"Memories, light the corners of my mind" ???

I got an email from an old friend the other day.  We went through all 12 years of grade school and high school together -

"You know what tomorrow is?" she asked.





May 28th, I thought.


"May 28, 1970 - our high school graduation day" she continued.

As if I could ever forget.

 How does it seem that some dates are inexplicably etched in your memory?

(If it were not for the copy of our wedding invitation, sealed in stained glass, that hangs on our bathroom wall (ok, I know that sounds like a funny place for it to be, but it works) I would never be able to remember our anniversary.  It gets mixed in with Earth Day and an old friend's birthday - I just always have to go look at it and check.)

Sorry, I digress -

And peonies - They always remind me of graduation too.  We lived in a small town in North Central Washington - there were no florists - but you always knew who had the best gardens and that is who did the flowers for the important community events.  Big baskets of peonies and branches of bridal veil spirea decorated the gym that day.

I think I was co-valedictorian (ok, it's been 45 years - the mind is not the steel trap it used to be, ha ha)  That meant I had to give a speech!

Me, "Miss last minute/procrastination is my middle name", knew weeks before the ceremony that I was going to have to give that speech.  Mr. Godden, our principal, had to approve it before hand and kept bugging me.  "I'll get it done!" I said - probably somewhat testily because in those days there was no Wikipedia, no computers to help you hastily write up something "meaningful"  - no, it had to be HAND WRITTEN on to those 3x5 cards, with all of your "main points" written in capitals, so you wouldn't forget them.

Here I am in my 18 year old splendor

Well, I finally got my speech written, I do remember that it was something inspiring about where we were all going from here.  And I can still remember that main point:  "AND WHERE DO WE GO FROM HERE" -  (flip to next card) - Oh, crap - even though I had just written this dribble, I knew for sure, that the next sentence, which instructed us all on where to go from here - was missing.  I hadn't had time to proof read my cards.  Damn...  and in the way that memories hide in the corners of your mind, to tell you the truth, I really don't remember how I recovered from that boo-boo.

Somehow I finished up the speech, got my diploma and was off to the many "graduation parties" that were happening that night - well not really "many" - there were only 12 of us - and nine of us had gone through all 12 years together - "One big happy family" - yeah, right...

But I still remember that date - May 28, 1970. 

Looking Back Sunday

Looking back, it seems that we used to do a lot of traveling in October - now that The Shepherd has his own business, we haven't had a "fall vacation" in a couple of years - I have been reorganizing "My Pictures" folder and I thought I'd reminisce about some of our past travels and good memories.  

The good news is, I can still take a fall "staycation" because I have lots of personal time left at work.  I need to take almost 40 hours before the end of the year, or I will lose it!  So I took Friday and Monday off for a four day weekend. 

 And, as the old saying goes, there's no place like home - this is our Katsura tree in the front yard.  It has a beautiful array of colors from spring to fall, but I think I like the fall best - It almost glows in the dark and you can see the color from anyplace on the farm. 

2005

 Another tree that The Shepherd and I are fond of is the giant Sequoia.  This one happens to be in Sequoia National Park in California - but at one time, we had a map of all the Sequoia trees in Bellingham and Whatcom County.  Surprisingly, there are quite a few, and it is fun to drive around and see how these giant trees have grown over the past 20 years when we first made our list. 

Remember the Alamo - 2006

In 2006, it was before the housing bubble burst and our local Building Industry Association had lots of money.  I was on the Membership committee and that year the National Membership Conference was in San Antonio.  Our whole committee went - we had a blast, and actually learned quite a bit - we set records for membership growth in the next few years. 

Mission San Xavier - 2007

Before The Shepherd's mom passed away in the mid 90's Tucson was where we went on vacation - we hadn't been back for about 10 years so we started out there when we went to the Grand Canyon in 2007 - The Shepherd was able to go to some of his favorite old haunts and see old friends.

2009 - My new wheel

I can't believe that I've had my "new" spinning wheel for four years already - lots of time spend happily spinning.  Right now I'm working on a very light weight yarn of CVM/Romedale wool - the wool is easy to spin - I'm not a fan of fingering/sport weight yarn - it takes too long to fill up a bobbin, then you have to to it again in order to get your second ply.  Give me a good worsted weight any day. 













I made applesauce and banana bread yesterday - tomorrow I want to go to Joanne Fabrics to get some yarn to make baby afghans with -

I also need to call my health insurance company and get the bills sorted out from when I was in the hospital.  as Winnie the Poo was fond of saying, "Oh Bother"

I will also try to get some outside pictures of the kitties tomorrow - since it is dark when I get home now.  Hope you all have a good week.

