Busy Week

This has been a totally busy week. I enjoyed a nice, long bus ride with the seniors on Monday, to Daffodil Hill, on a road several miles outside of Sutter Creek. The day was beautiful, with great weather and scenery, especially along the winding, hilly road from Sutter Creek to Daffodil Hill, in Volcano. There were pretty homes, pastures with livestock, including a couple of wild turkeys, and woods.

Daffodil Hill was a disappointment, in that we had been trying for a couple of years to visit the place, and it has been closed each time. This time we actually went that far, only to have a man on the property put up a closed sign after we got there. There were plenty of flowers, but apparently soggy ground from all the rain in previous days kept us from being allowed beyond the gate. I have read about Daffodil Hill in my garden books, and have seen photos, but I still have not walked the acres and experienced the wonderful blossoms firsthand.

There was a peacock in all his finery, showing off for the two peahens wandering around. They weren’t paying any attention to him at all, but he was quite a sight. At least he gave me something to photograph. I also managed a few flower photos, and the gentleman who had locked us out brought a beautiful daffodil specimen and stuck it in the top of the chain link fence, stating that it was a rare one, with two blossoms at the top of one stem. The blossoms had white petals with pink trumpets.

We continued on to Jackson, to the casino for lunch, then left shortly after that for San Pablo. I arrived home a couple of hours before leaving for the City Council Meeting. The fate of Circle S Mobile Home Park was discussed a bit further, and the Council voted to continue with the Negative Declaration. It was also mentioned that this will be a long process.

I spoke with Mayor Gomes yesterday at the Senior Center, just as I arrived there for lunch. He was on the way out the door and stopped to greet me as I walked in. He told me that he favors the idea of manufactured housing for the site, and will not support shipping everyone off to the planned apartment site on Giant Road beside the railroad tracks. We had a pleasant visit.

I have been busy really cleaning out my bedroom. It has been the site of stored boxes, paintings, and many other items, since I moved in. For the past few months, I have sorted items, planning to sell most of them, so that I’ll be thinned out enough to move when the time comes. This week, I got totally serious about finishing the bedroom job, and as of today, I am about done. The objects which I shall keep have been rearranged in there, for better traffic flow, and more floor space so that I can walk around more easily and not feel as though I am sleeping in a closet full of stuff.

Of course, the living room is a mess now, because I have moved many boxes to that staging area, before putting them in the van at various times to go to markets on Sundays. I am finding, however, that I can talk myself into getting rid of things much more easily that I have in the past. It’s, like, out of here. I have also managed to clean out some of the kitchen cupboards in the past couple of weeks, as there were antiques stored in them, and have also packed up knickknacks that were on the countertops, deciding that I no longer plan to keep them.

The books are becoming more and more organized. They were scattered through all rooms, but are now just about totally sorted into boxes to sell, with the keepers on the shelves. At one point I had over 1000 listed on Amazon for sale, but I removed 700 or more when the competition became too great and I had to lower the prices to a point where I was losing money. Those books, plus very many more that I couldn’t list on Amazon, have become flea market stock. So far, I have done rather well selling them. I can’t wait until they are gone, so that I can reclaim my living room.

I had thought that I might go to the Palace of the Legion of Honor today to enjoy some art, but somehow I am in this groove, or rut, of trying to get a job done with all the packing of stuff. Another time, I guess.