A Preview of Spring 2013

Not too many words in this post.  

Just photos of nature waking up in the back yard on Healdsburg Avenue.

In January --

First Color with Anemones

Faithful Paperwhites

 
In February --

The First Camellia of the Year

One of the Many Wonderful Daphnes

In March, the madness begins --

First Artichoke of 2013

 

Grape Hyacinths

and continues --

Bosc Pear Blossoms

Braeburn Apple Blossoms

and continues --

Asparagus - Year 2

Asparagus - Year 2

and goes on --

Oak Leaf Geraniums in Winter Confinement

Lemon Scented Geranium Wintering inside Shed

and on --

Propagating Favorite Roses

The Thyme that Flourished during the Winter

 ...and keeping watch all year long --

The Redwood at 620

We need a little Christmas, We need a little Christmas now!

December 14, 2012.  

The Pootatuck River in Sandy Hook

The first inkling I had that something was wrong was when I saw an entry on Facebook posted by my niece that read "Many prayers are needed in Newtown."  Then the sketchy reports of online news services, confirming the mass shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School, ushered in a week that I think is the saddest I have ever spent.  

I don't know if our family's connection to Sandy Hook in Newtown made the events of December 14th more horrible in my mind than it may have been in the minds of others.  Or, maybe the savagery of the attack at the school was so horrendous that, around the nation, we all felt equally sickened and unable to adequately process our feelings.  All I do know is that I spent the better part of a week drawn to the daily news of frustrating and unbearable heartbreak.  I spent the week trying to will strength and love and mental health to the families of those affected.  I spent the week thinking about my family, friends, all those close to me who mean so much to me.  

I spent time thinking about my own teachers over the years, and thinking about friends who have been teachers themselves and who have helped to raise thousands of schoolchildren in their careers.  Debby Palmer, Pat White, Joe Somok, we owe you big time for the dedication you gave day after day to the little ones entrusted to your care.  Thank the Lord that you and your children remained safe.
 
With the last funerals in Newtown taking place on Saturday, I was able to begin to change my obsession with the tragedy to something closer to a resolve.  A resolve that I will be be pro-active in the discussion of guns and mental health.  

I need a Christmas, a Christmas to get me out of the past week's funk of shock, horror, and sadness.  I need a little Christmas now!

From The Newtown Bee -- Editorial Ink Drops:

First Steps To The Future

It is difficult to think about the future when the crucible of the present moment is still too hot to touch.  But we do know that when Newtown emerges from this awful and intense chapter of its continuing  story, things will be different. The trauma of this time, the sorrow it has stitched into our hearts,  and this new enduring suspicion that security is a mirage, will frame the future we construct for ourselves. It is gratifying to know our first steps away from this painful present will be taken in honor of those we  have lost: a detailed and thorough police investigation of why so many good people had to die at  Sandy Hook Elementary School on December 14; an outpouring of material support for those  most grievously hurt by the crime that took those lives; and tributes and memorials now under  consideration or soon-to-be-proposed so that we never forget this time. This is where we need  to start so that we do not keep circling back around to unresolved questions about what this tragedy  means to us as a town. All we know for sure is that this is the season when we defy the darkness with celebrations of coming  birth and renewal. And with those celebrations, light creeps back into the world.  While its return may  be slow at first, it is as certain and as unstoppable as the sun.  (Copyright © 1999-2012 Bee Publishing Company)

December 22, 2012 - a week later --
MY ESCAPE TO OREGON

The joy of living near a small commercial airport, Charles Schultz Airport in Santa Rosa (home of Peanuts, Linus, Schroeder, Margaret, etal), was experienced on Sunday, the 23rd of December, when I climbed aboard a flight to Portland where I would catch a flight to Bend, Oregon.  Counting the 10 minute drive to the airport, the entire journey took just over 3 hours.  Less time than a Harry Potter movie!

Arriving in Bend and seeing that it was covered in new-fallen snow, I realized it's been many years since this New Englander has had a White Christmas.  The family sent a driver with studded snow tires to get me at the airport.  Twenty minutes later I was surrounded by Brother Dick and his Wife Fran, Nephew Brandon and his Wife Jodi, and new Grand Niece, Stella Nicole, who is 10 weeks old.  We were gathered in a cozy and warm house on the side of a snow-covered mountain.  

Wonderland

Dick and Fran have come up from San Diego to spend time with their first granddaughter.  This opportunity to meet Stella was extended to me, her Grand Uncle, and to Fran's sister Nicole, her Grand Aunt.  Sadly however, Nicole and her family had to cancel the trip due to an emergency surgery.  Stella is a healthy, happy little girl.  Hardly any crying, and lots of inquisitiveness in the big blue eyes.

