Full Moon May

The garden is mostly in.
The poppys are popping.. the sage is blooming and the wild lilac.
We have had a dry spring with mild temps until the last several days of HIGH HEAT (100's).
Watching the clover yard dry up. The deer coming aound less as there is less to eat.
Haven't seen the bambies yet, although we had a pregnant doe here for weeks.

Russel's Aikido teacher from the bay area is here this weekend for a retreat. The potluck was last night and good food was had by all.
He is wrapping up the schools classes. In 3 weeks he will go to Aikido summer camp in the south bay for a week.
I hope to have a lot of energy and maybe some money to do some interior work on this house.

The Michigan trip is booked for June25-July 11. Dad does have even more cancer. The melanoma keeps spreading, there are spots on his lungs which nothing can be done about, and a lump in his neck that is some kind of squamous, but not skin cancer kind. There is at least one more
surgery ahead, if he chooses to do it. Probably just before we get there.
I have started to speak it out loud, that he may die soon... or not .. as he is a tough old guy (86) going on 60. But I need to prepare myself. This one will be hard to let go of.

My friends T and Ter from Florida are actually saying they may come visit this way this summer. I am so hoping that they do. I need them too. I need to see T... just feels like it must happen.

Not a lot of photos to brag about. Haven't been using my camera much.
Got this one in april through the hazy kitchen window:

I have been working a lot.

And Bruce Cockburn www.cockburnproject.net
is out on a short tour which is being recorded and filmed for a new LIVE-Solo CD and DVD. Wish he was doing some shows on the west coast for this, but he's not.

There is also a lot going on locally. Too much to really go into here, but
here is a link to a local blog who keeps everyone informed at least to what is going on with code enforcement, diesel concerns, 2nd district elections and Reggae wars, to name a few. I use it only as a means to being alerted and seeing what some (few) people are thinking about these issues. I do not generally agree with a lot that is posted over there as opinion.

Spring 2008

Spring is here the daffodils and tulips are blooming as are the peach trees.
Life should be sweet, and in many ways it is, but I am stressed in so many ways.

First off, Dad isn't done with the cancer it is back and another surgery is planned for April 23. This time the surgeons are taking ALL the muscle left in his left shoulder.. why I am not sure seeings how the lumps of melanoma are in his neck ..but I am not there to ask all the questions. And they will do what ever the doc says is the best thing to do. Dad is afraid the cancer will spread to his brain, or eyes or ears..and I understand that. But after this surgery, he will have no use or movement with his left arm.

I did book flights back to Michigan last month. We will be gone end of June through early July. I would like to go back now.. or when he has surgery, but they 'can handle it' and I am sure would prefer I am not there.

I am on a hormonal rollercoaster just now. But hope to end that all soon. I may stop the estrogen as well, but have to see how bad the hot flashes get again.

I have been working, a local woman who I have written about before, Estelle Fennell is running for Humboldt County 2nd district supervisor. I have made her a website.
And I am working on a new version of Russel's Aikido for Kids wesite.. this one will go live in a couple of weeks.

I did manage to see Prezident Brown
a few weeks ago at the Mateel Community Center. It was a good show and I danced in a new dress! (Yes finally finding the rayon batik dresses I like really did lift my spirit a bit!!).

That's pretty much it. All the usual spring projects and clean up and dump runs, and getting the garden ready, and figuring out what projects, if any are going to get done this summer. Our summer here won't really start until middle of July! Yikes its so hot by then nothing much can get done. I hope Russel feels good enough and has enough energy to actually get some stuff done before school is out.. other wise, it mostly won't I fear.

Painting on Silk - Margriet Seinen

I went to a Margariet Seinen's Painting a Mandala on Silk workshop last weekend. I didn't know but one day in advance that I was going, so I had no thought to what I would do. Ido not draw. I do not paint. It was challenging and totally fun.

This is something I would encourage anyone to do. It is empowering and did I say, Fun! Watching the dye/paint go onto and over the silk is very mesmerizing and the whole process could be addicting.

Even though I didn't do what I 'thought I wanted, in design or color' ... this is what came out of that:

The colors here aren't quite bright enough ... and I have it on my wall, but I need to stretch the silk and get it framed. And I hope to do this workshop again. For that matter, I would love to learn the mixing of dyes for the colors I really want to use, so I may pick up some dyes, resist, silk and frames so I can play with this at home!

I also got my beads out, and repaired a necklace last week. This of course inspired me to want to start beading again.
(http://www.creationdreams.net/creation/gallery/gallery.html) (a very old page with some of my beads and baskets photos)

I am going to be laying out a palette of beads soon. I hope to work with 14s (very small) but will probably start with 11s, as I have tons of them to work with.

Need to book a flight to Michigan soon. Thinking of end of June - early July for 10 days or more. Just thinking of flying again gave me a disturbing dream/nightmare last night. I just hate giving all that control to these people who 'claim they are making me safe'. Oh well, I will work on letting go of that stress!!

Winter

The holiday season brought with it winter weather. From freezing temps and water lines to snow to hurricane force wind and rain back to freezing again.
There has been some sun in there as well, but weather is dominate this year.

A murder of crows:

With so many grey dark days I haven't had as much power as I would of liked. But mostly the big storm was just a windy event that took out our internet satellite tria.. the dish was ok.. and that took a few days to get replaced. We had a few small water where it shouldn't be issues too. Still have a couple of those.

Solar Power is wonderful to have though. So many people here and across the state were without power for days on end. We were warm (wood) and had lights and phone and internet and directv most of the time :)
Being off the grid does have its advantages.

Dad is not going to get full range of motion back into his left shoulder. The pain is getting less and they are planning a vacation to white sandy beach for a week here soon. So that is good. Meanwhile, I really need to plan the Michigan trip for the summer now. With all the news of airline mergers and prices going up, I don't know whether to wait or book soon??

I have been archiving and jacketing dozens of live Bruce Cockburn shows that have been sitting here waiting for that for a couple of years!
I also got the Ion Cassette Tape to Pc and the Ion turntable to Pc. I have only used the cassette to Pc so far.. finding out that many of the cassettes I wanted to get to cd are just too far gone to be worth the time. I fear how the albums may sound!? But it's a project that I have wanted to deal with for many years.
Hopefully by spring it will be done and new space will appear in this small house :)
Then I will tackle the vhs to dvd tapes that I want to keep and get rid of or store somewhere out of the house the rest.

Went to Eureka last week and we saw Cloverfield. A monster movie.
Doesn't really live up to all the hype and yes it has all been done one way or another before...yet it was gripping edge of your seat 90 minutes of .."What is that!?" Great monster.. :)