Best time of my life, Raising Daisy

I was looking back at my blogs, and I see that come November, I will have been blogging a year. I was re-reading some of my first posts, and I realize I have not been as reflective about my experiences, or else, I have been too lazy to write! Well…maybe I have not been reflecting, and I don’t like that.


Daisy in Leavenworth and snow when she was a little girl!

I love taking the time to reflect in life, about what is good, about what I sense, and feel, about color, light, rain drops and drizzle, and especially..fog!

Some of the very best times of my life were times when I wrote every single morning about 3Am, moon streaming into my window, there where I slept with my little Daisy. I would creep out of that tiny single bed she and I shared when she was 9, 10 and so on, and steal to the bistro by the window where the light flooded in from the moon. I could see the water lit up by the moon on the Sound a way from our house.

I lit candles and wrote in my journals, until I was sleepy and I would go back to bed and cuddle up beside her in the early morning hours until the alarm went off and we had to get up for school and work.

Daisy and Snow Kitty

I would get her ready for the bus, and once she was on the bus, I went running hills, came back, showered, and went to work. Got off work as soon as I could and picked her up from the Boys and Girls club program at school.

I think those days were the very very best of my life. After work and school I would get my hot water bottle and lie down for awhile, and she played Nintendo. I remember that many time asi was sick and she brought my hot water bottle to comfort me. I love her so much! I still get sentimental when I hear Mario playing. Then I would get up and make dinner, and we’d eat together, and spend the evening going to the store looking around, or just watchin tv. Weekends we’d go to Whidbey Island and run the logs together, or go to Snohomish to skate, and we’d pull each other on the trail.

Daisy now....


I miss her so much! She was my best friend for so many years, and now she is grown and gone and I wish I could go back. I think of all my life, I would stay in that time if I had to choose, even though in many ways it was a painful time for me, being with her was a treasure I can’t get over.

Of course, I was always so concerned for her safety, and I had to take extra care for her, and I was extremely attached and involved, beyond the normal parent /child relationship. Daisy is my Granddaughter that I raised. My family had died of origin by the time I was 32, so I had no help. It was lonely and yet so very full a the same time. I can’t explain it, how it was, I just miss that time, and I want my little girl back, I want her back so much!

Tranquility

Board heads in The Gorge

Just returned from a few days in Hood River Oregon. I sat beside one of the beaches and watched the sail boarders sail for a long while, It was so refreshing and beautiful to watch them, I wanted to do it myself.

Silent Awareness blog. take a look!

Silent Awareness blog, very very nice blog, must take a look!


And be sure to take a look at these cloud formations over Joplin MO taken by a news team there. I am sure this is one of the better views we have of God!

http://www.ksntv.com/news/coolwxpics/

Read these 3 important quotes I found on Claire's blog! Claire Krulikowski

Claire Krulikowski
This is the first of the three she has blogged...read on:

How To Lead The People:

"...of course the people don't want war.... But, after all, it is the leaders of the country who determine the policy and it is always a simple matter to drag the people along, whether it is a democracy or a fascist dictatorship ...the people can always be brought to the bidding of the leaders. That is easy. All you have to do is to tell them they are being attacked and denounce the pacifists for lack of patriotism and exposing the country to danger. It works the same way in any country"

Hermann Goering, Nazi

Small kindness.org; Cat Stevens Now, for fans interested, tagged, pass it on

I found this link for Cat Stevens ( Yusuf Islam), a great man, then and now. Check out his contributions to the world of children.
I have always admired Cat Stevens, and wished he knew me, because I always feel I know him. He has been a friend since the 70's when I listened to him lying on the floor in my home with a headset on, and when I found a new love some years ago, we sang his songs together, and still do.
I was always sad thinking he would not make more music, but , of course, he has made music.
I think he is my brother! Someday, we will meet!
Click below his photo...hear music and see what he does now.

Cat stevens now
Rome - Singer, songwriter and peace activist Yusuf Islam, formerly known as Cat Stevens, will receive a Man Of Peace award in Rome on Wednesday, two months after being refused entry to the United States on security grounds.

Yusuf Islam, 57, will receive the prize from the Gorbachev Foundation at the opening of the 5th World Summit of Nobel Peace Laureates at Rome's city hall.

The award is given annually "to a distinguished personage of culture and entertainment for peace messages, fraternity and integration between nations".

The Foundation said Islam was being recognised for his charity Small Kindness, which was set up "to alleviate the suffering of thousands of children and their parents in countries of war and agony like Kosovo, Bosnia, Albania, Montenegro and Iraq".

