"What do you drink What do you read At Breakfast And I know who You are." Muriel Barbery

I am currently reading The Elegance of the Hedgehog by Muriel Barbery. It's one of those novels that I've had for years, started multiple times and haven't been able to get into. It is one of my dearest friends http://lacelit.blogspot.com/ most favorite books and I am determined to get through it this time. This thought about what we do when we first greet the day made me smile, does it say a lot about a person? How do they begin? How do you wake up in the morning. What is your ritual?
For my little family it is always the same. The baby starts to peep in her room (aka our room) around 6:30. Brian or I will rise, go gather the little tot and open the curtain to her older sisters room. The door curtain it's a beautiful thing. Every morning they wake each other up. Both girls will burst into the world, wide awake and excited for the day. We bring them into our room (aka the living room) put 2 stacks of books on the sofa, one for each of them, and crawl back into our bed. They read and play for 30 minutes or so. At 7 am one of us goes outside to let the chickens out. Brian makes breakfast, always. It started when I first got pregnant back in 2010 and has just stuck. Sometimes Lyra will help him make pancakes or waffles, she loves to be in the kitchen, dumping ingredients into the bowl, stirring and creating. We eat together, while Brian and I often work on a crossword puzzle together, we love you Thomas Joseph. After breakfast we make tea, roobios chai or some other delight. Then the four of us us sip tea with honey and nut milk and begin our day. It's the same almost every day and I wouldn't change it for the world.

Thought Mixer

Upon asking myself why I have 4 blogs that I never seem to update, I came to the conclusion that I needed to blend my thoughts and ideas into one larger pot. A place where I can share fabulous recipes, adventures, and the wonders of this beautiful life. So I've decided to take over this blog formerly know as "The Adventures of Natigan", and turn it into the one and only. I suppose that blogging is a bit like a public journal, a thought that frightens me a wee bit, but I realize I need to get over it. Most likely very few if any people will ever read this, nor will they really care what I have to ramble on about. Since my pen and paper journaling has come to a stand still over the past few years... happiness tends to have that affect on my "Dear Diarys", I intend to give writing a more worthy online attempt. 

That's just the thing you see, I love to write, always have. Wrote my first chapter story when I was in the Junior High, been an avid letter writing pen-pal since the third grade and have 3 novels that are off to very good starts.... but they seem to stay that way.... as good starts. I even have the beginnings of a romance novel under my belt! Don't tell my Granny. So here we have it a place to write and rant, a place to let the thoughts roll out and fly free through the ether waves. 

My beautiful 19 month old little girl is asleep in the closet. Yes, she sleeps in our closet. ​ Actually it wasn't originally a closet at all, more like a small changing room. You see we live in a pool house, it's a really beautiful pool house. My aunt and uncle live in the main house, and we've been here for 2.5 years. It's a wonderful home in beautiful Windsor CA.  Anyhow, we turned that little room into a sort of walk in closet, and when the baby was born we needed a place for her crib, so... that's where she is. We hope to be moving within the next 4 or 5 months, my papa is building us a house on my folks property. If only we could start building  today! Alas we are still waiting for the darn permits. Blah! But that's a story for another day. 

My child is asleep and I cross my fingers that she will stay that way for at least another half hour, preferably an hour. It is rough having such brief "me time" during the day. I am 18 weeks pregnant with number 2, so I know that my so called "me time" is about to be blown out the window. Pregnancy is such a wild journey, I doubt a woman is ever really prepared for so many changes and such a ride. Most of us are never really prepared to gain  a bunch of weight, no matter what the reason.​ I already miss my size 26 skinny jeans, my 113 lb version of me. But hey, baby needs more than that to nourish it's little self, so bring on the jiggle! The emotional ride is something else, unexpected scenes in movies bring me to tears, my mama bear anger starts in when people cut me off on the freeway, or when they pass me in the right hand lane (sorry folks but that lane is for entering and exiting the freeway, or for slow pokes, usually me), or heaven forbid when they don't use their turn signals! Really people, come on! But I just breathe, say my little mantra and turn up the Elizabeth Mitchell CD so Lyra and I can rock out. 

Happy Wednesday!​

​Here are the other blogs that I most likely won't be updating any further....

http://babyontherise.blogspot.com

http://thesilkmoon.blogspot.com/

as well as..​

http://lovestandsachance.blogspot.com/

Starbuck's Viper Paint Job

Hey pretty people. So if you remember my funky red paint job on the Karmann Ghia.... we've had a few changes. So Brian has been playing with a paint spray gun, he painted Pam the truck flat grey. It actually looks pretty good for a first car paint job. He took on the Ghia next and after a little thought we decided to use our love of the show Battlestar Galactica as the inspiration. So after a flat grey primer, a little frustration and some white Rustolium the Karmann Ghia is now a BSG viper.

We modeled the red stripes and the lettering after the viper. Captain Kara Thrace's viper to be more exact. There are a few more details yet to add, like the red part in the front and Kara Thrace's call sign "Starbuck" will be written below Kara Thrace. I'm not too sure how many more details we are going to add after that.

For a Rustolium paint job I'd say it's looking pretty good, we sure are going to look like a circus towing this across the country, everyone will think we are on the way to a BSG convention, I wish. I realize this is ultimatley geek-ish... but it's all good, I don't give a frack.

Time for Star Wars... again.

