Linda Mau is a well-known clay artist in the San Francisco Bay area. She has made some marvelously creative things. You can see more of her very professional work at http://lmau.com . Linda is also my sister-in-law. Her clay art is simply stunning.
When Linda, allows me to own something she has created, I know it’s bound to be very special. Here are a selection of small treasures she’s given me. Most of them are useful as well. There’s nothing big here because it had to travel home in a suitcase or come through the mail.
The strawberry bowl is designed to show off the berries as well as hold them. It’s one of my favorites.
The lady usually sits among my flowers
The photo doesn’t show her beautiful color well. She’s a lovely medium brown and looks so pretty in my garden. Linda gave her to my mother, and when we were closing my mother’s home, I took the lady home with me.
A paper bowl, two hearts, and a butterfly of a dish
I never dreamed so much could be made of paper. This little bowl has bits of flowers and such made into the paper. It once had a handle of twigs. The gray heart honors Scott and Tina’s wedding day. The white heart is a pin, beautiful in its simplicity. The turquoise blue dish is another favorite. It is so light and delicate you think you’ll break it if you touch it, but it’s strong.
This tray was destined for the garbage can. It's a failed experiment, but I love it.
On this tray are two silver bells from my mother-in-law’s collection, a trinket from my daughter Lisa, and a broken bit of honeycomb. They rest on a fancy napkin given me by another daughter. Linda planned to throw the tray away because the experiment didn’t work. The clay edges were crumbling off the wire on the edges. I loved it with its imperfections and begged to be allowed to rescue it from the trash.
The blue tea box keeps my tea bags fresh. A square for used bags is ready next to it.
The last time I visited, Linda gave me a lovely tea caddy. It’s exactly the right shape and size for the tea bags.
Find out more about Linda’s art and where you can see it at http://lmau.com . Here are more references to her work
Marilynne
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Annie sent me an update on Chica’s progress.
Here they are, housemates and playmates — hangin’ out together. BooBoo, the cat (Apex predator and King-of-the Household, is looking after newly spayed Chica. BooB00 probably does not understand why Chica isn’t her usual zippy self. I’m keeping her slowed down with pain/sedation pills 4x a day. Chica spent last night in bed with me. We both thought it was great. I brought her upstairs because I thought if she wanted to go out in the middle of the night I wanted to hear her. She didn’t. She loved being under the covers. I did, too, but I didn’t get enough sleep. I kept waking up to check on her.
BooBoo hanging with Chica
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Annie’s Blogging about Chica
Our guest blogger today is my friend Annie Holmes. Her darling little Chica has had surgery. Chica is so little, I asked Annie if the vet had performed microsurgery on her.
Update on Chica
Here is six-month-old Chica — still intact. Tomorrow morning at 8 AM I will deliver her to the vet and she will be spayed. We will all be worried sick about her until we know she will be all right. Handsome feels the same way. Just look at him. If anything happened to her, he would die of a broken heart. He adores her so.
Chica knows lots of words now. She knows let’s go, come, stay, sit, Dudley, Annie, cookie, drink of water, walk, ride in the car, Handsome, dog food, go upstairs, get into bed, dog park and some others I can’t remember at the moment. She loves her toys. Everything is a toy to her, especially Handsome and Dudley’s slippers.
Vet says no food after ten. Not to worry. Everyone in this house is in bed by 9 PM.
Handsome watches over his friend Chica
Surgery Day
I took Chica in at 8 AM. The surgery was around noon. I just brought her home at 3:30 this afternoon. She’s right here beside me in her little cat-carrier hideout. She’s a tired puppy. She also had her four canine teeth taken out, so her mouth is sore as well as her belly. Gosh, I hope she doesn’t remember any of it. She’s sedated and somewhat groggy, but has welcomed a few drops of water. I have pain pills, and antibiotic stuff for her. She seemed more alert before I drove her home. I think she knows she’s home now. Her eyes keep drifting down. Both BooBoo [the cat] and Handsome are right here, motionless and quiet, as close as they can get, keeping vigil. Along with me.
