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Still looking for that fat lady, but it looks like this house might happen. It sure is a lot of work - all the negotiating and inspections, etc. Yesterday I was over therer while the electrician and sewer scope guy were there. I sketched out the floor plan. Doing that reminded me of my fireling who always sketches out her moves. I've always thought it was good that I didn't have a house to furnish and decorate, because it would occupy so much of my time. And.....yes....I already bought a chair for this yellow house. I will really have to restrict myself.

It is a tiny yellow house across the street from a church that I go to every once in a while. The church happens to be one that I went to one long ago Christmas eve when I was visiting kaliegirl. I remember the sermon was about Harry Potter....but can't remember what the context was! Anyway I am so excited about being that close to a church so I can go to daily mass again. Masses are few and far between out here in the wilderness. I will stay a parishioner of the Downtown Chapel at least for now.

The neighborhood is laid out like Wash DC with the quilt-like angles leading up to turn-abouts. There's a large rose garden in the middle and four smaller ones at north, east, west, and south. The south one is just a block from me. And there's an off-leash dog park that isn't too far to walk....Blue will have some new friends!

One reason I like this house is because it is still very simple and farm-house looking. The kitchen has old cupboards painted white and a couple built in shelves that don't show up in the picture. It looks bright, too, which is sometimes rare in a Portland house. The living room floor is beautiful wood and it has an old "fake" fireplace that the electrician says can be repaired. I'm hoping to find a set of electric logs like my friend sweetfairybee has in her home. There are 2 bedrooms...I think I'll fix up the guest room so it makes a cozy sitting space for reading when visitors aren't here. And there's a mud room at the back of the house that really looks old fashioned. The little garage will one day become a very sweet art studio and green house. It has walls and ceiling that are still unfinished and very pretty red (cedar?) wood. I could live in it!

I'm sure that fat lady's somewhere.......

Over Hill, Over Dale, As We Hit the Dusty Trail and The Caisons Go Rolling Along

(there's a ferocious domestic cat in this tree)

Yes it's true.....Miss Ingu and Blue are moving. I guess it's not a done deal until the Fat Lady sings and I haven't even met her yet. But Miss Ingu has signed her name to documents which imply she is buying her first home! It is a tiny but solid yellow house in a neighborhood with tree-lined streets, a church across the street, and a Portland grocery store just a skip away. There's a very nice grade school two blocks from it in case SIE would like to attend. And where the streets come together there are rose gardens that fill the round-abouts. I think it will be the quintessential grandma's house. And I intend to keep it very proper so that guests will feel welcome and enjoy their visits. We'll have tea and apple pie always on hand.

Blue and I went for a walk today to discuss this with Mr. Beachy. I was very worried that he'd take this with some hurt feelings. But he and his daughter were delighted to hear the news! His poor house under the blackberry hedge has been almost smushed from the heavy rains and the ice has made it quite uncomfortable. Straight away he made plans to accompany us on our move. I am sure he will find a wonderful spot. The yellow house has a very nice backyard and a garage that I plan on turning into an art studio/garden house. I am sure Mr. Beachy and Peachy will find a wonderful spot to build their new place. If only we can talk a few of the birds out here into joining us and maybe take a garter snake or two, it's possible we won't be too homesick.

Each walk we've taken for the last few days has been filled with soaking in God's awesome creation. I'm going to move a bed up against the front window to compensate Blue for the loss of her fields. She's never been able to look outside and watch the sounds and smells go past. Kaleidoscope girl thinks that as long as Blue and I are together that she'll be a happy dog. Maybe she'll finally learn to walk on a leash!

Well, I'm off now to find that fat lady.

Snow and Rain and Freezing Fog

Sorry I have been out of commission these past 10 days. It seems like every day is running together. The amazing thing is that no matter how quickly time passes, there are always extraordinary changes everytime we go out for a walk. The weather here has been harsh this winter. A lot of wet, heavy snow, plus cold wind, and now a new weather term: freezing fog. It's different from sleet. It's very fine crystals just wisping around like you're standing in a snow globe.

A lot of tree branches have broken off and fallen in heaps along our paths. Bruce, the farmer next door, tries to keep up with them so sometimes they are trimmed and cut for firewood not too long after falling. But up on this end the big fir trees have lost enough limbs to make a huge pile of evergreen bowers at their bases. And often the wet snow is weighing down the lower limbs so you have to duck under and go into a perfect little fort. The raspberry hedges have gotten so scrunched that I can see over them and Blue and I even made a new path over some flattened branches. Poor Blue's paws must be really tough to walk over all those little thorns ("jaggers" as SIE calls them). There are 2 woodland alcoves that are quite open now after loosing the blackberry walls.

