Category Archives: News & Reviews

May 7, 2011 · 5:30 pm

Brunch in a Caboose

Caboose Brunch WP668

Over a year ago, my husband John and I donated a brunch in WP668, our backyard caboose, to the SAMA auction, to benefit the medical charity of St. Andrew’s Episcopal Church (Saratoga, California). Today, we fed six guests who left very happy with their meal aboard our historic railroad car. The menu included:

The dogs were happy to play with new friends in their yard and were sure that the whole event had been planned for doggy entertainment.

Caboose Brunch WP668

Gilroy dog on WP668 Caboose egg cups and waffles by John Plocher

Images Copyright 2011 by Katy Dickinson

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May 6, 2011 · 10:12 pm

Picturing Flags

Children and flag are some of the hardest subjects to photograph. Both change unpredictably and fast. I have found that taking many pictures with a small good camera yields better results than trying for that perfect image. I use a Canon PowerShot S95 with a SanDisk 8 Gb flash memory card and two rechargeable batteries. I keep everything in a small zippered case in my purse – ready to take pictures whenever the opportunity arises.

There is something fascinating and alive in how big flags give shape to the wind.  The first and second row of pictures were taken after a wind storm  ripped the edges off of some flags.  The long strips of cloth were rolling around on the ground near the flagpoles.

Getting a picture in which several flags are identifiable is possible but often a challenge.  The third row below presents the best of a large number of images trying to picture the flags of California, America, and Huawei all open and pointed in the same direction.  Never did happen.  The bottom row was taken near Moscone Center on a fair windy day in San Francisco in which nine flags lined up almost perfectly.

3 flags 2 flags
flag shreds flag shreds
Huawei flags Huawei flags Huawei flags
San Francisco flags San Francisco flags San Francisco flags

Images Copyright Katy Dickinson 2011

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May 1, 2011 · 3:20 pm

Easter Egg Hunt

Easter Eggs by Katy Dickinson Easter Eggs by Katy Dickinson Easter Eggs by Katy Dickinson
Silver Easter Egg Gold Easter Egg Easter Egg Hunt

We had more than a dozen kids – aged 3 to 21 – plus their parents over for our annual Easter Egg Hunt last week here in San Jose, California. There were about 400 plastic eggs filled with candy, plus one gold and one silver egg to find in our backyard. We followed the same rules as last year with a few additions.

Last summer, one of our experienced egg hunters arrived with bags of empty plastic eggs for us. When she saw the eggs at a garage sale, Galena bought them to help support her favorite springtime activity. Following up on Galena’s inspiration, this Easter we said that kids could take home their baskets and plastic eggs if they wanted to but they could also leave them with us for next year. The parents thought this was great idea! I insisted that any eggs left with us had to be empty and whole – with tops and bottoms matched up (no leaving half eggs). We ended up with several cubic feet of empty eggs, plus 8 empty baskets.

This year I again provided “advisors” in the form of ceramic bunnies of different sizes and styles. Each child can pick any basket and advisor they want before the hunt starts. The advisors support the young hunters so that their parents are not tempted to help. I buy bunnies and baskets at garage sales and second hand stores all year so that the children have a wide selection to choose from.

Several of our Huawei co-workers came with their kids. I don’t think they hold Easter Egg Hunts in China so this was a novel treat. They had fun playing in WP668, our backyard caboose. The potluck lunch included a wide variety of dishes which everyone enjoyed eating.

Easter Egg Hunt Easter Egg Hunt Easter Egg Hunt Easter Egg Hunt
Easter Egg Hunt Easter Egg Hunt Easter Egg Hunt
Easter Egg Hunt Easter Egg Hunt Easter Egg Hunt

Images by Katy Dickinson and John Plocher, Copyright 2011

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April 9, 2011 · 8:43 pm

Sue Fliess reads to kids

Sue Fliess at SMUM Studio

Last week, childrens’ book author Sue Fliess came by Santa Maria Urban Ministry (SMUM) in San Jose to drop off a donation. She stayed to read her new book Shoes for Me to the Studio after-school program kids.  She described to the children how a book got made. The kids were fascinated while Sue Fliess was there and took turns reading the new book after she left. Then, they went outside to play.