Stella and her Gram

Wonderful food and togetherness.  Food like families have.  Not food like a single getting-older man has.  Pork chops and a board game on the 23rd.  Cioppino and snowfall on Christmas Eve.  And prime rib and Yorkshire pudding on Christmas Day.  

While unwrapping our gifts, a small package from our Sister in Connecticut had a gift card that read, "this gift is for all of you!"  For as long as I can remember, our family at holiday dinners always had celery stuffed with something Kraft Foods called "Roka Blue Cheese" that came in a little glass jar   At our house it was as honored a tradition as was canned jellied cranberry sauce from Ocean Spray.  But, for several years now the product hasn't been on the shelves at the market.  Can't find it anywhere.  It's been gone so long that a new generation of store personnel doesn't know what I'm talking about.  And it's been missed so much by Brother Dick (and the rest of us) that enterprising Sister-in-law Fran made her own version last year by mixing cream cheese with a hunk of real blue cheese.  Not the same, however.  So, getting back to this Christmas morning.  Maureen had sent us a jar of original "Roka Blue Cheese!"  I understand she found a source online, bought herself several jars, and shared one with us.  Each jar cost 10 times what it normally would, but it's worth it to get stuffed celery back on the menu!  

Stayed another day and night and came back to Charles Schultz Airport on the 27th.  The airport recently moved it's luggage retrieval off the tarmac and has built a carousel inside.  They've also enlarged the waiting room, but it is still an easy friendly place.  It's about the size that SFO was back in the 1970's when I started those bi-coastal years.  Used to be able to leave The City and 20 minutes later park my car and run across the road to the terminal.  No longer.  But that's the way it is now at Charles Schultz.  Hope is stays that way for a long long time.  

Picked up the pooch from the "pet resort" (not that he was anxious to leave his friends there) and was home in no time.  Sandy Hook continues to cope with its tragedy.  The reality is that it will never be far from my/our consciousness.  But, thanks Brandon and Jodi for a nice warm, yet snowy, Christmas in Oregon.  And best wishes for lots of happy warm Christmases to come for you and my Grand Niece, Stella Nicole!   

It's Been a While, Folks!

They say time flies when you're having fun -- it's been almost a year since I've written -- so I guess I've been having lots of fun...(actually, I have been).  

Too Much Free Time?

Where to begin?  

DOG:  Well, Topper turned 4 years old in January.  He has become a wonderful, lovable, well-mannered pooch.  The transformation from that first year, when he bounced off the walls and did not hear one word I said, to now, being Topper Grown-Up Dog, is amazing. He still often races with wild abandon from room to room, leaving 125 year-old soft fir floors the worse for wear in his wake.  He still hears imaginary visitors walking up the front steps several times a day.  He still freaks out when Sam the Cat dares to stroll along the back fence.  He still has his allergies and itches, but enjoys his special diet and takes his meds.  So while things aren't idyllic, they are definitely under control.  He loves to go to his day-care/camp.  When we get there, he drags me through the door.  That place is heaven magnified a hundred times for a wire fox terrier.  While there, all the dogs get to play together, so his usual at-home slower paced day is put aside.  And later, when I pick him up to go home, he curls up in the back seat of the car and, plumb tuckered out, falls asleep within minutes

Yes, We've Been Talking about You

ANCESTRY:  Talking about how fast time flies:  I've spent many days this past year working on our family's history.  Not only have we gotten from way back then to right now in a flash, but also, when working on this, it seems it's quickly 2 a.m. each day before I know it.

Back in the 1980's I was fortunate enough to have asked aunts and uncles lots of questions about what they remembered of their older relatives.  They relayed stories and found old photos and clippings for me.  That, then, formed the basis for the present research.  And now, through ancestry.com I've met 2nd and 3rd cousins, of whom I previously knew nothing, who are doing ancestry research also.  We are able to collaborate on common family lines, and it's been very rewarding.  

Jerome, the son of one 2nd cousin, has built an amazing documented family tree with over 60,000 (!) people in it and has shared a huge amount of his research with me.  Joan, the wife of another 2nd cousin, had written three times in the 1970's to my (unresponding) aunt asking for information about her husband's family.  I came across those letters after my aunt died in 2000 and now, more than 30 years later, I was able to find this lady, and we've corresponded.  Joan is a genealogist (among other things) in real life and has had books published of her family's histories.  Also, in the meantime, as a gift to her husband, she did a very comprehensive search of his ancestry and produced a genealogical report going back several generations.  And...since her husband and I have the same great-grandparents, his family is my family too!   Jerome and Joan have each traveled to towns where our ancestors had lived, and visited the town halls, newspaper offices, churches where the relevant 18th and 19th century records were kept.  What a trove of information they have unearthed, recorded, and shared with me.  Thank you, Jerome, and thank you, Joan!

