At The Lake

We are back at the Lake for the Nth time, where N is a number somewhere in the teens. We have no real idea how long we’ve been coming to “The Lake” but it’s over 14 years. If you go back in this blog you will see pictures from 10 years ago taken at “The Lake.” You could say we like it here because we do!

There’s water in the lake this year. Last year the lake was at 7%, this year it’s closer to 40% full. That’s a HUGE difference. Southern California has had some rain, just not enough.           

This is the typical landscape ... very very dry. The grasses are beyond dry, and it’s the reason why there have been fires nearby. In a typical winter, this should be a green grassy area.

I love this picture. The area is called “Harvey’s Cove” named after a goose that lived here for many years. (The goose was named Harvey and sadly, he passed away 2 years ago) The area should be filled with water, but it’s dry with a small “swamp” at the neck of the cove. Maybe it will fill while we are here, if there is rain.

It’s good to be back at the lake.

 

 

Christmas Plus One

I hope everyone had a Merry Christmas. We did! We visited family, laughed, talked, had some fine food, and laughed and talked some more. A good time for everyone. 

Merry Christmas to Everyone and a Happy New Year Too!!!!

 

Bear

The little kitties were an inspiration...so tonight I designed a little bear.

He’s a tiny little thing...just what I needed! A perfect ornament for my Christmas tree.

Merry Christmas everyone!

 

Kitties

I saw these adorable kitties on Pinterest...but the pattern was in Russian! I enlarged the photo, counted the stitches and...

I made these “essense of kitty” mini-pillows. I think they are cute...hope my niece’s kittlies will like to play with them.

 

Sunset on a Cloudy Day

It was cloudy and gray today. The sun never even showed a ray of light! But I looked out the kitchen window as I was making dinner and saw this!

Isn’t this a spectacular sunset?

 

Finally

I started this blanket on the ship 3 different times. For some reason it would not come together. Finally, it’s done in time for Christmas. Do you know of a Christmas baby who needs a red baby blanket? If you do, let me know and I’ll send it to you.

Of course, it has teddy bears on it. This is the first time I made the blanket in red. In the past, I’ve used “baby” colors of pink, blue, white, yellow, lavender and mint. It’s good to break the mold every now and then.

The pictures were taken with my new Canon SX730HS camera. My old camera died and I replaced it with the newest equivalent camera by Canon. The times have changed. This camera has wifi and bluetooth, so I can transfer pictures directly to my iPad or computer without using any cables or removing an SD card. That makes life a bit easier. I’ll keep you posted on how well it works over the next few months.

 

I did a lot of online research before buying this camera. After deciding that my iPhone camera was not enough, I looked at point and shoot, DSLR and mirrorless cameras. The latter two are “high end” and need different lenses and filters to make them work. I’ve had the high end cameras before and discovered they involve a lot of “stuff” that has to be easily accessed if you are going ot use the camera well. This is too bothersome for me at my stage in lilfe. So that left the Point and Shoot cameras. I narrowed the search to three compact super zoom cameras: a Sony, a Panasonic and a Canon. The first two had electronic view finders and I thought that would be as asset. Hands-on testing happened yesterday at Best Buy (one of my favorite stores). They did not have a Panasonic, but they had the Sony and the Canon. The Sony with the electronic view finder was on sale for $949 reduced from $999 and it had a $50 gift card! I looked at this camera very seriously...but the view finder was a joke! Instead of showing a clear view, it was blurry. The fellow who was showing me the cameras looked thru the view finder too and he agreed it was HORRIBLE! Then we both went thru the internal programming and could not find anything to make the view finder work better. It was clear at that point that I would buy the Canon. Since I’ve been using Canon cameras most of my life, I don’t need to learn any new procedures. It’s like picking up an old friend with some new bells and whistles. I’ll be showcasing pictures soon. So far, I like it. I think I made a good choice.

 

 

A Christmas Tree

We had great plans to get a Christmas Tree, but with recovering from the long cruise, we never got around to getting the tree. The problem was solved by taking the little tree that stays in a box inside the RV and moving it to the house. While not as big as we are used to in the house, it’s big on memories filled with love, joy and laughter from many years of celebrating Christmas “on the road again.” You can’t beat that!

Hooray for Presto!

One of my wedding presents “died” last week. The present was a Presto Pressure Cooker that has seen regular use for the past 40+ As you can see, one of the handles broke. Without 2 handles a pressure cooker is useless. 

