The second flight of stairs

My son Arthur and grandson Jack were here visiting last week. That time just flew by! But while they were here, Arthur helped me with two projects I've been meaning to do. One, he cut back a lot of the dead wood and "suckers" out of the trees and bushes in front of our house. I love the way it looks now! And I'm going to plant a succulent garden there - beautiful and drought-resistant. Arthur loves succulents and he inspired me. He has a greenhouse full of them at his home in Portland. We went for walks in my neighborhood while he was here and saw many yards full of beautiful succulents. It makes perfect sense in our perpetual drought situation.

     The other project he got me started on was the second half of our stairs going up to the second story. Wayne and I had taken the carpet off the lower half long ago, and had sanded and more-or-less finished the steps and landing nicely. But we left the carpet on the second half of the stairs "for later". Funny how longer "later" can be! Here was the first half.

     Arthur and I stripped that dirty old carpet and its underlayer off, and he got all the nails and boards and staples out too. Of course, like the first half, the treads and risers are covered in a yucky brown and fully leaded paint. Who knows why? And it's worn, so people must have walked on it for a long time "as is". Ghastly.
 
We don't like to sand leaded paint in the house, and I don't like wearing that big mask to avoid breathing in all that lead. So I am stripping the stairs of the lead paint before sanding. And I'm using a safer stripper so I don't have to wear a mask at all. The kind I'm using is called Citristrip, and it works very well. It has to stay on about 30 to 45 minutes, and then you scrape it and the paint off. I have to use a wire brush on the treads because the wood grain is grooved and there's paint in them thar' grooves. Still, it works and it doesn't eat your hands or poison you. Here's what I've done so far. More tomorrow.
     When the stripping is finished and the sanding is done, we plan to varnish and seal the steps. They don't really need to be stained as they're quite a nice color. Can't wait to have beautiful stairs!
     It sure was fun having Arthur and Jack here, and not just because they "helped". Now I miss them, of course!

Summer restaurants

Wayne and I decided we'd travel locally a bit this summer, since I wasn't committed to working the pool bar at the Claremont Club & Spa every weekend. By "locally" we meant northern California, possibly requiring one overnight but no further away than that. We made some wonderful road trips! Of course anyone who knows me knows I love food, and much of the wonderfulness of these trips for me revolved around discovering amazing restaurants. Here are a few we enjoyed, just in case you might be in one of their neighborhoods.

Santa Cruz, July 31: The Ideal Bar & Grill

Of course Santa Cruz has a number of good and great restaurants. But if you're going to the Boardwalk, and if you have in tow your teenage grandson who likes to eat certain things and definitely won't touch others, you have more limited choices. I have to say the restaurants in and around the SC Boardwalk are generally touristy and not very interesting, with one exception. We have always had good food at the Ideal Bar & Grill, right on Santa Cruz's Main Beach.
This time we ordered burgers and fries (Jack's choice, meat and bun only, no sauce, no condiments for him). In the end, he gave the final verdict. "Good food." That's high praise from Jack. And it was good - very fresh, flavorful, and fast friendly service.

Jenner, August 29: River's End Restaurant

Jenner is off the beaten path, to put it mildly. We got here on our way to Mendocino on the north California coast. It's where the Russian River meets Highway 1 and the Pacific Ocean, hence River's End. You either have to know about this restaurant or get lucky, like we did, on your way to somewhere else. This is a big fishing area, and oysters and salmon were fresh out of the water when we arrived. We both had salmon chowder, and big lunch salads. Mine had duck and it was just out of this world.  Wonderful food, elegant service. We'll find an excuse to drive out here again!

Mendocino, August 30: Trillium

I've been to Mendocino lots of times, but Wayne hasn't so it was fun to show it to him. It's quite a long drive, especially if you take Highway 1, which we did. Beautiful though, along the Pacific most of the way.

I'd even eaten at Trillium before, years ago, but then it was called Chocolate Moose (loved that name). I had a soup there, a fish chowder, that I copied and still make at home. It's one of my favorite soups.