The pine siskin have moved on. But one day a small flock of evening grosbeaks filled the big feeder. They're the first I ever saw and so pretty. They are about the size of robins and the females are gently colored gray and pale yellow(like the evening sky at sunset). The male have a more contrasting black, yellow, and white pattern. Pictures in my books do not so them justice. It was truly a delight to watch their little flock feeding - no nipping and fighting like the pine siskins and jays.

In Which Miss Ingu Gives a Tour of Her Office

I had to laugh the other morning when I woke up and thought about the sight of my office space. My little home here is really only one and a half rooms. Ever since before Christmas I've had all my projects stacked around on every available surface. There's a "day bed" in the kitchen, and two desks in the main room. At some point I took out a folding table left by my landlords and filled that up. And recently I pulled out my ironing board and put it at the right height to work while sitting on the couch. Handily, the ironing board and everything on top of it can slide under the folding table when I'm not working on things. And what am I working on? I am still trying to write out Xmas cards!!! Is it time to give up? Maybe so. I think Lent starts soon. I also have 4 mouse houses underway and a painting or two. That's just the stuff that's taking up space. Soon it will all be finished and the sufaces in my house will be bare.

Two Squirrel Day

I've had many Three Dog Nights, but a Two Squirrel Day is a record. One thing I've thought was strange about this farm is how few little critters you see. I've seen a couple dead moles, a couple dead tiny shrews, and one dead bat. Of the living small creatures I've only seen a couple squirrels and maybe five rabbits over the last year. Until today. We saw one squirrel run from the bird feeder when we started our walk today; then another deep down in the woods flying from tree to tree. It might have been a flying squirrel; that's how it jumped between the branches - with all four limbs out. They are nocturnal and I've never seen one. But the reason I saw this one was because the top of a tree snapped and I looked up to see this little guy jumping from it to other nearby tree top branches. Maybe the tip that snapped off held his nest?

Whenever I see these little things I think they are special gifts from the Lord to me. I'm very spoiled. I sometimes go out looking, like a little child whose expecting her father to bring her home a present. It's like a special game....what will the Lord show me today hiding in this field.

The window birdfeeder has been comandeered by a flock of pine siskin for the past three days. They are chickadee size birds that look like slim sparrows with a few yellow wing feathers. My first sight of them made me think they were female goldfinches. But they have pointier beaks. Anyway only 6 of them can fit on the feeder at once. They wait on the closest brush branches until one looses its balance on the feeder, then fight over who's next. They eat a lot. The resident chickadees and juncos hardly get a chance. H-m-m? Maybe the little siskins have been around all along and the seed my kids gave me for Christmas is something they really love?

The red bellied sapsucker I saw a while back....saw another one today deep in the woods working at the owl's tree stump. I really don't know if that's the right name for it. It seems like a red-headed woodpecker to me, but the books say this isn't their range. I just know that the head is pure red and the long beak is white. The wings are black speckled with white. I'm not sure what color its belly is though. Will have to pay attention next time I run into him.

Habla Un Poco Espanol

Saturday there was much to do. SIE was here overnight Friday to Saturday.

How does one little person have so much energy!!!??? He was going full speed from about 5 pm till almost midnight. We tried to go to bed at 8 pm and we turned off the lights and got into bed. He made sure we both had flashlights because it's pretty dark in the country. Mine had a smaller beam, so it became the moon and his was the sun who kept eating my moonlight. Then that hungry sun made him hungry (although he'd been eating almost non-stop since arriving). His parents had dropped him off with a lot of good food. They'd brought a roasted chicken which he loved, but only after asking if it was a real chicken or if that's just what we call it. Yes, I lied. "Oh, we just call it chicken." Sorry. I couldn't face the dead meat issue. Besides he loved it after that.

By then it was 9 pm and I made the mistake of saying we could play "animal hospital" in bed quietly for a while. His imagination is so fast and he loves role playing. Isn't four kind of young for that concept? For the next hour it was, "Now, you call me doctor, and say, My pet isn't feeling well." "Now you be the nurse that helps me. Say, Doctor, this pet needs an exray." At 10 I told him we had to go to sleep. But then we had to read 3 books, two of which we'd already read earlier. He still wasn't tired. I told him he could watch a video, but we'd have to turn off the lights. One amazing thing about him is that he is a master of staying awake until a video is over. This video gets stuck and needs help fast forwarding, so after he woke me up twice to fix it and I realized it was midnight, I told him we just had to close the dvd and wait to fix it in the morning.

