Closing Ceremonies

Ah, NaBloPoMo, it's been lovely. My family and friends thank you (from the bottom of their hearts?) for inspiring a month of posts after a summer of drought. I thank you for making me figure out that I don't have to get fancy with pictures -- nobody seems to care if I just resize them and post as is. (And maybe if I'm lucky, I'll win one of the prizes and then I'll thank you for that!)

For my farewell post of the month I'm leaving you with some pictures of our glorious Sunday. It was sunny. Not exactly warm, but not cold. We caught the low tide and walked over to the lighthouse and found that it was actually open! So we took the tour (and rekindled my desire to be a lighthouse keeper, which I think I might have mentioned in Sunday's post). They don't let you take pictures in the house (a pity, 'cause it's very cute and snug and cozy), but here's a taste of the Del Norte coast on a sunny winter's day:

Darcy marched herself right across the causeway and then up to the top of the island.

Darcy measuring bull kelp.

Now, as Darcy says to seagulls whenever she meets them...

Shoo! Shoo! There will be no post here tomorrow! Shoo!

Roast Fairy. Fairy Stew. Fairy Soup.

Before I get to the main attraction of this post -- fairy recipes -- I'd like to share an exchange Michael and Darcy had as they prepared to do battle on the CandyLand board after dinner tonight:

Michael: I'll be blue because I love you!
Darcy: I'll be red because you have a beautiful head.

She's a rhymer!

On to fairy recipes:

As I may have mentioned, we get to play fairy a lot. "Get to" has less implied mandatory-ness than really exists. "We are forced to play fairy a lot" would be more accurate. And so we do. Darcy likes to re-enact the most harrowing scenes from the three Tinkerbell movies most often. They involve a hawk chasing Tinkerbell, sprinting thistles (weeds!) chasing Tinkerbell and other fairies, a multitude of "dirty" rats chasing Tinkerbell and Terrence, and a rainy cat trying to attack Tinkerbell at the beginning of the third movie and then chasing many other fairies near the end.

In other words, we get to play the villains in the form of a hawk, weeds, rats, and a rainy cat while Darcy runs, hides, and squeals while generally trying to avoid getting caught.

But on Sunday, we discovered (or created) a new variation on this theme. We were all (ok, Michael and I were) trying to be lazy in bed. Instead of being willing to chase and catch, I suggested that I, as the hawk, wanted a change of pace and was going to roast the fairy. Darcy played along. I cut up imaginary onions, potatoes, parsnips, carrots, rutabaga, and salsify and spread them over her. Then I wrapped all of this in a blanket and rolled her back and forth chanting, "Roast the fairy. Roast the fairy. Roast the fairy." Then Michael and I enjoyed roasted fairy. Yum!

So after doing a few variations on this theme (spring veggies, winter roast), I stewed the fairy. After every iteration, Darcy would grin and say, "Let's make another fairy recipe now!"

Today, after dinner, she initiated the fairy recipes again, first being roasted and stewed herself and then making me into stew. When the fairy stew was done, she "carried a bowl" of it to Michael, saying (long before she was in his hearing), "Daddy, I have some food that I think you will find really delicious!"

In the second round of fairy stew-making, however, she decided that she did NOT need to cut up the fairy (which she did thoroughly the first time) because it was just in there for flavor. You know, like a bay leaf.

So if any of you happen to be cooking fairy any time soon, give us a call and Darcy will provide you with any number of recipes for your fairy-eating pleasure.

End Of The Long Weekend

Well, four stay-at-home days later and we're all exhausted. Today was a gorgeous sunny day and we caught the low tide just right and walked out to the lighthouse. They were open for tours, so we finally got to go inside the house and tower. I want to be a lighthouse keeper! The stone walls are so incredibly thick that it's quiet inside even though the surf was crashing on the rocks right outside. They take volunteers for two months at a time, but you can't have another job. Maybe someday.

Darcy and I both crashed for afternoon naps (she was reluctant, I was happy) while Michael was the Energizer Bunny and collected some firewood from a friend's house, cleaned out the car, did an oil change, and got laundry going. He's a star.

Swimmy And Waggly and Fin And...

Pets in the house! Pets in the house!

For Darcy's birthday, Michael bought all the components of a small aquarium. We're not going back to the craziness of the marine tank (I only wish! I miss my live rock dancing worms!), just to some tropical freshwater cuties. Of course, the tank had to sit around "cycling" all week long before fish were allowed to enter, but today, we headed to Oregon to a couple of small fish shops to buy the livestock. Really. That's what the creatures that live in fish tanks are called in the biz.

