A New Hope
So I make gratuitous Star Wars allusions. So shoot me.
I am not going to do a summary of 2008, other than to note that it, for the most part, sucked rocks. Some good things came out of it, and I hope will lead to better things. I learned a lot. I got my skilz and my farm and my self back. I found a new trainer, and remembered how to ride a horse. And, of course, Kittens!
Last week I went away, actually, really, Away, for almost a week. A very sensible and amazingly wonderful college freshman (daughter of a local writer) stayed on the farm and took care of all the aminals. This included nightly Blanket Brigade, rain, snow, knee-deep mud, and a hard freeze. About as bad as weather gets here. She handled it all with aplomb, and left the place in excellent condition and the animals happy, warm, dry, and fed.
I, meanwhile, was at the Copper Queen with smoemeth and the parental unit. We were promised adjacent rooms, but what we were given, though side by side numerically, were in opposite wings. However, this was lovely, because the space between was a living room with sofas and fireplace and formal dining room, where people tended to settle for an hour or an evening. It was like being a guest in a grand country house. smoemeth's and my room won on bathroom points--it was huge and had a roll-in shower (having been designed for a wheelchair). The room our mom shared with her friend was larger, brighter, and was the place for gatherings, food and drink, and the opening of the presents. We also won on tree points, with my Tiny Tree--six whole inches high, with lights, and Harry Potter, Star Trek, and Grinch mini-ornaments. Target dollar bins FTW.
We had a most pleasant time enjoying each other's company, eating good food, wandering around the town, and on Boxing Day, being treated to an actual snowstorm. It blew straight down the canyon and swallowed the mountain, and gave us perfect ambience for the short trek across the street (which in hilly Bisbee included several flights of steps) to dinner.
And there were ghosts! The Copper Queen is famously haunted; the crew from Ghost Hunters had some experiences there, though they were noncommittal about the status. I would say there's something there. What we learned, sans equipment (wishing dearly that the family-by-marriage ghost hunter could have come with her stuff), is that a corridor really can become dim, dark, and cold, and the walls and ceiling will close in--then an hour or a day later, it's perfectly ordinary; that there is such a thing as cold spots, and that they are nothing at all like a normal draft; and that whatever we followed down the third-floor corridor before it slid under the door at the end proceeded, according to the hotel's ghost journal, to give the occupant of the room a most interesting night.
We were rather sorry to leave, but there was still some vacation left, as we adjourned to our mom's house down near Tucson for more presents, more chances to sleep in (what a concept), and a belated turkey dinner.
smoemeth left on Monday, and I went back to reality. It felt good actually. The mud was starting to dry out, the weather had warmed considerably, and all the critters were very glad to see me. I was glad to see them, too.
My big gift from the collective family this year was a badly needed new camera: a silvery-blue Elph that does video as well as stills. I finally got to play with it today. Just basics, but it's a start.
And so, here be a bit of kittenblogging, and a record of the kitchen garden, which is burgeoning. I think it likes the new energy around the place.
Genghis was the elusive one today:
The girls were all perky:
Invisible Kitty!
Genghis and Spot eating on different levels:
Kitty pile!
The kitchen garden has accumulated over the past few months. The flower is a symbol in a way. The little succulent from the Desert Museum has been there for years, but it died almost completely during the past, awful summer. I kept watering it, hoping it would somehow revive. And it did. Before I left it was really, clearly growing again. When I came back, it was thriving. Then this week it popped up with a bud. It only flowers in winter, and only under the right conditions. Symbolic, as I said.
It's about to be joined, if the kittens don't eat them first, by Christmas-cactus blooms from the three plants in one-inch pots that I brought home from Christmas last year--gifts from the Gold Room at Westward look, just three leaves each, that I stowed on the counter by the sink till I could figure out where to put them. They did so well in that spot, they're still there. And now, despite a total lack of my doing the "right" things, they're getting ready to bloom. Benign neglect: the inadvertent gardener's friend.
It's all good, I think. I hope. A good rest, some relaxation, and I'm looking forward to getting back to work next week. This weekend is all about riding horses, working on the story that's due at the end of the month, and getting back into the groove of writing novels. Even the cancellation of the SRS clinic is positive really: Pooka wants more time with S, and I do, too. We'll really be ready when the thing finally happens.