All the time we were in bed, he was on one side with my pillow. I had to wait till he was sitting up and not paying attention, to switch pillows. As soon as the dvd went off, he climbed over me to switch to the side near the wall and stole my pillow in the process. At least he was holding still, so I knew he'd be asleep soon.

We didn't wake up until 9 am! The first thing he said was, "Turn off the lights; it's too bright!" Less than 5 minutes later, he was awake, alert, and back to role playing. He's so funny and fun.

It took me about two hours to get the house under control after he left. Later, I decided to watch the debates. I couldn't believe how long they went - like 4 hours? But I did mannage to stay awake for it. It kept saying it was broadcasting LIVE, but New Hampshire time is 3 hours ahead of us, so just how LIVE could it be? Plus they'd already played some of the comments on the evening news. I wish I'd counted how many times Hillary said, "I have 35 years experience with making change." How come no one asked her how old she was 35 yrs ago and point out that they too could make change being, in fact, older now than she was 35 years ago? And also point out that just because she says it over and over doesn't make it true. That's what G. Bush has been doing for eight years....

OK, all this to say: I didn't make it to Mass this AM. I ended up going to the 1pm Spanish Mass. There's a large migrant population here in Washington, as you could guess because of all the orchards and all the berry picking needed. So I decided to go to the Spanish Mass at the Woodland parish. The Spanish Mass is wonderful. It is such a spirit boost. I would recommend it to anyone who feels like church has become boring and/or hard to sit through. The music is most wonderful. The children are gorgeous and no one cares if they make noise. The priest, whose 1st language is English, speaks very slowly and clearly. I was able to pick up at least some of the sermon. I guess it helped that it was the Epiphany - El dia de los tres mago y Jesuchristo. But even with the responses written I had a rough time keeping up with the congregation. They seem to talk so mucho rapido. And we didn't have to sing "We Three Kings of Orient Are", which I bet was sung in every gringo church in the county today and I cannot sing without thinking about exploding cigars. I might go again next week. Amen. Adios.

Weird Weather

I was never able to talk my kids into becoming meteorologists. It's not that I didn't try. I should have become one myself. But they're all so cute and photogenic that they would have looked fabulous on TV. They would have been the sweethearts of any town they worked in.

The weather has been so rainy the last few weeks that I'm finally getting tired of it. Portland's weather has never bothered me before. But except for the days it snowed, it's been raining like crazy. Every time I get on the highway it's a deluge! And last night I heard that another storm system is due this weekend. The rains from the new storm have already hit California and they're moving this way.

So imagine how amazing it felt this morning waking up to a few hours of no rain and actual sunshine! No tapping on the tin roof. Silence. It was 47 degrees, too. Blue and I got hot on our walk! Still one or two spots where the snow hadn't melted, but mostly green grass and wet mud. It was so beautiful that I kept finding excuses to go outside.

On the super chilly, rainy days the air was filled with the smell of fires burning in the neighbors' homes. It's a nice smell. Today smelled like spring. Very nice, too! Well, the storm is still coming this way. It's getting colder inside now and the wind is blowing the trees so hard that I thought a semi pulled up the drive! The sky looks ominously grey.

SIE is coming here after school to spend the night. Everything's ready for him...but does he bring his sled and skis, or his rain jacket and boots?

Four Eagles in One Day

Well, it could be one pair of eagles seen twice. No one I talked to seems to know how many pair of eagles live around here. I drove over to Ridgefield Refuge via my daughter's friends' property. They are the ones with the eagle nest on their land. Just as I got to their drive, a pair of eagles bubbled up from the trees playing, then cruised in formation overhead until splitting up. One went North, one flew South and then returned to the trees landing with it's huge talons spread. (I love my new binoculars!) About 20 minutes later I was driving through the Refuge and saw two eagles perched on a tree near one of the lakes. A bit later I passed a young eagle on a branch close to the road. I could see the other tree, now with only one eagle. The young eagle looked ragged as it was trying to grow in its white head feathers and soaked from the pouring rain. The other mature one was so impressive with white head and tail feathers. There was so much standing water in the Refuge, only a few wood ducks were swiming. The swans and other waterfowl were hunkered down in groups in the water with head under wings. One day I watched a young eagle swooping over the swans just to get a rise out of them. Today I think they wouldn't even have cared. There were about 1000 (for real) cackling geese huddled together in a field - all standing withtheir heads looking in the same direction, no umbrellas. And there was one huge Nutria in the grass near the road munching away on the grass totally oblivious to the rain or me.

"The Time Has Come," the Walrus Said.......

