Tag Archives: Willow Glen

Non-Travel Diary 3

IMG_9827 . IMG_9842

While my husband John is in China on business for Huawei, I am keeping a non-travel diary. This weekend has been packed with activities:

  • Saturday morning, my mother and I picked up our new glasses from Visual Eyes Optometry in Willow Glen (San Jose CA). She was fitted with her new lenses and frames (and I got new lenses for my sunglasses).
  • Saturday afternoon, my son Paul and I went to the amazing Palo Alto Clay & Glass Festival, then took an evening class from Jeanne Fishback at TechShop San Jose on the wood lathe. We had a great time – and will take a second TechShop wood class this coming Friday night.
  • This morning at St. Andrew’s Episcopal Church, Rev. Channing Smith announced that next week is Backpack Sunday – we will collect school supplies and backpacks for the children of Santa Maria Urban Ministry (no red or blue – gang colors).
  • Paul and I went to the Clay & Glass Festival again this afternoon. In the last two years, he has taken most of the ceramics classes offered by the excellent Foothill College art program.  So, Paul was fascinated to see the finished work of so many superb creative potters. The artists also had fun talking to Paul – many of them know his teachers at Foothill. I bought some amazing pots. After seeing the art, we went to see the latest Ice Age animated movie.

IMG_9885

IMG_9902

IMG_9905

Images Copyright 2012 by Katy Dickinson

1 Comment

Filed under Church, Home & Family, News & Reviews

Cactus Garden Redesign

IMG_9713

I redesigned a section of my backyard cactus garden yesterday – moving a four-foot-wide succulent black-spined-aloe from the garden section next to WP 668 (our caboose) to another area.  To make room, I had to remove a bed of smaller striped-aloes that were creeping onto a brick walkway on one side and slowing attacking a columular Cereus cactus patch on the other. My husband John had urged the removal of the invasive striped-aloes for some years, so he is happy. The striped-aloes are now colonizing our river bank in San Jose, California, where they have scope for expansion.

This project sounds like it required less work than it did.  Aloes are covered in sharp spines and they fight back.  The dirt was full of bits of aloe root – any of which can grow into a full plant given time – which had to be sifted out.  About a dozen boulders needed to be dug out and re-placed.  I am happy with the result even if I am scratched all over.

Before:
IMG_9339
. After:
IMG_9712

IMG_9320
Images Copyright 2012 by Katy Dickinson

1 Comment

Filed under Home & Family

Renewed Stained Glass

I have written from time to time about the large and elegant stained glass panel created by my great grandfather, Walter Van Gilder. Today, it came home: re-leaded and refreshed by Vincent Taylor Architectural Art Glass. This summer, the panel will be installed in our dining room here in San Jose, California. Its previous homes were Knoxville, Tennessee (where it was made) and San Francisco.

2012:
IMG_9649

2010:
IMG_7300

1952 (above the bride):
1952.wedding2.frontdoor

Vince also spent time cleaning the large of the stained glass panel we commissioned ten years ago – it had gotten foggy on the inside.

IMG_9640 . IMG_9655

Images Copyright 1952-2012 by Katy Dickinson

3 Comments

Filed under Caboose Project and Other Trains, Home & Family, News & Reviews

Why did the chicken cross the road?

IMG_9618 . IMG_9617

A local chicken (Rhode Island Red?) has been wandering loose all day, followed in our Willow Glen neighborhood email list by a string of silly chicken jokes. She was seen most recently eating snails under the lemon tree next door.  She seems determined to be independent, although she enjoyed a cool drink when offered a dish of water. We hope she finds her way home safely.

IMG_9616

Images Copyright 2012 by Katy Dickinson

Leave a comment

Filed under News & Reviews

WP668 Caboose and Cactus

IMG_9338

WP 6668, our backyard railroad caboose, sits in a garden of succulents and cactus. In fact, we measure the growth of our cactus by how high on the caboose they rise. The Silver Torch (Cleistocactus Strausii) with its obscene pink flowers, and the Black Spined Aloe are particularly vigorous growers. I am probably going to take out one of the aloes before it overwhelms its spiny neighbors. It can go live on the river bank where size does not matter.

IMG_9314

Images Copyright 2012 by Katy Dickinson

Leave a comment

Filed under Home & Family, Mentoring & Other Business

Silicon Valley Cactus Flowers

IMG_8983 . IMG_9107

The Silicon Valley is more famous for computers and high technology than for cactus.  Nonetheless, the high dry summer heat makes where I live to the south of San Francisco wonderful for dessert gardening. My cactus are far too generous in sharing their spines (particularly the soft looking Bunny Ears  – Opuntia microdasys – that sheds hundreds of tiny spines at the lightest touch) but their elegant shapes and lovely summer flowers make up for puncture wounds all year. The short-lived feathery flowers are as delicate as the surrounding spines are nasty.  Today, my garden on the Guadalupe River features cactus blooms measuring 1/2 inch (on Bunny Ears) to 4 inches (on the giant Prickly Pear). This is a good year because my Electrode Cactus (Ferocactus histrix) is blooming for the first time since I planted it in 1998.

IMG_9097

IMG_9100 . IMG_9101

IMG_9103
Images Copyright 2012 by Katy Dickinson

Leave a comment

Filed under Home & Family, News & Reviews

Willow Glen – Historic Trains

IMG_9054

We live in the Willow Glen neighborhood of San Jose, California. Willow Glen has a very strong Neighhorhood Association which works on “matters such as land use, planning, traffic, safety, open space, parks, and recreation.” Last week, the WGNA put on an event called “Historic Trains: How They Transformed San Jose”. As the proud owners of WP668, the 1916 railroad caboose in our backyard, of course John and I went to Willow Glen High School Library to learn about local history, economics, and railroads. The best part for me was when the speakers from the California Trolley and Railroad Corporation showed historic photos, followed by pictures of what those locations looked like today.

IMG_9070

Images Copyright 2012 by Katy Dickinson

Leave a comment

Filed under Caboose Project and Other Trains, News & Reviews