CHRISTMAS 2013 - A YEAR IN REVIEW

How can it be possible, it's another year and I am sitting here at my computer, watching the snow fall and wondering just what it is that I should be sharing with all of you.  Was there anything special, major trips, life events?  No, not really.  Just the joy of taking each day as it comes, finding a reason to have a good laugh, spending time with friends and family, the opportunity to give back to our community and of course, my personal favourite, travel.

On that somewhat mundane, but philosophical note I think I will begin.  We are both well, no major complaints, catastrophes or pieces falling off in the road.  Just the normal, run of the mill aches, pains and malfunctions that come with not being 21 any longer.  Mick's Dad is also doing reasonably well, despite having bladder cancer (old age will do him in before the cancer does) and, in his words, a "dickey" heart.  They gave him a pacemaker at age 91 so my guess is the National Health Service thinks he's worth the investment.  The only problem is being so far away it is hard to assess what is really happening.  Fortunately he has a great group of care givers who are with him on a daily basis and neighbours who check to see if he opens his blinds and picks up the milk each morning.  Yes, they still deliver milk in England and doctors make house calls!!

Our kids, sorry Ben and Leigh, you will always be "kids", have settled into their separate lives in the Bay Area.  Leigh is still with Golden Bay Glass, anybody need some windows replaced? While Ben has just finished his undergraduate degree and is working on a Masters at Cal State East Bay.  Next year will be the turning point for him when he has to decide where to go to school to get a doctorate in Physical Therapy.  We don't get down to see them as much as in the past but we will all be together for Christmas in Hawaii, which is beginning to sound better and better as the snow here gets deeper and deeper. 

Top of Moana Kea 14,000 ft & yes that is snow

Haleakala Crater - Maui

Now begins our travelogue, which I freely admit  is what I really most enjoy writing about.   Well, I guess I will also have to relate the tale of the raccoon wars, as well.  In the Spring we used one of our timeshare weeks in Kona, along with another week to spend at an off the grid B&B in Maui.  Not a bad way to escape the grey of an Oregon winter. It actually all began with a trip with Ashland  friends to San Francisco.  Mick and two of the women had been doing classes at OLLI (Osher Life Long Learning Institute) on art history.  The instructor, an ex university professor, was covering the Dutch Masters and remarked that there would be a exhibit at the De Young, "The Girl With the Pearl Earring".   Seems reason enough for a long weekend in SF.  We rented a three bedroom house near Golden Gate Park, on the Metro line and we were set.  Hit Chinatown and found a group of Lion Dancers exorcising spirits in a new building, wandered up to Coit Tower and generally enjoyed ourselves.  Finished things off with a foodie adventure in the Mission with Ben, Dino, Anthony and Scott.  In the course of a couple of hours we devoured, donuts (San Francisco's equivalent of Voo Doo donuts),  chicharones, matza ball soup, Pastrami sandwiches, smoked fish salad, rum cake, eclairs, ice cream and I can't remember what else. 

Proteas at a Farmers Market

Food Crawl 2013

On to Hawaii, the  B&B in Maui was an absolute delight.  A big plantation style house with a covered veranda on two sides and an absolutely gorgeous garden.   You would have never known they were off the grid unless you opened the refrigerator.   Consider this, there is no light when you open the door of a gas driven refrigerator . . .  it is powered by propane, not electricity!   They were a couple of miles down a dirt road that itself was off the infamous Road to Hana. A little out of the way, but then no worries.  It's not like there was much to do except relax, eat, and do a little whale watching.  We did drive the road to Hana and then kept going until we came out on the other side of the island. The rental companies say you can't do it,.  There's probably a mile of unpaved road and a lot of bad single lane road along cliff edges.  But we found the Maui equivalent of Rent a Wreck whose only caveat was if we broke down out there no one would come get us.

I think this says it all

Post Ranch Cocktail Hour

On our way back we stopped and spent a few days with family and since it was Ben's Spring Break we took him and Dino down Highway 1 and back up 101 to do a little beach bumming, hiking, wine tasting, hot tubing, Mission exploring and of course eating.  Somewhere in midst of all that we did an evening tour of San Simeon, aka Hearst Castle and gawked at the elephant seals.

Happy Seal

Morro Rock

Back to Ashland in time to do some cleanup in the community garden, install fences to keep the pesky deer away from OUR FOOD and plant a garden.  We did get a bit carried away with vegetables but then the local food bank was glad of our surplus.  Besides the normal tomatoes and zucchini, there were two types of potato (red and yellow) green beans, kale, chard, onions, garlic, carrots, radishes and butternut squash.  Almost forgot the beets.  Naturally enough most of this came in about the time Mick headed over to the UK to look after his father.  The one upside, however, is our pantry is well stocked with preserves, syrup and chutneys, while the deep freeze has plenty of veg and casseroles for reheating in the dead of winter . . . hmm, maybe a day like today.  

