rat race they call the Bay Area.

It was the year of the 40th reunion for my high school graduating class. We had planned to go but weren't able to swing it after all. Still, a classmate wrote and presented a nice tribute to the times we all grew up in and I have included the link to his blog where it is posted. Enjoy:  40 Years High School Reunion. Thanks Dave.

Today it is cloudy and has been raining in the night. It looks like a good day to be inside. Maybe we'll watch a little football later. The football that is soccer to us Americans is already on and being absorbed by the resident soccer veteran. I have a sewing project to begin and later I will start some lamb shanks for dinner.And then it will be another week. Just like that...

Photos of the Shed this week:

Indian Summer???

A quiet week while John was down south. The weather has been stunning; clear days and nights, warm temperatures, and brilliant colors. The leaves have not begun to change color yet, but the sun is lower in the sky and casts intense shadows through the trees. Soon enough we'll move to proper Autumn with that certain chill in the air.

We're still harvesting blackberries. It looks like more jam is on deck. And I will take a stab at making pickles from all the cucumbers that we have received from our farm cooperative share. We had dinner with friends last evening and contributed some blackberry ice cream for the dessert. Very yummy.

This weekend seems quite short. I guess I like the three-day variety. Yesterday, the morning was taken up with a service on the car just in time for winter, followed by a quick drop off at the Goodwill store and a stroll through the Farmers Market to grab some more tomatoes. We had a few hours for some of the usual weekend duties before cleaning up to join our friends for dinner. They have a lovely view of the Olympics and we were treated to a beautiful sunset. The Olympics are looking a bit like the Blue Ridge Mountains at the moment. There's a fire burning that will continue until the rains put it out and it has resulted in a perpetual blue haze over the mountains. It's in a remote area, difficult for fire-fighting crews to get to and they have chosen to let it burn. A natural solution to a man-made problem. Despite all the rain that falls out here, the conditions get quite dry quite quickly.

The month is well under way now. We have a few "occasions" on the social horizon. Later this month we'll go to the annual fundraising event for the local Humane Society and then we look forward to the weekend of John's birthday when Gareth and Karen will both travel up here for a visit. In the meantime, it's business as usual and there's nothing wrong with that....

Bonus Days...

It's Monday in a three-day weekend. Labor Day usually signals the end of the "summer season", but it looks like summer is here for a couple more weeks at least. Still, the sun is much lower and the nights are quite cool even with the warm days. It's the best of both worlds; autumn nights and summer days. No rain is in sight. It's really pretty perfect.

We've taken advantage of the weather to eat outside (al fresco) each evening. Soon enough we'll be putting away the summer toys and hunkering down for winter. For now, evenings are pleasant as we while away an hour or two with a glass of wine and plain ole conversation.

We've accomplished quite a lot this weekend. It was the monthly Farm Breakfast on Saturday and we enjoyed chatting with our regular breakfast partners. We like the breakfast experience but it's lots more fun with friends. We admired their beautiful gardens at the Farmhouse and aspire to one day have a fraction of that at the house. Of course, they have "peeps" who work on it daily and we have no "peeps" save ourselves who are working elsewhere most days. But John has been clearing and reclaiming some of the lawn/meadow/jungle clearing since getting his handy strimmer-on-steroids tool. It's an attachment with three blades that replaces the string cutter head and it takes no prisoners. It makes short work of the brambles which have taken over about two feet around the edges of the property. I guess that counts as some kind of landscaping. And we visited the Farmers Market on Saturday and scored some real honest-to-goodness homegrown tomatoes. Heaven in my mouth. Next year, no matter what else we grow, we have to create a "hot house" so we can achieve tomatoes.