I have lived in West Virginia for one year as of yesterday. It has been a wonderful experience thus far, the seasons change so marvelously here. It seems we have seen the last of the snow, the birds are busy and flowers are blooming. One of my favorite Morgantown spring events is the blooming of the Dogwood trees. They bloomed just as we arrived last year and this year they have mostly all bloomed and are starting to bud out with greenery. They are such wonderful trees, gentle petals as delicate as paper halo the branches. We have several trees on the property, 2 pink and 2 white, a true song of spring.

I attempted to build a bird house and with Uncle Joe's help I got as far as the base with little bars for bird feet to stand on. In my excitement and hurry I forgot that it rains all year here and a roof of sorts was essential. Oops, It still sits downstairs in Brian's Grandpa's old workshop. A few days later however, I found a sweet little cedar birdhouse for a very reasonable price at the local Lowes. The birds are loving it! We have Cardinals, finches, Jays, and I'm pretty sure I saw a dove. It's fun to watch them, I enjoy it almost as much as Francis the kitten.

A week or so ago I decided that it would be fun to choose an actor or actress that Brian and both enjoy and watch all of the movies they have been in during their careers. ( A little ambitious, a little crazy, I know) So our first candidate is a Mr. Harrison Ford, my Star Wars nerd is very pleased with this decision.

So far we have seen 6 movies, including Episode IV. The first one was Dead Heat on a Merry Go Round in which Harrison had a brief couple of lines as a bellboy, cute. The next movie we saw, they apparently cut the scene he was in, and the following movie was really lame in my opinion, I couldn't even watch the whole thing. It was called Getting Straight. Harrison was the only redeeming part of the film. Of course he was oh so darling in American Graffiti which Brian tells me was filled in Petaluma! I kept an eye out for my mama in the back ground. Did you know that Petaluma is an interpretation of the Miwok name that means something like 'valley of little hills'? I think Petaluma is very pretty name.

Brian and I are still up in the air about what we are doing after we get married. We are trying to locate in Sonoma County, but he may have an offer in Australia which would mean a few more years away from home. That would be an adventure to say the least! He already has residency and after we marry I too can get residency. I think I'd be a bee keeper there, the world needs more bee keepers.

Spring, is that you knocking at the door?

It's 7:27 on Monday night here in West Virginia. The snow seems to be melting at last, though we have heard of possible snow storms later this week. I do adore the snow, but find that I cannot be as excited about it as I was in the start of winter. It's hard to stay indoors so much, and it's easy to say 'well why not go outside and build a snowman'..... let me just say, a person can only happily build so many snowman. I do get outside, fortunately I walk to and from work most of the week. It's a good 40 minute walk one way when the snow is deep, so I get my fair share of the forces of nature. Lately I have been dreaming about living in Arizona, perhaps tis due to a wonderful book I just finished that took place there, or maybe a little hard desert earth and sun sound heavenly after such a winter. This is the wildest winter West Virginia has seen in years, and it's the first taste of Appalachian winter for me..... leaving a rather cold and wet taste in my mouth. I haven't been able to make it to Uncle Joe's all winter, as a matter of fact the last time I saw him was Thanksgiving when he came to our house!

I recently cancelled my facebook and myspace accounts, which actually feels quite liberating. I was tired of logging in and poking around, looking a pictures, writing on the walls of friends, and just wasting time really. I want to do something great with this life not be locked into ciber world, I long to be free of the things that don't serve me or those around me. I must ask myself what good comes from this?

Our beautiful garden gate all regal in snowy white.

Thinking about moving back to CA makes me a little jumpy, in a good way I suppose, I just want to know what to do for a living. I have too many interests and too many ideas. I'll rattle a few off for you.... I'd like to write, publish a book and see how it goes, I'd like to paint murals on children's bedroom walls (I will do this), I'd like to be a forest ranger, an astronomer, a gardener, a wedding photographer, a mother (someday), and I'd like to open a daycare with Abra. Do you think I can find time to all this? I assure you this is the short version of my list. I wish a little fairy or angel would drift down to my ear and tell me where to go from here, I know it's never that easy, but a little guidance would be so nice. I also want to finish school, I'd like to get a degree in art, with a minor in Spanish, or astronomy..... but I'd really like to work with children too.... ohh what to do, what to do? I've heard I'm young and have time to figure this out, but I guess I've been hearing that since I graduated high school... 10 years ago. Yup, my 10 year high school reunion is this year! That my friends is hard to grasp. I turn 28 this year.

I am so great full for all the wonderful people in my life, thank you for being so grand. Enjoy the miraculous transition into Spring, don't forget to stop and smell the wisteria, oh man I'm going to miss the wisteria this year.

Cozied Up With the Mountain Mama

Happy New Year everyone! It's so crazy that February 2010 is already upon us! But what a wonderful year it promises to be. Brian and I had a fantastic trip to Santa Rosa over Christmas. We got to see our families, friends and go dancing!(A special thank you to Clay for throwing that impromptu dance party). It was also wonderful to announce our engagement to everybody in person. To those of you whom I didn't get a chance to see, we shall play next time.