Michael didn't want to overload the tank all at once, so we brought home five cardinal tetras. And a piece of driftwood. And three fake plants. And some fish flakes. The fish seem to have made it home in one piece, although they're not looking too lively right now. We're letting them have a relatively stress-free night and we'll hope that they're all very happy and schooling around in the morning.

Darcy has started to name them. I voted for the same name for all five, being that they're basically identical, but Darcy has other ideas. That one is Swimmy. That other one is Waggly. There's Fin. And I think the other two are waiting for inspiration.

Consider us petted.

Aaarrghh! Does November Never End???

Ok. It's not that I don't like digging through our photo archives for cute pictures of Darcy that you've never seen before. I do. I promise that I really love doing that for you. And I know that really, I've just barely made up for a summer of seriously limited blogging. But won't this month ever end?

I finish my part of putting Darcy to bed and I think it's time to relax, but no! I have to blog! I have to find some pictures or think of a story to tell you or beg forgiveness for a lame post.

I'm ready for NaBloPoMo to be over!!

Luckily, it will be over in just a few more days. Enjoy the daily posts while you still got 'em!

I'm Thankful For...

...the sweetest rainbow girl in the world...

...my dear husband who did yardwork all morning...

...and the view from my kitchen window. Redwoods, ferns, and sunshine!

Happy Thanksgiving Eve!

So I'm starting to figure out a cooking schedule for tomorrow. We're having a grain-meat roast (I love their sausages, so I'm very excited to try the roast), stuffing, creamed spinach, salad, roasted potatoes, and cran sauce. Darcy came home from preschool today and announced that she had pumpkin pie for snack and loved it and wants one for dessert tomorrow. So now I'll be making a pumpkin pie -- my first, because I don't love it. I had planned to make a lovely cranberry/apple crisp with organic, local cranberries I bought at the Arcata Market and apples from our tree. I might still make that. It depends.

Oh, and I have a loaf of no-knead bread rising now.

What are YOU making or eating? Comments?

The Cutest Guitar (From The Archives)

Ok, so you might not be able to sit around a campfire playing songs on her (although she loves to sing around a campfire), but she is definitely one of the cutest things ever found in a guitar case.

Rain! Rain! Rain! And snow?

I finished work today and almost didn't want to leave because the rain was beyond pouring down. I did leave, of course, and got quite wet. I was proud of myself because I went to the store even though I wanted to just settle for dinner from ingredients already at home. It's time now to get into the "rain-can't-stop-me" mode. It's a difficult mode of thought for me to enter. I spent a fair amount of time this evening looking for a new raincoat online.

The weather witches are claiming that it might actually SNOW here early tomorrow morning. I don't really buy it, but I'll be watching.













Please note: When you live in a place like Crescent City that has such extreme weather in terms of precipitation, you get to post about the weather any old time you want. My blog, my rules.

Birthday Party!

Waiting for guests. Not entirely patiently.

Dolls! Big dolls! There is excitement!

Goody Bags? Check!

Oh my. It's been rainy all day and in the low 40s, which is just a preview of our winter. Just no fun. Michael's flight home was delayed by a couple hours which threw off my game plan in terms of shopping and prepping for tomorrow's big party.

But the shopping happened eventually and a some of the prepping, too. We have 8 beautiful goody bags, a plan for a pretty tea table, fillings for two of the adult tea sandwiches (kids are getting PB&J on cinnamon bread, nutella, and butter and cucumber; adults get more interesting varieties), and LISTS for tomorrow. With any luck at all, the rain won't be quite as bad as it was today. Darcy's birthday tea party is at the historic Requa Inn, which is owned by friends of ours. I was there for work on our very sunny Monday and the views from the dining room were lovely. I'm afraid we might just get clouds and fog tomorrow, but I hope not.

Wish us luck -- this is the first real kids' birthday party we've thrown!

Don't Do Drugs, Kids

Some allergen got up my nose and I had to give in and take a Benedryl. Now my brain isn't working. That's the whole message tonight.

Purple Waterfall Wood

On the way to Grants Pass, OR, we drive through the small hamlet of Kerbyville. The first few times through, we noticed this wood carving place with a giant wooden waterfall with purple water. We finally stopped so that Darcy could see the purple waterfall up close and discovered that it is home to some amazing craftspeople. There are four or five tree houses to climb, some multiple stories tall, there are wooden bicycles and tricycles, wooden swings, wooden cars hanging from trees. It's a very fun place to stop for a leg-stretch.

