A Gift

I've been the recipient of some lovely gifts recently. I made a hat for my neighbor Janet and she made me this beautiful hand painted egg in return...'from one crafter to another', she said. I hung it from the bookshelf on my desk along with little treasures, pictures, a mug with a heart on it, a Pomo Indian basket filled with lichen and small pebbles, a tiny Balinese vase full of feathers and a ton of books. The egg is, well, egg shaped, but circles figure in its decoration.

It was frosty again this morning making us remark on how unusual it is for it to be this cold in April. The frost was gone by the time we finished Pilates at ten and after cereal and yogurt and granola we took Spike for a walk. We ran into a neighbor who was busy loading his Bobcat (the digging one, not the feline one) onto a trailer. He's stoned a lot of the time, but a nice guy who keeps his finger on the pulse of the neighborhood. He told us that Bart and Renee, of the cliff house next door did indeed move their trailer into the garage because the rain and wind were becoming unbearably noisy. They are still living in it as the house is still being finished inside. As we suspected, they can't live in the house proper until the stairs and the elevator are in, but as Dana said, 'I bet they're going inside to use the bathroom'.

I'm starting on a new quilt for our friend Anne, who is recovering from a stroke and a fall. She is at home now, with a hospital bed in the family room because she can't make it up the stairs yet. I spoke to her last night and she sounded fine, but kept saying, 'I have a long way to go.' They have decided to sell their house in Corvallis and move to Southern California where both their children live. All good decisions, but a huge upheaval. I thought she needed something cheerful, so I'm trying something completely different that I hope will go quickly. 

John has been tidying up outside as it finally appears that the weather is turning toward spring. Things are bursting into bloom everywhere, and we saw a tiny hummingbird in the garden...too tiny to be anything but a fledgeling sticking close to the ground. The quail are marching down the stairs in the evening again and will soon be followed by a host of tiny fluffballs tumbling down the steps. There is another jake turkey wandering around although it hasn't peered in our doors as of yet.

At Safari West, a wild animal park in the hills above us, there is a new arrival, a baby white rhino. The sex has not been announced yet as a gender reveal celebration is being planned...really? The staff is very excited as white rhinos are threatened with extinction and the breeding program at Safari West was not going well with several imported mates not able to get the job done. The infant weighed in at 150 lbs after sixteen months of gestation, and was standing within an hour of its birth, though it did look a bit bewildered as in...what just happened? Even a baby rhino is cute and I put a picture of it with its mother in extras.