Arboretum CoHort's at South Seattle Community College Kick off their new Program

Sept 12, 2008



United Way Day of Caring
South Seattle Community College
Arboretum Cohort Volunteer
Day of Caring

The Prirates Life for Me!

The Tall Ships are coming to Tacoma, WA.

July 3rd - July 07/08

http://www.tallshipstacoma.com/

Did you ever want to dress up like a pirate? You know you want to bellow out a hearty yo ho ho! The Tacoma Tall Ships Festival Volunteers were looking for a good pirate dog for their commercial about the event and LO! Scupper P. DogHeart was selected.

He was a brave little puppy at the photo shoot, where he met lots of children and adults and film crew. There was a mom, dad, three children and Scupper. Everyone was dressed as a pirate (except for the film crew) Scupper was filmed last, all he had to do was don his devilish eye patch and run out the front door to the awaiting van, to join his 'family'. We accomplished this 'action' shot with treats and the clicker training helped a lot. He did just great and he only needed 3 'takes'.

I was amazed at how well he took all of this as he is only 5 months old!

After wards we got to take photos of ourselves from this fabulous house on the water. Behind us is the Tacoma Narrows Bridge one of the larges suspension bridges in the world.

The views were spectacular and it was lovely day warm and sunny. If you want to step aboard with us this summer we have some extra eye patches, and a wooden leg full of rum, and we will have you yo ho hoeing all the way to the docks.

Earth Day; Bless the Earth and All Upon It

Earth Day for Fox Island UCC arrived sunny and clear, a far cry from recent spring adventures with clouds, rain, thunder, sleet, hail and snow. Only slightly alarmed that the weather service called for more of the same on Sunday we prepared for the day, with one eye open.
Earth Day celebrations brought FIUCC a lot of children. Eighteen children arrived outside in our garden after their ‘sermon’ and we assembled a group from ages 14 to toddlers.
To accommodate this enthusiastic and hardworking crowd we supplied rakes, shovels, spades of appropriate colors and sizes. Some brought their own garden gloves embellished with ladybugs.
To begin our celebrations, we talked about the native plants on the property and we embarked on a small hike to take a closer look. We learned about Douglas Fir, Oak Fern, Wild Ginger, Sword Fern, Wood Sorrel, Huckleberries, Roses, Creeping Dogwood and more.
To commemorate the day the children planted three Western Red Cedars and four Red Twig Dogwoods. We also planted seeds of California Poppy, Cosmos and Nasturtiums out in the wild rose beds. Nasturtiums, though not native are edible and like the other flower seeds we planted are low water use plants. For our closing we made a big circle around the newly planted trees, joined hands and said a prayer for our plants and the earth.
Won’t you join us for a grown-up work party? Set aside May 17th from 9am to noon for clean up and planting. Bring appropriate clothes with; label your name on your tools. Lunch will be served at 12:30 p.m.
Bless the earth and all upon it.

Scupper the Sailor Dog by Margaret Wise Brown

Scuppers the Sailor Dog, by Margaret Wise Brown is one of my favorite childhood books. Ms. Brown also wrote Good Night Moon, which is more widely known. These books were published as Little Golden Books and could be purchased for about 10 cents.
Scuppers the Sailor Dog bears a remarkable resemblance to my dog. A scruffey little brown and white dog on an adventure.
But my dogs name is Scupper P. Dogheart.

He has a heart shaped patch on his back which is too cute.
I have to repeat his name to folks because they don't get it, and they have never heard of a scupper unless they know sailboats. A scupper is a water drain on deck. So I have to say it several times or spell it. What is it, scruffer? stupper? stupper? huh?

I think that it has something to do with my accent as well, but I don't know for sure about that. Maybe its my braces.

Baby in the house

Its been quite a while since I had a baby in the house. We put up baby gates in the kitchen so ole Scup is confined to a hard surface which is much easier to clean than our carpet.

Oh my, getting up to take care of 'business' at all hours of the night is a real nightmare. Especially in the chilly PNW. I have to put on my fleece jacket and slip on my clogs. Then I have to leash him up so I can take him over to the area by the fence that is covered in wood chips. Before going out we ring the bells. We have big sleigh bells hanging by the door , we try to get Scup to ring them too and then we say "outside get through".

