Category Archives: Family

Mulies Munching

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My wild kingdom life continues. Two mule deers munched on jojoba plants in our backyard outside our fence last week for a few hours. There wasn’t much left of one jojoba when they were done.

I was fascinated and managed to stand a few yards away — on my side of the fence. At one point the buck jumped and it looked like he’d run away. But instead, he froze and the pair didn’t seem to think I was a threat. The buck had small antlers that were narrow. You can barely make them out in the photos.

I took the photo above with my Nikon. I had trouble with the camera, because the mulies would be partially behind shrubs and the with camera on auto, focused on the plant life, leaving the mule deers blurry. This was the only decent photo I got.

Here are a few more photos and a video from my iphone:

Here are the mulies munching on jojoba. There’s a good view of the buck’s antlers.

I sat myself down on a bench opposite the deer and watched feeling the peace of nature. What a blessing during Advent to experience this beauty.

The Gift of Christmas
Poet: Catherine Pulsifer

Family and friends gathered near,
Laughter and love so warm, sincere.
May the joy of Christmas Day,
Guide your heart in every way.

Remember those who face the cold,
Whose stories often go untold.
Extend a hand, share what you can,
For love unites the hearts of man.

Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays!

Games People Play

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I’m thrilled when cardinals come to visit. I took this photo with my camera through the window.

I’m getting ready for Christmas and was thinking about the games we used to play when I was a kid. Our family was big on games and I found them mostly boring. When I was young, I went along and played. When I hit my teens, I no longer wanted to and said no thanks.

We played board games like Monopoly, Life and Clue. My brother and I played a military strategy game called Stratego.

My parents were into cards. They hosted Pinochle and Bridge nights. I’ll never forget the card table that would come out of the closet, legs unfolded and stood in the center of our small living room in our first house.

We played Gin Rummy, Knock Rummy, Demon and Poker as a family. When we moved to our new home in the countryside, the game table, a round one that was permanent, was placed next to a window seat in the corner of the living room with huge windows. I soon realized that I could peak at people’s cards in the reflection of the windows at night.

With my kids and DIL coming for Christmas, I’d like to play a few games. I’ve got Catch Phrase, the electronic hand held game where two teams try to guess phrases through clues and gestures. It’s very much like Charades, but the electronic device gives players a choice of categories and then the word or phrase. The kids played Catch Phrase for hours at swim meets.

I also bought a few decks of cards. My daughter and I like to play Demon which is a fast-paced double solitaire type of fun.

Our family played Poker when the kids were still living at home. Our favorite game was Texas Hold’em. Before kids, my husband and I played two board games — Pente and Trivial Pursuit. Those are tucked away in the closet and may need to be dusted off. My son said he’s not sure our Trivial Suit cards from the 1980s or 1990s will be fair. I say why not?

Do you enjoy playing games with family and friends? What games did you play growing up? What games do you play now?

The cardinal visited my AI bird feeder, Bird Buddy, after I took my own photos.

A few of my favorite things

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My all time favorite cheese.

A few years ago we were visiting our kids in the Berkeley area. The weather was perfect and we went on a quest to see redwoods.

We walked through the woods in the Redwood Regional Park in Oakland with our kids and future daughter-in-law. We sat down on a bench and enjoyed a treat our son prepared for us. Brillat Savarin cheese, blackberries and crusty bread. It’s the first time I had tasted that cheese. If you have not tried it, it’s mild but the creamiest. I found this description online:

It is a triple cream soft-ripened cheese that is luscious, creamy and faintly sour.

We did find a few redwoods and it was such a peaceful place to be outdoors in a forest with the people I love.

After our hike, we went to Rockridge in Oakland to a cafe and window shopped. What a beautiful day with family.

Once at home, I searched for the cheese. I went to five different grocery stores and none had Brillat, including the expensive, fancy schmancy one. Years later, I was picking up vitamins I normally order on Amazon at Whole Foods. (For some reason, Amazon directed me to pick up my vitamins myself.) Wouldn’t you know it? I spotted Brillat Savarin!

What are a few of my favorite things? Spending time outdoors. Spending time with family. My favorite cheese that brings back those memories. Olive. And yes, “The Sound of Music.”

What are a few of your favorite things?

Memorial Day

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I opened the front door and this boy was on our welcome mat. I ran inside to grab my phone, and we stared at each other in our courtyard. It’s thrilling to see bobcats.

As we’re enjoying a relaxing three-day weekend with friends and family, I wanted to find out how Memorial Day began. This is from the History.com website:

History of Memorial Day

The Civil War, which ended in the spring of 1865, claimed more lives than any conflict in U.S. history and required the establishment of the country’s first national cemeteries.

By the late 1860s, Americans in various towns and cities had begun holding springtime tributes to these countless fallen soldiers, decorating their graves with flowers and reciting prayers.

It is unclear where exactly this tradition originated; numerous different communities may have independently initiated the memorial gatherings. And some records show that one of the earliest Memorial Day commemorations was organized by a group of formerly enslaved people in Charleston, South Carolina less than a month after the Confederacy surrendered in 1865. Nevertheless, in 1966 the federal government declared Waterloo, New York, the official birthplace of Memorial Day.