Yesterday, we Skyped with our friends in England in the morning. It's fun to catch up and see them while we do it. Closes the distance a little. Then we were off to do our respective "stuff". John had more gardening to do and he got some rhododendrons placed. He has been picking the ripened blackberries throughout the week and I canned some jam from them. We'll freeze some of them for use later and use another bit to make ice cream. We discovered that blackberry ice cream is a truly divine experience. How can we not have thought of it sooner? We also teamed up and replaced the whole-house water filter that lives in the pump house. That may not sound like much, but this contraption is placed in a wholly inconvenient space and is not the easiest thing to remove. But, we did it and we're set for another 6 months or so. A trip to the hardware yielded us some obscure batteries I wanted if not the filter wrench we were looking for. As an aside - I love a hardware where you can see a man working in a kilt. Finally, we managed to give the dog a bath. Since she injured her leg, we have been reluctant to bathe her because she usually runs around like a nut afterwards and we didn't want her to stress that leg. She had reached critical dirty-dog stage though and so we managed to get her into the bathtub and contain her long enough to get a good layer of muck off. There's a do-it-yourself dog wash in Kingston that we want to try, so as she gets back on her feet more and more, we'll take her up for a more thorough cleaning (those sprayers really help do the job).

Last night the coyotes were out in full chorus. I woke a couple times to their eery howls and replies. And early this morning the owl that lives in the woods gave a few hoots as he finished his shift. Today is rightfully a holiday. The "work" of the weekend has been completed and so we can enjoy some down time. Maybe I'll pull out a quilt project that's calling me. John will likely putter about in the garden. And this evening, we'll sort it all out when we meet on the deck for dinner. As I said, really pretty perfect...

Brilliant!

What a brilliant time of year it is up here! The temperatures have finally persisted in the high 70s to low 80s and only one day of rain in the past month. On Tuesday night, there was a sunset to rival all sunsets as it looked like the sky was on fire. The color was just a deep rose-orange contrasted with the deep green of the woods. It was a pretty sight. The mornings have been so clear when we have our first walk outside with Zoe at o'dark thirty that if I knew the names of all the constellations, I could tell you what I saw. They were all there. As it is, I can reliably identify Orion's Belt, and the big and little dippers. Not a cloud in the sky. So, it's against Mother Nature's finest backdrop that the rest of the week took place. Not a bad place to start.

John was in California Monday to Thursday and stayed in a noisy hotel. He didn't get much rest and arrived home pretty tired. He has shaken that off with a long and good night's sleep here in the woods and we'll enjoy catching up this weekend. While he was away, my days were pretty even with the exception of Tuesday night when the cat brought another mouse inside from the garage just as I was preparing to go to bed. It looked to be a pretty straightforward catch and release as Zoe immediately captured the little guy only to turn quickly and lose her footing on the hardwood floor. She went down suddenly and apparently knocked the wind out of herself. With her recent leg injury and slow recovery, her inability to get up caused me to think she had seriously damaged one, if not both, of her legs since they were out at odd angles. But she was shortly up and walking fine. However, I was not. By this time I had called John and was pretty shaken up at the thought of losing the Z-dog (even for those brief minutes) and, not forgotten, the mouse that was now "somewhere" but nowhere I could see. I feared the cat may have taken it upstairs to be alone with his prize. Fortunately, that was not the case. The cat sat staring steadfastly at the stove meaning the small darling was underneath. So, with John still on the line, the dog and I went upstairs, I barricaded all the doors with towels, then barricaded the two of us in the bedroom for the night. In the morning, the cat was laying outside the bedroom door and the mouse was laying on the kitchen floor. I don't like it, but there it is. So, I have obtained three "rodent deterrents" which emit a high-frequency sound said to be offensive to my tormentors and placed them on each floor and, importantly, in the garage.

We have no plans this weekend other than to catch up on needed chores. We have some folks lined up to refresh the driveway, lay some concrete by the side of the house, and to build a shed. John simply doesn't have the time to do that. It will be great to get the "stuff" that rightfully belongs in a shed out of the garage. Then maybe we can actually use the treadmill in the garage. And John will be able to find some of his tools which are still in boxes.

So, I'm off to participate in this lovely summer day. The rest will take care of itself.

Summertime...