 

The pot has seen a lot of wear and tear. It’s not pretty...and now it’s not useable. To that end, I replaced it a new Presto Pressure Cooker. I don’t know if I have another 40+ years of cooking in me, but based on past performance, I’m guessing the new pot will last that long. 

A Christmas Poem

This poem was sent to me by my good friend Ed. I thought it was worth a little space on my blog. Please enjoy!

 

 

TWAS THE NIGHT BEFORE CHRISTMAS, 

HE LIVED ALL ALONE,

IN A ONE BEDROOM HOUSE

 MADE OF PLASTER AND STONE.

 

 I HAD COME DOWN THE CHIMNEY 

WITH PRESENTS TO GIVE,

AND TO SEE JUST WHO IN

THIS HOME DID LIVE.

 

I LOOKED ALL ABOUT, 

A STRANGE SIGHT I DID SEE, 

 NO TINSEL, NO PRESENTS, 

NOT EVEN A TREE.

 

NO STOCKING BY MANTLE, 

JUST BOOTS FILLED WITH SAND, 

ON THE WALL HUNG PICTURES 

OF FAR DISTANT LANDS.

 

WITH MEDALS AND BADGES, 

AWARDS OF ALL KINDS,

A SOBER THOUGHT CAME 

THROUGH MY MIND.

 

FOR THIS HOUSE WAS DIFFERENT, 

IT WAS DARK AND DREARY, 

I FOUND THE HOME OF A SOLDIER, 

ONCE I COULD SEE CLEARLY.

 

THE SOLDIER LAY SLEEPING, 

SILENT, ALONE, 

CURLED UP ON THE FLOOR IN THIS 

ONE BEDROOM HOME.

 

 THE FACE WAS SO GENTLE,

 THE ROOM IN SUCH DISORDER,  

NOT HOW I PICTURED 

A UNITED STATES SOLDIER.

 

WAS THIS THE HERO 

OF WHOM I'D JUST READ? 

CURLED UP ON A PONCHO, 

THE FLOOR FOR A BED?

 

I REALIZED THE FAMILIES 

THAT I SAW THIS NIGHT,

 OWED THEIR LIVES TO THESE SOLDIERS 

WHO WERE WILLING TO FIGHT.

 

SOON ROUND THE WORLD, 

THE CHILDREN WOULD PLAY, 

AND GROWNUPS WOULD CELEBRATE 

A BRIGHT CHRISTMAS DAY.

 

THEY ALL ENJOYED FREEDOM 

EACH MONTH OF THE YEAR, 

BECAUSE OF THE SOLDIERS, 

LIKE THE ONE LYING HERE.

 

 I COULDN'T HELP WONDER 

HOW MANY LAY ALONE, 

ON A COLD CHRISTMAS EVE 

IN A LAND FAR FROM HOME.

 

THE VERY THOUGHT 

BROUGHT A TEAR TO MY EYE, 

I DROPPED TO MY KNEES 

AND STARTED TO CRY.

 

THE SOLDIER AWAKENED 

AND I HEARD A ROUGH VOICE, 

"SANTA DON'T CRY, 

THIS LIFE IS MY CHOICE;

 

I FIGHT FOR FREEDOM, 

I DON'T ASK FOR MORE, 

MY LIFE IS MY GOD, 

MY COUNTRY, MY CORPS."

 

THE SOLDIER ROLLED OVER 

AND DRIFTED TO SLEEP, 

I COULDN'T CONTROL IT, 

I CONTINUED TO WEEP.

 

I KEPT WATCH FOR HOURS, 

SO SILENT AND STILL 

AND WE BOTH SHIVERED 

FROM THE COLD NIGHT'S CHILL.

 

I DIDN'T WANT TO LEAVE 

ON THAT COLD, DARK, NIGHT, 

THIS GUARDIAN OF HONOR 

SO WILLING TO FIGHT.

 

THEN THE SOLDIER ROLLED OVER, 

WITH A VOICE SOFT AND PURE, 

WHISPERED, "CARRY ON SANTA, IT'S CHRISTMAS DAY, 

ALL IS SECURE."

 

ONE LOOK AT MY WATCH, 

AND I KNEW HE WAS RIGHT.

 "MERRY CHRISTMAS MY FRIEND, 

AND TO ALL A GOOD NIGHT."

