( Not Quite ) In The Nick Of Time

As the year 2016 comes to an end, with Garbo at Bel Amour for her New Years "Do" and our 2017 calendars being filled in with important dates, appointments and friends and family birthdays, we wanted to take a few moment to close our Blog for this year!

36 Yr Anniversary

36 Yr Anniversary

Elliot in Memorial Day parade

Saga's visit

Saga's 12th birthday

Via the Photographers camera lens, a "picture cavalcade" of memories.

Walking Garbo

Cooking for yoga retreat

There will be a new start, as we look forward to 2017 with open arms and an open heart!  Trying to shed the doom and gloom!

Garbo playing with Yuki

Garbo's new friend Chunky

Friends of the Hood over for lunch

What I would like to promote however, just to "preach" a little, is: in an effort to put less stress on Mother Earth, let us try to reduce, cut back and minimise!  Be more aware of our choices and our consumption.  Rather than spending on stuff, spend time with people!

Amy's Baby Shower

Kellies Wedding shower

Hollister Civil War

Hollister air show

Hollister car show

Hollister motorcycle rally

Renaissance fair

Scotts Valley car show

This summer  as we celebrate the 50th anniversary of the "Summer of Love" ... Let's  remember "Make Love not War!"   Once and for all!

New floor

Baking bread

Elliott's visit

Elliott at Karate Studio

Year 2016 ended with gatherings and family get togethers in a BIG way!  Christmas was great with our house filled to the brim with happy faces, extra doggies and people with full tummies!

Kellies Wedding

Robert and Lotta

We will end the year with more of the same!

Bicycling around Hollister

Fred cooking us breakfast

Good food, good drink, surrounded by people we love!

Shorey family Sunday dinners

Xmas 2016

Happy New Year to you all...Gott Nytt År and Feliz Ano Nuevo!

November Family Gatherings and Political Chaos

Our granddaughter Kellie was married on the 5th of November.  We flew to Seattle rented a car and drove to Cle Elum where the wedding took place.  It was a grand time filled with celebration and reconnecting with family and friends.  There were also some family from Sweden that we were very happy to see.

We laughed, cried, exchanged stories, hugged, and danced.  We had great food and wine with people we love and care for.  It is a wonderful life.

November also gave us a new President Elect.  We are in a very unstable and scary time in our country.  This election period was filled with anger, hopelessness, great hope, arrogance, corruption, sadness, and a feeling that for a long time now we have all felt left behind and marginalised by the political and corporate establishment and corporate media of Washington DC.  Most people in politics and the media I think are good people who think they are doing the right thing.  But, they have been swimming in the same dirty and murky water for so long that they need to climb out, take a shower and step away and take a good honest look at what they are doing.

Some might say, "so what else is new"?  "This is the way it has always been."  The difference today is that so much ugliness is being tolerated and accepted to the point it is becoming almost normal.  To this I say be careful, watchful, and very aware of what is happening in our country.  The silver lining in all of this may be that we as a people will become more involved in standing up for our own well being and that some of the establishment will have climbed out of the murky water taken a shower and will see the light of day.  We are hopeful that in the end all will be good.

On a happier note we are preparing for Thanksgiving at our house with family.  It is always such a great time for us when our kids, grandchildren, and friends are gathered together for a feast.

Happy Thanksgiving to you all.  And, if you do not celebrate Thanksgiving, have a happy time with your family and friends.

Faire and Floors

Yea,  a crazy combination for a title but the two biggest things to report this time around!

When the Photographer invited me on our first date we went to The Renaissance Faire near San Francisco.  It was amazing!  Since then we have attended the event at various venues including Hanford, California, Casa de Fruta close to San Jose, plus  a sweet version of Medeltids Festivalen in Ingelsträde, while we resided in Ryssmöllan near Helsingborg, Sweden.

This time, in late September, we had the pleasure of having "the future Chef" tag along for a day of fun in the sun!  And hot it was!  It was a great day inspite of the temperature!  Cooling off with appropriate spirits and tasty food.  Garbo had fun too, spending the day with her doggie cousins Buddie and Gemma.

The days flew by and it was time to turn the page on the wall calendar to October!  The air is crisp, pumpkins, scarecrows, and tomb stones are turning up on doorsteps, in drive ways and front yards.

Apples are on sale and I find myself thinking about stewed cabbage, brussel sprouts with bacon and  Pumpkin Espresso Cake and such!

We have new floors!  The cream colored  all to wall carpet have been removed (thank goodness) and wood flooring installed.  We love it!  I think Mister Kitty and Garbo does too, except when Garbo gets into her  streaks of excess energy and starts her wild sprints, well..... she ends up with all four paws in four different directions as she has NO traction!  It gets outright scary!

It was a lot of work removing furniture, emptying hutches and the refrigerator, and moving and disassembling a few things but we did it!  Getting things cleaned up and dusted off and ready for the next "Go Around". Now we are back to normal. What ever normal is?

One of the hardest things during the installation phase was keeping track of Garbo and Mister.  With Rocky, the installer, obviously having to run in and out with doors open it was important that we always new where Mister was.  It is harder to lose track of Garbo :-)  Mister felt unhappy about not being able to hang out in the garage during the day.  He likes to hunt out there. He proudly catches mice and we thank him profusely! We shuttled him from the back deck to the bedroom and or to the Photographers office and back again, it all worked out in the end.

It was all a pleasant experience. Not many can say THAT about a home inprovement project!  Rocky did a fabulous job, on top of the fact that it was a pleasure to have him around!  We will seek his help again, whenever we start our next home improvement project, whatever that might be!

Our next big adventure is THE wedding!  We can hardly wait!