Diamonds and Spanish Moss

Tiny diamond-like crystals were waiting 

For the sun to shed light on the morning...

While the mossy old man of the lake, saw the new day begin.

Big Red

For the last six or seven months I've been working on a huge "scrap" or "stash buster" blanket.  I started the blanket because I had a bunch of left over yarn and I'm of the opinion it's a sin to throw good yarn away. So I started making 9 inch squares. Then I put the squares together in a red lattice, and last night the masterpiece was completed.

I've put it on the back of the sofa to break up all the brown in the RV. It's folded in thirds so you cannot see how big this monster blanket it...I think it will fit a queen sized bed.

I do know that it's nice and cozy, even with the fireplace on. 

When we were on the cruise, someone asked me how many stitches were in an average blanket and I had no idea. She told me that her counted cross stitch picture had 60,000 stitches. I guess I could figure out this problem, but then I don't think I'd ever make a blanket again. I do know that this blanket has 69 completely different squares, all tied together in a red and white diamond lattice. Each square is 9 x 9 but I do not know how many stitches are inside each square, nor do I know how many stitches are in the connecting lattice. Something tells me this is not a simple math problem. 

Like a Mirror

Once in awhile, a big lake will be perfectly still. There will not be a ripple or a wave nor hint of a breeze, and the large body of water will be still. I never really know when this is going to happen, but more often than not, it's in the morning. Such was the case this morning. The lake was still as glass and the reflections were amazing. A morning miracle to bring joy to my heart. 

Crafty Me

On the ship I started a few projects, but did not have time to finish them. Yesterday I finished the "Valentine Blanket" of 15 hearts. Even though it's covered in "holes" it is amazingly warm. 

Also from the ship, I learned how to make tiny stuffed teddy bears. The pattern was written for knitting, and I translated it into crochet (which are different languages, so to speak). The two little bears sitting next to my bigger bear still need faces. Sadly, I don't have the right color yarn to make the faces right now...but I will in a day or two when I get to a yarn store. 

There are still two more projects that I need to finish...watch this space, and they will show up.

Trees

The "curly" oaks seem to be thriving. This tree, has a donut in it. Do you see it? This tree has become a honey tree. Sometime last year the bees moved in and made it their own.

Another oak tree. Standing tall and proud over the fish station

Three trees intertwined as one. 

The morning light shining thru the trees. I caught the sun but it does not sparkle. One day I'll take that picture.

Monday Morning at the Lake

Can I follow the path? I don't think so. I keep trying to take a picture of the sun peeking through the trees...so far this is the best I've taken. I'll keep trying. I want the sun to sparkle. It's not easy to capture with an iPhone camera.

A private catio for a feral cat. I talked to his person, and he told me the catio is a compromise. He likes to camp and the cat likes to wander. With the catio, both of them can enjoy the great outdoors.

Even though we are in the middle of winter, the sycamore trees are clinging to their autumn leaves. I wonder when they will get the message that the season changed? 

A Conspiracy of Ravens and Other Musings

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 I walk in the mornings when things are quiet and I observe what's going on. This morning I saw a "conspiracy of ravens"...that means a lot of ravens. I was hoping the collective for Ravens was going to be more exciting, like a "murder of crows" but alas, ravens only drum up a conspiracy

This old tree has seen a lot of days. His limbs are twisted and big chunks are missing...but he's holding his own. Trees are like that.

I call this one "I packed just a little bit" because if you stretch this picture out you will see they have brought everything with them, shovels, a rake, fishing gear, food, buckets, a canopy for the truck bed...and so much more. They are out for the weekend, I wonder what they would bring for a longer stay. What's not pictured are the 3 hammocks tied to the neighboring trees, and the beanbag toss. 

Eat, Sleep, Explore, Repeat

I love creative camping and I saw a new one this morning. It's a rental mini-van with a roof top sleeper made by Juicy. It comes complete with ladder. All you have to do is climb the ladder, raise the "lid" on the sleeping unit, arrange a sleeping bag (I guess) and crawl in. At night it's a cozy place to sleep. There are probably NO amenities, but then when all you need is a bed in a nice campground, who cares about amenities. As for me, I like camping with amenities. I would say this unit is for the younger camper.

If you are wondering about the title, that's written on the side of one of the mini-vans.

