Friday, July 30, 2010

Our Morning

What with the wildfires and my attempt at stick figure humor, I kept forgetting to welcome these three new followers to my blog: Peggy Montano, Connie, and Tracey. Welcome and I'm looking forward to getting to know you.--Inger.

One of my most treasured pleasures of living my simple and frugal life here in the canyon is hanging laundry on the line. Here are a few things I washed by hand.


Until my arm gets well, tank tops and buttoned shirts are all I can put on. As you can see I stole some of hubby's undershirts and they are actually the most comfortable for me to wear right now.


As always, Princess comes with me. Believe me, she's not just laying down here…her razor-sharp, border collie eyes, are making sure nothing is approaching and I am safe. What a dog!

I heard some strange noises, some kind of birds: peep, peep, peep. So we went to check it out and found three huge birds circling over our fields.


You can't see them in the picture above and as they saw us, they began a beautiful circling flight, higher and higher until they became one with the sky …or so it seemed from the ground. 


Usually, the very large birds around here are turkey vultures, but I'm not sure what these were. Their wings looked much thicker and I've never heard that strange little noise before. The bird in the photo is very high up and I enlarged the picture several times just to get something.

Oh, to become an expert on nature...

I look the birds up in both my bird books, but seldom find what I would call a match. I have to get that book about the flora and fauna of the Sierra Nevada, recommended by the nature expert who writes for our local paper. But not this month because I'm just about to order the DVD of the Swedish movie The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo! And living this frugal life, one treat like that will have to last a while. Oh, I hope the film will show a lot of my love: The City of Stockholm!

I heard from a friend in town yesterday that they were doing mop up work on the Tehachapi fire, so it should be pretty much contained by now. While we were out there this morning, I watered a lot around the house and, if nothing else, it made me feel good.

Have a great day! I'm off to amazon.com to make my purchase!

Thursday, July 29, 2010

Fire Update


According to the latest from the KGET TV web site, the Tehachapi fire is 25% contained; it has burned over 1,400 acres; 25 structures are destroyed, and it's not known how many of those are homes; 150 to 200 homes are still threatened by the blaze.

The Tehachapi area is very large (we are 12 miles from the city of Tehachapi, for example) and while the fire is burning on our side of town, it's probably 10 – 15 miles from here. I'm not sure about the miles, but it is not very close.

After all the smoke on Tuesday night, I saw nothing yesterday morning and thought the fire had been contained. But when I got phone calls from relatives in New Orleans and emails from worried friends all over the place, I realized it was much more serious than I had first thought. Then when the strong Tehachapi winds started up later in the day, I called a friend for an update as a lot of smoke blew into the canyon.  I also checked the internet and found out that the governor had been here and had declared our county a disaster area. There is a larger fire burning in a different area of the county as well, with over 16,000 acres burned and more than 2,000 firefighters on the lines.

I take this as a warning to check my bag of medical and personal supplies that's always packed for emergencies. Then I'll pack the paperwork, deeds, business CDs, a few photos, but not much else. I usually do that every summer, but didn't get to it this year.

And my friend is stopping by later today to help me get the birdcage down from the fireplace mantel. We put Pippi Birdie up there when Samson was here and forgot to bring him back down before my husband and Samson went back to LA. I had to balance dangerously on a stepstool just to feed the bird and found there was no way I could lift the cage with one arm. So I am very grateful to get my bird down on the table again.

I just took this picture and, as you can see the sky is clear here this morning. As you can also see, it's very dry and yellow. I'm happy I mowed some of the grass/weeds and very grateful to Rachael, who just wouldn't quit mowing until the mower ran out of juice.



Thanks to all my friends who have written or called, concerned about my safety. Have a great day everyone and I'll let you know when they put this fire out.

God Bless The Fire Fighters -- My Heroes, Always!

Wednesday, July 28, 2010

Wednesday's Book & Fire Clouds At Sunset

Before I took my break, I had decided to share my thoughts on the books I've read lately and I set aside Wednesdays as my book day. I'm challenging myself here because I have no experience at all in this kind of writing. I also want to mix my blog up a bit and write about all kinds of different things, while still centering it on life in a desert canyon. And Wednesday's Book is a step towards that goal.


The Family Orchard
By Nomi Eve

Ah, Nomi Eve! Who is this woman, I wondered, as I read her first novel not too long ago. It had been sitting in my bookcase for the past six years or so – looking difficult. Some books do that to me. Fortunately, I picked it up and began to read. And I was transported to an enchanted land, filled with both reality and dreams. There I met exquisite women and men with magic skills, people who could dream and who could tell stories so fantastic you never knew or cared if they were real.

Nomi Eve is blessed with magical writing skills, there are twists and turns in this novel that will enchant and bewitch you. The story follows several generations of a family over two hundred years. It begins in Russia; most of it takes place in Palestine, later Israel; and it ends in the United States. Here is a quote from the back cover: "Intensely imagined, at once sensual, spiritual, and humorous, an artful mixture of dreams and reality, legend and fact, this impressive novel takes risks with narrative method and succeeds beautifully." -- Publishers Weekly

And it is that risk Nomi Eve takes with the narrative that makes the book so wonderful. To imagine these stories in your mind and then write a first novel like The Family Orchard is amazing. I loved it.

