Everything's fine, sort of

It's been hard to post lately because so much is going on, but nothing ever seems to get resolved. Here are some things I promise to write about later:

• Getting Ben off to school: I'm going to California this weekend to move Ben into the dormitory at UC Davis. He begins a four-week orientation program on Saturday and I attend a parent's session all day Saturday. It's going to be a whirlwind trip for me -- leaving home on Friday and returning on Monday. But, I have a feeling I'll be making more than one trip a year in the next few years.
• Health issues of family and friends (I'm fine): Daughter-in-law, Rachel is recovering from surgery. I'll know more after I visit with her next week. High school chum, Linda, has had a very rocky year and I'm wishing her a much improved finish to the year. Grandpa Steve has a nasty skin cancer on his hand that is going to require a lot more digging into. These folks are on my mind every hour of the day.
• Selling my house and moving: My house has sold and it looks like we'll be moving to a rental house within the month. I think I have located a place and if all goes smoothly, I'll announce a new (Ozark) address soon. But, in the meanwhile, I have lots of packing, sorting, selling, storing, and trashing to do. The new place is about one third the size of this house. 
• Quilting: Yes, I'm still quilting. I'll have a post dedicated to that subject before too long. 
• Back to school for Logan: Today is the first day of school for Logan and for the first time, I did not get a back to school photo. I think I'll cheat and get one sometime next week.
• Surprise party for Steve: Grandpa Steve will turn 65 on the 24th and the fam is throwing a surprise party for him. My job is decorations and I think I have it under control. But, with so much going on, it's hard to feel like anything is under control.

More later, gotta pack for tomorrow's trip.

Benorama

Ben celebrated his 18th birthday WITHOUT ME! I missed his fifth birthday, too. But, I've been there for all the others, including the one that started it all, July 20, 1995. Standing in for me are Kathy (center front) and Rick (standing). Around the table from the left are Gerhardt and Karen (Kathy's sister and brother-in-law) Jim (Valery's friend) Ben, Geoff (Kathy's son) and hiding behind Kathy's hat is Gerhardt (son of Gerhardt and Karen). The bucolic setting is Toad Ranch, home of Rick and Kathy. Ben spent the two days leading up to this celebration visiting with Kathy and Rick.

Last year, I didn't get a birthday picture of Ben, but here's what I posted about the day:
Friday was Ben's seventeenth birthday. He seems so adult in many ways and yet so young in others. I guess that's what adolescence is all about. We celebrated quietly, he started the day with his traditional birthday batch of monkey bread and opening gifts from me -- a few nature and science books. I hope he likes them. And then ended the day with strawberry shortcake.

This picture was taken right around his 16th birthday when he was re-uniting with friends Trevor and Anna in El Dorado Hills.

And here's Ben at 15, blowing out birthday candles while great grandparents, Bernice and Arlan wait for their piece of the berry cobbler.

Here we are with 14 candles on the cake. Notice that both boys are taller than me by a few inches.

Just a year earlier when Ben was 13, we were all the same height.

So, what's Ben been doing lately, you ask. As near as I can tell, he's doing the same thing he did in Missouri, observing nature up close and personal. Here are a few of his photos I lifted from his Facebook page. The captions are his.

"I looked at a small patch of ground in the middle of a field and found lots and lots of dead insect parts! So I put most of them in this little collection. It is amazing how much of this stuff you can find anywhere!"

 "This ant on a plant was close to where I found those insect parts, so I like to think of this one as the custodian."

" Lots of black ants and black aphids, showing off the mutualism commonly found between these sorts of insects! These were near a river on the way to Lake Margaret in California."

"This is what California's Lake Margaret looks like."

 

And this is what Ben looks like when preparing to check out the hives kept by Bill, the husband of Amy Schulze, Ben's (and Logan's) second grade teacher. Ben spent the day with them exploring their property on the American River in Coloma. Several of the above pictures were taken by Ben that day.

When he's not staring at insects, he has been doing volunteer work at Pride Industries, a workplace for people with disabilities. His aunt Valery works there and Ben has been going to work with her three days a week. He's been writing safety procedures for the use of manufacturing equipment.

