Katy Dickinson

Fennel Finches

There are many reasons to grow your own fennel, if your garden is big enough. You can cook with it (eating both the seeds and the plant itself), and it is adored by tiger swallowtail butterflies and finches. Here in San Jose, California, I have a patch of fennel that grows taller than our garage. For the last month, a flock of finches has been shrieking and gobbling happily in our fennel. Once the plant has seeded and dried out, John cuts it to the ground, leaving the bulbs to grow again in the spring. Fennel is messy, propagates freely, and needs no water once established, so pick a big sunny spot for it to colonize.

I have been trying to take pictures of finches in my fennel but the birds fly away if I get too close (and from far away, my camera has trouble focusing on the tiny birds among the billowing green leaves and yellow seed heads).

Images Copyright 2009 by Katy Dickinson

Posted at 11:06AM Sep 20, 2009 by katysblog in Home & Family  |  Comments[0]

Last Back to School Night

My son Paul is a Senior at Paly (Palo Alto High School) this year. I went to our final "Back to School" parents' night last week. Starting at 6:45 pm on 10 September, I followed Paul's daily schedule, managed to find all of his classrooms (crisscrossing the big campus as it grew dark), and talked with all of his teachers.

Paul is happy to be taking Geology, Advanced Sculpture, and Algebra-2 all year. He was surprised at how much he is also enjoying his semester-long Living Skills and Economics classes. Next semester, Economics is replaced by Sociology/History, and Living Skills is replaced by World Literature. Paul also has a Study Skills period so that he gets regular support for his learning disabilities. Paul is enjoying being the big guy in most of his classes this year, both as a Senior and because he stands almost six feet tall.

During the last three-plus years, we have found Paly to be either a good college preparatory school or a good school to support teens with physical and learning disabilities. Paly seems to do much less well teaching and supporting average kids. My family's struggles with Paly have often been because Paul is in two groups which have no provision for overlap: he is intelligent and college-bound, and he has disabilities. Paly has good classes and services for one group or the other. Paly teachers are often excellent but we have also run into some who have minimal abilities (or desire) to support disabled students, despite our Individualized Education Program (IEP).

I observe that Palo Alto Unified School District (PAUSD) teachers and administrators are under growing stress from overcrowded aging facilities plus social problems such as the increasing number of High School suicides in Palo Alto. We will leave Paly in June with mixed feelings.

Images Copyright 2009 by Katy Dickinson

Posted at 12:29PM Sep 17, 2009 by katysblog in Home & Family  |  Comments[0]

Summer Stuff

My daughter Jessica had a successful summer being the web intern for the World Organization for Human Rights USA in Washington, D.C. She also worked in a bike shop.

This is the season for roses, resurrection lilies, yarrow, cactus and other heat-loving plants to bloom in my garden.

St. Andrew's Episcopal Church sent a hundred campers off to Camp Oskie (which for that week becomes Camp St. Andrew's) at the Lair of the Golden Bear, the University of California at Berkeley Alumni family camp in Pinecrest, California. On Scarf Sunday, everyone comes to church to show off their new St. Andrew's Camp scarves, tell camp stories, and sing. This year's theme was Safari, so the altar was flanked by a life-sized cardboard tiger and lion. Leopard print was the fashion for the day.

Images Copyright 2009 Katy Dickinson

Cross-posted from my new blog at http://katysblog.wordpress.com

Posted at 11:37PM Aug 14, 2009 by katysblog in Home & Family  | 

New Cockatiels

Two new cockatiels	Two new cockatiels
New cage	John and new cockatiels

After our beloved 15-year-old pet Princess Birdie died earlier this summer, we started working with Mickaboo to adopt two cockatiels. Mickaboo is an all-volunteer organization in the San Francisco Bay Area dedicated to rescuing companion birds who have been neglected, abused, injured or surrendered. Or, as their home page says, they are “bird-loving people who want to change the world – one bird at a time.”

