My mother is delighted with the koi pond outside the dining room in the senior community where she now lives. The big brightly colored fish, and a visiting mallard duck family, are getting fed frequently (the lobby desk has cups of fish food available for the asking), as well as being featured in her ever-present sketch book.
Images Copyright 2012 by Katy Dickinson
Filed under Home & Family, News & Reviews
My daughter Jessica graduated from Carnegie Mellon University yesterday in Pittsburgh PA, with college and university honors, Phi Beta Kappa. My son Paul and I flew in from San Jose CA and her husband Matt flew in from Seattle WA for the big event. Here is some of what I saw in our joyous three day visit:
Jessica and Paul
CMU
Phi Beta Kappa
Congratulations to the Honors Students
Three Wonderful Kids
Going to Graduation
Jessica and Proud Mom
Carnegie Tech – Class of 1948 Her Grandfather’s Medallion
Processing into the Stadium
Honors Regalia
Relaxing After All the Fuss
Pictures by Katy Dickinson 2012 Copyright
Filed under Home & Family, News & Reviews
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Our San Jose Guadalupe River cottonwood trees are filling the air again. Even though I have written about this before (2009, 2008), being caught in a dancing seed storm and having delicate fluff settling all over my garden still surprises and charms.
Images 2012 Copyright Katy Dickinson
Filed under Home & Family, News & Reviews
Living on the Guadalupe River in San Jose, California, we have had a variety of unwanted creatures move in with us, including: squirrels, mice, and recently, roof rats. We discovered the roof rats because they eat the outside of our lemons and the inside of our oranges, then leave the cored or peeled remainders hanging on the tree or all over the walkway under it: nasty! Apparently, the smart rodents eat citrus fruit to counteract rat poison.
Our latest move-in is a hive of honeybees under our roof tiles. A neighbor who is a beekeeper looked them over and said that the hive is healthy, not aggressive, and doing no harm at the top of the house. He advised leaving the insects in place and said that we would not have problems with squirrels or roof rats in the future because the bees would drive them off. He also observed that our garden (especially the roses) was perfect for bees – and offered to put two hives on our riverbank and split the resulting honey with us. We are looking forward to becoming beekeepers ourselves!
Images by Katy Dickinson Copyright 2012
Filed under Home & Family, News & Reviews
We had more than a dozen children over with their families and friends for our annual backyard Easter Egg Hunt and potluck brunch in Willow Glen (San Jose, California). Among the kids, our son Paul was the oldest egg hunter at 19 and Howard was the youngest, at age 3. The devious Bunny and his helpers came up with the following poem hints about hiding places for the coveted Gold and Silver eggs:
GOLD:
My roost once used to roll and pitch
My halo exists at other men’s whims
In finding me please don’t twitch
The creek where you’d fall, nobody swimsSILVER:
I creep at the edge of an –ito
Don’t over-step or you will cheat-o
Chameleon-like I hide
Hurry quick! I won’t abide.
The Gold egg was found quickly (on top of the electrical box behind the light on the porch of WP 668, our caboose), but the Silver egg eluded all hunters until late afternoon. It was wrapped in tape and painted to look like a stone in the arroyito. The rules of the hunt are the same year after year:
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Images Copyright 2012 by Katy Dickinson and John Plocher
I brought home a load of thirty boulders on Sunday.
My late father loved his garden. On family vacations, he and I would compete for who could find the best stones to wedge into the car to take home to our rock gardens. Since the family house in San Francisco sold and the new owners will be redesigning the landscaping, I am moving the boulders out of my father’s garden into mine. Each rock has to be fitted into its new place – like flower arranging but much heavier.
Long ago, our family used to rent a vacation cabin at Fallen Leaf Lake in the mountains near Tahoe. We were last there in 1996 for my father’s 70th birthday party. The cabin was in an area where the rocks are grey and white striped. Both my father and I brought some of these wonderful stones home. On Sunday afternoon, I gardened with my father – arranging his boulders with mine around my silly concrete hippo.
Image by Katy Dickinson Copyright 2012
Filed under Home & Family, News & Reviews
A notary from the title company came to our home in San Jose to collect my mother’s signature and fingerprint on the house sale escrow documents this morning. 35 pages! Our realtor sent us another 100 or so pages last night to review and sign (acknowledgement of receipt of the mold report, tank inspection, contractor inspection, “Seller’s Supplement to the Real Estate Transfer Disclosure” and others).
We have already made one trip to San Francisco to pick up garden sculptures, potted plants, and my father’s beloved decorative boulders. We are going again this weekend and again next week.
I will be happy to be done with all of this.
Filed under Home & Family, News & Reviews
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