sisters' weekend at the beach

we rented a little house close to Fort Stevens state park for a long weekend.  turned out to be a very rainy and windy weekend with flood warnings.... and the wind howled line a banshee all night.

so we've been staying inside in the warm and dry, snackin' and drinkin' wine while we watch movies.

our new Husky!

Jim has been searching online for a couple of months for a Siberian Husky... mostly thru rescue sites and shelters.  this guy came to live with us yesterday, brought here by the woman who had rescued him from a shelter and has had him for 2 months.  she really seemed to love him, but he has proven himself to be very aggressive toward cats and she has 2 cats!  his name is Timber... probably as in "TimberWolf" and we are calling him Timba.  he is about 1 1/2 years old, very sweet and very smart.  seems to learn quickly, tho one steep learning curve is about cruising counter tops and getting into whatever is there.  we have some learning to do, too.  don't leave anything food related where he can possibly get to it.  he is already strongly bonded to Jim... lies by the door if Jim goes out, and waits until he comes back in.  the biggest problem is
Tasha who is just not sure she wants Timba living in her territory.
i think they are working it out and hope that is resolved soon!

and Jim gets left home with the dogs while i go to the beach with my sisters for a long weekend.  we love these sisters' weekends and do them as often as we can.  this time is to Hammond at the coast, close to Fort Stevens.  with the heavy rain forecast, i predict a lot of time will be spent indoors watching  movies, munching good stuff and drinking good wine!

playing catch-up... again

while C & K went to NJ for the super bowl, i stayed with the grandkids and dogs for 8 days.  it was a laid back and quiet time... we had a more than adequate food supply so didn't really need to go anywhere.  they were both feeling kinda ill so skipped the art class on friday and i was trying to recover from shingles.... a thoroughly awful disease.  their favorite tv show now is "The Big Bang Theory", of which they had many many recorded episodes, so we had a marathon of nerds.  and now i believe i've seen as many episodes as i need to see.  the puppy, Ky is 6 months old now and is all puppy all the time.  the older dog (both Chinooks) likes the puppy and spends time playing with him... but has her limits, as did the 3 of us humans.





grooming session

they both spend a lot of time with head sets and
electronic devices!

i spent some time in Kate's dye studio, which got me kind of fired up to get my own dye studio up and running again.

this one is organic polworth/silk   -------->

<------- angora="" merino="" nbsp="" p="" silk="">              the yarn is SO soft and has a wonderful
              drape.

                                     silk/angora   ------->
                         unbelievably soft and can't wait to spin and
                         knit with it.











there was a polar express on the east coast before they left, and then another coming in as they were getting ready to come home.  they dealt with plane cancellations and delays and re-routing, but got home at the expected time and i got home on
Wed, after we changed my  departure to Tacoma due to the wild celebration happening in Seattle
for the champion Seahawks.... which took place too close to the Amtrak station for us to even
consider trying to get there.  my return timing could not have been better... Thursday a.m. the snow
started coming down all over Portland and down the Willamette valley... and it kept on coming.  i
did make it to the market for supplies while i could still get out on thursday and haven't been out
since then.  we had probably 12" to 15" here.  the access road was finally plowed, but our driveway
(about 1/4 mile to the road) was not drivable til today.  Jim took the pick-up and made it out.  i think
cabin fever got the best of him.  hoping i can get out tomorrow before i go totally bat shit stir crazy!
it really was quite a beautiful scene... but enough already.

it's raining now and the temp is up to 42F and i am happy to see rain.  we'll see how long that lasts!

fiber >>> yarn >>> finally

by very good fortune, i came home from Duvall after xmas with several batches of very lovely spinning fiber which Kate had rejected as not up to her standards/quality control.  this is BFL/silk, a delight to spin into lovely yarn.  i love how the copper shows up as a subtle glow in the yarn.  already spun is a blue/black alpaca/silk destined to be featured in something very special.

