a good end to 2012

A trip up Devil's Gulch is our traditional way to spend New Year's Eve. It was cold, but we spotted a baker's dozen spawning salmon in the creek.

That is frost under the tree, and water was frozen in small puddles on the road back to the car. But we have ways of dealing with the cold.

Mike is wearing two t-shirts, two layers of fleece, down vest, cashmere moebius, and his lucky brown trout tam. Not visible are his gum boots. A must in footwear for this trip. The trail along the creek and the road back is muddy and overflowing with winter run off from the recent rains. But Nicasio reservoir was spilling over the dam, so a good year of water for Marin county. And we were treated to spotting of a pileated woodpecker, not an everyday sight.

Thank you National Geographic for this photo. This was only the second one we have ever seen, the first being in Plumas county, many years ago.
After our walk back to the car we drove up to Millerton Point, pulling our chairs and milk crate out of the car, a Rettie portable picnic table. Here we enjoyed our Fairfax Perry's deli sandwichs on the edge of Tomales Bay.
Home for simple meal with friends, and we will be in bed by 10:30 pm. I'm sure the new year can welcome itself in with out us.

the plastic tomato

 

Well I just couldn't leave the plastic tomato in the basement. The jumbled display above has gotten more and more crowded as I have found somethings in the wicker chest I just wanted to bring upstairs. Some may think this is a rather pathetic tree. I used to be a major fan of real trees, but vacuuming up those pine needles well after the season ended, just became too much. But since the world did not come to an end on Friday I thought I would get into the spirit a little more.

The plastic tomato has history in my family. It is an "heirloom" ornament from my parents. It's past dates back to WWII when the pretty glass ornaments were not available. As a child, I always thought this was the oddest thing. The combination of being a tomato, and being plastic, just struck me as unusual. Well the plastic part has lead to it's longevity, and when my brother and sister and I divided up my mother's collection of ornaments, they thought I should have the tomato. So here it is.

don't worry

 

So I guess I'll have to finish all those holiday errands after all.

I have this theory that woman are somehow programmed with the Christmas gene. And no matter how we fight it, it comes out at this time of the year. It is attached to the same gene that makes us childless women throw babies on our hips when we pick them up. We can suppress the gene, and simplify, but at least one string of Christmas lights will go up, and the old family candle of the choir boy gets put on the mantle. I have to confess, the plastic tomato, a family heirloom ornament, is still in the basement, and will probably remain there until 2013 when it will get another chance at making an appearance. The stockings are not hung by the chimney with care, and I think the Christmas Spode will remain in the basement with the tomato. But I have survived four parties, got a great cutting board out of our Yankee trader building exchange, and haven't offended anyone. So I might make it to 2013.

report from seaplane lagoon

 

Seaplane Lagoon has been the hub of much activity lately. One of the latest craft spotted has been the saildrone. It was first seen driving by the shop on a very high trailer, it's keel being almost as long as it's wing. Along with this sighting it seems like Artemis may be having races in very small single handed cats which whiz across the lagoon around course markers. I have yet to capture them digitally. And, we spotted a very small remote controlled model sailboat cruising around one afternoon. The boys and I do really get some work done, but the lagoon is ever so distracting. Not to mention the high tides of the week. When walking to work I look for this:

This is the crane that lifts the AC72 Artemis hull, and then wing into the water. They have been been out this week. Brrrr. But check out this video Artemis on the bay to see how impressive the boat is in the water.

yes, it's december

Monday on the return drive from lunch, with fingers crossed, I drove myself and my workmates past the doggie flag house. Yes, it's up, Santa Doggie! We can relax now until January 1 when, will it be New Year's Doggie?
I made note that full holiday decorations are appearing on my walk to work. I am a little concerned with this one:

It does appear that Santa has had a fatal accident on the front lawn. I told the kids they'd better be good or this might happen.
But Santa Doggie's family is into the full holiday spirit.

triple header field trip

So we tested our karma with the the weather gods and traveled across the sea, or at least the bay, to San Francisco by ferry today to visit three photo exhibits.
The first stop was Pier 24 almost directly under the bay bridge.