The weather was gorgeous in August, although not hot. Mendocino is far enough north and right on the ocean so it gets a fair amount of chill and wind most of the year. This day was lovely enough that we had lunch on the patio overlooking the kitchen garden and looking out to Big River Bay between the sweet old buildings of Main Street. We both remarked on the air. It was so clean, so clear, that we felt like we could breathe better than we had in a long time...an unfortunate legacy of our normal lives in a big city and in a part of the country prone to wildfires, which even if they're far off fill the air with smoke.

Trillium's kitchen garden was of great interest. We sat on benches there waiting for the restaurant to open for lunch. There were a multitude of vegetables and herbs growing, with insects and birds buzzing around, and wonderful herby smells. Quite entrancing, not to mention whetting your appetite.

I had a curried vegetable pot pie, which was fresh and lovely. Wayne had a salad with fish. Both were delicious, fresh and simple. The atmosphere was magical, and when we were finished with lunch we got in the car for our return to reality.

Sonoma, September 18: La Salette

Needless to say, every other restaurant in Sonoma is famous and fabulous. We were here for some pre-birthday celebrating, however, and wanted to eat something different, something not 'California wine country cuisine'. Wayne saw this Portuguese/Brazilian spot online and we decided to go for it! We were so glad we did - what a discovery!

It had been a hot day in Sonoma, so we sat outside on the patio for dinner. The evening coolness felt great. The first exciting event was a little shot glass of tomato water, compliments of the chef. I wish I knew how to make it. It was the most intensely tomato-flavored water I could imagine - delicious and so refreshing. Then we both decided to order steak and fries, which we never do. We actually don't eat beef, unless someone serves it to us in their home. So this night was a special occasion.

The steaks arrived on a bed of fries with a fried egg on top. Wow, hadn't seen that before. The fries were swimming in au jus from the steak, so no real need for any other condiment. Yum! Tender, juicy, delicious, meaty, eggy, we ate every drop. We'll be back here again too!
An added bonus was a little nightclub next door and down a few steps, where a band was finishing their last set and we danced to a couple of tunes before heading back to the hotel.

Sonoma, September 19: El Molino Central

This unassuming little place is one of our favorites, and we try to eat there as many times as possible whenever we're in Sonoma. Best. Mexican. Food. Ever. And it's not your usual Mexican either. Wayne's tostadas this time came covered in fresh crab and avocado. My enchiladas were stuffed with red chard. It's a seasonal menu, and just the best. So humble that you have to walk through the kitchen to get to a table, which is a picnic table. Love, love, love this place! Highly recommended.

Looks like we ate our way around northern California, doesn't it? Couldn't have been more fun or more yummy.

Reflection on long-ago summers

I don't think I have a favorite summer.

             I never actually liked summer better than winter, or any other season. As a girl, I was stuck on the farm in summer. I missed my friends, and had no one to play with except my little brother and the older girls who lived at the next farm, a mile up the road. They were no fun.

            Summers were spent lying out in a clover field, whichever one my dad had decided to let lie fallow that year, reading book after book and daydreaming about the wonderful exciting life I would lead someday, in a city full of people. Summers were hot and sticky, and the girdle my mother insisted I wear was like heavy armor. As I grew older, my thirst for people led me to ride my bike the mile and a half into town nearly every day, and the municipal swimming pool became the center of my existence. No girdles were required under a swimming suit! Once I got my driver's license, I spent even less time on the farm. In summer I worked at the A & W carhopping, or sewed dresses for the next school year with my friends. With my eye toward the End of Summer.

            Autumn has always been my favorite time of year. My birthday is in autumn. School was back in session and there were football games and band rehearsals and a million things to do. The days got crisp and I could wear sweaters and corduroy skirts, my favorites. Leaves turned gorgeous red, yellow, and orange, crunching as you walked through them, and the smell of bonfires foretold Homecoming, when the heroes who had gone off to college returned, and Halloween. It was an exciting time after the doldrums of summer.

Amazing Upholstery Adventure - the Finale

I never did post the final final of the chair I upholstered, with the very able and crucial help of my friend Rolando, who knows what he's doing! Good thing someone did!

