Bharat Mata Ki Jai

Safe arrival. More to follow!

DARLING FRIENDS

We gathered at Ginny Lu's house for a farewell/birthday dinner on Sunday night.  What a gang of sweethearts!  Much laughter and joyous eating.

ME AND MY DARLING BOY

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Vance and I together at Beth's house, last Thanksgiving (2010).  I still had my old glasses then.  She and I both have blue kitchens by curious coincidence.   In previous blog, Beth and Marshall. Note: I tried to crop and save this picture, but I could only import the original.  Anyone have any ideas about how to revise this (how to crop the picture and reinstall it in blog)?

LEAVING ORCAS

Gulp!  I will miss Vance and our little home. Tonight I take the ferry to San Juan where I will stay with stepdaughter Beth and her husband Marshall.  I'll take a ferry at 5:30 a.m. to connect me to a shuttle to the airport.  After we dock at Anacortes it's another two hours to Seattle.  Then fly to Frankfurt.  A short layover before boarding another flight to Chennai.  Expected Time of Arrival is 12:30 a.m., January 30. Not an interesting blog, but so many have asked about these details, I thought it best to incorporate them here.

CHAOS of PACKING

Three short sleeves, three long sleeves, everything must cover the behind, pants or long skirts, bathing suits...yoga clothing, two different climates.  Long underwear, hiking boots for the north.  Trekking poles haven't got here yet.  Where is my old one?  Better an old cranky one than none. All the SUPPLEMENTS.  They keep my joints and brain from falling apart. Can't find the hose for the water filter device.  Feeling inept.  Does anyone else have trouble packing for a long and complicated trip? Not really feeling good about the I Pod Touch today.  Praying I run into a congenial person while traveling who will straighten me out. Of course it won't do me much good at all if I can't recharge it somehow.  So maybe I'll take a book or two.  Just in case.  Oh dear.  Too much stuff already!!!  HELP!!!!!

COUNTDOWN TO INDIA

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This is the Red Fort in Agra, near New Delhi.  I first visited it in 1972.  It will be amazing to see it again.

Beautiful child!

Driving rain. Finally arrived at Ashby house O
4 o'clock or so.

Soon after the people began to arrive and the glorious child is here.

DESIGNING A MAGICAL NECKLACE

A friend gave me some interesting pieces to put together along with things in my stash to make a necklace especially for her.  The items include a Tibetan Buddhist vajra amulet and a number of gold sand dollars gleaned from a bracelet that once belonged to a relative.  I'm putting this together with a variety of other meaningful items to make a very long necklace (about 40") and listening to "The Deathly Hallows" while working.  Will post a picture of the completed piece.

COMPUTERS!!!!

Rick Boucher has been helping me to set up a network between my devices, and is showing me how to do my blog a bit better.  Worth every penny.  Stuff is beginning to work (except possibly my brain).

Beautiful snowfall at Rosario and all over the island.  But rain has washed it all away.

ANOTHER SNOWY DAY

Last weekend I performed for the Eagle Festival in Concrete, Washington. THis was my first festival performance in a while.  I was nervous, but not unduly so.  I brought two musicians with me and we wove the story with music and went on for two hours without a break to an utterly rapt audience.  We had never rehearsed the whole thing in toto (just blocked it out).  Nice experience and we will all be paid; they put us up in a fantastic cabin out in the woods.  We each had our own bedroom and bath with a great common room and well-stocked kitchen. Views of forest and river and mountains (though mostly it was snowing and they couldn't be seen).I brought wine and wine glasses and treats, so afterwards we had a great party--just the three of us--talking about religion, art, conservation and ecology, and future programming. I had no problems with my memory or energy in doing this program [I had practised ahead of time, of course].  We all had a lot of fun. The Subaru drove me home without a hitch, despite an ice storm in Mount Vernon.

I can see a cat outside the window who is a twin to our late cat, Minou.  I called Minou's name through the glass, and I know her look-alike heard.  I could see her looking about.  But it is good not to have a cat because songbirds are having such a tough time. We are feeding so many birds now--we have two galvanized garbage cans full of bird food on our porch, and we feed them every day.  I get suet every week from the butcher.  It feels right to do that, but I miss having a purry-furry-feline in my lap as I read on cold winter nights.

A huge number of geese just flew by, honking like mad while flapping.  They say if you can still talk while exercising you're not overdoing.  So as magnificent as I find their achievement, I guess it's all in a day's work for them.
I will leave for India in 15 days!