His STEP program at UC Davis begins August 17th and I'm going to be there to participate in the parent orientation. I can't wait to see Ben again. I can't believe how much I miss him, how much I love that boy, and how proud of him I am.

How I Spent the Rest of My Summer Vacation.

 Ben, Danny, and I arrived in Sacramento on Tuesday afternoon, June 11. Colleen was at the airport to meet Danny and whisked him off as quickly as she could. I kind of think she had missed him just a little. Ben and I made our way to the rental car office, picked up a spiffy red Chevy Impala, and drove to Valery's in rush hour traffic. I was nervous about being in heavy traffic after my years in Missouri, but it went very smoothly. We spent a quiet evening playing Mexican Train, well, not too quiet, we laughed ourselves silly and then went to bed exhausted after a long day of travel and a two hour time change.

Wednesday afternoon, Lisa Cardwell and I went to the Purple Place for a drink and some munchies. 

That place hasn't changed a bit in appearance, but the menu has definitely gone upscale. A friend of hers joined us after a bit and we enjoyed getting acquainted while watching the world go by. Then I stood up, announced it was time for me to get going, said my good-byes, and left. It didn't even dawn on me that I had left them with the bill until sometime the next day. I was mortified. 

Before going to the Purple Place, I got to see Lisa's kids Cameron and Alexandra. Cameron has grown so tall and is just a super nice personable kid. Alexandra is quite a talented singer and guitar player. Cameron plays guitar too, but he didn't perform for me this trip.

The second full day Ben and I were in California together, we went out to Davis to go bike shopping. We cruised the city streets looking for bike shops. We saw lots of bikes, including this beauty

but finally settled on this one. Selling points were: the color, green, which is Ben's trademark eco-symbolic favorite; the chain guard to protect against the battering campus bikes suffer; the rack, suitable for mounting saddle bag-type baskets; the absence of a derailleur, the gears are enclosed in the hub of the rear wheel, to prevent parking rack damage; the handy-dandy bell on the handlebars, ubiquitous to Davis bikes; the very sturdy lock affixed to the frame; and the overall form, fit, and function. I hope it serves him well (and doesn't get stolen!). He pedaled it around the campus right after purchasing it and it magically found its way to the Bohart Museum of Entomology where Ben enjoyed staring at exotic insects and visiting with a PhD student who worked there. I do hope Ben will be able to work there in time.

While Ben was off exploring, I was visiting with my dear friend Nancy. She took the train (and car and BART) from San Mateo to meet me in Davis for lunch. She also met this engaging bit of sidewalk art. Oh, how I love Davis. I could envision retiring there, should I ever retire. She looks terrific (I meant Nancy) and as always it was wonderful to spend even a few hours with her. We had lunch and strolled for a while. Colleen just happened to be passing through Davis on her way to San Mateo, so she was able to give Nancy a ride back to her car parked at the BART station. The day was perfect, maybe mid-80's, nothing like the beastly heat they have endured the past week. We really hit it lucky.

The next week, Ben and I drove up to Pioneer to visit my high school friends, Jack and Linda. Linda has been recovering from a difficult surgery and is taking things a bit slow. But, we had a nice, albeit brief visit. I regret not getting any photos of either Lisa or Jack and Linda. 

The day before I left, Ben and I made my ritual visit to Robin's grave and washed off the headstone with champagne, saving the last mouthful to drink a toast to her memory. It's so hard to believe all these years have past.

Many of Ben's ancestors are buried in Gold Country cemeteries.  We made a stop at Placerville's Union Cemetery where the Blair marker stands at the highest point in the Cemetery. There are maybe a dozen people buried in the plot, but not all of them are noted on the marker. The cemetery has records of who is buried there.

Dinner at a Thai restaurant with Valery's friends, Dorothy and Chuck, was a real treat. We must have sat at our table for 2-1/2 hours, but no one seemed to mind. Ben and Chuck really hit it off. Chuck is a Chemistry professor and they found much to talk about, scientist to scientist. Dorothy is a quilter and I enjoyed visiting her studio on a previous visit to California.

Foodie that I am, no visit to California would be complete without sampling some of the fresh produce I miss. So, I had some fresh Sloughhouse corn, yummy artichokes, and asparagus. We can get corn, artichokes, and asparagus in Missouri, but they just aren't the same.  