It's still cold as can be here. There is a light coat of snow on the ground and icicles hanging from the bottom of the truck. I feel tucked away here, like I am in a little cup inside the beautiful Appalachian mountains, the mountain mama. I've been back at work, 5 days a week now instead of 6. It's rather nice to have that extra time off. Both Brian and I have been walking to and from work and school. It's a 30 minute walk one way so by the time I get back to the house I'm ready to put on the ol' snowman pjs, cook dinner and read a book! Speaking of cooking dinner, I started a new blog about being in love and cooking! Here's the link if you'd like to check it out. http://lovestandsachance.blogspot.com/

Wedding plans are slowly coming together, I'm so glad that we have time to take care of everything, and so much wonderful west coast help. It's hard to do a whole lot from out here. I am so excited to celebrate our upcoming marriage! Another bit of great news... one of my best friends Shalane, who happens to be my cousin is getting married in May. Her fiance Aaron proposed to her on Christmas Eve! I am in the wedding so we will be coming back to the West at the end of May, it will be a shorter visit, but hopefully we shall dance some and see some people. And after that..... it looks like we will be taking another road trip back across the country, and moving back to CA! We are trying to decide whether or not to take the truck again, she needs some work. We also have the Karmann Ghia and the scooter, but then we would have to figure out a way to get all of our stuff over. Ha! It will be another adventure, isn't life amazing!

Appalatian Winter

The ground is painted white this morning. It's so beautiful I can't stop smiling. Snow fell all day yesterday and on Friday night. The whole town is white. It was about two inches of perfectly powdery soft snow, I walked to work while it fell... amazing. It really feels like Christmas time now, Joellen's playing of Christmas carols in the house helps. I love it. She and Brian are bringing down the decorations right now!

I have some fun news.... on the Sunday after Thanksgiving Brian proposed to me, and of course I said yes!! I am so happy, so blessed to be in such love!

My work has been quite nice, I am meeting all sorts of wonderful people and enjoying what I do. I imagine one day I will create my own business,

or be self employed in one way or another.

Brian and I have been teaching wedding first dance lessons, and we just started to teach a swing dance class last week. We shall see how that goes.

Speaking of swing dance, a few weekends ago Gwen came out to visit, and we went to Pitt Stop Lindy Hop in Pittsburgh. It was a blast!

We had a wonderful host named Mark, who used to live and dance in the bay area. We got to go to a museum, and we saw a special exhibit that was visiting from New Zealand about whales. Beautiful whales. There was a room where you could listen to the songs of all the different whales and porpoises, very magical... Brian and I have talked about

moving to New Zealand and we have a thing for whales, so it was really special. I was so glad to dance all weekend and see the wonderful Gwen!!

Lately I have been thinking poorly of the whole facebook experience. I often want to cancel my account, but I get so caught up on it sometimes, looking at pictures, and messaging old friends. I feel like it's a waste of time and a very impersonal way to have relationships. It's a bit of an addiction, I'm sure some of you can relate. I mean, why do I need to check it everyday? Is it really that important to know that Jimmy from high school went to the mall today?

Or that the girl I met on vacation had stewed beets for dinner and posted pictures of it?? The answer is no. Once a week would

suffice. Perhaps I will exercise some self control and only go on once a week, or just cancel the darn thing anyhow. I sit here blogging and wondering if it would be nice to go 100% back to hand written letters. Ha! I do my share of that, but the Internet is such a grand thing in so many ways.

We are coming home for Christmas in... 17 days! I am thrilled! Our time there will be full, with family events, both mine and Brian's, friends,

and dancing, I really hope to get as much dancing in as possible. So if you know of

anything going on while we are home, please let us know! Happy Holidays to all! I do hope to see many of you on my Christmas vacation, and get a chance to connect. My dreams of a white Christmas have come true.

I got some money cause I just got paid

Overcast Sunday morning here in Morgantown, my one day off in the week. Oh yes I'm a working girl now, Mon-Sat. Things are good. It was Brian's 28th birthday on Thursday, I made vegan, soy free, gluten free chocolate cupcakes like I did last year. Yummy. I think things like Birthdays make me and probably Brian too, realize how far from all y'all we are. Hmm.

We had our first visitor from the west coast!! Jonathan came out last week on his way moving to NY for school, he and Brian went to Seneca rocks to climb and he stayed for several nights. It was so nice to see a familiar face and visit with such a nice friend. On that note if anyone feels the urge to visit the east coast you have an open house to crash in, and I'll even throw in home cooked meals.

I got a full time job at the health food store called Mountain Peoples Co-op. It's a wonderful place and it's really little. There are only four people working there including the manager and assistant manager. Ha! I love it though and it's really great to work in an environment that I know much about and really support. So I guess we will be staying for a while after all, Brian got a position in the grad program, he starts this week. I admit part of me hoped that we would be unable to really work things out here and would be forced to move on (westward), but alas here we shall stay.

I think I'm going to sell the Karmann Ghia, I don't want to dump any more money into it, especially when I'm making 4 times less working here than I did at home.

The garden is a sad subject for me.... now that fungus got the cucumbers, zucchinis, sugar pie pumpkins, the eggplants are screwed up by flee beetles, the corn is really tall, but each stalk only created one cob, a rabbit ate the lettuce, the watermelons and cantaloupes shriveled for whatever reason, deer ate anything they could possibly reach, and I find this all disheartening. We did get lots of tomatoes and peppers though, and kale and chard. The onions fluked. Oh, one exciting thing we dug up our potatoes and made homemade french fries, and this morning I made my mama's potato pancakes!! My favorite.

I'm trying not to be homesick, but it's hard. I really want to go dancing, Ellington style, and I want to see my kitty Homer.... and my family and friends of course:)

Sorry if I'm being a downer.

