Cats and a Lovely View

Friday evening we headed to Livermore to Cornerstone Church where Will's friend, Eddie, gets music gigs for the Church's singles night for "Eddie and Friends". It's always a nice event - potluck food, desserts, great music. Unfortunately, there is a lot of traffic on 680 headed in that direction at 5:45 pm on a Friday. Are we in LA? The traffic would make it seem so, but the empty hills tell me it's Pleasanton.The church is HUGE. It was once a sports facility, complete with a climbing wall. It was one of the first warmish days on Friday, so they decided to have the gathering outside. Luckily the music was inside (with huge windows open) and I was inside because it didn't stay warm once the sun went down. Duh.
Yesterday we took a long walk to a health event that was being held in Union City where a friend had a booth. Unfortunately, the event was way way way at the far end of the lake area, and she was gone by the time we got there. The total walk was about 5.25 miles, which is a long walk for us. This path is a block and a half from our house.

It was overcast, with some blue skies peaking thru. The clouds looked ominous, but no rain, just some wind and a little chilly. It was fine walking, but my friend froze sitting at the booth most of the afternoon. What's really odd is that today the sun was out and it was MUCH warmer. It's 73 degrees out right now! Just 1 degree above my perfect 72 degrees!

This is from the side of the lake where the event was held. You can see Mission Peak, and that's BART going by (lower ish left side of picture above water). We live kind of behind where the BART train is. The picture of these flowers with the blue sky and clouds behind came out much better than I ever thought. I love my new camera.


Ziggy looks good with this shave. It looks strange in the picture, but it's growing in and is really pretty, sleek, black, and soft. It's EASY now to tell which is Ziggy and which is Alex! I don't have to look at the whisker, the paws or anything else!

Cats and Car Show and Garage Sales

Ziggy went to the groomer at his Vet because he got very matted and hates being brushed. This was actually taken on the way home from the vet, but he still looks scared and unhappy.

His head and paws were not matted, so the groomer was able to give him a lion cut. The good part was that she was able to do this without sedation. She mentioned before that she might try muzzling him, but I didn't ask for details after it was done. It looks like he'd be creepy to touch, but he's actually very very soft.

The Amtrak going by the Niles Depot. The hills are turning brown.Today was the Niles car show. In past years it's been hot for this show, but today I was wearing a fleece, a scarf and at one point I was wearing knitted fingerless mitts. Brrrrrr.

One of the cars in the show was an Edsel.

Here's the interior of the Edsel.


Can you see the cows lined up along the ridge to the right of the Niles sign? I also like how you can also see the sign for the Niles train depot along the roof of the building.

We're both wearing socks knitted by me!

I was invited to a preview of an estate sale on Thursday evening. I bought a fruit picker, a CD of Judy Garland music, a cushy pillow (that is actually purple and not blue like it looks here), and a funky illuminating magnifier.
I thought this prescription bottle was interesting because it matches our green bathroom, and it is from a pharmacy in Fremont. It's not THAT old (Dec 1974) although I guess that was awhile ago, but it's not quite antique!!

The ball field at Niles Elementary where I was watching really dark clouds. Is this really May?

We went to a neighborhood garage sale where we could park and walk, then to Ohlone Flea Market and then to the car show. I found this crinkly blouse for $1.
This tablecloth was 50 cents. Our former neighbor bought us one in greens and blues. I saw it at an art fair and it was very expensive. We finally got to use it in this house with our avocado green stove. I found a round one just like this blue and yellow one at a garage sale a few years ago, but this huge rectangle blue and yellow tablecloth will work really well when the table is extended.

Garden/yard, the neighborhood, and cats, of course!

GARDENING/YARD: My lavender plants are amazing. Some would say "out of control". I planted three different kinds when I saw how well the one planted by the previous owner was thriving. She kept it well trimmed. I let it go crazy! Actually, I let all of them grow like crazy. The bees love the lavender plants. Lately I've even seen big black bumble bees on them. I've even seen hummingbirds on the one out front.

The lavender plant below is the same plant as the close-up picture above. Notice my blue 55 gallon water container. We save rain water in buckets that comes off the roof when it rains, transfer the water from the buckets to this container, and then I use the water in the container to water individual plants when we're not doing a big whole-yard water. The fig tree in front of the lavender plant was given away by someone on Fremont Freecycle last year. It had no leaves, and I'm not sure why he gave it away, but so far it seems to like my yard. I may have to transplant it into the ground at some point.

