Six years later…

Well well well… time has a way of changing things… but the more things change, the more they stay the same … isn’t that how the saying goes? 

We moved from our hillside property almost 5 years ago to guess where? A city! My girls have been able to experience school in a larger city and attend a bigger high school. It was my dream that they seize the many opportunities for organized athletics, academics, art, church and a teenage social scene. The move has been a blessing for them; along with myself and my husband. His commute is so much better and I have a home office for part time work again. 

We built a chicken coop during the early days of Covid and our three hens will be four years old this spring. I find comfort in our quarter acre which is nestled against a ‘greenbelt’ here in the city. We traded the pine trees for plenty of monstrously mature oaks and our house has a hillside again, as the backyard is seriously sloped. 

The rhythm of this new city life reminds me often of the house where the girls grew up and how isolated I felt at times while living there. We rarely if ever had anyone walking down the road. Mostly just turkeys and squirrels. It is so comforting to see people now and get a glimpse of their routines during the day. It’s even more entertaining when they are walking their dogs. While we have many of the wonderful conveniences of city living of course there is more traffic, noise etc. But I have found the trade off a happy medium. I am close to our wonderful church, amazing dining options, shopping, doctors, a hospital and also my dad moved up here from Southern California.  

Best of all the girls have learned their driving skills with [gasp] street lights! 

 

Indian Ocean

The Indian Ocean was so different. It looked similar to maybe the Atlantic Ocean from afar -  kind of gray but then in patches shades of blue ... I walked down from the beach club and slowly into it and was so pleasantly surprised when I expected it to be cold like the Pacific and it was WARM! Not uncomfortably warm, it was just perfect... Amazing ... I walked around and found a few shells to bring back for the girls. The idyllic waves washed in and out. It was low tide in the afternoon. I loved how it felt being in a whole other hemisphere and seeing an ocean I had never touched before. 

Red Fox

Update on my hair situation... so I had posted a while back that I was going to let my inner Silver Fox out! Well... it just took too LONG! And my hair grows relatively fast ...  I just couldn’t do it yet... back with the Red! LOL ... maybe when I have time to sit and watch it grow slowly in my sixties hahahaha... I feel TERRIFIC continuing as a redhead-43 and Fabulous-Rock On!

Bali and stuff...

it’s been a while... Since January! I just returned two weeks ago from an AMAZING trip to Bali. My youngest brother was married there and I was blessed to be able to travel there on my own to meet up with my siblings and mom to celebrate! What a trip. Not only was it a trip getting ready to go physically and mentally - (with hepatitis A shot, malaria and typhoid pills to take beforehand) I’m one of those cautious travelers LOL. ... the lengthy plane ride was enough to scare me it was 2 hour drive from our foothills home to San Francisco Airport, then of course my husband got me there like 4 hours early! The first leg of my flight was 13 hours non-stop to Taipei ... what a cool airport! So much to see - I had a 4 hour layover and loved that then I connected in Taipei to the 5 hour flight to Bali. So do able after being in the airplane after that long!!! When I arrived in Bali it was two days later - talk about time travel and the humidity is definitely the first thing you notice. ITS INSANELY HUMID. Have never experienced this type of humidity in my life before. The taxi driver at the airport thought I was from Australia since so many Aussies had been on holiday there recently. I will post more soon.

Gold Dust Croton

I brought a new Beauty home with me yesterday and I figured out what type of plant it is this morning - it didn’t have a tag yesterday when I fell in love with it. So I just brought it home I couldn’t leave it at the store! Here she is ENJOY! And what a fitting name - matches the blog... couldn’t believe it ❤️

Metamorphosis II

I posted almost 8 years ago about a poster/picture I had come across titled,
‘Metamorphosis’ little would I know that almost eight years would come and go so quickly I have been busy BEING ... Going through my own metamorphosis... I had big plans to keep up my blogging back then but life takes over and growing two girls and life just happens — I guess there is no real excuse. I let it fall to the wayside. I am glad to have picked it up again. The writing that is. So glad. It has been almost 12 years since we moved up here to the Sierra foothills from the city and fast paced lifestyle of the Los Angeles area... so much has changed. I still feel the same tug of the city whenever I go or long for working nine to five back in downtown Los Angeles when I see pictures of a cityscape or high rise ... but all in all this life style has been a good reset for us. A great place to raise children and animals. Slower life in general. I can’t believe how crowded it is down in Southern California! we were just down there again for Christmas and traffic alone slaps you back into reality real quick. Where do all of the people come from good God! Disneyland was so packed for the holidays I know Walt Disney is probably rolling over in his grave no matter how much money they are making — it wasn’t meant to be such a sardine can while you wait for rides at the ‘Magic Kingdom.’ One great souvenir we did come home with was the FLU. But that’s a whole other post.

Ms. Gentle

We have a hen who is nearing 10 years old who has survived attacking bears, foxes, raccoons, and most recently a Christmas vacation bobcat in the yard who took her lookalike sister hen Shadow - we originally thought Gentle had died but it was Shadow the much younger Australorp hen her lookalike twin. Only my two daughters can tell them apart.
Today my youngest came rushing in and told me that her tail feathers needed cleaning and she was coughing again. Oh not again. Poor bird. I told her to get some paper towels and start to get her cleaned off on her own. It is imperative to keep a hen’s vent clear and clean. They can get so sick. That is not what she wanted to hear... At first she would not do it I had to give her a pep talk and told her take care of it! I am so proud of my daughters ... this time I took my time getting out to the yard I want them to start getting the hang of hen/bird care on their own since I usually do it all. By the time I arrived the bird had been cleaned and they were coaxing her to eat - she had also been ‘diagnosed’ by my eldest with the smallest cough again and my daughter urged me to mix up her ‘medicine water.’
Poor Gentle. Age may be getting the best of her. She was walking around so slowly and seems thinner than her usual glorious black and greenish feathered full bodied self. She is one of our largest hens. She is one of our original six baby chicks from so long ago, I had ordered a pair of Jersey Giants but she’s an Australorp. Gorgeous. I mixed up the grapefruit seed oil with water and we fed her three heaping beak fulls of it. Tomorrow we will repeat. Only time will tell.