Springtime

My roses are blooming again. Again? These are new since the you-know-what. Are they not lovely? Mr. Lincoln (the red) has a powerful scent, and I love Rio Samba--have always loved the yellows with rosy edges. Pixie thinks the Rio Samba smells like apple juice (that must be what is meant by "fruity scent"), but that Mr. Lincoln and my other flowering one smell like the roses she wore in Auntie M.'s wedding. :)

I took to Pixie to her first ballet class today--it was to be the first lesson (free) to decide whether we're going to do it. The instructor met us, but said there would be no class--she had been evacuated with no warning last night, and had nothing with her. We look forward to trying again next week.

The Jesusita Fire (Spanish pronunciation, start with an "H" sound) continues to burn, half a mile from some houses. The winds did not pick up as expected, and in these things the weather decides what happens. Or so the Santa Barbara Independent tells us...but we know that "the winds and waves obey his will." Charlie woke up praying for God to protect our house and to push back the fire. We are not currently threatened, but we are in the direct path of the helicopters and fixed-wing firefighting aircraft. The terrain in which the fire is burning is so dangerous and inhospitable that all of the work has thus far been done by aircraft. Fire crews are camped outin the areas where there are houses to protect...and roads to use. Plants are still moist. It looks good. We are a couple hundred yards outside of the evacuation warning area.

And, the house smells LOVELY from these two little roses! I hear birds singing along with the hum of the airplanes. I am happy.

Jesusita Fire

So, this afternoon I went with a friend down to Ventura to take Pixie to a doctor's appointment and...that's right...hit Target (it's the closest one). We had a great afternoon, but while I was shopping (in another store, actually) the phone rang and it was J. His news? Another fire in Santa Barbara. It is several miles from us, but he wanted me to be aware (and not freaked out) when I drove back up the coast and saw the billowing clouds of smoke. And, they are pretty ominous!

I love this shot that he took, though: smoke from the new fire in the background, while the roof trusses are going up on our neighbors' house, which burned down in the last fire:



We got home and I wanted to blog and get the word out. I asked him where the camera was, and he sheepishly said: "In the gray suitcase next to the front door." And there it was, complete with all the things we would need in the event of an evacuation. Next to it is the bag with all of our love letter from our courtship-across-the-sea. He has weed whacked all around the hill next to our home, and is currently sawing limbs off of a "fire ladder" tree next to our bedroom. He is an amazing man!

I'll try to let you know if there's an update. I expect we'll be fine--the authorities have time to respond to this one, unlike last time. We appreciate your prayers, particularly for the folks over in the San Roque/Mission canyon area.

We are forecast for "sundowner" winds tonight. It may be hard to sleep.

Blessings!

Three Cheers for Kinetics!

OK, I definitely will come back to D & M's wedding...we had a beautiful weekend last weekend, witnessing their vows and celebrating in a lovely garden wedding (and party!). That will take some thinking and some creative choosing from the 300 or so photos from the weekend.

Today I'm just jotting a quick note about our morning. A friend of one of our dear neighbors (whose return we are eagerly awaiting!) had a swing set looking for a new home, and it turns out that home is in our backyard. We've waited a couple of weekends until we could be here and enlist help from some of J.'s strong-backed students. Today was the day!


They are not nearly as close to the temporary power lines as they look. The yellow poles and above-ground wiring is rigged so that the construction sites have power. When ours was being redone, the crews used an extension cord duct-taped across the driveway from another neighbor's house. :) I think this works better!


We may be putting a matching wood roof on the top of the platform...There is a picnic table under the slide, and will be a sandbox behind the climbing wall (after we get sand...and a cover. Yech.)


This shot of Bud reminds us of J.'s uncle, who is an outdoor enthusiast and adventurer who has done quite a few climbs. People who remember Uncle from this age do say Bud reminds them of him.