SMUM kids reading Sue Fliess Shoes for Me by Katy DIckinson SMUM kids playing

Images Copyright 2011 by Katy Dickinson and John Plocher

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April 9, 2011 · 5:28 pm

He will live at our house…

Gilroy the dog by Katy Dickinson Gilroy and Tino by Katy Dickinson

Growing up in San Francisco, my brothers and I had far more pets than you might think. From time to time, we had a rescued baby crow in the breakfast room, toads and frogs in the tub, iguanas and bunnies in the basement, a boa constrictor in the bathroom, and cats wherever they pleased to go. My mother’s motto about all of this was from the Dr. Seuss book One Fish Two Fish Red Fish Blue Fish:

Look what we found in the park in the dark.
We will take him home, we will call him Clark.
He will live at our house, he will grow and grow.
Will our mother like this? We don’t know.

At my home in San Jose, we have a more modest menagerie (2 dogs, 2 birds, and a cat) but since we live on the Guadalupe River, we are often invaded by hoards of squirrels, flocks of finches and other songbirds, geese, ducks, and hawks, weird horsehair worms, opossums, raccoons, lizards, and Jerusalem crickets, among others. Our new puppy Gilroy is delighting in all of it during his first week with us. His adopted-big-sister Redda is bored with squirrels but Gilroy still barks at them joyously.

alligator lizard by Katy Dickinson horsehair worm by Katy Dickinson John, Redda, Gilroy

cockatiels by Katy Dickinson

Images Copyright 2011 by Katy Dickinson

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April 3, 2011 · 6:52 pm

Goodbye Juliet, Hello Gilroy

Our old dog Juliet died this week.  She was our beloved pet for about 15 years, after her stray mother had her among a litter of puppies born under the garage.  Juliet’s brother Romeo died last year. When Romeo was failing, we adopted Redda, who is now a bouncy eighty-pound two-year-old collie-pit mix. The whole family misses Juliet very much. We have been looking for a good companion rescue dog for Redda so that she will not be so lonely.

Today, we adopted Gilroy. He is a 1-year-old corgi mix, about half Redda’s size, but when they met at the dog run of the Santa Clara County Animal Shelter in San Martin, California, it was love at first sight. They have been licking and chasing and playing non-stop since they met. She has been showing him all over the yard. Redda and Gilroy are both smiling a lot.  Tino the cat is ignoring both dogs, as usual.

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Images Copyright 2011 by Katy Dickinson

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March 21, 2011 · 9:23 am

New Web Site for Santa Maria Urban Ministry

After months of work, the new Santa Maria Urban Ministry (SMUM) web site was posted yesterday. My daughter Jessica did much of the design and transition work with many suggestions and testing by SMUM teachers, staff, and the Board. John Plocher provided technical support and last night moved in the website so the new design and content are now visible to the public.

Since 1983, SMUM has provided emergency food to the residents of San José’s inner city. In addition to continuing to serve the needs of our clients and promote their self-sufficiency, SMUM has developed transformative programs to serve the needs of and promote self-sufficiency within our community.  These programs include:

  • ABC Playtime (preschool)
  • Christmas gifts and food
  • Food Pantry
  • School Backpacks
  • Studio (after-school)
  • Volunteer Income Tax Assistance (VITA)

You will find old and new material on http://smum.org (which resolves to http://smum.org/blogs automatically), including:

  • All Canticle newsletters from 2008-2009-2010
  • The Studio kids’ games page – http://smum.org/blogs/programs/studio-games-2/
  • A link to the diocesan donation page – http://www.edecr.org/donation.php
  • A way to sign up for the SMUM email distribution list (under SUBSCRIBE on the right-hand side)
  • A new SMUM Donor page is available for the first time
  • Many new pictures (mostly by me!)
  • Updated and corrected content

This has been one of those projects for which the last 20% of work seemed to take 80% of the time… Edits, corrections, and comments are welcome.

Katy Dickinson
SMUM Board Member
SMUM Studio Teacher

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