Previous winners included Italian actor and film-maker Roberto Begnini for his film Life Is Beautiful.

Islam was deported from the United States last September after being denied entry on "security grounds" and was released without charge. He was travelling to the US capital when his flight was diverted to Bangor, Maine, where he was detained before being transferred later to Washington for his flight back to his Britain.

Islam, who visited the United States earlier this year without incident, is best known for such mellow 1970s hits as Morning Has Broken, Wild World and Peace Train.

He converted to the Muslim faith in 1977.

Remember to find his song Indian Ocean, ( search for it, and you will find download choices including itunes) a song written and performed to aid tsunami vistims. It is a beautiful song over 6 minutes long and is beautifully Cat Stevens! Please circulate this information, to help children world wide. If you read this, you are taged, you must blog it and send emails to friends. Cat Stevens ( Yusuf) is our friend, he has always been unconditionally loving and caring in his music, which influenced a generation of people, and is still influencing the younger generation with his concern for finding truth, and helping others.
Please let meknow how far reaching your work to help right the injustice by the US against a peace loving musician, and devoted man of God who has always searched for a way to know truth and to help others and this world!.
Buy his music! It aids children!

Children of the new earth site

A friend sent a link to this site. I found myself thinking of my Princessa who just left to go back to MO. Her bright spirit, and curious imaginative personality, and the stress that goes along with that giftedness. Here on this site are some references of many of the things children are experiences, along with a clear insight as to how that can be handled. Children of the new earth site

Parents: where there are fireworks, there is fire!

Fireworks photo from Nagaoka city site

Tag

Kim SOMETHING TO SAY tagged me with the MEME, The cook next door so I invite you to answer these questions if you read this and go to the cook next door!
I am tagging this food blog I found a while back
undiscussablerealms

What is your first memory of baking/cooking on your own?

Truth be told, I was about 4. We had two kitchens in the house where I lived in PA. I lived with my Mother, Aunt and Grandparents and brother, and all my relatives lived with a few block radius. My cousin Karen was over to play, and she and I concocted dressing, I guess. I must have seen it being prepared in by Grandma. We mixed bread crumbs, with eggs, milk and lots of garlic powder, and baked it in the oven. It smelled to high heaven, most horrible smell I ever met, and Karen still remembers it, too! Some smells never go away!

Who had the most influence on your cooking?

That would be difficult to say one person, It was grandma who introduced me to all kinds of foods, and baked a lot. She never force fed, and had a technique that really worked to get us to try foods without any forcing. We could always eat bread and jelly rather than our meal, couldn’t complain about food, and were given a spot of everything to eat, and if we ate it all, we could have more of what we loved (Mac & cheese, homemade of course). As a result I learned to try everything. We had a farm in West VA, and I ate everything the people in the hills there ate, including boiled chicken feet and hogs head porridge (on pancakes, yum!)
My stepfather was a great cook, and I learned a lot from him and then there was Billye Currid my friend from Mitsubishi when I did aircraft interiors. She was a great baker.
Last of all, The Gourmet cook book taught me the most. I planned meals and bought al I needed for those meals, I learned about seasonings that way. I always had everything I needed to make up whatever I wanted to make, and not a lot of stuff sitting around in cupboards. I followed their instructions to make elegant aftermaths instead of leftovers.

Do you have an old photo as “evidence” of an early exposure to the culinary world and would you like to share it?
Well I don’t have that photo, and I am glad I don’t. The one I am thinking of, I was a young wife, and I made a Boston cream Pie, I doubled the recipe, and made a mess. My husband photographed me holding the spatula above a crumbling cake and titled it, “Winner of the VA, Beach baking contest”

Mageiricophobia - do you suffer from any cooking phobia, a dish that makes your palms sweat?
That would be cutting up liver, I just can’t eat liver I cook!


What would be your most valued or used kitchen gadgets and/or what was the biggest letdown?
My kitchen Aid with all it’s attachments (wheat grinder) is best… And Cuisinart. And I agree with Dianne about the bread machine as a let down.

Name some funny or weird food combinations/dishes you really like - and probably no one else!
Hogs head porridge on pancakes!

What are the three eatables or dishes you simply don’t want to live without?
Good bread, good bread and good bread!

Nagaoka photos, remembering Japan fondly....

Would love to go visit Japan again, here are some photos from my travels there many years ago. Nagaoka, in Niigata prefecture. Anyone from Nagaoka?

