Want to learn or brush up on your Spanish? Here is where you can find a good Word of the day, along with examples and useful information.
Thanksgiving 2011
This Thanksgiving lasted for a whole wild wonderful week. Here are some highlights.
The Mac behind Steve Jobs
The Steves were kids at Homestead High School in the early 70s when I left Fremont High School in Sunnyvale to teach at the new Monta Vista High School in Cupertino, a time that still embraced the total student. Academic classes existed happily alongside wide ranging electives in art and music, home economics and industrial arts. My friend and fellow weaver, Helen McCullough, taught home ec at Cupertino High School and her husband Mac, industrial arts at Homestead.
It was not unusual to have students find their way safely through the intricacies of adolescence due to the so-called non-academic classes. It was in shop and electronics classes that the two Steves met at Homestead — and met Mac.
I met Mac only a couple of times but had heard of his teaching brilliance through colleagues and, of course, his wife. The first time I met Mac was when he came to our mountain top house to see if our shed would be a good place for a CB transmitter. He was involved in a radio network that communicated with distant lands in times of disaster. I do not remember him mentioning his two young students until later after they started achieving local notoriety. He then recounted their tinkering in his classes and their obvious joy in exploring new ideas.
I have often wondered if there would have been the same outcome without Mac. I would like to think he was the catalyst that triggered the super-dynamic reaction that resulted from combining two Steves to create a Mac.
I live at the intersection of technology and liberal arts.
–Steve Jobs
Backstrap Progress
For my second backstrap project I wove a backstrap for my backstrap loom and no longer use the folded pillowcase you see in the first picture below. The final backstrap has braided cords attached that hold the front rod in place.
Another giant improvement included replacing my broomstick backstrap loom with the real thing—a genuine backstrap loom from Guatemala. Actually I received two in the mail in a surprise package from my friend Karen Piegorsch, the founder of Synergo Arts. She had purchased them in the Chichicastenango market several years ago, knew of my beginning attempts, and sent them to me. The wood is lighter weight than the broomstick wood, the beaters (swords) work better than the ruler I was using, and I feel more in tune with the whole world of wonderful weavers who use simple sticks to create items of incredible intricacy and beauty.
Two Guatemalan backstrap looms
My next project was a slightly more complex pebble weave band. Still only 16 warps wide, it presented some new challenges in picking up the pattern. And I still haven’t mastered setting up the loom with ease. Yesterday I finished yet another more complex pebble weave band. This time it is twice as wide with a more complex pattern. But there is much yet to learn. And today I will continue the trip.
Summertimes (Some Are Times!)
For over thirty years five of my closest friends from my teaching days at Monta Vista High School in Cupertino have gathered for lunch at our house in the summer. This year one of our group, Mary Lou Taylor, a talented poet, honored us with a poem which I used in the invitation.
Mary Lou helped found the Poetry Center San Jose and has published several books. I recently discovered her website and would love to share her poem. For those of you have been here, you know she has captured it perfectly.
Driving Bohlman Road
The last house on an unpaved road
looks over the mountain top,
a fire road to the reservoir,
the sharp drop of a ridge on the left,
greenery on the right. Goodbye
to good friends in late afternoon, goodbye
to two deer and the Steller’s jays harsh calls.
No time to ponder recent talk of poetry,
of haiku and lyric, of classic poems
reinvented, of Pound, Hicok, Bly.
The car makes turn after turn high
above the village. In the canyon below
a glimpse of vineyards.
Just beyond the mountain peak
the ocean, flat and silver.
Redwood branches droop. Oak leaves
touch across the road. Madrone, saffron
trunks bright against the green. Sword fern
fastened to banks sprinkled with fall red
of poison oak and brown of bark.
Passing the Scout camp, the oil
of eucalyptus trees on the wind.
A breeze changes shadows.
Sun’s shades of light and dark.
One white butterfly startles.
An orange truck on monster wheels
its grill a jailhouse door
side by side with a small brown truck
the size of Bishop’s moose.
Hazard lights blink white sparkle-glitter.
Both vehicles block the road. Halfway down
the long, winding road to town
no way to move, time at last
to dream and write,
more passenger than driver.
Backstrap Weaving
I learned to weave on a table loom, and then a floor loom. But people were weaving long before there were such things. Until I went to Guatemala in 2007, I had only a sketchy idea of how they did this. There I saw women in remote villages with few modern conveniences weaving incredibly beautiful, one-of-a-kind pieces with only a few sticks held together with strings—a backstrap loom!
Intrigued by their intricate designs, I have been in pursuit of the techniques that they use. I have found sources that have led me to experiment with their patterns on a floor loom. But finally I have progressed backwards and discovered the backstrap loom.
