I did a post for the WP challenge “Repurpose” to show how James had taken a really rough building and turned it into our “Bed and No Breakfast”, our Guest House.
That’s just the guest house. The actual house James built almost 40 years ago is amazing. Talk about nestled into the land.
Hmm, another post brewing……..
So here is that brewed up response:
Before and after shots of our beloved Casa Esmeralda
A wonderful, tiny one bedroom cabin
Then, THIS happened! (view looking up from the Guest House)
I really wanted to retain the Porch Swing, our favorite wildlife viewing spot.
This end of the house is still a work in process but you can see the low windows the Turkeys visit for their vanity checks. My Grandsons are helping me create a rock garden with stones and shells from the beaches of the San Juan Islands!
The inside of the addition is not finished yet but is almost done outside, (still have to complete the upper deck….oh, and shore up the mine-shaft terraced gardens out in front of the house.)
So Marilyn and JoAnne and Ed, and Karuna, Linda, and Lisa and husband and whomever else is interested…make your reservation soon! (smiley face…winking face…hearts…geez, I really have to get some emojis!!)
I have no good photographs, just a few snapshots, as proof for my current plight but I AM thinking of you this morning as I sit in the Starbucks closest to my house. We had to come here to thaw and eat and get internet….all things I have never done before…at least, not at a Starbucks. (Not a coffee drinker and there really isn’t much here I would normally eat.)
pitiful snowman in front of Starbucks
You’ll no doubt have a chuckle as to the reason we are in this predicament…you, a Colorado Cowboy and all!
The Seattle area is blessed to never have more snow than just a bit of decoration. You know, a pretty dusting that everyone photographs and sends out to friends “See, we have snow here too!” The whole area shuts down and takes vacation days.It’s not that there aren’t thousands of snow bunnies here. We just prefer our snow to remain in it’s proper place, which is 40 minutes away in the Cascade mountains at Alpental or Crystal Mountain.
I guess if these intrepid Hummers can make it, I should stop complaining!
We had a major snow dump here about 4 days ago…not the fluffy white decorative stuff, but heavy, HEAVY wet snow. The kind that tears 3 inch thick branches right off their trunks! And I’m talking about hundreds of beautiful trees. The result is our whole area looks like a tornado went through…downed trees, ripped off branches, and NO POWER!!! For days now.
Hey, I have camped and hiked my whole life. I’ve lived for days without any power or running water (granted, many of those days were spent at various outdoor music festivals and I may or may not have been assisted chemically to be able to ignore any such hardships) but I really am getting too old for this life-style. To have to come to a Starbucks for food, coffee, warmth (and to brush my teeth and sneak a quick sponge bath) is a new low.
I told you! You are chuckling, right? I know how spoiled I am, believe me. I realize how lucky we are to not live in 3rd world conditions (at least, not yet. I guess we’ll see after a few more months of “He Whose Name Shall Not Be Spoken” in office).
If we were in our mountain retreat, at least we’d have the woodstove for heat and cooking and we’d have water (icy from the spring and well, but heatable).
But here’s the thing. Short of the discomfort of having to beg for a place to shower and warm up from my newly un-estranged sister, (they have power at their house) and the risk of losing all my bugs to this cold, I feel incredibly blessed.
The Seattle/Bellevue area has a huge, seriously shameful number of homeless, and though I am deeply impacted every single time I see a makeshift home under a bridge or a small temporary tent-city, I still haven’t done anything.
I feel a resolve today I have never felt before. I can’t believe how bad it must be in the snow, the rain, the cold without heat and food and hot water. Maybe in some ways a lot worse than in a country where the norm is to live with the minimum for generations. I know in your travels you have probably seen such a variety of living I know nothing about, except what I read.
I don’t feel guilty exactly, well, maybe for all the bitching I do for slow internet or other mundane and trivial things like that.
But I do feel inspiration. No idea for what yet, but something.
I’m starting here, with a post from my dear friend Karuna, to get an idea where to start.
If the cold didn’t wreak such havoc with my particular thyroid disease (Hashimoto’s) I’d have absolutely no reason to complain. I could choose to look at this whole thing as a grand adventure, which I have been trying to do with my grandsons who live with us. Hey, they’ve had 3 days of school being closed so they’re happy, mostly.
But whatever I do next, even if it’s just to take blankets to a tent city, those boys are coming with me!
Thanks for listening Mr. Fish. I miss you.
At my sister’s house, in anticipation of better weather
It started as a wood working art studio, a contractor’s workshop, and a music rehearsal room! In the photo above you can see the performance stage on the front. There is terraced seating up the hillside (off to the left). For almost ten years, local musicians, sometimes as many as 20, came to perform their original music at a good sized “Jam”! (enough of an audience to need several rented Porta-Potties)
But we needed space for company, so James worked his magic and built us what I call our “Bed and NO Breakfast”! (I ain’t cookin’ for no one!)
Wanna come for a visit? Only thing is the turkeys come through at 4:30 AM during the longer days, having roosted overnight in our trees. They can be pretty noisy, especially during mating season!
