Bet you didn’t even know I was gone. I’m veddy veddy sneaky that way.

(click on any pics to go to flickr and descriptions with more info)

I went down to San Diego to see my Grammy the Friday before Mother’s Day (I never knew the holiday has partial roots in the States as a war protest before this year) and hang out with her for a week, and I was able to meet up with Hilari, Jessica, Cheryl, Heidi, Nancy, my stapler, and Cristina (and Peter and Jason and Lionel and Sami and Sophie and Amalia) and except for me smashing a jar of sourdough starter so the kids could have some jagged glass to play with, it was great.
I got to see my Dad and Juana, and their dogs and that was great.
I went to the Wednesday spinning group and everybody’s doing great and that was great.

And it was great to spend the week just being with my Grammy, and I cooked a bit and we talked a bit, and I flirted via text messaging with Nick like mad and it was all just…great.

But it’s really great to be back.

I love it here, and I don’t miss San Diego at all.
I wish I could get there faster, in case my Grammy needs me, I wish we had Tabu Sushi in Yreka, and I wish all my friends could be here and be as happy as we are, and I wish we had Balboa Park here, but being in San Diego is to miss my mother so fiercely it’s like anxiety. Coming back to a place you’ve lived is to re-live and my mother is in everything I feel and see in San Diego, especially Coronado which she loved with a muleheaded stubbornness. It was like an echo of that terrible time after she died, where everywhere I went and everything I saw was painful because I used to go there with her or was something about which we would have talked.

I hope it won’t always be the city I lost my mother in, but I think it’s easier to live with all the memories and reminders and feel them with fondness or mild wistfulness in a place that doesn’t press those memories physically into you with all its concrete landscape and smells and sounds. I will always hold my mother in my heart, but in San Diego that hold squeezes my heart tight and sometimes it is hard to breathe with all the childish feelings of unfairness and regret.

Anyway. I didn’t mean to go into all that. It was a great visit, it really was. Really, really great.

I’ve got a lot of sewing and spinning and knitting stuff to catch up on in updating this here blog, but I just spent a ton of time editing the descriptions in flickr, so I’m done for today.

Well, one more thing.

I’ve been doing a lot of sewing, and I’m even getting a little better, a little more confident.

I’ve done two bags, two dresses and finished a hat. And still haven’t sewn my finger into anything. Woohoo!

And one more thing.
And I went over to a local shepherdess’ and got two fleeces, despite the seven or so still in the room. Madness.

And another thing. Really, the last thing for today, my bottom hurts from sitting on it and it is a beautiful day outside. Again.

The lawn was getting crispy and Nick mentioned that he was thinking he might go and get a sprinkler.
I mentioned he might want to call the landlords and ask about all the sprinkler heads already in the lawn and the automated water station in the big hole in the wall we keep covered by a horse picture first.

So while the landlord was over turning it on and making sure it was running all right, he told Nick that they are putting this house on the market. They’ve offered to sell it to us, and we do love this house, but we want land most of all. So, that’s kind of a bummer except that I doubt it will happen soon, for various reasons (#1 being there isn’t even a real estate sign on the lawn yet) although this is without a doubt the nicest house on the block.

But we expect to add more pictures to the housing browsing flickr set in the next few weeks. The thrill of the hunt and the scent of paperwork is in the air…