4 Days In Paradise

I have officially found the place where yall should retire (if the whole creek thing doesn't work out :).  I have spent the last four days/three nights on a piece of land that I could move to and never leave and still be happy.  Under the guise of helping Conning dog/cat/cow/sheep-sit I moved my violin, harmonica, books, and self about 20min. south east of Durango.  There really isn't much to say because all I really did the whole time was read, make music, and make dinner for Connie and I whenever she came home.  The folks whose house we were staying at seem, from their stuff, like great people.  I know they are wealthy, but really they don't have many things, but what they do have is very nice.  They used to own a nursery that is on the property, but they recently closed it.  They obviously have green thumbs because there place is covered in weird plants, tulip beds, rose gardens, and fruit trees.  They guy does all of his own canning and their little cellar is packed with jars of their own produce.  Very cool and quite the insperation.  The main attraction for me was the sheep and the trees and both were quite large!  They sheep had such thick wool I don't know how they were able to move, and the trees were the biggest cottonwoods that I have ever seen.  Seriously large!  Photos just can't seem to capture it though.

 The three cows

One of the skinnier sheep

Gracie, the most hyperactive dog in the world.

Ticker, my true love. 

 Roses

Pussy willow 

Weird cactus plant thing

Daffodils and Eleanor

 One of the really big trees.

 Three of about seven ponds scattered around the property.

Path leading to new addition of house

 Original farmhouse in front and the addition in back and finally some tasteful adobe!

Me on the tire swing.  Needless to say I spent a lot of time there.

It was sad to leave but I was running out of clean clothes.

Love yall buckets!

-Kate

Way to go, Hubert!

http://www.pacdv.com/sounds/applause-sounds/app-28.mp3

IT'S ROO TIME!!!

That's right, I could be a member of the Kangaroo Crew!!!  Besides being beyond all previous known levels of happiness, I am beyond all previous known levels of excitement as well.  After getting off the phone with yall, I dashed down the hall to tell Jill who, being the friend that she is, was equally excited and gave me a big hug.  I then kidnapped her, and we went and got ice cream at Cold Stone.  We then sat in the cold and shivered and laughed while trying not to spill our ice cream all over ourselves (Jill was not as successful as I was in this attempt).  Below are the glorious photos with close-ups of the best parts :)

Love yall more than acceptance letters!

-Kate

apple carving

Since yesterday was a pretty slow ho-hum day and I had nothing to blog about, I thought I would bore you with the adventures of late night apple carving.  It turns out that apples make a great material to practice on because they are hard enough to stay together but soft enough to limit the elbow grease.  I found an old apple in the back of my cupboard last night and thought I would give it a try.  My creation was supposed to be a horse, but its disproportionately large backside, small front legs, and lack of a head (accidentally knocked off with clumsy pinky finger), made it look more like a gorilla.  See for yourself...

And yes, I did color coordinate the candle box with the background.  For scale, it is about 1 1/2 penny's length long and shrinking.  This morning it was a bit rubbery like a dried apple...yummmm?

-Kate

another good day

This morning I woke up to yet another stunningly beautiful day and decided that it would best be spent outside.  So after returning from class, I packed up my lunch, put on my shoes, and headed over to the Telegraph trail system around 11:00.  For the first hour I followed the main road up the ridge where I was joined by a small handful of mountain bikers and folks with their dogs.  Intent on finding a quiet place to eat my lunch, I veered off and headed down a small trail that led up the valley to the East.  It was not long before I found a smooth flat rock with a view.  It was then that I realized that I hadn't told anyone where I was, so I texted dear ole Dad with the limited reception and battery I had left.  After a relaxing lunch, I headed off once again up the valley.  Unbeknownst to me, the trail curved around and I once again met up with the main trail.  It worked out perfectly, and in the spirit of fresh air and a rocky path ahead, I pumped up the pace and ran the way back to the car.  By this time it was about 3:00 and surprisingly the temperature had dropped about 10 degrees.  After a hot shower, I gussied up and went to the grocery store to pickup some fresh food, and when I came out of the store it was down to about 50.  The afternoon was spent writing letters and doing some embroidery and then came dinner... Yummy!  I have officially discovered the absolute best gluten-free couscous.  It comes in a box with its own seasoning package so it is kind of cheating, but it is the good kind, Mediterranean Curry.  It tastes a like a falafel but better!  Being the little sous chef that I am, I paired it with pan roasted brussel sprouts served with a balsamic vinegar reduction.

 Couscous!

 Les Choux de Bruxelles

your's truly...

Love yall gadzooks!

-Kate

a day on the street

I have had a truly wonderful day and thought I would share it with yall.  Any day started with a bowl of cereal on the front sidewalk has got to be a good one :)  After cleaning my room for about an hour this morning, I hopped in my car and headed downtown with my book and journal in tow.  Due to the fact that it is spring break in Texas and New Mexico, the streets are teeming with tourists; however, this only seems to make it all the more interesting.  We have had blue skies all day and it has been sitting around 70 degrees.  I finally found a place to park in one of the neighborhoods and started out.  I ended up walking up and down Main St. glancing in all of the shops.  I managed to spend a while looking around Animas Trading Co., smelling the candles and trying on all of the bright colored summer scarfs and then stopped into my favorite coffee shop, the Steaming Bean.  With a cup of ice coffee and a slice of biscotti, I took out my favorite purple Sharpie and covered one of their white coffee sleeves in doodles.  It ended up looking similar to these doodles that I did earlier.