Ahh, to be thirteen again…and to be given complete freedom to decorate my own room. My Dad did that for me so I painted my room white and then, with a pencil, traced circles around plates, cups, and saucers all over my walls. I filled them in with pastel pink, yellow and blue enamel paint. (I also made striped curtains in the same colors.) I loved my room. It was such a peaceful haven in an otherwise tumultuous household. I could shift my mood by closing my door and immersing myself in the ambience I had been allowed to create.
When my son and grandsons moved back in with me I really wanted the boys to feel at home and so of course, passed on the traditional “freedom” to decorate their space.
Here’s a slideshow of how the oldest (13) chose to set up his room. It is filled with the dichotomies of his age and individual personality. I LOVE it! Enjoy the song below while viewing the show. (It reminds me of my Junior High/High school boyfriend, David Taylor!)
This slideshow requires JavaScript.
My first reaction to some of his belongings was apprehension. His Dad (my son) was never allowed weapons of any kind, not even toy guns. That really backfired as a parenting stance. But I am not too worried about my grandson. His “weapons” are mostly decorative, and are nicely balanced with his other collections (Pez dispensers, sports stuff, art, guitars, etc.)
Oh and his “stuffies”, many from his babyhood.
These are his favorite Stuffies; a fluffy elephant (he had one in his crib from day one that played “Imagine”) and his favorite, a “Frankenstein doll”.
The theme this week for our Song Lyrics Challenge is the parent/child relationship.
Tell you what, I LOVE this weekly Song Challenge because I get to share favorite music of mine and learn so many new songs!! Visit Helen’s site (above) for today’s responses! Some really amazing music every week!
I have had the privilege in my lifetime of parenting many, MANY children. Starting with my younger sisters. when we were growing up. Of course, I had no clue what I was doing and was just a child myself, but to the best of my ability, mother them I did!
Then being pregnant with Pamela, before she was even born, I parented her in my mind (and belly) for that nine months, knowing I might have to give her up to be raised by more available, qualified and less damaged parents.
With Michael, I was 100% in from day one! Though his version of his childhood and mine might be different, I doubt he would tell you that he wasn’t my top priority, always.
Then came a foster daughter and later still, three step children, and I loved them each totally and did my very best to contribute to their lives for the relatively short time I had them (almost 13 years).
For a period of 25 years, as my seva, I was a Professional Childbirth Attendant…sort of like a “doula”…although my certification was specific to assisting a Midwife in a home delivery. I had also taught Childbirth Education classes and studied Pre and PeriNatal Psychology for many years so the kind of childbirth I attended was not limited to home deliveries. Instead of doing only the jobs a Doula will typically cover, I gained a reputation as someone who could “mother the mother” during Labor and delivery, especially when we knew going in that it was a high risk circumstance (health issues, single or underage mom, rape, incest, adoption, and more). I attended more than 250 births.
And the last group of “children” for whom I had the honor of claiming the title Mom, were my clients…hundreds of them (many that overlapped with the category just above because I was included in the births of their babies).
This last category is difficult to describe without misunderstanding but the very short version is this. As a Psychotherapist trained in Developmental Psychology, I believed that all kinds of therapies involve transference*, both positive and negative. And that the nature of the therapeutic relationship is not unlike that of a parent and child. So we acknowledged and used the positive transference that can happen when a high trust level exists between client and therapist. In other words, by contract, and within a very specific and safe structure, I “parented” my clients…or more accurately, I “mom-ed” the “little kid” part of my clients. In some cases, I became their Mom, for a piece of therapeutic work and some, for longer periods of time. There are even a handful with whom I made a life-long agreement to retain that title. I take that commitment completely seriously, as do they, and even though I am mostly professionally retired now and they are complete adults, they remain a part of my family.
My primary Mentor, much like a “mom” to me, used to say “You can never have too many healthy Mom’s” (and Dad’s too). My mother died when I was so young but I have been blessed with many in my adult life.
And now, my son and his two boys have moved in with us and I have the ultimate honor of being Grandma (well, they call me Dammaw). Grandparenting is just parenting with huge benefits…and no, I don’t mean that thing a lot of grandparents say about getting to do the good stuff and then sending them home to their parents for the more difficult parts.
Once again, I am in 100 %!!
I remember seeing a movie when I was very young called “Cheaper by the Dozen”. I decided right then it would be a dream come true to have that many kids! I thought I might be good at it.
Now, I could not possibly count the number of parent/child relationships I have been lucky enough to have, but definitely more than a Dozen.
William Blake said ‘The road of excess leads to the palace of wisdom…You never know what is enough until you know what is more than enough.’
I’ll let you know when I find out….
*transference-the redirection to a substitute, usually a therapist, of emotions that were originally felt, and left unfinished, in childhood
(Photo at the very top is the last family picture before my mother’s suicide. She is second from the right in the back row. I was 2 months pregnant with my daughter, Pamela.)
Lousy video and the lyrics are not actually related to my current frame of mind but it’s still a great song and, it is actually Chicago in July, 1971. I would have been newly pregnant with baby Michael!
