Change - Yes We Can

Sunday, January 18, 2009

Our Santa Barbara home.

Sharing a theme of "change" and "yes we can" with the new administration, Susie and Dick will be embarking on a change of a lifetime, a permanent relocation to Georgetown, a suburb of Austin, Texas.

This has been in our thinking and planning for some time, but the severe housing and economy slump left us doubting it would actually happen anytime soon. Although we had listed our house for sale last July, we daily saw the housing market sink as we got closer to winter. We had even taken our house off the market for the holidays to celebrate Christmas as a family, to put up the usual decorations, tree, lights and trimmings (and deal with the usual post-Christmas mess) and were not planning to re-list it until Spring. Out of the blue came a qualified buyer who was so eager to pay our asking price and move in in 60 days that we negotiated and signed a contract in a few days. Miracle of miracles.

Our agent, Karen Musser, a close friend of ours from church and Susie's PEO women's group, ironically observed "I must be one of the few agents to take a home off the market in order to sell it."

Our escrow settlement date is March 18 so we have less than 60 days to arrange for movers, pack everything, find a place to live, negotiate a purchase (or lease if we can't find what we want), and complete the move. This is our time for "yes we can" so we are confident that all can be done and with a minimum of fuss and bother.

It's been more than 20 years since we moved into this home and gathered among friends who we will now be leaving and that will be the hardest part. But with Rebecca and Hannah staying in Santa Barbara (Rebecca continues her job at the clothing source Territory Ahead) we expect to be back here regularly for extended visits.

So the adventure begins!

Looking for Pigs and Penguins

January 11, 2009

Lily Wood's second birthday. Happy birthday Lily!

Beautiful day here. Think we'll go down to the harbor and look for pigs or penguins in honor of Lily's birthday (her favorite animals).

At Brophy Bros. bar and restaurant. Always a popular place on a nice day, but no pigs or penguins in sight (perhaps they are at the bar).


Looking out into the harbor past the fishing boats, hoping to spot a penguin.

From the looks of those hills this would also have been a great day for a hike in the mountains, but spotting pigs or penguins at the harbor would be REALLY special.







Paddlers in kayaks headed out past yachts and motor cruisers moored in the harbor at the marinas.












The view north from the breakwater looking toward the beach and hills of Santa Barbara.











At the end of the breakwater, looking past the wharf toward the nearby hills of the riviera and beyond to the south-facing mountains.

In the foreground that's a whale's tail bench to rest on while enjoying the view.










On the way back along the breakwater, looking across the harbor, we see the Santa Barbara Sailing Association dock with its training boats hauled aboard. Remember when Katie spent her days sailing in the harbor and around the buoys?










Back at the SB Yacht Club at the foot of the breakwater the sun is beginning to set.


We didn't find any pigs or penguins, but the walk was worth it anyway.

Gardening Day

Monday morning. Partly cloudy and cool. Perfect day to do some long postponed gardening. Mow the lawn, trim the flowers back, cut off any dead branches.

Dick has been meaning to trim back the roses and lop off dead branches for weeks but has been waiting for when things are dormant before doing so. Trouble is, dormancy seems to be a relative thing around here this year. The nectarine tree seemed dormant last October dropping its leaves (it is sensitive to the angle of the sun), but the other trees and flowers insisted it was not time yet and hung on for a while.

Weeks later the apricot trees began to lose their leaves, and gradually over the next weeks the plum and peach trees leaves also turned and their leaves began to fall. But the flowers . . . they seemed to disregard the change of seasons totally this year and lingered on. What to do? When to trim?

Even after the few frosty mornings in December the rose bushes stubbornly insisted on putting out more buds, making it seem unkind to snip them down to size in preparation for the next spring season.

However, it was decided that when the apple tree lost its last leaves (it has always been the last to do so) that would signal time was right to trim back the roses. Trouble was, this year the apple tree merely changed its leaves from green to yellow and to this day they cling to the tree (presumably waiting for new buds to push them off in the spring).


Some of our roses, notably our Icebergs and Cecil Breuners are famous for their hardiness and bloom all year round. Our Cecil Breuners, with their delicate pink blossoms, are now fully intertwined throughout the 10 foot archway that Katie and John used for their wedding, April 2005. Each year this trellis of roses bursts into its fullest bloom in April and gives us the treat of remembering that special day.

Dormancy? When can we expect it?

The apple tree is not cooperating. We may not get a hard frost before spring comes. Already our bulbs are pushing their sprouts above the ground and getting ready to bloom.

Even the bright yellow flowers arrayed in the deep green of the Euryops Pectinatus, usually blooming twice a year, seem to insist that spring is already here.

And the periwinkles blossoming amid the ivy under the now leafless plum trees seem to agree that if we were to wait for complete dormancy we would find ourselves well into spring and discover that our roses are once again in full bud, blooming in a January springtime.

We must trim back the roses regardless, and so we do.

Having done so, we undoubtedly will now have several weeks of frigid cold and frosty weather to taunt us and tell us "Couldn't wait just a few more weeks could you?"

Ah, so . . . there will be no more rosebuds for the next few months (except our Icebergs and Cecil Breuners). So in the meantime we console ourselves with our winter pansies.

This blog is to express thanks to Tricia and Dan who sent Dick the wonderful classic book "Down the Garden Path" by Beverley Nichols, first published in London in 1932 and reissued in delightful hardbound edition, with original illustrations, in 2005 by Timber Press, Inc.

Thanks Tricia and Dan!