Under a Blue Moon

Excuse the picture quality in this post.  My camera batteries have pooped out and I'm using my cell phone to take pictures.

When we first moved up here it was quite an adjustment from moving from a suburban neighborhood to a more rural place.  We went from a 1/4 acre, landscaped lot to five acres of trees and wildlife. 

Any window you look out from here you see an ocean of trees.  Oaks, pines, maples, cedars, cottonwoods to name a few. 

Instead of a patio we have a big deck that goes around two sides of the house.  When we first moved up here it was shaded with trees that were planted close by.  One of them was a gorgeous dogwood tree. 

The second year we lived here we had a wildfire that started from someone tossing a cigarette out their car window on the freeway about five miles away.  It came to within a half mile of our house and they had closed the roads so I was home alone with the cat and the dog (which I locked in a bedroom in case we had to evacuate. I didn't want to have to search for them).  I turned on all the sprinklers around the house and stood on the deck with the hose in my hand.  There were firefighting planes flying low overhead dumping retardant.

I don't think I have ever felt so anxious in my life.  Rick managed to get through the road blocks to get home but for a few hours there I felt like it might be touch and go and I'd have to round up the animals, the family photos and make my escape.

Afterwards we cut down all the trees that were close to the deck, creating a defensible space.  We actually spared the dogwood even though it is right up against the deck but because it wasn't shaded by the other trees it suffered from sun burn and we eventually had to cut it down.

Well darned if it hasn't come back.  Determined thing, isn't it?  It is about shrub sized now and adds a nice spot of color in the sea of green that is our yard.  The pink blossoms do fade to white after a while but right now they are a glowy pink.

I think Spring is trying to make a come-back.  There is a bit of sunshine peeking out from behind the clouds. 

I bought some plants and hopefully the rain will hold off so I can get them planted.  I am sticking with my pastel color scheme.  I just buy whatever pale pink, pale yellow, pale lavendar flowers I can find.  It's like a treasure hunt around here because all the nurseries seem to want to stock are obnoxiously bright oranges, reds and purples.

 

Here they are, just waiting to be planted.  
 

(my dad's backyard on Easter)
 

I was tagged by the lovely Mimi from French Kitchen in America.  Mimi was one of the first people to encourange me when I started my blog.  If you want some French inspiration go visit her blog.  Her travelogue and food memoirs will make you book a flight and pack your bags.

Now I'm pretty much an open book so this was a hard one for me but here goes:

Here are the seven things you probably have not guessed:

I have a competitive streak.  I don't like playing games because I don't like how I get when I play them. 

I used to have dyslexia.  If you look closely at the mailbox at my Dad's you can see where I wrote my name backwards when I was five.

I used to speak German fluently and would even speak in German in my sleep.  In fact I took four languages in High School: German, French, Spanish and English (yes I am counting English).

I rode my bike around the coast of Ireland when I was 14 years old. 

When I was three I decided I was going to get married at the Stanford Chapel.  When I was seven I decided I was going to marry a man named Rick.  I did both those things (Note:  It wasn't a particular man named Rick that I was going to marry – just the man I would marry would have the name Rick.  There was a dreamy lifeguard at the local swimming pool named Rick and I thought he had the most perfect name). 

I can't eat garlic.  I'll spare you the details.

When I was little I thought I was a princess.  A real, bonafide, crown-wearing princess.  I was sure that my real parents, the King and the Queen, had just dropped me off with this other family and would be along any day to pick me up.  There was no reason for me to be disastified with my real family (the non-royal one) except maybe being one of five daughters made me long for the relative peace and quiet of being an only child, and why not be royalty while I was at it?

There you have it.  I'm a German-speaking, bike riding Irish Princess that reads backwards and can't eat garlic, married to a man named Rick.  And I'll beat you at Trivial Pursuit if you ever ask me to play with you.