Misty Morning at the Lake

For Rain's TADD I don't have any art to show - my art today are the photos I took yesterday morning when I walked around the lake. I finally had taken my big camera with me - the last few times I was here I saw so many birds, but couldn't really capture them with my cell phone. I have a good camera in my phone, but it certainly is not THAT good.

It was a misty morning like we have so often here, when the fog from the coast is hanging low. Since temperatures are much lower on those mornings and the moisture in the air is higher, I prefer them to a bright sunny morning (that's something I like in the winter). It is very typical weather for our area.

The sun was just peeking through the fog and the trees.

It is so beautiful when the mist hovers over the lake. I sat on my favorite bench for quite some time, journaling and just enjoying this delightful morning. The birds that I was hoping for, though, kept hiding - as if they knew that I brought my camera! Only the mallards were kind enough to make an appearance in a very safe distance.

Slowly, the fog started to rise. Isn't it beautiful how the water sparkles in the few rays of sunshine?

And then the fog just burned off - the entire process in the following three pictures took less than ten minutes (maybe this fits the "movement" prompt in today's TADD?)

Life on the lake became busier.

Eventually I left the bench and continued my walk. I had given up hope to see any herons this morning - usually there are Black-crowned Night Herons and Green Herons here, who are favorites of mine. But it seems today they weren't in the mood to show themselves.

Instead I first heard and then saw this lovely woodpecker. I always have difficulties identifying woodpeckers; I believe this is a Downy woodpecker, but I'm confident that David will correct me if I'm wrong.

Then I heard the distinctive call of the Red-shouldered Hawk, but I couldn't see it. It kept me company for a few minutes until I suddenly saw him (her?) flying towards and landing in the top of this tree (I'm even worse in identifying trees). But what was that? Right behind it was a second hawk, landing right beside No. 1. I felt like winning the lottery.

I took a million photos until they were tired playing model for me and took off. I felt quite elated when I walked on - what a wonderful sight these birds had been.

There were unmistakable signs of autumn - my favorite season is just around the corner!

There was some rustling in the underbrush - our state bird, the California Quail.

On a shady trail sunlight lit up the pale-yellow flower heads of fennel. I love this kind of light.

And then, when I least counted on it, there it was standing by the side of the lake, waiting for its morning snack - a juvenile Black-crowned Night Heron! I love love love these birds.

This was such a wonderful morning. 

So today, I went to the farmers market in the morning. Wednesday and Saturday mornings are our famers market days, with the market on Wednesday being much smaller than the one on Saturday. Even though there are by far fewer vendors, I tend to prefer Wednesdays for the simple reason that there is much more time to talk. I learned so much about the different kinds of garlic, e.g. that you have to use much less of "Red German" than it states in a recipe because it's quite strong - and it is the one I always buy. It has such fantastic flavor.

This time of year is simply the best - the abundance of vegetable and fruit is incredible. Look what I brought home from the farmers market this morning:

Even Kibeau approves!

Unfortunately, the "mushroom guy" wasn't there today. He has the best selection of mushrooms - however, I still mostly buy cremini and shiitake and sometimes chanterelle. Recently I made (crooked) vol-au-vents with my creamy mushroom sauce - looks odd, tastes delicious. A glass of dry rosé from a local winery is a fine companion. Bon appétit.

 

Interesting Times

With all this shelter-in-place I had thought that I would have way more time to blog. I certainly have lots of photos that can make it in this space, and stories to tell. I saw myself typing along happily, cranking out one blogpost after another. The reality, however, looks different. This is my third attempt to write - it's not that I don't have time - I do. I'm not going anywhere either - who is these days? Still, I didn't get comfortable in front of my computer (I never get comfortable here anyway), at least not to compose enticing blogposts that my readers would breathlessly read, hungry for more.

Instead, I'm trying to make the best of a dire situation, finding my own routine to make my days meaningful. Some days this works better than others. None of these days found me writing those blogposts though...