After sending-in-the-application and going-to-the-class and being-interviewed-by-phone and being-visited-at-home, Mickaboo approved us to adopt. As a result of what we learned during this extensive pre-adoption process, we bought a bigger bird cage, better bird toys, and different food. We then sent emails to several Mickaboo homes fostering cockatiel pairs to find out about their birds. Last weekend, we went to San Francisco to visit two birds we saw on Mickaboo’s web site and we fell in love. Our two new guys are great singers of duets and will be named Simon & Garfunkel. We are very excited that they will be coming home soon!

Cross-posted from my new blog at http://katysblog.wordpress.com

Posted at 05:53PM Aug 14, 2009 by katysblog in Home & Family  |  Comments[1]

Workshop Done

My husband, John Plocher, has almost finished rebuilding the formerly-termite-infested walls and roof of our garage-turned-model-train-room-and-workshop. You can see his progress in my blog posts:

• John versus the termites (6 May 2009)
• Cupola Update (14 May 2009)
• Roofing the Workshop and Cupola (3 June 2009)

Since 3 June, the newly restored space has been sheet rocked and painted. John has redistributed the tools, cabinets, and stuff which had been jammed into the train room. Now, most of the model train stuff is in one room and most of the tools are in the other; both rooms are clean and usable. This project has required an unreasonable amount of work but John now has his space mostly as he wants it. We even have room for family storage!

The cupola was worth the extra effort. As we hoped, it defines, lights, and cools the space. Here is the progress of our unusual architectural feature:

Early May: cupola hole

Mid-May: framed cupola, windows

Early June: roofed cupola

Early July: sheet rocked

Mid-July: siding finished

Late July: paint

Late July: fan in

Images Copyright 2009 Katy Dickinson

Posted at 10:24PM Jul 30, 2009 by katysblog in Home & Family  |  Comments[1]

Cactus Valentine

About six months ago, my husband, John Plocher carved me a cactus valentine. He got the idea from a cactus we saw at Poot's House of Cactus in Ripon, California. Our carved cactus is one of the many huge prickly pear Opuntia or nopales paddle cactuses in our yard. Before our neighborhood of houses was built in Willow Glen, local historians tell us that there was a chicken farm and a prickly pear cactus farm on the land.

John says he was inspired to take a knife to the cactus by it poking him one too many times while he was working in the garage. I admit I did not notice his creation until he pointed it out but it makes a funny addition and does not bother the cactus.

Images Copyright 2009 Katy Dickinson

Posted at 10:17AM Jul 10, 2009 by katysblog in Home & Family  | 

50th Wedding Anniversary at Loon Lake

My husband, John Plocher, and Paul and I traveled to Loon Lake, Wisconsin, last week to celebrate John's parents' 50th wedding anniversary. We spent the week on a variety of boats and enjoying family in the 75-year-old cottage. There were 9 grandchildren (ages 17 to 3: Micah, Paul, Nathaniel, Gabriel, Leah, Malachai, Zacharias, Isaiah, and Mashayla) who chased caterpillars and crawdads, went fishing with Grandpa, played cards and boardgames and went swimming as often as possible. We missed my daughter Jessica who has an internship this summer in Washington, D.C. The grownups cooked and cleaned, fixed up the cottage, and drove the boats. John and I paddled the canoe from Loon Lake, through a beaver dam, across Washington Lake, to Shawano Lake and back.

This year on Osprey Island in the middle of Loon Lake were one nesting pair of Loons, two pair of Ospreys, and one pair of Bald Eagles plus a blue heron, mallard ducks, and uncountable songbirds. The loons sang to us all night.

