April !!

It seems like months pass before I think of something to blog about.  Once upon a time I was rabidly adding to my blog but it was a period of discovery, dyeing and spinning wool and learning to weave.  I'm past the period of discovery and am more about recollections.  The most recent time of interest was a trip to Reno for Delaney's third birthday party.

I haven't seen Delaney since October.  She and her daddy were watering the flower boxes in the front yard when we arrived.  I was thrilled when she saw me, ran across the front yard and jumped up into my arms.  After six months I was afraid that she wouldn't remember me.  She was transfixed by my sunglasses.  I was tempted to leave them with her.

The party was at her Aunt Katie's house where she played in the same sandbox that her college-age cousin played in.  She had to think about it.

Her mommy and daddy coaxed her on what to expect so she patiently waited for that special moment - opening presents!

She had also been coached in how to blow out her candle and she didn't want to share one second of it with anyone else, not even her uncle.

We were only in Reno for four days so ate out every night.  This meal was at the Golden Flower, our longtime favorite.  Alexia will be spending July with us again this year, her last summer before going to college in the fall.

The weather forecast was dire so we left a day early.  I was driving on this stretch and at the Summer Lake rest stop, two travel trailers pulled back onto the road into increasingly buffeting wind.  That's dirt, not snow that I'm navigating.  He put on blinkers and we limped along until the western edge of Silver Lake.  The dusty wind was blinding, a first for me.

We got home on Monday and on Friday I went with my friend Kathi to pick up her new loom from the Eugene Textile Center.  We shopped at Cosy, an aptly named yarn store, and ate at a nearby Chinese restaurant.  The weather was starting to turn so we called it a day and not a minute too soon.  A new front was creeping over the Cascades.

Kathi is a new weaver and her enthusiasm is catching.  It's been a while since I've put a project on my eight-shaft loom and I find my back tiring and needing frequent rests.  I've started using the elliptical trainer at the nearby rec center and boy do I need it.

I've started a second project on my four-shaft loom using silk that I bought from Little Knits out of Seattle.  Again, my back tires quickly so I'm inching along until my back gets stronger.

Then on Saturday we got this photo of Alexia and her band director acknowledging her as first-chair flute in the all-state band.  I wish we could have stayed the extra five days to see this but once again, the weather was calling the shots.

The next day we got this photo of Alexia and her prom dress.  They have been shopping for a while now and came up with this gown from Junkee's, a vintage shop.  It's the prettiest and cheapest - $24.95.  She doesn't have a prom date but is going with several friends.  

Books, Books, Books

 The Swimmers, Julie Otsuka

I struggled in the beginning to engage with this book. Otsuka narrated in the third person plural as she had in her first two books so it seemed kind of formulaic. I swam a mile before work for years and never connected with any of the other swimmers, so I didn’t get it and I just about gave up, until I realized this was Alice’s book, her story, and then I couldn’t read fast enough. I’m of an age where mothers are requiring memory care units and I have never read such a personal description of what one of those facilities is like, for the resident, for the family. Deeply moving.

Love and Saffron:  a novel of love, food and friedship.  Kim Fay

This slight volume is a tale of friendship told in alternating voices by the exchange of letters, beginning October 1962. Mrs. Imogen Fortier has written a monthly column for ten years about life in the Pacific Northwest which appears in the Northwest Home & Life magazine

Joan Bergstrom writes from her home in Los Angeles to congratulate her on her 10th year anniversary of the column and to let her know what an avid reader she is. Though she is 27 years old and Immy is 59, they become fast friends as the miles and the years between them evaporate. They challenge each other to explore foreign cuisines, share their feelings and recommend books.

Set in Seattle and Los Angeles in the early 1960s, the story unfolds against the backdrop of current events. They experience life in a slower pace, one we forget about, like driving into the city to see if the favorite bookstore has a book and then order it - no online, no Amazon! To say more would spoil the way the author slowly reels us in. I read it in one sitting, which the author had wanted readers to do. It’s like a satisfying meal. 