 

This poem was written by a Marine. The following is his request. I think it is reasonable.....

 

PLEASE. Would you do me the kind favor of sending this to as many people as you can? Christmas will be coming soon and some credit is due to our U.S. service men and women for our being able to celebrate these festivities.Let's try in this small way to pay a tiny bit of what we owe. Make people stop and think of our heroes, living and  dead! , who sacrificed themselves for us. Please, do your small part to plant this small seed.

 

May God Bless You and Have A Great Day

 

 

2 pictures

I took this picture in Hobart, Tasmania. I was aiming at the seagull as he was landing on the pond, but sadly I missed that shot and this is what happened. I was disappointed and almost deleted the shot, but I noticed how evenly the ripples radiated away from the bird and thought that might work. Tonight I looked at the picture again, and discovered the lighting is perfect, the ripples and reflections are wonderful — this is a really good picture. In fact, I think it's a better picture than the one I thought I wanted.

 

This picture was taken today in northern Caifornia. It's autumn, and while the trees are dressed for fall, the colors are on the wain. There does not seem to be any new life...it's all dying. Then I see this patch of living, vibrant, color! Flowers are blooming! It's the last day of November and they are in full bloom like it's a spring day. What a joy that they can show off and brighten the day! 

 

Home

We are home. We are slowly getting back to the correct time zone...we are still coughing...life goes on. Given the above, the cruise was a success. We had a really good time. We went to some places we wanted to go to... and all we had to do was show up. I mean, how can you not like having room service breakfast, or never having to make your bed or clean your room, or fancy meals every night, or good entertainment, or fun folks to visit with, or leisure time to just chill out, or a hot tub on demand, or interesting places to visit, or weird and wonderful animals to see, or view fantastic scenery, or learn about a country, or see unlimited movies...or...the list goes on and on. Living on a 5 star ship is always a nice thing to do!

I made several blankets and I gave them all away. One of my favorite people on the ship was Sheila...she served ice cream every day with the most fantastic smile...so I made her a pink blanket that she loved.

I gave the blue blanket to Matt, my PT person on board. He really helped me too. Before we left, I could not get into our truck without great pain...yesterday I hopped into the truck and did not even think about hurting my shoulder! Thank you Matt.

 

As for the shoulder...the break is mended. I had an x-ray yesterday and it shows a perfect bone.      

   

I start the next phase of the process with an evaluation of the rotator cuff...that happens on Monday and if more PT is needed, it will be prescribed then. Right now, my right arm cannot mirror what the left arm is doing. I venture there is about 10-15% difference and I would like to get it all back. I need to give myself the “gift of time and patience!”

 

Tasmania

 

One of the purposes for this long cruise was to see Tasmania. We had been to all the other states in Australia before, but we had never stepped foot in Tasmania. We did that this trip.

 

 

There were 3 stops on the island state, Burnie, Hobart and Port Arthur. The ship “blew” off Burnie because of high winds. We landed in Hobart and we tendered off Port Arthur. We only stepped foot in Hobart. The rest of the time we were trying to survive our colds. Murphy has a way of working things out—if we had arrived in Tasmania first, we could have experienced all the stops. 

 

Typical street on a Sunday afternoon

 

In Hobart I saw my first Christmas decorations for this year. It seemed strange because it’s late spring in OZ, so seeing snow covered scenes does not make a lot of sense. 

 

Christmas down under

 

I only walked to the City Center Hobart as I was looking for a pharmacy to buy some cough medicine. I bought the medicine, and went back to the ship. Again Murphy working overtime!

 

Christmas banners

 

I did take some pictures...so that’s good. 

 

Alterternative License Plate

 

Monument to the Convict Mothers and Children who settled Tasmania in the 1830s 

Port of Entry building

 

 

I’m writing this from Sydney a few days later. We are feeling better, so the cough medicine did work. 

Life on the Maasdam

At port in Hobart, Tasmania

 

Right now we’ve been on the Maasdam 52 days which is our longest cruise to date. When we disembark in Sydney we will have spent 55 days on board. There are about 1250 well traveled pax onboard right now. I don’t think there are any first time cruisers. The average age is OLD, but then HAL tends to be the home of the “silver cruiser.” Don’t join a Holland America ship if you want to have a rollicking party cruise as it’s not going to happen. 