The Most Tired Rainbow EVER

My poor sweet girl is all worn out tonight. We went to Brookings for some shopping and play and gas and pulled out of the gas station about 6:55 and she was asleep three minutes later. She had eaten a snack while our gas was pumped, but hadn't had dinner. When we got home, I woke her up just enough to ask if she wanted to wake up to eat some dinner or stay asleep. "Stay asleep." And so she has.

Here, for your fashion enjoyment, is a picture of Darcy's class photo outfit. She insists on rolling up all full-length pants these days because she doesn't like getting her pant cuffs wet from the heavy morning dew we get. Her teacher told me that she did roll down her sleeves and pants before the picture, so she wasn't sporting those socks for the snaps.

Spiders! Why? I Have No Idea!

So in Cima, we could spy migrating tarantulas on the road from twenty or thirty feet away. They were big, they were hairy, they freak most people out. I kinda like them. Here, our slugs are giant and can be spied from a long way away, but our spiders are not that impressive, usually. They're mostly small and we're lucky that many of them spin their webs in places where we can watch. Darcy and I watched a spider spin its web strand by strand. It's pretty darn cool.

Occasionally, however, our spiders -- I don't know -- throw parties? I have no idea, but here's what they do:

We saw this line of spiders on the outside wall of our garage. I was pretty impressed. Each of them was probably about three inches across with those long, long legs. I was watching them and then noticed their friends:

Three Views Of Darcy

Daddy might have gone hairclip happy on this day. But she sure is cute and I sure was mostly asleep before realizing I hadn't yet blogged for the day!

Running With Scissors

The park recently opened a new hiking trail -- the first in about a decade. Invitations went out for a dedication ceremony. We went and joined about fifty people gathered at the dedication site for the Lady Bird Johnson Grove, where we listened to a number of short speeches, met some of the trail crew who built the trail, and then walked a short distance to the trail head. Where there was a ribbon. That needed to be cut. With giant scissors.

You might think a Park Ranger would know better. A supposedly all-grown-up Park Ranger at that. But no. If you put my personal Park Ranger around an oversized pair of scissors, the end result is pretty much inevitable. Those of you who know him well will not be surprised:

A Fairy House For A Tired Birthday Fairy

Well, it's about 9:30 on a Saturday night and I am surrounded by fake fall leaves and flowers as I prepare to make a fairy house for Darcy. Luckily, we have a great fairy to live in it -- thanks, Auntie Ev and Liana!

Darcy and I spent the day having a birthday adventure that (mostly) went very well. She danced to a great band at the Arcata farmers' market, visited a fish store AND a toy store, went to the craft store to get fairy-house-making stuff, went out for ice cream at the most-excellent organic Arcata Scoop, and then went to a playground. Unfortunately, some other kid was having a birthday party at the playground, which made Darcy very aware that her party is NOT happening on her birthday. There were tears, quite a few of them. But then she fell asleep in the car and everything was better.

If we survive the fairy house decorating tomorrow, I'll try to take and share pictures. It should be beautiful.

In Which Darcy Is Kind To Squirrels

Several weeks ago, we went camping outside Brookings, OR, at a state park campground. It was a pretty cushy camping trip because every campsite had an electrical hookup. We took our aerobeds. There was this great snag at our site that Darcy enjoyed playing in. So did a squirrel as we were setting up camp.

When we went hiking the first afternoon, we walked under a lot of oaks with loads of acorns on the ground. The following morning, Darcy woke up quite early and I took her for a walk. Which she didn't want to do until I suggested we collect acorns to tempt the squirrel back to our tree. We took a bowl, she walked all the way back to the trail, we filled it up. On the way back, she kept talking about how she was going to fill up the squirrel's basket. And so she did:

There are a couple cups of acorns in that little nook, along with the leaves she kept putting in my pocket as we walked around camp and hiked the trail. She tried hard to be patient and watch from a distance to see if the squirrel would come get the nuts, but she just couldn't stay away:

Is This Cheating?

I don't really have energy to come up with a blog post tonight. I forgot to do this earlier and now I'm a little more than half asleep. Not good.

Darcy ended up choosing to be a very brightly colored rainbow from head to toe for her preschool pictures today, but decided against the fairy wings at the last minute. It will be interesting to see how they turn out. I'm sure one will show up here.

And that's really all I've got. I'll try to do something fun and exciting and illustrated tomorrow.

Photo Day Tomorrow!

Darcy's first class photos are being taken tomorrow morning and she is very excited. I foolishly asked her (on Monday afternoon) what she wanted to wear for the picture and she said, "Fairy wings!" I dutifully asked her teacher if she strongly objected to fairy wings for the individual picture (not the full class!) and she gamely replied that if we didn't mind, she wasn't going to object.

