Some Random Stuff From The Canyon

1.       I'm sorry I missed participating in Good Fences on Thursday, but I went to the Diabetes Support group and didn't have time to link up or read blogs. By the time I get ready to join in, perhaps you all will have run out of fences. Hoping for next week.

2.     I'm so glad I went to the group meeting though because, as it turned out, it was the last meeting. Eve is 75 now, she has done this on a monthly basis for the past 20 years, all on a volunteer basis, so I understand, but I will miss the group very much. 

3.    Because of the medical trips we had to take at the end of October, beginning of November, when Faith was six months, the recommended age for spaying, I called later, when Faith was six and a half months, hoping to be able to schedule her spaying surgery this past week. No luck, we had to wait until December 2nd. And, you guessed it, she's coming into heat. We are not doing any surgery while she's in heat, so we just have to live through the next couple of weeks. I can see it now, stray dogs, coyotes, and of course, Samson, who is neutered, but doesn't seem to know it. I guess he feels it's worth trying, poor thing. What a mess!

4.    I'm hoping my friend Rachael will be able to come up before Christmas. We both want to drive up the mountain to the nuns' place and visit their gift shop. I also badly need a haircut, which she does so well I don't want to have anyone else doing it. Of course, there's always the good old ponytail.

5.    We're staying home for Thanksgiving, having duck for dinner. I don't remember what duck tastes like, but I'm sure my hubby will make it delicious. We certainly have a lot to be thankful for.  

Random 5 Friday

1.  I played around with this fence line picture, trying for a new effect. I haven't done much with my pictures other than point, shoot, and maybe crop them a bit, but this was fun. Much to learn and experiment with.

2. I was complaining about the new technology a few posts ago, but the part of it relating to digital cameras, and what you can now do with photos, intrigues and enchants me. 

3. My last five years at UCLA were as near perfect as possible. The other day, I remembered the birthday of a coworker I liked very much and sent a Happy Birthday email. She wrote back and sent a selfie of her and our friend Judy meeting up for her birthday. Remembering so many good moments, I want to see them both. 

4. My husband read something about deep fried peanut butter and jelly sandwiches in the Joy of Cooking. This was enough to inspire him to try it and then improve on the recipe. I believe he's now dreaming of designing many different kinds of deep-fried sandwiches. OUCH!

5. If you haven't seen me commenting on your blogs this week, blame the IRS. Just kidding, but I have been immersed in income tax preparation stuff. This should not be difficult, with no business to account for, and a good tax accountant. But with advancing age has come a great dislike of keeping up with paperwork, filing, record keeping, and so on.....

Linking up with Nancy at A Rural Journal

Random 5 Friday

1. Much needed rain finally arrived in California. Here in the canyon, it began in earnest sometime during the night and it has rained steadily since then. A soft, but still puddle-making, rain. 

2.  I usually wake up between four and five in the morning; today I slept until 8:00. I must have been really tired, but that's all been made up now.  

3.  I just finished reading My Antonia, by Willa Cather, and I thought about our Random 5 host, Nancy, somewhere in Nebraska. I loved this book about the people who settled the Nebraskan prairie, so many of them from Norway. No wonder you have so many red barns in your state. 

4.  Yesterday, when my husband and his brother were having lunch outside, a coyote came by with one of our neighbor's chickens in its mouth. The coyote stopped twice to check out the brothers, then it went on its way, accompanied by an unkindness of Ravens. 

5. Many thanks to those of you who sent good and healing thoughts to our sick blogger friends. As far as I know, they are doing OK.  But yesterday I learned that blogger friend Ron, SophieDoodle's dad, had a heart attack on Tuesday. Jim wrote that he was being evaluated in a hospital in Halifax. Wow, this was a real shock as those guys, with Sophie's help, keep up such a healthy life style. So, if you don't mind, please send good thoughts to Ron. Thank you.

Linking up with Nancy at A Rural Journal

Random 5 Friday

1. Walking the land with Samson, I'm amazed at the things we find, things left behind by others who once lived here. 

2. Although I have lived in the U. S. for over 50 years and am a citizen of this country, it's amazing how all that falls away when a Swede wins gold at the Winter Olympics. 