I did my own sleuthing in Bavaria last spring.  I spent a day at the Catholic Church Central Archives in Würzburg and poured through meticulously-kept microfiche of pages from 18th and 19th century church ledgers from St. Stephen's Pfarrei (parish) in Wülfershausen-an-der-Saale where I found birth, marriage, and death records of my maternal grandmother's family going back to the 1700's (until the German script turned into an even older version I was unfamiliar with).  Other days, I tramped around cemeteries, finding headstones of long-lost relatives indicating the dates and places of their lives.  

The walled churchyard of old St. Stephen's Kirche in Wülfershausen-an-der-Saale in the foreground.
The steeple in the photo is the newer Church of St. Vitus in the middle of the village.

I must tell you about my sister-in-law's branch of the tree.  I've been able to trace her family back directly to Gaius Julius Caesar I, II, and III, by way of a woman, Flavia Maximiana Fausta, the mother of a certain King of Brittany, born in a.d. 305, named...wait for it... Conan (the Barbarian, no less!).  (That explains a lot!  lol)

GARDEN:  What else has been happening during the last 12 months?  Almost went overseas again at Christmas, but didn't.  Been mainly hanging around the house.  Spending lots of time on the "new" one year-old deck and in the "new" two year-old renovated shed/studio. 

Our Favorite Spot to Enjoy Fresh Northern California Air

I do a lot of my writing and ancestry work in the shed.  Topper snoozes on the daybed (and makes room for me at times) while I play Ernest Hemingway, John Updike, or whoever writing whatever. 

Nap Time in the Shed

But, of course, as I'm wont to daydream and thereby gaze out the windows, I oft see things that need some attention in the gardens.  And then the day becomes a little of this and a little of that (all unplanned)!  Here are some of this year's spring and summer blooms, borne of that puttering:

Gillian Blades

Spring Iris - 2012

Artichokes - 2012

South Porch Tree Roses

North Hydrangea

Volunteer Sunflowers

A Natural "Spray" of Karl Lagerfeld Roses

First Year Asparagus Patch Gaining Strength -- Yay!

When in Rome - (Lunedi -- la mia serata finale a Roma)

Monday evening -- my last evening in Rome. 

Dana and Tom have invited me to their home for dinner tonight.  I haven't seen them for quite a while.  They left NYC two years ago for a year-long visit to Rome.  That one year has now extended into its third year!  They live in a very old building deep in the Monte Rione section of Rome, near Trajan's Forum, so I head out to the Via Cavour to begin my walk down to their apartment.   Along the way my right hip gives out so I hail a cab.  The cabdriver insists he knows where Via di Campo Carleo is, but it seems like we are driving in circles -- I'm seeing the same landmarks over and over.  I ask him if he is certain he knows where he is going and he tells me if I don't like what he's doing I should exit his cab immediately.  I refuse because my aching hip needs us to get closer.  So I begin to give HIM directions (based on my fascination with Google maps for weeks before arriving in Rome).  We eventually get to a street that I recognize as being very close to the little street, ending in Roman ruins, called Via di Campo Carleo.  I exit the cab, give the driver half the fare, and hobble down the hill to a building I easily recognize (also from Google maps) as my destination -- (easy -- as it's rather unique:  painted yellow, around six storeys tall, has an ancient tall tower, and has stacked rooms in a bridge over a side street -- how could I miss it!).

I ring the bell for what I assume to be the topmost apartment.  Fortunately I am correct and soon hear Dana's voice on the intercom telling me to take the elevator to the 6th floor and then walk up a flight of stairs.  She buzzes me in and I find the elevator -- one of those open types (I always think they're French, for some reason) -- big enough for perhaps two French people, with lots of open ironwork and a wooden bench well-patinated by dozens of years of buffing derrieres. 

Arriving at the top I'm greeted by Dana and Tom and their 2 boys, now ages 13 and 11.

Dana and Tom

I haven't seen this family since Sam, their older son, was two years old and Michael, their younger, was soon to be born.  What a nice family they have become!  They are enjoying Rome and their travels in the Mediterranean area tremendously.  The boys have taken Italian lessons since they were toddlers so attending excellent Italian public schools is very easy for them.  Outside of school they are busy with sports, music lessons (piano, cello, and clarinet), and reading.  Every day purposeful reading is de rigeur.  They have been blessed with the same inquisitiveness and zest for learning as their parents.