When I venture outside for walks in the neighborhood I carry my phone with me, listening to audiobooks (currently "My Antonia" by Willa Cather) and keeping my distance from other people. Sometimes it's quite the dance happening on the sidewalks and the streets when we try to give each other a wide space. You probably all experience the same. We are reduced to the neighborhoods for walking now since all the parks, open spaces and beaches have been closed. At the first weekend of our "house arrest" thousands of people were crowding those places, not keeping a safe distance - the county didn't have a choice but to shut it all down. I miss my walks around the lake with my friend, hiking up the mountains or just driving out to the coast to spend a few hours at the ocean.

The flowers in my neighborhood like the California poppies in the photo above or the pink Arctotis below make bright and colorful spots.

Grocery shopping has become a time consuming chore. Yesterday I stood in line for 50 minutes - knowing that this might happen I had brought my Kindle and could at least spend the time with a good book (I'm reading "Broken for You" by Stephanie Kallos at the moment). At least the store - I shop at Trader Joe's - is always well stocked. I also shop for my elderly neighbors which gives me the feeling that I am at least a little bit helpful. I guess we all have similar stories to tell about shopping, standing in line, avoiding being exposed.

Thankfully the farmers market is still open. It has moved to a different location and has less booths than usual, but this is a great way to support our local farmers and get fresh produce. It's not too crowded and market management does a good job in avoiding crowds or telling groups that stand together chatting to leave the aisles. Every booth is taped off and usually there is one person who handles the produce and another who deals with the money. By now most people are wearing masks - many of us still have one or two N95 masks left over from the fires - and are careful in keeping a safe distance. However, I do miss the friendly conversations that are so typical for shopping at the farmers market. The only person I talked with for more than the usual "how are you" and "stay healthy" was the mushroom guy.

Kaefer came home for a few days during her spring break. All classes in her next - and last - quarter will be taught online, and we think there will be no commencement for the class of 2020. It's a little bit sad for all those graduates, but the important thing is THAT she graduates and everybody stays healthy. After four days she had to go back since her job with Student Services defines her as an essential employee and therefore she has to go to work. This is the only time when she actually sees her friends - again observing a safe distance - and I do believe that this is better for her than staying with her boring parents. While she was here, we were binge watching "Silent Witness" and playing Rummikub.

Fortunately there is always something to knit. Another birds hat was finished and sold two days after I had listed it in my Etsy shop. A box with lots of yarn goodness arrived that I will turn into more hats and socks. Leftover yarn is used to knit up cute little cats that can be used as ornaments, bookmarks, gift tags - whatever you can think of.

I'm also still making my own paper. I had ordered a few stencils and I'm quite excited to use them. This whole paper making can get pretty addictive and I'm still not sure what I will make out of it. The idea in the class was to make small journals and I'm still considering this. But I also think that they would make cool backgrounds for a photo or could be turned into cards. I guess I will just let them sit for a while and something will come up. It usually does.

The majority of my time, however, is being spent preparing my online German class and work for the German School. Using the educator platform of Zoom we are now able to offer our students online classes. Since I'm the head teacher of the local campus I'm also a board member, which means that I attend the board meetings and am involved in the decision making. Our last in-person meeting was when we decided to close the school because of the coronavirus. Since then we have met online to figure out how to go on and offer our students a continuous opportunity of learning German. It meant a lot of extra work for us teachers since teaching online requires way more preparation than in-class teaching. We also had to learn Zoom's education platform which thankfully is easy to navigate - even our least "techie" people learned it and know how to use it at least at a very basic level. I love the ability to screen-share, break up smaller groups in "breakout rooms" and just how easy it is. My high school is doing their distance learning via Zoom as well - I guess the company is doing really well right now.

It was lovely to see my students again, at least on the screen. While I think this is not the best way to learn a foreign language, it is the best we can do of the situation and we have a bit of our wonderful school community back. Our students are grateful and turn up at every lesson, eager to learn. Below you can see what online teaching with my class looks like - I have blurred out the faces of my students, though.

My heart is full with gratitude that I still have both my jobs, that I can teach from home, that my husband can work from home and that we're doing well. I feel for all the people who have lost their jobs during this crisis or who have to stay home without any pay, who have fallen ill or have lost a loved one to the disease. Unfortunately, I don't think that this will be over any time soon. We're in this for a longer run I'm afraid.

