“There goes the neighborhood.” Mrs. leaves the birdseed block when a neighbor takes over.
While I’m up in the San Francisco area taking care of my children, I didn’t bring my camera or lenses. I did have some photos downloaded to my laptop of Red and Mrs. that I didn’t get a chance to look at before I left home.
I have taken a few photos with my iphone at my favorite grocery store called Berkeley Bowl, which was built in a former bowling alley, hence the name. I’ve written about Berkeley Bowl before HERE.
Here are a few views from Berkeley Bowl this week. Look at this variety of pumpkins at the entrance to the grocery store!
Sweet potatoes anyone?
Pomagranites, melons, apples and more.
More backyard bird buddies:
I was pleasantly surprised with how crisp and clear my photos of Red, Mrs. and a Mourning Dove turned out. I took these the day before I left to take care of my daughter.
Mrs. and her new pal Papa Quail. He doesn’t want to leave her side!
What a handsome guy! I worry that when I’m out of town, my Red and Mrs. will leave. My husband has assured me that he’s making sure they are well fed. They should be in my backyard when I come home.
A Mourning Dove fluffs up his feathers after a rain.
Happy Friday everyone! What plans do you have for the weekend? What’s your weather like?
These are floating stairs in my son and dauther-in-law’s three story loft apartment.
I’m taking care of my daughter post shoulder surgery in the East Bay this week. I wasn’t quite prepared for how strenuous it would be. Mainly because I live in a big, flat house without a stair. My son and DIL have three stories that I find myself going up and down most of the day.
This spiral staircase goes up to the bedroom where my daughter is staying.
This is another view of the floating staircase above.
Needless to say, I was beyond tired the first day and stumbled home via Lyft to my Airbnb to fall asleep as soon as I got inside. The next couple days I got stronger. But I did sleep 10 hours last night. The very first night, my son ended up in the ER in extreme pain. He’ll be having surgery soon to repair a hernia. I’m waiting to find out when, so I can tackle those stairs some more.
My son put together a schedule for my daughter with times to take medicines, do her PT exercises, ice her shoulder, etc. It’s very complete and helps us stay on track and not let the day slide away.
My son also typed up a few of his own recipes for me to help them with their busy schedules. The Overnight Oats recipe is below:
Funny, I took care of my son five years ago for his shoulder surgery. I’m staying in the same Airbnb that I did then. I guess it’s my surgery digs. I have to say, I had a ton more energy five years ago and also, I wasn’t recovering post my ankle surgery. What a difference those five years made on my body. It was the COVID years, too.
Despite the unfortunate events that brought us together, I’m grateful for the time with my kids.
Do you notice a difference in your energy level or fitness from five years ago?
One of my favorite actresses passed away this weekend. I believe we are all mourning the loss of such a talented actress. (This image is free and may be used by anyone for any purpose. This file is licensed under the Creative CommonsAttribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported license.)
Diane Keaton was a resident of Southern California and she owned a home in Palm Springs, which she and her family used for vacations. Her daughter was a swimmer, like my kids, and we’d be surprised to see Keaton on our pool deck during holidays. Just like other swim families, kids often drop in on local teams while the family has vacation. There’s not many days of missing practice in the swim world.
One year at Summer Junior Olympics in Mission Viejo, I spotted Diane Keaton on the pool deck. She was dressed in her usual Annie Hall attire. I learned this weekend that Hall was her maiden name and Annie was her nickname. Also, that her personal wardrobe was used for the movie of the same name.
Other parents at the Mission Viejo pool spotted Diane Keaton that weekend, too. Within minutes there was a murmer around the pool deck that Diane Keaton was there!
One of the dad’s from our team was face to face with Diane Keaton. He said, “You look just like that actress…” He couldn’t remember her name.
“Diane Keaton,” she said.
“Yeah, that it’s it. Diane Keaton. You know you really look like her.”
“I am Diane Keaton,” she replied.
He didn’t believe her. Keaton asked him if he wanted a selfie with her. She took the selfie with his phone. That dad rushed back to our pop-up tent and blurted to the group of parents, “I just got a picture with a woman who looks just like Diane Keaton.”
We all answered in unison, “That IS Diane Keaton.”
What a special person she was who didn’t put on airs for being famous, but wanted to live a quiet private life in spite of being an iconic figure and major actor.
After several hours, I finally got my new scanner to talk to my laptop. This was the first photo I scanned. It’s of me and my kids, one of my best friends and her two girls, plus assorted kids we brought along with us for a beach day.
I’ve spent this week going through my half dozen photo boxes, looking for pictures to include in my photography project of Memory and Meaning: Sea Glass.
If you missed my description about Sea Glass and my project, I wrote about it HERE.
Going through all my old photos from summers’ past, brought back so many memories of a life I’ve left behind. Carefree days of summer, hanging out with my kids. Every year, I’d take photos of them together for our Christmas cards. It always took more than a few days to get something good. Sometimes they’d cooperate, other times they enjoyed torturing me with their silly faces or looking away.
Here are a few photos from my beach memories. I haven’t decided yet what gets included in my Memory and Meaning Sea Glass project. All of the photos spark memories and have meaning to me.
Angus at the cottage. He wasn’t allowed inside, but at our home he was. It was a difficult transitiion for him, but he loved being near us.
This is the cove where we collected sea glass.