Last year was the first year for this small raised bed. I'm not convinced it gets enough continuous sunlight due to the tall trees around it, so next year I may move it. This year I'm growing lemon balm (top left), tomatoes (top right), yellow squash (because they didn't have zucchini when I was shopping) (bottom right) and cucumber (bottom left). I forgot that last year the cucumber died about 15 minutes after I planted it. This year it is growing, but I'm not sure it will actually grow any cucumbers. Something else next year!

THE NEIGHBORHOOD: We try to walk at least 5 times a week for as close to 1/2 hour as we can. It's probably not enough, but it's better than not walking at all. We walk all different routes - around the neighborhood, downtown, along the quarry lakes path. This is Second Street between two large plants looking down the old, tree-lined sidewalk.While at the Niles Plaza concert on Sunday I took this picture of the socks I was wearing. I knitted these with Deborah Norville yarn. The yarn was a surprise - it was really nice to work with, and I love the way they fit. I bought more of this yarn to knit a gift pair of socks.

We drive under this train trestle as we go out of town, and I've always just missed capturing this shot of the train overhead. Timing is everything!

These beautiful irises were at a house in the neighborhood.

CATS: Mowry was on my lap while I was watching TV and knitting. His expression cracks me up. It didn't photograph well so I cropped it, but his long tail was wrapped around me and was even funnier than his expression.

Does this cat look like he could let out a mean hiss? Will was trying to brush Alex so he wouldn't end up matted like Ziggy, and while I wasn't there, the report said he hissed at Will. Will is his absolute favorite human and frankly, Alex wouldn't care if Will was the only human he ever saw in his entire life ever (except maybe when he climbs on me purring, and then he leans on me in the middle of the night when I'm sleeping), but even his favorite human got hissed at - how dare Will try to brush Alex!

Alex is BIG. He weights about 22 lbs (weigh yourself with the cat, weigh yourself without the cat) and we both did it for confirmation. He's tall, wide, long and just Maine Coon. If not purebred than mix, but true to the MC breed. The windowsill, on the other hand, is rather narrow. Mowry goes up there all the time, but then Mowry weighs about 13 lbs (which isn't SMALL for a cat, but compare....) and he's narrow. Imagine sitting on the loveseat, as I was, and watching my BIG BOY try to climb onto the windowsill, which he actually did. He usually goes behind the TV to do this, which could be worse, but Will has the TV secured down for just the reason (and earthquakes, of course). The silly part is that Alex walks across the windowsill to the other side of the window, then climbs onto the 2nd level of his cat tree, then on to the bookshelf, and then up to the top of the cat tree. There must be an easier way!

Taken another time, here is Alex walking across the window ON the windowsill.

Final destination - top of the cat tree!

Cats, Knitting and Garage Sales. Is there anything else?

Yes, that's the beautiful Alex on my lap. He didn't stay long, but that he was there at all is amazing. I love his one white "antenna" whisker. Ziggy has the same whisker, but his is on the other side.
"Mad Fish" is probably a very good restaurant, but it sounds too much like "Mad Cow" to me. Just saying.
A woman on Freecycle advertised that she was giving away yarn, mostly wool since it was for a felting project she never did. I responded, but a school responded first, which is great. She then told me the school didn't take it all, so I could have the rest. Unfortunately, when I felted a small swatch of this (yes, Diann, I really did knit a swatch!!!!), and then washed it and dried it in hot water, it didn't felt, so I don't think it's wool. I was thinking of making a cat bed but now I'll have to rethink this. There was lots more. I wonder if any of it is wool? Unfortunately, a pair of socks I knitted and washed in cold water and then dried did felt. Go figure.
I paid $3 for this metal plant holder thingy at a garage sale. I just had to have it. This is why I love going to garage sales.

It's all about knitting this post....