A Garden Moment

Garden excitement! I just made fried green tomatoes! They were ridiculously good. We harvested our first corn, which were mostly yellow and white, but had a few pink or blue kernels inter mingled. We planted some heirloom colorful corn varieties as well as basic corn, and they cross pollinated a bit, making the cobs look beautimous! Dug up all the potatoes, I was expecting a much larger yield, but it's all good. We may try to make some gnocchi. We are still eating salsa every day, and have eggplants and peppers ripe for the picking.

Yesterday, we drove to Grafton to visit Uncle Joe and Cathy, they took us mushrooms hunting! Now we have a bunch of beautiful golden chanterelles in the fridge just aching to be cooked up. It was a fun adventure. I think Brian and I should open a restaurant, we both love to cook and seem to be good at it (a nice combo). Th.. th.. th.. that's all folks!

Hmmm... Things I like about Morgantown and areas in close vicinity.

1. Each house is unique, no developments and track housing. I've found that to be the case out here in the east. Homes are beautiful, actually thought out and designed by different people. No cookie cutter blocks! Everything is younger out west, and you can feel the age of towns here, pretty sweet.

2. Fireflies

3. For some reason (I can only imagine it's the good times of the college students), there is a plethora of shoes thrown over the telephone wires. It's all over town, and usually they come in clusters, you don't often find that lone pair of dirty old track shoes. Together with sneakers, boots, girly shoes, they hang from the wires like flocks of birds eyeing the streets below.

4. The weather, well... now I'm starting to wish it felt more like summer.

5. Downtown there is an old movie theater. It opened in 1924, designed for silent movies and vaudeville, re-designed in the 50's for Cinerama movies. Anyhow, movies are only $5.00 there, and once in a while they show a movie from my childhood, like E.T. or Back To The Future. It's just rad, I wish i could work there.

6. That my car insurance for a 6 month period is the same I paid in Cali for 1 month.

7. Streets here are like a giant maze. It seems that whomever settled here didn't really think about designing a city, they just started building wherever was convenient. The roads swirl around and bumble in and out of downtown, across the river and over hills. I like it, it's without rhyme or reason.

8. The beautiful little health food co-op called Mountain Peoples. There is a mural/collage out front that Brian and I helped make, and I might work there a few times a week.

9. OMG!!! People at the DMV, the post offices, and other similar businesses are so nice! And helpful! It's a breath of fresh air compared to the Santa Rosa DMV... dun dun dun.

10. My wonderful Uncle Joe lives 20 minutes away with Cathy and Moose(the greatest cat in the world, besides my Homer of course) and Beau and one other kitty I can't remember it's name. They have a beautiful piece of property with woods and a pond, and a little flying squirrel that is their friend.

Those are all nice things around here.

On another note Brian got the Karmann Ghia running!! I just got the plates, insurance and new tires, soon I will be on the road! Super exciting!

She just needs a real good cleaning, and a little extra TLC. This pic is of the day we brought her home. (She has no name yet, so I call her Chief for now, little BSG inside info)

Also, I got my motorcycle permit today, so now I can take off on the vespa whenever I want, but I'm taking it slow, to make sure I feel comfortable when I finally start going on the main roads. Woo! I know my pop isn't too thrilled.

The garden is doing pretty good, we are in an abundant tomato heaven, we've been eating the best homemade salsa I've ever had for the last week. Every day, we pick a big bowl of fresh heirloom tomatoes, an Anaheim pepper and fresh cilantro. Roast the pepper, mix it up with a little sea salt and garlic!! Wow! It's amazing!The Zucchini plants are all dead, and a fungus has attacked our sugar pie pumpkins... so I might cry, though we will at least get three off the plants. On a happy note, my poppies and cocks comb are blooming and amazing, once we get a new camera I'll take some more pictures. I don't think I'm going to mention why it is that neither of our cameras function anymore. For dinner tonight we steamed fresh little carrots and fresh beet greens with some purple potatoes we bought at the farmers market, yum!

So, I keep smiling and eating good food, and loving. I really feel the un-permanence of our situation here, we won't be here too long, I have no clue where we shall adventure next... maybe back to breath taking Sonoma County. I miss my peeps, and the ocean. Who knows what the universe will bestow upon us? It's all an infinite mystery, and that my dears, is what keeps me excitedly ticking. Love love love. I hope our paths cross again soon.

P.s WHy the font went blue on me, i'll never know.

New York New York

I just returned to Morgantown from a week in New York. We were in Auburn for Brian's brother Wes's wedding. I'm happy that I got to see the natural side of New York, because I always think of New York City when I think of NY.... but the country side was beautiful. We were near several lakes, and all was green and full of life. It's agricultural around Auburn and there are fields of corn and other such crops. We went to Cooper's town, to the baseball hall of fame one day. Brian's family is really into baseball, though we don't really care about it one way or the other, we went along. It was a good time, we walked to the local health food store that was 20 minutes away, then came back and met up with everyone in the hall of fame. I called my dad while I was there, wanting to know where Goose Gossage would be, and he said that the man hadn't made it yet, well dad... he made it last year and we found him!

Pretty nifty eh?

JoEllen rented a house at the Inn where the wedding was. It was a 5 bedroom, and there were always people there, we stayed for the whole week, while others popped in and out closer to the actual day of the ceremony. There was lots of cooking, eating and drinking.... one night I drank and got way too sloshed, no bueno.

The wedding was lovely and Brian and I danced our fannies off, impressive, heh.