And I came home all alone. Ben stayed with Valery so he can start UC Davis in the fall and Danny traveled home separately on Friday. 

The Picnic

Sunday, the day following Bill and Brit's wedding, some friends and family members gathered at the Marshall Monument picnic ground of the Marshall Gold Discovery State Park in Coloma, California. I love this park for historical and sentimental reasons. And I love this picnic ground in particular. 

The area is steeped in family history. My great-great grandfather, Ezra Schooley, is buried in Coloma's Pioneer Cemetery where his is the oldest standing grave. Ezra didn't make it to Coloma alive; according to newspaper accounts from that time, ". . .he died ten miles short of the diggings, from the disease of the country."  Ironically, before I ever heard of Ezra Schooley, I bought a home in El Dorado Hills, which is about ten miles from Coloma, along the historical road that leads to the diggings. It could not have been any further than five miles from the spot where Ezra died.

My great grandfather, James Blair, wed Ezra's daughter, Amanda Schooley, in 1865. James and his brother, John, had established Sportsman's Hall in Pollock Pines, just a bit further east.

Sportsman's Hall served as an inn and a place to layover while wagon teams waited their turn to cross the Sierras on the one-way treacherous road that lead to the Comstock mines just east of Carson City. It also served as a pony express station. Today it is still in operation as a restaurant. My great grandmother, Amanda Schooley Blair, is standing on the porch with her two oldest daughters in this photo (one half of a sterioptican photo). 

Ernest, the son of James and Amanda Blair married my grandmother Minnie Pauline Nichols (born in Folsom, CA) in 1908. At the time of their courtship, both were living in Placerville and would on occassion take a day trip and picnic at the newly erected Marshall Monument in Coloma. 

So, to make a short story long, that is one of the reasons I enjoy visiting that picnic ground -- knowing that I am treading the ground trod by my grandparents during their courtship.

 Easily recognizable is Ben in the green shirt, cousin Robby sits next to him and then sister Valery and her friend, Jim.

 Brother Rick and his wife Kathy enjoy a moment of solitude away from the madding crowd. The picnic tables and barbecue pits are of WPA construction.

The first three people on the left are Kim, Jeannie and Jason. Kim is Jason's wife and Jeannie is Kim's mother. Jason was adopted at birth by my brother and his ex-wife. Jason reunited with his birth mother a couple of years ago in a fairy tale story that brings tears to my eyes every time I think of it. Jason's birth mother, Dianne and her husband Danny sit across the table from Kim. Dianne released Jason for adoption when she was fifteen years old and never had another child. Reuniting with Jason was for her a miracle and they have been very present in each other's lives since.

Sitting next to Danny are Tom and Nichole (Tom is blocking Nichole). Tom and Nichole along with their daughter Mallaika have the distinction of being the ones who traveled furthest for the wedding. They make their home in North Dartmouth, MA, where Tom has just completed his first year of law school.

Folks you haven't seen in other photos are Susie Lee, girlhood friend of sister Valery, standing on the left. Next to her is Jason, then Rachel and Kevin. Irene Ogawa is seated in front of Kevin. She is a friend of mine from ROLM/IBM days twenty-five years ago.

And here are the newlyweds -- Bill and Brittany Paine. To the left of Bill are Amy Schulze and her husband Bill. Amy was Ben's (and Logan's) second grade teacher in California and she remains forever in our hearts and lives. She and Bill live in the Coloma area where she has a bunch of dogs and a horse. Bill keeps bees, is a birder, and a retired veterinarian (a providential match for dog lover Amy). They are wonderful people and intend to stay active in Ben's new life in California.

Avoiding inclusion in any pictures, but making a token appearance, was Seth Matthews, son of my dear friend, Nancy Matthews. Nancy and I were neighbors at the time Kevin and Colleen were born. Kevin, Colleen, and Seth have known each other all their lives. Seth is now assistant DA in nearby Calaveras County.

All told, it was a glorious day, a perfect balance to the wedding of the previous day, and a great chance to connect with some folks who didn't make it to the wedding.