Presenting the Silver Tray

Proud Mom, 3 Sons

50th Anniversary Cake

White water lily

Naomi and grandkids in the lake

Loon Lake Sunset

John playing

Micah with John's hat

Paul tubing behind the speedboat

Grandkids in a row

Bald Eagle with 2 babies in nest

Loon Lake Cottage

Images Copyright 2009 Katy Dickinson and John Plocher

Posted at 05:18PM Jun 29, 2009 by katysblog in Home & Family  |  Comments[1]

Sick Cockatiel

Our 15-year-old Cockatiel "Princess Birdie" has been very ill recently. She had a bacterial and fungal infection and spent several days in the For the Birds hospital:

For the Birds
Fern Van Sant DVM
1136 South De Anza Blvd., Suite B
San Jose, California 95129
(408) 255-1739

Our family learned how to give medicine and nursing to a creature the size of my hand. She also has new perches for her cages (one in the kitchen and the other in my office) and new food. Birdie is now feeling much better.

Images Copyright 2009 Katy Dickinson

Posted at 04:01PM Jun 13, 2009 by katysblog in Home & Family  | 

Paul is a Senior

My 16-year-old son Paul has had a rough year. Our family's continuing medical adventure began when Paul started having chronic and severe headaches in January. We have spent the last six months with Pediatricians, Neurologists, Neurosurgeons, Pain Specialists, Psychologists and Psychiatrists, Occupational and Physical Therapists, and Nurse practitioners. Recently, Paul has benefited from Chiropractic care in addition to the medicines provided by the Pain Management Clinic at Packard Children's Hospital.

Yesterday was Paul's last day at the Packard Hospital School. He is now a Senior in High School and is looking forward to going back to Paly in September. The Hospital School has a good art, theater, and science program for its patient students. Here is Paul with some of his recent art:

punched out sun face masks

elements drawing

wire and bead fish

Some of Paul's art from earlier this year:

three ceramic mugs

ceramic leaf tray

carved head

Images Copyright 2009 Katy Dickinson

Posted at 06:16PM Jun 12, 2009 by katysblog in Home & Family  | 

Beset by a Mockingbird

We live on the Guadalupe River in San Jose, CA where there are many birds and many kinds of birds. This spring, we are beset by a particularly noisy Mockingbird who has started singing outside of our windows for much of the night. From the descriptions I have read, this is probably a male bird seeking a mate. I hope he finds happiness soon because I am tired of being woken up by his lovelorn songs.

For many years, I have seen mockingbirds chasing squirrels and other birds but this is the first time our garden has hosted a persistent night singer. According to Wikipedia

"The Northern Mockingbird, in addition to being a good mimic, is also one of the loudest and most constantly vocal of birds. It often sings through the night, especially unmated males, or when the moon is full. It sings year-round except sometimes for the late-summer molting season. Individual males have repertoires of 50 to 200 songs; females sing as well, but more quietly and less often than males. Mockingbirds usually sing the loudest in the twilight of the early morning when the sun is on the horizon."

There were so many different songs, I wasn't sure it was just one bird singing. Then I read the following from the Cornell Lab of Ornithology's All About Birds web page: "If you’ve been hearing an endless string of 10 or 15 different birds singing outside your house, you might have a Northern Mockingbird in your yard." I have enjoyed reading up on our garden visitor, happy to have a chance to check out the new and ambitious Encyclopedia of Life which seeks to "organize and make available via the Internet virtually all information about life present on Earth."

On my walk last night, I saw a mockingbird on a telephone wire over our street, loudly singing many different birds' songs in quick succession. True to his latin name Mimus polyglottos, the many-tongued mimic sang everyone's song as his own.

Posted at 12:04PM Jun 04, 2009 by katysblog in Home & Family  |  Comments[1]

Roofing the Workshop and Cupola

My husband John Plocher has finished the roof of our former-garage turned model-train-room-and-workshop. He has been working on this project to rebuild what the termites ate, between job interviews and his obligations as a member of the OpenSolaris Governing Board (OGB). Our neighbor Felix Quintero is a professional roofer, so John worked with Felix on the roofing.