With Love from London:  Sarah Jio I loved this book from the very beginning and was delighted to enjoy it all the way through to the end. I found myself reflecting on Laila Lailani’s book, Conditional Citizens where she talks about groups whose rights are not guaranteed, one of those groups being women. Frank was powerful and wealthy and against him, Eloise was powerless to defend herself or her rights. The story is a result of Frank’s actions told in alternating voices of Eloise and Valentina, with some romance here and there. Eloise willed her interest in her book store to Valentina and prepared a treasure hunt to help her daughter get to know her. I just finished reading on this snowy day, perfect reading weather. Valentina would approve. What the Fireflies Knew.  Kai Harris This is a coming-of-age story about a ten-year-old Black girl named Kenyatta Bernice or KB for short. She has lived all her life in Detroit with her mother, father and 14-year-old sister named Nia. Life has been good until shortly before her 11th birthday KB’s father dies, they lose the house and have to move into a rundown motel. In a desperate move, Mama takes the girls to live with her father, Granddaddy, in Lansing, Michigan, two hours from her home. KB and Nia are constantly at each other’s throats and when KB tries to make friends with the two White kids who live across the street encounters racism for the first time in her life. Granddaddy doesn’t appear to want the girls and seems ill equipped to take care of them, yet he grows to the task and he grew on me. KB struggles to negotiate the difficult and awkward situations that keep popping up, and she meets family that she never knew she had who are indifferent to her. She remembered what her Momma told her, “In life, we’re going to get hurt. If we stay focused on that hurt, and nothing else, then we won’t ever be able to heal. But if we focus on the healing, well, then we’ll start to notice that hurt disappear.” I appreciate the author’s sympathetic portrayal of these lives in such a way that I am invested and care deeply what happens to this family. I couldn’t stop reading and because I was on my Kindle, couldn’t fall asleep until after 2:00. It’s that kind of book.

Beach in February

We left Yachats and headed toward Netarts Bay for a few days.  Since we weren't in a hurry we left Hwy 101 and drove to the coast to have lunch at one of my favorite brew pubs, Pelican Brewery. 

As soon as we had ordered Ian went to find the restroom.  He said it was the most unusual one he'd every come across in a public setting.  He didn't notice the "All Gender" sign so was taken unawares that there are a dozen private stalls and a long trough for handwashing.  Later I took my turn and was pretty tickled that the men seemed to have such a difficult time understanding the facilities.  I hope we see more of this in time to come so men can stand in line for their turn, just like we women have done all our lives.

We took a drive up the coast to see the Cape Meares lighthouse, the only one we haven't seen yet.  In spite of the pouring rain, there was no shortage of tourists, ehecking it out.

It's a stubby lighthouse and was working until 1962, then when decommissioned, the first order Fresnel lenses were left in place for people like us to enjoy.

Well worth the trip!

We were staying at Netarts on the three-day holiday of Presidents Day.  There was no shortage of clammers during low tide.  I'd like to try it myself another time but we were just sightseeing.  I'm still laughing at this, the Tsunami Evacuation Shuttle.  There are warning signs everywhere so this little bit of levity was most welcome.

Part of the reason for this trip was for my cousin and I to get together for the first time in 52 years.  I last saw her at her father's funeral.  Christina had just been born and a few months after that, she and I flew to the Philippines where we lived for the next two years.  Our mothers weren't friends and none of us saw each other again until this trip.  The man who is researching our grandfather's history is the one who put us in touch.  She and her husband have run the Wheeler Marina for 42 years.  We had a great visit and there will be more.

The marina is breathtakingly beautiful.

Do you see the Wheeler alligator?

The plan was to drive back to Bend after we left Wheeler but that didn't happen. We stopped off at Newport for lunch at the Clear Water restaurant on our way back to Yachats and our B&B.  We ended up staying two extra days because a sneaker snow storm made the Cascades almost impassible.  After a month of near spring conditions we got caught by freak weather.  The drive home was miserable.  There's no place like home, there's no place like home!!

Newport Harbor Seals.

 

Yachats (pronounced YawHots)

We are at the beach!  Some days it's stormy and somedays it's not.  Some days we eat seafood and somedays we don't.