In the spirit of artistic freedom and random acts of color, I slipped it back in with the other sleeves so that someone down the line would have a bright something added to their day.  With the rest of my ice coffee in hand, I set out again and walked until I came across a rather talented street musician belting out tunes as loud as he could.  With a singing style similar to that of Jason Mraz, a rough voice similar to Bob Dylan, and classical guitar skills to make anyone jealous, he made the perfect accompaniment to my afternoon reading.  So, I settled down on a nearby bench and read my book while listening to him try and lure in the passing tourists.  Sadly though, almost no one stopped or even tossed a dollar in his guitar case.  I only had small change in the bottom of my bag, so I ended up giving him the rest of my Starbucks gift card; pennies compared to the two hours of live music that he provided.  I don't know how he remembered the words to all of those songs, but he managed pretty good.  By that time I was getting a bit hungry so I headed home to find Jill eating in the kitchen.  We sat and talked for a while before Connie came home and joined in.  And now I find myself here writing to yall.  Be sure to tell the animals and the garden that I said hi.
Love yall more than ice coffee and street musicians!
xoxoxo
-Kate

Evening Stroll

After a long shift at The Palace, I came home, got out of my dreaded work clothes as fast as I could, put on a short-sleeve shirt and some flip-flops, and went out to bask in the warm sun.  Due to poor tree and house placement, the only place with sun was the driveway.  So, I grabbed my new Gordon Lightfoot CD, my book on American artists, some shades, and my fold up chair and sat in the middle of the pavement.  Thus was spent the better part of what afternoon I had left.  By then of course I was starving, so I mixed up a surprisingly good combo of plain yogurt, green grapes, boysenberry jam, and grape nuts.  I highly suggest this combo.  The evening was still young and a barefoot stroll along the sidewalks was in order.  You would never know that just a few days ago we had a snow storm.  It stayed around 60-70 most of the day with just a light wind.  Below are  a few bits and pieces I picked up on my walk.

Long years ago

The Dong was happy and gay,

Till he fell in love with a Jumbly Girl

Who came to those shores one day,

For the Jumblies came in a Sieve, they did, --

Landing at eve near the Zemmery Fidd

Where the Oblong Oysters grow,

And the rocks are smooth and gray.

And all the woods and the valleys rang

With the Chorus they daily and nightly sang, --

'Far and few, far and few,

Are the lands where the Jumblies live;

Their heads are green, and their hands are blue

And they went to sea in a Sieve,'

Happily, happily passed those days!

While the cheerful Jumblies staid;

They danced in circlets all night long,

To the plaintive pipe of the lively Dong,

In moonlight, shine, or shade.

For day and night he was always there

By the side of the Jumbly Girl so fair,

With her sky-blue hands, and her sea-green hair.

Till the morning came of that hateful day

When the Jumblies sailed in their Sieve away,

And the Dong was left on the cruel shore

Gazing -- gazing for evermore, --

Ever keeping his weary eyes on

That pea-green sail on the far horizon, --

Singing the Jumbly Chorus still

As he sate all day on the grassy hill, --

'Far and few, far and few,

Are the lands where the Jumblies live;

Their heads are green, and their hands are blue,

And they went to sea in a Sieve.' 

-Excerpt of

"The Dong with a Luminous Nose"

from

The Nonsense Verse of Edward Lear

by

Edward Lear (1812-1888)

Love yall bunches,

-Kate 

First Fox Spotted

Well, Lori Sears and I drove out to the Creek last evening to water the trees, berries, and roses. The sun was slowly going down when we finished and we decided to take a walk down to the creek. On our way down we turned around and admired Whitman's Rough, talking about how beautiful the view will be from our home eventually. Down by the swimming hole, mosquitoes decided to be a part of our trek. Nevertheless, we soaked in the beauty and Lori gave me a short lesson on a Chinese art form. On our way out, we spotted a sweet fox crossing the little drive. It stopped to look at us a bit and patted on. We were so excited! ~ Quick note about the Quince growing on the property. It needs to be pruned after it blooms and never in the winter. Quince flowers on old wood which means it forms its flower buds before it goes dormant in winter, so if its pruned in the Winter we won't have any flowers come Spring.

Last Post Continued...

As promised here is the long version of yesterday's post.  There is so much to talk about I don't know where to start!
Health:
So after a long drawn out saga over the telephone between my doctors office and the neurologist office, I finally got an appointment that was before April 14th, the date they originally set.  After noting that I could possibly be living in another state by that time, I complained until they gave me an appointment in two weeks.  That is still a ways away but much better than the previous arrangement.  I still get headaches often and the room is pretty much always moving, but I have gotten used to it and I am not as fatigued.

