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!

yarn and spinning fiber - abundance!

 i spent 2 days engulfed in and overwhelmed by my yarn stash.  had every intention of purging a bunch of it... but my will was just too weak.  my rule when sorting thru and purging is to ask myself: "do i LOVE this yarn?"  if i don't really love it, then it has to go away to someone who will use it.  big problem was that i must not have been in the right frame of mind, because there were only 5 or 6 skeins that i didn't love.  so at least i sorted thru it all, checked for any sign of moths (bravo... no evidence of the pests) and got it somewhat sorted into sport weight, fine yarns, a big basket of really fat yarns, a basket full of yarn that looked interesting enough to use in the near future, and a pile of "almost don't really love it".








looks strange to see a ball of white in with all that color.

most of this yarn is handspun and has been aged for several/many years.  there is a good representation of commercial yarns that i couldn't resist adding to the stash when i was face-to-face with it at some fiber show.

and then there was the spinning fiber.  that bin on the left and the basket on top are packed full.  in the basket is an assortment of exotic and "special" fibers.... silk, yak, cashmere, mohair locks, silk blends.  i don't think i can live long enough to spin it all.... and then comes the question of what the bloody hell will i do with all that yarn.  and here's part of the problem... this represents only a small part of the fibers stashed around this house.

i'm thinking i have a really serious personality flaw.  i have all this lovely fiber and what do i covet in Kate's discard pile?  yep... more fiber.  one braid was alpaca/silk which i have spun up and it is gorgeous and silky and soft, oh my! and yeah, there were 3 others... but they are small bundles. really they are....

this is one of Kate's dyed fibers that came home with me.  i'm such a sucker for bright and shiny.

so even if there were a "recovery program" for this fiber acquisition thing i have going on, i know i wouldn't have anything to do with it.  i love the joy of the colors, the tactile pleasure, the spinning and the resulting yarn.  and i'm not hoarding it... i happily give it to anyone who sees it, loves it and wants to use it.

dogs

we got to meet the new puppy when we visited the kids and grkids for xmas.  he is a Chinook and is 5 months old and size-wise is moving in on Tiki, the older Chinook, and is totally and thoroughly a puppy.  gotta say, being with him for 3 days solidified my decision to never ever get a puppy again.  it is not that he isn't cute and adorable, but he can't be left alone for one minute because he is just too curious and ready to check out everything he can reach, giving special attention to anything on a table or counter.  his name is Ky, short for Kyrick.

the owl is Ky's totem animal and on his monthly birthday he gets the owl for a few minutes while photos are taken to record how much he has grown in the past month.











Tiki took over the "mothering" of this pup from the moment they met.  first thing she taught him was how to ask to be let out in the doggie yard by ringing the jingle bell hanging on the door knob.  seems it was really a smart move to get Ky while Tiki is still agile, before she gets too old to wrestle and play.  they also clean each other's ears.  perfect puppy situation!

Santa in Duvall

we amtrak-ed to seattle on monday before xmas to spend a few days with the northern branch of the family.  this is the first year we've gone there for xmas, as they usually come to dome central either 25th or 26th, but the gkids really like to be at their home which is totally understandable.
i'd love to do it this way again... next year.  it was the most relaxed xmas i've had in many years and i enjoyed not having to prepare for the family feast here!  ahhh..

the fence around the tree and gifts was necessary because of the new puppy, Ky (Kyrick) who is 5 months old and all puppy.

Santa left an obscene amount of candy and sweets.  there was another bowl-full this size.  i'm not complaining and heard no complaints!








Alex's wish list had a bundle of stuff from thinkgeek.com
and this shirt was one of the items.

Jim seems to be advising Alex on opening this gift or trying to get a closer look.

















Chris received this piece of art from Kate.  no one knew what to call it exactly......

Kate opening gift.

   the morning sky from the deck.  it was a lovely morning.

Zylie with gifts.... wearing and holding.

















Alex gave me a Yoda backpack, which i adore and can't wait to use!

