100th

It is my honour to say "Happy 100th Birthday", to my Great Aunty Lilly ( Lillian).

She has aged gracefully with sharp humour and wit to boot, managed to outlive most ( if not all) of her siblings including my Poppa and she has had the wrinkliest peach skin since the day I remember her!

I'm very happy that Jamie met her ( his great-great Aunt) on our last visit to the UK and I've been saying 'goodbye' to her for a number of years on my less frequent visits. She is in our thoughts and prayers always and remains one of my favourite relatives!!

We love you Aunty Lilly!

February field trip

So the boys and I ditched school last friday in search of some Los Angeles culture and art history. Look what we found!

The driven artist Simon Rodia created these famous towers in the middle of what's known to be quite a troubled area of town ( sirens were screaming most of the time we were there), now a historic and protected site, many schools and tourist find there way into this residential neighbourhood to enjoy the sights and learn about this tiny italian immigrant who spent 33 years building a work of art. The rain stopped just long enough for us to hear the stories from our guide outside and snap these pics.

The highest tower reaches 99.5 feet and sits only 4 inches into the foundation!

The boys fascinated and asking lots of questions!

Phew...

and so the holidays are at an end. We miss those who could not be here for Christmas with us and send thoughts of love and sunshine to our friends up north from here. We are happy to have had lovely visits from Grumpy ( yes, of broiled tonkey fame), The Admiral, Dr John and the Mac Annie. The tree is down, the goodies are nearly eaten and the children are back in bed at 7.30pm!

the puzzle - still being worked on...

some of the excitement Christmas morning...

ahh, the presents from loved ones...thank you!

very important list maker elf...

Here's to a lovely start of 2009 - Happy New year!

Land Art

What a great way to end our winter break, we headed out on an inspired Andy Goldsworthy hike, now as tired as we are, I just had to share our objects d'art with ya'll!

rock arch

redistributed leaves

ladder

twig eye

full tree ladder

balance!

Cookies and buddies

We've been busy making stuff for pressies and have many more still to finish or even start!!

Cookies, shower scrubs, soap, bath fizzies, rolled pretzels are planned and some are being eaten even as I write...arghhhh!!!

lemon drop cookies

Buddy numero uno

school feast 2008 including hotdogs and noodles!

Thanksgiving desserts at school feast - spot the handwritten sheets describing the dishes...

gentle art of soap making

kinder buddy and nemesis

Donovan Boy and funny buddy at Riley's Farm...

Bad Mama

Terrible terrible, bad mama award goes to yours truly. The last few weeks were spent making stuff for pressies or organising things for the annual Winter Faire at school and ignoring the boys requests to play another board game.

making stuff #1

I'm happy to report that the show was a great success with both the Mama- Made crafters booth and the Dragonfly Artisans being pretty swamped all day. New tires are paid for, yippee! Um, yes it's doesn't take much to please me... Donovan Boy wrote a beautifully scripted letter to Santa Claus this year asking for what I can only assume hasn't been invented yet.

He also completed his first test for a 1st dan white belt this month, after only being in the program since September. Hopefully Little Gandalf will join the "hoo-ha" ranks in the new year.

The young wizard has been busy creating characters and making his new magical hat to fight foes from far and wide....super hero complex..nahhh!

Little Gandalf sewing his wizard hat...

and brandishing a new weapon..

The Admiral's arrival with Fair Mac Annie and Dr John will inspire some great cooking and some amusing pics over the holidays methinks...I may even attempt a little yorkshire pudding on Christmas Eve. Whatdya mean latkes don't go with honeybaked ham?

Happy Chanukah, Merry Christmas and a Prosperous New Year to all.

Hanukah Harry

October news flash..

It's October and more than half done...?? Just as Summer ends and school begins, there are so many celebrations keeping us far too busy. The Festival of Courage, where the brave knight comes to visit all the kindergarteners and presents them with a sword and hand dyed silk cape. Rosh Hashannah was spent with 'the other jewish lady' and we remembered to cast off our troubles and look to sweeter new year, a fast at Yom Kippur failed but we lit a memorial candle for Mum. Sukkot was presented into the grades building a shelter project at school and coming up this friday is the Cubs annual Halloween party..we don't even have pumpkins yet!!