Our daughter with a handful of sea glass. Her preferred method was diving under waves for it.
Boogie boarding was always a hit.
When they were young.
Then I had one teen and a preteen.
College-aged kids. Where did the time go? Now they’re grown ups!
The bootlegger’s house was second from the end. Because of the bootlegger and a shipment of his booze that went overboard from his boat, this cove is filled with sea glass.
I was so excited to capture this photo of Red taking off the Ocotillo!
I’m going to the Bay Area to take care of my daughter post shoulder surgery. She has a repetitive use injury from swimming from kindergarten through college. Her practices in college added up to 12,000 yards of swimming per day.
I’ve been especially nervous and haven’t been sleeping well. There’s a back story to that, besides the anxiety and worry. (Ever since our last thunder and lightning storm our house alarm has been going of at 3 a.m. Now that I figured out how to get it to stop, my body is programmed to get up at 3 a.m.) Once awake, I worry about my upcoming trip and my daughter.
Mrs. giving a side-eye to another bird at the birdseed block.
I had an appointment with my orthopedic surgeon to take a last look at my ankle. I discussed my other foot with the doctor. My first visit to her was about the left foot, but she discovered my “sprain” was a break in the right ankle — and I was scheduled for emergency surgery.
Now we’re back to the original issue and I’ll have surgery after taking care of my daughter!
Here are more photos from my backyard buddies:
Gila woodpecker taking a turn on a flamingo.
I learned my chipmunks are really Harris Antelope Squirrels! Who knew?
Red’s turn on the flamingo.
The Beavertail sculpture is another favorite perch for Mrs.
This father quail keeps watch over his flock from the tree.
Red ignoring both flamingos and other backyard birds.
I’m afraid I’m at that age where my future will be lots of doctor visits. Hopefully no more surgeries.
Here’s the new month’s syllabus for my DIL’s high school senior’s AP English class. I’m posting the reading assignment on the first of each month, in case you’re interested in adding to your TBR list. October covers the ’60s, ’50’s and ’40’s. There’s some good stuff here including Albert Camus, Eudora Welty and Tennessee Williams.
I’m participating by reading along with them — but not doing the writing assignments. I’m a little bit behind schedule and need to finish Toni Morrison’s “Beloved.”
HERE’s OCTOBER’S READING ASSIGNMENT:
If you’re interested in reading the poetry or short stories, my son sent me a packet of the material for October. If you send me an email to eawickham31@gmail.com, I’ll be happy to email you the pdf.
Have you read any of the authors or books, poems and short stories on October’s syllabus? If so, which ones?
I’ve written my Memory and Meaning proposal for my photography “Art Studio” class. My subject as I’ve said is sea glass, first choice. Back up plan is birds. This is one of my first sea glass pictures, taken outside in the morning light. I wrote about my sea glass project HERE.
We’ve had more than our usual social outings lately. It’s because our good friends and neighbors have been out of town — and then we were out of town. We wanted to connect and get together before we go our separate ways again. It’s busier than I enjoy, but there have been some moments that really touched me.
AI Overview:
Social life refers to an individual’s time spent interacting with other people and the quality of those relationships, often involving activities for pleasure or enjoyment with friends, family, and the broader community. A person’s social life can include both in-person and online interactions and is shaped by the bonds they form and the social opportunities available to them.
I went to a baby shower for a woman who was a swimmer with my kids on the Palm Springs swim team. She earned a swim scholarship at ASU, broke the 200 free record, and now teaches elementary school in the Phoenix area. Her husband does electrical work for us and we’ve had them over for dinner.
I was so excited to see her, her sister and her mom. The mother-to-be is four years older than my oldest, but they all hung out together at the pool. Her sister is a year older than her, but I have the best memories of being at swim meets, so impressed with these sisters. They would engage the youngers under pop up tents playing cards, games and being silly at swim meets.
When I told my kids I was going to her baby shower, they both said, “We love them!” That’s saying something more than 15 years later from being swim teammates.
Back in the day, this mom took me under her wing and taught me all about being a swim mom. She showed me the ropes of volunteering at swim meets and what jobs were the best ones to sign up for. We’d host Friday through Sunday swim meets in Palm Springs with close to 750 swimmers. Maybe even bigger. That meant there would also be a mom, dad — even grandma and grandpa — for each swimmer. We had a snack bar that would serve breakfast and lunch for all those people.
We had a separate area of food for the coaches, around 50 of them. Our team had a reputation for the best food ever in Southern California for swim coaches. There were two reasons for this. (REASON ONE) Chef Francois from the Ritz Carlton was a swim dad. His daughter was one of our daughter’s swim friends. He prepared the coaches’ meals (REASON TWO) which was prime rib, turkey dinner and yes, LOBSTER. Another swim dad free dove for lobster off the Southern California coast and took his kids and their friends to assist in the catch.
All those memories came rushing back when I walked into the baby shower and got hugs from the sisters and the mom. How wonderful to reminisce, be around younger people that I truly love and the mom who I spent so much time with. We sat and talked during swim practices and worked together at meets. I didn’t realize how much I value these friendships from my swim mom days.
Below: Finches at the birdbath.
What do you consider a busy social life?
Do you like being quiet staying at home, or being out and about busy?
What friends from your past do you still see?
JoyRoses13 from Nuggets of Gold wrote a fun story on her blog using my photos of Red plus pictures from another photographer. You can read it HERE.