So, then I go over to the fence and repeat the phrase 'outside,get through hurry'. I change my tone to sound more urgent and I repeat "hurry hurry hurry, get through"I accompany this phrase with a hand signal. The hand signal is performed by pointing the index finger to the ground and making a circular swirling motion. This training has paid off, because today I took him out while on the phone. Rather that have my caller hear me giving the command 'get through, hurry" I just made the swirling motion and Scupper good boy went on command!! Yippee.

Warren has been a trooper. I did not count, but I believe that he was up more than me. One night Warren took longer than usual to return to our cozy down covers. When I asked him why he was taking so long, told me that he liked to 'hold' Scupper till he was sleepy again before putting him back in the crate. Awh that is so sweet. I have 2 sweet boys.

The first 4 or 5 weeks have been hard but we are coming out of it now, I can see the light. There were no "mistakes" made for the past 4 days! This is an unprecedented new record.

Scupper P. Dog-heart has learned a lot. He can sit, stay,down, heel, leave it. Leave it is a very useful command when he has grabbed up my gloves or shoe or the kitty poo next door. UGH and I let him lick me; but not on the face!!! Not anywhere on the face.

Flying Colors

Lauren took her drivers test last week and made 100!You can't do better than that can you? She has been riding around giving back seat advice for a year now, and by golly she knows what she is talking about.
The officer who issued the license told her he did have a
small problem... huh? Well he can only record pass or fail and he was sorry to say, that there was no place to record "pass with flying colors."

Island Rain

I promised to be at the Habitat for Humanity clean up this morning. We had a house sitting empty for months while a new recipient was found. The garden was neglected and some plants had been stolen. I was so tired from all the traveling this week. Losing my uncle Dan was really hard, I will miss him. I will try to use his life as an example for my own. I really wish that I lived closer to family.
It was awfully hard to get up at 7 am, get ready and drive 25 miles to the Key Peninsula, but I promised so I did it. Warren my dearest, got up and made my breakfast for me, sourdough toast and overeasy, oj and a hazelnut latte. He is getting to be a regular on the breakfast grill.
I brought red twig dogwood, crocosmia, cedar trees, iris, and a red maple to plant up for the new home owner. These offerings came from my small nursery that I run on the side of the house. Mainly I have things I get from all the local garden clubs and sometimes I get free plants from the South Seattle Community College nursery.
When I got there, all the regular guys were there. I teased them and dubbed them the Chapel Hill mafia. Chapel Hill is the biggest church in our area, but not the only one who participates in Habitat! Some of us come from my little church on Fox Island. We had coffee and doughnuts and I remembered how much I like it when Starbucks shows up with their volunteers. They bring all that good stuff and its free and yummy. The Habitat folks are all good and jolly, and share a camaraderie.
I felt cheered to be with them.
The morning was cold and later began to drizzle, we waited under the eaves for a while, and like all the rain around here it blows over quickly. I call it island rain.
Pretty soon we just worked in the drizzle. Fleece is handy for this climate, as it keeps you warm even in rain.
Finished up by noon and of course the sun came out all the rest of the day. Down here in the south sound it is sunny more often and this phenomenon is referred to as the 'rain shadow'. I found out later that there were several inches of snow up north of Seattle. This is a crazy place of unpredictable weather.

I want to know God's thoughts...the rest are details.

Albert Einstein

This candle was lit all day today,Good Friday for Uncle Dan.

Today he left us to go and join God. It is very hard when one must say goodbye to someone precious. Suddenly, like a huge wind the landscape changes then all is still. I silence my music and lite the candle in our hallway.

I call his daughter, my cousin Carol. "Aren't you glad that you knew him"? she said. Oh yes I agreed, I was priviledged to know him, I hold him in the highest of esteem. He was a great man.

My husband Warren is a Steven Leader, just like Uncle Dan. Each time the class meets, Warren lights this special candle. I use it also,for our prayer chain. The candle sits in an alcove in prominent place in the houses entry.

This place where the candle is lit, is painted the color of golden flowers. Light falls from the skylight onto a small collection of plants in the opposite corner and a table displays a very special Mexican creche. No one really comments on my small altar, as it is hidden in plain view. It comforts me there.

Today the candle burned all day for Dan, filling our home with it's rich beautiful aroma.

Goodbye and Godspeed, Dan. We love you.