At this point I need to give credit to Laverne Waddington, currently from Bolivia, who has finally revealed the many nuances that this simple, incredible, device has to offer. She has provided a link, electronically, to the wisdom of the people—past and present—who create beauty from what they have in hand and what they have learned from the ancestors.
All of this leads up to my first backstrap project. A broken broom handle and a few dowels (along with Laverne’s excellent tutorials and ebook) helped me put together a backstrap loom. I have just made a simple band in Peruvian pebble weave. I have learned a lot. I am using an old pillowcase as my backstrap, but my next project will be to weave a backstrap to replace this make-do backstrap on, what else? My backstrap loom, of course!
Fourth of July at our house
A cool lazy morning. A banana slug has decided to venture away from the pond during the night. I discover him/her making her slow way back to the pond.
Posted in Garden, Home
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Skyland Mountain Run
Today, one of the warmest so far, was the Skyland Mountain Run. I have done this run for many years, at least since 1998 (the year of my favorite T-shirt). Sponsored by a community church in the Santa Cruz mountains, it is one of the best! All of the proceeds go to nonprofits, both local and international.
Imagine starting at a hundred-old-ranch in a rural mountain area and running along a ridge with views of row upon row of mountains running to the ocean. A local band is playing hot rock and blue grass while the church members are cooking up eggs, sausages, pancakes, and cutting up fruit and bagels to greet you on your return. Kids are gearing up for a fun run, and raffle prizes await that include wines from great local vineyards. 
Picnic tables surround a lake where three hundred runners/walkers of all ages relax, their cars parked in a neighboring field at the ranch.
This year my friend, Phyllis Karsten, came with me. Last year, at 85, Phyllis started walking and used an iPhone app to show her distance and time on her walks. She posted this information on her Facebook page. She was good! So I asked her if she would like to start doing 5Ks with me. Of course she was game. She now comes close to showing me up!
We both did well and had a great time. She is saying we should try a 10K sometime. I think she has lost her mind.
Posted in Events, Friends, Perspectives
Tagged phyllis karsten, skyland mountain run
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Dog on the Loom (aka Project from hell)
I should have known better. A laudable decision to find ways to use some of my stash, led me to this. I had plenty of cotton slub two-ply left on a mill-end cone. I used some of it many years ago (as weft) to make a summer jacket that I wear frequently. I found an 6-harness huck pattern in a 1998 Handwoven that produced a lovely jacket and was seduced into deciding I could use this mill-end as warp (bad decision). Coupled with this was my first attempt to try warping front to back, a technique used by a friend who swears by it. I carefully wound 6+ yard 6-shaft warp 33 inches wide at 20 epi.
Words cannot describe how many things have gone wrong. Threading errors, sleying errors, breakage, tangles from unbalanced twist, too many warp chains because I ran short of warp, and anything else you can think of has plagued this misguided idea. I am too stubborn to give up. At last the warp is wound and I am now weaving.
My new best friend is fabric glue which I am using regularly when the slubby ply of the warp breaks behind the reed. Every few inches I stop, pull the broken ply forward through the reed and glue it firmly to the other ply. But I persevere. I will see this through!
September 20, 2011 – Dog Days
Off the loom and bathed, the dog was ready to be photographed today. It has a nice hand. We shall see what happens next.
Walk a Mile in Her Shoes
The dust has settled from the Walk a Mile in Her Shoes last Wednesday and here is an update with pictures.
The weather was perfect. There was a good crowd and, thanks to the support of many friends, our team raised $1703.08! for the Rape Crisis Center of the YWCA Silicon Valley. There are some great pictures below, but there were also some sobering, eye-opening moments for me.
Before the walk, law enforcement and victims vividly described what this event supports. The police chiefs of several local communities explained the vital role YW rape crisis counselors play in helping victims through a horrible ordeal. Not only have they been assaulted and violated, they have become “evidence” for the crime that has been committed and must undergo intensive investigation at a hospital in order to obtain clues about the perpetrator.
A women who was the victim of assault vividly portrayed the support role the YW played for her, both when she was raped and now, twenty years later, as her assailant was let out of jail. The YWCA provides advocates, 24/7, for victims at the hospital, in meetings with police, during trials, and in subsequent emotional healing. The initial assault trauma is followed by court appearances where victims must confront their assailant. The YW staff supports victims’ courageous decisions to find justice and prevent further assaults on others and offers support to see them through.
