Changes in the air

Still in the mountains but these days the temperature is rather high, seams like summer. A lot of lizards are coming out to lay in the sun. Ben and Eva spend most of their time chassing them ...they finally caught one today!

Bill was called to replace someone at a job site in Modesto area for a couple of weeks. He left Monday and will be back on Saturday to drive us all up there on Sunday ...normaly a 7 hour drive but 8 or 9 with the bus.

The kids and I have started school on Monday. Our first scheduled, structured day in a long time. It's not that they haven't learned anything lately because everyday is a learning experience. The history of the different places we visit, social study when we meet and talk with people from different background or nationality. Our breakfasts can turn into a geography class when I make pancakes as each one is an Island from all around the world. A small idea can also turn into a whole day project! But after all this we still decided to have a little more structure and routines. Bill and I sat down and spent an entire afternoon ( thanks to Grandma for keeping the children entertained) planning school schedule, who will teach what and weekly routines , leaving plenty of time for spontaneity, projects of all sorts and field trips.
I had forgotten what it is to have a structured day. I like it. Even if things change along the day, and they often do, it's nice to have a plan. I got to do and accomplish so much more.

Sunday night I set up the alarm clock, something I never do. It took me a while to figure out how it worked. It's one with CDs so you wake up to the sound of music instead of a horrible buzzer. I don't think I could do it otherwise. Anyway, I got time to do some exercises and yoga before the darlings woke up. By that time I was ready for them, well awake and energized. I'd love to make it my morning routine. Self discipline is not one of my many qualities :)
Now that I have witnesses I'll have to keep it up!

Sylviane

Lots of wild animals here at Mom’s house

Our bus is parked about 150 yards up from My Mom’s house. It’s been a great visit for us all, and the kids are loving this time with Grandma.
I was happy to see our friends Mellissa, Ryan and their kids come to visit us here in Crestline a week ago. It was fun to see the kids play together again. They were in Joyschool (a neighborhood preschool, taught by the moms) together when we lived in Poway.

Early Wednesday morning Isabel saw two quail through the window of the bus. Sierra, Ben and Eva came to the window and saw them too. I didn’t see the quail then but did see them Friday. These mountain quails are bigger than the ones I see around San Diego area.

Thursday I was sitting in the slide out talking to Ryan. Ryan was facing me and all the sudden he blurted out "hey, there is a bear out there". I turned around and, no kidding, there was a huge bear lumbering up the hill toward the bus. We called out to all the kids and they came over to see it. Every one saw the bear through the big windows of our slide out. The kids were so excited, they were yelling and talking loud. Shhhh.... be quiet guys.... but hey, can’t really blame them for being excited. The bear heard our noise and stopped. He looked at us but then went on about his business of walking slowly toward the bus. No one had a camera at hand so I wanted to try the video camera. I tried to be quite as I opened the window but the click noise of the window latch made the bear move away. It’s rare to see bears up here. I have only seen one about five times in the last 40 years. In the past 10 or 15 years Mom has seen bears more often than when I lived here. This was by far the biggest bear I have seen up here.

I was walking down the dirt road to Mom’s when I saw this cat dashing behind the big fir tree over to an old tree log. It looked much bigger than a bobcat and I figured it was a mountain lion, it made my heart beat a bit faster. It crawled up on top of the old log and bounced down on the other side. Then it crept up along the side of the log. The cat must have been hunting something judging from the way it was moving. As it came to the end of the log it faced me, I was about 30 yards away, I could see the toughs of fur on its face. It was obvious that this was a bobcat. The tail was short, maybe four or six inches long. I stood as still as possible. After a few seconds of staring at me he went on about his searching. I slowly moved away and back to the bus to get the camera but it was too late. By the time I came back it was gone.

On Monday the kids also saw a coyote walking down by Mom’s house. It has been so cool to see so many animals! I am especially pleased that everyone was able to see the big bear.

Bill

My favorite castle

I just added some pictures of the "chateau de Chillon" in our photo gallery. We visited it during our trip to Switzerland last March like we do every time I go back home. It's located on the shore of the Leman lake (also called geneva lake but I don't find it appropriate since there is so much more around it than Geneva) a 40 minute drive from were I grew up. I really like this castle because they managed to keep it the way it was, furniture and all, no fake partitions or modern wall coverings so you can get a good feel of how it looked back then. Here's a page on someone's opinion of the castle and a little history and for more reading and picture here's the castle site.

Enjoy!

Sylviane

Happy Easter

Today we have a nice sunny sky, perfect for an egg hunt. It’s a nice change since the weather has been pretty foggy, wet and quite chilly. It’s when I realize that I’ve turned into a true San Diegan now, I can’t handle the cold like I used to. Thanks goodness for the wood burning stove even though we’re having some trouble with it at the moment. The smoke is come in but that’s a different story... Bill is investigating it!

The children have been decorating cardboard eggs with construction paper to hang on the Easter tree. I also dyed some eggs with natural colorants. I find the result much more pleasant compare to the chemical dyes that are brighter and aggressive to the eyes. I brought a nice variety of woods, barks, herbs and other natural colorant from Switzerland a couple of years ago. They are all kept, except for two which I had in the bus with me, in one of the 20 bins that are stored in a shed here, at Bill's mom's. The problem is that we couldn’t find the list in time to know which bin they were in and I didn’t feel like going through all of them so we ended up with only two different colors of eggs... a fuschia from dried up bugs "cochenilles", yes bugs, and a light brown from the dried up outer shell of the walnut "brou de noix" which I also used to stain my kitchen cabinets!
Today, Bill found the list :) Our goal for next week... GETTING ORGANISED, seriously!

While raking leaves last week, we found a beautiful bird nest that had fallen on the ground. The work that a bird can do with its beak is astonishing. The inside was made out off dirt or clay just like a very thin bowl and the rest was built with little sticks. It made a nice addition to our Easter decorations.

We wish you all a Happy Easter and a colorful spring... Enjoy nature and the outdoors!

Sylviane

Soupe aux orties

This is a good time of year to collect stinging nettle. We are here at my mom’s house in Crestline, it’s just down the hill a bit from Lake Arrowhead and Big Bear. The kids and I saw a bunch of young stinging nettle plants over by the water tank. Sylviane’s family has always collected the nettle to make soup. It has vitamins A, C, D, iron, potassium, manganese, and calcium. Lots of good food value. Here is a link to wikipedia about stinging nettle, down toward the bottom of this link it talks about the food value.

I know it seems weird. This plant that will sting you and give you a rash is so good to eat. After getting some gloves and scissors we went back and collected enough to fill half of a large paper grocery bag.

Here is the recipe that comes from Sylviane’s mom.


Bluette’s Recipe for: Soupe aux orties (Stinging Nettle soup)

Wear gloves to collect, get the young plants. Do not eat if the plant has already blossomed. We picked the ones that were 8 inches or less in height. Once back at the bus we washed the plants with water, cut off the leaves and discarded the stems. We then minced the leaves.

Chopped an onion and sauté until soft
Add about 6 medium potatoes, peeled and cubed to ½ inch, then sprinkle with a tablespoon of flour. Sauté for about a minute then add water to cover potatoes by 3 inches or so.
Season to taste (we used vegetable bouillon)

Cook until potatoes are soft.
Use a wire whisk to break up the potatoes to almost an smooth texture.

It is delicious. :)

Bill

The ducklings

Once I was looking out the window and I saw ten little ducklings walking around the campground with their mom close to our bus. I went to call Mom to see them. Then they all went under the bus and when I went to the other side I saw them drinking water close to where we would get our water. And I also saw three ducklings at Disneyland.They were all so so cute!

Eva