I bought this blue rayon yarn at Stitches West 2011 earlier this year. It's a lovely color (even Mowry thinks so) but I'm sorry to say that I'm just not feeling the love for it.
It's got a lovely texture, and I like the colors, but I started knitting a moebius scarf with it (this is the pattern, although the yarn is VERY different s0 it would have been thicker and wouldn't have looked like this).Here it is on the needles.
Up close you can see the loops from where it pulls. There were so many pulls that you can see the loops (look at the bottom of the picture). I am not happy. Some of it may be from the plastic that goes between the bamboo needles; I prefer something other than plastic as I find the yarn gets caught at the connection between the plastic and the needles, but I think the yarn itself pulls before I even knit it.
I ripped it out, and now I'm not sure what I'm going to make with this yarn. I really like the colors and the feel of the yarn, just not the loops made when it pulls and separates. Hmmmmm.

There's no place like home...

Dorothy was right. There's no place like home.

We took a road trip to LA and visited the parents, some old friends, and Aunt Mare, for whom this blog is named. She's amazing at 94 1/2 years old. I told her I want to be like her when I grow up! Visiting with a friend I hadn't seen in over 30 years with whom I hung out in junior high and the first two years of high school was fun. Next time we pick a quieter restaurant where we can actually hear each other! Seeing two friends I worked with at different jobs in the 1980s was fun, but I've kept in touch with them.

Traffic in LA was, well, traffic in LA. That's why I left LA 20 years ago. Too much traffic, too many people, too much crime, too much too much. This was around 3:00 pm on Saturday.

We were amazed on Sunday morning when we drove down to Long Beach to the best antique flea market ever - no traffic! This is south of LAX on the way to Redondo Beach where we met a friend who drove the rest of the way.

On the way down to LA off of I-5 we used to stop at Red Robin for a burger, but one trip down it was gone. One time someone (not me) drove right by the offramp to Red Robin. Since it's right near the smelly cows (if you've driven down I-5 you know what I mean) I don't know how anyone could miss it, but I was not watching the road (nor was I driving) and I realized we had passed it when it was too late. An offramp or two later was the ubiquitous Denny's, and so we stopped at Denny's. This time, however, we stopped at Mike's Roadhouse Cafe in Kettleman City. We don't like Harris Ranch - the one time we went there it took way too long, and they didn't understand "NO MAYO". I make it pretty clear. "NO MAYO". Mike's had this cool display of old pedal cars, and the hamburger we shared was very good.
It's always hard for us to leave home. We're homebodies, and we just like being home. It's not easy leaving this.....

Or this.... (my 94 1/2 year old neighbor has the most beautiful roses)!
When I was younger, I hated coming home after a vacation, but these days, I like the visits, but I'm happy to be home.

Side story: After finding the long-lost buttons I've mentioned earlier, I went to an estate sale a few weeks ago and bought these (with the jar) for $1. I think I now collect old buttons!

Cats and things

One of my two followers (LOL!) asked how many cats I have - THREE! Ziggy (black cat on the left) was given to us by friends who adopted a baby and Ziggy did not like him. Most cats adapt to new kids, but once the little boy turned two and wanted to hug Zig, Zig wanted no part of it. Mowry (orange tabby on the right) came from a local rescue group. We adopted him when he was around 3 months old. He's named after a street in our city that sounds like a cat saying his name - Mowry! If we lived in Hawaii, he'd be Maui!
Mowry seems to be everyone's favorite. He has a nice personality, but he can be destructive when he decides to scratch the furniture.
Alex and Ziggy look very much alike. They are about 6 mos apart (Zig is 10 1/2 and Al is 11). We had to look closely to tell them apart like parents do with their twins. Alex has white on his paws and ears, and Zig does not. Alex has ONE white whisker on his left as we face him, and Ziggy's ONE white whisker is on his right as we face him. Ziggy is now very matted, so if we touch him, we can tell. Come summer he will have to be shaved. He's a little more round than Alex, but both are identical to the "naked eye". >^..^<

That's Alex in the front, and Ziggy peeking out by the pillows. They prefer when we don't make our bed.



Earlier this week you'd have thought spring was here and garage sale season would be in full force this weekend. There were a lot of garage sales, but they weren't all that good, and it was a bit chilly, especially compared to a day or so ago. We managed to find a few good things: Timberline shoes that look new for Will for $5, a book about felting knitting projects for $1, and a few books at the library book sale.

I love watching these baby hummingbirds. I never liked hummers, thinking they were kind of creepy, but after watching this live website (only on in sunlight hours) at www.phoebeallens.com, I LOVE hummingbirds.