This event is a light-hearted way to focus on a serious problem that is too easily swept out of sight. And it was definitely a good time
 San Jose Mayor and Fire Chief |
 San Jose Fire Chief and Police Chief |
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The YW also has programs on two local high school campuses to help empower young men to speak out against sexual violence. They have a chance to discuss and examine negative stereotypes of masculinity and the connection to violence against women. Some of these guys participated and didn’t mind showing off their fancy shoes. |
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Although the event is over, the problem is not solved. If you would still like to contribute, our team website will be up and accepting support until July 27. And if this is not your first choice, I would encourage you to give what you can to something—earthquake, tornado victims, education, research, arts—all need our help. As I have learned, a little bit from a lot of people makes a huge difference.
Many thanks to all.
Another Texas wedding – relatively speaking
This time it is my niece’s wedding in Houston, Texas. My flight was on Southwest Airlines the week after the fuselage of a plane developed a gaping hole in the ceiling of the cabin at 30,000 feet, but all went well.
Friday, April 15, 2011
Although I arrived too late for a spectacular lunch at the country club hosted by the groom’s grandmother, I did arrive in time for the rehearsal and rehearsal dinner. To say there was ample food is a huge understatement.
Wedding Day – Saturday, April 16, 2011
The wedding was not until 5 p.m. on Saturday, so I had time to spare in the morning and afternoon. I needed space! After all, I was in Houston, a major space place.
So space it was until time for me to come back to earth and blast off to a star-studded wedding. I practiced retrieving objects in space on a simulator, saw the original John Glenn claustrophobic space capsule (appropriate name), gazed at rocks from the moon, imagined the taste of freeze-dried strawberries sealed in in plastic, and marveled at the immense Saturn rocket.
Many of the stars in this wedding had appeared in an earlier Texas wedding. But the constellation had rearranged itself and some stars now were shining brighter. The bride and groom were the brilliant ones this time. But you can see many stars here on flickr.
Tomorrow Emily and Sonny go east to Charleston and I go west to California. But we’ll meet again with this day to remember.
International Women’s Day
For International Women’s Day it seems fitting for me to celebrate my two grandmothers. Both faced steep challenges with grace and courage.
Anna Ayers Williams, my dad’s mother, was a suffragette in the early 1900s who worked for a time at Hull House in Chicago. She married a widower nearly twice her age, who had come to this country as a young coal miner from Wales and eventually became a Baptist minister in small Midwestern towns. He died when my father was six. She became a teacher in one-room schools in small Iowa towns where she and my father often lived with the families of her students.
She lived with us before her death when I was six and taught me to read, among many other things. I was named for her.
Eva Graham Law was my mother’s mother. She too was widowed at a young age when her husband fell from the roof of a barn he was helping a neighbor build. She had children aged one, three (my mother), five, and seven. To support her family she moved home to Des Moines where she ran a boarding house while working full-time as a clerk in a title company. She too lived with us for many years after she retired.
Both of my grandmother’s always managed to find enough money to help the “poor”.
Car Talk
Our aging Saturn had its right side mirror sheared off as the result of a too-close encounter with a garbage can left out in the road. The right taillight met a trailer hitch while I was backing out of the driveway last April. I had picked up the pieces and glued it back together as best I could. For some mysterious reason the cruise-control quit working a couple of months ago. So when the duct tape that was holding the right side mirror in place failed and the mirror was left dangling along the side of the car, it became clear that the time of action had arrived. I set off to find another car.
Past experience and research coerced me in the direction of a Honda. Probably a relatively recent Civic with moderate mileage. While a hybrid was appealing, the extra expense for minimal efficiency for our location in the mountains seemed foolish. I set out on the quest.
The ensuing events at Capitol Honda in San Jose led me down a different path. The result was the acquisition of a new Honda FIT for about the same amount I would have spent on a gently used Civic. This is the first all-new car I have ever purchased and so far I am not disappointed. The reviews are good and it seems to meet our need perfectly. I have already tried its cargo area. It is easy to get looms and spinning wheels in and out–and people too. We’ll see if it holds up over the long haul.
Peruvian Pebble Weave
In November there was Tinkuy de Tejedores (a gathering of weavers) in Peru. I would love to have gone, but it was not in the cards. Several people I know and/or have met from Guatemala, Bolivia, El Salvador, Chile and Peru, as well as the U.S., were going to be there. But more than that. The pre-Columbian weaving that is still being done in the highlands of Peru is incredible. No one should ever underestimate the ancestors.
Trying to learn a little about this weaving, I found an article by Doramay Keasbey in a Handwoven magazine from January/February 2000 that explained how to do Peruvian pebble weave on a floor loom (instead of the backstrap loom commonly used by Peruvian weavers). I put on a long warp and started weaving bookmarks.
I used the designs from the article and then branched out to try other possibilities. The bottom bookmark is from a Chinese lattice design. Lattices made from wood were used in window openings in China for many years and have been documented in a book I acquired some years ago. I also found a pre-Columbian Inca design, which is seen in the bookmark on the left.