The Library

 

Given that, we’ve had a good time. There are shipboard activities that keep us busy. There have been lecturers; movies, trivia, duplicate bridge, mahjong, wine sampling, martini sampling, America’s Test Kitchen demonstrations, music, live entertainment, singers, dancers, and more I’m forgetting about. On a 55 day cruise there are bound to be a lot of sea days—folks who do a lot of cruising have learned to enjoy these special days as they are as busy or as quiet as you want them to be. I bring along yarn and crochet away; I also load my iPad with a lot of books and Netflix movies so I have a lot of entertainment at my fingertips. This trip I discovered that my Netflix movies only lasted 30 days—

Main pool

 

There is onboard wifi but it is slow and expensive. We bought 1000 minutes for $250 and we’ve been augmenting that time with shoreside wifi. Most ports of call have excellent free wifi in the terminal buildings. And, if you are willing to walk into the towns/cities there’s wifi available at hotels, shops and restaurants too. If you cannot find any wifi ask your cabin attendant and he will tell you where the good wifi is in town—all crew members know where the wifi locations are as they use them when they are ashore. 

America’s Test Kitchen cooking theatre

 

We did have a problem when we were in Fremantle. They had high speed wifi in place set up for 64 bit processors. I updated my iPad to iOS11 before we left the US mainland, but I did not update the other iPad...so I could get online and my husband could not. He was not amused! 

The underused Casino—never seen more than a dozen people in it

 

One of the drawbacks of a long cruise is the chance of getting the ship’s cold...and we caught the cold. For us, the cold turned into bronchitis and we’ve been dealing with that for a week now. We’ve seen the ship’s doc, my husband even had a chest x-ray (they were checking for pneumonia)...and we’ve been coughing. The major part of the illness is finally going away, but it’s not the perfect way to spend a cruise.  I’m hoping that we’ll feel close to 100% by Thursday as that’s when we take the 14 hour flight back home. 

Atrium 

 

 

Southern Ocean

 

How many oceans does our planet Earth have? We have five named oceans ...the Atlantic, Pacific, Indian, Arctic and Southern. But, if you look at a map you can clearly see they are all connected.  Our beautiful “blue ball” has one ocean with five regions, and the region known as the Southern Ocean is a  real “beaut.” Every time I’ve sailed on the Southern Ocean I’ve gotten a case of “mal de mer” and this time was no exception. The Southern is a real ring tail tiger when it comes to being rough. By the way, the reason is simple...there are no land masses to stop the wind, which blows continually. The more the winds blow, the rougher the sea.

 

Yesterday we left the region of Indian Ocean and entered the Southern. As soon as we turned the corner, the seas jumped into high relief. We had 16 foot seas. That means the waves come up to Deck 4 and 5 on the ship. Even with stabilizers out to make the ride more even, the ship is bobbing up and down in the water like a cork, albeit stabilized! It was not a nice introduction to this often rough patch of water.  My stomach did not like it at all. 

 

At first I thought I could avoid eating, but after 12 hours of bobbing around and not eating, I was getting hungry. The best food for me to eat in that situation is toast, so I ordered toast from in-room dining. After the toast arrived, I needed to eat it, and posed another problem. I don’t feel well, I’m hungry and the toast looks horrible. It’s only toast, how can that hurt me? And that’s when I visited the medical center and got a shot for seasickness. It worked like magic. In about 15 minutes I felt like a real person instead of a cramped up rubber spaghetti doll. I’ve heard of “the shot” before, but never took one and that was not wise. I won’t make that mistake again. When feeling seasick beyond a double dose of seasick medication, get the shot and you will feel so much better! 

 

 

SToday we are sailing toward Tasmania and the Indian has calmed down a bit. She’s not tossing up and down and I’m liking the water again again. I know the Southern Ocean is rough, but it would be nice to sail upon her just once without getting kicked all over the place.

Perth

 

The University...the only thing we remembered from our last visit 

The capital city of Western Australia is a city of 1.8 million, yet the state has only 2.2 million people. (The state of WA has the same population as Manaus on the Amazon River! I don’t know why I love little statistics like that, but I do) Western Australia is roughly half of the continent and it’s relatively unpopulated. Exmouth, also in WA has 2000 folks.

 

 

After a brief tour of Fre-O, where we saw many old convict built structures. These people are proud of their “convict” past and celebrate it. (Remember, the convicts were not hardened criminals, many were petty thieves trying to feed their families when times were rough in London. For that, they were transported thousands of miles to Australia to make a new beginning.) 

