Happy 4th of July

Happy 4th of July everyone!
I made a decoration for my front door. I took a hat that was left over from the Tea Party, put some flag-ish ribbon on it, and embellished it with firecrackers! Terrible festive, don't you think?

I just hope no one decides to put a match to them. That would even be louder than my door knocker, which is unbelievably loud.

We hope to go black berry picking today. It's a tradition here Amongst The Oaks. Then we will make a berry cobbler, but don't tell Teen2, she's already mad that she missed the lorikeets, that might send her over the edge.

I Left My Heart in San Francisco

I left my heart in San Francisco last week. Right behind those windows up there. Yep, Teen2 is at summer school at the Academy of Art University taking classes in computer animation. She found out about the school several months ago and her Daddy signed her up for their summer program.

She was the first to arrive so she got the softest mattress and the desk by the window. Her room mates are from Florida, Detroit, and Montana. They are sharing this huge room with two bunk beds, four desk, and four wardrobes. The room looks pretty good here, but I'm sure it looks like a bomb site now as she called me today and said her roommates are messy! (This is coming from Teen2, the queen of messy rooms, so they must be really bad.)

Three meals per day are available just across the street, and there's a kitchen available too. The school has shuttle buses that run to each location several times daily, but Teen2 said she is walking to most classes. There's a Walgreens close by and a grocery store about 6 blocks away. I'm sure she'll be fine, but....

I still worry about my heart walking around in that big, strange city.

Knotted Lace and Foreign Visitors

We've had some wonderful visits lately from far away friends. Last Sunday LOM's cousin who lives in Guam visited. It had been two years since we'd seen him and his wife. Back in the 1980s they cruised the South Pacific in their yacht and eventually settled in Guam where they have swallowed the anchor. It was fun to see them and their daughter, son-in-law, and new twin baby grand daughters.

Then last night we went out to dinner with friends from Australia. We met him waaaaaay back in the 1970s. We both had Mooney airplanes and flew to Mexico several times together. Then we ended up buying sailboats and cruising, but never together. He cruised thousands of miles whilst we only went to Mexico and back. He eventually met his wife and settled in Australia, using it as a base for the last 15 years of cruising in the Indian Ocean.

His wife is a wonderful woman who makes lace. She's well known in the worldwide lace community and has written two books on Mediterranean lace. She was born in Greece, lived several years in Scotland and immigrated to Australia about 1960. She recently got interested in this Turkish knotted lace and will be teaching classes at the Portland Lace Society's 2010 convention from July 25 through July 31. She gave me this amazing bookmark last night. Traditionally the lace makers used flowers to symbolize their feelings and intentions. She mentioned that she might work up patterns for different Australian wildflowers and publish another book. I am in awe.

So that's what's been happening lately here Amongst The Oaks.

Lorikeets

Poor Teen1 hasn't been out of the house for weeks whilst recovering from surgery, so yesterday we thought she was ready for an outing. Our local zoo presently has a lorikeet exhibit that allows you to go inside the aviary and feed them. We've been wanting to do that for ages so yesterday was the day! Those noisy birds didn't disappoint us.

They check you and your little cup of sugary water out a while, then usually hop down onto your hand to lick it up. It's very entertaining to have them so close.

There are several varieties; rainbow, red banded, green naped, scaly breasted, and the Stella, an all black one. They all belong to someone in Florida who loaned them to our zoo for several months.

Pretty, friendly, entertaining... they seem like the perfect pet, right? But there are a couple of drawbacks; they bite as you can see above, and when they poo, it squirts out about 3', hot, wet and icky. Yuck.

Mountain Ranch Garden Tour

We went on a Garden Tour Saturday and it was a wonderful day out. The tour was in Mountain Ranch, an old Mother Lode town up in the Sierra Foothills. Their community center needs work, and it was the recipient of the proceeds. They are a little higher than we are, so their season is about three weeks later, consequently the iris and peonies were reaching perfection.

Most of the houses on the tour were very old by California standards. This one was built in 1852 as a stage stop/post office/bar. It still functions today as a cattle ranch and farm. The garden had several very old plants including these peonies and a huge old wisteria covering the south side of the home.

This is the Mountain Ranch Hotel. The portion you see, built in 1906, was an addition to an older section. This property is available for $1 million. You could fix it up and rent it our for weddings and parties. It even has a swimming pool.

The tour featured arts and crafts too. At the hotel several artists were displaying their work.

Here is the largest garden. It recently had a water feature installed, and the garden was still in a state of disarray, but it was the perfect site for the crafts tables. Since moving here 12 years ago, the owners of this garden have built a huge stone wall all around the property and are now starting to landscape the garden. The home is an 1860 adobe building that originally held a store, but was expanded over the years and has functioned as all sorts of things; butcher, bar, post office, boarding house, some even say a brothel!

