Felled Trees

It seems like little has changed here at home.

Other than a pile of packages waiting on my return.

which actually looks a lot worse than it is. Being gone for almost 7 weeks means that a couple of my “whatever of the month” memberships had two deliveries each, a number of journals which I get in hard copy are in the pile, two mystery boxes, and finally a number of presents for various people which I have been waiting on for anywhere from a week to almost a year.

I cleaned up that pile, and Noah took all the recycling out for me. I unpacked my suitcase, backpack and ventured upstairs to find that I had left my craft room at least partly organized.

Now, on to the trees. What isn’t common knowledge outside of my local area is that some “brilliant” person back in the 1920s imported eucalyptus trees and planted them all over the Berkeley Hills. The positive is that they are fast growing and provide a lot of cover. The stupid side is that they are incredibly flammable, and will rapidly imitate a torch should they catch on fire. This is a drought area…. For the last several years, the city has been encouraging people to clear out deadfall, brush, and the eucalyptus trees in an attempt to improve fire safety.

We have neighbors on the street above us, just on the other side of the city stairs who are tackling their trees. These suckers are large and are being chain-sawed out in pieces. Those pieces, for whatever reason, are being stacked on Euclid between our garage and driveway. I have a feeling that the tree-removal people just don’t want to deal with the narrowness of  the uppers streets where the house is actually located.

But this is what greeted me…

Those rounds are not quite a meter across. They are heavy. As it turns out, the wood is hard and resistant to most of our local insects… Noah is contemplating side tables and cutting boards. I am thinking wooden plates from one of the “smaller” branches. We might have just tucked a few bits away in the garage.

And finally – I am back to working on Royal Garden by Fox & Rabbit. I finished the section for March which was just those last couple of floral segments

then moved on to April’s section which I would really like to have done before May drops. I managed to make a dent in the 3k worth of stitches..

and when I finally finish this large motif there are three smaller ones to go….

 

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About Holly

fiber person - knitter, spinner, weaver who spent 33 years being a military officer to fund the above. And home. And family. Sewing and quilting projects are also in the stash. After living again in Heidelberg after retiring (finally) from the U.S. Army May 2011, we moved to the US ~ Dec 2015. Something about being over 65 and access to health care. It also might have had to do with finding a buyer for our house. Allegedly this will provide me a home base in the same country as our four adult children, all of whom I adore, so that I can drive them totally insane. Considerations of time to knit down the stash…(right, and if you believe that…) and spin and .... There is now actually enough time to do a bit of consulting, editing. Even more amazing - we have only one household again. As long as everyone understands that I still, 40 years into our marriage, don't do kitchens or bathrooms. For that matter, not being a golden retriever, I don't do slippers or newspapers either. I don’t miss either the military or full-time clinical practice. Limiting my public health/travel med/consulting and lecturing to “when I feel like it” has let me happily spend my pension cruising, stash enhancing (oops), arguing with the DH about where we are going to travel next and book buying. Life is good!
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