First Rain

Last night brought the Bay Area its first touch of rain for the 2012-13 season. We wait patiently all Fire Season for the clouds to release their bounty onto our parched hillsides and forests. If only we could remember to roll up the car windows on nights like this !~!

My best friends provide me with an inimitable list of the benefits of true friendship, sisterhood and love. 

Here they are several summers ago, 2003 I think, when I made a trip to FL to visit them and the few other friends I have left there. 

Phyllis Looby on the left and Karen Taylor on the right. A pair to draw to-every time.

Iris (on the right) and I hiked to the ocean one afternoon thru Tennessee Valley. The beach is black sand and the waves unpredictable. Worth the walk, for sure.

A pillow made for late friend who loved manatees and warm waters.

Cathi, my older daughter, with her two most precious. Anthony on the left is now ten--and Madison is seven. How'd that happen in a year or two !~!

Weeping Copper Beech reached out and grabbed me one lazy afternoon at the local nursery. After my youngest sibling, Tony, died unexpectedly this became his memorial. Stretching for the sky like T always did, this tree is perfect--I kiss it on the way to my car each day.

This is the four of us in OK in Aug 08 to bury Teri.

Saddest time of my life-another post will talk about that...

L-R: Lynda, Mike, Tony, Cathi.

Iris and I heading for Tennessee Valley. I'm the taller one on the left.

Our front yard and entryway. Changes happen every season, plants are moved, new ones put in, structures come and go...

Another day passes in relative calm, nice visit from Cathleen with some lovely fabric to give to me for sewing-four pieces just beautiful. Aaaannnnnnd...

One cut piece is exactly the size I need for the back of the 9-block with sashing I put together last night and today. Incredible how the world just works to bring what is  needed to the fore while allowing other, sometimes bigger, ideas to simmer in the background.

Off to sew the batting together to make it big enough for my 9-block and then attach it all together. How will we bind it today ?~!