We just got home yesterday and the garden is a little sad, tomatoes fallen smashed in the mud, deer eaten gourds and morning glories, some small creature got in the garden and ate all the butter crunch lettuce, the zucchinis have a disease and I think the peas are dead. I guess it rained really hard while we were gone and then was extremely hot.... that doesn't make for happy plants. But on a nicer note, my poppies are blooming, and we have eggplant, peppers, tomatoes to pick, and one of the sugar pie pumpkins is turning orange!!

This morning we will make omelets!

More exciting news... I bought a 1971 Kharmen Ghia! It's so cute... well it's actually pretty shabby but with a little love and hard work Brian and I will have it up and running in no time! It's red, but I'm going to go orange someday (I'll put a picture of it up real soon). I'm still on the job search, I'm tired of not having an income and spending all my savings. Life is good, treating me well. I miss everyone and think of you often.

Galactic Journies

The weather here takes my breath away..... a few days ago, I went out at twilight and there was a layer of fog hung low to the ground. Fireflies whirled about the garden like magic sparks. It was warm enough for shorts and a tank top, so awakening. Last night as we laid down to sleep it started pouring, and a few nights ago we went to sleep with thunder again. I love it, something really feels magical about the air, the quick changes in the elements, I'm hooked.

It's definitely been a slow week, after returning from Cali and the movie shoot came to an end, we've been taking it really easy. I feel like I'm living like I'm 80, not that there's anything wrong with that, I love the mellow ease to my days and nights. Brian taught me how to crochet a few weeks ago, and I'm on a roll, I've made five hats, still working on perfecting, but I like them all. Don't be surprised if I try to keep your heads warm for Christmas. :) I've also been reading a lot, I finally finished the 6 huge novels of the Outlander series. (Though I just found out that she wrote a new one, coming out in September!!!, I know my mom's excited.) Fabulous series if anyone is looking for something to read. Also, within 2 weeks I read all four of the Twilight series, they were pretty awesome, the last one especially.

On a more productive note, I've been applying to WVU and trying to figure out a way to afford such absurd expenses.... working on getting in state tuition. Also been poking my nose around for a job a may enjoy, anything but waitressing...at least in this juncture. But alas, Brian and my gypsy ways may have us off into the world again. If neither of us find work or school holding us back, perhaps we'll head to Australia, or gypsy caravan through Europe, we both want to do a little space travel, so it might be galactic journeys that beckon us. I hope y'all are smiling and happy, I miss you and hope to hear word of you soon.

Living it up in ol' Mogantown

Well..... I'm back to the blog, by popular demand.

I spent the last four days at the craziest haunted house I've ever seen. Brian and I were cast in a short horror film... they crammed the shoot into four days, which meant we were up till sunrise every day. It was an awesome experience, I never realized how tedious movie making is..... 2 hours for a 4 minute scene! Crazy! It was quite the experience and I want to do it again, I've always been an actress, maybe I found my calling. Between Brian(Chad) throwing me to the ground, and the killer slicing my face and neck up.... I was a bloody mess by the end! I don't even like horror films really, but they sure are entertaining to make. The house is called fright farm, it's this guy Rich's old family house that he added onto, to create the most elaborate maze of something like 100 rooms, all decorated like a haunted house. During Halloween they have a huge production there, with over 200 actors to scare the masses. It's wild! Here's the link if you want to check it out..... http://www.richfarms.com/frightfarm/

So, West Virginia life........ It's been pretty sweet. We got here about 2 months back and immediately began to create our garden and clean up the property. There are about 3 acres that consist of big flat area with a huge stone house, steep hillside, lovely little Creek, and another flat area, overgrown with wild raspberries and blackberries. We made our first garden areas up by the house, including our compost, and little greenhouse. Everything is huge now, much bigger than in the pictures, those were taken a month ago. We are growing tomatoes, peppers, eggplant, carrots, brussel sprouts, radishes, beets, cucumbers, peas, green beans, kale, chard, arugula, mixed lettuces, broccoli, potatoes, artichokes, strawberries, onions, corn, zucchini, blueberries, watermelon, cantaloupe, pumpkin (sugar pie), and black beans. Wow, that's a mouthful, I think that's everything. First things first, we built a compost bin... it's the most important part, everyone should have one, and if you don't..... well it's a pretty simple thing to do, I'm pretty sure my cat Homer could manage, so what are you waiting for? We spent the first few weeks sweating our butts off building a fence out of trees we cleared on the property and tilling soil. After we got the garden up, we spent most of our time clearing the hillside and making massive piles of brush that we've had to chip, to use for mulch... a job we don't really enjoy, such is the reason that we haven't finished. We built a bridge (well Brian did), cleaned up an area of the creek, I planted some herbs and flowers, and we have been trying to keep busy.

I am happy here, I love Brian, his mom is great, the house is beautiful, and West Virginia weather has stolen my heart, thunder and lightening storms one day, sunny skies the next, downpour the next.... and it remains warm. Mesmerizing, and the plants love the rain, everything is so green. There is a sweet little food co-op and a farmers market every Saturday, even Kroger, the big chain grocery here, has a huge organic section, so we can find all the food goods we need. I'm thinking about attending the college here, majoring in art, or trying to find some heart satisfying work.... we shall see.

We got to go home a week past, for my papa's 60th birthday, it was a whirlwind of events, but oh so fun, and so good to see those of you that I could, and sad I couldn't see the rest, so busy. Especially missed seeing Myra and her new baby Riley. Another time. I hope you all are enjoying your spring and are happy and healthy. Much Love.