I've already started presents for Christmas (handmade of course) and the children have some ideas too for what they would like to make this year. I think Little Gandalf wants to learn how to cook on his own...mmmm... We've been learning cursive writing skills and I get to teach that in Donovan Boy's 3rd grade which is lovely and most rewarding. The boys have agreed to design their own version of trading cards with various made up monsters/creatures and such. Maybe a set will be coming to you this season for a game!

We miss the Admiral very much and wanted to say HELLO!! Also the lovely cousins spread far and wide, we would love for you to come and visit us for Christmas too.


Here is a picture of a recently finished (rushed) wool painting sent to the Rotary annual 'do'. Not sure if anyone even bid on it, so we may see it hanging somewhere around here soon...tee hee.


A lovely lady from the Taos Wool festival I attended ( business trip..) in early October does these lovely characters, she has invited me to present my work and teach a workshop there next year. that should be fun!

We are also looking at houses in many areas including Topanga and more locally too - time for change possibly and parking without tickets!
The hairy one started a new job so more on that to come..it's early days yet, but we are thankful to be back on the 'getting paid to work' plan. Vote often and early!

Week in View

What a busy week we've had, the LA County Fair is in town and Donovan Boys' class took a field trip there to see the prize winning animals, sheep shearing and some old-timey crafts. The wool they saw sheared there, will be washed, carded, dyed and spun into yarn by the 3rd graders too as part of the fiber arts section of this years' curriculum!

"Can we get one Mum?"

I managed to get some bread baking in this week on top of sowing some carrot seed and watching the broccalli plants get very confused next to the still flowering and fruiting tomatoes while the weather flip flops between 70-80 degrees!

Here's the recipe for this lovely high rise oat bread - the kids loved taking the mini loaves to school for lunch...
3 cups unbleached flour
1 cup rolled oats
2 tablespoons butter/margarine
1 1/2 teaspoons salt
3 tablespoons brown sugar or honey
2 teaspoons yeast ( dissolve in warm milk first)
1 14 cups warm milk
3/4 cup rasins or currants ( optional)

In a large mixing bowl combine all the ingredients, mixing into a shaggy dough. Knead dough by hand ( 10 mins) or by mixer ( 5 mins) until it's smooth. Place dough in a lightly greased bowl, cover and allow to proof/rest for about 1 hour; it'll become quite puffy, though it may not double in bulk. Shape as you wish into a loaf pan and allow to rise further until it's crested 1-2 inches over the rim. Bake in pre-heated oven at 350 for 35-30 minutes. I spinkled some extra oats on top for fun. If it browns too quickly tent it with some foil for the last 10 minutes of baking.
Makes one delicious loaf or 8 mini loaves!

The Hairy One's birthday (25th) is on the horizon so we'll watch the post carefully for some freshly baked awesome cookies from The Mac Annie..yum!

Bye for now....Happy Autumn!

Last of the Summer Wine

As this Summer closes, the weather has turned even here in sunny California...some warm evenings still prevail, but the local trees are turning all the glorious colours of the coming season and the winds of change are upon us! As Cricket always reminds us - Summer is not over until my birthday!

Drippy castle

sculpture by Little Gandalf

Cricket checking the tidemessing around on the trampoline

woolly Indian summer picture sneaking in........

Harvest Moon is early this year (15th) and we will hopefully have a clear sky to view it, this season we'll look forward to trips to the Griffith Observatory with the children and roast beast!

Hi de Hi Campers!

Still recovering from what turned into a lovely yet exhausting few days up the coast, the smaller boys and I were getting dirty in the woods while Cricket scuttled downtown to pick up new tips in grantwriting etiquette.

early morning day one -
ours is the enormous, impossible -for-one-person-to-put-up green monster with already snagged zipper, ho hum...

Ist breakfast....

ah...second breakfast!

Sharing the ice-cream maker, 20 mins of ball play was worth the wait for freshly made scoops!

dog?
The kids went mad about finding this relic and made up all sorts of stories about how it came to be hidden in the trees....lots of hand washing later...