Sunny Three Rivers

Often in winter when it is cold and gray down the hill, it is sunny in Three Rivers. On a sunny day in mid December, Trail Guy and I took a walk in the foothills of Sequoia National Park.

First, we had to go through a gate.

The whole walk was on a dirt road.

That bump on the left is Moro Rock; next to the right is Alta Peak.

I was going to remember the names of these ridges/peaks, but I already forgot. 

We turned around at Sycamore Creek. It was a short walk.

Those pokey rocks are Castle Rocks. 

If you live down the hill and get tired of the cold and gray, come to Three Rivers in the winter. We don’t have much winter here. Tomorrow I will show you a few more photos of how confusing winter can be here.

Ten Excellent Books I Recently Read

I read a lot. It’s my favorite thing. Always has been. 

The publishing company BookBaby recently posted an interesting (REALLY REALLY INTERESTING TO ME!) article about the different reading habits among 5 generations of Americans. (Turns out that although I am in the Boomers, my fiction preferences match the X-ers and nonfiction match the Silents.)

Salt & Light, or Reading Rabbit, oil on board, 11×14″, Not for sale

I keep track of most of what I’ve been reading on GoodReads, which I joined (it’s free) in 2013 (WHAT??? TEN YEARS AGO??) It is a great place to learn about books, to see what people you follow are reading and what they think about it. (It also has the unthinking quick rude opinions like much of social media, but you can skip that part.)

You can see how other people rate the books and you can also rate them from one to five stars. Because I know how enormously difficult it is to write a book, much less get it published, I have stopped rating books unless I have very strong reasons to give one star or if I really loved it and give it four or five stars. (I am difficult to please, and the fives are few.) 

Here is a list of books that I have rated four or five in the past several months, with links to their descriptions on GoodReads. I don’t think you have to be a member (with yet another dreaded user name and password) in order to see book descriptions.

All of these were library books except for #6.

  1. We are Called to Rise, Laura McBride. This is a novel with complete and believable characters that grabbed me in the heart. It’s one with individual stories of different people who all get tied together at the end.
  2. Kinsey and Me: Stories, Sue Grafton. I loved all the Kinsey books, the alphabetic mystery series with the main character you just wanted to hang out with. Sue died before finishing the alphabet, so I was thrilled to find anything at all that reconnected me with my fictional BFF.
  3. When Your Mother Doesn’t, Jill Kelly. This is another novel that grabbed me in the heart, where you just root for all you are worth for a happy ending. (Read it yourself—I’m not telling!)
  4. Normal Family: On Truth, Love, and How I Met My 35 Siblings, Crysta Bilton. Memoir is my favorite genre of nonfiction, and this is a strange strange story.
  5. How to Think, Alan Jacobs. Well written, thought provoking (duh), little glimpses of humor.
  6. Aging Faithfully, Alice Fryling. This one is deep enough that I had to write notes all throughout and read it twice. I also emailed the author to learn what her number is on the Enneagram (she counsels in this personality typing system) and her age when she wrote it so I could better understand her perspective. She replied! 
  7. The War That Saved My Life, Kimberly Brubaker Bradley. This is a kid’s fiction book (Young Adult?) based during WWII in England. It also has a sequel.
  8. As Bright As Heaven, Susan Meissner. A novel about the flu epidemic of 1918, published in 2018 BEFORE THE CORONA VIRUS! I love Susan Meissner’s novels, almost as much as Maeve Binchy. (Susan is alive and still writing.)
  9. Caroline: Little House Revisited, Sarah Miller. As a kid, I loved and reread Little House books. They were a guaranteed bookish escape when I couldn’t find anything new in the Ivanhoe Library in the kids section. This book shows another side to the Ingalls family adventures and characters, giving a more complete picture of their story. I gave this book 5 stars (but since the hourglass of my life is more empty than full, won’t be rereading it.)
  10. The Happiness Equation: Want Nothing + Do Anything = Have Everything, Neil Pasricha. (This is the man who writes the blog 1000 Awesome Things.) He helps to simplify big thoughts, and the book is full of practical charts that he calls “scribbles” which help you figure out things like how to make fewer decisions. I bought it so that I can write inside.