When my mood is sinking a bit - thankfully it doesn't happen too often - I snuggle up with the neighbors' cats who come by daily and spend a good amount of time in my garden.

How are you doing in these interesting times? What do you do to spend your time at home in a meaningful way? Please let us know in the comments.

Please stay healthy everyone.

At the End of the Year

The last week in a year is either busy away from home spent on some road trip in the American Southwest or it is very slow and quiet at home. This year we opted to stay at home and just relax. None of us has really felt the spirit of the season. Usually I write a Christmas letter to my friends and family in Germany which gives me the opportunity to look back at the year, but this year I didn't write a single Christmas card, nor a letter. When I try to let the year pass in review there usually are some highlights all over the year that come up, but this year I struggled to remember anything before October.

So I looked at my photos and the memories came back.

The year started out very wet with lots of much needed rain and much (less needed) flooding. I remember there were roads in our county that were completely flooded for days and weeks, parks were closed and the drought finally came to an end - at least for the time being.

I drove to Davis and back several times over the year, sometimes just in order to see Kaefer for a few hours. We visited the cows on campus, saw a powwow, shopped at the farmer's market and helped her moving into an apartment with her friends.

In February family from Turkey came over to visit for a couple days, and we spent a joyful President's Day weekend together, exploring the coast, an old fort and quite some of the wineries in our county.

I took many hikes, either alone, with Kaefer or a friend, and with the Geek. There even were some family hikes that we squeezed in every now and then.

In July we went to Yellowstone. We camped in our favorite campground near Tower Falls, explored the geysers, admired the wonderful colors of the Grand Prismatic Spring, saw wildflowers galore and an abundance of wildlife and, of course, we hiked a lot. This national park is my magical place where I feel whole and at peace. Nature in abundance - this is my church.

In August we were witnessing something we had been waiting for many many years - a total solar eclipse. It was a truly magical moment that left us speechless and completely awestruck.

The summer was long and beautiful. I didn't have to be back at work until the middle of August and I enjoyed having Kaefer at home with me. We got on some hikes, went out for coffee, did some shopping and sometimes just sat together watching some movies. It was hard after those weeks to see her leaving for college again and I missed her a lot at the beginning. But it didn't take too long to get back into the routine. I was busy with my work at both schools, met my friends regularly and was knitting up a storm.



Then October came along.

Even though we are the lucky ones who haven't lost our home I still haven't really recovered from what happened to our community. Everyone here has been affected by the fires some way or other. Even now, almost three months later, the main topic in conversations with friends, acquaintances and strangers is the fire. Everything is still very raw and it is difficult to find some kind of normalcy. For me there is, however, a deep sense of gratefulness for what we have.



What October lacked in autumn colors, November and even December gave us generously. Wine country wore a colorful dress of brilliant yellows, oranges and reds, and even some very fresh green after a few rain showers. Being out in nature started the healing process and even helped to forget that terrible October for a few moments.

May 2018 be a good, healthy and peaceful year for you. My best wishes are going out to you. See you next year!

Veggies And Fruit And Eggs And...

One thing - among many others - Kaefer enjoyed in Davis was the farmers market. Two weeks ago, only shortly before her Freshman year was over, she asked us whether we'd like to come and go to the farmers market with her.

Of course our answer was yes! I love farmers markets, and the one in Davis is a gem. At the beginning of June it already had so much to offer since it is right in the Sacramento Valley which is part of the Central Valley. One of the regions that feed the nation.

There was fruit in abundance - and those peaches, though small, were incredibly sweet and juicy, exactly the way I like it.

Lots and lots of veggies from radishes to onions and beets and even mushrooms, and everything looked so very delicious.

I loved the scale that some of the vendors used - classic!

Herbs either freshly cut or in a pot to plant in your kitchen garden.

I loved this creative marker - great idea. Perhaps I will look for some old forks on my next visit to a thrift store.

Since this is California, there were avocados and raw almonds.

Did I mention eggs?

We were happy to find and eat real German Brezeln, and we could even taste some coffee.

And if you don't like coffee but rather a glass of wine - well, you could taste that as well, and it even was free!

What is a farmers market without lavender?

And when you were done you could sit and listen to the music.