A week ago, we visited our son and daughter-in-law in the East Bay. This was the line at the bakery before it opened. My son introduced me to this bakery a few years ago. Now when we stay at the Claremont, I make it to the bakery which is across the street, before it opens and they sell out of the most delicious croissants.
A couple times, they sold out of my favorite ham and Manchego cheese croissants just as I was next in line! Also, they serve sandwiches a few days a week and I’ve never been lucky enough to buy one because they sell out, too.
Yum! Fortunately there are plenty of other tasty items to choose from when my favorites are sold out. I went every morning and was thankful for the steep walk down the hill from the hotel. It made me feel less guilty making the steep walk up the hill to the hotel with a bag full of treats.
One of the highlights of our trip was the food! The first night we went to a Mediterranean restaurant with our son. Night two, I treated my son and DIL to a famous French restaurant. And besides the hotel that has amazing food, we went to Nob Hill in San Francisco for Italian. All were delicious. But now I’m so spoiled nothing sounds good to eat at home.
But the biggest highlight of all was spending time with my son and daughter-in-law including a trip to Sonoma and this park in Fairfax with redwoods.
Every day I see this quail couple in my backyard. I feel sorry for the female, because she struggles to get around. She hops on one leg, while her bad foot or leg hangs useless. The good news? Her husband is always at her side. No more than an inch or two apart. He doesn’t leave her alone.
“I know I am in love with you because my reality is finally better than my dreams.” – Dr. Seuss
The quail couple reminds me of how well my husband has taken care of me this past year. From the time I fell trying to avoid two growling dogs on a trail around a lake, he walked me back to the cabin, supporting me the entire way. He immediately went to the store and came back with ice packs, Tylenol and ace bandages.
Next came ankle surgery, where he stayed by my side. More recently it was foot surgery, and yes, he’s been a great help to me. He’s even done grocery shopping which he can’t stand.
Now it’s my turn to take care of my husband who has a knee replacement coming up. I’ll be by his side, driving him to appointments and PT — even though I don’t like to drive. It’s what we do for each other. And yes, I’ve taken over the grocery shopping again.
Some species of quail, including California and the Gambel’s quail we have, often pair for life and work together to raise young. The Northern Cardinals are monogamous, too. Isn’t that something?
Happy Monday and have a wonderful week.
What little things do your family members do to support each other — in sickness and in health?
A few pics of healthy quail couples.
A female quail with an unusual male with no tail!
This is Momma quail’s “No Tail Male Quail!”
P.S. Thank you to my professional photographer friend of 30 plus years. He gave me a tip yesterday to adjust my settings to get more images in focus. The results are the photos above where you can see the patterns of feathers on my quail.
Two blog posts I read this week had me reminiscing about our cabin in the woods. I’m referring to Wynne Leon and Brian Hannon who have their own blogs as well as writing for The Heart of the Matter. Here’s Brian’s post about a cabin on Writing From the Heart with Brian. Wynne’s blog is called Surprised By Joy and that is a link to her post about a recent vacation in a cabin.
Both of their cabin stories hit a soft spot in my heart. The photo above is the cabin my mom and dad built before I was born. My dad designed it and mom and dad used their own two hands to bring the idea to life. The large-paned windows came from my grandmother’s shops in Marysville, Wash. The cabin was located in Robe Valley on the Stilliguamish River.
I say “was located,” because years ago my brother and I decided to tear it down. It had been repeatedly broken into, trashed and even lit on fire. It was a hazard. All that remains is the beautiful property and the fireplace.
Our property on the Stilaguamish River. That’s Mount Pilchuck in the background.The road to our cabin through the woods.
I have many memories from my cabin when I was very young. There used to be a sandy beach that I loved on the edge of the river. As you can see the river has changed — it’s all rocky.
We fished, rode the rapids on air mattresses with friends and jumped off the giant rock into the river. We used our cabin in the summer. There was no running water, no electricity, but it did have an outhouse. I remember fishing early in the morning and late in the afternoons. Mom would fry trout on the wood burning stove. Outside the cabin was a pump for water.
We spent my early days with grandma and other relatives. It was a gathering place. Then as we got a little older, my brother and I got to bring friends to the cabin for weekends.
There was a certain smell of evergreens at Robe along with a musty tinge inside the cabin. It had one room with steep stairs to a loft and the balcony overlooking the river.
My grandma was an artist and painted a picture of the cabin as well as one of me playing in the sand.
You can see the giant rock we’d jump off of across the river.
Here’s the sandy beach plus the large glass windows in this painting.
The story I heard from Mom was that her father bought a mile of riverfront property during the Great Depression. He envisioned it as a place where family would gather for generations. He gave parcels of land to his three children, plus to other relatives. When they first started using Robe, the family stayed in “The Lodge” which was formerly a post office for the town of Robe. Robe was once a silver mining town with a railroad. When my grandfather bought property there in the Great Depression nothing of the town was left, except the abandoned post office building.The road into Robe is straight and was the railroad line. I’d like to research history of Robe. I see a project in my future to find out more.
My extended family on my Mom’s side holds an annual family reunion at Robe each summer. I’ve gone a few times, but mostly I don’t go. I honestly don’t know the ever growing family except for my aunt and first cousins.
On my mom’s birthday two years ago, my aunt and I drove up to Robe to spread her ashes in a place my mom loved. I wrote about that HERE.
What special memory do you have from childhood of a family place you’d visit or spend vacation?
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.
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.
This is a wreath I made years ago when we lived in Palm Springs. It’s on our front gate. This week, I’m decorating my tree, hanging wreaths and having fun getting ready for my kids and DIL’s visit.
The wreath was placed on our big wooden gates when we lived in Palm Springs.
I noticed a few decorations on my daily walk. Here they are:
I’m not sure if these are mice or polar bears. Any guesses?
I love saguaros with Santa hats.
They look good on Beavergtail cacti too.
I got this Rockin’ Santa from Target in 1999. He’s a joy to bring out each Christmas season. He dances to Brenda Lee’s “Rockin Around the Christmas Tree.”
Our first Christmas in Arizona was about a week after we moved. I didn’t decorate. The next year we rented a house in Santa Barbara for our family. The year after that, we stayed in our old Palm Springs neighborhood. Needless to say, I didn’t put up a tree at home. My Rockin’ Santa was the extent of my decorations, plus the wreath on the gate.
I decided to put up the tree this year because the kids are coming. But I couldn’t find my Christmas box containing our married life of ornaments. I looked high and low. I emptied out the guest room closet. I searched the garage which has nice storage cupboards. I looked everywhere.
It hurt my heart that I no longer had our eclectic collection of ornaments that included ones made by my kids in second, third and fourth grades. I had ornaments given as gifts through the decades from my mom and friends. Nothing matched but it all worked and was special to us.
I was relieved to find our Christmas stockings safely tucked away in my bin of gift wrap. My friend in Santa Barbara made them for us, plus I still have the stocking my grandmother knitted for my first Christmas!
Somehow our Christmas ornaments didn’t make the move from Palm Springs to Arizona. The wreaths were stored in the same spot as the Christmas box, which is odd.
A strange thing happened during our move. The movers’ truck wasn’t big enough. They had to rent a separate U-Haul and the nearest one available was in San Diego. That was due to everyone moving out of California during COVID. People were not moving into the state, so U-Hauls were in short supply.
We left for Arizona and the movers promised to catch up with us the next day. We left before the movers had everything packed. Good thing we bought all the furniture in the casita — so we didn’t have to sleep on the floor!
Do you decorate for holidays? Do you keep it to a minimum or do you go all out?
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.”
