Pumpkin Cottage

Pumpkin Cottage
sit and visit a spell

Tuesday, October 20, 2015

Day 8: Happy Birthday, Mother

























Happy Birthday, Mother. 
Mother loved birthdays
and simple gifts.  She was happy just
to be surrounded by her children and grandchildren.

When we were sick we longed for her.
No matter the distance she came to
care for us. 

Mother, You cast a giant shadow. 
We will never forget you.

I have found 
the paradox,
that if you love 

until it hurts,
there can be no more hurt, 
only MORE love. 

               Mother Teresa

Oh, how I wish she were still with me.


In the last months of her life,
I would sit for hours holding her
hand. I thought I knew, how much
I would miss her touch, her healing
power, and her compassion, but I only
knew a little.

Monday, October 19, 2015

Count Down Day 9

Amici evino devono
essere vecchi.

Wine and friends must
be old.

What a sweet sentiment.












Stitching this 1978 beauty up.
Focusing helps relieve the pain.
Only 9 more days.


Saturday, October 17, 2015

Planting the Seeds























Ask yourself , "How long am I going
to work to make my dreams come true?'
I suggest you answer, "As long as it
takes."                   
 
Jim Rohn







Friday, October 9, 2015

God Speaks - I am hard of hearing


20 The Lord is in his holy temple;
    let all the earth be silent before him.
                                        Habakkuk 2:20

God speaks to me all the time.
My hearing is bionic but with
God it's like there are cotton balls
shoved into my ear drums.

I hear but have more
difficulty listening. 



















He sets up the perfect time and
circumstances. Allowing me to know
there are no coincidences.

This moment I have prepared for you, PAY
attention.  

Pumpkin Cottage uses old bowling balls























It's looking a little haggard.

"I have set up the perfect time 
and circumstance. Listen dimwit."

Saturday morning, Mr. Lee says,
Get ready you have a hair appointment. "


Not, I think.  "It's on Sunday,"  I say.

Mr. Lee:  I don't think so.  It's on my
calendar and yours.

Me: Okay, I will text Stephanie.

Yes, my appointment is in about an hour.

So I go, there is one other customer there,
I have seen him many times before.  He is
on the right and I on the left of politics so
I usually stay quiet.

My beauty time is the best therapy
and I don't squander a single moment.

Stephanie and I start chatting about
my fast approaching surgery.  The guy says,
"I just had hip surgery. Where you having your
surgery?"

Me: Just at Kaiser (HMO). (Minimizing - Like,  I couldn't
possibility have anything as good as he has.  What
it that about?)

Guy: Me, too.  Who's your doctor?

Me: Dr. Yu

Guy: Me, too.  He's the best.  This
will change your life.  It's not bad at all.
All the people with knee surgeries have a lot
of pain but not the hip.

Guy:  You will be so happy.

Me: Oh, I am already very happy.

Guy; This will make it even better.
Good luck, I can't wait to hear how
well you are doing.

There you have it.  That's how
God speaks to me.  And if you listen
and pay attention, God will speak to you, too.

Amen.






Wednesday, October 7, 2015

Pumpkin Cottage Kitty

Rose with her witchy poo stockings.
Cleopatra line liner. 
Betty Davis eyes.
Pink eraser nose, that's from Susan Branch.























There are two means of refuge from the misery
of life - music and cats.
                                           Albert Schweitzer







































See what I mean?
















I think Pumpkin Cottage deserves an umbrella or
two. 

Tuesday, October 6, 2015

Quilts and a Garden, Oh My

Quilts in the Oaks, Alden Lane Nursery, Livermore, California.
This nursery is a beautiful destination nursery on its own but
dress it up with quilts and you really have something special.

 























































































Freddy Moran quilter extraordinaire.  Isn't she
beautiful?  Meeting her made me so happy.


















Yarn bomb. The get-along-gang.

Monday, October 5, 2015

Brown Sugar Kitchen

Pumpkin Cottage is in love with October. 
Yesterday, it rained.  We sat in the living room
with the front door open to listen to the rain. 

Everything is a little bit greener and brighter.
In Southern California, the rain clears the air, calms
the dust, and perks up everything.  

At the end of September, the get-along-gang,
got up before the crack of dawn
to travel to Brown Sugar Kitchen in Oakland, California.

For those of you unfamiliar with California,
it's long and the world's eighth largest economy. 
We know what other states say
about us: steers and queers and a bowl full of nuts.

I would not have it any other way. California has everything.
Coastlines, lakes,  mountains, valleys, desserts, redwoods and the
mighty sequoias.  We have diversity in all that is California.
And this family loves their road trips and their good eats.



All seven of us had chicken and waffles and
coffee.  Every bit phenomenal. 
We highly recommend a visit, even if, like us,
you have to leave home at 1 a.m.

“There is communion of more than our bodies when
bread is broken and wine drunk.”
M.F.K. Fisher























What Jacob?  It's so good, you what
to visit again?