today was another in a series of doctor appts, then dentist after brunch with my sister Robin.  we went to a small cafe (Biscuit) in Beaverton and i ordered eggs benedict and was not disappointed.  wish i'd taken a photo... it was lovely!  ummmmm

not Luna

Jim and Tasha took the trip to Woodburn today to Project Pooch to meet Luna and see if she might be the right one for us to adopt.  (see 1/15/14)  Tasha seemed vaguely interested in sniffing her, but Luna returned the gesture with a growl.  seems Luna doesn't much like other female dogs, evidenced by her
behavior toward them at Pooch.  so, after the 2 were observed together by people in charge there, it was decided that this would not be a good match.  they suggested that we try to find a male husky and will be looking for one for us, and in the meantime we will continue our search.

and i'm still in search for the return of my energy and initiative to do something... anything... tho i do feel the stirring need to create something... spinning, knitting, quilting, dyeing... i've only managed to spin most of a braid of fiber i got from Kate at xmas and some practice surface embellishment on fabric.  trying to perfect feathers so they look like light, airy, floaty things... not clumps of random stitches.  also, want to work on hands and spirals for a piece that's in my mind for "soon".  and, of course, i have that huge need/desire to get outside... prune my roses and clean up a lot of pots, dead stuff etc around the beds.  still haven't gained back any of the 6 pounds i lost while in hospital, tho appetite is pretty much back to normal... and i'd sure love some bacon!  takes time, i guess... and i'm not feeling  very patient.

Project Pooch

Luna Female Siberian Husky 4-5 years old 49 lbs How to Adopt    Before You Adopt Can't adopt but you still want to help? Share

we feel like we're a 2-dog family and miss Meika in all her Siberian Huskiness, so are looking at finding another Siberian to keep poor lonely Tasha company (and us, too).  Tasha came from Project Pooch approx. 9 years ago, so we checked out pooch.org again and found Luna looking for a family of her own.  we are still doing the checking into, but she is definitely a good possibility.  now we need to take Tasha with us and go for a visit with Luna.  the next step, if this looks like a good "fit" would be that they would bring her here for a visit and if all goes well, she would have an over-night with us... and then if that goes well, we would adopt her.  can't believe i'm thinking of signing up for lots more years of  wall-to-wall husky hair all over the domain, but they really are wonderful pets and members of the family!  and yes, they indeed DO have attitude!

and another good one from Wild Woman on facebook:.......

I'm back....

well, i guess i need to start somewhere!  the past couple of weeks have been rather a blur.  new year's eve i started having what seemed like a re-run of late Nov. cold/flu/not well feeling.  by thursday evening had a fever of 103 and could hardly breathe.  went to bed and soon called J to help me get to bathroom and then call 911... and you know i had to feel like crap to get to that point.  so, rescue came, went to ER,spent several hours with the tests, xrays etc., and diagnosis that it was probably pneumonia and not flu.  soon joined there by family support...  Jim, who had followed the ambulance from home and Robin, Chuck and Curbie.  finally admitted and put to bed.  it's been many years since i've been in hospital and hope it's many more before i'm there again.  the care and attention was beyond excellent... the major problem being that all that left no time for sleep.  i was at the new Kaiser Westside Medical Center, with state-of-the-art everything... including a computer on a pull down to my level arm where i could click on a menu for choices on all meals and snacks,  scheduled to be delivered whenever i wanted to have them.  really!  and the food was pretty good.  and the nursing and other staff seemed to be cream-of-the-crop people.  Kaiser seemed to have had an advantage in recruiting staff... offering this new facility plus some definite perks that come with working for them.  there were people from hospitals all over Portland and (almost) every one that i dealt with seemed highly qualified. so, after 5 nights there... i'm home in my queendom and ever so happy to be here.  energy is coming back!!  and so happy i've banished that dark thought that lives in the back of my mind that goes something like "you get old, you get pneumonia, then go to the hospital and die".  the other version includes broken hip.  too grim and depressing?  but i'm here and getting ready to rock and roll and get going on all that stuff i still need/want to do.  and i owe SO much gratitude to my family care team and advocates who were there every day and offered wise input to medical, nursing and axillary staff.... Robin and Judy.  also, Curbhead who came to read one of my fave crazy books to me and offer his support, and my very important man of my life, Jim, there for me always and trying to understand what the hell was going on. and having Chris come down from Duvall for 2 days meant more than he will ever know!  as his gramma often said.. "he is the SWEETEST boy"!  and now he is a very sweet and loving man.  and so, the end to that saga.

HAPPY NEW YEAR!!

happy new year!