The Hollosphere

I have a blog! Imagine that. Below is the text of a newsy email that I shared with a few family members. Now I shall share it with the WORLD! Bwahahahaha…

(from an 8/26 email) In going through boxes of books yesterday (there seems to be an unending supply down in the garage–are the deers dropping off more when I’m not looking?), I came across Jeanne’s little Medicine Wheel Journal book. Of course, I immediately had to sit down and read it cover to cover, straight through. I was cracking up and enjoying how much like Twisp Murray Creek is. I took the book over to Ann, thinking she might enjoy reading it.

It’s wonderfully cool here this week, in the mid-80’s. Pretty much perfect, with a nice breeze coming up the valley. The air moving through the oaks in the distance sounds like water flowing. Perhaps a harbinger of the creek’s resurrection! Woo hoo! For now, it is still dry, dry, dry, but the cool is a wonderful relief. We did have another fire in San Andreas day before yesterday. It was not our fault. Actually, although we had quite a bit of smoke and some falling ash in our area, it was a relatively small fire–60 acres–and our intrepid fire fighters had it out that same afternoon. Phew. Ann saw the smoke initially, driving home from a visit to a friend, and then Conal and I went to town to find out more information about it. It was about three miles from us, I’d guess. We just happened to be downwind. All is well now. I LOVE the fire department. Must make a mental note to take them cookies or something.

Yesterday morning, I went out in the living room and discovered that the front door was wide open, including the screen door. There was a breakfast sausage wrapper lying just in front of the door on the porch. Hmm. Nothing else seemed amiss or out of place when I looked around out there. When I turned around to go into the kitchen, however, I could see that we had had a visitor. A sizeable visitor. A large bag of garbage that I had consolidated from various trash cans around the house and placed in the pantry awaiting disposition to the outside can was in the middle of the dining room floor. Well, what was left of it. It had been chewed and various of its contents strewn around the back hallway and dining room. S/he had shunned the goat cheese, but apparently enjoyed licking and chewing anything fish or meat flavored.

Yeeks. Possum? Racoon? Tiger? Abominable snowman?

Last night at Ann’s house, she did her usual offering of leftover dinner scraps to the local feral feline. As far as I know, although he is very well dressed in his black tie-themed coloring, he doesn’t have a name. He was lapping up the halibut juice and out-of-date soy milk when we retired to the living room for chatting. Then I started hearing sounds of the bowl being knocked around rather violently, and then what sounded like the recycling being sorted through. Suspiciously, I peeked through the kitchen door, and there was a ratty ol’ possum, peering at me with a rather grouchy expression. He didn’t look as fat as the city possums I’ve seen, so perhaps his/her cranky attitude is understandable.

I taunted him/her and s/he ambled away, eventually. I’m thinking I’ve got our perp. Oh well, we’ll be more careful to latch the front door tightly!

This evening, we are planning to go to a salsa party at a winery in Murphys, a little town about a half hour south and east of here. Anna, Conal’s eldest sister, is here visiting and will be taking Ann to her place in Paso Robles early next week. Ann volunteered to help care for Anna’s sister-in-law who is going through chemo. On her way home, Ann will get to visit Willy (2nd oldest bro) in Santa Cruz. She’ll be gone a week or so.

I made a fantastic quiche the other day, but we gobbled it up in a day and a half, so now I need to go find something to eat. We’re experimenting with protein shakes in the morning, which is fun. We toss in silken tofu, fresh spinach, soy milk, superfood (green vitaminy stuff), flax oil, vanilla, stevia, and sometimes chocolate. We top it with whole flax seeds freshly ground in the coffee grinder. We’ve had a variety of levels of success. The chocolate versions are my favorite. They actually taste better than you might think, and I’m often not in the mood for a hot breakfast when it’s hot out, so they really fit the bill then.

Dang, now I’m REALLY hungry!