This is the mouth of the Yachats River on an almost sunny afternoon.

Just one of many seagulls.

We walked down last evening to say goodnight to the ocean.

We also said goodnight to an awful lot of seagulls.

We came across a guy serenading the ocean on our walk this morning.

Good night from Yachats.

Time Flies

This is the best washing machine I have ever had.  The drum is huge so I'm able to do the laundry in fewer loads.  And the dingy sheets are bright white again.  I was feeling sorry for myself because the choices were limited to what would fit in this little laundry closet under the stairs, but no more.

One of my recent hikes was high above the Deschutes River.  It's beautiful in its own craggy way. 

I met these ladies through the community garden at our church and last week we decided to form a small hiking group.  Our first outting was on the Juniper Forest trails in the Badlands, east of Bend.  It's hard to believe that it's February when you look at this photo.

My weaving has taken a back seat to everything else but I finally finished a set of towels, a variation of Turned Taquete.  

I've wanted to participate in the guild's color challenge and this is the inspiration image I was given.

These are the colors I've chosen.

I've wound three quarters of the warp and this is how it's shaping up.  I'd like to finish winding and beam the warp tomorrow.  My weaving has been infrequent and the downside of that is my back gets tired quickly.  Usually winter is when I get the most weaving done.  If there's one thing I've learned through the pandemic, it's that there is no "usually" anymore.  And on that note I'm going to read on the patio since it's a sunny 63 degrees this afternoon.

 

Books, Books, Books

 Premonition: A Pandemic Story by Michael Lewis

There are about three book groups represented in the group I hike with and a couple of weeks ago all of them were gearing up to read the same book, this one!  I put it on hold at the library and got it right away.  If you haven't already read it, you should.  

From the publisher:

"Fortunately, we are still a nation of skeptics. Fortunately, there are those among us who study pandemics and are willing to look unflinchingly at worst-case scenarios. Michael Lewis’s taut and brilliant nonfiction thriller pits a band of medical visionaries against the wall of ignorance that was the official response of the Trump administration to the outbreak of COVID-19.

The characters you will meet in these pages are as fascinating as they are unexpected. A thirteen-year-old girl’s science project on transmission of an airborne pathogen develops into a very grown-up model of disease control. A local public-health officer uses her worm’s-eye view to see what the CDC misses, and reveals great truths about American society. A secret team of dissenting doctors, nicknamed the Wolverines, has everything necessary to fight the pandemic: brilliant backgrounds, world-class labs, prior experience with the pandemic scares of bird flu and swine flu…everything, that is, except official permission to implement their work."

The Lincoln Highway by Amor Towles.

This is the recent book by the author of A Gentleman in Moscow and The Rules of Civility.  The following is my review for NetGalley.

It’s 1954 and 18-year-old Emmett Watson is being returned to his family home by the sheriff after serving time in a juvie-jail for involuntary manslaughter. The hitch is that the banker who has repossessed his Nebraskan home is waiting at Emmet's old home to finalize the foreclosure. There’s no family to welcome him as his mother walked off years earlier and his father, lacking the farming skills necessary to keep a place going, has passed on to his heavenly reward. His eight-year-old brother Billy is in the care of the next-door neighbor. With no roots to bind them, Emmett and Billy decide to take a road trip on the Lincoln Highway to California where they hope to reunite with their mother.

When the sheriff brought Emmett home, he also unwittingly provided transport for two friend inmates, Duchess and Woolly, who hitched a ride in the sheriff’s trunk. This is a road trip like no other. For starters their trip to California kicks off with a hoboing train ride to New York. The journey is filled the characters along the way. For readers of Ivan Doig and William Kent Krueger.

Conditional Citizens:  On Belonging in America by Laila Lalani.

I bought this at my favorite indie bookstore in Reno when I was there in November.  Her fiction, The Other Americans, was the community reads choice for Deschutes County last year.

