Day 6: A Small Town's Holidays Wishes

Just after Thanksgiving, the Holiday Elves of our small town (and we know who you are!) decorate our main street. In front of the popular 1950's diner, "Happy Holidays" is strung across the highway to be enjoyed by every passerby on foot, bike, motorcycle, car, truck, or bus. Gold-colored garlandy stuff by day and sparkly lights by night, this sign remains up through Epiphanytide to wish all, residents and visitors alike, "Happy Holidays."

Day 5: Twelfth Night of Christmas

J, B and I attended Twelfth Night festivities at Victoria House, the vicarage for Alpine Anglican Church of the Blessed Trinity. A good number of parishoners arrived to celebrate the Twelfth Night of Christmas and the Eve of the Epiphany.


The key to a Twelfth Night gathering is the lighting of the greenery, thus making a bonfire that symbolizes the light of Christ in a dark world. B had the honor of lighting the dry greenery that started the fire as Father Acker helps him.

After the bonfire started burning well (and smoking a great deal!), Father prayed aloud the Collect for Epiphany from the 1928 Book of Common Prayer.

A blessed Epiphanytide to you all!

Day 4: In the Dirt....

While T and J helped plant two new bareroot apricot trees this afternoon, they discovered this quite large and nasty insect which Keith identified as a potato bug. The boys then destroyed it with the wheeled dolly -- splat. Eeewwwww. Boys will be boys.

Day 3: The Tenth Day of Christmas

Today is the final day for our Christmas things to be up. Tomorrow after church E and I will start the dismantling process, packing carefully away our beloved Christmas things for another year and reassembling our large living/school room and kitchen. It's a job I always dread, and yes, we're doing it a bit early this year, on the 11th Day in fact, even though Epiphany arrives on Tuesday. But practicalities being what they are, we need to pack up when we have a full afternoon to do so, and Tuesdays are big school days around here, and I have two students to tutor in the late afternoon.

Happy Tenth (Saturday) and Eleventh (Sunday) Days of Christmas!

Day 2: My Prayer Corner

My "prayer corner" is my bedside table. It's upstairs (only the master bedroom and bath are upstairs in our home) so it's away from much of the noise and bedlam of the house. I have my Anglican prayer beads (different from a rosary with many prayers and Scripture possibilities), and my devotionals: my old 1928 Book of Common Prayer, my copy of The Message, my old favorite in hardcover, The Diary of Private Prayer, and The Daily Book of Common Prayer which has daily selections of Scripture and prayer for the year but different from the Morning and Evening Prayers from the 1928. I love lighting my candle and praying before my icons and pictures of Jesus. Sometimes I kneel to pray and sometimes I sit on the side of the bed. I hope to follow the Liturgy of the Hours this year, praying in the morning, at noon, in the evening, and at bedtime. I'll also be using Phyllis Tickle's three-volume The Divine Hours which has Scripture and prayers arranged for each of the four aforementioned prayer times.

Starting 365 Project Again.... Day 1

Okay, I've decided to pick up my 365 blog again because last year I didn't take enough photos and didn't grow as a photographer the way I wanted to.

So here's our New Year's Day photo -- snow in Southern California! I took the kids up to my parents' little cabin on Mt. Laguna where they had fun sledding ALL day. Here goes E down the slope. My brother managed to snowboard on the same toboggan that E's on here. She got the incriminating video.... :)

Our Home: Christmas 2008

Now that Veneta spent four-and-a-half hours working on my dinosaur of a laptop to get it back online, I can now post photos to my blog! And just in time to post Christmas photos, too. Perfect!


Keith's dad with eight of his fifteen grandchildren on Christmas Eve (J was sick in bed)


Our tree on Christmas morning


Our dining/school area, decorated for Christmas


Our fireplace burning on Christmas morning


All five Advent candles lit on Christmas Eve

Christmas Morning 2008

B opens his Legos

B after unloading his stocking

J and T open a mutual gift or two

E opens her new flannel PJ's

Keith and Dash watch the present-opening on Christmas morning

Summers Past Farms in Autumn

One of my very favourite places in all of San Diego is Summers Past Farms in Flinn Springs, east of El Cajon and west of Alpine. I can see its red barn gift shop and extendive gardens from the freeway as I drive up and down the mountain. I spend a lot of time there each spring, but this week I stopped by in autumn and revelled in the still-blooming gardens and the sweet pumpkin patch, taking over 100 photos as I do every time I stop by with my camera. I also made my way into the barn that serves as a gift shop where I purchased my friend Judith's birthday gift. In fact, I buy a great many special birthday gifts at Summers Past Farms.

But it's the gardens that fill my soul with joy and dream about creating in my own yard. After a chat with the owner, I purchased their special sweet pea seeds and will plant them with a prayer as our mountain frosts will cause a great challenge to early spring flowers that are cold-sensitive. Also with her advice, I'll try some morning glories next spring as well. I was hard pressed to pass by the gorgeous pansies (see bottom photo) in the small nursery without taking them home for my own garden. B was obviously with me and allowed me to shoot a photo or two of him as he ran circles around the gardens and across the huge lawn to the pumpkin patch. I stopped at the top of the Japanese bridge and looked over the shaded gardens.

I wanted to sit in the gardens with good friends, sipping their mango teas or special coffees OR purchasing plants in the nursery, OR buying just about EVERYTHING in the gift and soap shops, OR just curling up under a tree or in the herb garden to write and sketch. OR do as I did: take 100 photos of the beautiful gardens. Summers Past is a gem in the East County, and it's a special place of serenity and creativity for me.

Late Summer in the Mountains

I love watching summer turning to fall. The crisp bite to the air. The apples ripening on the tree. The night temps dropping into the forties. The leaves changing colors, falling, gathering on the lawn. The long shadows the clouds make on the mountains surrounding our village. Summer, my least favorite season, is fading, and fall and winter are on the way. Cosy fires in the woodburning stove. Curling up to read with a steaming cup of British tea. Lighting candles to dispel the cold and darkness, watching the flames flicker and twirl. Wrapping myself in my favorite moss-green velour throw. Sleeping in a cold room while snuggled into flannel sheets under the welcome weight of blankets and quilts. The joy of snowflakes falling on my face and watching the kids and dog play in the snow, stamping their feet on the front porch.

It's all on the way, and even a hot day like today promises all the welcome things I love about autumn and winter.