Autumn

Mill Creek Road heading into the Blue Mountains, WA

There's been a sea-change in the weather.  I was out attending a high school choir concert last night.  I carefully washed my hair and dried it straight as an arrow.  Actually put on make-up so my grand-girl who was performing wouldn't have to explain my usual bag lady persona.  The rain made it curl and the wind gave it twirl and I'm pretty sure the light amount of make-up washed off.  Ha, ha!  After I got back home, the wind howled and the rain beat on the windows all night apparently.  I went right to sleep and didn't wake up once.  

Eldest grand-girl, appropriately nicknamed Lala, sang the opening number, thrilling for me, her voice has matured in the last two years.  Her boyfriend Nathen, no nickname I know of, sings with choir too.  The whole choir was super.  What a great group of kids.  They have a new choir director this year.  The former one was wonderful and much loved.  I was happy to see the kids seem to really like the new one, the audience did too, and made him very welcome.  Brave to step into those shoes.

Nathen and "Lala" off to the homecoming dance last weekend.  

They are pretty cute together.  they even managed to dance although Nathen has a knee in a cast from doing the sort of showing off boys do at 17.  I'm amazed either of my sons is in one piece.  The amethyst necklace was my grandmother's, her great-great grandmother's.  My grandmother loved to dance and sing, had the same thick, curly auburn Irish hair Alandra does, both my grandmother's did.  I wish I knew where all that necklace has been.  Grandma was raised on a ranch between Heppner Oregon and Pendleton, riding with the ranch hands.  She left, getting married at 17, to a man none of us had ever heard of and not my Mom's Dad.  A helpful museum volunteer in Heppner helped excavate that happening.  Lots of tales there.

Thinking about you Mage, got you in my prayers today.

Celebration

This week our family visited family court and received the final adoption papers for Ella.  She is nearly three and has been part of our family since she was two days old.

Isabel holding Ella on her first day with us.

We've already had one celebration with cake.  Halloween will be a second larger celebration perhaps in costume.  There are two toddlers in the house so I suggested we dress them up as Thing 1 and Thing 2.  Or maybe not.

Ella and her brother Jacob. Happy times.

Tuesday Night Treat

Tuesdays are long, fun, and very busy for me.  I have my eight-year granddaughter Tuesdays and we mix her home studies with whatever fun we can think up.  Yesterday Isabel made birthday cupcakes for my son Chris for the usual Tuesday night family potluck dinner.  She made them all herself, and decorated them.  She is growing so I usually cook her a second breakfast when she visits but this time she stayed overnight Monday, so we had breakfast, then she had brunch, I think she's a hobbit in disguise, lunch, a lunch like snack and then off to dinner.  Fortunately she likes veggies and salads and I give her lots of them.  She is slender and energetic unlike myself who is somewhat pudgy around the center and slug-like in my actions of late.  While she was doing her language arts/reading I started reading "The Long Way Home."

I pre-ordered this book and could hardly wait for it to arrive.  I love Louise Penny's Inspector Gamache mysteries.  I tried to read it slowly so it would last longer.  Instead I came home from Tuesday dinner, made myself comfy in bed and read the whole darned thing.  I really enjoyed it.  I only got up for potty breaks and to get online to look up all the places in the novel that exist.  While doing that I discovered there is a train that leaves Vancouver BC and goes all the way across Canada to Quebec.  I was thrilled.  I wonder if I could resuscitate my French?  I used to be able to understand it, no one much could understand me though.  What a fun trip that would be.  Would you come back on the train or fly home?  Could my sister, my cruise companion come along?  Can we find Inspector Gamache?

Got up bleary-eyed this morning and for some peculiar reason thought today would be good to cut back on coffee.  I made it most of the day, I'm now making dinner and drinking coffee at 6pm, if it keeps me up I'll start the Masie Dobbs novel I just brought home from the library. 

Happy Birthday Chris

Today is my eldest son's birthday.  He doesn't look quite like this anymore 40+ years later.  This is his one year old self sitting in the high chair my grandmother bought for me and that my grandkids have sat in as well.

The weeks before his birthday presented him a new job and the sales of several of his artworks.  My birthday wish is that this good stuff continues for this good man.

And a woman who held a babe against her bosom said, "Speak to us of Children."

And he said:

Your children are not your children.

They are the sons and daughters of Life's longing for itself.

They come through you but not from you,

And though they are with you, yet they belong not to you.

You may give them your love but not your thoughts.

For they have their own thoughts.

You may house their bodies but not their souls,

For their souls dwell in the house of tomorrow, which you cannot visit, not even in your dreams.

You may strive to be like them, but seek not to make them like you.

For life goes not backward nor tarries with yesterday.

You are the bows from which your children as living arrows are sent forth.

The archer sees the mark upon the path of the infinite, and He bends you with His might that His arrows may go swift and far.

Let your bending in the archer's hand be for gladness;

For even as he loves the arrow that flies, so He loves also the bow that is stable.

Khalil Gibran

Tiny Art

Grandgirl Natty caught this sky as we left the Art Squared event at CAVU Cellars Friday night.  The second light from the right is a tiny scrap of moon.

Photo Natty Dalan 2014

Friday night was spent viewing tiny art at the Art2 fund raiser for ArtWalla.  It's amazing that there are so many artists in this small town, 81 participants including my eldest son Chris.  ArtWalla distributes 10 6"x6" wooden blocks to artists to create tiny art for this fund raiser.  There are paintings, collages, pottery pieces, photographs, nearly anything you can think up.  Chris' current specialty is cartoon and fantasy art.  The organization gets 20% of whatever sells and the rest goes to the artist.  Chris sold several pieces leaving him with a very high wattage smile all night.  Two people had an argument over who was going to purchase his piece pictured below.  Next year Nat and I will join in the fun to fund.

The people watching was wonderful.  Listening in on the commentary was both grand and horrifying.  Everyone's on art critic.