Dec 11 showers

In between rain showers I rode to the P.O. and got out to take pictures of Madrone trees. I'm obsessed with getting a good picture of a madrone--getting closer.

baby shore pine and tan oak

Then I decided to document December flowers.

honeysuckle

Rock rose

vinca

Lotus--gold flash. Loved by the hummingbirds

Rosemary

geranium--no flowers, but cool leaves

And...a black mushroom

 A neighbor's yard, home of an extended family of gophers. Ed trapped three and speared one last spring and I trapped three as they worked through the pea vines during the summer.

During the past couple of wet afternoons I have been repainting living room walls with a water-like pattern of streaks of blue, light grey, dark grey and then I washed it with a diluted sea foam green.

Today was almost oppressive with low dark clouds. I went to Brookings to attend a Progressives' brunch. I never seem to make the events so it was good to meet some like-minded people who had also listened to Bernie Sanders' rant / filibuster / Berniebuster yesterday. The group was interesting and thoughtful and I have an invitation to do the Christmas bird count in Del Norte County next weekend.

Dec 9 Southerlies

Sunday was Bennii's birthday. Her daughters, Kiki and Karmen had a gathering with lots of Dungeness crab. How nice to love crab and have a birthday coordinate with the opening of the Oregon season!

Winter rains began again with the arrival of the southerlies on Tuesday, windy and squally yet warm. I managed to get a couple of good bike rides in on Sunday, up Eucre creek and Monday, to Nesika Beach. I took pictures of holly trees and Cryptemeria in its red winter foliage.

Since then, I have been concentrating on finishing my final project for advanced creative writing through University of Alaska, Sitka. It's an article about the Italian bike trip that I would like to submit to AARP. Although the south wind has kept the temperature in the fifties, the wind and the dark clouds have discouraged me from beach walks. I get outside to re-secure the cloche covers every day until more clips arrive, tend to the chickens, and collect about three eggs/day. However,I was able to dig up a couple of pounds of beets.

Dec 3 sunny

Too bad that the sun waited until the visiting Alaskans left before it won the tug-of-war with the rain clouds.
We have had three days of sunshine since they left on Wednesday morning.

It was nice to get a couple of big-tide walks on the beach and to finish the cloche-covers. Especially since the last wind storm had blown by seine-web fence down to where the chickens escaped. They proceeded to decimate the young greens. Now, three of the four beds are covered, one with bird-mesh, two with plastic.

Hmm, how do we get into the beds with the tender lettuce?

gathering around the last of the kale

I was planning on seeding them somewhere around solstice but decided that, if lettuce can be grown 200 miles south of here in California, it is worth trying here. So, on December second, I planted mixed greens, butter-crunch, and butter-head lettuce. I saved enough seeds to replant in late January.
People here say that it is not worth it to plant so early--the cool weather and the short days contribute to sluggish growth. Its really hard for me to adjust from an attitude of-- working the soil as soon as it thaws.

The chickens have been picking through the been, parsley, and raspberry rows for the past month. Yesterday, I opened the barrier between the raised beds, lawn, and the rest of the garden, giving the chickens access to the whole yard. They were happy to attack chickweed and to strip the last of the chard and kale. They love anything that elevates their viewpoint so the one bed available to them was the most popular spot. After eating the chard and kale, they scratched through the dirt and around the onions looking for bugs and seeds.

Buffy--so-named for for cross beak. The grandkids said it was "Backwards, upside down, forwards, hence, buf.

I'm only getting three or four eggs-a-day. Barely enough for me, visitors, and neighbors. I hung the "No eggs" sign on top of the "eggs for sale" sign. Laurie and Jeff liked that the directions to the place were, turn at the "no eggs" sign. Laurie suggested I put out "no bread" and "no milk" signs.
Today Bennii (neighbor who grew up here but now splits time between Ophir and her husband's racetrack near Bakersfield) came over and beat me in two games of scrabble(423/306 and 405/371).
Afterwards, we went to the Gold Beach Christmas bazaar. I was underwhelmed--it was almost nothing but candy, cookies and pot holders. I guess most of the artists here already display there works in the gift shops.

I bought some fudge for Bennii for tomorrow's birthday and she bought a couple of hand-knitted washcloths. Outside, the high school was conducting a fundraiser. They were selling potted live evergreens with battery operated lights on them. I donated $10 and made out an adoption form for a five foot hemlock.
We went on to the second-hand stores, Christian help and Friends of Curry County Animal Shelter. She bought a serving plate and two cinnamon buns, me--cookie cans and coat hangers.We returned to have a scrabble rematch and warm the buns. This time I won(406/350).
The tide was out, the sun shining, fifty eight degrees, and low tide so we both went to the beach. The swells were as small, about four feet, as they ever get on this relentless exposed part of the Pacific. A family had parked at the rest stop and a couple of boys in shorts were playing in the surf.
Benii and I walked a couple of miles without finding any agates.

