back to the blast furnace

Miss A and Baba feeding ducks at the Palace of Fine Arts in San Fran.
The view out our window at the Berkeley City Club.
Sea lions on the docks at Fisherman's Wharf.

After a trip to the Northeast to visit family, and a trip out to Berkeley for sis' graduation (with her PhD!!!), we have returned to the cauldron that is Central TX in July. This year more so than ever. Somehow our chickens survived our absence, despite their desire to brood and sit atop one another in the next box. The orchard is doing superbly, the persimmon tree even has six gorgeous fruit still dangling from it. The one fatality was our fig, which breaks my heart.

And I do realize that I have yet to announce here that my prolonged absence from this space has been due to my pursuit of Midwifery. A shift of gears, indeed. I am apprenticing with the midwife who helped me bring my two girls into this world, and have also enrolled in the Association of Texas Midwives midwifery training program. Standing on that incredible threshold of birth is such an awesome privilege. I am so excited and, for reasons that would take much too long to enumerate here, so convinced that this is the right path.