Country roads, take me home

4,958 miles, and 4 weeks.......It's been a long and wild road for us, but we arrived safely in Morgantown late last night. We got the chance to visit with my dear friend Misha in Asheville, NC, at her amazingly beautiful school, Warren Wilson College. We attempted to lindy hop the night before, after hearing that Asheville had an awesome scene. They were having a benefit dance for a rescue mission. It was really small and had live music with four musicians, they played fun country/swing. We were the only lindy hoppers there, but we had fun dances with each other for sure. The next morning to Misha's school, for a tour of beautiful gardens, veggies, and herbs. We saw the baby piglets and I touched their cute little noses, they get so ugly when they grow up, I know that's mean, but crikey! Misha toured us around the downtown, and showed us the health food stores, and a chocolate cafe, I kid you not, an entire cafe devoted to truffles, and cake! Yummy! It was great to see Mish, and get inspiration for the garden.

We were really ready to be off the road and wanted bed and shower.... so we went for the long haul and Brian drove the 6 hours to Morgantown. His family were all gathered in the house for a cousin's baby shower that Brain's mom hosted today. It was a long drive, it was late, 2am, we were exhausted..... but now we are here, and a new chapter has begun. It's warm and there is so much to do for the garden... I am hoping I can get my aunt Cathy to come up from Grafton and play in the dirt with me. Thank you to all of you for kind words, and thoughts, I'll maybe update later and let you know how things are coming. Blessings!!!

Way down in Arkansas

Looks like we really aren't in Kansas anymore. Drove through into Missouri, and South to Arkansas. Missouri didn't really move me, but we weren't there for very long anyways. When we entered Arkansas it seemed like we drove into a different planet, Arkansas is beautiful. Everything was green, green and lush as far as the eye could see. Flowers were blooming everywhere, crimson colored clover blossoms line the roads, and white dogwood blossoms giggle in the green forests. It had an almost tropical feeling, and really took my breath away, after so many mountain and desert sights, not that those aren't amazing too.
We went to visit my friend Ken in Hot Springs, AR. He's my closest girlfriend Abra's father, and I've known him for years. He showed us around an almost ghostly town, and we went to a lovely little Ecuadorian restaurant. We stayed with him and Abra's sweet Grandma that night, it's always such a relief to have a real bed, even a fold out sofa, and even if there is an insanely loud grandfather clock that is set to chime every fifteen minutes throughout the house. It was still great.
We went South the next day, through the breath taking country side, and continued to count the dead armadillos on the side of the road, there are too many, poor little ones. Brian had his heart set on going to the Crater of Diamonds State Park, and finding a massive rock to pay off his old student loans. So we went.... it was weird. You pay to get into this giant plowed field of dirt and rocks, you can rent digging equipment, and basically good luck! It was one of the more strange scenes I'd seen in some time, I pretended I was on another planet. You look out across this dirt field and see people sporadically dotting the view, digging, sifting, sitting in the hot sun, hoping to make it big. It's like really hot, dirty, gambling. So Brian and I played around and didn't find much but some pretty rocks, Jasper and such. He was bummed, he didn't find the big one.
As beautiful as Arkansas was, I can't really imagine living there, at least any of the spots that we went. Yesterday we crossed the big ol' Mississippi River, and into Memphis, TN. We found the whole foods, and a Lindy hop venue. It was a great time, Memphis seems really swell. Dancing was good, the DJ came down to dance with me and I found out that he was from Petaluma! Small world. They were so kind to us, asking us to dance and the DJ offered us his spare room.... so different from the Denver scene, or any scene I've been to, other than Ellington of course. We stayed at his house last night, most comfortable bed ever, well a close 2nd behind Abras, showers, we are ready to roll. We may check out some more dancing here in Tennessee, but then it's on to Ashville, NC, to visit Misha, though I hear there's dancing there too. Woo Hoo!!!!

Toto, I've a feeling we're not in Kansas anymore..

.... wait, actually we are. Kansas City, Kansas to be more exact. We left Colorado Springs last Wednesday, after a rather fun night of lindy hoppin' in Denver on Tuesday. It was a pretty bittersweet to leave, though we were excited to get back on the road and start the next leg of the journey, it was sad to leave Colorado springs, we were really starting to love it..... and Lisa, Brian's cousin. She's amazing and I miss her already.
Kansas, despite many folks lack of interest in such a place, we really think it's swell. We were greeted by driving through a rain-less lightening storm, a little nerve wrecking, but wow! Kansas is windmills, and fields of corn, wheat and sunflowers (none of which are blooming right now). It's rolling hills, big, bulging, beautiful clouds, it's everything historic, literally half of the road signs are directions to some historic site or another. We've been to quite a few towns, including the one that houses the worlds largest ball of twine!! It's pretty big, but resembles more of a dome, and wasn't as grand as I'd imagined... but the town was super cute. We also went to a town that has a dinosaur museum, awesome! Big skeletons, and robotic T-Rex that turns and roars at you when you walk by, it freaked me out.
On to Selena, another lovely town, more like a small city.... where for some unexplainable reason the universe decided I hadn't spent enough of this road trip sick, and I awoke the next morning with not only a sinus cold, but also a flu!! Yeah!! Both I believe I gathered in Colorado Springs. So Friday I laid in the back of the truck all day, with chills and a bad fever, as well a stuffy nose and headache. I woke up several times Friday night with my fever boiling and soaked in sweat, it's been rough. Now my aches are mostly gone and the main remnant is my stuffy nose. The weird thing is that I don't usually get sick, oh well.
Anyhow, yesterday we went to Wamego, to the Oz museum (The Wizard of OZ). I wish I had felt better, but it was nice anyhow. That was my favorite movie for a long time. We also went to Old Prairie Town in Topeka, which was covered in the most beautiful Tulips ever, so many
colors, and a cute little town, made of old time historic buildings, good old historic Kansas.
So far we think Kansas is pretty great. Most every town we've been to, we have decided we could live there, the people are sweet as blueberry pie, the houses are really sweet and the little main streets are classy and... historic.
I don't know why this big bread basket, sunflower state got such a bum rap, we sure like it.