Lake Cachuma

We are at the Lake and it's beautiful. California had some rain during the year and the lake is filling up. I talked to the boat ramp manager this morning and she said the lake was 73% full. That's pretty impressive as it was down to 6.5% two years ago.

Last year the boat ramp was not connected to the water, now there's 30 feet of water under it. It's a good thing to see.

This is Harvey's Cove. It's been dry for two or three years. It's still not full, but there is water in it. I'll be walking by the lake in the mornings and discover more of her secrets.

Happy New Year

It's 2020 and I've not seen anything about having perfect vision. It looks like the nickname for the new decade harks back to a name coined a century ago, and we are going to be living in the "Roaring 20s" again. Too bad "they" could not come up with something more creative. As with so many things, the nickname might change as the decade progresses.

As for me, I'd like to wish you all a happy, healthy and prosperous 2020. Happy New Year my friends.

Christmas Lights in Solvang

Solvang, a Danish town in California has her Christmas lights out in full glory. The little park in town, has a large well lit tree, and lots of sycamore trees wrapped in light. It's one of the few towns I've seen in this state that has decorations out. Thank you Solvang for celebrating Christmas.

On the Road Again

Yep...we are on the road again. We like to keep moving and as long as we are able, we will. When we retired we made a promise to ourselves that we would try to be where it is warm and sunny most of the year. So far, so good.

To that end, we are winter camping a few miles from my sister's home, where it is sunny (not exactly warm). This afternoon we will celebrate Christmas with the family. I've been told a lot of the folks are able to make it to the celebration and that gives me great joy.

In the meantime, we are not the only people winter camping...there are 50 units in this campground "enjoying" the not very warm sun. I tried to post a picture, but alas, "blogger" won't take it...who knows why so I'll end with a Belated Merry Christmas wish to you and yours from me and mine.

Merry Christmas

We are home from our wonderful cruise and now we are dealing with cruise-lag (if there is such a thing). So much to do after being gone for awhile. The one "job" I did like was opening a mailbox filled with Christmas cards and letters from our friends. I love Christmas mail, and this year we received a fair share. I'm happy to report that my old friends are all doing well, and filled with the spirit of the season. It's absolutely lovely. The cards are so colorful and filled with fun news. I cannot think of a better gift to come home to.

Thank you friends for your cards and letters. Thank you for keeping the spirit of Christmas alive in your heart. I write this at 11:30 on Christmas night. The day is over and my heart is overflowing with your love. I hope you had a Merry Christmas. We did!

Good night!

Good Cruise

It's been a good cruise. We visited some ports that were old friends, like Kotor, Montenegro, Santorini, Corfu and Venice. We visited new ports like Cadiz, Spain and Rhodes, Greece. We sampled some fine prosciutto in Kotor; saw where the Colossus of Rhodes stood (it collapsed many centuries ago). We saw the mules on Santorini in the "off" season where they are used to transport goods instead of people up the high cliffs to the cities on the tiny island. We visited a few old churches, which are always special to me. One of the highlights of the cruise and maybe the year was visiting the village where my father was born. I've heard of the village all my life, but I saw the house that belonged to my grandfather. I walked the tiny lane that my dad played on when he was a toddler. I saw my great uncle's home. I even visited the parish church. Sadly the church is no longer a church--it serves as a gathering place and the day we were there several men were playing cards and laughing. I tried to talk to them, but we had no language in common, only smiles. They did recognize my name and they pointed me in the direction of the little street with the same name. I tried not to cry, but something leaked out of my eyes.

The first leg of the cruise had many stops ashore, while the second leg was devoted to crossing the Atlantic. For the most part the crossing was easy, except for the last 2 days. We've been rocking and rolling a lot. The seas are gray and uneven with lots of whitecaps. The blue skies we had in the Mediterranean have been replaced with drippy blackish clouds. I've been keeping myself entertained listening to lectures and crocheting with our merry band of "happy hookers" as we like to call ourselves. I've only made 2 blankets, but I did learn how to make a cute stuffed teddy bear or kitty. I figured out the prototype pattern after translating it from Knit to Crochet. I've never done that before so I was proud of my efforts.

The best lecture series I've heard in a long time happened on the second leg of the cruise. It was a set of 3 lectures by a professional musician, AJ Clarke. He had excellent programs based around a clever organizing principle...the letter B. So we painlessly and eagerly learned  about "Bach to Beethoven," "Berlin to Bernstein," and "Beatles to Bacharach." He knew his topic well. I wished he had taught my music appreciation class I had to take in my sophomore year of college. I would have learned something!