Do you have any book recommendations for me? Do you want to be “friends” on GoodReads? (Hi Donna. 😎)

An Odd Job Before Christmas

A friend was remodeling an old house, one I have admired for many years. The porch had pillars, and it would have been a terrible waste to put those 100-year-old handmade wooden objects in a dumpster. So, I remembered a friend’s son who likes architectural pieces for his antique store, and then asked my remodeling friend if I could have the pillars to pass along. He agreed.

We loaded them into the pickup, took them home, and learned that the antique guy didn’t want them.

Oh-oh. A pickup full of pillars, needing to be stored? Nope. 

I made a list of things that they could be used for. Then I gave half of the pillars to my very creative neighbor.

The first item on my list needed to be done before Christmas.

I used a few miles of painter’s blue tape, wrapping in a diagonal pattern. Next I covered the pillars with 2 coats of white paint. When I peeled the tape off, it was a little tricky to see where to put the red paint, because the new white paint wasn’t that different from the old white paint.

Remembering that no one was paying me and no one really cared, I painted the red stripes without taping. There was a great deal of covering red wobbly and hairy lines with white paint, and then recovering white wobbly and hairy lines with red. 

 

Because the pillars are actually tapered, a couple of times they fell over while sitting outside to dry.

Finally, we carried one to the abandoned fire hydrant at the bottom of the driveway and dropped it over the pipe. (Trail Guy sawed off the pieces that were in the way so it would fit.) I’ve been wondering for years what to do with that old thing. You can see that the stripes are a bit wobbly and unevenly spaced; this is the result of pantsing the project.

I carried the second one to another neighbor’s house and dropped it over an abandoned address post that lost its numbers several years ago. (We seem to have abandonment issues in our neighborhood.)

 

A List With Links To Six Great Blogs

The past week has been full of random and varied posts, no particular theme. So, I will keep going on this while I wait for my next mural job to become a reality.

Today’s is a gift to you: a list with links to some of my favorite blogs. I don’t subscribe (because who needs more email?) but I just keep the list on the top menu bar of my internet window and check from time to time. 

I didn’t include anything political or faith-based. None of these uses offensive language; a few have ads, which are easy to scroll past. All write with completely original voices, humor, and wisdom.

  1. Marianne Willburn is a gardener and writer with a great way with words, along with subtle funny remarks that you might not even notice. Because she is on the east coast, many of her plants are unfamiliar or unsuited to Central California. She is very personable and has responded both to emails and comments from me. Since she grew up in the foothills of northern California, and we are very close in age, she feels like a friend I haven’t yet met.
  2. 1000 awesome things is written by Neil Pasricha. In order to cope when his life crumbled, he committed to finding something good in life for 1000 days. He has written a few books since; the only one I have read is called The Happiness Equation. These “awesome things” will often make you smile with recognition.
  3. The Frugal Girl is actually a grown woman, not a girl, in her 40s who has returned to school to become a nurse. She is delightfully honest and surprisingly optimistic, with a simple approach to almost everything. I want to hang out with her too.
  4. Raptitude is new to me. I don’t remember how I found it, and I don’t have a solid sense of who is writing it yet. But so far, I’ve found the short articles to be thought-provoking.
  5. Tim Cotton Writes is by a retired policeman in Maine with a great sense of humor, an excellent way with words, and a superb interviewee on, of course, Mike Rowe’s podcast. He has two books, neither one of which is available through the library so I have one on order at Thriftbooks, which I try to use instead of that big place whenever possible.
  6. Deborah Makarios—Old Fashioned Fruitcake is my newest find. I chased her down based on a comment on an article by the aforementioned Marianne Willburn. She lives in New Zealand and has a terrific sense of reality and humor. I think this one will be a keeper! 

I hope you find something here that rings your bell.

And finally, here is a cartoon I stole from the interwebs to share with you. It was too good to not share.