Much love to you all! I hope you are healthy and enjoying the springtime, Sonoma County Style, unless of course you don't live there, then enjoy it however you can. Bye bye.

Rocky Mountain High... Colorado.

Well, we lucked out and found a swing dance spot last Tuesday night in Albuquerque, sorta lucked out. It actually wasn't all that exciting, we mainly danced with each other, but oh well, it was an adventure. We drove through Taos and I tried to remember the name of the novel that had given me a desire to travel to Taos, I can't remember it, and Taos is super touristy. It's beautiful though, Taos means, "the place of red willows". I didn't see any willows, but the Rio Grand Gorge is lovely and Taos mountains are not too shabby at all. It was fun driving from Taos into Colorado, there are signs for deer, elk, horse, and bighorn sheep crossing. (We only saw horses but the signs were cool).
We came to Colorado Springs last Wednesday night, with a wonderfully warm welcome from Brian's cousin Lisa. We've basically been perched up in her house for 6 days now, visiting with various extent ions of Brian's family, his mom and brother both flew in for the holiday. It's been really fun and relaxing, lots of cooking, and big Italian style meals and gathering. Colorado Springs is super beautiful. Huge snow peaked mountains to the west, and other natural wonders, cool rock formations and big sky. It snowed here yesterday morning, it was breath taking, first time I've seen it actually snowing in a long time, it was a winter wonderland. We built another snowman, but a big one, with bell peppers for nose and mouth. His family is wonderful and they are taking such care to make sure our stay is good.
I think I could live here..... but I'll try Morgantown first. I think tomorrow we will head to Denver and check out the Lindy scene there, hopefully it'll prove to be more entertaining than Albuquerque, then hitting the road to Kansas on Wednesday, that'll be interesting, I hope to find a yellow brick road and many singing munchkins.
I'm starting to miss everyone, as though I realize now that this isn't just a trip, that I'm actually moving, I miss little Shasta and my mama and papa, and so many others..... cest la vie, eh? OK... much love to you all, I hope you are well fed and laughing.

The Little Engine That Couldn't

"I think I can, I think I can, I think I can......". The words of Pam the truck as she tried to climb up the Rocky mountains at an elevation above 10,000 feet. Her carburetor was special for ethanol and being that we hadn't found an ethanol station nearby, we were running on mostly gasoline. The combination of the altitude, the gas and carburetor, made for a very unhappy truck. It was beautiful, snow covered high mountain peaks, blue sky, a waterfall, and even a nice temperature.... Pam didn't care about such things,. She huffed and puffed up the hill and got slower and slower, until finally we were in first gear, not even 10mph, and losing power ...... curvy, steep mountain passes are not a good place to lose power. I tried not to panic, and said, "Let's just turn around and find a way to bypass the Rockies." Pam and Brian were thinking the same thing, he flipped a U turn in the highway, and headed downhill, pulled off onto a lookout spot (nice view), and the truck wouldn't start.
After a brief rest and some engine tinkering she started again. We finally made it back to the nearby town of Pagosa Springs.... again changed the route, Santa Fe, New Mexico sounded nice. We took a south east route and prayed for hill-less roads. Brian did a quick roadside carburetor swap for the truck’s original, so she could deal with gasoline better, and I made dinner. Brian drove for 10 hours yesterday! 10 hours! We pulled into Santa Fe late night, and parked the truck to sleep, I had many strange dreams, and awoke to the desert once again.
I think today we will just take it easy here, not too much driving. If only there was a Tuesday night lindy scene..... that would be amazing! Then maybe to Taos, and on up to Colorado Springs, we will have bypassed the Rockies and be back on ethanol. I like New Mexico, I could stay here for a while... maybe I’ll take the R.V route in life, and travel the states and Canada for a few years. Love and Blessings to you all. Ciao!