I'm given a tour of their apartment.  It has many rooms on many different levels.  At the top level is the master bedroom -- in a 14th century tower.  

14th century tower with 18th century exterior embellishments and a bedroom inside!

Taking some steep narrow steps from that bedroom to the rooftop of the tower provides a priceless 360 degree view of Rome.  The Palatine, the Esquiline, and the Capitoline Hills, the Colosseum, several other ancient towers and monuments, domes everywhere including St. Peter's, and extensive areas of excavations of buildings from Imperial Rome.

Back downstairs we spend the evening on their huge west-facing terrace, blooming profusely with bougainvilleas and jasmine and affording stunning panoramas as well.  We watch the gulls swoop and dive.  The most amazing views of Rome are everywhere I turn.

Right below us are remains of Trajan's Forum and Trajan's Markets.  When it was constructed (AD 107-112), it was the last and largest of the Imperial Fora and was considered one of the most important monuments of Imperial Rome.  The giant complex was "unlike anything under the heavens."  And now, to realize in 2011, the colonnades and the western hemicycle are just feet away from this family's everyday life.

 

Just to our left, across the Boulevard Via dei Fori Imperiali (built by Mussolini at the expense of destroying much of Trajan's Forum and other sites) is the Palatine Hill.  It is thought that Rome has its origins on the Palatine.  Recent excavations have shown that people have lived on the site since approximately 1000 B.C.  According to Roman mythology, the Palatine hill was where Romulus and Remus were found by a female wolf that kept them alive, allowing Romulus to grow up and choose the site to build the city of Rome.  The Palatine, due to its close proximity to the seat of power, became "the place to live."  The very powerful and wealthy chose to build their homes there.  Eventually the emperors took over the hill completely.  (more info here)

The Palatine

Just to the left of the Palatine is the Colosseum.  The Colosseum, built in AD 79, is located at the foot of Mussolini's Via dei Fori Imperiali. This architectural masterpiece was designed to hold approximately 50,000 spectators.  Underneath the original wooden floor a series of storage rooms and passageways were added later. In this confined space, a range of animals, fighters, slaves and stagehands worked in almost total darkness.  I was able to briefly see the Colosseum up close the next morning before heading out to the airport but next time in Rome it will be first on my list of things to do and see!

The Roman Colosseum

Below is a view of the huge Victor Emmanuel Monument completed in 1911 to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the formation of the Kingdom of Italy with Victor Emanuel II as its emperor/king.  The northern side of the Capitoline Hill was chosen as the site.  To clear the site, many churches and ruins that stood there were first destroyed. That fact, and the mass of white marble used, make it not a popular addition to the neighborhood.. 

The Victor Emmanuel Monument

Off in the western distance is St. Peter's Dome and the setting sun.  In a few hours AD XXIII May MMXI will become part of history too.  What a spectacular way to finish up my 3 day whirl through Rome. 

By the way, in the lower right quadrant of the photo above is a building on the Via dei Fori Imperiali where Mussolini lived and used the large open window to greet the public and watch passing parades.

Dinner on the terrace with Dana, Tom, and the boys was wonderful.  Vegetables and pasta from the local markets were a treat.  It was so good to catch up on what's happening in their lives and to see the boys thriving in all they do.  Michael, the 11 year old, has decided he wants to be a pope so he can take the name Sixtus -- and be Sixtus VI.  Why not, he would live just down the via!  

After hearing that, there was not much else to do but take the following obligatory photograph and bid everyone arrivederci.  It was a very special evening that I will never forget.  Molte molte grazie, Dana and Tom.

Dana and Tom K.

When in Rome - (Lunedi -- il terzo giorno)

A beautiful, clear, blue-sky Monday morning on the Via di San Martino ai Monti! 

The Hotel Tirreno (in the distance)

After breakfast, I pull out the tourist book and decide how to spend my Monday morning.  I've got the afternoon planned at the Vatican, but my morning is free.  I decide on the Spanish Steps and the Fountain of Trevi, so I hop in a cab and head out.  

Okay, fine, I get to the Spanish Steps, get out of the cab, and take a look.  I see steps... I see tourists... I think Spanish... and that's all very nice!  But I get back in the cab and go on to Trevi.  

Maybe the "Three Coins in a Fountain" place will grab me differently.  I know once it gets in my head, that song grabs me (almost as much as does "It's a Small World" at Disneyland).  As I hum along with Dinah Shore -- "  ...which one will the fountain bless...which one..."  , we seem to be driving forever.  This Fontana di Trevi is pretty well off the beaten path; not in some big public square.  We twist and turn our way down some fairly small streets eventually finding it tucked into a clearing where a bunch of little streets come together.  