So today, Michael asked Darcy what she wanted to wear, and got the same response: "Fairy wings!" He pointed out that she had to wear some clothes with the wings and she named her rainbow striped pants and her "cake shirt", a peach shirt with various petit fours and cakes on the front. I think they go together reasonably well in terms of color, but the pants alone are busy on the eyes and a decorated shirt seems over the top to me. I am, however, willing to let her wear what she wants as long as it is weather appropriate.

But it doesn't jive with Michael's idea of good fashion. He is mulling over choices and is prepared to use the wings as bargaining chips to get his choice of clothes on our small fairy. In a few weeks, when the picture "package" (seven 8 x 10s! sixteen 5 x 7s! 49 wallet size! circles and arrows on the back of each one!) arrives at school, you'll get to see the results. Stay tuned!

Just One Of Those Days

You know the ones I mean. It's raining. And very windy. And kinda cold, even in my office that is usually hot. And the work was piled up to the ceiling and will be again tomorrow. It just wasn't my day.

Darcy, on the other hand, got to ride little belly-scooters across the big room at preschool as part of their "we're stuck inside" play plan. And we opened up a big box that came for her yesterday so that she could marvel at the three wrapped (and staying that way!) presents inside. I think she got as much enjoyment over petting the wrapping paper and talking about what might be inside them as many people get from the actual presents. She also (I'm putting on my proud-mama hat now) told me that the envelope said, "Darcy! D-A-R-C-Y -- Darcy!! That's for me!"

Early Spring on the Coastal Drive

Many months ago, we drove a long section of the Coastal Drive between Klamath and the Newton Drury Parkway. It is mostly dirt and often one lane in each direction. It is not heavily traveled and shows few signs of previous habitation. And then we came upon this bank:

Daffodils! My very favorite-est flowers! Daffies make me a very happy person, so we had to stop so I could take pictures of these feral, naturalized-for-who-knows-how-many-years lovelies.

And here's the great thing about the Coastal Drive. It is, as the name suggests, right on the coast for the majority of its length. So when I turned around to take a picture of the other side of the road, this is the view I captured:

Not too shabby, eh?

Don't Try to Bowl On Sundays

This morning, the rain was still coming down. We were planning to go to church because Darcy's preschool class was singing (her preschool is connected to the church) at the 11 o'clock service, but we needed something to do after that if it was still raining. After checking online to see if the bowling alley is open on Sundays (their website said YES, except in summer), we asked Darcy if she'd like to go bowling. We got a very enthusiastic response and so came home after she sang (with gusto!), had lunch, called to invite a friend to join us bowling, and off we went.

Not open. Most definitely not open and it's sign claims not open on Sunday in general.

We headed home to see if there's a bowling alley in Brookings(there is, but they didn't answer their phone, leading me to believe that they are also closed on Sundays) , but while I was inside making phone calls, Darcy set her own Plan B in motion: she fell asleep.

So Michael stayed in the car and read his book while I turned over the compost piles and raked leaves. Then we switched places until she woke up. We ended up doing not much of anything today other than learning that one cannot bowl on the Wild Rivers Coast on Sundays. So don't try it.

Rain, Rain, Rain

I'm home! It's raining!

I had a very swift day of traveling today -- starting at ridiculously early hours again. My flight to San Francisco was so early that we had to wait for the guy with the orange sticks to show up to roll the final twenty feet to the gate. Our pilot said that we had surprised them, being that we were an hour early.

A lot of our flight was in sunshine with scattered clouds, but as we got closer and closer to Medford, the western exposures were all cloudy, with valleys socked in by viscous fog much like that I drove through Wednesday morning. Luckily, most of my drive was pleasant, although very windy.

And now I'm exhausted and I'm done with today's post.

Tide Pools

Tide pools! There are a few places to visit tide pools in and around Crescent City. One Sunday morning, we headed down to these ones. You can see orange and purple-ish starfish on the rocks.

Starfish are strong. This one is holding three large rocks!

Darcy loves the sea! (And has no fear of it.)

Yoga poses on the beach in honor of Uncle John and Auntie Best.

Sometimes, when a girl just doesn't want to leave the beach, she needs to become very, very limpet-like. We got Darcy to leave by letting her limpet her way from one rock to the next.

Arcata Market

Sometime around Labor Day, we went to the very fabulous Arcata Saturday farmers' market. It's held in Arcata's plaza, with vendors going all the way around all four sides and a few in the center (mostly prepared foods and the live music). Darcy was having fun dancing and playing with hula hoops while I shopped the edges.

