Saturday Yard Day

Here are the some of the fruits (or veggies) of today's labor - beginning of vegetable garden and new native plants from the Botanical Garden. I have planted all the vegetables from seed (a few indoors first) except for the tomatoes. I bought some heirloom plants at the nursery today.

The Tudors

When I was in 6th grade, Masterpiece Theatre came out with a series on Henry VIII and Elizabeth I. I was enthralled. Now we are watching the Showtime series which is quite a bit more risque. We are finishing up the second disk tonight, and I'm wondering what they are going to do with the character of Thomas Tallis, the British composer.

Curriculum Writing

The Claremont Unified School District is working to help classroom teachers incorporate arts teaching into their curriculum. Before I went on sabbatical last year, I was on the Arts Task Force, and apparently things kept going while I was gone. Today I was invited to create some music lessons for grades 4-6. I got to collaborate with Maria who wrote her master's thesis on music in the classroom. We came up with one lesson plan for each of the grades which will be posted to the district site for teachers to access and use.

Orchestra Party

I'm just home from my last "concert celebration party," this one with the orchestra kids. We had more food than could even be consumed by this band of hungry elementary kids, but we managed to get this group shot - three teachers hiding in the back row....Next week it's back to rehearsing!

Blogspot Presentation

My friend, Rosemary, invited me to give a presentation on creating and maintaining a blog for her computer group. Tonight was the night, and from the looks of this picture, it appears as though I'm having a great time. It went well, and I expect that blogspot will see more new blogs in the near future!

And now you can see that Rosemary is officially one of my loyal followers.

Lengthening Days

The days are slowly getting longer. We now have more than 11 hours of sunlight each day. I came home from teaching today at 5:00 and had time to water our new succulents, weed a patch (battling photosynthesis), and listen to the bird sounds that are in this little video (taken at 5:35 p.m.).

Mardi Gras Sunday

I realize that Mardi Gras means Fat Tuesday, and today is Sunday, but we had a Mardi Gras church service this morning. As far as I know, we've never done that before, so this is what was fun and different. First of all, the children paraded in with decorated crowns, and a few of them throwing plastic coins. Then the choir processed, continuing singing When the Saints Go Marching In. We were accompanied by a drum set, electric bass and trumpet.

In lieu of a sermon, we had three scripture readings, each with a short story added, and then the congregation sang. We got to rouse up some oldies such as Everything Is Beautiful and I'd Like to Teach the World to Sing.

We were encouraged to wear the Mardi Gras colors: purple, gold and green, as well as any beads we might have.

Progress in the yard

Today's tasks included planting succulents in front of the cottage. We took cuttings from plants we already had as well as one plant purchased today at Target. The plan is to put decomposed granite over the black tarp and also add more rocks for a desert look. It's one area of the yard that gets full sun.

Hal also took some excess pea gravel and made a nice spot for our fire pit. He used excess sandstone and made a spot for the BBQ.

Changes over the years

I went through our old photos of this house and scanned them in for the last few days. Here is a picture of the front of the house when we were in escrow in 1994. It's amazing how much has changed over the years.

Dessert

Hal brought home a thank you gift one of his students gave him for writing letters of recommendation for grad schools. It is a pie (I think it's peach) from Some Crust Bakery. Totally yumminess!

Turns out it is apple.

Cottage Walkway

Here is the cottage walkway transformation since the beginning of January. Eric finished this part today, and I am quite pleased with the results.

Movie Unrecommendation

Don't bother watching this movie....

Newbery Winner

The Graveyard Book by Neil Gaiman

Once again, Gaiman has written a book which exists along the border of the world we know and another world just enough different from ours. The language is beautiful, the images haunting, the relationships between characters dear. Even though Gaiman is a best-selling author (he wrote Coraline which is now a movie in theaters) of children's and adult books, I see why this one won the prestigious Newbery Medal last month. You can read the review in the New York Times here.

I read this whole book today, a holiday from school, while the winter storm went wild outside.

Landscaping

The Botanical Gardens just opened up a Grow Native Nursery where we can purchase native plants five days a week. This afternoon we took a look at the selection. Now we need to plan before we purchase...