Nagaoka Castle photo by Sherry Stewart

Koi, Niigata prefecture Japan, photo by Sherry Stewart
Being a guest in the Saito family home, I was able to visit the city and countryside of Nagaoka, and enjoy it's many wonderful people, and sites, as well as wonderful restaurants. I would love to go to a real noodle shop again and try my luck at slurping noodles.
Nagaoka in the fall is stunning. See photo...

Daily Om

Someone sent this link to me and I love it, it is so helpful and beautiful, you must check it out! Daily OM

My little yoga child and my budding musician..

In a few more days, John and Karen will be leaving to go back home. I think we are just getting to know each other better, feeling warm, cozy and comfy, and well, I think they belong here, close by so we can keep and eye on them, and have good times together, like water fights, etc.

Tonight Karen and I did some calligraphy, and at the moment she is surrounding herself by candles in the meditation room sitting upon a Persian rug doing bedtime yoga. (Mom will have to see to believe) Where is my camera? Honestly, I would not like to disturb her, she is really doing a great job of making a proper yoga space in which to breathe and use correct postures, using my really cool yoga book. Karen, or Princessa as we like to call her is very interested in everything, and I am so happy she decided to light candles tonight, al by herself to make this special environment.
We have many candles here, as we light them at dusk, especially in winter when days are very short, along with oil lamps. We love the change in atmosphere it creates for us, and the way it takes the chill out of the air.
I can see that Karen would begin very easily to enjoy a quiet meditative life…uuu uummm, right?
Well, she would attempt it anyway.

John is watching a movie, and eating (he has one of those bottomless pits. I should make cookies!) My oven doesn’t work, but I have a convection oven I could make a few in. He is excited about his upcoming birthday, he will be 14 next week, and he is crazy for a Marshall amp the mini set. It is 300.00 here in Seattle, and we have taken him to the music store so many times to use it, and that guitar he wants, a Gibson something, the one used by some ACDC band member. I should remember, because he talks of it so often. He has been downloading music on itunes and making a few cd’s, It thrill shim, and he plays his guitar a lot, is lost without it.
John is becoming very affectionate, and his sense of humor is widening, and he is becoming more playful with us, learning that we like to have water fights, and play innocent fun tricks, and that even bummer number 1 doesn’t mean much except a good laugh!

Karen swam tonight at the Y. She called an hour early for me to come get her, and I left, and on my way there about 3 blocks from home she asked if I had left, because she changed her mind, and wanted to swim more. I said I would come watch her, and she put her wt suit back on and swan, and I watched a read ad local paper. It was very, very nice, and I will miss taking her to swim every night from 7 to 10 pm. Last night John went, too. He usually goes with her.

I wish I had more time to take Karen someplace special, we are running out of time and I have a MD appointment tomorrow, and we have a few friends coming tomorrow to see them. I have a lot to do tomorrow, in every direction one can go in. And I need to clan house more, oh well, if it isn’t properly clean…so what? There are kids in this house! I can always blame them; see teenagers are good for something!

Karen has finished one segment of yoga, I see a relaxed difference in her already, she just walked in here, and she was calm and collected, it is amazing what a little yoga practice can do for a person. Daph., maybe you want a shrine room downstairs where the kids can go to do yoga after a bath each night before bed, that and a warm cup of chamomile tea, and they will sleep like angels, and early on.
These two do stay up very late, it is almost impossible to get them to bed, and Karen is the night owl, John falls to sleep watching a movie, but she doesn’t Yoga is perfect as a discipline for her, and It was not my idea. I merely left my yoga book out. She even remarked that she needed a room that was uncluttered and free of electronics to do her yoga.
I told her the room she is staying in is my reiki and mediation room, and it is a sort of mess now, so she chose the large hallway to practice, and is doing so well. I predict this one will become serious about yoga at some point in her life, maybe beginning soon. So Daph, and John, be prepared to make a room for this at home!
I am pleased that some influence of mine that I have not intended to make happen is rubbing off. Karen loves the house and the children’s books, Both she and John read The Garden of Abdul Gazazi by Allsburg last night.

Karen has found my abacus, it is a Japanese one, I told her she could have it if she learned to use it. It costs about 18.00. She didn’t learn how, but she took it and said she would learn how, I guess we will see.


These are two very sweet, precious children, and I want them to stay longer, and always be closer to me! But thank you Daph, and John for loaning them to us for a while to enjoy!

Vacation with kids

See my blog:
nallietravelblog.blogspot.com for more photos of ferry trip up the inside passage to Alaska, Yukon, down to BC and to Washington again.

My company is here!