More Circle of LIfe, Backyard Edition

It's only right that Ben provides me with blog material in the next couple of weeks, he leaves for California in just over two weeks! We are busy cleaning out his room, packing stuff for storage and to take. It's very hard. When he's not packing he continues his backyard observations. It's a race against the clock to see if his mantids will hatch before he leaves. He maintains a vigil as rigorous as any found in a maternity ward.

This bunny met his maker just over our back fence where our neighbor grows a vegetable garden. I'm hoping there is no connection between the rabbit's love of fresh vegetables and his demise. We had been watching this bunny make his rounds through the neighborhood over the past few weeks. We would first catch sight of him emerging from a back yard across the street (a yard with a vegetable garden). He would hop across the street, cut across our lawn, spend some time in our raspberry bushes before crawling under the fence to the greater bounty of our neighbor's garden. RIP, little cottontail. At least I'll miss you.

 

And it looks like the backyard biologist is assured of another generation of box turtles. Doesn't she look just a bit perturbed by the camera's intrusion? This photo leaves me with some lingering questions about what goes where and how does it get there, but I'm sure the turtles have it all figured out.

*Photos courtesy  of Benjamin Maples

Home Again, At Last!

Logan's home from his visit with Tom, Nichole, and Mallaika. At least I think that's where he was. In typical teen-aged fashion, he hasn't told me much about it, but I'll piece it together over time by eavesdropping when he talks to his friends. I told him to take lots of pictures of the people and what I got was this photo of Brown University's gate, one of his left hand holding a lobster, and one of his right hand holding a large burrito. I'll spare you those and instead post my own food pictures. He did come home very excited about trying to get into Harvard. He has a plan in place to try to establish a project with the Christian County Courts to demonstrate leadership, commitment, and community service, and to bolster his chances for admission to Harvard. It sounds interesting and possible, I hope he stays with it.

He was two days late getting home because of a fierce storm that closed the Providence airport, cancelling his scheduled flight. When I called the airline to rebook him, they told me the first available seat was Friday, two days later. Seemed odd to me, so I looked online and found eight coach seats available on the plane a day earlier. Not willing to spend another half hour on hold while I tried to negotiate for the earlier flight, I left well enough alone. But, I really don't understand. It left me feeling sad about the state of the industry and just a tad anxious about my upcoming trip in September.

Here's my food picture -- the table topper of the month, and the week's haul from the Farmer's Market. I got long red beans, eggplant, and beets from the Millsap's and carrots, corn, and cantaloupe from other vendors. The carrots aren't very good -- woody and bitter, but the rest is yummy. We're having the corn tonight with cedar-planked salmon (Ben gets a cedar-planked veggie burger).

Friday was Ben's seventeenth birthday. He seems so adult in many ways and yet so young in others. I guess that's what adolescence is all about. We celebrated quietly, he started the day with his traditional birthday batch of monkey bread and opening gifts from me -- a few nature and science books. I hope he likes them. And then ended the day with strawberry shortcake.

Hanging Out With Ben

I've missed Logan and will be happy to see him home again tomorrow evening. Ben and I have kept busy in his absence doing things he wouldn't enjoy. Like eating vegetables. I've tried to eat vegetarian along with Ben this week and to cook up some interesting food. Last night I made a quiche with kale (from Millap"s Farm), oyster mushrooms, and caramelized onions. It was yummy, but I must say the oyster mushrooms were a surprise. I bought them at the farmer's market last Saturday and had a choice between white ones or some of a grayish color. I took the gray ones for no particular reason. The surprise was that they actually smelled and tasted like fresh fish. The texture, even after sauteing before using, was quite firm, almost woody, and a nice contrast to the mooshy quiche.

Grandpa Steve took us to the opera last week at the Opera in the Ozarks festival in Eureka Springs where we saw a wonderful performance of La Boheme. Opera in the Ozarks is an eight week workshop for aspiring opera singers -- four weeks of rehearsal and four weeks of performance.  That northwest corner of Arkansas is quite a cultural hotspot : Opera in the Ozarks is in its 62nd year, Crystal Bridges opened last year, and there are many artists and writers in the region.

