The Grind

(and not the coffee kind)

(damn!)

We're back to it; I'm sleepy; I'm going to bed early. Our OldManDog seems to be ill; he's lethargic, slow, depressed, and seems pained. He's still eating and doing his 'dooty,' so that's good, but.... Couldn't get a vet appt. till Wednesday (grrr). I hope he's ok.

Back to school. The kids were cute today, at least. The week is mostly planned out, but I need to make sub plans for a couple of days each week for the next month! And they're all excused -- training, workshop, etc. Eek! And the AP test is fast approaching. Stress!

Isn't it amazing how quickly the relaxation of a vacation dissipates and melts away once you're back into your regular routine? I've looked at my spring break pictures every day since we've been back, in hopes of recapturing any element of that feeling. Pathetic, huh?

Dad's retirement party this weekend. Still have prep to do for that, along with some serious housecleaning; family coming from Bible Belt to be houseguests.

No pix today. I was rather coasting, casting about through this day. I'll make up for it later this week. Hope everyone had a decent Monday.

Jiggity jig

We are home again. The trip back was lengthy, lovely, rainy, dynamically cloudy. The hills were unbelievably green and covered in wild mustard and other random wildflower clusters. We listened to CDs of various books from Chronicles of Narnia the whole way up and back; it was nice to get back in touch with those books. We've only just begun The Last Battle, which will provide some interesting listening over the next week or so.

I did a good job of avoiding grading and cleaning today, though I'm already unpacked, which is a major step forward for me. :-)

Family is already out from Bible Belt for my dad's retirement party, which is in a week. It's going to be an interesting, exhausting, fun, take-it-a-day-at-a-time kind of week.

We could have...

...had breakfast at the b&b in town, but we looked them up online and they had taken the buffalo hash off the menu, and so we thought why bother to get pretty and go into town when our breakfast here rocks? And so we had breakfast of eggs and spinach and tomatoes with maple bacon and strawberries and crumpets (yes, we bought crumpets at the market) with butter and jam (crumpets are even better than english muffins at sopping butter) and kick-ass coffee with Baileys (on really good sale at the market).

...gone to the botanical gardens, but the sun was shining so brilliantly here, and we hadn't gotten to see these views in such intense sunlight yet, and there were walks and hikes we hadn't yet done right here near the cottage, and so we thought why bother to get pretty and pack lunches in backpacks and get into the car when we can just stay here, walk around, see similar views without paying for them, and have lunch in the comfort of our cottage? And so that's what we did.

...visited the art center, but most of the objections we used to avoid the botanical gardens applied, and plus we were nearing the completion of our puzzle, and after our hikes I wanted to nap (and so did our OldManDog), and I wanted to be sure I was around here for the sunset to see if I could get some lovely photos. And so we thought we'll just visit the art center tomorrow on our way out, because of course we'll be stopping in town to do some shopping before we hit the highway. And I got my nap, and I read my book, and we finished the puzzle, and I got to hike at sunset and pick up a few decent shots.

See? It all worked out.

Cottage-bound

And why not? We were set. We had all the food and provisions we needed. We had in-room hot stone massages -- heaven. We had music, we had rain, and we had the most exquisite views out our windows. Why leave? The only time anyone set foot outside the cottage today was to take OldManDog for potty walks. (I'll admit that today it wasn't me.)

POM worked on her pottery. I worked on some writing (essays and correspondence) that I've needed to do -- I'm moving to the realization that I've been in input mode for a very long time, and it's finally come to the point to switch to output mode occasionally. I've been in a reading circle with a friend for the past several weeks -- we're not calling it a writing circle because, as yet, we have not written together; but we've provided feedback and reader response to a couple of pieces for each other, and it's been quite useful, effective, motivating, and uplifting.

Tomorrow: breakfast at our b&b from last spring break (buffalo hash sounds weird but is magically good; bacon a quarter-inch thick and perfectly smoked; wickedly good coffee; porch-sitting with the puppy dog), and then the botanical gardens and the art center, rain or shine. I can't believe tomorrow is already Thursday. [Sigh.]

Wisteria seed pods -- oh to be here in May!

POM burnishing her pot some more.

Nigh unto comatose following his big hike and our hot-stone massages and killer dinner of pasta, garlic bread, spinach salad, and wine

A relaxed day

We took a mellow approach to the day. Slept in, ate breakfast at the cottage, took short walks with OldManDog; decided to try to get some work (grading, planning) out of the way; went up to Ft. Bragg for provisions, had a leisurely dinner of pizza and vino; watched some DVDs and ogled the real estate catalogs. Nothing major, and that's just what the doctor ordered for the day.