About Face is the title of the exhibit and it is worth a visit. No more comments given. Then we headed up to our lunch spot, Hope and Anchor, a bit on the pricey side but a good Crab Louie. Next stop, the California Historical Society. This has become one of my favorite museums. All I can say is there is a "homey" feeling to it. We actually became members since we seem to visit on a regular basis. The third photo exhibit of the day was the Contemporary Jewish Museum for the Radical Camera exhibit. Also worth a visit. Then we both glazed over, our feet hurt and we stumbled back to the Ferry Building for a cup of coffee and waited for the ferry to return home. We both expected to get soaking wet at some point, but the storm gods were kind.
While writing this, Mike gave me the news that "the feds oust oyster farmers" which saddens me. Somehow back in 1977 I knew the National Park Service was not a good fit for me. My impression then, and now, was they are good at building exhibits, but not good at actually getting people to appreciate the land. We made a visit to Drakes Bay Oysters a couple of weeks ago, hoping that it would not be our last.

pot pies

Many years ago I bought this book:
Pot Pies: Forty Savory Suppers by Beatrice A. Ojakangas (Jan 4, 1993)
Making pies makes me happy, and also makes Mike happy. Savory or sweet, he likes crust. I am a Crisco user. I have occasionally made the butter crust, but I know what to expect from Crisco. We turned one of the recipes in this book from a chicken pot pie into a turkey pot pie. And this year it. was our Thanksgiving main course. Our household, with the help from friends, produced a stripped down Thanksgiving feast. But still a feast. Quick, fun, and easy. Not lacking in calorie content however. The weekend continued along with more friends and more meals, and thankfully, it is over. Fun, but over. One holiday down.

walking to work

This might be better appreciated from a different angle and with less daylight to get the full effect. But, none the less, I thought it should be noted. Walking to work always proves to be interesting. You never know what or who you will encounter. This morning I exchanged pleasant words with a young man dressed in the hoodie of fashion today walking his dog. He admitted to me that it was a rough morning, you know, Monday night football last night. I assured him he would feel better later. And I am starting to make note of the lost glove count on my route. Today, a pair of rather tired ski gloves, a single work glove, and two separate disposable gloves in a shade of blue, and a shade of green. Work gloves are common sights, I think that may be accounted for as they are objects that can be easily left on the roof of vehicles.

a circular nature

I like things that end where they start:

The labyrinth is a perfect example.
My mountain moebius come close to that description:

There must be something in my makeup that likes knitting in circles, some explanation for the endless tams.
The Gris may not be circular, but he seems to have a good spiral.

november

No sun - no moon! 

No morn - no noon -
No dawn - no dusk - no proper time of day.
No warmth, no cheerfulness, no healthful ease,
No comfortable feel in any member -
No shade, no shine, no butterflies, no bees,
No fruits, no flowers, no leaves, no birds! -
November!
Thomas Hood (born May 23, 1799 died May 3,1845)

This pretty much sums up my feelings about the month of November. September and October I mourn the passing of the days. November I am thankful the days progress quickly. Now I know it was a beautiful morning and evening today and Artemis finally had the big AC72 in the water, hull and wing combined, but I miss the long days of summer, the camping trips, the evening bicycle rides. Baseball season ends, fishing season ends, the garden declines and the "holidays" loom on the horizon.

 

louie update

Louie seems to come by every few days to have a snack and play stick. Tonight he seems to have the scent of someone's perfume on him. He is again collarless, undoubtedly, a result of a run in with the dreaded Mittens. Mittens, the evil cat, that lives down the street, and terrorizes all the cats in the neighborhood. We have attempted to Mitten-proof our abode this weekend, installing a cat door that recognizes micro-chips. It is all programmed to release when Gris-gris attempts to comes in. The only problem is Gris-gris is not programmed to push open the flap. This could be a slow process. But we have come home one too many times to no cat food in the dishes and the cat food can on floor with the label ripped off in an attempt to get the lid off. Not only that, Mittens seems to like to dance on the stove top turning on the oven. Louie, like Gris-gris seems to understand the concept that cats are not allowed on the kitchen counters or on the stove controls. We somehow survived raccoons and possums coming in the house, but the random oven on incidents pushed us into the extreme in cat technology. I will give reports on Gris-gris's flap pushing.

the monthly dog

 

Douglas made a point of driving back from lunch on a route that would take us by the doggie flag house. Yes, sure enough, pilgrim doggie has appeared right on schedule.

nesting/traveling/seasonal changes

Perhaps I should start with seasonal changes. As the days shorten, the weather cools, the Giants win the World Series, I have this instinctive turning inward. There is an urge to make ravioli, talk to the cat, and stay close to home. But October is one of the nicest months of the year to travel. I have a theory that people who are true nesters, myself being one, like to travel to the same places. We, or I, want to know what we are getting into, and we return to places that make us comfortable. The aspens turning yellow and cottonwoods gold are the familiar colors of autumn. I feel an urge to drink up the brightness, to save it for the winter months.

We missed the peak color in Taos this year, but that is all right. It is good to know the seasons vary from year to year. That is knowledge gained from visiting the familiar nests. These nests may be by a river or inside a comfortable guest house. But indoors or out they seem a bit like home.