3. So many friends are ill ~ I will continue to think of  you all.

4.  I wonder why, as I have gotten old, I don't want to learn anything new about tech stuff (and I used to be good, wrote software user's guides and trained others, even) and now I want nothing to do with tablets, smart phones, and so on. Or, for that matter, Facebook and Twitter.

5. While so many of you, across this country and in the U. K., are plagued by horrific winter weather, spring is slowly arriving here in the California mountains. The drought continues, but some new little birds have arrived, singing away happily. 

Linking up with Nancy at A Rural Journal

Random 5 Friday

1. Once upon a long time ago, I competed in speed skating; it was my favorite sport. Growing up in Sweden, I was also very fond of cross-country skiing.

2. Every four years I look forward, with a great deal of anticipation, to the Winter Olympic Games. Where I cheer for Sweden first and the U.S. second. During the summer games this gets reversed. This year, I'm worried and hope everyone will be safe. But I don't want the terrorists to gain the upper hand on my brain, so I will watch and focus on the brave and hard-working young athletes, who, just by being there, are winners. 

3. Welcome dark clouds hovered over the canyon most of the week, parting with little of value to us here on the ground until yesterday, when some much needed rain fell on our California canyon. 

4. I'm feeling much better. I saw my own doctor and, after checking me over, he told me that all is well but will take some time to heal. The greatest danger with rib injuries, he said, is pneumonia - so more deep breaths. "And be careful around large dogs," said he. Good advice, since Samson's the third dog involved in me taking a fall.

5. I learned about this British organization www.postpals.co.uk from 
Hayley-Eszti a blogger friend of mine from the U.K. Please check it out. All you do is find a sick child and send a postcard or something else to wish that child well. This appealed to me because it's so simple, yet will bring so much joy to a child. Just imagine! Getting a card all the way from America, Canada, Sweden, Africa, Argentina or anywhere in the world where you, my blogger friends, reside. Imagine how much fun that would be for a child facing serious illness. 

Linking up with Nancy for Random 5 Friday!

Random 5 Friday

1.  I never heard of Harry and David Gourmet before our niece and her husband gave us a magnificent gift from their gourmet selection for Christmas. It was called a tower and consisted of the prettiest boxes, from small to large, in the shape of a tower, wrapped with a pretty bow on top. In the boxes we found different chocolates, popcorn, nuts, and the best pears I have ever tasted. You can find Harry and David here. In case I tempted you.

2. It's so dry here that on a trip to town, I could imagine a caravan of camels trotting through the barren fields. Not quite Lawrence of Arabia yet, but we may be getting close as our neighbors just got

3. a pair of llamas. Not these two, they belong to another neighbor, but probably from the same stock. An elderly woman, who lives up above us in the hills, raises them.

4.  Samson's fur sprouted and multiplied many times over during the coldspell of early December. Now that daytime temps are in the 60s F, our house, our clothes, and ourselves are covered in incredibly soft and fluffy white fur. And I brush, and I brush.....

5. My friend Judy gave me several books for Christmas. When I opened this one, Russian Winter, I found that the author had dedicated it to the memory of a Hungarian couple I knew in the 1960s. Friends of my first husband, who was also from Hungary. Now, what's the likelihood of that, I wonder.

Joining Nancy for Random 5 Friday

Pay her a visit.

Random Five Friday

1.  I have come to love Samson's ears sticking up in my pictures. At first they were mistakes, now I catch them on purpose.

2.  The collage in my header is a bit dark, I know, but It's my first. Yes, I used piZap and, yes again, I have a lot to learn. Will work on it.

3. Thanks for your comments on the cows, our new neighbors. For now, they must get used to eating hay, which apparently they had not had to do in the past. I'm not doing closeups of them at this time, they look so depressed and I don't want to disturb them. I'll update as I learn more.

