Snow! But No Snow.

Poor Darcy! Colds linger forever here on the North Coast and just as she had two days of virtually no coughs after a MONTH of endless coughing...she's sick again. Feverish and just all around sad. The worst part is that her preschool is having a carpooled trip to a snow park tomorrow and she was so excited about going to play in snow with her small friends. It's not going to happen.

But lucky Darcy did get to play with snow on our drive home from Christmas visiting. We stopped at an overlook and she and Michael threw snowballs at me. They had fun, I stayed warm, and we all get the memories caught on film.

Darcy was very, very proud of the snowball sliding off my window.

And I managed to catch Michael right at the impact!

Moss, Moss, Moss. And Mushrooms.

Oh, the rain, the rain, the rain. We are currently experiencing heavy downpours, thunder and lightening, and hail. It's a great weekend. December is already way above average for rainfall and yet it keeps on coming down. Pouring down. Bucketing down.

There are benefits. Small, cute benefits, in fact. In this case, benefits in the form of mosses (which en masse can be pretty large) and fungi. Take a look at the magical mossy world of Mill Creek Campground:

These first two pictures are tiny microcosms on top of campsite posts. They're probably four by four inches, but they pack a lot of biomass into a tiny space. And they're cute!

Then there are the trees draped in moss and ferns and all sorts of other hangers-on.

And then there's this. Whatever it is. It was unclear whether this was some sort of fungus all on it's own or if it had colonized a leaf as a substrate. There were a few of them around and this one has a second type of fungus growing on it near the top center of the photo.

Slacker Parents

Last month, as you may recall, Darcy turned four. This means that she SHOULD have had her four-year-old checkup and accompanying shots. We were slackers, however, and kinda forgot about that part. I called yesterday morning to make an appointment before we head south for Christmas. Lo and behold, they had a cancellation 25 minutes from my call, and I rushed over to pick up Darcy from preschool and got there five minutes early.

She did so well. She cooperated with everything without tears or struggles. This has not been the case for doctors visits for a while. And she has had a major growth spurt! She is 42.5 inches tall now, which shifted her height upwards by many percentiles.

Unfortunately, the visit did not end without tears. I don't really blame her. The nurse came in with FIVE needles. My poor little pincushion. She recovered reasonably quickly after they were all over and the bandaids were on, but she still got to go to the store after preschool to pick out ice cream (vanilla), sprinkles (rainbow), and sauce (chocolate syrup) for dessert last night.

A Day Of Moss

Today was one of those rare winter weekend days without rain. It's raining now, of course, but the precipitation held off until about six o'clock and we got to spend quite a lot of time outside. It was warm(ish), too, so very enjoyable!

We walked around the Mill Creek campground after having a slightly disappointing salmon-viewing in Mill Creek. We saw a few huge salmon, but only a few. The water was high and fast, so the water clarity was against us. Mill Creek campground is one mossy, fungus-y place and I took lots of pictures of cute mosses and fungi. I will share them very soon. But for this evening, your entertainment is in the form of Darcy.

After we walked around for quite a while, we went back to the bridge to see if there were any more salmon. We started throwing leaves in one side of the bridge so we could watch them as they appeared on the other side. The big-leaf maple leaves were perfect for this game, but Darcy just threw handfuls of whatever was lying around, too. Here she is, getting a running start after dropping leaves in:

...and waiting for them to come out downstream:

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.