Eight Things Learned in December

  1. Do you know those little squares of scribbles that can be scanned to take you to a website? They are called QR Codes. Do you know that QR means “quick response”? Simple name for weird techie magic.
  2. Central Valley Holocaust Memorial in Bakersfield now has a wall made of 6 million buttons. Read about it here. A friend’s mother-in-law learned about the project and began collecting buttons. The idea is that upcoming generations don’t know about the holocaust, and the number 6,000,000 is just incomprehensible without a visual aid. This photo was taken by my friend of her mother-in-law. (Hi Carol and Fran!)
  3. Instead of simply burying my kitchen waste, I learned a new way of composting. This one uses a vertically buried 8-10″ diameter PVC pipe (about 1 foot tall), randomly drilled with holes. After an undetermined length of time, you end up with worm castings, which are considered gold for the garden. Time will tell.
  4. I experienced inflation in a live and shocking encounter. An 18-pack of eggs was $5.00 in the summer in Visalia, California, while it was still $2.50 in Salem, Oregon. In December, it was $6.78 at Winco in Visalia. And Trail Guy paid $9.99 for a package of 3 romaine lettuce hearts in Three Rivers. Holy guacamole!
  5. Acta is the name of the yearbook for Exeter Union High School. A friend sent me the photo from the 1957 version to ask if I knew where it was taken. I told him it was Vandever, the peak on the right side of Farewell Gap. But it was bothering me, because something was off. When I showed Trail Guy, we both saw it: the photo was flipped horizontally! When I flipped it over, it became the right version. It puzzles me how I was able to recognize it despite the backward orientation.
  6. I puzzled through why so many of my friends don’t read my blog, coming up with the following reasons, all guesses on my part and many overlapping: too busy, non-techie, overloaded with too many other things on their little machines, accustomed to more exciting things, annoyed that the photos don’t show up on their phones, already hear enough from me in person, not interested in art, not interested in Mineral King, they forget I have a blog, don’t know what a blog is, or find it to be boring. I am touched when people actually read it. THANK YOU!
  7. Some friends in Texas have a house in escrow on about 4 acres of land, in something called an “ag extension“. This means they have to do some paperwork about raising “meat animals”, actually raise some of those animals, and then they get their property taxes greatly reduced. So interesting. . . I cannot picture these friends raising anything except children (currently have 4 while planning for numbers 5 and 6), nor can I understand why Texas has such a program. If it were me, I’d raise chickens for the eggs and never be able to kill a single living creature except for some bugs (which I would not eat).
  8. The day before Christmas Eve (sometimes called Christmas Eve Eve) is called Christmas Adam. This makes me smile every time I think about it.

What did you learn in December?

More Truths (Some Borrowed)

At the end of 2021, I posted a list that I called Ten Truths of Life. Since then, I have gathered of a few more, and borrowed a few from Reader Anne, who is both wiser and older (by EXACTLY 5 years I think – we are birthday twins).

  1. You are getting older, and so am I. It is easier to accept it than to pretend it isn’t happening. Go ahead and get injections, peels, colors, eyelashes, etc., but it won’t change the truth.
  2. Old age makes you more of who are you; it would behoove you to work at being a better person right this very minute (yes, You, Cranky-Pants!)
  3. Life is too short to dry dishes or iron jeans or listen to excuses or read poorly written books. 
  4. A question: Why is Standard Time called “standard”, when we are only allowed to enjoy it for 4-1/2 months of the year? That is definitely NOT standard. This is the truth: getting our clocks changed jerks us around and it is NOT pleasant. In general, city folks prefer Daylight Savings Time and rural folks prefer Standard Time.
  5. The truth is always best. Lies just make things harder (and you have to remember what you said so you can tell more lies to keep your story consistent).
  6. Truth is often confused with opinion, so pay attention both to what you are saying and what you are hearing, in order to discern the difference.
  7. The bigger a company is, the more difficult it is to deal with. Think banks, phone companies, electric companies, mega-churches, home improvement stores. . . those giant outfits don’t allow you to talk to real people who can make decisions based on your real problems. (“Your call is very important to us” –NO IT ISN’T SO STOP LYING! “We are currently experiencing a high volume of calls”–NO YOU AREN’T, BECAUSE YOUR ROBOT SAYS THAT EVERY TIME I CALL!) Stay local, deal with manageably sized places whenever possible, and your life will be easier.
  8. Everything is easier said than done. Exception: often it is easier to show than to tell when explaining how to do something.
  9. The only pattern to covid is that there is no pattern—not in contagion, symptoms, length, lethality, avoidance, treatment, incubation period—nothing. Get used to it because it is here to stay.