On Sunday we went to the Springfield library to see a performance of "Walking Toward America" based on the experience of Ilga Vise as a WWII Latvian refugee in her early teens who walked with her family from Riga to Germany to escape the Russian Army at the close of WWII.  It was scripted by Sandra Fenichel Asher and performed by Annie Meek Montgomery who played the roles of several people and of Ilga at different ages. Very powerful and moving. All three women, Ilga, Annie, and Sandra have ties to Springfield. Ilga was present and answered questions from the audience after the performance. Amazing woman!

Yesterday Ben and I went to the zoo where he spent a couple of hours observing a Madagascar Cockroach expel an egg sac. We learned a lot about the very unusual process, but I won't say anymore about it, leaving it to Ben to describe on his Facebook status page. Last evening he went on a bird hunt, hoping to spot the elusive Painted Bunting, but only heard its song.

 Last week he returned to field station where they were restoring habitat for the Swainson's   Warbler. Here's what that guy looks like.

 

Today I booked my flight for my September trip to California for a "Golden Girls" reunion. Five of us from high school are going to get together in Mendocino at Little River Inn for four days of reliving the 1950's. I plan to be in the Sacramento area for a few days, September 22nd, 23rd, 29th and 30th.  Drop me an email so we can plan to get together.

All Aboard for Providence

He rarely lets me take his picture these days, that's why I post so many pictures of food, quilts and other non-Logan photos. But, I persuaded him that this would be the picture I would give to the police if he failed to turn up in Providence this evening. Guess I won't be needing it.

He's a pretty experienced and savvy traveler and he checks in with me at each transfer point along the way,  but I'm still a very crazy woman until I know he has arrived safely and then I calm down to my normal sort of crazy woman state.

He thinks his T-shirt is pretty cool because it is a FOOTBALL T-shirt and he's sure it will impress everyone he encounters in the Chicago airport while he waits for the second leg of his flight. Little does he know they will only see the word OZARK and wonder where in the Ozarks he is from.

Cousin Tom, Nichole, and Mallaika will host him for a week and show him some of the sights between Providence and Salem, MA. They'll probably check out some historical stuff, some silly stuff, and some colleges.

While Logan was traveling half way across the country, Ben was at the Bull Shoals field station watering the cane they had planted during his GLADE week. If I understand the project, I think they are trying to restore habitat to encourage an increase in the numbers of Swainson's Warblers, rare birds that like to hang out in giant cane. It's been a struggle for the new starts of the cane to take hold because of the heat and drought conditions we've experienced in the past couple of weeks.  Some of the cane is hanging in there, but no warblers yet. Ben did bring home a few inchworm specimens he intends to nurture while they turn into moths. He is really enjoying the afterglow from GLADE

It's His Story

 The autograph conga line where nearly everyone signed nearly everyone's shirts. Ben chose to wear his back pack to keep his shirt pristine. He gathered names and email addresses in a notebook.

 More autographing takes place in the shade of the dining commons. In the background is the stone building where Ben slept (not air-conditioned and containing the kitchen which was womanned by the amazing Martha Swick who planned and prepared vegetarian, vegan, gluten-free, and traditional meals for a couple dozen people three times a day). The same building housed the boys for the week. The big excitement was the seven false fire alarms in one night -- not too much sleep that night. 

Here's the cast and crew of GLADE 2012. Note Ben front and center.

I wasn't there, so I can't tell you what it really meant to Ben. But, my impression is that it was one of the most important weeks of his life. He developed trust and friendship with the entire group, learned a bunch, and had tons of fun. On Thursday night, Greg Swick, the director, called me and said that Ben had been deeply touched by a song performed by a visiting folk-singer. The lyrics told of a red-headed woman and a man in prison. It moved Ben to want to share his story with the group when they gathered on a bluff overlooking the lake at dusk. Ben spoke to Greg about it to clear it with him and Greg in turn called me to see if I was okay with Ben sharing his story with the group. I said, yes, it was Ben's story and if he felt safe sharing it, and wanted to, then he should. And he did. And he moved many people to tears and unleashed a bonding I'm sure he'll carry with him forever. Some moments you never forget. 

