On our sailing trip this weekend, we encountered a huge pod of dolphins and they were in the mood to play and show off. The pod was huge – it spread out for at least a few miles, but some of them were riding along with our boat and racing with us. We had NO WIND, and so we were motoring at the time. I didn’t keep the camera running very long, but here you can see some of them as they swam along with our boat (note: I am not a pro, so the video is definitely amateurish).
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Last weekend, we continued our school work to become sailors and this was our 104 Bareboat Charter course. The intent of this class is to give us the learning and confidence to rent a bareboat (a boat without provisions, i.e., food, water, and fuel, etc.) and chart a course to a destination, get there (not somewhere else), anchor safely, then chart a course back and arrive without crashing.
Side note: my guy wakes up the first morning after sleeping on the boat and he’s brushing his teeth and humming the theme to Gilligan’s Island. He’s so funny. He hums Christmas songs in December too.
The weather for our weekend looked perfect and it was a big fat liar:
We had to travel the entire way across the channel, including through the shipping lanes, in fog. Not super dense fog, but cold, wet, dreary fog. It wasn’t perfectly horrible, after all we were on a boat and technically playing, but it wasn’t much fun. I was also very seasick. I had taken the seasick pills the night before and in the morning – a trick from our instructor who also gets terribly seasick on mono-hull boats, i.e., not catamarans – and yet, I was ill. I was cold, damp, and seasick. Not a good combo.
A short recap of what we did/saw throughout the weekend:
Once we arrived, there was little fog on the island. In fact, the island sort of emerged from the fog as we got closer. Eerie effect in movies – even more eerie when you see it for yourself.
We anchored at Pelican Bay, which is a very deep bay and really not big. There are no mooring balls, so you have to anchor out. There were tons of seals playing in the bay, swirling all around the boats. Here’s a picture of part of the bay.
Once we arrived, and got both anchors set, Steve and our instructor – Captain Larry – had a glass of wine. I stuck with a diet coke, trying to finally settle my stomach. Then, Steve and I took the dinghy around to another bay around the corner and tied it off and went ashore to see what we could see. I didn’t take my camera (sorry!).
Then, it was time for some snacks. Captain Larry likes to quiz you and we really worked him with questions, but at the end of the day, Captain Larry says, it’s good to remember why you’re doing all this work.
It’s so you can get yourself to lovely quiet natural places and enjoy life!
A photo of the galley – after we cleaned up:
It’s a tiny space, but you have everything you need. It sure makes the tiny kitchen in my tiny house look big.
We slept and woke to more light fog rolling around in the bay with us and the seals came out to play too.
The fog burned off a little while later as we charted our course for Santa Barbara, but we had no wind so we were motoring it again. Steve took us out of the bay.
On the way back, we encountered a ship in the shipping lane – a big one.
We steered clear and after the ship passed, we saw a huge dolphin pod. There were dolphins everywhere and Captain Larry told us to go to the bow with our cameras and he would get us closer. He took the helm and we got pictures of the dolphins – you can see his reflection in the water and a big splash farther in the distance. (hey, I’m no nature photographer).
I’ll post the video we took tomorrow.
At the end of the weekend: Steve’s super good at the charting, but I really struggled with it and I need more practice. I also struggled with the calculation of fuel consumption, but we passed the course. It was a lot harder than the other classes and taking the test at the end of the day after all the work and the sun and wind … we got home super exhausted.
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At open knitting a couple of weeks ago, I saw a lovely long cowl on the wall and so wanted to try it. Celeste of the Loop and Leaf let me try it on and it’s stretchy and loose so you can twist it and put a second layer over your neck, or leave it loose.
I don’t usually like longer things hanging in front of me – years of small children taught me that loose, hanging things get caught on snaps, hair pins, and jumper buckles, etc. I loved the wrapped version of it though. It was light and pretty but warm enough for warmer Santa Barbara weather.
So, I bought two cones of the very thin yarn – my first time buying yarn cones – and cast it on.
Essentially, this is the pattern:
In open knitting last week, another knitter suggested adding beads, and I thought that a fabulous idea. I knew I had the perfect purple-mauve colored beads at home and so I dug them out along with a little tin lock box and my teeny-tiny crochet hook.
