Did some gardening at the house under renovation to try to have things somewhat orderly months from now when I return. Even got some lemons from my tree and trimmed a path for walking by. I’m especially thrilled at how well the cacti are doing and gave some loving homes in planters to the new agave that I got from Manny and Wendell.
How amazing is Teena, who gifted me the exact Barbra Streisand doll in a sailor suit that I had inches from where the fire started in my home? Just like the one I had for twenty years, this one was still in the box! We had to guess a number from the waiter and I lost, so she ended up getting our amazing lunch for us at Provisions in Vallejo with her husband, J.D. I had to hold back tears at the perfection of this gift, just a few weeks before my birthday.
You can only imagine the number of sailor suits I made sure that my daughter, Alexandra, wore. Below is a picture of Alex when she is two (thirty years ago) wearing one of those sailor suits in front of the Metropolitan Museum of Art in Manhattan. I remember her walking in public for one of the first times in this photo and she was such a sight to behold that an entire busload of tourists were fixated on her.
Major progress on the house today, even from last week. Roof and front garden are being dealt with, the entire subfloor was replaced as of last week, and now I have a cool video to show the progress.
Feel free to check out the Q2 issue of the Glen Cove Community Association newsletter for our neighborhood. I write a President’s Letter article, but this quarter I had to include the sad story of the fire on January 18. I’m still proud of how professional our team delivers this online periodical each time. See Slideshow version here.
Strange to see my house like this, but pleased to see so much progress being made.
Brought some of my wind spinners over to the rental so it feels a little bit more like home while I wait for the house to be renovated. They were being surrounded by bamboo and weeds that I’m unable to fully tend to for now, so I might as well enjoy them in the interim.
This is what the Wellfleet backyard roughly looks like these days:
Some of you may remember from last year that a dove couple nested in the plastic wreath on my front porch and successfully raised two gorgeous chicks there until one day they were gone. That was all documented on my blog. I wonder if they’re the same dove couple that I regularly saw at the back of the house who were wandering on the little sidewalk in my backyard with the absence of dogs as it is scorched.
I wondered recently where they will nest, since the wreath burned in the fire. I wonder if they will have the wherewithal to return in the spring of 2026 if I am able to construct something similar, or will they be so disoriented from the interruption of the fire to be able to resume the one-year tradition?
Front page Vallejo Times Herald article today mentioned the five souls I lost in the fire and the pet grieving events I was already actively trying to facilitate with Kathryn D. Marocchino and Carlene Coury. Hopefully this will trigger more donations in their memory in the link listed at the bottom of the article. I do like knowing that their memory will help other cats and dogs find homes and have better lives.