Adam

Its always a treat when Uncle Adam comes to town. He makes everyone happy. Truly. Adam is like a little buddha (well, big buddha). He judges no ones, loves everyone, and inspires those who meet him to do the same. We were blessed with a week of Adam, preceded and followed by several great days with my parents. We packed a lot into those 2 weeks. I took full advantage of having another set of hands on the property. Adam donned work clothes, work gloves and a permagrin as he helped us load and unload compost from the truck, haul rock (don't worry, small rocks) and even look after Jonah a wee bit. It wasn't all blood, sweat and tears though. Adam joined the Gathering Place as he does every time he visits and he made dog biscuits, experimented with cooking and made some fantastic art, which might be included in this year's calendar (his second calendar appearance). Adam and Jonah watched movies together, though I know Adam was glad when Jonah was napping and he was able to geek out on the weather channel in peace. Adam treated us to lunch at the various taco joints in town. Gina cozied up in Adam's bed every night which was really sweet, though Fela found it inconceivable. Adam received a doctor's examination from Dr Jonah and was declared fit and healthy. Adam pushed the stroller on Jonah's naptime walk and we enjoyed walking together in silence.

Pizza Maestro

A Continued Catch Up

Life has been very busy on the Temple Land as of late. My Thai Massage studio is complete with a beautiful new cork floor, walnut trim, milk paint walls, and other lovely accents. Thanks Jason. I'm booking appointments on a regular basis and you too, can experience the magic. check out www.templethaimassage.net Aunty Wissa (formally known as my sister, Alissa) ventured from Sydney to visit us in February. Yes, I'm actually recapping a February event in a June posting - so what? We continued the seating bench around the firepit, replacing the old wooden one with urbanite and cob. I can't remember what else we did because it was so long ago. But I know we had a great time, as always and we're already looking forward to her next visit March 2013. On a slightly more raw and earthy topic, a new compost hacienda has replaced our monstrous compost box that has been quietly cooking our waste for the last 2 1/2 years. We decided to transfer the old pile, which wasn't quite done curing, into its new home. Quite a fascinating thing to shovel out a 4 cubic foot universe of kitchen scraps, humanure, straw, sawdust and lord knows what else. The very bottom of the pile, which had been aged for over 2 years was fed to the raspberries and also filled a new garden bed at the foot of the massage studio. The floor of the cob building was excavated down several inches and more brainstorming done on the new design of this little dwelling. Only 3 months stand between us and the second annual Complete Cob workshop and the workshop promises to be even better than last year. Jason's masonry heater business is off to a great start with a beautiful heater in uptown Port Townsend. Check out www.templefire.net for pictures. A shower house in the low meadow is nearly complete and once finished, will be enjoyed by our renter, Jo and dirty workshop participants. Maybe Fela too. Come to think of it, I might be down there too. The garden has expanded into the dry barren hillside behind the house. Thanks to the dutiful leaf raking and piling efforts of my friend and neighbor, Barbara, I have heaved several truck loads of leaf mold and compost from her yard into mine with hopes that it will decompose, add fertility, catch water and increase the "bio" by several million orders of magnitude. And if you think I occasionally take wine breaks in the garden with Fela, you are right. Hydration is extremely important. Also important is keeping safe and Jonah swears to me daily that he will keep me safe from sharks, alligators and spiky fish. And then he asks what I will keep him safe from. I try to mumble something about overhanging cliffs, STDs and pleated pants. He wrapped his arms around my neck today and told me I was his best friend. I choked to hold back my sobbing screams of joy and happiness. The love I feel for this child threaten to obliterate my heart and I wouldn't have it any other way. Of course, I know our days are numbered and soon he'll pretend not to know who I am, only calling on me to pick him and his friends up from the Silverdale mall. On another note, Gina caught 2 baby bunnies and managed to injure one bad enough that I had to "let it go into the forest to be fixed by its Mama with bandaids and special cream". Which, of course, actually meant I fed it to Fela. Gina wears a bell when she goes outside but apparently is still as stealthy as a ninja. And as deadly. She's the alpha of all of us, in case you didn't know. Thank you to the Colliers for royally screwing up our hierarchy but damn, I do love that cat. And she loves me too. moving on. I did, in fact, strut the catwalk in the 2012 Wearable Art Show wearing a creation by the fabulously talented Paula Lalish. My jacket was made from 5 miles of crocheted VHS tape, my first dress of red stretchy something with blinking boobs and the second dress was chalked up like a side of beef, declaring Hollywood's vision of women. Silver tights and winged black boots completed the outfit. Thats right. And I wore it proudly and Donna Summer sang my song, "She works Hard for the Money" and what a fitting tribute, as she died shortly after the show. Thank you Donna Summer for being amazing. I actually choreographed and performed a dance for myself in front of mirrored wall when I was 8 to this song. I just wish one mile of the VHS tape I wore in the jacket had captured the dance. Jonah competed in the Rhododendron Festival trike race, rallying against other 3 year olds for glory and fame. He enjoyed it so much that he decided to ride again in the kiddie parade though he was confused about why there were no cats in the procession. kiddy cats. He was the only competitor in the "bike and trike" division for a while, though some baby joined in wearing a sailor outfit and won 1st place. Jonah won second place. out of 2 but who cares because yours truly got to walk in the parade as well holding one end of a rope tied to Jonah's trike. See the parade took place down steep roads and I could just imagine Jonah careening down the streets and ending up in the drink. So I walked him on the end of a leash, actually a neon tie down strap. carrying a purse and wearing my gardening hat. Anyway, we've had such stellar weather lately that I'm digging out sunscreen, wide brimmed hats and watermelon. Of course, the dreaded June-uary is around the corner so I haven't completely put away the woolens. Ah yes, maritime weather. And yes, the continued catch up continues - June-uary has arrived with all its dreaded gloom. We actually lit a fire in the wood stove last week. twice. And the shorts and skirts got pushed to the back of the drawer and I began wearing 2 new wool jumpers. I better mention the tractor festival on Marrowstone Island that Jonah and Jason attended for the second year in a row. I was knee deep in Thai Massage and Yoga class and couldn't join them. Jonah was in his glory. I best end this now or the "continued catch up" will continue all winter long. wait, I mean all spring long. summer starts in a week!

