the last day of 2017: applesauce, a set table, and a sleeping cat

One of my favorite gifts of the season was bagful of Granny Smith apples from Maddy's tree. Maddy is now 28 and the tree was planted the summer she was born to commemorate her birth. The tree is very happy and productive in it's home on Sherman Street here in Alameda.
We are having a small gathering with one guest but the conversation will be lively and wine will be consumed along with a pork roast and the applesauce.
I like New Years, I'm always ready to sweep the remains of Christmas and get on with it. We spent our Friday field trip day at Point Reyes. Where Mike took photos and I gathered the dried good for the bouquet on the dining table.

Tomorrow it's welcoming 2018 with calendar shopping. Let's hope I can find my 2018 Witches calendar.

winter solstice 2017

I sit to type this at almost the exact moment the solstice is occurring. Perhaps this is one of my favorite days of the year. Those dark bicycle rides home from yoga will be getting lighter.

This photo represents two of my favorite things in this crazy world, where I feel I am fortunate to be so rich:
(1) my dishwasher, who would have thought I'd feel this way
(2) my collection of Fiestaware

We had dinner last night with friends to celebrate the season. We had hoped to salute the Dungeness crab, but alas, market price drove us to embrace Ahi tuna instead. Placed among a bed of greens and other goodies Nicoise were served. There were no complaints.

aesculus californica 2017

I've set them out on the garage roof this year as last year I watched the squirrels carry them away one by one from pots under the back porch. The squirrels had never shown any interest in them before. These were harvested from the mother tree at Devil's Gulch, the main source for most of my buckeyes. Hoping the rain will give them a good start. I used to bury them, but realized they fall to the ground and sprout so perhaps just placing in the pots may be a better method.

the fruit of November

Total crop size for 2017 from the Rettie Fuyu was three. Our beautiful persimmon lives too much in the shade to produce it's full share of harvest. But it makes up for lack of fruit by it's spring green leaf out and fall color. And Dashiell and Aero enjoy climbing in it.

 I have grown quite fond of persimmons. I think they are an acquired taste, like opera and single malt.

dia de los muertos

A small altar this year, but I did pull out some of my collection of skulls. I think this may be my favorite holiday of the year, definitely not Hallmark, no gifts needed, nor big meals.
We are back from a week in the "land of enchantment" and enchanting it was. New Mexico never fails to show it's beauty in the month of October. We visited weavers, rivers, and the Penitentes and learned how to pronounce acequias .

Illahe Lodge, Agness, Oregon

Three days of paradise on the Rogue River, steelhead, osprey, alders, bay, and home cooking.

We awoke to fog on the river, Illahe being 32 miles inland from Gold Beach on the Oregon coast.

A half mile walk down a dirt road leads to a full view of the river where the guests staying at the lodge depart for a day of fishing.

The scent of damp leaves will remove most of the tensions of the outside world. Not to mention no cell service and when the wifi goes down life is even better.

78 year old Ernie Rutledge is 4th generation southwest Oregonian, his grandfather built the lodge. Ernie's daughter, Coleen runs the lodge today.
We made reservations for next year, four days, three was not enough.

yin/yang, the equinox

In Chinese medicine yin is associated with dark and grounding into the earth, while yang is associated with light and the skies. But it is important to balance the two. That is my lesson from today's qigong class, where I was fortunate to have a private session with my instructor due to lack of other participants. Today being the last day of summer for 2017 we can feel the pull towards winter as tomorrow marks the equinox. And while I enjoy the seasonal change, and find it quieting and reflective, I also find it it sad. The garden has lost it's summer brilliance, and yet there needs to be a time for quiet and renewal. Hopefully the fall will bring the rain again and cleanse the leaves that remain evergreen. The shortening days will bring us inside earlier, but living in the California bay area we are spoiled by the lack of extremes in our seasons, something I celebrate rather than long for.
I do look forward to wearing all of the products from my knitting needles, and crab season, more soups and quiches for dinner.