 |
. |  |
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
One of the interesting parts of owning an older house is discovering how it is built. Our 1930 Spanish Mission Revival home in Willow Glen has delightful arts and crafts style details, including oak parquet floors downstairs and on the upstairs landing. When my husband John first bought the house in 1998, many of the floors were covered with icky dark pink carpet. We ripped most of that out and refinished the upper floors and stairs ten years ago.
There was one room downstairs that still had the pink carpet. This is the only downstairs bedroom, so person using it does not have to share a bathroom. Our son Paul had the room until his sister Jessica moved out last summer, just before she got married. In 2002, Paul and his grandmother painted a mural of the Pokemon fire chicken Moltres on the wall. Late last year, Paul moved into Jessica’s old room upstairs so that my mother could move in after my father died. She and her cats recently moved into a senior community nearby, so we have finally gotten rid of the last of the pink carpet.
Under the horrible cat-stinky carpet, we discovered an equally smelly rug pad. Under that was amazingly ugly linoleum. Today, the linoleum came off and we discovered that we have a potentially-lovely wooden floor of Douglas Fir wood. We are delighted – Doug fir is not as good as oak parquet but it is much better than pink carpet. We will get the boards refinished and the room will become John’s new office.
Pink Carpet:
Linoleum:
Douglas Fir boards:
Images by Katy Dickinson 2012 Copyright
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:
 |
. |  |
Images Copyright 2012 by Katy Dickinson and John Plocher
Saturday, John, my mother, and I spent another day of sorting and packing my parents’ San Francisco home. As my daughter Jessica wrote, this is about Dirt, Dust, and Duty. I shipped five boxes of my father’s clothes to my older brother, put five more boxes of family quilts, lace, and linens into the car, then packed in two small tables, two mirrors, some art, and a shower chair. Everything but the shower chair goes into storage. My uncle came over to pack some of his stuff. Then I did a walk through with the mover in preparation for his crew returning next weekend.
Today was my day off. After church, I worked in my poor neglected and dog-pounded garden. Then, John and Paul and I spent several hours reviewing the construction proposal for the new addition to our home in Willow Glen. Comparing the proposal to the architect’s drawings, we discussed flooring, counter tops, lighting, electrical outlets, TV cables, and all of the other minutiae which are so expensive if you don’t get them right the first time.
Our house addition will initially be for my 80-year-old mother, so we are making it wheelchair accessible, just in case. This means more than just a roll-in shower and wider doorways. Can she get into the pantry? Should the doors open in or out? So much to consider!
Image Copyright 2012 by Katy Dickinson
Filed under Church, Home & Family, News & Reviews
Since my father’s death in November, we have been spending all spare time moving my 80-year-old artist mother to live with us in San Jose. Moving Eleanor Creekmore Dickinson and two cats and clothes and computer and TV were the easy part. Clearing the San Francisco Victorian house she lived in for 45 years is a more complex task. The house has two flights of stairs up to the main floor and another spiral staircase to the bedrooms. Even with four hefty movers, getting large fragile antiques safely out and into a truck was a challenge.
Last week, we completed the move for 70 years of my mother’s art into storage. Today, we finally finished moving most of the big family furniture. The biggest chore was moving “General Burnside”, a huge armoire we named after that infamous Civil War general because my mother bought it from the house he occupied as his military headquarters. General Burnside was full of my mother’s collection of moonshine and other liquors plus the glassware to serve them. It took hours to empty and take apart for transport.
John and I are building an addition to our house for my mother but that will not be done for many months. Until then, she is staying in our spare bedroom in Willow Glen and we have a house sitter in San Francisco. The family furniture has for many years been divvied up between my brothers and me (using the distribution system I wrote about) but my mother will continue to use some of it during her lifetime. Her art will be stored for the long-term but we expect that the furniture will be out and in use again within a year. I will be so happy when this is all done!
Here is a drawing of what our new construction will look like, eventually:
Moving General Burnside:
Here is what our new storage unit looks like – with antiques gently packed in like puzzle pieces:
Images Copyright 2011-2012 by Katy Dickinson
Filed under Home & Family, News & Reviews
Each year, John and I do a little more to improve WP668, our backyard caboose in Willow Glen, California. Today, we finally finished the project to install a stove, making the space much more comfortable during the winter. We put in a Majestic Brand Oxford stove from Bay Area Fireplace. The stove is on top of an antique piece of red-brown marble I bought at an estate sale several years ago (since a stove cannot sit directly on a linoleum floor). Below is the history of our caboose from the WP668 web page.
Images Copyright 2011 by Katy Dickinson
Filed under Caboose Project and Other Trains, Home & Family, News & Reviews
KatysBlog 