Yesterday was my parent's wedding anniversary. They have been dead now for many years, but I still think of this as a special day to remember them. I'm not sure what a "war bride" is, but their wedding would sort of fit I think. They met during WWII when my dad was stationed in Bossier City, Louisiana, my mom's home town. He was transferred to Officer Candidate School in Florida. When he was almost finished there, my mom traveled by herself with all the documents she'd need for their wedding. (She was a Catholic convert so she had to have proof of receiving the sacrements) She wore a brown and tan suit and a "diamond" necklace that I still have. Not real diamonds, but sparkly and pretty. Right away my dad was sent to California, so my mom was one of only a few women on the train with the troops. Except for a couple years during the Korean War, my mom lived away from her first family whom she really missed.

When we were little, my mom used to read us poems. Maybe they didn't have as many picture books way back then. I don't think I read poems to my kids, but it is something I remember about my mom. This is one of them. It's been stuck in my head for several days:

"The time has come," the Walrus said,
"To talk of many things:
Of shoes - and ships - and sealing-wax -
Of cabages - and kings -
And why the sea is boiling hot -
And whether pigs have wings."

I was dusting my bookshelves today (something one should do more often than once a year) and opened an old poetry book to this Lewis Carroll poem. Imagine my horror finding out that the poem is about a man and a walrus that trick some young oysters into going for a walk - then eating them!!! No wonder shildren of the '60s grew up wanting change. But I did laughed at the pig's having wings. That is probably the first I ever heard of winged pigs, Cincinnati's mascot

One poem I remember my mom reciting was Rudyard Kipling's IfI think she'd quote from it when we wanted something or disliked something. But she really liked that poem. I've kept a little ditty based on that poem which I cut out of St. B's church bulletin a long time ago.

If you can start the day without caffeine or pep pills,
If you can be cheerful, ignoring aches and pains,
If you can resist complaining and boring people with your troubles,
If you can eat the same food every day and be grateful for it,
If you can understand when loved ones are too busy to give you time,
If you can overlook when people take things out on you when, through no fault of yours, something goes wrong,
If you take criticism and blame without resentment,
If you can face the world without lies and deceit,
If you can conquer tension without medical help,
If you can do all these things,
Then you are probably the family dog!

Two Thousand Eight

A new year filled with good health, world peace, and lots of laughter to ye!

Today has been a quiet beginning to a new year. I felt like sleeping instead of doing anything today. My alarm went off at 6; then at 7; finally got up around 8. Took the first cup of coffee out for a walk with Blue. It was 39 degrees, but SO windy it felt really, really cold. There's still snow on the ground. We haven't seen any deer since hunting season and I've been worried about them. But today we saw their tracks. I'm glad they're here. Also tracks from a really big racoon, I think. Cute little hands and feet with long toes went from the back birdfeeder half way down through the pasture. H-m-m. I'll have to check with Mr. Beachy. The tracks ended right about his house.

I made an attempt to write my Christmas cards out, but only finished one. I've been working on a couple paintings, but I'm not pleased with them. I thought I'd work on one of them a little more before pitching it, but I never got out the paints. I did start 3 more mouse houses! It's an obsession. I love thinking up the little tiny things a mouse might need in his house.

We did go somewhere new for new year's mass. Blue and I drove up to Kalama, Washington which is up the highway two towns. The parish I go to sometimes in Woodland has a church in Kalama, too. Same priest. Later mass. I'd been past there along the highway, but never into the town. It reminded me so much of Mount Adams in Cincinnati. The little church, St. Joseph's, is a miniature of Immaculata. It sits at the top of a hill, lots of steps winding up to the front door. The view from there was amazing. Just like Immaculata looks out over the Ohio, this little church looks out over the Columbia River at a point where you can see the river curving up into the mountains.

In my mind,Oregon looks like a rectangle and the Columbia River goes straight across the top of Oregon to the Pacific. But it really doesn't go straight across. At Portland, the river turns right (North) for maybe 50 miles, then turns left (West again) until it gets to the ocean. When I drive to the farm, I drive North to La Center, and really I'm driving parallel to the Columbia River, but that's easy to forget because at this point the highway is more inland. After La Center comes Woodland. There's still a port in Woodland and the Lewis River comes in there. After Woodland is Kalama. By the time you are past Woodland, the highway starts running along the Columbia River. The exit to Kalama is right on the Riverfront where large barges are coming in. It's all uphill from there. We drove around the town and it looks like every house has a view of the river and Oregon's hills, and some have incredible views of mountains rolling into more mountains and the river winding through. This section of the Columbia had really big boats going down river toward Portland which I don't get to see much because they dock before getting to the North East side of Portland where Sie lives. Kalama is such a sweet little old town. I could be an old lady there. Just sit in the window with my binoculars all day and night, and walk to church, too!