"What does it mean to be American? In this starkly illuminating and impassioned book, Pulitzer Prize-finalist Laila Lalami recounts her unlikely journey from Moroccan immigrant to U.S. citizen, using it as a starting point for her exploration of the rights, liberties, and protections that are traditionally associated with American citizenship. Tapping into history, politics, and literature, she elucidates how accidents of birth--such as national origin, race, and gender--that once determined the boundaries of Americanness still their shadows today."  Could I pass the citizen test?  I doubt it.

Adapting to change

 New Years Eve day our dryer door decided it no longer wanted to stay closed.  In fact, the best we could do was to duct tape it closed.  Stores were closed for the holiday so we got on the computer and tried to locate a new set.  We bought this set from my son and his wife when their new house came complete with a new set.  Matt was going to put it on Craigslist for $100.  We weren't so fortunate with appliances left behind and had already replaced the dryer and were shopping for a washer.  That was four years ago.  I found a top-loading Samsung set on the Costco website for $1600 that would fit in our little laundry closet and was available for delivery in our area.  It's absolutely wonderful and the dingy sheets are once again white!!

I started the new year by joining a hiking group that goes out every Tuesday morning at 9:30, regardless of the weather.  We're old and slow but make up for it in tenacity.  We all like to read and we talk a lot.

Last week we went to Tumalo Reservoir and got a spectacular view of the Cascades.  Sadly, the reservoir is dry.

Today we went to Horse Butte, which was a most demanding hike so far and the longest.  I thought I was in better shape than I am, but was glad when we got back to our cars.  I'm getting to see a lot of new territory and realize I need to lengthen my daily walks to be in shape for the Tuesday hikes.  BTW, a butte is a fancy name for volcanic cone.

I finally finished the sweater I've been working on for the past year.  The pattern was in Vogue Knitting and was by Deborah Newton.  The yarn is Elsbeth Lavold Silky Wool.  I have another aran sweater on needles and it will probably be another year before I complete it.  I started both of these at the same time.  For now my knitting is more scarves for my daughter to cover her surgical scar.  Her family was vaccinated but got hit with Covid about a week ago and they're struggling to recover.  Chris told me that she's so sick that she's not sure she could have survived this unvaccinated.  I don't think I could have survived it she hadn't.

Lexi has fared the best and is rebounding but will be in quarantine from school for another week.  She recently finished another sweater.  Her knitting skills continue to improve and she has an exceptional eye for yarn and pattern.  She's very fashion aware and carefully curates her clothing collection from used clothing outlets.  She says this summer will be her last with us as she will be required to do an internship during the summers following her freshman year.  She has been accepted at the University of Nevada Reno and is on a career path to be a PA (physician's assistant).  Sorry, I got carried away with bragging.

Happy New Year!

 

You've probably given up on me and assumed that we were Covid victims but we're fine, still kicking, even the rotten cat is fine.

This was our last Thanksgiving dinner together celebrated Sunday December 18th because Josh had Covid on the actual Thanksgiving.  It took him two weeks to recover and he is now in Blackfoot, Idaho where he accepted a new position with FedEx, managing two terminals in the SE corner of the state.  I just got off the phone with him after his first week in the new position.  He said the first couple of days were bewildering but he's in love with his three-year-old state-of-the-art headquarters and is happy to be there.  Missy and Evan will join him after Evan graduates from high school this spring.

Meanwhile we're trying to get used to living small, just the two of us.  It feels dire since we're still managing our lives around Covid.  It's pretty empty but we still get out and about for lunches here and there.

We make it a point to get in our two-mile walks, just not together.  Ian is out and walking by 6:00, before I get up!  I prefer midmorning and this walk was in the raccoon's tracks.

Snow melts quickly these days and the deer are finding bits to munch on.  We always enjoy seeing them, though there aren't nearly as many as we've had in the past years.

I've been focused on keeping my neck warm this winter, both by longer hair and also by knitting shawlettes.  This pattern is on Ravelry called Close to You and is free.  I like it so much I've made it for both my daughter and me.,

I'm really excited with this popcorn maker.  I love popcorn as a snack but I don't like getting my hands oily.  My friend Kathi says she and her partner have microwave popcorn every night so I found this maker on Amazon and ordered it.  It pops just the right amount in a little over a minute and oil is optional.  I put a little olive oil in the bottom, add the corn and pop!  It's the perfect afternoon snack.