Here it is, happily living in our dining room. As I mentioned at the beginning, it really is Wayne's grandfather's chair, and it was sad and in pretty bad shape before we took it all apart, fixed it, and made it beautiful again.

We are very happy with it! Thank you, Rolando!

The Moon

I've belonged to a writing group since 2004, meeting once a month and submitting a piece for comments every other month. It's really fun and I've become great friends with the ten or so members of the group. Really great friends. In the course of writing - many of us write memoir - you get to learn so much about yourself and each other. Even if you write fiction, you learn a lot.

It's inspiration too. I'm sure I wouldn't still be writing if it weren't for the group. Someday maybe I'll publish all the stories I've written about my life. Maybe you'll read them.

Every month Larry, our leader, puts out an idea, called a Prompt, that we each write 10 minutes on. This is in addition to our regular submissions. We can approach it any way we want. It's just a little creative thing, something to have fun with.

The prompt in November of 2015 was: "Write about the moon, about something it means to you, good or bad." Here was my entry; maybe you're old enough to relate.

MOON 

My friend Brian Bobby and I sat upright on cushions in front of a 19-inch black and white TV.

            "It looks exactly like the space shorts we used to see before the main movie when I was a kid," I said.  "Captain Something, or Flash. That's what it was, Flash Gordon."

            "Yeah, grainy and wavy like that," Brian agreed. He scooped up a big handful of popcorn from the bowl next to his leg and took a slug from his can of Budweiser.

            It was July 1969, and on TV Neil Armstrong was descending the stairs from his spacecraft to the surface of the moon. Supposedly. A big puff of dust rose around his feet as one foot stepped off the ladder.

            "Wow," Brian said. "What if there's nothing there but dust and he sinks out of sight?"

            "The space ship's sitting on something, silly." Brian wasn't the sharpest tack in the box.

            "Oh yeah," around a mouthful of popcorn.

            Amidst a hail of static the astronaut intoned, "One small step for man . . ." The picture wavered, then faded in and out.

            "I don't know, Brian. What keeps this from being just a movie? How would we know?" I didn't believe a word of it. It was so like Flash Gordon, I was pretty sure it was faked.

            "Nah. They wouldn't do that."

            Right. I'm still not completely convinced it was real.

White knit shirt

I finished the white knit shirt. Here it is!

I made it with a scoop neck instead of a v-neck like the black one I made earlier. It'll be great for summer wear with capris and jeans.

Two things I more or less forgot about white knit shirts:

1. White is not particularly slimming.
2. It's going to get dirty every time I wear it. 

Sure enough, the first time I put it on I dropped an eyebrow pencil and got a little brown/black dot on it. Oh well, it's washable.

Sally Holmes

In a frenzy of gardening! Well, a lot of it is weeding. Give these plants a little rain and they all go crazy! One of the joys of spring is the roses...here's my Sally Holmes on the side of the house. Couldn't be more beautiful.

A bonus is my neighbor on this side says she looks forward to Sally Holmes every spring too - she sees it from her kitchen window, which is only a few feet away and a bit uphill. Sweet.

In an effort to get more done while at the same time feeling less overwhelmed (quite an order), I've been making "to do" lists the past few days, just like I used to do when I was working full time. The first day I had seven items on the list, most of them big, and that didn't happen. I finished four. So I moved the three undone "to dos" to the next day, added a couple small ones, and now I think I have a formula. On today's list was "weed the herb garden", which I just finished. We're so lucky in this climate to be able to grow herbs outside that come up year after year. Some of them flourish all year long. My herb garden is right outside the stairs that lead from the kitchen, so it's real handy. Here's what I grow and use in my garden:

• Sage (used for sage butter and with marinated chicken breasts. Also stuffing.)
• Oregano (for pizza, pasta, chicken, anything)
• Thyme (beans, stews, soups, fish, artichokes, everything)
• Parsley (everything)
• Rosemary (in bread, beans, with lamb, potatoes, chicken)
• Lemon verbena (tea)
• Epazote (used in beans to prevent gas - Mexican miracle herb)

I also grow basil, but that's either in the front of the house where the sun is strongest, or in the kitchen window. That basil needs lots of hot sun! And I have a big concrete planter of the most delicious peppermint in the lower level of the back yard. I use that for drinks, like mojitos. And for wonderful meatballs. Love my herbs.