Fire Clouds At Sunset

Yesterday, a there was a wild-fire some miles from us. Looking out my window it seemed to be just behind the hills in front of our house, but it wasn't that close. I took these pictures at sunset. I don't see any smoke this morning, so, hopefully, it has been contained.




Have a great day!

Tuesday, July 27, 2010

My Post -- I had To Laugh

I'm concerned that my post of this morning may have been badly written and therefore misunderstood. All I wanted to do was make light of the fact that I lost 15 pounds in a month just because I had that accident. Losing weight for little or no reason is very, very scary for me.

When I took the photo, I expected a stick figure to appear, hence the title I had in mind: A Shadow of My Former Self. When I saw the picture, I just cracked up and felt happy I could laugh at something that was of great concern to me. So I wanted to share it and thought others would laugh too.

I guess it's hard in this society that sets such a high value on being way too thin, to understand that I want to be strong, robust and healthy. And looking that way, as well. You see, I equate losing 15 pounds and weighing less than what's normal for my height, with being sickly and weak.

I'm sorry if I appeared inconsiderate of those who would love to lose that kind of weight that fast. My post had only to do with me laughing at myself and my fears.

I Had To Laugh....

I took a couple of shadow pictures when I walked to the mailbox the other day. I was going to post them as: A Shadow of My Former Self – I thought it was such a clever post title because when I saw the doctor in June, I found out I had lost 15 pounds since my accident. I know many people would be ever so happy to lose weight, but my weight was fine before and I feel a need to be strong for as long as I can. I've never liked being skinny and at my age, trust me, skinny is not pretty.

So when I saw this, I burst out laughing:


What, did I say SKINNY? Look at those hips and legs….sooo funny!

I wear my largest size jeans here, way too big for me, but the easiest to get into and button. I also have a sort of mini-dress on top of the jeans. So there went my clever post title -- but I got a good laugh -- hope you will too!

Monday, July 26, 2010

Great News!

My husband came up and took me to the doctor last Thursday. I'm thrilled to report that my shoulder has healed completely!

My left arm will need physical therapy, something I can have done locally, here in town. The doctor promised I will get my strength back, so that's great. The worst problem is my left hand, particularly the middle finger, which hurts something fierce and can be neither fully stretched nor bent. While my health insurance offers better coverage than most, it all has to be authorized in advance. Dumb me! I thought that since the finger was part of the initial accident, certainly a part of my injured left arm, I could get it x-rayed and checked by the doctor while I was there, more than 50 miles from home. But no – it needs to be authorized by my insurance first – only my arm and shoulder are covered by the initial authorization. Grrr!

I don't need the sling and I'm allowed to drive. While I can see me driving with one hand/arm, I have to figure the parking before I go to town. At least there isn't a whole lot of traffic on the roads around here. I love the feeling of freedom that being able to drive brings, but I have to start out slowly.

Thank you all my friends for your encouraging comments and support. Hearing from you has meant the world to me. I'll start catching up with your blogs this week and post some entries of my own as well.

 
Samson says: It's about time, mommy!

Saturday, July 3, 2010

I'm Taking A Break -- Will Be Back Soon

I feel I need to take a break from blogging for a couple of weeks. Sharon reminded me it takes time to heal and that I will be tired for a while longer. And I am tired, very tired. Also my neck has been hurting for a while when I sit at my computer because of the weight of my arm in the sling.

So I want those of you who comment all the time, and who have become my friends, know. Since you know I'm not 100% well, I don't want you to worry about me.

I will rest and work on building up my strength more slowly than I have these past weeks with all the yard work I did. I know I was overdoing it a bit, but it had to be done and I enjoyed it so much. I'll definitely be visiting your blogs, just not as often perhaps.

And thank you so much for visiting with me, for leaving you comments, and for sharing your lives with me on your blogs. I never knew blogging could be so much – not only fun, but meaningful too. -- Inger

Thursday, July 1, 2010

Samson Says: "Kisses Anyone?"

It's hot and with no idea what to blog about, I figure a cute puppy will always do.


Last week, I was resting on the couch when Samson came up and started licking my broken shoulder. He was very intent on his licking procedure, as if he wanted to help me heal. It felt so good and he didn't stop until I got up and took this picture of his sweet little face.

Here are some more kisses from Samson:



Soldier gets a puppy kiss.


Happy New Year! Princess gets New Year's kisses.


Soldier gets one on the mouth. Well, almost!


And here he's at it again last week.


No one comes close to Angel's mouth, so Samson has to settle for her ear.


With nothing much else going on, I thought I'd share these. But a friend is coming tomorrow to take me grocery shopping! Being alone here so much, even a trip to the grocery store seems like one big adventure.

LinkWithin

Related Posts with Thumbnails