And a VERY merry one it was!

So, with this year's candy-making, the real fun was "snow peeps". Remember Peeps, marshmallow Easter candy?
Well, I found a recipe for same and decided to make snowmen, aka snow peeps, they were a major effort, but I understand my grandkids enjoyed them. So, worth it, right?
I couldn't put this up until after they got them.


Then Sarah, Scottie's youngest, and Bobby, the son-out-law, arrived on 12/26 to spend a couple of days. The 27th was the second annual McArthur Christmas party. I really wanted pics from it and even had hopes of a decent photo of Scottie and I together. No such luck 'cuz the party was well attended and so darned much fun that I never took even one picture.

Both Buck and Cocoa spent the evening being party dogs - simply refusing to leave the fun and food - so they've been total slugs today. Buck got a little advance slug practice the day before the party snuggling up with Sarah who has described him as Buck the Body Pillow. Yep.



All in all it's been a great Christmas. Now it's time to take it all apart, plant the living tree and move on to 2009!

HO HO HO

We've had just the best Christmas!

It's not that it's been elaborate, just that it's been really, really nice. All sorts of little pieces of magic have come our way - from a beautiful Guamanian screen given to us by a new friend to meeting a young woman from Illinois, to the sweet and gentle Christmas morning we had right here in River City (that would be Three Rivers, CA, in case you didn't know) and the crying my eyes out at Marley and Me.

I've promised my daughter more photos of myself - something I resist 'cuz I don't photograph well. Here I am Christmas morning, happy and warm in a brand new sweater.



How to tell Scottie's favorite gift? Well, the fact that I couldn't get the biking sunglasses off him might be a clue. It was "take my picture in my new shirt (with my glasses)." " Take my picture with my new saw (and my glasses)." And so on and so forth. He does photograph well.


About that screen:

This is it. Given to us by a lady who we met when we went to buy a cement mixer. That's right - given to us.

Today Sarah and Bobby arrive from San Diego, and tomorrow we have a party - - it's not over yet!

Christmas Time

Finally got the spirit and decided to decorate for Christmas!

Normally there is a big clock surrounded by a BIG frame above our fireplace. I took the clock down and turned the frame, which is about 2' x 3', into a big wreath of sorts with the 2 mercury glass acorns in the middle.



And, I decided that this year the crystal forest should sit in "snow", aka batting. The crystal forest is pretty much my favorite part of decorating each year.


Above the forest (and on both sides of the mantle) are manzanita branches, these decorated with a few ornaments.


The view from the front door toward the fireplace pleases me!


All that's left to do is bring in the live tree a few days before Christmas and decorate that.

Ta-da-da-da-DA! I'm likin' it.

Rocks and Lichen and Moss - Oh My!!

OK, bear with me here.

Are there things that make you cry or at least tear up simply because they are so incredibly beautiful, or maybe because you are truly awestruck? Well, I can get that way about rocks. That's right, I said rocks.

I've been wanting landscape rocks for the front of our place to divide the driveway area from the little tiny front lawn and the house. It has felt to me like the driveway just runs into the house, especially since the driveway comes downhill from the road.

So, Fred Lowe, rock guy supreme, had promised me rocks some time ago; but here's the deal: You wait for Fred or you get someone else, and getting someone else is not the good choice. So, finally Fred had a bigger job that put him working on the property right next to ours and the time was ripe for me to get my rocks.

Fred showed up on Monday with the first of the rocks. Note the rock to the left and the strap around it. Fred came down the road and down our steep driveway with that rock danging from his bucket! Amazing.



Buck and Cocoa had to check each rock after it was dropped off - and more about this rock later. The pups seemed to need to be sure that no dangerous things were coming in with the rocks.


So, Monday night there we are with big ole rocks sitting at the end of the driveway.


On Tuesday I had to go get a hair cut and run errands. When I came home, Fred had finished setting the rocks. Each is in place and partially buried in the ground looking like they've been there forever! (Near us is a house where someone else did the rock work. A bunch of big rocks were dumped willy-nilly on top of their grass, not sunk in, not arranged at all and just look wierd. Big rocks don't just sit on the ground. They sink in.)

Each of the four rocks has moss and each has lichen. I cried. Really.


The rock the puppers were checking out earlier has reindeer moss! This very special moss blooms or grown "antlers". How special is that?

One rock has a little piece of yellow lichen. It's pretty darned rare around here!

That same rock has orange lichen too, along with the white-ish lichen that is more common and is on all the rocks!



