The View from Rockriver Hill

Dear Readers,  This will be my last blog post for a few months.  Hughes Baby #4 should be due sometime in June and I can already feel the weariness in my body calling me to rest more and wait patiently for my new little one.  I plan to pick the blog back up again in August, and switch to a weekly update instead of twice weekly. Thank to so many of you who have told me how much you enjoy reading my blog posts. The fact that you take time to read the snippets I post on here means more than you know.  But for today, I present my final blog post for May: The Sunflower Jungle  Sunflowers are my kind of flowers. Sunflowers are easy to grow, cheerful, impressive, drought-resistant, and bird-friendly. My Grandfather Blackwell grew them every year and not a year goes by that I don’t think of him when the sunflowers grow tall. This year, we planted nearly 50 sunflower seeds. For some reason, (perhaps having to do with the “help” of my 4-year-old, or perhaps having to...

       Imagine that you are three years old. You are sitting in your backyard pouring dirt from a spoon into a blue plastic pail, watching the light catch on the shiny flakes in the dirt. An ant wanders near your purple Velcro sneakers. But not just any ant! This ant is larger than most, and its body seems to be covered in white, fluffy fur. Unlike most creatures you have tried to befriend, this one is moving slowly, as if it has nothing in the world to fear. Perhaps it is waiting for a friend to pick it up, pet it, and play with it.                 You consider vaguely that your mother has told you not to pet the fluffy ants. There was some pressing reason she did not want you to touch them. But even for all her words, you often misunderstand her; perhaps this is one of those times?   Surely there could be nothing wrong with gently, ever so gently, stroking that soft, white fur. ...

Cat On a....Well, You Know.    The rain barrels are dry.   We keep hearing the word, “drought,” in the news. I’ve heard that word so many times in my lifetime living in California that I wonder why we keep calling it a “drought,” and don’t just call it, “the way things are here.” Miniature Yellow Roses- Not Native This is the season when my garden starts to look weary, and a small percentage of plants which I planted hopefully in March and April will begin to die, especially non-native plants like the strawberries, the lemon trees, and my miniature rose bushes.  Aloe Vera Blossoms  A better gardener might be able to keep them alive. I am not that gardener. The agaves, aloes, cacti, hot-weather succulents and other desert plants will stubbornly survive and continue to propagate faster than I can transplant them and give them away. Harmless Garter Snake       Snake season continues upon us, and wildfire season looms its terrifying, red-hot he...

  We adopted a new kitten a few weeks ago. Bluelight is friendly, sweet, and social, with shiny black fur and bright green-blue eyes. When we first got her, Bluelight had a few scaly patches on her nose and ears that made me wonder if there was something wrong. She was also a little scabby on her belly and tail, and I hoped that with good care and good nutrition, those issues would resolve themselves. 2 ½ weeks after we adopted her, the first white and red circular mark appeared on my 4-Year-Old’s arm.   “If I didn’t know better,” I thought to myself, “I’d think that was ringworm.” A quick google images search confirmed my worst fears. It was indeed ringworm. And, according to the articles I began feverishly hunting through, the most likely infectious culprit was Bluelight the Kitten. What had I done? I had unknowingly introduced a sick kitten into an otherwise healthy household, and now she was infecting my children, who have been gleefully sleeping with, playing wit...

Our Hillside- There is very little to burn.    Defensible Space. Space that can be defended. My Husband’s Annual Mission: to decimate the weeds and any dead trees or limbs on our property so when (not if) a wildfire comes through the hillsides surrounding our property, our houses and out-buildings will not burn. Dead plants, weeds, and dry brush are like a bridge for fire. If there is no bridge, there is no way for fire to travel. You may be thinking, “What about flying embers?” You are correct! Flying embers are a problem. However, it’s much easier to defend a building against flying embers when there is a large amount of cleared, virtually un-burnable defensible space surrounding the house. We also have multiple hoses with special hose nozzles, and no fewer than three water tanks with hook-ups for fire trucks. My husband's plan in case of a fire nearby is to stay with the house, ready to fight any flying embers with a hose or a shovel. My plan is to pack the children in...