The singers and dancers gave us many nights of great music too; as did other entertainers. We laughed at comedy routines, swayed to country music and kept time to familiar tunes. The nightly shows were very very good. We know we've been doing this awhile as we have several favorite artists who show up on cruise ships...and a few showed up on this cruise. 

The food was good but not great. There was definitely enough of it; and it was displayed with gusto. On the second leg of the cruise, the ship was decorated for Christmas. We have gingerbread villages in several places on the ship; lots of pretty trees and greenery. I have a feeling the next sailing will be more heavily decorated.

Alas, it's time to pack and leave the Pacific Princess. She's a good little ship. Lots to do today. We have a fun, relaxing cruise and we're ready for the next challenge...that of bearding the airports in 3 cities as we fly back to reality.

Last Formal Night

Tonight was the last formal night of the cruise. Most folks were looking pretty good...but on "last formal night" some interesting outfits come out. One fellow is wearing his black

with bright white running shoes. Another fellow is wearing a tuxedo t-shirt with black jeans and matching black running shoes. The women are not as formal either. This is sort of a tradition...last formal night is not very formal.

For the last few days we've had mild seas and beautiful weather. This morning something different happened. The clouds rolled in and the rough seas arrived. It's not nice on the ship right now. Walking down the aisles is an adventure as you never know what exactly is going to happen when a wave hits the ship at just the wrong way.

On the other hand, we are having fun. There was a contest called "reindeer games" this afternoon. It was simple merriment of tossing rings around reindeer antlers. The antlers were worn by 2 members of the dance cast. It was a hoot. I finally learned about reindeer games--remember Rudolph , was not allowed to play any reindeer games.

Eight Days at Sea

We are sailing at 17.3 knots per hour on the Atlantic Ocean and we will do that for 8 days. The first leg of the cruise had stops almost every day but not the second leg. So we are enjoying sea-days (or sea daze). I've been crocheting -- I've made one teddy bear blanket, several angels and several tiny trees. I give them away before I take pictures--so please imagine them.

The ship is decorated with Christmas trees and gingerbread villages..but the internet will not let me load any pictures...so please imagine them too.

The internet has been iffy on the second leg too...last 3 days without the net. Some folks are having withdrawals...but it's back on today. More later.

Termini Imerese

This is a city name I've heard all of my life and today we visited  it. It's important to me as my dad was born there over a century ago. Today I walked the narrow street that he walked as a little boy. It was overwhelming to think of all the family history that has played itself out on that tiny street.

I found  a few family roots. I saw the house that belonged to my grandfather's brother, I saw the house where my father was born. I walked the streets around the neighborhood. I saw the blue Tyreanean Sea just a couple of blocks away. What a day.

In Naples

I love looking at all the traffic in the sealanes at a port. Gone are the days of white ships with tiny lettering. What you see are ships decorated with LARGE letters and designs. I'm looking at a MOBY CARGO ship backing into port in Naples...the letters on the side of the ship are huge in bright blue and red print. 

Other ships have similar logos. One of the best we saw yesterday at the port of Rome 

As it had a huge Batman riding a dolphin on the bow. 

We are in Naples today. Tomorrow we'll be in Palermo and I'm sure the ships will be just as decorated. 

Catania

Today we our first landing in Sicily, in Catania. We stayed onboard and enjoyed being on the "yacht" as I like to call the Pacific Princess. While 400 or so pax went on shore excursions, we had the boat to ourselves. There's nothing better.

From our ship we could see the big duomo or dome of the cathedral as well as the busy port. Our friend Roger went into town to mail some letters and found the local post office was so crowded they were using a numbering system. A woman walked out of the post office and gave Roger her place in line, and he waited another 45 minutes--and she had already waited 90 minutes! After hearing about crowds, we decided it was better in the ship.

Here are a few pictures from the port of Catania, Sicily, Italy.

Santorini

One of the lovelier Greek islands is Santorini. At one time, centuries ago, it was an active volcano when it blew off it's top which created a caldera that was filled by the sea. What remained was a little bit of paradise. People moved into this eden and built white houses on the tall cliffs overlooking the beautiful blue water.  Churches were built with cerulean blue domes reflecting the sky and the water. That's Santorini and today we had the pleasure of enjoying this scrap of land in the middle of nowhere.