Story for me behind this song is that is was the one my son’s father and I claimed as “ours”, to the degree that we had “only the beginning” engraved onto our wedding bands. The words were so true for us at the time. BIG (but young) love there!
Rick and me stopping at a gas station flower stand for my wedding bouquet on the way to be married in my childhood church in Pacific Beach. What you might not be able to see is that my dress is handmade (and BLUE, not WHITE) from a maternity pattern…yep, we were very pregnant!
Ironic, given how quickly the marriage ended, leaving me alone to raise my 3 year old.
But you know, that was also a beginning in so many ways. I really started becoming my best self after Michael’s father left and with lots of work, I actually became grateful for how that beginning came about.
As sweet Jennifer Day, from The Iconophile said recently “a mess is full of potential”.
Me and my Mikey, a couple of years into our new beginning!!
So no excuses…get back out there in the world and DO something. Either that, or stay in and finish your damn BOOK! (By the way, that was to ME, not you…unless you needed a swift kick in the patootie also!)
Beginnings by Chicago
Lyrics
When I’m with you
It doesn’t matter where we are
Or what we’re doing
I’m with you, that’s all that matters
Time passes much too quickly
When we’re together laughing
I wish I could sing it to you, whoa oh
I wish I could sing it to you
When I kiss you
I feel a thousand different feelings
A cover of chills
All over my body
And when I feel them
I quickly try to decide which one
I should try to put into words, woah oh
Try to put into words
I had the most delightful Holiday experience the other night.
It was one of those frosty ones we’ve had recently. They are still slightly rare here in the Northwest. I got home late, parked my car, went inside and unloaded stuff and then realized no one had gotten the mail. So, I bundled back up and trudged (well, it felt like trudging) back outside in the freezing cold to collect bills and hopefully, some holiday cards, from the mailbox. When I turned around to come back in, I decided to stop for a moment and look up to enjoy the stars that are so visible on this kind of crisp, clear night. As I’d hoped, they were stunning. But, what caught my eye was something in the tops of the two giant old trees in front of the house. There were a bunch, maybe hundreds, of white sparkles flitting in and on and around those trees!!
Instantly, in my mind, I was transported to a steaming hot summer night when I was just 7 years old. I was visiting my Aunt back in Prospect Heights, Illinois. I had a huge jar in my hands for collecting FIREFLIES!! They flitted and danced all around me, exactly like these were doing at the tops of my here and now trees.
I know I’m not crazy (at least most of the time) so I knew they couldn’t possibly be fireflies but what in the world were these pirouetting lights? Having just seen the movie Arrival, my mind raced with alien visitor possibilities. Or maybe it was some strange insect migration I’d never heard of. I even wondered about a flock of thousands of those mini drones, invading the sky above my house.
I ran inside and got James and he came out to see what I was so riled up about. He was also immediately blown away and we stood there wondering and guessing out loud.
Then, we both broke down into delighted giggles! What in the world??? What was this?? We were both so tickled!
I ran back in the house to get Michael (and my camera). I knew he’d never believe me if I tried describing it so even though he was already snuggled in bed with Netflix, I pulled the Mom Card and handed him his Robe. I was hoping the “swarm” would not take off before we could get back outside. He grumbled but came anyway.
Then the sweetest thing happened. Michael apologized…almost before we could even get outside. I guess my enthusiasm and wonder were pretty BIG.) He said, “Mom, I really don’t want to burst your bubble…but these are just someone’s Christmas laser lights.” I had no idea what he meant.
Sure enough, we traced the path of lights back toward probably our neighbors, the Jones’s, yard. James, ever the scientist, got it right away, when Michael explained how they worked. But, I stayed in denial for quite a while, a disappointed seven-year-old, bargaining for this to be a never-before-seen phenomenon.
“Are you sure?” I kept asking. “How could that be? Just look up there!”
Well, Michael was right, my bubble had popped but it didn’t really burst. It was still such an amazing display to see, all those pin points of light dancing in the tops of those HUGE ancient trees I love so much! I’ve lived here for over 40 years. I raised Michael in this house. Those trees were giant when we moved in and have acted as symbolic sentinels all these years. And now, he is raising his two sons here with those trees on guard.
Michael’s reaction to my childlike glee and then disappointment was so sweet and protective (thus the Role Reversal) but the best part came the next day. He went out and bought laser lights for all around the inside and outside of the house. That next night, he said “Mom, they’re baaack. Go look out your bedroom window.” And sure enough, a new Swarm had appeared, green and red this time, all over the two younger, but still large fir trees in the back of the house.
Delightful! Thanks, my sweet Son.
PS So sorry I don’t have visual aids as usual. Apparently laser lights are hard to photograph AND my site does not support video unless I “upgrade”. Otherwise I would embarrass myself for your entertainment by posting the completely black video of those lights, but with me squealing (and denying) in the background.
I did a post for the WP challenge “Repurpose” to show how James had taken a really rough building and turned it into our “Bed and No Breakfast”, our Guest House.
You can read that post here:
This is one of the comments I received:
I also love your house. I don’t want to sound envious, but it’s perfect for the setting and I love the way it fits into the land, like a nest.