A Contemplative Life

Lately we've had loads of sunshine on the North Coast of California, as though the marine layer is being pulled in the opposite direction by some magical force for which I am quite grateful, lol. My husband isn't as pleased, but of course it is July and even here in Humboldt County occasionally warm temps creep along the shore, muscling that marine layer well off to sea. Having said all that, I still like draping a quilt over my lap when I sit in my chair early in the morning, hehehe. Right now I'm using my lightest weight cozy, pictured above. I made it in 2015, after my dad died, and I call it the Dadland Flag. Not sure from where that name emerged, but it stuck, and still sticks, and recently he would have turned eighty-two, dude! I can't honestly fathom him being that old, though he was looking pretty aged not long before he passed. His wasn't an easy life, and many of those potholes were of his own making, but he did reach seventy, which at the time I almost co...

The hens from days ago, before Gigi became super broody. Photo courtesy of my husband. The latest from here.... The sun is shining as though all those days of cloud never existed. Gigi is VERY BROODY, having picked her chest feathers down to her skin.  Our world is in turmoil. But the sun is still shining! I had a very apt entry going through my head first thing this morning of how to tie these things together in a very meaningful way. Now it's murky, though the sun is still blazing. The sun was blazing during all those gray days, I merely couldn't see the brightness, though the days were lengthy. The cloud was pervasive, but couldn't derail the trek toward the summer solstice. And now it's like those days in late April and early May never happened. Those fires in the fireplace? Nah! It's so bright out, blue sky and no clouds. NO CLOUDS. Seriously? Yup. The last few days in Humboldt County have been CLOUDLESS. Now I remember where I was going with that thread. Our w...

From a couple of days ago, snapped not far from the coop. Camilla to the left, Owl in center front, nearly all the rest in the background; oh my sweet chickens! Not a 4-H club, but certainly a 3-H association. Gigi has abandoned her broody ways, THANK YOU JESUS! Ruthie, also starting to be known as Buttercup, remains a mostly cheery sort. The rest are enjoying a slightly wet day, and I am grateful they are as low-key as chickens could be. Broody duo notwithstanding, ahem. I guess this is a chicken post. Ah chickens.... They had a marvelous weekend putzing around mainly in the sun, though yesterday mid-afternoon the clouds thickened up, signaling the storm now drizzling water on our North Coast corner of the world. Two nights ago my husband found Gigi in a nesting box, but to our amazement she plopped out of it of her own accord, then slowly wandered toward the steps of the roost, hopping up to the wall, finding a space for sleep. Last night she didn't even enter a nesting box, cont...

Yesterday morning I woke with a rather SORE right shoulder. A pinched nerve kind of shoulder. Sigh.... So the Rainbow quilt has been folded and taken to the office, where it will stay for the next week or two. No hand stitching of any kind for a while, as I let the upper right side of my neck and shoulder rest. It's a drag, but there's worse things in life. Like having a special supper with several friends while fully aware one is going to betray you so viciously, yet there's not a dang thing you can do to prevent it, IF you want the best outcome for everyone else. Hence today is Maundy Thursday, the day when a couple thousand years ago Christ ate the Last Supper with his disciples. So yeah, not hand-sewing for ten days or more is a bummer, but again, not the end of the world. So few safety pins left to remove! My poor hubby is actually in worse shape than me; his back has been iffy for days, then yesterday he lifted something heavy and.... A muscle relaxer has helped, so w...

Quilt is coming along and Ruthie wasn't still in a nesting box tonight! I had wanted to title this post Almost done , but that's just not applicable. I can't sew for hours like previously, and not every night either. I'll sit with this again on Thursday, then put it away for a few days, as family is visiting for Easter! Yet, this beautiful rainbow quilt has definitely turned a corner. One of the perks of going round and round from the perimeter inwards is that every row gets shorter and shorter and shorter. Slowly, of course, but little by little.... I've been threading six needles per session, but this evening I probably used eight or nine, and my shoulder feels it, lol. Thankfully my right thumb is fine; it's been bothering me in addition to my shoulder. As sixty years old gets closer, I'm truly starting to notice changes in my body that weren't there previously. Moving on from that, Ruthie the broody hen also made progress tonight, putting herself on ...

Hens in the garden; the Broody hen condo, also known as the dog run, is to the upper left of the photo, taken on 17 March 2026.  Ruthie Chicken is again broody. She spent the morning in the Broody Hen condo, then was good to be outside for a few hours. She took a twenty-five minute dustbath, not that I'm keeping tabs on her, but I am, lol. She's still laying eggs, so until she either 1) Stops laying or 2) Stops being broody we are allowing her time in the nesting boxes. She prefers box #1, but will use box #3 if #1 is taken. Today is Palm Sunday. Holy Week begins tomorrow. Those are sentences; the meanings behind them are significant to me. I have several Scripture readings for the upcoming days, time to ponder all that Holy Week entails. Today Christ entered Jerusalem as victorious.  By Thursday he's celebrating Passover with the disciples, fully aware that Judas will betray him before the day ends. What does this mean for us today? A man's death, violent and cruel. Fo...

And LOADS of other musings like aging and chickens and writing, lol.  On Wednesday, although it feels like AGES ago, I snapped pics of the latest round on the medallion quilt. Later that day I chose the border fabric, then many other items landed on my proverbial plate, a chapter of my new novel completed being one of them, WOO HOO. I left the clouds at the top of this shot because they are quite indicative of the colouring of the quilt, winterish and such. Maybe tomorrow I'll cut the border fabric and truly get this top or back DONE. But there's been no time until now to write about that pretty quilt, or the broody chicken Gigi, who as of this writing has yet to lay an egg today, although she did lay late yesterday afternoon. She's definitely broody, spent some time in the broody hen condo until my husband felt sorry for her and took her into the garden. He let Camilla in too, then other hens, then everyone was shooed out, and Gigi found her way back to the coop. Tomorrow ...

Ruthie the Barnevelder hen. A not so broody hen notwithstanding.... First an update about that hen. Ruthie is now her name, as now I can tell apart the triplets, whew! Their combs tell the tale; Ruthie has a very small comb (and wattles), while Gigi has the largest. Icey is the third, and her name is made from the initials IC, which stand for irregular comb, as Icey's comb has an odd spike in the center. Fortunately Ruthie has been a well-behaved hen for two days now, and *HOPEFULLY* that spate of broodiness won't be revisited anytime soon. Now, about that novel.... I am still pondering how I can be ever so blessed to craft stories, especially after not writing a complete manuscript for over, ahem, two years! I finished Home and Far Away in mid December 2023, then wrote a quarter of The Enran Chronicles Book Five last June. Yet that incomplete manuscript, while not haunting, remains unfinished. The book I began today is a standalone (WOO HOO, lol...) about miracles. And it ki...

  Miss Broody Hen 2026....   What's been going on lately as I returned home from Silicon Valley.... So much to say, but only forty-six minutes to write before I check on Broody Hen. One of the Barnevelder Triplets has decided to go mildly broody; she doesn't try to bite, though she does growl if approached in her nesting box. She has plucked many feathers, but not down to her actual skin. And when removed from her box, placed in the Broody Hen Condo for an hour, then finding a way to escape she doesn't immediately race back to the coop. She hung out with her sisters, scratching through gravel and dirt near the coop as rain softly began to fall. Then the rain came down hard and I went inside and she went back to the coop, dang chicken! This is our first rodeo with a broody hen. She started this instinctual hoo haa on Friday, hanging out in a nesting box all afternoon. And evening. And sleeping there until at some point on Saturday, the day I drove home, she came out of the b...