It’s coming along nicely. It’s an easy mindless knit and I’m putting no pressure on myself for bead accuracy and counting – simply adding the beads ad-hoc a few times during a row, then knitting a row or two before adding another three or four beads. These are really long rows, so the beads won’t be frequent, just little surprises here and there, but when the cowl is twisted and wrapped, they should display nicely.
Right now, of course, it has the look of messy, twisty lace but I’m assured that blocking this will make all the difference. The stitch construction is very loose, so it should look kind of frothy. Will post more as it gets done.
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Our kitties have almost never gone outside. In Colorado, we lived in an area frequented by coyotes who were ballsy enough to trot across the yard in broad daylight! We lost a few of our kitties when they managed to get outside, and so we long ago learned that kitties stay inside.
In our new place, however, the yard is completely fenced and while there are coyotes (we heard them howling in response to a siren just last night), there’s very little chance of them getting into the yard as we’re surrounded by a fence and on nearly every side there is a dog. The hawks we counter by staying outside with the kitties on their outdoor adventures and these are definitely adventures for these two spoiled people. It took Max weeks before he would step on the grass. It must have felt very foreign to him. Emily was braver, but then she tends to be more curious than he is and surer of getting herself out of a jam. Of course, she’s also the one who can climb a tree or a fence, so we have to keep a close eye on her.
At first, I worried that the birds would abandon their feeder in the back yard, but it turns out they like to circle in the air and chirp from the trees at the kitties. It’s all quite noisy normally – lovely summer time sounds – and it gets to raucous levels when the kitties go outside.
My daughter asked for a video, so here you go. It cuts off sharply because the battery ran out!
After an outdoor adventure, they prefer tamer pursuits like napping belly up in the sun on the soft carpet.
And hiding in the curtains
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I was at open knitting last night and I heard the news. I can’t believe it – it was such a good idea and so well attended and so talked about! I was already budgeting for the 2014 summit and I find out there will be no more Sock Summits. I can’t imagine the reasons – I’m sure they must be good, but dang. That was The Best knitting event – ever. I feel like the wind has been knocked out of me, dammit.
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So, my first weekend back home from Colorado we went sailing and there was a big cruise ship in the harbor.
Of course, everyone was paddling and sailing out to check it out …
… and the people on the cruise ship were taking these small fast boats into town and stopping by the seal buoy (sorry for the fuzzy picture – everything was moving).
Here I am – looking all concerned for some reason.
And these guys couldn’t be the least bit concerned.
Of course, it’s full on spring here and things are blooming in weird, unfamiliar ways. For example, what the heck is this tree doing sprouting red flowers that look like firecrackers?
Notice, there are no leaves on the tree, just these red firecracker looking blossoms:
Looks like a Dr. Suess tree if I ever saw one.
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My kids and husband laugh at me for this, but heck, it works and it works well. This arrived today:
A box of dirty clothes and shoes (plus some spices I wouldn’t need immediately after returning).
You see, when I travel some places I do more shopping than I might otherwise. Either way, who wants to come home and start doing all that laundry immediately? After all, if you’re like me and you left a person behind (we shall not name who), that person may or may not have the same cleaning standards as you do. While the house hasn’t burned down and the dishes aren’t piled in the sink too deep, it’s just not quite as clean as I’d like it and part of coming home and nesting again is about getting things fresh and clean after all. So, I’ve got to sleep, catch up on email, pet the kitties who were certain I’d never ever return again, and clean house … all that plus laundry is too much.
So, if I can’t do laundry while I’m traveling, I ship the dirty stuff home.
I needed those warm shoes in Colorado, after all, but I sure as hell wasn’t wearing them back to sunny California just to save space in my suitcase. So, I shipped the cold-weather shoes and wore my flip flops home. I also sent all my smelly workout clothes and dirty socks and the jeans I’d worn all week.
I am thinking that from now on I should carry one of those big plastic mailing bags you can get at the post office and drop dirty laundry in it until it’s full. Then, mail it home and continue having fun.
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After playing around in northern Colorado for a few days, I headed south to see my daughter, friends, the knitting club and enjoy the Springs again. The first thing I did was head straight for Garden of the Gods.
The red rocks!
The jutting towers!
Gorgeous!
I walked with my daughter around and around to warm up and to burn off the energy from sitting too long and not having a workout. We walked fast and talked until we were burned out and hungry.