In other news, Pixie and Bud had their Spring music recital last night. It was even more hilarious than I expected. Considering that Bud had spent better than 10 hours strapped in a car or airplane seat the previous day, I should have been prepared for the explosion of energy. And he got over any sort of stage fright at D & M's wedding...he sat dead center and had quite a stage presence, including being the peanut gallery and contributing to the director's explanations when he felt that was warranted. Oh well, I guess everyone needs a chance to be the parent of "That Kid." Lucky me, I have lots of opportunities! :) Pixie did a great job, too, also sitting dead center (they both chose their seats) and having a drum solo. I guess no child of mine will ever shun the spotlight.

We are so incredibly grateful for the gift of this set! Besides being fun for the kids (who are over the moon), it will be a huge gift for ME this summer, too...

Wedding pictures soon!

Progress!

Now that construction has officially begun, our neighbor's house is scooting along. This is the "first" one going in the neighborhood...the crews are working around the circle, and so the house on the other side of us will be "last" (although the final finishing should all be done at once). Lots of activity! Yesterday the crew started framing out the floorplan on the slab. Looks what's here today, before 10 am! We walked twice around the "loop" this morning and were so pleased to be able to see progress from one lap to the next. Yippee!!


Also, yesterday we realized that Pixie had never had her hair in curlers! We had fun playing beauty parlour. :)

Easter for Abuelos

This year we finally--FINALLY--dyed Easter eggs. Now, we have celebrated Holy Week in some incredible ways, and really the egg coloring doesn't do much for me as far as that goes.

We decided that the time had come, however.

Any guesses on Bud's favorite color?

J. and I have wondered why we haven't ever gotten around to coloring Easter eggs together. It was something both of us did with our families growing up, so there was no sorting-out-of-family-traditions to be done. I bought a box of PAAS egg dye during the spring we were dating (1998!). I am happy to say that we finally used that box this year to dye our eggs...and it still worked! I figured that having rescued it from the fire (and the dear Westmont students who helped empty out our pantry and cabinets of everything, the contents being smoke-damaged) its year had definitely come (we have said that every year). The kids got a real kick out of it, having never seen anything like it except for in books...




J.'s grandmother, MaII, drove up from L.A. Easter morning and spent the day and night with us. Wonderful!



While J. and I agreed on egg dyeing, we discovered that our egg-hunting traditions were rather different. We had not yet held a Covie egg hunt. I remember (correct me if I'm wrong, those of you who know) that all of the candy was in the basket, and the egg hunt was for the joy of the hunt. We made my dad hide eggs over and over and over again. On the other hand, J. expected that some candy should be hidden in the eggs, and that was the purpose of the hunt...which was a one-time deal. Hmmm.

We had a student with us at lunch who offered a tip from his own family: the eggs were color-coded and hidden in varying degrees of age-appropriate difficulty. We immediately adopted this idea and it was very successful. We could leave Wombles' yellow eggs basically out on the ground, while Bud was searching out blues and Pixie had a corner on the pink market. I'm not sure how appropriate our hiding spots were (we'd never done this before), but the posse seemed to have a good time.

This is so how Pixie looks all of the time playing in the yard.

Good Friday and the Seals

The Mamas and the Papas and the Babies

On Good Friday, J. took the morning off and we headed down the coast to Carp to a seal rookery. There were about 150 animals down on the beach...parents and babies. Very cute. I felt a little like we were in a Planet Earth episode, what with the swimming dolphins, seals, and beautiful terrain. Seriously, if we know you and you're not some random person reading the blog, come and visit us!

Keeping the boys back from the cliff edge was a stunt!

I will try to get some photos of Easter up soon. I am running a little behind for the grandparents...we have had a couple of substantial power outages during my prime blogging times, plus lots of fun visitors :) !


J. and I had a worshipful Good Friday, attending a Tenebrae service done cooperatively by five local churches...with no children (of our own in attendance). I was grateful for the time; getting to focus is a rare opportunity indeed. We are now full throttle in Easter season though!

On the way back up from the water (on this path) Pixie was full of stories on the history of the place. She informed us she was playing "tour guide" and gave us all sorts of helpful information, including how she had grown up on this land and had helped her parents plant all of these flowers many years ago. :)

This guy was just about my speed, although I was able to avoid a head-on collision in the nick of time.

'Sta luego!

He Is Risen Indeed! Alleluia!

Happy Easter!