And now to wait for 2013 Spring training to start.

my fellow yogi

Yes those are toilet paper rolls stuffed into Kim's headdress. Kim is a seemingly normal member of society, a doctor who specializes in rehab at the VA hospital in Presocott, AZ. She was inspired by a photo from a magazine at collage night last night. Collage night was a rather raucous affair. Who would have thought that a group a yogis with glue sticks and scissors could raise such a ruckus. I have to admit I was sitting aside with Mike, and Larry, and Tim, knitting and viewing the Giants/Tigers game on I-phones. The previous evening I sat in the bathtub with a glass of wine in my hand, listening to Mike give me the game commentary off of MLB on our laptop. About the only TV I ever watch is baseball and wouldn't you know it I have been in place bereft of TVs.

This has been one of the most fun groups of people I have ever hung out with. All 18 of us have completely meshed with each other. There have been discussions at meals on concrete and other building materials, dogs, Sir Francis Drake, the Berkeley Food Pantry, the Giants and then the Giants again. We all linger after meals changing seats to talk to the ones we didn't sit next to at the meals. There are several knitters, a couple of fisherman, some serious runners, and someone who propagates native plants. I received a Reiki treatment from Stephanie yesterday afternoon which, along with a couple of twisting postures, seemd to pop my ailing back into a healthier alignment. I will learn to be more cautious pulling my luggage from the airport carousel from now on.
Tonight will be our last evening together, and who knows what the conversation will be.

greetings from new mexico

Perhaps one of the reasons I find New Mexico comfortable is the political climate is not unlike the bay area.
Obama signs far outnumber Romey's. We arrived in Taos Sunday via Albuquerque and Santa Fe. Bowl of pozole consumed, fishing license purchased and wine procured, we settled into the Mabel Dodge Luhan house, our home for a few days.

Mike and I are nesters and we like to travel to familiar places. My theory of nesting will be explained in a later post. I have come to do yoga, and Mike has come to fish.

His t-shirt reads: eat, sleep, read, but a line, fish, should be added. This is our 5th visit to this venue, and my 6th. I did a solo trip one year, but I missed the fisherman. I am much more relaxed about the yoga this year, I think I enjoy the stay at Mabel's, the Taos October light, and cottonwoods on the Rio Grande as much as the yoga. This group of 18 of us, however, 14 practitioners, one teacher, and 3 non-practicing husbands is proving to be a good one. This morning Stephanie and my outstretched arms joined hands in one of the those moments where a connection much deeper than the physical practice of yoga took place. This afternoon I took a walk down Penitente Lane. A very pleasant ritual for me.

At the end of the stations there is a cross and  below the cross offerings.

artemis update

Our massive wing has appeared. Not attached to anything but a crane at this moment, but at least it is not in pieces like Oracle's. We are looking forward to seeing it attached to it's hull.

dia de los muertos

On Friday night we went to the Oakland Museum where we were able to view this year's altars. This put us in the spirit of the holiday.

yes, the pirate

As I suspected, the halloween doggie appeared the first of the month. It took me a few days to get up the courage to photograph. Along the way home the other day I also came across a couple of choice decorations and classy front porches.

visitors from the south

From the south I mean southern hemisphere. Ray and Gay joined us from Auckland, New Zealand this weekend. It's been 16 years since we saw each other, and no one would have thought that from our conversations. They now have three grown children and a two year old granddaughter. The granddaughter brought them to Seattle, and brave and hardy souls, they traveled by Amtrak down to visit us.
We brought them out to Point Reyes on Sunday, our go to spot for taking tourists and ourselves. There we spotted this group of "twitchers". So what are they looking at?

After four nights of conversation, meals, and drinks we put our Kiwi friends on a plane back to Auckland last night with promises of us making a trip to New Zealand sometime in the future. We are starting to save our pennies.

southwest inspired

Thomas has been working on this Bosendorfer, the only non-Steinway in the shop at the moment, and I was inspired by how pretty is was. The plates on Bosendorfers are much more orange than Steinway gold plates. And the bridge work and felt just inspired me to take a photograph. Perhaps is is because I am thinking of an upcoming trip to Taos.