This week all projects are on hold while John and the OGB attend CommunityOne, meetings associated with Sun's huge JavaOne conference in San Francisco.

JavaOne Billboard on Highway 101 in Silicon Valley

roof work in progress

new roof and cupola

Felix Quintero

Images Copyright 2009 Katy Dickinson

Posted at 12:18PM Jun 03, 2009 by katysblog in Home & Family  |  Comments[1]

Whirlwind Daughter Tour

My daughter Jessica was with us for a whirlwind visit after her Sophomore final exams at Carnegie Mellon University (in Pittsburgh, PA) and before starting her summer internship with the World Organization for Human Rights USA in Washington, D.C. We had not seen Jessica since January, so the whole family (and her boyfriend Matt) took turns enjoying her company. We are all very proud of our busy and clever girl!

We went to the movies (seeing Star Trek and Wolverine), many doctor visits for Paul, Paul's annual IEP to set up his classes and support for next year, and shopping. Jessica also joined us tutoring for Studio 17 at SMUM, and we had two nights of playing cards and board games. She and our little neighbor Sonia even washed the dogs. I think Jessica caught up on her sleep in between all the visits. We look forward to seeing Jessica again in August for a few weeks before CMU starts again. Until then, we go back to reading Jessica's blog for updates. I am very glad she is a good writer...

waiting for the doctor

Jessica and Sonia wash the dogs

Matt, Jessica, Paul

waiting for the doctor

Studio 17 Tutoring at SMUM

Images Copyright 2009 Katy Dickinson

Posted at 11:22PM Jun 02, 2009 by katysblog in Home & Family  | 

Cupola Update

The continuing saga of a garage repair... (taking up the story from the 6 May update). My husband John Plocher is making progress on replacing the formerly-termite-infested walls and roof of our garage-turned-model-train-room-and-workshop. The most visible progress is on the cupola he designed to let in light and air. Next steps are siding, roofing, and paint.

cupola side wall on the ground

first cupola wall on roof

John with cupola walls

John, roof framed and windows in

John on roof with cupola

cupola roof covered

Images Copyright 2009 Katy Dickinson

Posted at 02:50PM May 14, 2009 by katysblog in Home & Family  | 

John versus the termites

On 5 August 2008, I wrote about the termites we found in our 1930 home in San Jose, CA. We had the termites killed last summer but the insects had done major damage to one end of our garage. (Well, it used to be a garage but has long been home to John's HO-scale model train layout and workshop.) Termites prefer to infest where the morning sun first shines: the worst damage was on the eastern face of the garage, next to the river wall.

In between looking for work, my husband, John Plocher, has been ripping out the damaged areas and rebuilding the two walls and roof. In addition to being a experienced Software Architect and Engineer, John is a capable electrician and carpenter (as well as being an apprentice welder).

Most of the demolition happened last autumn but work stopped when it started to rain. The construction area was covered by a huge blue tarp all winter. Now that the year's rain is mostly done, repair construction is progressing well. We are taking design inspiration from many sources (including the old Stanford barn in creating a roof cupola for air and light, instead of a simple skylight).

Here are some photos of the project so far:

termites hollowed out a wood beam

ripping out damage

Paul & John save eagle doorknocker

more termite damage

new wall under blue tarp

new roof frame

Stanford barn cupolas

John's cupola plans

looking through cupola-to-be

Images Copyright 2008-2009 Katy Dickinson

Posted at 05:30PM May 06, 2009 by katysblog in Home & Family  | 

Spring Garden

My garden in full bloom is a place of joy and beauty. Trying to photograph glimpses of the Spring loveliness is a pleasurable challenge.

red rose

wet leaves

nasturtiums with geraniums

wild lily

tiny succulent blooms

succulent

purple sage

pink heuchra

rosy rat tail cactus

Images Copyright 2009 Katy Dickinson

Posted at 11:16PM Apr 29, 2009 by katysblog in Home & Family  |