Had sun only parts of the day. The cottage saw rain, but it was while we were grocery and pizza shopping. Supposed to receive more rain tomorrow. Also supposed to receive a massage tomorrow -- thank you, lord. If all goes as planned (and these are loose plans indeed), the Mendocino Art Center, some heckuvit shopping, and picnic at the botanical gardens are in our future.

Here are some of the colors of Mendo in March:

Mendo

We do have wi-fi (yay), but I haven't tried downloading photos yet. The cottage is delightful, with an incredible view. Great set-up here. More later.

Hope everyone had a good Monday.

Happy Easter, and we're off...

...to Mendocino in the a.m.! We're supposed to have wi-fi, so we're taking the laptop in hopes that we'll have some access to email and the net. We'll see.

I hope you all had a lovely, refreshing, uplifting Easter, and good time with family and friends.

Spring break, here I come! :-)

Breaking the Lenten fast:


POM made crepes with strawberries and ricotta-basil filling. Oh, my lord! Incredible!




Then for our contribution to dinner, she made a butter-pecan cake with butter-cream-cheese frosting. And again I say, oh, my lord! (And doesn't my momma set a pretty table?)

Poetry Challenge

OK, I'm diving in. This is going out on a limb for me. I love poetry; I read it; I adore studying it; I enjoy writing it, though I don't do it often enough. But I ran into Miss Rumphius Effect's poetry challenge via Cloudscome's site, and I couldn't resist trying my hand at it today. It seemed time to get off my ass and do some poetry.

A terza rima is written in iambic pentameter. As Miss Rumphius explains, "Terza rima (an Italian phrase meaning 'third rhyme') consists of a series of three-line stanzas (tercets) with the rhyme scheme aba bcb cdc ded and so on. It can go on as long as the poet wishes. At the end of the poem an extra line is often added to complete the structure: yzy z." I include that so you know what I was trying to do.

All the standard excuses, caveats, and apologies apply (my first time, haven't had any other readers look at it, I know it sucks, etc.). A few non-standards apply, too (it's Holy Week, and I've had Jesus on the brain). I hope it's not cheesy. I hate cheesy poetry. If it is, you can tell me. Please be constructive and kind.

Terza Rima – Trinitas

A rhyme in three – a perfect form to write
about the holy trinity; and ho-
ly week the perfect time, with fitting light.

‘Twas holy week two thousand years ago
in which the triune God lost one of three;
‘twas Friday Good the middle had to go

away in isolation on a tree.
The fragmentation of the holy One
a visceral and shocking surgery.

An amputation bearable to none,
but only this division made us free.
And so we sing our worship of the Son,

on this the Saturday before our Ea-
ster dawns with lilies, hope, and sun and joy.
We cannot say we know the mystery

of separated God; we can’t play coy
and say we comprehend the love that caused
his humbling himself in master ploy

the devil’s power to destroy; he paused
earth’s time, and Lucifer, frustrated by
his loss, could not prevent the corpse engauzed

from changing, waking, walking, op’ning eye.
We cannot claim we understand; we on-
ly bow our heads and lift our hands up high

to take the holy gift. Unbroken bone,
bled out, with broken heart and punctured side;
the perfect form of selfless love we’re shown.

And thus we sing our hymns this Eastertide.

Oddity

Seen around town: I mean it's logical when you stop to think about it, but I never thought about it before. I guess someone has to clean these signs and replace light bulbs.

[Ed. - I'm posting multiple times to make up for the past couple of days that I have not posted pictures. It's a lot at once. Welcome to my world of feast or famine. Heh.]

Pottering About

POM's latest projects -- for a primitive pottery class. These are not fired yet; she's burnishing them. ShopDog takes advantage of the cool garage floor on an 80-plus degree day.

Profusion!

It is a ridiculously beautiful day in SoCal today! It is 86 degrees with a cooling breeze. The flowers and the trees and the animals are all happy. I am happy.

After a safari around the yards, both front and back, I sit upstairs with the window open listening to the sounds. The breeze rustles the ash trees' leaves. The bike horn of the Mexican rolling cart of snacks grows louder and then softer in the distance. LittleKitty's insistent meow as she asks for love rises from below, as does the sound of the garage door springs as POM opens it to work on her pots for her primitive pottery class.

Today isn't supposed to be a day of joy. Holy Saturday is a day of watching and waiting, of pensiveness. And yet I can't ignore the profusion of ridiculous beauty. It elevates my mood because I already know what's going to happen tomorrow.

Enjoy the profusion of photos and beauty.