Tree of Texture

I'm calling this "Tree of Texture". My plan is to make a carved stamp or maybe have a thermofax screen made of this image. I think it would be a great start for a series. I'm writing this down to remind myself later, hope it works!

I took this photo on a recent field trip to Mt. Hermon for my son's 6th grade class, they went to do the ropes course. Which involved climbing waaaaaay up the redwood trees and jumping off. With safety ropes of course! It was hard to watch. I had to practically sit on my hands and gag myself so I wouldn't be yelling out various "mom-isms" at them (like Watch Out, or Get Down! for instance). This was supposed to be a team building exercise, and I think it was, in a strange sort of way. The kids egged each other on and cheered when they overcame their fears and tried stuff they couldn't have on their own.

House Progressing towards completion

Our house, under construction on November 18th. Sorry about the finger in the shot, but I was taking this at the absolute wrong time of the morning!

Here are the rooms framed in, in the addition, it is all sealed up now to the outside elements.

We have to climb a ladder now to get up into the addition. Here is Alex encouraging me up the ladder. He knows I have a ladder phobia.

Spike the teenager cat, checking out the hole for the laundry chute. I may be carrying laundry upstairs, but not downstairs anymore!

Here you can see the old part of the house, that window is the upstairs bathroom window, and then the new beams and roof and vents. Kind of neat to see it all together.

Here is my former studio, soon to be the master bathroom. I don't know who this master is, I hope he will share the new bathroom with us...

Back down the hatch we go.

Oh my goodness, here it is today, looks like a whole house once more!

Don't Look at the Sun!

Don't look at the sun! One of the fun things with a camera is to make it look at the sun for you. Saves your eyes, and sometimes results in an interesting picture.
I'm trying to spend some time outside each day when there is sun and see if it improves my mood.
So anyways, this is the view off of our deck in the late afternoon.
We are debating cutting down the three trees in the foreground as they are growing so quickly, soon we will have only a view of them.
It is hard when you live in a forest to keep your view open. But I hesitate because they are so beautiful, young and strong. They are doing just what they are supposed to do, and I am set to destroy them just because they are in my way. Is it immoral, I wonder? It isn't as if having this view off our deck is essential to our continuing on in a living state. We would use them for firewood, so at least they wouldn't go to waste. It would give other trees and shrubs a chance for the sunlight, so they could grow. I go back and forth, and they continue growing up and out, year by year.
Maybe if the chainsaw that got left out in the rainstorm this week starts, I'll take that as sign that this is the year they go.

Poetry Thursday

Thursday already?!! That must mean Poetry Thursday, this week we are encouraged to lie. Like a rug covered in lemon curd.
Here's my contribution. The photo is one that I took yesterday of the one remaining lemon on my lemon tree.

Lemon with a view
by Julie Zaccone Stiller

The lemon is terrible sad today.
Being the last on the tree is a lonely business,
I mistakenly assumed.

"No! That isn't it" she sobbed.
"It is so frustrating to see the candles get used
every single day. They tempt me with their
subtle fire to forget that I am only a fruit and
a sour one at that.
I wish I could roll out of this tree and smash them flat.
And I'd knock over that vase that keeps taunting me.
Filled as she is with sweet water and fragrant flowers.
I hope that bitch breaks into a million pieces."

Fed up with the ranting of this bitter lemon,
I plucked her roughly off the tree.
Turning towards the view I chucked her as far
as I could manage away from my house.

We have enough bitterness thankyouverymuch.
Now what will I put in my evening cocktail?
Something sweet this time, I think.

Ladder to the Sky

This is the view from one of our new upstairs bedrooms. (Before the window is put in.) It shows the hillside where our road comes down and in the foreground is an apple tree thinking about chucking all of its leaves off at once.
This picture isn't all that old, but I'm already missing the dry dry hot hot first week of November. Now it has turned rainy and cold, where the house is colder inside than out. And all the chairs are wet so you can't sit in the occasional sunshine without bringing your own dry towel. Whinge. Someone better get me a SAD light for my birthday!

Happy Birthday to my new Teenager

Having a son who just turned 13 requires a special kind of birthday cake. With dripping blood, soccer carnage, mutant dinosaurs and bugs, tiki symbols and candles that don't go out. Oh and four layers. Yes, four cake layers, which also means four frosting layers. Yum. Had to stabilize with drinking straws punched through. Looked pretty impressive though. And you should have seen how big his eyes got!
We are just getting used to him being a teenager, although it has been sneaking up on us for a while. It certainly hasn't happened suddently, overnight. But there is a difference in how he carries himself, more self assured and confident. And a marked increase in attention to grooming (hah!). He's a booger around his little brother, but on his own he is quite fun to be with.
Yesterday we had an errand to do and he wanted to go spend his birthday money at the mall. On the way we started talking about cars and he mentioned how he really wanted to save up for a Scion XB. So I took him to the dealership, and we picked up all the info brochures, a free cd of thumping music, and sat in one of them for a while to twiddle all the knobs. It was so cute, I went to get in on the passenger side and he did too. I put my hands up(yes up!) on his shoulders looked him in the eye and said "driver's side dude"". Got a big grin from that one.

He is turning into a wonderful separate human being slowly but surely. Which is thrilling and painful at the same time.

Vote or Else!

Did you Vote today??

Halfway to Glam

For Self-Portrait Challenge this month the topic is Glam.
So here I am as of today, only halfway from last months' study of imperfections, on the road to glam.
Note: It is really quite hard to makeup only one side of your face! Those automatic reflexes kick in without any conscious thought. Luckily no one came calling before I could scrub half of myself clean since I look pretty darned demented!

Mystery Picture

What is it?

Can you guess now?

Yup, a banana slug. Right at eye height. Climbing across the screen door on a rainy day.

Halloween Summary

The Four Halloween Spooky pumpkins, it was a windy night, but they stayed lit!

Dear Son Alex as a Vampire Army Bunny. (don't ask me, he made it up, I just drilled the holes in the army helmet!)

Dear Son Zach who went as "Hi, My name is GOD" . No one got his costume. Several were offended. But that was what he decided on, after watching the movie Dogma.

Here's my favorite picture from Halloween. The pumpkin seeds, soaking in saltwater. This year was the best ever, I used three kinds of salt when they were in the cooking tray, regular, Sea salt and Japanese salt. yummm.
I am bummed that I didn't get a pic of myself. I bought a new witch hat finally, and it looked rather nice, plus I did a good job on my makeup. Oh well. maybe next year!