Spring has sprung!

Here's my newest creative endeavor, a spring wreath for the front door. Tulips are my favorites!!





The fall wreath has finally been retired, but I've kept the parts because I still love it too. No doubt it will be back in October.

Yay Spring!!!

More sew news . . .

Finally, I've finished that blouse I was working on. I really do have a thing about buttonholes. Terror, is a good way to describe it. So I avoid them like the plague and never learn how to do them. Well, after a lot of agonizing I bit the bullet and tried my machine buttonholer on a piece of scrap fabric. Sure enough it didn't work. I pulled out the manual, and verified I was using the right foot, right settings, etc. Still didn't work. Finally I called the store where I bought the sewing machine ages ago. They were still in business, that was a good sign. And after I had explained my dilemma the first thing the nice man said was "you are pulling down the black guide, right? It won't work without the guide." The manual hadn't mentioned a guide and when I looked behind the needle apparatus, sure enough there was a black plastic thingy that pulled down. Then it worked just fine. Here is my finished blouse with six, count 'em, perfect buttonholes. Whew!

The blouse fits perfectly, with one exception. The neckline is a tad low for my taste. I will wear it with a camisole and I've already checked - it looks great. I did go back and alter the pattern to raise the neckline, and next time I make it I won't be over-exposed. Hmmm.

Here's the black knit shirt I made recently in a class I took called Sewing with Knits. I love wearing it, it fits like a dream.




So I'm going to make another one of the same fabric, a medium-heavy stretch knit, but this time in white. Like I said, I'm on a bit of a sewing binge!

Sew much news!

Here's what I'm working on now sew-wise! This is Butterick Pattern B6217, and it's a loosely fitted blouse I'm making out of this cotton fabric I've had for ages. Here's a closeup of the fabric - it's really pretty.


In the photo on the right, the blouse sleeves are just pinned on at this point. I'll get them sewn in today, and then I "only" have to do buttonholes (hate buttonholes) and buttons down the front, and the hem.

I have a new dress form that I got for Christmas, and it came with a whole box of padding pieces. Drat it all, I don't have the hourglass figure these dress forms have and, to be truthful, I never did. So I need to pad it up a bit to match my size.

Well that can get pretty sobering, let me tell you! Here's where you learn how much it means to you to look perfect. Not much in my case, apparently. So I padded and padded until the measurements of my doll matched me, and hoped the well-fitting clothes I would make would cover up a world of sins and shortcomings.

That said, I'm turning over a new fitting leaf and am committed to making a muslin sample of every pattern before I make it in the real fabric, just like you're supposed to. Here's my muslin for this blouse. I have to admit it didn't take long and it sure helped me figure out where to alter the pattern so it fits me. Yay!


 

True Confessions: I think this is the first time I've ever made a full muslin to test fit. Well, maybe I have in a sewing class over the years, because I've taken a few. But even then, I don't remember doing it.

I'm kind of on a sewing binge right now. I recently took a class on sewing with knits, and will post the knit t-shirt I made in class plus the knit pencil skirt I made later. These are so quick and easy, I got inspired! Of course I had to buy more knit fabric, so I have a piece of white knit to make another t-shirt and a piece of heathered blue knit to make a midi-skirt. Those are next, as soon as the red shirt is finished!

Little Nash Rambler

Saw this darling car on the street near Fruitvale in Oakland last week. It's a Nash Rambler, I'd guess from mid 50s, in beautiful condition. This car totally reminds me of my youth - in early teens, my girlfriend Cathi and I would sleep in her Grandpa Max's Nash Rambler while visiting Lake Cochran in South Dakota. The seats folded down to make a flat surface - a perfect bed for two giggly girls!

Later, for the same reason (the folding-down seats), my mom wouldn't allow me to go out with a boy in my school who was a little older and very cute because he drove a Nash Rambler. She thought the folding down seats might be too much temptation for bad behavior. Who, me???

Adorable!!!!