We tendered to the island, and took the gondola to the top of the mountain. From there we walked and rode to Oia, the city on the top and enjoyed the views. The tourist season is over, so Oia is a quiet village. We've been here during tourist season and it's not quiet at all. I finally got to see the island without several ship-loads of my closest friends, and it's a delight.  I have 2 favorite Greek islands--Corfu and Santorini. This has been a good cruise as we visited both.

On the road again

We are at sea on the Pacific Princess. The sea(s) being  the Adriatic, Aegean and the Mediterranean. We are making  landfalls at either old walled cities on land, or old walled cities on small islands. After we cross the isthmus at Gibraltar, we will sail in the Atlantic to Fort Lauderdale.

We started in a wet and rainy Venice. While not a walled city, it was protected in ancient times by the mighty Venetian navy and in modern times by the "moat" aka waters in the Venitian archipelago. From there we went to Sibenek, Croatia then to   Kotor, Montenegro.

The first time we visited Kotor we were sure it was the model for Diagon Alley in the Harry Potter books. Upon returning to it 8 years later, it still is a honey colored walled city/state filled with narrow, curvy cobblestone streets that lead to tiny shops tucked into alcoves along the way. We kept on looking for a friendly wizard to show us the way to magic shop. We have a minor love-affair with this little town that was once part of the Venetian empire.

Our next stop was Corfu, a Greek island that is drop dead gorgeous. Bigger than Kotor, it is a teeming with Greek-ness. This is where you look at signs and think "that's the strangest fraternity name ever"...it's all Greek to me! We've been to Corfu many times and each time we've thought it would be a wonderful place to live -- but there is one problem -- everything is written in Greek and there are not subtitles.

Today we landed in Rhodes, the 4th largest Greek island and famous for the Colossus of Rhodes, a huge statue that connected two parts of the island. Sadly, the Colossus fell down millennia ago, but archeologists have recovered stones from it and know the exact location where it stood. First on my list was to see the location, which is now marked by two columns, each topped with a deer. 

Tomorrow we head to Santorini, another drop dead gorgeous Greek island. I hope my internet connection is good enough for me to post some pictures. In the meantime, what follows are some collages of Kotor and Rhodes.

Kotor is located at the end of a long fjord, so the waters are still and the reflections are amazing.

 

"Blogger" won't let me download my collage of Rhodes, but these are the columns that depict the location of the Colossus of Rhodes.

What Happened to Christmas?

I'm on a rant here, so bear with me. I've been looking for Christmas cards that wish people a MERRY CHRISTMAS. This year that wish seems to be difficult to find. I can find cards that wish Happy Hanukkah, or Feliz Navidad, or Happy Kwanzaa, but not Merry Christmas. Instead the cards wish you a bland-ready-for anyone-non-offensive "Seasons Greetings" or "Joy" or "Merry" or "Happy Holidays." Well, I'm offended. It's Christmas that we are celebrating. That's the reason for the season. What happened? Is it politically incorrect to wish people Merry Christmas? If that's the case then let me be the first to wish you MERRY CHRISTMAS this year in my best politically incorrect manner!

Geography Pillows

These are my "geography pillows" -- I made tonight. Many years ago I bought this fabric for my classroom, and it has it has lingered in my fabric stash ever since. Tonight I created pillows from my fabric stash. I think they came out well.

Sunsets and Utility Poles

Once again, we were treated with a spectacular sunset. If you look closely, you will the fields in the "middle ground" are very dry.  We've not had rain in over 200 days if the weather guesser is correct.

And, another positive note--work is starting on the generator. We are getting a new service pole today. We have small herd of trucks onsite...I did not know there was room for so many.

Ode to a Fence

What a fine fence you are.

 Meticulously crafted of barbed wire supported by stakes that have seen a hundred winters.

Not rickety or feeble because you boldly snake through gullies and climb mountains

Yes, you are worn with time

...yet you carry your burden with dignity

Halloween

Several years ago we were in Rio de Janeiro during Carnival. As luck would have it, I was offered an authentic Carnival hat and I said YES. We brought the hat home (which was not easy) and since then it has been in my living room as a conversation starter and attention getter. Well, this Halloween I wore it to town...and several other people took the chance to wear it too. I wore to McDonald's and "won the prize" (which was a cup of coffee) for best costume of the day. Great fun!