Snow Day - View from the garage

Our next adventure was up to Washington state and the San Juan Islands which run between the US and Canada.  They were once an item of serious contention between the US and Canada, and the location of what has come to be known as the Pig Wars.  Seems, in 1846, the Treaty of Oregon set the boundary between Canada and the Oregon Territory as the 49^th parallel and  from the Rocky Mountains "to the middle of the channel which separates the continent from Vancouver's Island”, then south through the channel to the Strait of Juan de Fuca.   Okay, that's all well and good except, in fact the channel is really two channels, the Haro Strain and the Rosario Strait and the San Juan Islands lie between the two.  

Breakfast, East Sound, Orcas Island

Roche Harbor, San Juan Island

Port Townsend Ferry

The only way out to these islands is by ferry, but if a laid back lifestyle and boats is your cup of tea then this is the place for you.  We did nothing in particular except wander and hike and relax.  In Roche Harbor we had the opportunity to tour what would have to be categorised as a yacht.   60 feet long, 3 bedrooms, three bathrooms, modern kitchen with all the normal conveniences, flat screen tv and home theatre system.  Sounds a lot like our house except that is was going for $1.7 million but on special  for $1.2.  Oh, and it only gets 2 miles to the gallon.  Our rough calculation is it would cost $5,000 to fill the tank.  Makes an RV sound like a sound investment.  

San Juan Island South Point Light House (the white dot)

Half way in to the summer and it's time to get the tent trailer out and do some camping.  We joined  Frank and Carol Sobotka once again (as in SF and the San Juans), along with their friends Phil and Anna, for some camping and fishing in Central Oregon.  The men tried their hand at fishing, catch and release, on the Metolius and the Deschutes,  while the ladies took in some shopping in Sisters.  It's good to get away and we were once again "off the grid" as it were while at Camp Sherman.  We installed some LED lighting in the tent trailer which provided us with plenty of light off the the battery, so am guessing we can do without hook-ups for much more prolonged periods than we have it the past.  Reading by coleman lamps or head lamps gets a little tiresome after a while.  

Mick and Phil at the top of Black Butte

Somewhere in the midst of all this we managed a trip to Portland to see Fleetwood Mac.  You know you must be getting old when half the audience has grey heads and you suddenly realise that you're part of that same generation.  We really enjoy Portland and every time we go have a look at condos for sale.  Think we missed out opportunity with one we saw near GeldWen Field but it was at the top of steep hill which kinda defeats the fact that the only real long term problem with the Ashland house is it has stairs. All the same, love Portland and will continue to explore the possibility of a home there, since there is no way we could afford San Francisco which would be the other big city alternative.  You have all heard me say it before, Ashland is great, I wouldn't change living here for anything . . .  except sometime a girl needs the noise and commotion

Mick fishing the Deschutes

of a big city.  

So, it we're not travelling what is it that keeps Ashland so entertaining.  First off there is OLLI, Osher Life Long Learning Institute, which offers classes at the university.  All the instructors are volunteers, but in this community that means you are likely to have a retired university professor, an ex nuclear scientist or a  lawyer whose previous work experience was with the foreign service.  Class range from the "hippy woo woo" how to live a long and happy life to discussions of the recent Supreme Court decisions and lots of stuff in between.  My goal has been to put together a class on "looking at pictures" an exploration of the art and craft of photography.  So far I have come up with the title!!  
 
The other things that keeps us occupied is volunteering for OSF (Oregon Shakespeare Festival) and JPR (Jefferson Public Radio).  Once you commit yourself to the volunteering thing

Fort Smith State Park near Bend

you get kinda addicted and of course with OSF there is the added benefit of free tickets.  With JPR it's mostly the fund drive but the Festival (as it is referred to here) offers anything from taking down and cleaning all the stage lighting at the end of the season to sitting in the Welcome Center and answering questions for the tourists.  We even plastered survey forms to seat backs and collected them from audience members. 

Portland

Raccoon wars . . . Raccoons have been an ongoing problem for a few years.  Once we had one living in the attic which we chased out by putting a light up there and playing Rush Limbaugh on the radio at full blast.  Lately they have taken to climbing on to the roof and using the space as their own personal bathroom.  We have sprayed foul smelling chemicals, put up wire barriers, hired professional "critter catchers" and generally did all we could think of the dissuade them, to no avail.   It is particularly obnoxious when you realize their access to the roof is across the gazebo and over the hot tub.  Never underestimate the ingenuity of one Michael Church, critter deterer extraordinaire.  In the most recent battle he started off by installing carpet tack strip along the top of the fence they use to access the gazebo . . . they just walked across it as though there were nothing there.  I f that weren't enough they left an extra

My Cinderella act at OSF

large and messy present on the roof which dropped down on the patio behind the hot tub.  I think that was the raccoon equivalent of giving someone the finger.   Solutions are at hand.  We are now the proud owner of an electric fence along the top of the fence.  No fear, no more raccoons, cats or if it were a problem rampaging cattle.  The little horrors have been defeated . . .  for the moment. 


That's it from our little corner of the world.  May the next year bring you all you need and more and may you experience all  the joy and sharing that this season of the year has to offer.


                               Mick & Gayle Church