A Mindful Life

My husband’s gift to me today, a “Fjellheim” Japanese Maple! I’ve named it Gaia — mother. We bought it locally, and I’m so happy with it! From this: To this: We’ve got much more planting to do, but first we needed to position the tree. This is the north side of the house, and most [...]

Lately we’ve been tending our garden, literally. A year ago we were marching through the process of house inspections and appraisals in order to get the house. When we moved in late May, the early year growing season was well under way. (We pretty much have a year-round growing season, though.) I planted wildflower seeds [...]

I had my surgery Friday. My good neighbor watched Claire all day, and Hub took care of me at the SurgiCenter. PAMF staff continue to provide excellent care. I have relatively little pain, though the 2-inch scar and the deflated area of my breast makes me a little squeamish when I look at it. So [...]

Gas prices have taken off! This made me laugh. I do expect, however, that prices here will reach $5.00 a gallon by mid-2012 at the latest. I’m basing the costs of preschool (and whether to continue commuting to our current one, which is a 34-mile round trip) on this assumption. We shall see!

The climate here is a Mediterranean one, which means near-idyllic conditions. So when weather happens, it becomes a Big Deal. For the past few days a “huge” Arctic storm was destined to come down from Canada. Stop the presses! Cover your water pipes! It might get into the upper 20s! And IT MIGHT SNOW!!!! OMG, [...]

I’ve got to hand it to Palo Alto Medical Foundation. Almost every encounter I have with them is an interaction of efficiency and compassion, from the desk staff to the doctors. Today I had a stereotactic breast biopsy. That’s where you climb onto a table that’s a cross between a massage table and an auto [...]

Some unknown guy created a rap tribute to NPR and other public radio stations. Genuine pleasure. Reminds me to renew my membership!! If embed doesn’t work, here’s a link: NPR Rap.

Tonight’s sunset viewed from our back door.

This song gives me chills every time I hear it. Before I met my husband, I lived on the edge this song describes. (We are incredibly fortunate and grateful for that.) I also used to work with (i.e., provide social services to) people whose lives were rife with the challenges that he sings about. And [...]

The first week of June, Claire and I planted seeds, a heritage seed package stating it was designed to attract butterflies and hummingbirds. We have a lot of hummingbirds around. I haven’t seen many butterflies, but this is the first year we’ve planted. Tonight Claire and I picked some flowers, and here they are. (Oddly, [...]