Fred calls these kinds of rocks living rocks, and I have to agree. There is life in each of these as well as the amazing history of the Sierra Nevada.

So, some folks brake for garage sales; I cry for rocks.

I SURVIVED THE CLEANSE!

It was touch and go for a couple of days, but I made it. Over a week without solid food and surviving on a mixture of water, cayenne pepper, fresh lemon juice and maple syrup does strange things to one's system. The best part is what it's done for my skin. But, I'm really glad it's over and glad to find I'm not at all craving junk food!

This is my succulent wreath grown in and with a bow added to make it a Christmas wreath. Worked out pretty well.


After several days of clouds and fog we got a sunny and warm afternoon. Both dogs decided to sun bathe. This is not their usual outdoor guard duty when they station themselves in different spots and watch over us. Rarely do they lie down together, especially outside, but this is where the sunshine was. Funny dogs.



December weather like this with days in the mid-60's and nights in either the upper 30's or low to mid-40's are what brought me from the mid-west to California in the first place. We'll get our cold weather in January and February, usually with rain, but very infrequently snow. Go up just a few hundred feet in elevation though and you'll find lots of snow. I'm hoping for a chance to go snowshoeing this winter.

It's beginning to look a lot like. . . well, you know.

Red Shoulder Hawks

Yesterday I heard a hawk calling - that would be the one who seems to have declared all the birds who hang out at our feeders to be his personal feeding ground - and decided to go take photos.

The murderer had positioned himself on top of a power pole and kept up his shrill keee, keee, keee even as I walked closer and closer. Reason? He was calling in his mate! I suppose the two had a dinner date.

Anyway, these are Red Shoulder Hawks, supposed to feed on small mammals like mice and voles, who have taken to grabbing a bird here and there. Not nice!




So, the mate showed up:


They got tired of my photo adventure and flew to an oak tree that sits below our house:



Scottie brought out the spotting scope and we were able to get a much better view of the one who hung around. I decided to experiment with taking photos by putting my little camera up to the eye piece of the scope:


This was an interesting experiment! It's hard to know, well it's impossible to know, what you are going to get. A light touch to the scope causes it to move and you end up with half a bird. You can't see through the camera what you are going to get and "point and shoot" takes on new meaning. And, without shielding the light somehow, you get strange effects:



As soon as my book sells I'm going to be my own fairy godmother and buy a really good digital camera with different lenses. My little Nikon, while I love it, can't get the shots I often want.

I have to send this on to Doc Hannan for any comments on bird-taking Red Shoulders. Watch this space for his reply.

FORGET LONDON TOWN!

We have all the fog you could possibly want in Three Rivers!

I've always loved fog - find it to be beautiful, ethereal, mystical - and this is the time of year to enjoy it.
Where we sit, above the San Joaquin Valley in California, we are usually above the fog (and wouldn't that be a great name for an art exhibit or a book - above the fog) but there are days when the fog reaches us or even travels above up into the mountains.

Today the fog is above us. This view is up toward Eagle's Nest.


Yesterday the fog level stopped just below us. These two photos were taken from our yard looking down-river:



Because the fog is a function of warm vs cold air plus moisture there is usually a "fog line" where the fog begins or ends abruptly. For us it is generally below us. We'll often drive down toward Visalia and not encounter fog until after Kaweah Lake. But, as occasionally occurs, the last couple of days have seen the fog moving upward.

In the Valley this time of year, fog is a major issue for drivers. Sometimes visibility is essentially nil. Route 99 from Bakersfield to Fresno will see multi-car pile-ups. The CHP has declared a policy that when visibility falls below 500' they will lead cars with a police car as the "pilot car". Of course that wouldn't be necessary if people would drive within the range of their visibility, but that can't be counted on. So, while I go out to walk dogs up around Mineral King Road and just thoroughly love the fog, I have to remember that it also represents danger.

Years ago, while living in San Diego, I went out to the Cuyamaca's to hike alone (I know, it isn't supposed to be safe) on a foggy day that became progressively more foggy. Only because I was on a very well marked trail that I'd hiked numerous times before could I even stay on my route. It was absolutely mystical! It seemed as if the fog actually moved through my body rather than me moving through it. Things would suddenly appear in front of me - a tree, a rock, a stream - that had been completely hidden from view until I was literally on top of them. And, when I finished my hike, I was wet to the skin from the heavy moisture of the fog. It may not have been my most intelligent hiking alone experience, but it was the most beautiful!