Blog? What Blog?

I know what you are thinking. I thought the same but like a phoenix from the flames, the blog has risen from the fires of neglect and procrastination to once again appear on your screen. But after two months of silence, where do I begin? What do I tell you? So much has happened, I don't know where to start. So I will let the photos do the talking. Oh, speaking of talking, though I've forgotten many of the recent colloquialisms, I can tell you that most of Jonah's sentences begin with "well," and he knows exactly how to use the word "actually". He likes to talk septic systems vs compost toilets and is, in his words, "really into big machines". From the moment he closes his eyes at night, to the moment they open in the morning, he is a burst of energy, a flurry of questions, of remembrances and plans and of statements that usually concern fur, firetrucks and ferry boats. All bed times stories must involve 3 cats named Gina, Cindy and Rupert and a group of rabbits named Hank, Barbara, Herbert and Paul....

Jonah loves to work with me outside. Sometimes I wonder if I shouldn't be shuttling him off to a playdate or preschool or some organized crafting kumbaya read at the library. These things are great and have wonderful value and yes, I should do a bit more of them. But Jonah (and Mama) are very happy to stay home and be in the garden. Or make bread. Or hang laundry on sunny days. We like to take the truck out (no airbags, thanks for checking) and return with a load of leaf litter or firewood or gravel. He loves to be a part of whatever I am doing and perhaps his greatest desire is to be alone in Jason's workshop touching tools, singing the theme song to Bob the Builder. He rakes, he digs, he cuts, he saws, he excavates, scoops and dumps.

I recently took a SOLO trip to Australia to take part in a historic venture back to my family's roots. My grandparents, Mum and Uncle lived in the outback for years and we've been hearing stories about these properties and the lives lived for a long time. In honor of my Nanna's 85th birthday, a trip was planned by my sister, Aunt and Mum and thanks to some parental funding, I went along. It was an amazing trip, to say the least. We traveled by train into the outback to visit a couple of the large properties my family lived on in the 1950's. At Wanda station, we sat on the verandah of the home my grandad built and ate huge yabbies (think crawfish + lobster + steroids) and drank beer (not nanna) and talked at length with the new owner about the past and present. We wandered around the woolshed (also built by grandad) where sheep are still shorn and the wool pressed with a huge antique woolpress. We could smell the scent of lanolin and deadly spider breath. We visited the MadMax museum and stood overlooking Mundi Mundi plains, a place so flat and expansive, I swore I could see the curvature of the earth. At the local pub in Menindee, my nanna stood, walking stick in hand, surrounded by locals and she regaled them all with tales of flood, car accidents and pet kangaroos. It was in a word, phenomenal.

Also phenomenal was taking care of only myself for over 2 weeks, though by the end I began to feel useless and wandered around trying to spoon feed strangers and wipe their bottoms. It was a great trip for me and Jonah had a wonderful time with his Daddy. They went to the opening of the farmers market, they enjoyed the playground, they hiked, they fished, they ate a lot of ice cream and pizza, they said goodbye to winter and hello to spring, they bonded.