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!