Catch-Up Post

I'm missing my blog like crazy, but am now in the habit of not keeping up with it.  I'm still taking pictures of the minutia in my life that strikes my fancy and following up by writing witty blog posts to go along with them...in my head.  Not a good way of recording anything.  I've also dropped away from checking other people's blogs on a regular basis.  I think I miss that even more than I do posting my own stuff.

 Over in the eastern part of the country, the winter without end continues to bring misery to thousands.  Here in my part of the west coast, we're back to above-average temperatures and no rain.  It looks like we're going to have another dry summer and our pond, so newly repopulated with frogs, is going to disappear once again.  However, if I look at the glass as half full (hah!), we do have more water in it right now than we did at the end of the rainy season last year.  With a bit of luck, we'll be getting a bit more rain between now and the end of April.  It could happen...

I had this past week off from school, didn't blog but did a lot of stuff -- most of it not involving school.  A nice break.

Bruce and I drove up to the small town of Yreka up in the far reaches of California to surprise his mom for her birthday.



Mt. Shasta was snow-covered again.  The drought had melted everything down to bare earth, but the last storms got her looking as she should again.

Colleen (sister), Bruce, Ginger and Colleen's husband, Pete

I think that the surprise part of this visit worked magnificently -- Ginger was astounded to see her son walk through the door.  Lots of hugs and some tears too.  It was a great surprise and a lovely visit.

Colleen, Mark (brother), Bruce, and Ward (other brother)

I don't often do family things like this anymore and I had my own surprise of how much I enjoyed visiting and just being a part of this.

Another good thing about suddenly deciding to go on this visit is that I finally had to set down and finish the project of three scarves that had been languishing on my loom since last summer. I had to finish all three of them before I could cut it off the loom.  This is the green one that I gave to Ginger.  The fiber's an alpaca/silk blend and the scarf turned out soft and as light as gossamer.  Happy me!

We had a leisurely drive up to Ashland, Oregon the next day.  It's a charming college town (lots of bookstores) where we spent hours walking through the park, eating, and browsing in shops.  Bruce and I haven't had a day like this in years.









Ashland also puts on a yearly Shakespeare Festival every summer, so there was evidence of the Bard all through the center of town.

This is how I look when I can hardly wait to walk into a bookstore.  Now you know.

To round out the day, when we returned to Yreka, we visited one of the old cemeteries.

Once back home, I finished the fringe on the other two scarves...

...had a sushi lunch with Mama...



   

Lizzy discovered that Bella is happy to ride in a kayak

...and spent a day at home with daughter Lizzy and her two dogs (my grandpups).











Tonight I sit finishing this blog while on the other end of the table looms a raggedy stack of papers I need to enter in my gradebook.  I also have lesson plans to type up.  And my next book study to set up.  And did I mention that I came down with a cold yesterday?

None of this matters -- the work will get done (in time) and my cold will get better.  It was a good week and I'm counting my blessings.  Yup, happy me.