Violin:
In a case of severe sour grapes I am mourning the impending departure from my beloved orchestra that I have become quite attached to.  Kasia (conductor) sent out an email last week telling us that she will be resigning from Fort Lewis and the youth symphony as of this May to move to Salt Lake City to live with her violin prodigy husband that she married last fall unbeknownst to just about all of us.  So there you have it, I'm leaving, she's leaving, sour grapes.

Snow:
The snow that we got yesterday is melting so fast that you almost can't tell that we even had any.  Walking outside at the moment is quite dangerous as huge chunks of slush are falling from the trees at an astounding rate.  Thankfully I didn't have to drive early this morning because the roads were just one huge block of ice.  By now though it is all slushy and will probably be melted by this evening.

French:
Je ne sais pas quoi je fait.
(loosely translated as "I have no idea what I am doing.")

Yesterday:
...was a rather splendid day.  The morning was completely unproductive, so I decided that I best do something worthwhile with my afternoon.  So, Jill and I packed up our computers and mittens and drove down to the Steaming Bean to work on our essays and homework.  Needless to say, no work got done until after we had talked for two hours over steaming bowls of french onion soup and frothy mugs of extra dry cappuccinos.  By that time it was about 4:00 and the snow was coming down quite hard.  We had a great time conversing and decided that we have to go "study at the coffee shop" more often.  We finally opened our computers and actually got some work done which was good.  The drive back home was absolutely magical and so of course we rolled the windows down and let the car fill with the flurries that were flurrying around us.  Because it seemed the logical thing to do we started singing Christmas songs and creeped up the hill to our cozy abode.  Once home I set out on my very short jaunt to take some pictures as yall saw yesterday and ended up getting completely soaked and covered in the biggest flakes of snow I have ever seen.  Jill and I then spent the evening talking even more while I made cheese grits.  The joke around the house now is that, no matter how old, moldy, shriveled, raw, or gross looking the food, Kate will offer it to you in an attempt to be a good neighbor.  I never noticed it before but I guess I do it a lot because Jill decided that we need to make a show called Cooking with Kate just to highlight my willingness to eat and cook with stuff that looks a bit sketchy and then try and get others to eat it with me.  To maximize profits we are also going to do a spin off Cleaning with Kate, Life Advice with Kate, and Home Health with Kate.  It is all planned out so between my TV career and my career as a brain model I am set to go.

Interesting Tidbit:
I have been quite fascinated with genealogy lately and thus have done a lot of research into our family heritage.  It turns out that we have some interesting folk in the family.

1. I am the 40th in a direct decent from Charlemagne.  Too cool!  As it turns out, our ancestor Sir Robert Adair (1583-1655) of Kilhilt, Ireland, knighted by King Charles I, married Jean Edmonstone of Duntreath.  Jean's family line is traced back to Robert III of Scotland, Robert II of Scotland, William the Conqueror, David I of Scotland, Malcolm III of Scotland, Robert I of Scotland, Alfred the Great, Ethelwolf King of England, Charles the Bald Emperor of France, and Eghert I the First King of England.  I am sure that a billion other people are also somehow related to these folks, but I still thought it was pretty cool.

2. By a stretch we are related to Brewster Higley VI who wrote the lyrics to Home On The Range by way of Brewster Higley II.

3. Our ancestor Capt. Joseph Adair Sr. fought in the Revolutionary War under both Col. Casey and THE Col. Washington.

4. Johannes Bleikers (Blaker) and his wife Rebecca Nee came to America from Germany on the ship The Concord and had a son Peter (our ancestor) who was born aboard ship on its voyage here.

5. Our ancestor Edward Buckman Sr. came to America on the ship The Welcome with William Pen.  Unfortunately his wife Joan Bagham died abord.

6. Funnily enough, on the Legendre/Rhorer side of the family the tree gets bigger then smaller then bigger then smaller...  This means one thing.  Marrying your cousins is obviously quite common and accepted in our family.  A bit scary to say the least.

So, there is a bunch of useless facts about our family history.  You would be surprised what great tools the internet has to offer these days.  Just about every document ever made has been scanned and put online.  I can even find Hope's high school yearbook online!  Craziness.  Speaking of, the family tree has two big holes in it.  One that stops with Ruby (Ernst), one with Hope's father's parents, and another that stops with Papa's parents so if yall happen to have any names that would be helpful :)

Well, I must go hop in the shower and get ready for work.
xoxoxoxoxo to all yall

-Kate

SNOW!!!

Hey All,
Just a quick post (more later).  Just in the past three hours we have be inundated with huge flakes of wet snow.  Thus, everything is so beautiful you would not believe it.  I truly live in a winter wonderland!  Here are a bunch of photos that I took as soon as I got home.  I couldn't pick which ones to blog so here are all of them!  It is getting too dark to get any really good quality pictures and thus they came out a big grainy.  However, I doubt that yall care too much about photo resolution!

and finally...

ME!!!

Love yall buckets,

-Kate