Finally! The dead tree in our backyard is gone! You know, the dead tree that had reportedly been dead for a couple of years before we moved here, the one that towered right over our deck and roof, the one that lost branches every time there was a rainstorm or a windy day, the one that we were promised six weeks ago would be cut down “on Thursday”? I guess Monday is the new Thursday because this morning a tree-removal crew showed up and a few hours later when they left that tree was nothing but a stump in the ground.

And a bunch of firewood for us to use this winter. Score!

Annalie sez: thumbs up for no more dead tree!
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Why am I showing you a photo of all* the dottery in my house? Because at the end of this month, I’m teaching a dottery-painting class at the local pottery-painting studio where I’m a regular! If you’re a DC/SoMD local and are interested, leave me a comment and I can email you the info. I’ve been painting at this place for years—it’s the same place where I painted when we lived in Maryland—and I’m excited to teach a class. I think it’s gonna be fun!

*Except for a bread tray, a veggies-and-dip tray, and a large serving bowl. And maybe a Christmas ornament or two. Basically this is all the dottery that was within easy reach in the cupboards.

If you’re seeing this in a feed reader, you might not be able to view the slideshow below—I couldn’t see it in Google reader, anyway. Click on through to see the photos!

Created with Admarket’s flickrSLiDR from bethany actually‘s Flickr photoset farewell fiesta.

Brenda and Toby hosted a last-minute Mexican-themed going-away potluck for us this past weekend, and it was completely fun. I’m not going into detail describing it, because most of what I’d say would probably be pretty boring, and I think the photos above give a good idea of what it was like. Also, Brenda wrote a wonderful post about the party that makes me smile and tear up a little each time I read it, and there’s no way I could top that, so I’m just gonna send you over there to read her post. Before you click over, I’ll just say this: we have awesome friends here in California, and we’re going to miss them a lot. Thanks, you guys!