Finally! Our temperatures reached the 80s yesterday. It has felt like summer for the month of August and worth every bit of waiting. There is just no prettier place with the sun shining and casting shadows through the woods, the water is brilliantly blue, and the mountains still have some snow on them.

Zoe has been diagnosed with age-related kidney failure and we have put her on the prescribed low-protein diet. She has responded quite nicely and her energy and appetite have returned. The vet reassures us that she might get another 2-3 years by following this regimen and that's good news. And we have decided that the former President (aka Roosevelt) does not need another cat to keep him company. He seems quite content to be the one and only feline on the house. It's easier to maintain his delusions of grandeur (being the alpha cat) that way.

I had a massage last weekend. There's a critical difference between a massage one might have at a spa somewhere and a "therapeutic" massage such as I undergo at these twice monthly sessions. It might be the depth at which the practitioner kneads the tissue or the laser sharp focus with which she seeks out the "problem" areas. Sure, there's lovely music playing and the room is darkened. But all similarity ends there folks. Don't get me wrong; I value these sessions. They are the best type of "intervention" for my money. I'm lucky to have found such a skilled (and determined) practitioner.

Yesterday we took our first trip to the local "landfill". It had to be the "classiest" visit to a dump ever. Really, it's a place where you take your "stuff" and put it into very large bins to be hauled away. No earth movers shoving stuff around and no smell! And all for under $20. We had to remove the large rugs that were rolled up in the garage before they were transformed into cozy mouse habitats for the winter. Without a truck and given the weight of the things, the resident tool man used the handy Sawzall to cut them in half so they would fit nicely in the back of the station wagon.

Following that, in the afternoon we traveled down to Bremerton to attend the annual wine festival that benefits the hospital's philanthropic arm. We made our way around the waterfront where it was held, sampled a couple of the wines and ruined our appetite for dinner with the restaurants' small tasters (like being at a classy Costco on Saturday morning!) before heading back home. So, from the landfill to the waterfront in one day; we have it all!

It looks to be another lovely day outside. We'll putter about and finish a few "to be done" items on the list. But we won't putter too hard. It's summer after all....

The usual blather...

Well, last week went along quite nicely. While John was away, there was work and pleasant, sunny days. Zoe is getting around pretty well and the restful days while I'm at work and John is not around the house do seem to help her leg recover. She's still more frail than she used to be and is sleeping more and eating less. But her spirit remains bright and we'll just support her and enjoy her company for as long as she's around.

I read a lot when I'm on my own. It's a guilty pleasure to become absorbed in another's story. Our friend Ian suggested a new author to me, Donna Leon, and I am enjoying her character Commissario Guido Brunetti. Set in Venice, it also allows me to go there for a while and recall a few of our experiences.The Kindle supports instant gratification; no more waiting to get to a shop or for a book to arrive by mail. There are worse vices, right?

This weekend has not been as sunny as "they" promised, but it is summer all the same. While John took the hand lawnmower to Bremerton for repairs (sneaky rocks will get you every chance) yesterday, I went to the annual Hansville Rummage Sale. This little community raises most of the operating budget for it's Community Center with this sale, so there are lots of people there and lots of "stuff". I didn't see anything I fancied and left empty-handed. But it was a good browse. After that it was off to groceries and then later we went to a local nursery (owned and run by our dance instructors) to select a fruit tree. Our attempt to grow an apricot tree failed in this climate, so we have replaced it with a cherry tree. Maybe we'll get some fruit. Maybe not. But the blossoms in the Spring will be lovely. And it's said to be hardy down to 10 degrees so it should manage the winter well enough. John mowed and trimmed back more of the blackberry brambles that grow at the speed of light and encroach on our clearing. I made some zucchini bread from our recent Farm allotment of veggies and an Indian salad/relish to use some of the cucumbers as well. John pulled some carrots from the garden for dinner and we grilled a steak and enjoyed the evening hours.

Today brings more "things to get done" but first I will have a massage to get the ever-present kinks out of my neck and back. Then a trip to Costco for a few staple items and back to the house. John will plant the new tree today and I will do some "inside" paperwork tasks since rain is suggested. We have also amassed quite a few peppers in our vegetable collection, so today I will create some dish to incorporate those as well for dinner. And then Monday will be upon us and the week follows its usual rhythm of work and evenings as it does. I can handle that...

