I was sitting in the living room this morning and saw something on the front porch out of the corner of my eye. When I looked through the glass panel in the door I still didn't know what I was seeing, other than a flash of white. Finally I realized that it was a very large egret standing on the porch looking in the front door. I'm sure it had been looking for frogs in the pond next to the steps out there, and probably visits frequently, but this is the first time I have seen him out there. He flew away before I could think of getting a camera, and he must have had a wingspan of five or six feet.That's what I would have liked to have made a picture of.

I spent the morning working on a design for some pillows I am making for our friends whose house burned down.They have recently moved into their rebuilt home which is beautiful but feels a little like a hotel.  I made one design but wasn't happy with it .I wound up with one I liked much better by taking away about two thirds of the pieces and simplifying it to three colors and two shapes. 

Having read all I could handle of the mea culpas from the CEO of PG&E. Most people feel that it is a rather primitive solution to a big problem, but would be much more accepting if communications were better and the official PG&E website hadn't crashed. I was about to move on to something else when I notice a half page announcement at the bottom of a different page headed: Are You Ready For the Next Earthquake? I feel beleaguered. 

We have gathered a very congenial group of three couples who enjoy each other's company.  We all met one way or another through Pilates. Four of us are in class together at least once a week and often have coffee together afterward. Today we all got together for lunch at Gail and Bob's house. There was plenty to complain talk about, since we were all affected by the power outage. We all live in semi rural areas and all have wells. There was agreement that the worst thing about the whole adventure was being without water. Bob and Gail have a generator but couldn't get it started. Dan, who seems to be able to do just about anything, offered to take it home and see if he could fix it. This is Dan's idea of a fun time. We are still trying to figure out how to thank him for the beautiful ground squirrel 'cages' he made for us. (cages, I might add, to keep them out not in). It was a lovely relaxing time which we all needed. 

As we got into our car to drive home, two deer were relaxing across the street from our car. They weren't bothered enough to get up until I tried to get a little closer. Then they moved away, but just enough to keep the same distance between us. 

The extra is of the vineyards on Wildwood Mountain across the street from our house.