4. It was 8 degrees F (minus 13 C) this morning. That's about as cold as it gets up here and it's only the beginning of December. The sky was clear, the stars brilliant when I went outside at five a.m.

5. I hope all of you in the path of the storms hitting the country are OK. We're supposed to get ours tonight, snow down to 1,500 feet, maybe even flurries in Bakersfield. This cold is of course very bad for the citrus growers in the San Joaquin valley, but I can't help feeling excited about the prospect of some snow.

Random Five Friday

Giving Thanks:

1. After seven weeks away, my husband came home a week ago. A very good thing, indeed.

2. While I was alone here, I got a lot of things done. But of course, work is never done, so I am thankful for my health, for being able work around here and take Samson out on our daily walks and hikes. 

3. California's wild fire season officially ended on Wednesday. Last year we had a bad fire that went on for several weeks in the back of the canyon. Walking the dogs, I breathed in a lot of smoke, not thinking about the danger of this, and my lungs were affected. This year, we didn't have any fires close to us and for this I am very grateful. I can breathe so much better now, which is, if you think about it, one of the best things in life. 

4. Samson Dog is a year into remission of his illness, Uveodermatologic Syndrome (UDS, VKH), which made him temporarily blind last fall. Only the fast action of our vet, treating Samson with steroids and eye drops, reversed the blindness. Now he only needs Neo-Poly-Dex eye drops every other day, no more steroids. I am immensely thankful for Samson's healthy year and for our wonderful vet.

5. I didn't post yesterday, Thanksgiving, so let me say it here today: I am thankful for you my blogger friends, and for my friends who do not blog, all of them long-time friends ~ the longest since 1946. And, of course, I am so very thankful for my husband, Samson, and our families, here and in Sweden.

Trees are the earth's endless effort to speak to the listening heaven.  

~Rabindranath Tagore

Samson Says (to himself): I'd be more thankful if I got a treat every now and then.

Random Five Friday

  1. The first winter storm hit last night with pouring rain, thunder and lighting, howling winds, and this morning snow at 5,000 feet, just above us. You know I'm happy!

2.  For years now, I've worn Wrangler men's jeans, size 34/34. If I take a deep breath, I still fit in them, but not when I add long johns. So I went to buy some size 36/34. Imagine my surprise when I discovered they were too long! I found out I'm now 36/32, which sounds like I'm getting rounder, for sure. 

3. Samson's getting rounder too ~ his coat fluffed up almost overnight, it seems. He refused to go out in the pelting rain, the thunder scared him, but by now he seems used to it all and wants to go for his walk. I'm not so sure about that.

4. Hubby's coming back home tonight or tomorrow after many weeks away. I got a lot done and enjoyed my alone time, but by now I miss him. Lots!

5. Memory is strange, isn't it? I often forget in the present, but I remember that on this date 50 years ago, my girlfriend and I were going to a party with some foreign Princeton University students. I don't remember where they were from, I'm thinking Middle East, maybe. We, foreigners also, shocked and very upset after learning that the President had been killled, cancelled our dates. We were shocked all over again to learn that these guys were totally unaffected, very callous, almost pleased about the assassination. While I could pass judgment on that whole area and wonder if this was a preview of things to come, I will not. There's something wrong about judging everyone by the actions of a few. And, of course, those guys missed out on going to parties with Swedish girls ever again........

Source Wikipedia

Random Five Friday

1. At the post office, hubby met a man who lives in the canyon with his wife, dogs, 60 chickens, many turkeys, goats, and two llamas. So now we have fresh eggs again. 

2. I chose to eat the blue egg first. It was so pretty, I put it in my grandmother's egg cup and placed it on one of her plates that I inherited.

3. My thoughts drifted to my grandmother and this picture of her as a child. One can clearly see the determined woman she was to become. 

4. Fall in town and in our mountains is glorious this year, but here in the canyon it's just the same old sun on a dry earth with temps in the 20s in the morning and 70s in the afternoon. 

5. This is my first Random Five Friday. I've  enjoyed reading everyone's random thoughts on Fridays for a while now and it's been fun to join in.