Grand Canyons and Rocky Mountains

It's been a few well traveled days. We left Prescott, and went to Jerome and Sedona on Friday evening, to ponder the beautiful landscape, crimson cliffs, miles of red earth and overwhelming tourism and growth. The sky was perfect, big blue, and full of chubby white clouds. The wind of course followed us, and kept us from doing too much exploring, though we got to go for a nice run, through the national forest (a forest of rocks rather than trees) in the morning. So Saturday we left and headed north, we drove over the magnificent oak creek canyon, and went to the Sunset Crater Volcano national monument, and the Wupakti national monument. There are Native American ruins there, and we were able to explore some that were popular spots in the 1100's. Pretty sweet.
We have decided to change our route some, after the wind and, cold we've met, going further north sounds... un-enticing. So we scratched Utah, Wyoming and of course Montana of the list, and decided to head eastward to Colorado where Brian's family will be for Easter. So, on Saturday we continued to drive through Flagstaff, and veered of to the west to taste the Grand Canyon. Made it to the edge for a beautiful and crisp sunset, made camp and yummy spaghetti in a nearby national forest, and returned in the morning, for more breathtaking views. I guess we are all tourists here.
Yesterday, Sunday we drove for what seemed like all day through some serious out of this world land scapes, got to the Four Corners National Monument 7 minutes after they had locked the gates, oops. We could have stayed, and slept nearby, stood in four states all at the same time in the morning, but we chose to call it a good laugh and drive on. We entered New Mexico, left it just as soon, and arrived in Colorado. We'd spent hours driving through the Navajo nation and my mind was rolling with this country's unfair and bloody history, it's such a shame the way humans can behave, it's hard to believe, but that's a whole different story, for another time.
Now to where we are, this is Cortez Colorado, my first time in Colorado. We slept next to snow last night, and we can see the snow peaked Rockies. Onward to the east, for ethanol and Taos, New Mexico.
By the way... today is day 2, that I am hive free!!!!! I doused myself with neem oil in Prescott and Sedona, they seem to be gone, and I am hope full they shall, not ever return.

California deserts to Arizona sun

I've decided to upgrade my method of communing with all of you, to blogging. At first I was hesitant, but I've been told not to knock it until I've tried it. So here goes....



As most of you know, I've set out on a 6 week long road trip with my love Brian, we are travelling via his 1971, big, baby blue, ford F100, lovingly called Pam. It's packed to the brim, the camper shell houses most of our belongings and a bed, where we are sleeping. Attached to the truck is a small modified trailer (Thanks papa)... we call the trailer Greggy, he tows Brian's scooter Gloria, and 36 gallons of ethanol, the fuel for the truck. Yep we are going across this country running on moonshine. This isn't an ordinary road trip, because my plan doesn't include a return route, I'm planning to move to Morgantown, West Virginia with Brian. His mom has a house and land where we will stay and create a big organic garden.



The following is the first email I sent out, so it may be a repeat for you, but check below and new news will follow......



Hello everyone, day three of this here journey, and I am sending you all the first of my stories. let me know if you'd rather not receive my garble, or if you have a different email address that you'd prefer. Well now, we finally got everything together and left on Saturday morning. We spent all of Thursday and Friday packing up Pam, the truck and little greggy, the trailer. Friday night we watched, "The secret life of bees" with my mama, and i guess the thought of honey, bees, and their hives triggered my body to break out in a horrible case of hives on Saturday morning. All that aside ... I decided to say what the heck and head down the road that morning. I thought they'd get better, but they've been a 3 day long suffering. Saturday we drove to Lancaster to see the poppy reserve, and the winds here were insane, to the point that the poppies were hiding and there was not much to do in 50mph winds, so we left, and drove on and on, right about to the town of Ludlow, that is to the off ramp to the town of Ludlow, and Pam done died. Something with the axle, and bearings, and we came to a scary halt, where the brakes hardly seemed to be doing their jobs. 1 and 1/2 hours of waiting for a tow truck driver from Barstow to come and take us on an hour ride back the direction we'd just come from, arriving late night in a tow/ auto shop parking lot with a sad sad truck.... we were doing our best to stay optimistic. We survived the night eating salmon (thank you David and Cirkl), and avocado... and sleeping next to a noisy metal shop door. But we laughed and made due, plotted to buy this beautiful 1964 orange mustang and pack it up with our goods and take that across the country. Anyhow, it's 3:43 and I'm pretty sure Pam is mostly fixed up, much cheaper then I'd thought it would cost us, and soon we'll be out on the road again, maybe to the drive in movie theatre here in Barstow, I've always wanted to do that. Now if only my health would be back to 100% then we'd be ready to rock. Thank you everyone for all of your love, and salmon, and goji berries, and building trailers before we left, you rock! I send you my love and hope you are all well, and the weather is a bit less windy where you are.



New stuff....

Two nights ago we stayed at the Mohave national preserve, near Michell Caverns. It was painfully beautiful, vast stretches of desert, and thick plateaus and mountains, all covered in cacti, yucca, and desert brush that are beginning to bloom. It was so lovely. Besides an extremely windy morning and another itchy restless night, we took a tour of the Michell caverns. Our tour guide Daryl was awesome, he'd been doing it for years and was brimming with knowledge and silly cavern jokes, we went inside to mountain and beheld stalactites and stalagmites galore... quite a site! I felt we could have camped there for a least a week, but we were running a bit behind in our plans, so headed out in the afternoon and coasted for 16 miles from the campsite to the hwy..... pretty sweet, and onward... to Arizona. ( Where apparently it's legal to ride a four wheeler on the main road, without a helmet..... there was a cop right behind them, so it must be legal.)

We arrived last night in Prescott AZ, and were thrilled to find multiple health food stores in town. Prescott rocks! This is our measure of how cool a city is, it's Currently I am sitting in a dorm room at Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University, where our dancing friend Carrie goes to school. My hives returned this morning, I'm so bummed. It seemed they had finished yesterday, but no such luck, it's now day 6 of their horrid existence and I may go insane. Perhaps I am allergic to something I'm eating, I am working on it..... they will be gone soon, within the next few minutes I'm sure. I'm off to breakfast, hope y'all are well, much love.

P.S.... I'll add some pictures soon!