Fontana di Trevi

And it's jam-packed with tourists (like me!).  " ...make it mine...make it mine..."    I find it's difficult to back up far enough to take a full photograph.   But alas, there's the little Church of Saints Vincenzo and Anastasio nearby whose steps afford a vantage point for some photos -- and a place to sit, out of the sun for a bit.  After taking a quick look around the pretty church and viewing the fountain from every angle (all while paying tribute repeatedly to Jule Steyn, Sammy Cahn, and Frank Sinatra), I'm off on foot down one of the small streets, heading out of 1954 Hollywood and back into the present-day wonder of this Eternal City.

I find a cab and make a fairly long trip across Rome to Vatican City.  I'm greeted with the sight of several long lines -- ticket-holders, non-ticket-holders, those with reservations, those without reservations, etc.   Since I've got my ticket, I'll wait 'til closer to my scheduled 1 p.m. admission time to get into a line.  I find a place right across the street for lunch.  The cheese plate is perfect and the obligatory after-lunch-gelato comes with a memorable scolding from the Gelato Lady.  You see, I pointed to what I wanted and spoke the word "limon."  Shamefully, it seems the gelato to which I pointed was not "limon" but was "crema."  Thank you dear Gelato Lady, I've learned my lesson:  I shall not ever forget what "crema" looks like.  Actually everyone within earshot around me will probably never forget what "crema" looks like!

Time to go across the street and be within the walls of the smallest country in the world -- the Vatican.

The Vatican Museum

With all the people standing in lines outside, I'm amazed how speedy the entry to the museum is.  I just walk up to the door since everyone else with 1 p.m. tickets is already inside and I am left to start my wandering in these endless rooms unimpeded.  

Before I embark on my artwalk, I visit the gift shop, looking for something small yet meaningful for Laura and a gift for Dana and Tom who are having me to their home for dinner this evening.  While in the shop, Emma pops up in front of me and says hello.  She, Debbie, and Charlie were about to begin their guided tour of the museum.  It's the last time I will see them as tomorrow they leave for home and I go on to Vienna and Frankfurt.

I start out with paintings -- lots of paintings...of Madonnas, of the Deposition, of various saints.  My mind is a blur after an hour or so.  And I later learn my flash shows up in each and every photo of a painting.

Madonna and Bambino c. 1500 by Mariano di Austerio da Perugia

I then come upon the fantastic Faberge eggs and other Russian miniature things.  The egg below, with tiny family portraits and important events, was presented by Emperor Nicholas II to his wife Empress Alexandra in St. Petersburg on their 15th Wedding Anniversary in 1911.

The Anniversary Egg

I now enter many rooms of sculptures -- gods, saints, popes, Jesus, noblemen...

  Then we have a couple of rooms of animal sculptures.

Outside in this courtyard there is the beginning of a spring shower.  I'm following signs for the Sistine Chapel so I enter the long low building pictured below where I find this very long, very busy ceiling.  Here, thankfully, there are open windows along the way.  The thick humid air here is unlike what we have in northern California and I need air.

Then, after many left hand turns, right hand turns, up many stairs and down many other stairs, I reach the Sistine Chapel...along with, it seems, 5000 others.  Down some final steps I join this HUGE crowd, all standing shoulder to shoulder, and all looking upward. 

The ceiling of the Sistine Chapel

It's dark and hot and humid in there.  I notice that the recently restored colors are quite bold and the ceiling is jam-packed with scenes, and that surprises me.  But I'm about to freak out.  I manage to snap just 3 pictures and then make a beeline towards the opposite end of the space and begin to look for exits.  I'm close to having my first-ever anxiety attack.  My mind is racing, conjuring up all the danger inherent in being in this small overcrowded, unventilated space with no easily identifiable exits.  After I do find a small exit, I follow the path to get out.  It twists and turns, up and down really narrow passageways for several minutes, until I'm finally deposited at the door to the outside.  People are huddled around the door, blocking egress because it is raining very heavily now.  I squeeze my way past everyone, get out, buy an umbrella from a street vendor, and look for a cab.  Since I'm just not in the mood for more walking, either in the rainy gardens or in St. Peter's, I get a cab and go back to the hotel.  St. Peter's will have to be seen on another trip to Rome.  Right now it's time for this aging tourist to rest some hips a bit before heading down to Dana and Tom's for dinner, the account of which will appear in the next chapter of this blog.