John and karen have finally come again to visit, and maybe we will go to Alaska on the ferry, or maybe to Canada and Vancouver and Vancouver Island and deep sea fishing, or maybe to California. It is too late now to plan Hawaii, but I think they might have liked that idea. Anyway, I am sure we wil have a great time, maybe catch some huge halibut and king salmon, and dungeness crab, go rafting, sea kyaking, horse back riding.....EMP, Seattle, At any rate, surely we are going to have lots a fun!

Nicole and Tal's wedding in Helena

click any photo to enlarge


Just returned from a long weekend in Helena where we attended Nicole and Tal’s wedding. They were married in the quarry where Nicole played growing up, and the wedding was as enthusiastic as I remember childhood being, with all the simple elements of innocence remaining, and love and appreciation showing through.

Remembering my own play world as a child, the simple and sheer happiness of decorating a small space in nature with wild flowers and some found object for a vase creating a space that was every bit as remarkable and even more enthusiastic as Mom and friends designing a home space, Nicole and Tal recreated that wonder of childhood, playfully and lovingly there at the quarry, and displayed it for all of us, and included us in it, like a magical play children would create where nothing can go wrong, (the rain was not a mistake, it was just what happened), and the rest of the wedding was woven around that, like child’s play would be.


One reception was at the Eagles, and another followed at Greg and Laurie’s home for the next few days spent visiting with family and friends of Greg’s, and Laurie’s, Nicole’s and Tal’s.



For me it was fun to observe the simple beauty, the kids, and spend time getting to know everyone a little better after most of the storm had calmed and the honeymooners left with their entourage of friends to go camping before a few nights alone.

Sitting in the kitchen at their home chatting with the women folk, while the men chatted out on the porch, re-integrating the two groups easily from time to time, was delightful.

Delicious smells filled the air, as dishes came from the oven ready to eat, fresh gulf shrimp made by Gregg’s sister, Michelle. I had forgotten what fresh gulf shrimp was like, we have no comparison in the PNW where shrimp are concerned, and Michelle made this dish superbly with garlic, rosemary and thyme, and red pepper! Um umm! I wish I had another plateful now!

If it sounds like a dish from New Orleans, well yes, it is, she and Reed live there and brought the shrimp with them to share with everyone. What a treat!

Michelle and Reed, you are welcome at my house anytime. And she calls herself the Queen of leftovers!

I truly enjoyed getting to know all of the family better, Greg’s family that I barely knew. It was just delightful! I will be posting photos as soon as I get my camera batteries charged enough to download them and upload them here to share with everyone.

It's an Amazing Life ....... Lilies in Full Orange

Lately I have been working in my studio throwing pots, and mixing glazes. I even tried to raku twice, but I am having trouble getting my kiln to temperature, can’t get it over 17oo and I need to go to 1830.
I have been writing someone who builds kilns about this, and I hope we can resolve this problem. It is so cool here; I wonder if that is why I can’t get it heated up good enough. I have been through a huge bottle of propane already with no pots to show for it.
Oh well, nothing comes too easy,
Speaking of things not coming easy, I am seeing light at the end of a carved out donut I have been milling around in forever. With so many deaths, divorce, teenagers, more teenagers, a man, menopause, well, go figure, times have been hard, but you know what? I have persevered, and I am becoming wise after all, Good thing we gain that, because it looks like we lose everything that was ever familiar, like a memory!
Actually my memory is returning. I have been learning the most incredible stuff, things that no therapist could tell me or help me with, no book wrote about, no pill could fix. (progesterone is a cream)
I practice Reiki, and coach, and through working with some people, I have been amazed at what I myself can see for them that they cannot see for themselves, and what I could not see for me.

I have been creating ways to deal with trauma, depression, worry, fear, anxiety, relationships, etc. I have a great track record with other people, and I see that what I glean from working with them, and sharing with friends has benefited me incredibly.

I may be older, but I am wiser, and closer to writing that first book (of many I have begun). I plan to take some classes to get better at throwing and working with glaze chemistry, maybe I will even go back to school for that grad degree after all!
Life is amazing, just when you think it totally sucks, puzzle pieces come together; bio identical hormones are made available, and BAM, as Batman says, WHEW, life is pretty good after all.
Ready for round 5?

click on photo to get full orange effect

Clematis that took Over Seattle

I have a 2 year old clematis in a pot in the backyard. This year it sprouted about 40 blooms like this, over 7"across! Just amazed me, I can just imagine this thing planted in the ground, and about 7 years old. Headline! "The Clematis that took over Seattle!"

The smallish leaf mixed in is Wisteria, also in the pot, but it has not bloomed. I think they bloom from new growth, and I keep pruning it back.