Yikes!  All of my holds came in to the library at the same time.  This will keep me busy!!

Books, Books, Books

I've been reminded a couple of times that it's been while since I've posted anything about books that I have read.  I've gotten caught up in taking care of business during the past couple of years as weaving guild president as well as trying to deal with family stuff.  It's time to get back to me stuff, so in a step in that direction, here are a couple books that I've read this year that I can recommend.

Home Made:  A story of grief, groceries, showing up -- ad what we make when we make dinner,  by Liz Lauck 

The author was raised in a home where volunteering was valued so this wasn’t her first gig. She and her father had talked about a program where she would cook one night a week for the young men who lived in the group home her father had helped found and where he still worked. After his early death, she wasn’t sure she could go through with it, but with the blessing of his partner and co-founder Gerry, she inaugurated her program.

In her words, “this book is my story about dinners and conversations with six boys, or twenty-seven boys, living in foster care who were assigned to a group home run by the human services agency my father had confounded, there as a volunteer. It’s a story about the interconnectedness of food and memory, and community service and community care. This is also a story of modern America.”

There was a race against the system to get these young men who came in their mid-to-late teens be prepared for living on their own after they turned 18 and were released to whatever came next, another residential assignment or independence. Their assignment to the house was supposed to be transitional but sometimes there was no where for them to go and Frank was “transitionally” there for four years. He didn’t even have a birth certificate so his celebration dinner was whatever year he decided he was. You can’t help becoming attached to these lost and lonely boys and I absolutely fell in love with Leon.

This is a story of the interactions of the boys with the author over the dinners and it’s a story of food. When they were trying to decide what their dinners would look like, Hauck suggested they allow an hour for cooking and an hour for eating. Leon quite honestly asked, why don’t you cook and we eat? Expect to be charmed to pieces and expect to cry.

Between Two Kingdoms: A memoir of a life interrupted, by Suleika Jaouard

Suleika Jaouad developed a maddening itch during her senior year of college, so maddening that she subconsciously was tearing at her skin, causing oozing sores. A Chinese herbalist thought it was a parasite she had picked up while studying abroad. A doctor thought it might be eczema and prescribed cream as well as anti-anxiety medication. And then came the naps, hours worth.

Somehow she managed to get by, graduated and moved to New York City where she scored an unpaid summer internship. Even with nine roommates and a part time job, she was broke and tired all the time, just getting by with the help of caffeine and uppers. She knew she needed to leave, and since French is her first language, she found a paralegal job in Paris. Days before leaving the City she met Will while sharing a taxi, and who would become the love of her life.

Paris wasn’t the fantasy life she had imagined, However, she did start up a regular correspondence with Will that led to him going to Paris for a two-week visit, then back home to pack up and move. She was still plagued by fevers and fatigue even as they were growing into their relationship. During a routine visit for birth control pills the doctor told her she anemic and gave her an iron supplement. Fast forward to the diagnosis of undetected lymphoma which was now leukemia followed by years of radical treatment, searching for a cure.

After her final chemo treatment she decided to embark on a 100-day journey that would take her to the Pacific Ocean and back, a voyage of rediscovery to find herself, looking for the new normal - but first she had to learn to drive. A friend loaned her his Subaru for the trek. During her years of treatment she wrote a newspaper column and her goal was to visit some of the people who had written to her. The last quarter of the book was a chronicle of these visits and it was fully my favorite part.

She came away from her visit with Ned, recognizing that “there is no restitution for people like us, no return to days when our bodies were unscathed” and that “recover isn’t a gentle self-care spree that restores you to pre-illness state.” He tells her that he still struggles to carry the collateral damage of illness, and she realizes that they may always be. A doctor at Sloan Kettering explained that she was experiencing post-traumatic stress disorder - the horror of cancer didn’t end on the last day of treatment - it says, don’t get too comfortable because one day I’m coming back for you.