Looking back Sunday & some Random Thoughts...

03-01-2007

No snow for us in the far north corner of the Pacific Northwest in February 2013 - but not so in 2007.  That was the year that The Shepherd hurt his back at work and was bedridden for several weeks.  I took this picture one morning as I went out to feed the flock.  It was beautiful and peaceful out.

03-04-2007

And four days later - all gone and the crocus was up and blooming like nothing had ever happened. 

03-01-2008

It didn't snow the last week in February 2008 and the Shepherd went to a church meeting in Tacoma,  I stayed home to farm-sit.  This was my "reward" - a beautiful bowl of spring flowers for the back porch. 










 But I had other things to do that weekend here at home - I was just learning how to spin.  Sinda is wondering what this fuzzy stuff is - it is the first bump of roving that I ever spun - Blue faced Leicester

Oddly enough, the yarn that I made from this roving ended up being part of the crocheted shroud I wrapped around her body when we buried her in Feb 2011.   

 

02-26-2009

A heavy late night snowfall on Feb 26, 2009 blanketed everything in several inches of the white stuff - are you beginning to see the common thread here? 

02-25-2010

 
Feb 25, 2010 was shearing day.  Remarkably it didn't snow, but it got real cold right after - of course all the sheep were nekked.

Since we aren't having any lambs this year, he hasn't sheared yet, but the sheep are starting to roo (a genetic thing with Shetland Sheep where their wool comes off naturally - probably from all those hundreds of years of living out on the wild coasts of Scotland.)  I just found out today that the shearer we've been trying to get hold of is not an appropriate shearer for a handspinners flock.  We won't continue to try to reach him.

02-26-2010

It was, however,  nice enough in the greenhouse in 2010 that his little bonsai forsythia was blooming

02-25-2011

For some reason I can't find any pictures that I might have taken in Feb. 2011 - Sinda, (my 21 year old kitty) died on Feb. 5.  I think that I just didn't see much beauty in the world that month.

The Shepherd took this picture up at one of his customer's job sites though - notice the date - our end of February snow struck again. 

02-26-2012

The 2012 snow didn't stay long, but it sure looked fierce coming down. 














While somekitty had found a warm place to sleep.  Jeepers creepers he has grown a lot this year.  He doesn't sleep up here much any more because he "flows over the edge" and it's not really very comfortable.  His new happy warm spot is the heater vent in the bathroom. 





And there is nothing better on a cold snowy weekend (or even one that isn't cold and snowy) than to snuggle down with a good book.  Nora Roberts' publisher is raking in the bucks re-releasing some of her older (and far less "racy") novels.  And even though I've read them before - - can't put them down -

I got Maeve Binchy's last novel "A Week In Winter" last week - I stayed up WAY too late several nights in a week - "just one more chapter" - I will really miss her writing.

February 2013

So this is what it has looked like for much of February 2013 - Grey and soggy.  But at least it didn't SNOW!  Sorry Boston...

Help Rebuild Judith's Studio

My first experience with Judith MacKenzie was in November 2008 when she paid a visit to our spinner guild.  She was good friends of the woman who owned our Local Yarn Store, and "came for a visit" - being a newbie spinner, I didn't know that when you said "Judith" - choirs of angels sang in the background. 

After that, I took two different classes from Judith - and always learned lots, but something more important - to be encouraging of new spinners.  Even if what they were spinning looked "less than desirable" Judith would have something good to say - and a way they could do it better. 







She is also unfailingly generous with fiber - you always get good things to spin when you take her classes. 


One of my spinner guild pals once said "I'd take a class from Judith even if she was teaching how to spin belly button lint"  After I had taken one of Judith's classes, I knew what my pal meant. 











Judith is also an exceptional fleece judge - here she is in 2010 at Black Sheep Gathering.  Listening to her judge fleece is like taking a class on how to pick out the very best fleece to spin.

A couple of years ago, Judith moved to Forks, WA - which seemed like the end of the world to me, was a haven for her.  As artist in residence at the Rainforest Arts Center, she had built up a wonderful studio to share her talents with the world.

Yesterday I received an email from the same friend who I quoted above about spinning "belly button lint"  She told me about "the fire" - on October 29, a catastrophic fire destroyed the arts center building and everything in Judith's studio.  I had heard about the fire - they only said that it burned the store where they sold all the vampire stuff. (Forks, WA is where the Twilight series was based out of)

They didn't say anything about destroying the Arts Center.  When I read her email, I cried. 

A web site has been set up -  Rebuild Judith's Studio   Do what you can to help.

.