It was just last year when I signed all the papers to sell our house and head West only to watch Colorado begin to burn with some of the worst fires they had ever seen. My daughter said she was glad I had visited now and not earlier because the devastation was worse – you can see the bald mountain in this picture.
All the trees look like burnt skeletons up there. Simply horrible to think of and worse to look at, but Colorado will recover. Nature has a way of clearing up the mess we make as humans and spring is coming.
The next morning I woke to this lovely scene outside my window.
What more could a girl ask for? I lovely soft falling spring-time snow to soothe the soul. It was perfect. In true Colorado spring style, it melted off the roads quickly and everything was just fine.
The rest of the day was tea with a friend, lunch with more friends, dinner and more walking with my daughter, and then knitting with my old knitting group who also fed me! Just what a lonely refugee needed – lots of hugs and welcome smiles.
While the snow had melted, it still gets cold overnight and so the fountain in front of the Cliff House was artistically frozen.
All the while, the flowers are pushing their way bravely through the snow and the mulch to emerge for Spring.
This is Springtime in the Rockies and I’m so glad I got to see it once again.
When I landed in California, it was nice to be warm again. That is one thing I’ve been surprised to find I like. I don’t like to be hot – that’s for certain – but being warm is a treat. The weather here in the central coast is mostly great except for the days upon days of rain we get occasionally.
Seeing Colorado again, I realized once more that winter lasts a long time there. Depending on how you feel about it, it can last a little too long. It was brown and barren when I visited, but you could see signs of spring. Summer in Colorado simply can’t be beat, but I have to say I’m finally warming up to some of the features we have here. Something is always blooming – that’s a treat.
Tomorrow, we hope to go sailing and get back to our California life. My guy is going snorkeling today – snorkeling in that cold water! I said no thanks but will reserve judgement for when he gets back. We’ll see if he liked it. Kinda hard to think of snorkeling when I was just throwing snowballs last week.
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Last week I visited Colorado and as I write that and think about it, it was and is hard not to say “I went home”. I may have talked about this in the past, but ‘home’ is a tricky subject for me. For a long time, home was where my parents were, but then they moved I think 6 times since I left that home and moved out on my own. Then, for a long time, home was where my girls and hubby were, but now we’re all scattered apart. Now, home is where I am with my hubby and the kitties and that’s also a confused thing because I never wanted to live here and certainly not in this specific location, so home is a tricky subject.
So, how did it feel to visit my old home of Colorado?
It was good to see it with fresh eyes. After all, when you love a place and love it hard and then leave it, you come back with a different perspective. After getting off the plane and finding my rental car, I got my first look at the Rockies again.
I burst into tears and had to pull over to cry for a bit. Got myself pulled together again and kept driving north. Later that weekend, my family took me into Estes Park, which is one of my favorite places in the world.
There’d been snow in the past week – luckily, it had melted off the roads and I’m sure it was all for me because I didn’t have my big four-wheel drive with me and would have been completely scared out of my mind driving on the roads without it, but I got lucky. We saw little trout in the stream.
And geraniums in the windows – it’s the only way to enjoy flowers about 9 months out of the year here.
We had ice cream even though it was cold and snowy outside. You’ve heard the statistics, right? More ice cream is consumed in the colder months than in warmer months. Ice cream is the best when you’re outside in the cold. I wonder if the Californians know this?
We threw snowballs into the creek and at trees to enjoy the big poof! We drove through Rocky Mountain National Park to see the gorgeous views.
Pictures taken from the car because it was cold and starting to snow again.
It was beautiful in a haunted and snowy way. I’ve always found this area breathtakingly beautiful. You just can’t get vistas like these everywhere.
The next day, I headed south to Colorado Springs … more coming soon.
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So, 10 minutes from our new house, you can walk (if you need lots of exercise), or bike, or drive and park to get to this walk along the ocean.
Those yellow flowering succulent-looking things are ice plant, and those of you from back home may recognize it. It’s super hardy and a great ground cover particularly where you are experiencing erosion. This stuff digs in and hangs on. It’s also horribly invasive, so don’t plant it unless that’s the only thing you want in a particular area. We also found pink and purple blooming ice plant later in our walk.
After we cross a mesa, we can turn down any number of paths to get to the ocean. If the tide is high, we have to walk farther to get to a beach, but in lower tide we can head right down to the sand and water.
It still amazes me that this is the Pacific ocean in nearly my back yard.
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