The Week That Was

 Valery has come and gone and I miss her so much. She's been gone from Ozark for about 10 hours and is now visiting Kevin and Rachel in Kansas City before returning to Sacramento tomorrow. She did an amazing amount of house work helping me to prepare my house for showing and hopefully, selling. But, we also took some time out for fun. She arrived on Saturday and I immediately put her to work helping me prepare to host a book club meeting on Monday night. We read The Art of Racing in the Rain and I gave Valery my copy to read before the meeting. It's a light book and a quick read, so she was able to finish it and participate in the discussion. It's a good group and we had a good discussion even if it wasn't a real meaty book. Nice women, good food, a beautiful evening, who could ask for more?

My friend Sue Walker mentioned a few weeks ago that kayaking was on her bucket list. She'd never tried it and wanted to give it a whirl. I told her my sister has done quite a bit of kayaking and would be coming to visit and I suggested that an outing with Ben, Logan and the two women might be fun. I volunteered to hold down the picnic table while they did their thing on the water. At the last minute, Sue's husband, John, decided he would also like to try kayaking. Problem is, the wind had come up and no kayaks were being rented. So, we had a picnic and observed wildlife at Lake Springfield. 

 Wild life included these turtle eggs by the side of the lake. Valery reports that they had disappeared by the next day. Valery's friend, Ron, interrupted his visit with his sister in Tennessee to drive over to Missouri and spend a couple of days with us. Naturally, I found a couple of chores to keep him busy.

 

This morning we went to the Farmer's Market in Springfield and I picked up a week's supply of vegetables from Sarah at Millsap Farm's booth.The produce was gorgeous, it was good to see Sarah again, and the market is really splendid. We tried to make it to Ozark's Thursday night market, but it was folding up just as we arrived, although I did manage did buy a couple dozen eggs.

 Here's a quilt I finished at long last. I wanted it quilted by a professional long arm quilter, but I had a tough time finding someone to do custom quilting for me. All the really good quilters have such long waiting lists that you never get to the top of the list unless you have an "in" with them. I finally found someone (Vickie Crowe) who had a list only about three months long and here's the result: 

:

The color in the picture of the whole quilt is more accurate, the bottom one is too yellow, but if you click on the bottom photo, you can see the quilting detail pretty well. I think she did a beautiful job.

Season Finale

In the middle of this picture, the red-headed section leader of the front line plays his part on the vibes. Because I was at ground level when I took the picture, you can't see the drum line carrying on behind the keyboards. It was a good show, but not their best -- wait till next year!

Saturday's show was the season finale and regional championship competition. Drum corps' from all over Missouri and parts of Kansas descended on our little town and left behind several thousand dollars to sweeten the coffers of the Ozark High School Band and to fund much of next year's activities. This one day effort sure beats selling Christmas wrap and frozen cookie dough! And it was very well executed thanks to some great parent and student volunteers.

With Winter Drum Line and Speech and Debate season at a close, my taxi service goes into semi-retirement. The trio of activities demanding after-hours practice remaining on the calendar -- off-season football training, the spring Chorale Concert, and Woodwind Symphony (Ben plays tympani) -- have yet to wrap-up, but for the most part we have begun the long gradual slide into summer. Then we'll launch into band and football camps and summer school. Hopefully, by then we'll have a second car.

Today's gorgeous weather means I have to make a trip to Lowes' for weed killer. Everything green thing in the Ozarks has erupted during the past couple of weeks of warm and wet weather. Mowing season is back with us, bird nests are all over the place, and the bugs have returned. Ben hates the mowing and weed-killing -- he sees it as the destruction of insect habitat. I like it for the same reason!

Many Pictures, Few Words

Logan, looking good in the ninth grade, 2011 (the braces come off in October!)

School Picture, Ben, 2011 (So handsome and grown up!)

Logan, as he sees himself (at 6"1" - 180 pounds)

Valery and Logan ride bikes at the American RiverValery and the boys, Robby, Ben and Logan - this taken at Lake Tahoe.

A trio of car climbers at Rick and Kathy's Toad Ranch

Brother Rick and SIL Kathy celebrating her 65th birthday at Toad Ranch. I think they are starting to look alike.

Sister Valery at the Toad Ranch birthday celebration. Doesn't she look great in her pretty dress?
Thanks for all of these photos, Val, (except the school pix).