Juneuary

Normally, it doesn't rain in Northern California in June. Today I woke to the sound of rain on my gravel roof. Real rain, not the drip-drop, wish we could do it, but we're not quite making it sound of the last week or so. According to the weather forecasts by next week it will be warm. We'll see!

Since it has been so cold this spring, I have put off pricing cooling devices for the outside of my house. Many yards, which used to have trees, have now sprouted umbrellas. According to neighbors whom I've talked to, these actually do work.

I have also looked at shade sails online and at coolaroo screening and bamboo or vinyl shades. I know that the day will come when I will wish that I had swathed the exterior of the house in something. Hopefully, those days will be few and not during the longest days of summer.

Volunteers from a local group, SILVAR, Silicon Valley Association of Realtors, came a few weeks ago and rearranged my living room furniture!. It looks and feels so much nicer now--I wish it could have happened ten years ago!

Then a young friend, who had some brief vacation time between the end of school and the beginning of her summer internship in the nation's capitol, came and moved more furniture from one bedroom to another and inside of the one that is now my sewing room.

All of this makes me so happy and so grateful. The house that I have lived in all of my life is finally becoming my home.

So I may be a little chilly today but I am profoundly grateful, too. It is a day for doing cozy things and puttering at decluttering--putting back the things that were moved so the furniture could be moved.

Thank you to everyone who has been helping me so much!

TGIF

Thank goodness it's Friday! The week went by so fast. Today is the day, I hope, that the painting will be finished. Hurrah! Then I can finish sorting everything that went from the "big room" to the living room and have a crafting and sewing studio for the first time in my life. The sewing machine is already set up under the window on a table that used to hold an xt clone--the original household computer.

Yesterday, as M painted and I threw out old paper, I almost felt that I could hear the house sigh. It is returning to its original size, recovering its spaciousness and an accompanying sense of graciousness.

While all of this has been going on inside the sunflowers have been growing even taller outside. Watching them renews my sense of wonder. The oldest one is waning. As the flowers go to seed, the petals seem to grown longer and they sweep down from the flower, like eyelashes on closed eyes. They retain a charm, even though they are fading fast.

The roses are also blooming on my deck, although the big bushes in the ground refuse to bloom. Something about the dry winter and cooler than normal summer perhaps?

I came upon a wonderful article on rooting rose cuttings the other night. I will try to remember and post the link.

Happy Friday.