The most-wonderful balloon man made a pink octopus for Darcy while she watched in awe. She's holding a sunflower taller than she is, but you can hardly see it. Michael reported that some random stranger went and bought it for her in appreciation for her great dancing skills.

These next photos are in honor of my Uncle Nick. Those of you who don't know him probably don't know that he has a website called Poems for Free. He used to do exactly what this Poem Store does: people would send him a request for a poem on a certain subject or in honor of a person or event, and he'd write a poem. He got too many requests after a while, but he still writes and posts poems that anyone is free to use.

This poet is at the market all the time (as far as I can tell) and types up her poems on her portable that she hauls around (with her chair) in her kitted-out hauling bike. It's very cool. High pressure creativity, though!

After market, we went to the local, organic ice cream shop, which Darcy adores. (I do, too -- the lemon-poppyseed ice cream is delicious!) They have a pretend ice cream shop that she plays in long after the ice cream is gone. They have very cute homemade aprons, which Michael is helping model here.

Now, I have to go eat Ethiopian food! Yay!

A Day Of Travel

5:29 am, Medford, Oregon:

I rounded a sharp curve in the middle of my drive to Medford this morning and saw bright, shiny stars ahead of me. It shocked me because on the other side of that curve, I couldn't see more than two dashed center lines ahead of me in the center of the road. Most of my two-hour drive this morning was through dense fog, which just added to the fun of driving US Highway 199 along the Smith River.

I pulled out of our driveway at 2:50 and I was very glad for that 10-minute cushion when I realized that the fog was NOT going away as I got further from the coast. I always have an out-of-time experience when I travel for a full day, but usually, the sensation sets in much later in the trip. But when the world closes to a car-length of visibility with a wall of white all around you, time doesn't mean much. Except that I had a plane to catch, of course.

(So I spent time in Denver, but it went really fast and I didn't get a chance to open the computer. The flights were both on time, which made things easier.)

8:13 pm, Arlington, VA:

I keep thinking it's really, really late, but then I look at the clock and realize that it's not late HERE and Darcy and Michael might not even be home from work/preschool back at home. Crazy. I'm trying to stay awake long enough to be sure I'll sleep straight through the night.

I stopped at the conference hotel when I got off the metro (after the shuttle and the train and the other metro) and spent a little time at the meet and greet. There was a small group heading out to Adams-Morgan for Ethiopian food and I was very, very tempted to go with them, but I'm too tired and too traveled-out to get back on the metro.

I was forgetting that most of the people at this training would be farmers' market people, but it seems like a good group of folks are here. It will be fun to hear what kinds of projects people are funding with these grants.

Day Two Has Followed Day One

I am packed and ready to head off to Washington, DC, for a USDA adventure! Ok, so probably grants-management training won't be all that adventurous, but driving to Medford at 3 o'clock in the morning will be!

A few weeks ago, many of you were kind enough to sponsor Darcy's spins around the Trike-a-Thon course at her preschool. It was complete madness -- 20+ preschoolers on bikes, trikes, and scooters! Here's a small taste of the fun:

Darcy is styling in her Very Hungry Caterpillar helmet. She (YOU) raised a lot of money and she had a blast cycling around with all her friends. They spent the week before the event learning safety rules for riding. I'm not sure that they listened very well to the "watch where you are going" rule. I know Darcy didn't! I have very cute video, but I have to figure out how to massage it for Blogger.

Thank you all for your contributions!

Day One: Where Did It Go??

As previously mentioned, I have decided to participate in National Blog Posting Month, requiring me to blog every day during the month of November. It has not been an auspicious start being that it's almost nine o'clock and I just now remembered that I need to blog today!

I spent more time than I like to admit trying desperately to make travel plans to Washington that make any sense at all. I gave up. They will not make sense. I will drive to Medford at 3 in the morning on the way there. I will change hotels on the last day of the training so that I don't have to take the Metro to the airport at 5 in the morning on the way back. Now I just have to hope for a cancellation at the training hotel so I can actually have somewhere to sleep that doesn't require a commute.

On the other hand, I also got to talk to my community about a project Michael and I have been a part of for a few months. Preschool and childcare options around here are limited in both quantity and quality. Darcy loves her preschool now, but there are parts of it that don't work for us. We've been working with a group of parents to start a new preschool (that should open in early 2011) and two of us described at a public meeting how this came to be -- in other words, how this community of parents became organized to actually solve a problem we see in our daily lives. It was part of an evening of celebrating "early wins" in something called the Building Healthy Communities initiative. The future Little School of the Redwoods is considered a win!!

And that's my blog post for today. Most of the other 29 -- with any luck -- will include what you really come here for: pictures of Darcy Jo.