Hollyhock Farms

Things that go bump in the day

We had the distinct pleasure of watching two sets of fawns cavorting around our property the past few months.  They would spend their time on the hill behind our place, waiting for the doe to return and feed them.  They were quite comfy with us around and we with them.  We convinced our dogs that they were not something we wanted them to pursue and all was well.  Occasionally, we would see the mother lead them carefully across the road and we would hold our breaths as cars would see the deer and slow down.  This was not the case a week or so ago.  Some yahoo in a jeep came barreling down our road and spooked one of the fawns and it was hit and killed.  The driver hardly  broke off the gas and continued on his way.  Things like this irritate me...not so much that the car hit the fawn, but that some of us take life so cavaliereshly.  I actually hit a deer a few yeara ago...it came out of nowhere at night and I didn't have time to even hit the brake.  This was not the case with the jeep driver.  He was on a mission and the life of a fawn was the farthest thing from his mind.  That's sad.

This is a Holy Mackeral Kingfish item

We had a ferile cat that had four kittens under our flower shop.  The kittens were named Tabby, Blackie, long-haired goldie and Morris.  The mother cat, a beautiful calico was very cautious at first but eventually warmed up to letting us almost pet it.  The kittens grew into cats yet the family stayed together, playing roughhouse and generally being cute.  Then a few days ago, I spotted the mother dead in the middle of our lane...run over by a car.  I placed her in a small box and set her outside the garage and intended to bury her after getting shovel and pick.  Kim spotted a couple of her offspring peeking in the box. As I was preparing her grave under our one walnut tree, I spotted the Tabby cat sitting and watching me from about fifteen feet away...and I did something I couldn't do while she was alive...I petted her.  I finshed and finally left. Later that evening Kim spotted the Morris cat sitting directly on top of her grave.  We can learn a lot just by observing.  Animals never cease to amaze me.

My new sisters

You've heard of the 6 degrees of separation regarding our relationship of others...well, I have a new offering.  The 4 degrees of cohesion.  I have four new sisters.  How did I do that?  Simple...Kim and I had the absolute pleasure of having four sisters, Shari, Debbie, Beverly and Janet as guests recently.  The experience was simply one of complete synergy.  Personnaly, I don't think I have ever been with a group of people where I felt like I had been part of their life for decades.  All of them...every last one of them, reminded me of my incredible sister in Massachusetts...and their outlook in life was so apparent in the outpouring of their spirits.  Here is where it gets a little sappy...they were collectively DCAs...those who know me can fit that bit of cryptic stuff into the right setting.  Compassion, Understanding and Love...standard, but incredibly important, ingredients of life perfectly demonstrated by my new adopted sisters.  I look forward to their return.

The human melting pot

Talk about diversity...you wouldn't believe the incredible range in histories of people who visit us.  In the past week we had a club singer from Berlin...a seventh generation Californian whose ancestors go back to the early Spanish landgrants, a professor of Classic Greek Studies from UCLA and two graduate students, one of whom was heavy into wind turbines.  It is all a bit heady...the world is getting smaller.  It makes one want to quote poetry..."Pale hands I loved beside the Shalimar...where are you now?..who lies beneath your spell...whom do you lead on rapture's roadway far...until you agonize them in...farewell?  Oooh, two whoms in one paragraph...that's heady! Want another whom?  "...never send to know for whom the bell tolls...it tolls for thee." Mr. Robin Merrill...you have quite a voice!