Gardening

For Valentine's Day today, the sun decided to come out between storms, so we took advantage of the day and worked in the yard. For 15 years Hal has wanted a "fruit cocktail" tree, and today he got one. The photo on the left is of the grafted tree with apricot, two kinds of peaches, and nectarine. The photo on the right is an Apache Thornless Blackberry that Eric gave us. He had ordered three and then decided that he needed only two.

Here are some vegetables that I plan to plant in the yard very soon!

A Novel

The Lace Reader by Brunonia Barry

Set in modern-day Salem, Mass, a family of women divine the future by reading patterns in lace. Told partly by third-person, partly by unreliable narrator, this book has several interesting ideas, but at first reading, I thought it not as tight a novel as I would like. Maybe it would have helped if I hadn't had to keep putting it down for other things, and reading it over a span of two weeks when I could have read it in 3-4 days.

Decomposed Granite

See the large mound of decomposed granite (dg). See the guys shovel the dg into wheelbarrows and move it to the yard. See the dg paths. See additional pictures in the Backyard Landscaping album (click at the left).

Concert Tonight

Tonight was the school district strings concert. We've been preparing our beginners and orchestra since October, and I am happy to say that not only were the kids very well behaved, they sounded pretty good, too.

Here are my beginners (all standing) and me conducting one piece with the orchestra.

Book Club

One good thing about having a book club is that you get a chance to reevaluate the book. Tonight we discussed Gilead. I thought that the writing was very poetic and beautiful, but I got more of an understanding of the book by hearing what other people had to say about it. I think that if I read the book a second time, I would definitely get more out of it, but since the pile of books by my bed keeps growing, I doubt that will ever happen.

Winter in So Cal

After summer-like conditions in January, it has decided to be winter in So Cal. We have just finished our third winter storm in a row, starting last Thursday (I think). Today we had thunder and occasional showers, and now the clouds are moving on, and this is our view of the mountains. We need the rain desperately, but we also need to dry out a bit between the showers.

Turbo Taxin'

It's the beginning of February which means time to think about taxes. Hal and I spent four hours making a first pass through our taxes and also filed Claire's taxes. Today was also our annual meeting at church where I officially joined the membership committee for a three-year term. After all that business, I'm glad I have a day off from teaching tomorrow!

Orffing Along

Today I went with my friend, Lee, to Orange County for an Orff workshop. I have seen these two guys present before, and I know how great they are, so I was excited to go. I was not disappointed. I learned lots of new stuff to teach. Here is a short snippet of one of the pieces.

Nature around the house

The squirrels were busy today.








And then it continued raining this afternoon.

Yard Progress

The prep work for the yard is nearly finished, and after the weekend rain, Eric will have the decomposed granite delivered to complete the pathways and seating areas, and then we'll have bark delivered for the other areas, then Hal and I will buy plants, hook up the drip irrigation and finish up. We are so pleased with how everything is turning out and can't wait for summer to entertain in the yard, or just enjoy the morning coffee.

Movie Time

This movie came out when we were in Evanston, and I have been wanting to watch it since reading about it in the Chicago Tribune. This film felt as though it might be a foreign film, but the characters live in a small town in Wisconsin. The main character is completely delusional and cuts himself away from society, and yet the townsfolk support his delusion. I found it quite funny in subtle ways and very charming.

Movin' Up to the Next Level

This is the day. I got my first pair of progressive lenses. I managed to walk home from the eye doctor without falling off a curb. My computer screen appears bigger to me, and I'm anxious to see how I do with reading. No more sliding my glasses down to the end of my nose!

Facebook

I dug out my second grade class photo because I am now friends on Facebook with six girls from my class! I put an x on each friend, except Karen who was not in my class that year (her twin, Lisa, is the second from the left in the front row with the cute braids). My lovely picture has a check on it. I am still looking for several more friends from my early days in Chicago.

I loved second grade and my teacher, Miss Bernstein.

Home and Photos

Hal and I made it home with no glitches today. It just takes longer going from the east coast to the west. I have uploaded pics to my Picasa Web Site - so check it out (link in the left column).