Loking Back Sunday - Happy May Day

Every year on the Sunday closest to May 1st our Sunday School teacher at church organizes a May Pole "event".

Everyone wears crowns of ivy,






There is a small park adjacent to our church where one of the members puts up our May Pole that Margot has festooned with ribbon.

Although these pictures are from 2009, today's "dance" was much like this one - the sun was out (for once) and the group was in good spirits.



Everyone is given their ribbon and assigned either to "sky" or "grass" - ie - you go over first or under first - the finished pole is colorful and festive.

One year she took all the ribbon off the pole afterward and made it into a beautiful woven wall hanging.






Not much is made of "May Day" any more - When I was a little girl my sister and I would make paper baskets and fill them with flowers from my mom and grandma's gardens - for who else? My mom and grandma -





This year everyone came back to the church to share a yummy Transylvanian lunch that our minister had made to benefit our partner church in, where else, Transylvania.

On the home front, The Shepherd is still sick with the flu - I say still - he's been sick since Friday the 22nd.

I'm more than ready for him to get well.

So, Happy SUNday (which we've had might little of here in the Pacific NW - April was the coldest and wettest in HISTORY) and Happy May Day!

We Remember Neelix

It was just a year ago this weekend that our sweet boy Neelix went to The Bridge. The disease that overtook him came on so swiftly that it defied our desire that he stay here with us. I always intended to write a memorial post for him, but it never quite happened - I thought now was a good time.

We got him from the local Humane Society - he was so little and had this rattly purr - turns out it was "rattly" because he was sick - even the vet said that they should not have given him to us - but I was glad that they had, because from the moment we saw him - he had a hold of both our hearts. We were big fans of the show "Star Trek Voyager" and Neelix the cat had the same orange striped pattern on his head as "Neelix the Talaxian" on that show - so he became our Neelix.

For The Shepherd, he was his "right hand man" - he snoopervised the building of the barn and outbuildings, and required a ride around the farm on The Shepherd's shoulders every evening when he got home from work.

Neelix loved the sheep and was in attendance at most lambings - pacing like an expectant father. When he knew things were all "good" - he would purr loudly - "See what we've done?" he'd say.

For as big as he got (almost 22 lbs. at one time) he had an "itty bitty" meow - left over from the respiratory illness that he had as a kitten.

He used up two of his nine lives - one time, disappearing for over a week - when he returned, he was missing his collar and was a few pounds lighter. There was a bad storm the night he disappeared and we think he'd gotten it caught in some underbrush and was only able to get loose when he'd lost enough weight to get his head out of it. I never put another collar on him after that. The other time, he got locked in our storage room out in the barn for a day and a half in the hot part of the summer. Any other cat would have put up a ruckus that we would have heard, but, as I said, Neelix's meow was no more than a tiny "mew" - Luckily, The Shepherd remembered that he'd had the door open for a few minutes the day before - when I raced out with the key to open the door I was met by one very thirsty kitty. After that, he stayed out of the storage room, that's for sure.

Neelix was the only cat I've ever had who slept on his back. He was our official farm greeter and would run out the door to meet whoever had come in the drive way.

I loved how sassy he was - He patrolled the farm and protected us from skunks (yes, he got skunked once - that was enough), and was observed knocking a young raccoon off our back porch. He had a mean left hook. Most of all, he kept the rabbit population down. The Shepherd has really missed that this spring as the rabbits have decimated his garden.

With his floofy fur, he often looked like he had a halo -

I have written almost 500 posts since I started my blog and if you look at my "labels list" you'll see that he was a part of 50 of them - such a big part of our lives.

Our friends Karla & Miss Peach wrote a beautiful poem for us that weekend. It still "makes my eyes leak" but it is a good reminder of a (not so) little fellow who was a big part of our lives.

For Neelix (and his "mom & dad") -

Close your eyes now, my longtime friend,
and let this time of suffering
come to a peaceful end.
We'll walk together soon, I'm sure,
as winter turns to spring,
when snow gives way to budding leaves
and birds begin to sing.
The gentle breeze shall call your name
along the water's edge.
For what we shared and what you meant
shall never be forgot.
Your friendship spans the years behind,
your memory ahead.
You'll always be there next to me,
companion and good friend.

In Memory of Violette Noelle -

Please take a moment in your day to send healing thoughts to the family of Tracey & her kitty Monty Q who lost their sweet child Violette Noelle in an accident last week. Her funeral was this morning in their home in Maryland.

I have colored my words violet in her honor.

I'd also like to thank The Cat Blogosphere for their lovely tributes to Neelix. It was very much appreciated.