  10. Change is inevitable; sometimes it involves loss and other times it involves added complications. If we accept it gracefully rather than fight it, life will be smoother for all involved. So when your favorite jeans are no longer available, find another style or brand. When your familiar computer functions get “upgraded”, learn the new methods quickly or just dump that function. When your favorite employees at a favorite store leave, get to know the new people. When a plant dies in your yard, plant a new one. When you lose a cat, get another. Better yet, get 2 more, or even a whole litter of kittens. (Pippin is just fine, thanks for your concern. So are Tuck the Dripper and Jackson the Biter.)

Primarily Speaking


The primary colors are red, yellow, and blue. I paint with 2 versions of each of these three colors plus white.

Some say white is the absence of color, some say it is the sum of all color, some claim it is not a color. Doesn’t matter – it is impossible to mix colors without it.

The primaries keep appearing in my life. Early in my painting career, I took half a semester of painting at College of the Sequoias. We were given the assignment to copy one of the old masters. I chose Vermeer, and later realized the primaries figured in large in the painting.

I liked painting this so much that I painted another one.

Salt & Light, or Reading Rabbit, oil on board, 11x14"
Salt & Light, or Reading Rabbit, oil on board, 11×14″

Our next assignment was a still life, and I brought these items. Still life paintings usually consist of things like a vase, a lemon, a rose, and maybe a skull. No thanks.

primaries

I noticed these gas cans while walking through a town in Alaska.

My flower pots often end up with primary colors without planning. Now I do it on purpose, but it used to just happen subconsciously.

Recently, the primaries plus white appeared in my yard. Apparently in addition to liking the primary colors, we like to sit.

2023 calendars, Mineral King HIKES, all sold out.

We Took a Stroll On Christmas Day

To the tune of “I Heard the Bells”

We took a stroll on Christmas Day,

So many things along the way,

Blue sky was strong,

But slightly wrong,

I thought this was a winter day.

We took a stroll on Christmas Day,

The same familiar route, our way,

The temps were sweet,

The sun a treat,

For rain and snow we all must pray.

We took a stroll on Christmas Day,

We walked an old familiar way,

But down the hill,

A foggy chill,

Three Rivers is above the gray.

We took a stroll on Christmas Day

We didn’t walk far, a shortish stray,

The grass was green,

The air so clean,

Then we strolled home again to stay.

 

BUT WAIT! THERE’S MORE! (photos)

 

Happy Christmas, and if you are in the fog, please enjoy the Three Rivers sunshine vicariously. 

 

Looking For Color While Two Shades Under

A friend’s dad once described himself as being “two shades under” when he wasn’t fully recovered from some bug. 

While I wasn’t fully recovered from my bug, I felt good enough to briefly toodle around the yard, enjoying some color, some sunshine, some outdoors with tiny hints of green popping forth. Although it was mostly red that I was seeking, it was the green that I found the most life-giving. 

That sounds all woowoo. What I mean is that I love seeing Three Rivers green instead of crunchy brown and dusty.

 

Then I went back inside and created my own bright spots of color. These were 2 small paintings begun last year, set aside, and forgotten. Worked just fine to set up in the dining area of the house and put in a few hours of productive labor.

Of course it must be said that these will look better when dry and scanned, and even better in person. They are each a 5×7″ panel that will be sold with a mini wooden easel for $60 (yeah, yeah, plus tax, sorry, take it up with Sacramento).