Spring renewal: The front steps

It's starting to be time for spring renewal around our house and one of the first projects that came to mind were the front steps. Wow, we were looking a little derelict, if I must say so. I guess it had been at least ten years since the steps were painted and it showed!


Here they are just after we started to work on them, so even though we had started to scrape the bottom step, they honestly didn't look much better than this. Poor babies!

We scraped and sanded and scraped and sanded. One of the steps is concrete, the other two are wood, and the sides are stucco. We also did some repair on the stucco. By the end of the first day we had finished the prep and had primed the whole thing white. That white really stood out - I can't say it looked 100% better than the derelict look, but we were making necessary progress. We quit for the day.

The next day we painted, and when we were nearly done we realized we had the wrong color. It was red, as the steps had been before and as the trim on our house is, but it was really really red. I'm saying it didn't match any of the other reds, sigh. The other can of red paint, which did say porch and floor on it, was too old to use. It had gotten all gummy. I went down to the local Ace Hardware and got another can of that, the Porch and Floor, in Tile Red.

Bingo! It was the right color and an extra coat of paint never hurt anything. Especially since we got it done and dried before the next rain! Here they are  - aren't they gorgeous?

Only problem is, now the porch obviously needs paint too. Well, that's the way with house projects. One leads to another.

P.S. Those are cauliflower plants alongside the steps, and they each have a baby cauliflower down in the middle of the leaves. Yum!

A shoe rack: Order out of chaos

Wayne put up a shoe rack by our back door the other day, and it's made our life a lot more orderly! Who could imagine such a small simple thing could make such a difference?

In the interest of less dirt on the floors, we try to take our shoes off when we come in. Of course, up until now, that has resulted in a pile of shoes by the back door. And wow, what a messy dirty pile it was, with all this rain and leaves and mud on the bottoms. We could hardly get the back door open sometimes for shoes. Not to mention, in order to sweep I had to pick up all the shoes first and put them somewhere else (in a pile).

Isn't this cool?? So neat. So clean. So out of the way!

It was easy to make, too. I saw this video a couple of months ago and kept it with the intention of making just such a rack. First, I love it that the construction person making the video is Sawdust Girl - you don't get so many how-to construction things done by women, and why not?? We know how to do things too, right?

Anyway, I bought the pegs she recommended and then let them sit while all the holiday madness swirled around us. If they hadn't been out on my desk, I might have forgotten about them. The other day, we finally got around to it.

What a great idea!!

Winter from the train (I'm never sick)

Wayne and I just returned from a trip to Portland OR to visit my son Arthur and his family for the holidays. We took the train rather than drive (yes, W hates to fly!) because the weather is dicey this time of year and driving can be treacherous. It's an 11-hour drive, and an 18-hour train ride each way from Oakland. We like the train - it's relaxing and this was a very hectic December. Time for some down time. Here's an example of the scenery going by our window during daylight hours. Pretty! Cold.

It was a pleasant trip up. We slept and there was only one person coughing in our car. Poor guy, had a cold.

The week we spent in Portland was great family fun - board games, a giant puzzle, good dinners, great conversation! Arthur and I baked loaves of artisan bread from a new cookbook he had: Flour, Water, Yeast, Salt. Yum! We bundled up and went for walks in the the cold, although there was no snow until our last day there. The day before we left, I started to cough a little.

Now it's a fact that I'm never sick. I pride myself on it! I do have a good immune system and am overall very healthy, so I don't pick up things very easily at all. Besides, I grew up that way. There was no reward, no special attention, for being sick in my family of origin. If you were strong you got more positive attention, so that became a habit. I was sure my cough would be gone in a few hours. I took a couple of chewable Vitamin Cs.

Back on the train for the 18-hour ride home, I'm hacking up a storm along with half the car we're in. In addition, my sinuses are starting to block up and I am suddenly into a full-blown cold. So much for getting any sleep, which we didn't. So much for never being sick, which I definitely was.

I've spent the last week recovering - extra sleep, lots of supplements and vitamins, plenty of water, cough, cough, cough. Finally, I feel better. I did go to work over the weekend - short shifts both Saturday and Sunday. Wiped me out. I'll give it another few days, and then I'm done with it.

Hope that works!