christmas 2009: a confession

Every year in my family we do a secret santa gift exchange. My mother has two sisters and a brother, and two of those siblings have spouses and children. Between two uncles, three aunts, four cousins (and two cousins' boyfriends), and two grandparents (not to mention my own immediate family and the sister of my uncle, and her husband) there are a lot of gifts to be given.
I was lucky enough to draw my mother's wonderfully artistic and talented eldest sister, Jan, in the secret Santa drawing two years ago, and with just a month before Christmas, I bit off much more than I could chew. I spent my $50 limit on about two dozen balls of mercerized cotton yarn in a variety of colors, intending to knit a log cabin throw I found in the fabulous book Mason-Dixon Knitting. It's a very simple garter stitch pattern, and I knit sixteen of the 18-row panels, and presented the unfinished piece to her on Christmas Day with the promise to finish it. However, it is a year an a half later, I've barely touched it. I feel so guilty about this gift, because I should have finished it and given it to her completed that Christmas, and at the very least, had the decency to give it the attention it deserved after the fact, and finish it in a reasonable amount of time.

Now, however, I'm picking up this piece again, and I intend to finish it. She deserves it.

"I never saw a moor, I never saw the sea; Yet know I how the heather looks, And what a wave must be."

- Emily Dickinson




Today was one of those great days when you get home at the end of it and you're completely worn out. This morning I had drawing class; we're drawing undraped models right now, and I've been turning out some of my best work yet, which is so satisfying, but I definitely leave class exhausted. Nathan picked me up after class, and we had lunch together before he went to work and I met up with my dad.
The weather was so incredible today - the sun was warm, but the air was cool and breezy, and the sky was full of beautiful white clouds. We decided to take the dog out to West Marin, which is one of my favorite places on earth.




If you drive out through the redwoods of Samuel P. Taylor park, and through Inverness towards Drake's Beach and the lighthouse, the land is all historic ranch land, and protected (there are a couple small ranches still, so there are cows everywhere) - just rolling green hills in every direction. No houses, no stores, just the occasional old barn. I've never been to the UK, but I've always imagined these hills in West Marin look like the moors in southern England (like the ones one has read about in Wuthering Heights and The Secret Garden, for example..that's where my moor knowledge comes from).

This is Drakes Bay - Sir Francis Drake likely landed here during his expedition of the world in 1579. He compared these cliffs to the white cliffs of Dover. It isn't very obvious in this picture, but the cliff faces are all white - they really do look like pictures I've seen of Dover. Very windswept and romantic.

 

We had no plan and no time constraints, so we drove until the road ended. What we found was sort of amazing - a short trail led to a vista which overlooked a cove where dozens and dozens of elephant seals were sleeping on a little beach! We could see little white seal pups, and there was a huge elephant seal bull which stayed in the water about ten feet out from shore. He barked towards the ocean, warning off other males, I guess. Because the way the cove curved around, his barks bounced off the water and cliffs - even though we were really far away, it was still so loud.

This picture isn't very good (I just took it with my phone, and used the zoom, which is awful), but you can see how many seals there were. I can't wait to go back with binoculars and my real camera.

Here's my dad and the dog, Boris. He's a husky, and very rambunctious, but very sweet. He howled and pulled at the leash when he heard the elephant seals barking. The path to the outlook was protected so we had to put Boris back in the car, but he could hear them from the parking lot, and was very excited.

The last hundred yards of the road down to Chimney Rock (the place where we found the elephant seal outlook) was just big enough for one car, and had no fences on either side, so the cows were really really close!

It was a really lovely day. I was happy to spend time with my dad, and the landscape and weather were perfection.

“Just living is not enough... One must have sunshine, freedom, and a little flower.”

- Hans Christian Andersen





After nearly two weeks of rain and dreary weather, it feels like spring is here at last. Walking from my car to work, the sidewalk was lined with pretty little flowers, and patches of moss and green grass. The sun was shining, and birds were chirping. It was awfully idyllic - it's too bad I have to spend the day indoors working, but work will make tomorrow (drawing class in the morning, an afternoon of freedom after) much more sweet.