August Moon 14: Day 3 -- Loving what?

Day 3: What do you love? Today we’re going to delve a little deeper. We’ve had a think about what it is that we do. Now let’s make some space for what we love. Say someone found all of this evidence many years after you’d gone: what conclusions would they draw about the things/ideas/people you loved? Angels watch over us in our great room, perched on the high ledge over the wood stove. Most are my mother's collection; a few are ours -- one from a grateful client. Angel chimes sit near them atop the built-in bookshelves. They make me feel connected to the Universe and to those we cherish.  A bouquet of mostly floral teacups surround a pretty floral teapot in our china cabinet, and sad to say, they are all mostly unused. The teapot was a wedding gift to my parents and has a few mended cracks visible, casualties from my childhood. The cups are from my grandmother's, great-aunt's, and my mother's collection, plus a few from my former mother-in-law, and I love them all.  That cabinet also holds white curved twin Red Wing Pottery vases -- another inherited wedding gift that somehow escaped breakage. We rarely have flowers because our two kitties like to nibble on them, but the connection to the past and my parents is strong there. Books are everywhere: old ones, oft-read childhood ones, the brown leather and gilt Shakespeare from my childhood displayed in the great room shelves along with a few china knickknacks and some handmade birdhouses. In the salsa-colored den on the white woodshelves that cover one whole wall -- the bulk of the collection, arranged by non-fiction subject and fiction alphabetical author, at least mostly. Colorful covers pop at us -- trade paperbacks mixed unashamedly with  jacketed hardcovers and somber Bibles and hymnals. It's our personalities in there, a pretty accurate representation of what we love to do, love to read, and who we are -- or at least were at some point. Our newer interests rest sedately in the Kindle cloud, unseen by eyes other than ours. And that, I think, is a loss of sorts, although I love my Kindle. Magazines too, in stacks waiting for periodical files; on end tables waiting to be read or finished; in baskets by the bed and my favorite reading chair.  Cookbooks are crammed into a built-in kitchen niche -- worn church and service club collections next to the ubiquitous red-and-white Better Homes and Gardens, A much-taped-up recipe file is stuffed with computer-printed samplings and long-ago hand-written recipe cards. My mother's and grandmother's recipe files rest in a cabinet nearby, and when I pull one out, the handwriting always brings them into the kitchen with me: Jule Kage and fruitcake cookies and pecan shorts every year at Christmas, especially.   Two paintings, one from each daughter, are almost the only non-photographic art on our walls, although our bedroom also holds the Holstee Manifesto which reminds us every morning as we get up about what is really important  Otherwise we are surrounded in every room  by photographic memories of events, trips, scenic vistas, and a few taken to illustrate my freelance articles that are particularly interesting.  There is no planned decorating in our house, other than coordinated, rather vivid, wall colors of red-dirt clay (although my brother snarkily referred to it as 'dead salmon'), muted oak-tree-leaf green, salsa red, and a few lighter peachy tones -- colors that reflect the outdoor landscape where we live, so visible in the big windows that are everywhere. But a theme? No. Each collectible, each knickknack has a history and is something we enjoy seeing daily. Kindly put, our style is eclectic.( And probably not helped much by the 6-foot-plus cat tree and numerous scratching posts in varying degrees of shredded sisal that sit next to the scratched-patina leather chairs and mostly intact cloth upholstery and quilts and afghans and pillows. We like comfort. So do the kitties.) While we have many music CDs, we like the country quiet and seldom think to play music in the house. It's a broad mix: Grateful Dead, Loreena McKennitt, John Rutter, Vaughan Williams, Traveling Wilburys, Johnny Cash, Mark Knopfler, the Beatles, Broadway shows.  Our preference in television series and movies swings to drama, but often with a twist, and yet we enjoy the Pixar movies too.  We are both generalists -- we enjoy a broad range of styles, of subject matter, of content, of delivery.  We like things around us that mean something to us, although we are slower to eliminate things that no longer reflect who we are or serve our needs, probably mostly out of habit. We like comfort and warmth. We love the outdoors and the ocean -- there are many ocean photos on our walls. We enjoy the feeling of being connected to our past and to those we loved, and also to the greater Universe. We are hodgepodge,diverse, a bit unorganized. Eclectic.

Reverb 10 -- A picture

For Dec. 25 -- Photo - a present to yourself. Sift through all the photos of you from the past year. Choose one that best captures you; either who you are, or who you strive to be. Find the shot of you that is worth a thousand words. Share the image, who shot it, where, and what it best reveals about you.

This is me with four of the people I love best in the world: missing is my wonderful husband, and my sister-in-law Liz is taking the photo.

I had just finished lunch in Redding ( October) with my daughter Vanessa, my brother Jimmy, my daughter Rachel, and our grandson Gabriel. Jimmy and Liz were visiting from Nashville, Tenn., before heading to the Bay Area for business. We hadn't been all together as a family for years and they'd not met Gabe.

This is a role I relish: mother, nonna, sister -- family matriarch, actually. It was so good to see my brother, who had just turned 60, and to see how much he resembles our father as he ages. It made tears come to my eyes a time or two.

My daughters continue on their separate journeys, and it is good to see how they support each other. In this moment, we were content to just be with each other.

Weird, wacky spring in northern California

It's been 90 degrees at times in the past couple of weeks, and yet much of Tehama County had a frost on April 20 (we didn't out here -- five miles from town). The other night, it was downright cold. Today goes back to the 80s, and we won't see anything below 80 for at least 10 days, according to Yahoo weather.

Not good on the health -- lots of snuffling and wondering what to wear, as closets hold both short and long-sleeved shirts, shorts next to sweats, and sandals alongside woolly slippers.

The plants are confused. My tomatoes -- the ones that survived whatever seems to be snacking in the garden -- are either blooming like mad or droopy. A neighbor's, however, are beautiful, tall, and blooming, and I expect to see tiny tomatoes any day.

Speaking of eating....an entire artichoke plant -- the first time I've planted one -- disappeared. Completely. I'm wondering if we have a gourmet gopher, although most of the rest of it seems fine (yeah, missing a couple of pepper plants and at least one tomato). The cats don't nibble the plantlife, but I sure wish they'd get the stupid gopher, if that's what it is. Nothing gets in there except cats, lizards and gophers -- no bunnies. There's an 8-foot fence with critter fencing, and the deer don't get in there either.

Thank you, Tim Heardon, for the shout-out on your blog! That was a delightful surprise.

And speaking of art, try to catch the North Valley Art League 17th juried photo show that opened yesterday at Redding's Carter House Gallery in Caldwell Park. Tony and I were lucky enough to help shuttle photos back and forth as the juror did his picks, and always learn from the experience. Most important this year was to shoot where you are -- photograph things you know in our beautiful north state, but try to see it with a creative eye.

Isn't that always the challenge, in any art form?

Passion for the arts

You know I'm an enthusiastic arts advocate, right?

The Tehama County Arts Council has a new blog: Connections. And yes, I'm writing on it too, although I'm hoping some of my fellow TCAC directors will write for it as well.

The goal is to become a connection between art, art events, and artists in our county, and to help each other network and learn about events, classes, deals, and more. If you've got news, you can e-mail TCAC at tehamaarts@yahoo.com. Or drop me a note.

This weekend is the Corning Wine, Food and Art Festival at Rolling Hills Casino in Corning. It oughta be good, and it's affordable. Leave the kids at home, though -- 21 and over only. You can read more about it at the TCAC site, or watch the papers for more info.