Intrigued by this complex pick-up weave, I came across a recent publication by Laverne Waddington, a woman who lives in Bolivia with whom I had earlier corresponded about the ergonomic benches for backstrap weavers being developed by Synergo Arts. Laverne, who is from Australia, is a teacher of English and weaving who is doing an incredible job of learning, documenting, and teaching indigenous backstrap weaving. She has recently published an e-book through Weavezine on Andean Pebble Weave.
I think I see a backstrap loom in my future and further exploration of this and other pick up weaves. I just received the most recent Handwoven magazine (January/February 2011) with articles by both Doramay and Laverne on pick up weaves. Too much to do, too little time!
Intelligent Life on Earth?
As I watched this, a small, annoying fly walked across my computer screen. Its only faults are that it is not exquisite and it is in my way. We seek the gorgeous and the elusive in nature and despise those creatures that seek our company and need our presence to survive. Is this true on a human level too?
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Weaving by Bogo light
Living in the mountains, our electricity often disappears during the stormy winter months. It did today for the first time this year. A good alternative for illuminating important activities is the Bogo light, a solar powered flashlight with a bright LED bulb.
BOGO stands for Buy One, Give One. When you buy a flashlight, another one is sent to someone in the world who has no electricity.
Of course I use it only for important tasks like weaving, cooking, reading, and feeding the cat. Here it is suspended on a cord above my loom. I also have found that I can thread my raincoat sash through the loop at the top and hang it around my neck so I have light wherever I go. It has the additional advantage of being flat so it can be set on a surface and pointed in the right direction without rolling around. And an afternoon in the sunlight will charge it for a good six or seven hours worth of light. I love it.
Give Bogo lights as holiday presents. I did two Christmases ago. Here we all are with our Bogo lights.
Precinct 4689
On August 17 I worked as a Precinct Inspector at a special election. I could hardly hope for a better crew. I hope I get them again in November.
Tortilla Soup
Recently served at the 32nd annual summer Lunch on the Mountain (although we missed one year), this soup was deemed quite acceptable by all. The recipe came from Gourmet, May 1997, and was attributed to the Hotel Bel-Air in LA. This is the original recipe. However I often taken a few liberties with it depending on what we have on hand and never use as much oil as the recipe calls for. Continue reading
A Picnic and a Birthday
Dottie’s annual picnic took place at her house this year and happened to fall on Theresa’s birthday. What could I do but chronicle the action? Here is a peek at the festivities with a big THANKS to Dottie and HAPPY BIRTHDAY to Theresa.
Don’t miss the video from my friend Ken to help you decide Dottie’s fate.
Decking the Halls
A couple of weeks ago Tom, Brian, and Theresa arrived from Spokane and Portland to help build a new deck/stairway with a railing and wide steps that would help Gordon navigate from the house to the deck and points beyond. It was a stellar week for us, but a trial for Tom and Brian. It was the coldest, most miserable week of the winter. But they persevered with the help of classy rain gear Theresa found at a local Good Will. You can see the results here. Pretty classy stuff!
Mary Ann’s Borscht
With Christmas rapidly approaching I would be remiss not to share my sister-in-law’s recipe for Borscht. We have had a couple of opportunities to share this delicious Christmas Eve tradition from Mary Ann’s family and may have to adopt it ourselves. Continue reading
A Fine Feast! Dottie Does It Again
Dottie puts together a “little” picnic every year and has found the perfect spot for it at Henry Cowell State Park. This year there was a new participant, Chloe, who had a wonderous fine time, if I am any judge of dogs. Her human companions did too!
For openers there was a little brie to go on some crackers, some veggies (including a personal favorite, asparagus) with appropriate dips and some crunchable, munchable corn chips. Wash it down with a little champagne under a canopy of trees with a river nearby on a balmy autumn day–
Chloe, the dog, settled right in while we continued on with perfect barbecued chicken, two salads, and, of course, Dottie’s homemade bread. The table decor was not too shabby either, with light blue table cloth, blue checkered napkins, dark blue plates, and a few white cyclamens And dessert and coffee, a walk along the river, what more can I say. The day was not lost on either man or beast.
To our hostess, a thousand thanks for one day in a million.
Dining with Chef Jeff and Susan
A fantastic birthday gift evening with Jeff and Susan Huff, both of whom worked in our restaurant in the ’80s cooking dinner for us at our house. The food and conversation rivaled each other for excellence. Jeff now teaches at the Culinary Academy in Monterey.
Rah
Rah, a truly fine cat, came to live with us for six months toward the end of his span of years. Lymphoma cut short his life with us on the mountain.