The Other Man....

John is on his way to California this morning as is our routine these days. Later, I will take the other man in my life to the same airport pick-up location and he too will return to California. Son Jake spent the weekend with us and it was the nicest of times. He has managed to time all his visits with the monthly Farm Breakfast. This time we also got him up to Port Townsend for a wander and out to Seabeck where the scenery is outstanding. In between, there was a visit to Central Market to pick out some salmon and some ingredients for a Mexican dinner as well and a short trip over to Bainbridge Island in search of a store which has closed since my last visit.The weather was pleasant for the most part with just a hint of rain and overcast on Friday night.

There were also the usual homesteading chores during the weekend and Jake pitched in and gave John an assist doing most of the mowing on the shiny red tractor. It promises to be dry weather for a week or more now and we have lots to do outside. The jungle has encroached on the grass (or what passes for lawn) about 2 feet and we will work on reclaiming that portion. With a bit of luck, we'll have the driveway refreshed by the end of this week or next. Today I will contact a fellow to do some concrete work for us. John says we look to have a more abundant blackberry crop this year than last and I'll set aside a weekend day soon to can some jam.

Our goldfinches seem to have packed up and moved on this weekend. We have had possibly a dozen pairs this year, but like last year, they arrive in early summer and then leave all together about this time. It's much quieter outside without their songs. For now we are left with the wee Siskins and the brilliantly colored, but aggressive Blue Jays. Before long though, the Robins will return en masse and the Flickers will arrive.

I have the day off today. Tomorrow I will be back to work and that will make the days go by quickly. So, for today, I will enjoy every minute...

Unplugged in Poulsbo

I've discontinued my Facebook account. In truth, I wasn't finding social media to be all that social. In fact, most of those with whom I am social aren't even on Facebook. So, it's gone and I'm not sad. As a matter of fact, my cell phone has lately been unable to hold a battery charge and I have taken to just turning it off unless I specifically need to make a call. I haven't missed it either. No more instant contact. Just more space.

I'll continue to write in this blog as it provides us with a chronicle of mundane, yet somehow important, everyday life. But there are no demands on anyone to read it or interact with it. I like that.

Back to Basics...

I've been thinking about our stalwart friends from the U.K. who came over for the wedding and then headed to the eastern U.S. to see some of that area of the country. It's been so hot there. We would loved to have gone with them since it's a beautiful part to experience, but life dictated otherwise. Still, I hope they haven't found it too unpleasant.

Finally we can say that summer seems to have arrived in our far corner. Temperatures have been consistently in the 70s and we might even hit 80 one day next week! This is my kind of summer. John is back from a week in California and today we plan to get some much needed work done on the lawn/meadow/jungle clearing. The driveway guy failed to show yesterday to give us an estimate for repaving the drive. We'll have to find another one, I guess. And we still need to sort out a foundation for the long-awaited garden shed and some concrete for the side of the house by the garage. Now that we can count on being around, we can get those bits done. I love to travel, but it does cause a bit of a backup to the "list".

Roosevelt (cat) brought a mouse into the house yesterday morning. But instead of the usual terror that accompanies this when John is away, it was handled quite quickly and efficiently while I stood at the ready in the kitchen armed with my trusty mixing bowl/mouse catcher and a broom. Zoe had already confined the little critter to a corner and all John had to do was provide an assist. Less than 5 minutes and the offender was outside.

Looking ahead, I have a massage scheduled for tomorrow and a few errands to run. With such a nice week ahead, we'll have our meals outside so I'll need to go to the grocery. There's a craft fair up at Kingston this weekend and I plan to go tomorrow. The week will be a short one as son Jake arrives for a visit on Friday. We have some new places to show him. Tonight we'll open a nice bottle of wine, sit outside, and solve all the world's problems (or at least not care so much about them!).