I am not going to do a summary of 2008, other than to note that it, for the most part, sucked rocks. Some good things came out of it, and I hope will lead to better things. I learned a lot. I got my skilz and my farm and my self back. I found a new trainer, and remembered how to ride a horse. And, of course, Kittens!
Last week I went away, actually, really, Away, for almost a week. A very sensible and amazingly wonderful college freshman (daughter of a local writer) stayed on the farm and took care of all the aminals. This included nightly Blanket Brigade, rain, snow, knee-deep mud, and a hard freeze. About as bad as weather gets here. She handled it all with aplomb, and left the place in excellent condition and the animals happy, warm, dry, and fed.
I, meanwhile, was at the Copper Queen with smoemeth and the parental unit. We were promised adjacent rooms, but what we were given, though side by side numerically, were in opposite wings. However, this was lovely, because the space between was a living room with sofas and fireplace and formal dining room, where people tended to settle for an hour or an evening. It was like being a guest in a grand country house. smoemeth's and my room won on bathroom points--it was huge and had a roll-in shower (having been designed for a wheelchair). The room our mom shared with her friend was larger, brighter, and was the place for gatherings, food and drink, and the opening of the presents. We also won on tree points, with my Tiny Tree--six whole inches high, with lights, and Harry Potter, Star Trek, and Grinch mini-ornaments. Target dollar bins FTW.
We had a most pleasant time enjoying each other's company, eating good food, wandering around the town, and on Boxing Day, being treated to an actual snowstorm. It blew straight down the canyon and swallowed the mountain, and gave us perfect ambience for the short trek across the street (which in hilly Bisbee included several flights of steps) to dinner.
And there were ghosts! The Copper Queen is famously haunted; the crew from Ghost Hunters had some experiences there, though they were noncommittal about the status. I would say there's something there. What we learned, sans equipment (wishing dearly that the family-by-marriage ghost hunter could have come with her stuff), is that a corridor really can become dim, dark, and cold, and the walls and ceiling will close in--then an hour or a day later, it's perfectly ordinary; that there is such a thing as cold spots, and that they are nothing at all like a normal draft; and that whatever we followed down the third-floor corridor before it slid under the door at the end proceeded, according to the hotel's ghost journal, to give the occupant of the room a most interesting night.
We were rather sorry to leave, but there was still some vacation left, as we adjourned to our mom's house down near Tucson for more presents, more chances to sleep in (what a concept), and a belated turkey dinner.
smoemeth left on Monday, and I went back to reality. It felt good actually. The mud was starting to dry out, the weather had warmed considerably, and all the critters were very glad to see me. I was glad to see them, too.
My big gift from the collective family this year was a badly needed new camera: a silvery-blue Elph that does video as well as stills. I finally got to play with it today. Just basics, but it's a start.
And so, here be a bit of kittenblogging, and a record of the kitchen garden, which is burgeoning. I think it likes the new energy around the place.
Genghis was the elusive one today:
The girls were all perky:
Invisible Kitty!
Genghis and Spot eating on different levels:
Kitty pile!
The kitchen garden has accumulated over the past few months. The flower is a symbol in a way. The little succulent from the Desert Museum has been there for years, but it died almost completely during the past, awful summer. I kept watering it, hoping it would somehow revive. And it did. Before I left it was really, clearly growing again. When I came back, it was thriving. Then this week it popped up with a bud. It only flowers in winter, and only under the right conditions. Symbolic, as I said.
It's about to be joined, if the kittens don't eat them first, by Christmas-cactus blooms from the three plants in one-inch pots that I brought home from Christmas last year--gifts from the Gold Room at Westward look, just three leaves each, that I stowed on the counter by the sink till I could figure out where to put them. They did so well in that spot, they're still there. And now, despite a total lack of my doing the "right" things, they're getting ready to bloom. Benign neglect: the inadvertent gardener's friend.
It's all good, I think. I hope. A good rest, some relaxation, and I'm looking forward to getting back to work next week. This weekend is all about riding horses, working on the story that's due at the end of the month, and getting back into the groove of writing novels. Even the cancellation of the SRS clinic is positive really: Pooka wants more time with S, and I do, too. We'll really be ready when the thing finally happens.