Waterloo—which first celebrated the day on May 5, 1866—was chosen because it hosted an annual, community-wide event, during which businesses closed and residents decorated the graves of soldiers with flowers and flags.

Did you know? Each year on Memorial Day a national moment of remembrance takes place at 3:00 p.m. local time.

https://www.history.com/topics/holidays/memorial-day-history

Thank you to all who have served, are serving and especially to those who gave the ultimate sacrifice for our freedom.

Here are a few views from my week:

Our friends held a 60th birthday pool party for a sister. This is the stunning view from their backyard. Good food, friends and perfect weather! Most of the people at the party were Vets.

My first baby quail of the season plus a bonus bunny.
Bobcat on the courtyard wall.

How are you celebrating Memorial Day?

What family members do you have who served our country?

Good News!

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This is my family with our daughter-in-law’s family during a Christmas week vacation together in Santa Barbara during a prior year. We were only missing one sister, Maggie, who was at grad school at Cambridge.

I’m sharing wonderful news. My son and daughter-in-law called on their way home from the oncologist. Buff had her first scan since her six-months of chemo ended without major problems and side effects.

Buff has a clean bill of health and feels terrific!

She will receive scans every three months for the next two years, then every six months for the following three years.

It’s been a worrisome, stressful time since Buff’s initial diagnosis of Stage 3C colon cancer, surgery and chemo. I feel relief like our entire family has turned the corner — because our daughter-in-law Buff is doing so well. Hopefully, the newlyweds will have clear sailing from now on throughout their future. I wrote about the day of her surgery HERE.

I’d like to hear more good news! What good news do you have to share?

Ave Maria was played Christmas night by two of Buff’s sisters, Allie and Christy, during the vacation in the photo above. They’re both professional musicians. I’m so grateful to have enjoyed their private concerts and I hope there are many more to come!

Six Months Later…

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Photo from my son's wedding day.

Photo from my son and daughter-in-law’s wedding day.

It’s been a long six months, but Monday was the final treatment day for my daughter-in-law. Every two weeks, my son has driven her over the bridge to UCSF for chemo.

I’ll never forget the worry I felt during her surgery. We were on vacation at the time. They were supposed to spend a week with us in Santa Barbara at the beach when they found out she had cancer was was having surgery immediately. I wrote about surgery day HERE. The linked post includes a beautiful poem by my DIL after she met my son at UCSB.

Every day I pray for my DIL and my son. Over the weekend, they were moving into an apartment and my son hit his head. He hit it badly. I was in shock when my daughter called me from the ER.

He’s now down with a really bad concussion. Seriously? Do they need this now?

Have you noticed how life interrupts life just when you think it’s getting better?

What are your thoughts about how quickly this last six months went by?

A glorious visit

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A page from my parents wedding album given to me by my aunt who visited last week. Mom and Dad were 23!

A strange thing happened during my aunt’s visit. I glanced over at the sofa and Olive the cat was sitting next to my aunt licking her fingers! Now this is a first. Olive has never let a guest touch her or vice versa. Olive does sleep with my daughter, but that doesn’t count because she was my daughter’s cat until college took my daughter away.

My aunt and I did most of the things on my list and we found ourselves very compatible. We both got hungry at the same time, wanted quiet time in the afternoons to ourselves and went to bed early to read. Having a house guest doesn’t get much better than that!

It cooled down considerably, we lit the outdoor fireplace and cooked s’mores. We hiked in the McDowell Sonoran Preserve. We went to the farmer’s market in Carefree and explored consignment stores in Cave Creek. We had some delicious lunches and dinners out, plus I cooked. We visited the Musical Instrument Museum and to my delight, they changed up a few exhibits so there were new things for me to enjoy.

You might wonder what would be exciting about visiting a museum of musical instruments.

From the MIM, here’s the Artists’s Gallery experience:

ARTIST GALLERY

Celebrate music’s most influential artists.

In every time and place, there are musicians whose art deeply touches the lives of many. MIM’s Artist Gallery highlights these personalities with ever-changing exhibits that span sound, style, and era. Through generous partnerships, MIM features historic instruments owned, played, and loved by the musicians who have created a shared soundtrack to our lives for generations.

Nearly 40 displays showcase instruments and artifacts from some of the greatest musicians in the world. See and hear instruments played by icons such as Elvis Presley®, Tito Puente, the Carter Family and Johnny Cash, Roberta Flack, Glen Campbell, Joan Baez, Maroon 5, and many others.

https://mim.org/artist-gallery/#

The exhibits not only have the artists’s grammy awards, gold records, costumes and instruments, they have a large screen that plays selections of their songs on the headsets you wear. I think my favorite was “Pretty Woman” by Roy Orbison. On display is his hand written lyrics on a yellow legal pad. So not only do you get to sing along with Roy, you get to see how he wrote it, along with a photo of him and his pretty woman. There are many other galleries from all over the world. I haven’t touched the whole of MIM yet.

Here are a few photos from my aunt’s visit:

What is your idea of a perfect house guest? What do you like to do when entertaining company?