Nov 30 rain and wind storm

My normally quiet life received adrenaline from a visit from friends. We have hiked the beach, the nearby hills, and  foraged twice for chanterelles. Its amazing that the wild mushrooms have been continuous for two and one half months.
Yesterday we went to Pistol River to get some alder firewood. It was wet and half-rotten but we took a small load anyway. I like the incense quality of alder.

We stopped at the beach where the river meets the sea. In June, a hundred wind surfers had been practicing there and my daughter and I had watched  blond and tan  surfers with colorful sails do acrobatics in the waves. Yesterday the beach was deserted. Jeff, Laurie, and I walked the beach and through grassy dunes, Jeff collected dry sticks and made a fire. We sat on driftwood logs in the lee of a giant boulder and talked about our girls. We all have 21 year old daughters and Laurie and Jeff have 20 year-olds.

At sunset we headed for Helen's (another ex-Alaskan, now Rogue River guide), for a dinner of meat loaf, and pasta with chanterelles.

This morning, I awoke at six AM to find the wood stove crackling, coffee made, the dishwasher unloaded, and the scrabble game set out. What house guests!

November 27 showers

I'm excitedly awaiting the arrival of a friend from Juneau. I haven't seen Laurie since her wedding in Kodiak last December but we go way back. She helped with my kids when I went fishing in 1979. Then she became of valued crew on my boat. We both had baby girls in 1989 and lived together in the late nineties, both negotiating divorces. I recall 20 years ago at the home birth of Laurie's second daughter, Katie, I made matza ball soup with the Thanksgiving turkey leftovers so I am doing the same today after absconding with the turkey carcase from Steve and Terri's.
While the carcase simmers, I bike to the P.O. Dressing for the rain in gore-tex pants, raincoat, and waterproof gloves, I don't let the 41 degree temperature discourage me and am rewarded as I peddle home and sunbeams light up a distant Cape Blanco and snow patches sparkle from the hilltop meadows on Humbug and the coast range.
Cape Blanco is the western most point in the continental U.S.

Andrew Barron's snow in the cryptemeria

After a snow day, which melted as the flakes hit the ground, Thanksgiving was sunny and pleasant. I used the hydraulic splitter on a cord of fir to justify eating a huge meal.
I can live without a man and a boat. I can't  live without hydraulics.

Thanks Andrew! He took much better photos than me on Thanksgiving.

Terri sat 27 of us for Thanksgiving. We stuffed ourselves then played Taboo and Gestures.

Yesterday I put the last coat of finish on my drawers and replaced the handles. They look great! I feel like the house is finally finished.

Nov 22 Misty like a spring day in Ketchican

I'm liking the security of wearing layers with gore-tex shells. I ride to the post office in a barely perceptible mist, stopping to take pictures of Cypress tress.  The Monterey Cypress thrive here in Curry County. There's one by the California border that is advertised as the biggest in the world. Who knows? I've got one on my property--its girth ( 27 foot circumference) would compete with the "largest in the world" however Coos/Curry electric keeps cutting the top out of it to accommodate power lines. Especially since Andrew and his friend, twenty-five years ago, about age twelve, both were shocked while climbing it.
In Coulioure, France, there was a bi-lingual guide to Mediterranean plants. It said that the conical cypress, common as U.S. suburban border elements, were European. The ones with a lateral profile were the imported Monterey variety. Interesting how both forms of cypress are common throughout the U.S. and Europe.

Sounds, smells, and visibility are all muffled in the mist. The ocean rumbles like a far-away train.

Nov 21 clear

Not a cloud in the sky this morning. Droplets of water adorn all greenery. They sparkle in the sunshine. The holly tree is starting its mid-winter showing of red berries. I put on gore-tex pants and  and a rain coat so I won't get wet if I am tempted to forge into the brush, take a wine bag which separates and supports mushrooms, a knife to cut them at the ground  level, and a camera. I let the chickens into the garden and give them some  beet greens and bread. They ignore the basket of beet greens until finishing the bread.

 My favorite chanterelle patch  100 feet from the house has a dozen or so mushrooms in it-enough for dinner. Sunbeams penetrate the  pines and huckleberry; steam rises off the the sal-al ground cover.
 The intense red bark of madrone and manzanilla contrasts with the sparkling green leaves.

I keep failing to capture the elegance of madrone, its claret-colored bark, scaled in places and slick as bare wood in others, a crimson side trunk is mottled with olive green in true cammo fashion.I will keep trying, one of these days I will get a decent picture. But the reason they are so dramatic is how the madrone tree stands out against the green and black of the forest backdrop.
Coming back to the house, I decide to continue with the raised bed project. a front moves in with a cloud cover in  varying shades of grey so,  spending an hour until the rain and wind discourage, I cut and mount more hoops on the raised beds.
I was hoping for a bike-ride today but the rain continues and I make popcorn and read a John Stralely mystery.