Following a purification ritual on the Pine Ridge reservation she says, “I’m realizing that if I am to cross the distance between near-death and renewal, instead of trying to bury my pain, I must use it as a guide to know myself better. In confronting my past, I have to reckon not only with the pain of losing other people but also with the pain I’ve caused others.” In the last visit of the book Katherine tells her “That’s all you can do in the face of these things. Love the people around you. Love the life you have. I can’t think of a more powerful response to life’s sorrows than loving.”

City of Thieves, by David Benioff

This was selected by my book club or I know I would never have chosen it nor would I have finished it, but it's a book that won't leave me and parts of it pop into my head from time to time.  I recommend it as a fine piece of literature, not because it's a fun read.

"During the Nazis’ brutal siege of Leningrad, Lev Beniov is arrested for looting and thrown into the same cell as a handsome deserter named Kolya. Instead of being executed, Lev and Kolya are given a shot at saving their own lives by complying with an outrageous directive: secure a dozen eggs for a powerful Soviet colonel to use in his daughter’s wedding cake. In a city cut off from all supplies and suffering unbelievable deprivation, Lev and Kolya embark on a hunt through the dire lawlessness of Leningrad and behind enemy lines to find the impossible.

By turns insightful and funny, thrilling and terrifying, the New York Times bestseller City of Thieves is a gripping, cinematic World War II adventure and an intimate coming-of-age story with an utterly contemporary feel for how boys become men."

Winding down

 

I've been in Reno since October 27th, in time to see the spectacular show of the turning leaves.  These photos are from our old neighborhood but it's like that all over the Truckee Meadows basin.  I'm reminded of Walter Von Tilburg Clark's book, the City of Trembling leaves.  The Clark Administration building on campus is named for him.  I've been gone from Reno for six years after living here for 40 years.  I was surprised by how much I enjoyed revisiting the city.

 I've had a couple of visits with Delaney but her other grandmother has been sick so I might have to be content with that until we come back next year for Alexia's high school graduation.  Delaney loves her new sweater.

I wanted to see Alexia's band performance.  The different high schools have taken marching band into almost the same level of sports.  I have wanted to see her do high school stuff and was excited to finally have an opportunity, but I had forgotten how much driving time is involved when you go to anything in Reno.  It took me 35 minutes to get to Spanish Springs High School and I was just in time to see her high school take the field.  She is the drum major.

When given the "all clear" she climbs to the top of the platform where she will beat out the rhythm with her raised arms.  Their performance isn't very long at all, maybe five minutes - and she's holding her arms at shoulder height and beating the rhythm - not easy.  She says she chose this because you can't hear a flute in a marching band.

She has visited Yarn Refuge, a local yarn shop, and wanted us to go together to their Knit Night.  The store is every bit as impressive as she said it is.

I had a hard time reining in my buying impulses and was relieved that I held myself to these three skeins.  I've cast-on using the middle skein for a scarf for Chrissie.  Greens and rusts are her colors.  I went back later and bought another skein - oops.

Meanwhile, weaving lessons are progressing.  Alexia is so busy that it's hard to find time but we're doing a little here and there and I think we'll get enough done that she will be able to weave after I go home.

Tomorrow is the last day we'll have for weaving and since she has a threading error, I'm going to show her how to repair it.  It's a common error and every error is a learning opportunity.  She is doing great.

Every day Chrissie feels a little better and she's looking forward to the day when she can leave behind this special chair and sleep in her own bed with her C-Pap.  She is a trooper.  I was stunned to learn that because they opened her chest, they had to wire it closed.  That little dark knot on her chest is a knot of the wires that are holding her chest closed and will be hers for the rest of her life.

Today we took our first outing, her in the backseat of course.  We went to see my oldest grandson's apartment, meet his roommate and the cats, and we had a surprise visit when his girlfriend came home for lunch.  We visited for a couple of hours, reassuring to Kiernan to have his mother feeling up to a visit and reassuring to me that my grandson is becoming a man.

That's about the size of it.  The forecast is for rain on Monday so Tuesday I'll saddle up and ride off into the sunset, i.e., Bend.  I've learned that you never stop being a mom.