Day After Surgery
She walks! She eats, she pees. She’s making little tiny frustrated squeaking noises at her ball-with-the-treat-stuffed-inside. She can’t pick it up because she has no canines at present. She has a good appetite and I was able to get both the pain meds and the antibiotic stuff aboard with a bit of thin-sliced roast beef. Handsome was curious at first, and now is quite gentle with her. He’s probably happy she isn’t using those lost canines on him anymore. She got her first rabies shot yesterday, along with everything else, so I am writing a check to send with the form to Animal Services.
Chica got so quiet I just had to peek around the desk to see where she was, and she is asleep in her lair (BooBoo’s cat carrier). That thing is her refuge, her “safe place.” She crawls under that (now stinky) old quilted silk jacket and goes fast asleep. The vet’s office just called to see how she is and I said she seems fine. Here she is in her lair. Chica has her own page on the vet’s website.
Chica feels safe snuggled with an old silk coat, in her carrier
Later
Chica seems just fine now. She’s come out of her hideaway and curled up with Handsome. Now when she goes to the dog park, she won’t be talking about boys with the young pups, she’ll be with the old ladies talking about her operation.
If you want to read all of Annie’s blogs, just choose the Category “Guest Bloggers” and you can see them. Thanks for stopping by.
Marilynne
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Today’s guest blogger is Annie Holmes. I’ve written a lot about my friend Annie Holmes, artist, writer, dog lover, and sail boat enthusiast. Today she sent me a photo taken of her long ago and published more than once by the photographer. Shows you that a good photo never dies.
Annie writes: This photo is nearly 20 years old. It is one of a series taken by Bob Grieser, professional boat photographer, who sells photos to advertisers, publications, etc. Meggie and I were just out tooling around Shelter Island basin one day when Grieser showed up in his skiff and asked to take pictures. I said sure. He gave me one of the slides way back when, and it’s fun to see other images from that shoot show up now and again. Makes me realize how much fun we had and how much I miss Miss Megan the Australian Wonder Dog.
January 2010 issue of Sailing Magazine
Sailing with a dog is great fun – especially if the dog is well-behaved and likes to go with you anywhere. It also helps if the dog is a good swimmer and isn’t afraid of the water. In my case Miss Megan was the best sailing dog in the world. She knew HOW to sail. She knew to go to the high side of the boat as I tacked and because of her instinctive ability, I didn’t have to change sides each time I tacked the boat. Meggie was “moving ballast.”
Meggie and I probably put 10,000 miles on that dinghy. It's an antique El Toro, named HOT YOT.
Meggie was a purebred Australian Shepherd, my favorite breed of dog. She was so in tune with her humans, you almost didn’t have to give her a command. She just knew what you wanted, and she’d do it. Besides being a good sailing companion, Meggie was a beloved therapy dog, visiting the sick and the elderly in two different hospitals. Our biggest adventure together was probably our trip up to Oregon (from San Diego) in my old ’76 camper. We went to get a boat that was given to me. [That adventure is another story. Ed.] We stopped all along the way and hiked the beaches, shopped in the little towns, stayed with friends, and she protected me at night, when we slept in the camper. Well, she would have if anyone had bothered us. No one did, but it was a great feeling of security to know she was there, sleeping or sitting in the front seat, keeping watch while I slept.
If you want a dog to like the water, don’t force it into the water. Dogs are naturally good swimmers, but it must be their idea. If you toss a dog into the water to “teach” it to swim, it will never go near the water. Just get her used to being near the water, walk in and out yourself, swim and act like you are having a good time in the water. Eventually the dog will want to join in. THEN you can teach them to rescue you in the water, or sail in a small dinghy, or ride with you in a kayak or canoe. Meggie loved it all, and I miss her great heart and spirit to this day, even after a decade without her.
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