One of the interesting things about these gardens was their use of recycled items. Every garden seemed to have lots of rusty things serving new purposes. Here is a plow disk holding succulents. And it looks quite nice, doesn't it?

And here is a rusty bucket serving as a finial on this lovely rock column. I like the rusty gate too.

Old stone houses, rusty accessories, water features...they're nice, but the reason I go on garden tours is to see the flowers and I wasn't disappointed at the Mountain Ranch Garden Tour.

Fanime 2010

You see the strangest things on the streets of San Jose, California every Memorial Day weekend....
sometimes you recognize them....

and sometimes you don't.

Sometimes you gotta go, "Awwwwww"....

and sometimes you gotta go, "Eeewwww!"

But you've just got to love their dedication, creativity,

and plain old hard work

to make these wonderful costumes.

This was Teen2's third time at Fanime and my second. Fanime is a sort of convention for gamers/anime fans/cosplayers; but if you have any young folks at home, perhaps they can explain it better. I just enjoy looking at all the great costumes and sometimes wish I could dress up too. Hmmmm, maybe I could be Betty White?

Mardi Gras in May?

Happy Mardi Gras everyone! What, you say it's not Mardi Gras? You'll have to tell our Gourmand Club, because last night we definitely thought it was.

We had crayfish, red beans and rice, collard greens, and King Cake for dessert. I've never had King Cake, heck, until last week, I'd never even heard of King Cake, but I made one anyway. It's not really a cake at all. It's sweet yeast bread that's slathered in cinnamon and braided. Kind of like stollen or cinnamon rolls, but iced and sprinkled with colored sugars.

And what a mess I made. I actually laughed out loud at this stage, but when I put it on the fancy platter it looked pretty good. And folks who'd had it before said it tasted good too, but what a lot of trouble just to hide a little plastic baby. Unless I go to another Mardi Gras party I don't think I'll be making this again. If I'm going to go to the trouble to make a sweet yeast bread, I think I'll just finish it off as cinnamon rolls.

But that's what I like about our Gourmand Club; it forces one to try new things, experiment with new recipes, and experience different cultures. Laissez les bon temps roulez!

Hot Cocoa

This rose is named Hot Cocoa. I love its various shades of dusty brownish red.

Sidewalk Art

Teen2 participated in a nice project over the weekend. It was a sidewalk art festival at a local shopping center. Her high school art department has been doing this for several years. This year's theme was Old Masters with a New Twist.
Teen2 chose The Great Wave Off Kanagawa by Hokusai, painted in 1832. In the original Mt. Fuji is placid and the men on the boat are bowing before the wave, but in her version Godzilla is riding the wave, Mt. Fuji is erupting, and the boatmen are firing weapons at Godzilla. And the sun is the giant red dot of Japan's flag.

This one is Degas' The Dance Class painted in 1874. The students and teacher are all fish! Very nice.

And everyone recognized Van Gogh's The Starry Night, but in this one Batman is on the scene.

This is an adaptation of Rembrandt's The Anatomy Lesson of Dr. Nicolaes Tulp painted in 1632. Their teacher did this one. I guess he just couldn't resist - he had to be here all day checking kids in and out and passing out chalk, so why not? The faces are his students and that's him on the table. Isn't that a riot? I don't know if he's trying to say they've sucked the life out of him, or just saying a teacher gives and gives of himself, but it's awfully funny.

There were also paintings set up like a gallery in an empty shop. This is Van Gogh's Oleanders painted in 1888 - well actually it was painted by Teen2 in 2009. Anyway, I really like how the instructor makes the kids study and paint the old masters. Maybe we've got a modern day Van Gogh living with us here Amongst The Oaks.

Speaking of the Census.....

Did you know the 1930 census is now available online to genealogists? Yep, it is and that's where I've been lately; searching the 1930 census (through ancestry.com) to find all those lost relatives in my family tree. And I'm doing fairly well. The trick is to search any and all first names and/or initials, use spouse's names to further refine the search, and just keep digging.


So I've decided to take a break from blogging for a while and concentrate on my genealogy. But I'll post a photo of one of my flowers now and then just to let you know I'm still around. Thanks for visiting us here Amongst The Oaks.

Old Family Photo 1947

Recently we celebrated my great aunt's 99th birthday. There were cards, flowers, cousins, cake and old family photos. This was one of the old photos. It shows a family reunion at my Granny and Grandpa's house around 1947. Six of my grandmother's siblings (out of 11) made it to the party with their spouses and children. So I easily recognize my mom and her siblings, and some of my cousins, but some of those great uncles and second cousins are a mystery. Thankfully, my dad and aunt recognize more of the people and we are gradually figuring everyone out. Thank goodness for these old relatives and their memories. And thank goodness for the ancestor who had the idea to record this occasion on film.

Happy Mother's Day

Happy Mother's Day to you

from all of us

here Amongst The Oaks