                                I went out hoping to catch a rabbit today. The rabbits emerge every morning and evening, grazing peacefully on what greenery they can find. If they are startled by the slightest noise or unknown presence, they leap away, wide-eyed.   Like the quail I shared about a few weeks ago, they are difficult to photograph. No sooner do you locate one and begin moving closer, then you have startled it- and it has sped away to an unknown hiding place. Sometimes there are seven or eight rabbits grazing in our front yard. They also enjoy spending time near the wood-pile in the way-back of our property. Humans don’t visit the wood pile very often, especially not when the days grow longer, and that allows the rabbits, chipmunks, and ground squirrels to make their homes in the prolific rounds of dry firewood. I do not mention the chipmunks or squirrels to my father-in-law. ...

    Eric Liddell , Olympic Gold Medalist runner and missionary, once famously stated, “ I believe God made me for a purpose, but he also made me fast! And when I  run  I feel His pleasure.”  When I run, I  do not  feel the pleasure of God. He did  not  make me fast. He made me slow, plodding, low to the ground, awkward.  One of my worst memories of high school was being required to run the mile in P.E every Friday.  Every week I would think, “Maybe it will be different this week. Maybe I’ll finally get better, faster- like those long-legged boys and girls ahead of me.”   But inevitably, the long-legged (and remarkably happy-looking) students would pass me, I would begin to grow hot and tired, my joints would ache from pounding around the red-clay track, and rage would seethe through my body. Mostly the rage was directed at myself, sometimes at my P.E. Teachers- especially if they were chipper, and tried to encourage me.   ...

  CBU's Online Publication      It's been several years since I've had any poems published, so I was pleased when I saw that my Alma Mater, California Baptist University (Go Lancers!) had sent out a call for submissions to their online literary magazine- the Dazed Starling Unbound .  I submitted some pieces several months ago, and was pleased this week to see them published in this attractive volume : https://issuu.com/dazedstarling/docs/dazed_starling_unbound_vol._1 They did a beautiful job pairing submitted artwork with the poems and short stories they chose to include.  If you'd rather not click the link,  you can just take a look at these screenshots:  (How I Met my Husband- Double Click for a Larger Version) 

  The Wisteria, Grape Vines, and Honeysuckle Arbor   Water is life. Perhaps where you live, there is almost too much water. But in our high desert home, the entire ecosystem suffers without enough rain or snowfall. In dry years, we have more wildfires, and the big predatory animals like bears, mountain lions, and coyotes, come closer to our homes in search of water, and in search of prey, like deer, who also descend when there is not enough water in the high places. On our property, we are blessed to have a strong well. It’s been providing us with ample water for years now, and seems to be part of an underground waterway that is constantly replenished. When we can, however, we do try to save the rainwater. It’s supposed to be good for your garden, and we try to use it up before resorting to well-water. The Grey Rain Barrel  The Flowering Rose Rain Barrel  We have four rain barrel stations around our house. The rain flows down off our roof into our seamless...

       I’m not much of a music person. This might come as a surprise to those who know me because I frequently sing solos at church, I love to worship through song, and I’ve performed in and directed many musicals. But while I know many people who spend a great deal of money and time buying and listening to music for its own sake, I just...don’t. Though there are special songs that have impacted my life, I don’t have a favorite band or musician.   In our household growing up, my parents rarely purchased cassettes or CDs unless they had a specific purpose, such as special music for church, or a special purchase for a birthday or Christmas. My mother often took us to the library and we checked out cassettes of musicals. Some of my favorite memories involved dancing and singing along to Phantom of the Opera , The Man of La Mancha , and Hello Dolly .   But as money was often tight, my parents didn’t spend money on music for themselves.   In high school...

The Newest Resident of RockRiver Hill                 My family was a dog family while I was growing up. We had Gidget the Lahsa Apso, a white and brown fluffy lapdog.            She was sometimes sweet, and more often cranky. I suspect the crankiness had a lot to do with needing to defend herself from the (sometimes unwanted) powerful attention and loving overtures of myself and my two siblings.              My family didn't end up getting a cat until I was in college. I still remember Big Kahuna, the tiny grey kitten abandoned in my Grandma Ruth's backyard by his mother cat.            Kahuna was a loving kitten, but grew into a hefty tomcat who didn't particularly like people. Still, he added a lot to my parents' lives and I enjoyed the summers and college holidays I spent with him. The Big Kahuna passed away only a year or so...