 

 

We drove to Cottesloe Beach on the Indian Ocean and walked around a bit. I think everyone in OZx is a swimmer, as the beaches are used a lot. Each beach has a life guard shack with folks on duty watching all the time. 

 

 

I liked how the beaches were used...folks were swimming and surfing, others were catching the rays, others were using their smartphones, and mothers were feeding their babies. Going to the beach is part of the national heritage. 

 

 

Our next stop was King’s Park in Perth. King’s Park is 1000 acres of undeveloped land, that retains the look of the city  before it was settled. There are scrubby trees and bushes—and then when you least expect it— there’s a beautiful highly maintained botanic garden that has memorials to World Wars 1 and 2. 

 

The city of Perth is huge! Last time we were here we thought it reminded us of Santa Barbara in 1950...well forget that image. After the America’s Cup races in the mid-80s the town “took off” and now it’s a thriving city. The city is set between the Swan River and the Indian Ocean, so it has an interesting set of waterfronts. 

 

 

The Swan River is relatively shallow (4 meters deep) and is not used for commerce, but it is used for recreation. There are beaches and yacht clubs dotting the shore. 

 

 

Perth the western gateway to Australia on the Indian Ocean. I think it has been developed to rival Sydney with high rise buildings and interesting architecture. There’s nothing that matches the Opera House in Sydney, but lots of building is happening right now...there is an interesting bridge. Another one of those silly statistics: Perth is closer to the capital of Java, Jakarta,  than it is to any other Australian capital city. It’s a continent away from Sydney and Melbourne.

 

 

Building boom in Perth

 

 

 

 

 

 

Fremantle

 

Fremantle aka Fre-0

The last time we were here, the America’s Cup was going to be raced and the year was 1986. I remember looking at the 12 meter yachts and thinking these are the strangest looking boats I’ve ever seen. Fast forward 30 years, the yachts are not here, but there’s a lot more activity than there was then. The city has grown too, as it’s hard to tell where Perth starts and Fre-O ends.

 

 

The port of Fremantle is BUSY. There’s container as well as passenger traffic. We’ve not been to a port this size since leaving Sydney. As always it’s fun and interesting to look at all the different activities that happen in a port. Today a sheep ship came into harbor. It looked like a 6 deck cattle car with flies and a really bad smell. I did not take a picture of it, because I did not know what it was...my loss.

 

You might wonder why I called this city Fre-O...it’s simple...that’s the nickname for Fremantle. Aussies have a habit of making long words short, making short words long and ending words with -O...Therefore Fremantle (the name of the captain who founded the town) gets shortened and an -O is added. You don’t go on holiday, you have “hols” and you have a smok-O...it’s just part of being an Aussie.

 

 

Albany

 

Our last stop on the west coast of Australia was at the “one street town” of Albany. Albany was one of the first settlements in the area, but it has never been thriving like Perth or Fremantle. 

Tiny downtown with lots of "heritage" buildings

 

Our excursion was to take a catamaran into the bay and look at the area from a closer perspective than from the ship. The idea was good, but we got a bit more than we expected. 

 

We saw the old light house, now derelict.

We saw the modern granary where wheat is shipped all over the world.

We saw a derelict ship that is slowly sinking into the bay.

AND we saw a zodiac and then a second boat try to pull our cat out of the mud. We had grounded on a sand bar! The zodiac was our first rescuer but we were too big for him. Then another boat came out and we were too big for him too...but the two boats together pulled us off the sand bar and we sailed back to port. Not exactly the excursion we had in mind, but it was interesting.

 

Because we were on the bay too long, we had an abbreviated tour of the city. We saw a replica of the Brig Amity which brought the first settlers...it was not much bigger than the cat we had just left.

The downtown area is filled with “heritage” buildings dating from the late 1800s. Many have been lovingly cared for and/or restored. You can always tell when the Brit’s have been somewhere..there’s lots of stone work around and Albany is no exception.

 

 

Our excursion was supposed to end at 4:30 but we returned to Maasdam at 4:58. Crew members were waiting for us, as the sail away was supposed to be 5:00. As soon as we were onboard, the gangway was pulled and they started up the ship. We had a 5 hour stop in Albany that was a bit more exciting than we thought it would be.