Fabulously Fantastic Family Friday

There's no place more wonderful than Yosemite in the Spring. Waterfalls roaring, the Merced tumbling bolders, chipmunks frenetically climbing trees, Half Dome looming mistily in the distance, heavy green canvas tents, carrying water in galvanized buckets, bears being hand-fed in the Meadow area and cruising the campsites later for midnight snacks.

Those were the days...and possibly the reason why my favorite Far Side of all time is the bears looking at the campers in their sleeping bags with the comment "Sandwiches!"

Actually, it wasn't the bears that made the big impression. Chipmunks are my first memory. I can see their little striped tails flicking with nervousness as they spiraled up and down the trees. I've loved the critters ever since.

I was two years old in this photo of my Dad and I, Half Dome in the background, probably on Inspiration Point. Those were the days, no annoying little brother yet, the apple of my parents' eyes. Yosemite in the Spring became a family tradition, usually on Memorial Day to catch the majesty of the waterfalls in snowmelt.

The March Girls

(A deceptive title to lure in those who love to read Louisa May Alcott and especially Little Women. Interesting the things that show up when you Google a phrase.)

Actually, since it is still March (the third month of the year not the literary family, third or otherwise) and it is Wednesday which in my pointy little mind is the third day of the week (workwise) and since two of my favorite relatives have their birthdays in this month--I thought it might be fun to surprise them with a post all their own.

So, Jeannie and Pama, this one's for you!

• Happy Birthday! No, I didn't forget, I never forget, I'm just apparently permanently birthday-card-impaired and I've ceased apologizing for it. I never used to be this way.
• If you sent me a birthday gift, thank you and I love the stickers which are destined to eventually end up on a gardening page in my scrapbook.
• If you didn't, then I love your blog posts and wish you would enable "comments" so I can drop by and visit via "Sweet Teas". Yes, I am quite bossy and opinionated and yes, it is your blog and yes, I am actually too lazy to email when commenting is so much easier.
• Unbelievably you both became published authors this month! How unlikely is that! Chronologically, not talentwise.) Let me be the first to say that I am glad that the ocean is still host to a pretty diverse set of characters and yet how unfortunate that most of them now have the intellect of a sponge instead of the average Land Shark (classic SNL fan here). And I look forward to reading about country churches--how wonderful to salute "your" daffodil cross at Eastertime.

You are both soooo talented and nice and kind and wonderful--are you related to me by any chance? Love you both!

Fabulous Friday (Slightly Slipped)

I've been scanning old b&w family photos and have been planning a weekly Friday post on them, but I have to get started sometime. So just pretend it's Friday and cut me a break.

There were relatives who turned up at my grandparents' ranch frequently, part of an extended cast of characters that flowed through--some had two legs, some had four, some I liked, some I loved. This photo is of Mattie and Ethel. They were wonderful. There are only two kinds of people in this world and kids know instantly which kind you are--people who like kids and people who don't. It's not like they played football with us or invited us for sleepovers or anything, but we knew they liked us.

They always (and I mean always) drove a grey Hudson. They drove it for 20 years that I can remember and I wouldn't be surprised to know they drove it for 40 years, because they never owned any other car. I think when they died that vehicle was still in their garage. Occasionally, a Hudson will cruise during Hot August Nights here in Reno and it instantly takes me back to the crunch of gravel on the road into the Ranch as that long elegant grey car would rock slowly to a halt outside the garden fence.

Mattie and Ethel lived in a little white house in Crockett close to the Sugar Refinery and although we probably didn't visit much, they were always glad to see us. The air that close to the Carquinez Straits felt different, exotic, moister than we valley-dwellers were used to and with a hint of saltwater to savor if the tides were running right.

Mattie always had stubbly cheeks and Ethel wore her hair in a braided coronet. To this day, I think women in braids look totally wonderful. I guess I always knew that Ethel was the taller, but then Mattie was so close to my grandpa's size that I never thought of him as short.

What does it mean that they are my first Fabulous Fun Friday Family post? (I don't even know exactly how they were related to us.) Maybe they were there to teach me something about accepting people who didn't fit the mold. They weren't parents like everybody else in my large Catholic family. They didn't look or dress or live like relatives who were more modern, but the clothes and hair and car were part of their charm.

Families are complex creations and we never know how our presence can ripple through the extended group and influence the least likely events. Mattie and Ethel were part of my childhood scenery and life would have been the poorer without them.

Going Batty on Our Play Date

We saw it from 395 and were dying to check it out but there was always so much that had to be done at Grammy's new house. Their lights would be on late for evening classes and we could see how large the store was. It's so close and convenient to Grammy's that we knew it would be a great resource, plus it's literally around the corner from Winco and down the street from the soccer complex. Finally, yesterday we found ourselves Going Batty.

The new quilt store in town was everything Grammy and I hoped it would be and more. They even had a doorman (well, make that doorboy since the owner's son was apparently on Spring Break and making himself useful).

They had sweet patterns for spring animals/dolls. It was not easy to restrain myself, but the thoughts of my sewing room currently piled high as we rearranged to make my sweetie a home office in a former guest room helped. Good sample quilts on the walls including a great monthly strip sampler with what I can only call a double friendship star block that I'll have to try soon.

And lots of luscious high quality fabric--the kind that has that lovely sheen and soft hand and incredible colors.

So, what did I buy?

Well, I've been wanting to make a theme pillowcase ever since Pacific International in October. I even helped Karen make one of her kits so I'd know how to sew it together--the pattern has a few special but easy tricks that are well worth the price. I fell in love with puppy fabric. Hey, golden puppies and frisbees, what could be more appropriate?! We matched it with a dog bones print and a grassy green accent. You can see how cute they look together. I can hardly wait to start having sweet (doggy) dreams!

Going Batty even sells Bernina products so I asked if they had someone who serviced sergers--and he was right there (owner's husband?). So after months of trying new needles and new thread and new tension settings and blowing out every speck of dust caught anywhere, I'll have a serger up and running in a week or so! I've had so many decorating projects to tackle and have been so frustrated without my trusty Bernette...

All in all, I think girls should have a regular play date!

Spring and Other Delights

What a difference a week can make in Nevada!

It wasn't a question of if we'd have a delayed start, it was a question of one hour or two. The two hour delay gave me time a morning off to watch Kharma romping through the snowy pasture with delight. We took our little neighbors and tired them out hiking through around the pasture, making snow angels and throwing snowballs for Kharma to catch.

Not even a week later, the annual race between the crocus, mini daffodils and mini iris to see which blooms first was pretty much a three-way tie. Okay, maybe the mini daffs were out a fraction ahead of time, but it was hard to tell with all the snow on them a little earlier.

It's been agony to come home for lunch, look at my garden basking in the warm sunny day and then have to return to school. I've been bursting to clean up the last of fall's debris on the sleeping flower beds and trim down the stems that mark the location of the herbaceous perennials and prune the peach tree and dream in front of the seed racks that have appeared in nurseries and grocery stores alike.

Fortunately those incredibly seductive warm days alternated with grey clouds and nippy winds on which I was more than happy to cuddle in the rocker and quilt. We've sprung ahead and took advantage of our long balmy evening to attack the peach and the apple with the limb saw and long loppers. They are completely pruned, but look much better and we'll have a full garbage can of cuttings for Tuesday's pickup.

Even better, it's Spring Break (can you hear the angels caroling with joy in the background here?) and I'll have nine uninterrupted days of garden time! Tomorrow it will be time to gather pussywillow branches for the mantle and to share with our neighbors.

(Sigh of delight). Life is good.