Chris cooked the turkey in his Traeger smoker, after he had brined it overnight.  it was by far the tastiest and moistest turkey i've ever had the pleasure of feasting upon.  equally as good the next day in a sandwich!  i'm planning to brine the next one i cook, but doubt i'll have a trager to smoke it in.  he made a brine in a big cooking pot.... water, 2 cups kosher salt, 2 cups of sugar, couple of apples, an orange, spices.  simmered it for awhile, cooled it, then put the turkey in a 5-gallon bucket, poured in the brine and added water to cover.  weighted it down with a bag of ice and chilled in the refrig over night.  when it went into the smoker,  he laid strips of bacon over it.  this technique makes basting unnecessary and adds to the flavor of the turkey and the gravy.  the bacon gets crumbled into the gravy.  so tasty!!

the chef and his assistant at work in the kitchen.  this was actually prep for xmas eve dinner of corned beef and cabbage... another delicious meal.







we returned home on thursday, happy, smiling and still full of good food... and candy.  it was a really special and fabulous holiday with the kids and grands... and the dogs.

Winter Solstice

blessings of light and magic with the return of the sun!

music

from FB another meaningful quote:

Music gives a soul to the universe,
wings to the mind,
flight to the imagination
and life to everything.

~ Plato — 

sad lookin' garden in the winter

but... oh, wait... "winter" isn't til the 21st.  this rose bed looks quite dismal, tho... weeds, dead leaves.  no rain today and not freezing out there, so i thot i'd prune some of my roses.  that resolve did not last long.  even tho i was all wrapped up in 3 layers plus mitts, it felt cold enough to freeze a well diggers brass monkey, so i didn't last long.

here is one lone rose bud looking like it was trying to defy the reality of cold weather.  if it were just a bit further along in maturity, i'd have brought it in.  would have been too depressing to watch it bow its head and die.

a good thing.... i was pretty sure the 10 days of freezing weather (many days in 20s and below) had done in all my bulbs... but however, i started digging around a dahlia and was delighted to find living and hopefully viable bulbs in that cold wet earth.  they are now in my studio and i'll be back out there digging around other plants.  got too cold to stay out there for long today.



and the plans for xmas are shaping up beautifully!  we have been planning to go to Duvall to spend the holiday with the kids and kidlets.  the big obstacle was what about Tasha... we checked out the usual ... Carla and her league of pet-care people at RuffLifePDX. that was a dead end and  no surprise... last minute "planning" during a big holiday time yielding not many options.  finally had a plan in place, tho not ideal.... the neighbors down the hill at Roads End Pottery agreed to come up to feed and walk the dawg, even tho they are consumed with getting inventory ready and then spending lots of time selling at Saturday Market.  but that would leave her alone much of the time and that's just not fair to her!  but, on Sat. during the cookie-making day, i mentioned it to my niece Maggie, and she and her girlfriend Jake want to stay here while we are gone (only 3 nights) and i can't even say how happy i am that this is working out!!  now if i'd just get hit with the incentive and energy to get gifts wrapped, i could quit thinking about that!

happy with how life happens!

ETA:  another good thing... after that long period of way below freezing temps, i was sure that all of my bulbs and pots of flowers were dead beyond reclamation but while i was in my dead winter garden, i dug around where my dahlias had been and lo and behold.... there were bulbs in that cold wet soil that were still alive!!  now those are in my studio and i'll be out there soon digging for more of them so i wont have to do as much replacing as i'd thought.  the ones in the pots?  i'm pretty sure they are goners. 

annual cookie making day at dome central

a happy cookie day w/Maggie, Jake, Jordan, Maisy, Judy and Max (Jim disappeared in the bedroom for much of the day... too much chaos maybe?)

this is probably the best cookie EVER!  thanks to Kate for storing the recipe on her facebook.

White chocolate chip and dried cranberry cookies

Makes 3 dozen.
1 cup butter (or margarine, or butter-flavored Crisco)
1 8 oz. package cream cheese, softened
2 cups sugar
2 cups flour
1 cup dried cranberries
1 cup white chocolate chips (or 1.5 cups)
Heat oven to 325 F.
Cream butter and cream cheese well. Add sugar and beat until fluffy.
Slowly stir in the flour and add cranberries and chocolate by hand.
It is about the consistency of cake frosting (tastes like it too--
yum!).
Drop by spoonfuls onto ungreased cookie sheets. Bake 15-20 minutes or
until light golden brown. Let cool for about 5 minutes before 

removing from cookie sheet. Finish cooling on wire rack. 

also made chocolate chip w/walnuts and anise biscotti.

when one needs a break, there is always the "devices".

and the photos to  entertain and give giggles.

and then there is alternative uses for the cookie decorations... especially the sparkly pink ones.
(those dark smudges on their faces are the damn dust particles under the lens of my camera which i hate... both the dust and the camera!)  i do very much love Maggie and Jordan!!

i really really enjoyed the day and the hugs and the love and the cookies!