The question of the week that was asked by a customer, who is having a complete restoration of her 1923 Steinway O, is what makes her Steinway a Steinway when so many of the old parts are being replaced. And it is true that in an extreme (and expensive) restoration everything may be replaced leaving only the case, the plate, and the key frame. Soundboards wear out, especially if pianos have lived on the east coast, and there is a soundboard maker in Arizona we use. We send him the old board to match dimensions. The same may be true for keysets. We send off the key frame (to Oregon), which is re-used (again because of fit), and an entire new keyset will be made. It may have plastic tops, or what is "legal" ivory. I have been told by my workmates that new keysets actually do feel better. Personally I would want an old set of ivory keys.Sometimes you find a piano that may have been made in 1904 and still has almost perfect ivory. And then you run across an 1899 piano that has the ugliest, worst job, of replacement plastic tops I have ever seen. And yet the piano, which is only having action work and new bass strings, when it was first played I looked up from my bench and stopped working to just listen, it sounded so good.
Part of our answer was things wear out and were meant to be replaced. Felt gets stiff looses its spring.. Metal and wood pieces fatigue. We try to find the current parts that will most replicate the original sound. And I tried to impart my feelings that every piano we work on has a soul. In the end they all have a unique sound. And Steinways have a sound that is Steinway, Mason Hamlins sound like Masons. Bosendorfers, well are Bosenfdorfers.
In fact the 1923 O is keeping it's soundboard and keyset. The ivory keys are in reasonable condition and I personally rebushed the keys, steel wooled the ebony sharps to give them a more pleasing appearance. But all the hammers, wippens, underlevers, strings, and numerous felt pieces are being replaced. And the case is being refinished and the original nickel plated pieces are being re-plated. It will be coddled into fine regulation, evenness of action, and melodic voicing. And it will have its soul.

trip tams

Finally wove in the ends and am in the process of blocking the latest streamside tams. You will notice the Paw Prints on the table behind my tams. I traded a tam for the collections of "paws".

I always color coordinate my Fiestaware when blocking.

the neighborhood update

Yes, it's back-to-school doggie! We (my workmates and I) figure next month will be Halloween doggie, and then we will have pilgrim doggie, followed by Santa doggie. I do wonder what the people think when I stop and take a picture.

I found 38 cents on Tuesday walking home from work, and this morning I saw a man carrying cat food followed by two black and white cats following him down the road to the boat ramp. He looked a bit like the pied piper. I've seen them stalking gophers on the high school lawn before (the cats that is, not their caretaker). And coming home from work they (the cats) seemed to be snuggled in the sun in some abandoned raised garden beds next to the school buildings.
I do enjoy the walk, driving and even bicycling you seem to miss the details of life.

Artemis, and rtemis are back in the water, giving us much viewing interruptions at the shop. We track whether they get towed out, and how and if they sail into Seaplane Lagoon. Not much gets by our collective shop eyes.

the blogger has returned

Eleven nights out, two campgrounds, one motel, one country hotel, and a final night at friends fine accommodations we made it home with large quantities of laundry. Here we are setting up camp in Page Springs Campground at Steens Mountain.
We overcame finding the ugliest campground in California, changing direction, encountering the smokiest campground in California, and backtracking to Alturas (the county seat of Modoc county) on our third night. Here we found a AAA approved Super 8 Motel (with a pretty reasonable continental breakfast) and a very amusing Italian restaurant with a decently priced bottle of drinkable red. The portions were so large, even on my small plate option, that we got a second night's dinner out of it too. We took a deep breath, and long showers and watched the final night of the democratic convention.
With a good early start on Day 4 we drove off to Lakeview Oregon. Lakeview appeared prosperous, and green after Alturas. Mike obtained his Oregon fishing license and we headed for Burns. After a stop at the forest service office in Hines, Oregon and a gas station (where remember in Oregon they pump your gas), we found a local fly shop and armed with information, and even more maps, Steens Mountain here we come. A quick run into Safeway in Burns, where they have block ice, a product not easy to come by these days we were set for six nights of camping. A later post and I will go into my cooler management system.

Above is the view from Kiger Pass. It is almost 10,000 feet and you climb up from the campground at 4,500 feet so gradually that you step out of the truck and are awestruck by the view and the expansiveness. This photo is made up of multiple exposures that Mike took, I sort of gave up trying to capture the landscape. Here is one of mine of the dogs guarding the sheep herd we saw on the way up.

I am told they may look friendly but don't get too close. We have yet to determine their exact breed, but evidently they are raised with the sheep and are there for protection, not herding.

The fishing was good, this a redband rainbow, a species that seems to survive well in the climate and the water temperature of the Donner and Blitzen River. We are trying to gather up our fishing friends for a return visit. By the next trip we will have sealed up the back of the truck, so as to not gather 6 inches of dust (or so it seemed), replaced the leaky air mattresses, fixed the Coleman lantern, replaced my chair seat, and gotten Mike a new pair of waders. The campground population varied from gigantic motor homes, to people with small backpacking tents, but they were some of the most friendly people I have ever camped with. Other than the "Grossbeaks". But that's another blog.