LA Animal Sanctuary, an Afternoon Tea and a little on politics...again...

After learning that my efforts at weight loss resulted on me putting on a pound, I went to Bitter Root Pottery, somewhat ticked off. - of course it had nothing to do with the wine and cheese I had that week. I met a new lady there called Christie(I think) who was lovely and chatty, but then pronounced she had ADHD and told me all about her symptoms. She was very sweet and desperate to talk and I was happy to listen and join in. It is refreshing to have normal, non-arrogant and unpretentious people, who like each other’s work and actually make each other bits and pieces to help. It’s so different than the Berman pottery. I went to North Hollywood and to Berman to pick up my final pieces, later in the week and I smiled and said hello to a few people as I walked in, but they seemed pretty disinterested. I don’t want a ‘Norm’ from Cheers welcoming, but it would be nice to be acknowledged. I feel Ive made the right choice. The other thing which is evident between the two places is that Berman had predominantly white middle aged fairly wealthy students, whereas Bitter Root has a really good mix of ages and is very diverse. I love the work they produce too with lots of hand sculpture. A lady called Darla does the most amazing pots with flowers on them as well as cubist style ladies in different poses. Really beautiful.

Later that day, I walked Lulu in the shadows of the soccer field as it is incredibly hot here now with regular temperatures of 35 degrees by the afternoon. Lulu runs for the ball a few times before refusing to come back with it and then I know she just wants to have a sniff around – bless her. We watched a girl’s football match on the field (it’s getting really big here now, especially after the USA Women’s win last week), and after ¾ hour we walked back to the car. I discovered that at some point my keys had dropped out of my bag. Let me tell you, it’s a bloody big field!!!

It took over an hour to find them and I did this by walking the field twice walking back and forth. Lulu was dragging on the lead at this point, we were both really hot and bothered. Boy, was I pleased to see them. Thank god I have loads of key rings and a lanyard on them otherwise I wouldn’t have seen them in the longish grass. A lovely man with a very old poodle helped me look, which was very kind of him.

I was starting to visualize what I would have to do if I didn’t find them. Mark was away until late and he didn’t have his keys. Needless to say, I’ve been zipping up my bag since.

At Choir we started a new song called ‘Lady Luck’. It changes key every 5 bars or so and we were all rubbish at it. Choirmaster Monica was almost shaking her hands in the air as we went out of key several times…. Well, it can only get better. Luckily, we all sucked. I’ve been working diligently trying to catch up on the songs and sent a recording of me singing them to lovely British Sue who is my mentor there. Out of the 8 I sent in, she only passed 3 to yellow (not green) as I breathe in too many places…..but the notes are all lovely she says. I am grateful for the help of course, but I’m not sure if I can hold notes for that long without passing out. Still practice makes perfect and I may get there by the time I leave to go back to England.

Tina, who had seen my Facebook posts gave me a hug over my earthquake comments. 😆

Bridget said we should move to Newbury Park, near Thousand Oaks, as it is built on granite and they never feel earthquakes. Good to know where to go if we have a chance. Our earthquake bags are packed and are stored just inside the garage door ready, should we need them. I would never have thought I’d ever say that!

http://www.laanimalservices.com/shelters/

I went to the LA Animal Sanctuary for my First Day Training along with eight other 16 year olds. I did feel a bit old. Stephanie our trainer was lovely and showed us around the facility.

We were shown into the volunteer office and we all logged in on the pc with our individual numbers and were given badges. We were shown how to clean the dog runs by hose pipe and we had to make sure we persuaded the dogs into their bedroom areas beforehand, although in this heat, I expect they would all be happy to have a hose down. We were also shown how to greet the dogs (through the cage door of course) and feed them treats. The idea is to get them to learn to sit, touch your hand with their noses and go down too. Most appear to know how to do this, so it was fun and they seemed to like it. I did feel it was sad they were there, but they had ample room and most seemed really friendly. There were a few that seemed very shy and a little fragile too.

Next we moved into the rabbit area and we had to fill up the water bottles. There were probably around 40 rabbits in the airconditioned room, along with 10 hamsters too, all in those ‘adventure’ type cages with tunnels and wheels.

We were shown the reception area, where the dogs are adopted and also the ‘drop off’ area. We were told that they try not to make any judgements on people as they would rather the dogs came there than be abandoned. I was glad to hear about their no kill policy. They had a rate of 97% no kill, as they only euthanised ill and dangerous dogs beyond rehabilitation.

We met a few of the older volunteers who walked the dogs. I am signed up for that course.

Sanctuary Stephanie showed us how to do the laundry (all the dog beds are cleaned weekly) and how to clean the dog bowls and Kongs using the industrial dishwasher. All necessary stuff and it felt worthwhile. We also got to make up Kongs with dog food in them as enrichment for the dogs. You ½ fill them then put them in the freezer. The dogs love them and it keeps them busy for ages. I will try that with Lulu.

I enjoyed it and am really keen to take their training courses, as well as doing the mundane stuff. I went back on Sunday to take the small dog walking training, which 5 other people had also signed up for, only to discover that I was the only one who turned up, so they postponed the course unfortunately until end of August. I was very happy to spend a few hours cleaning and playing with the dogs through the cage doors. My favourites are an Alsatian called Rex and a puppy jack Russell called Abbey. I also got involved with an adoption of a small poodle called Buster and sat with another volunteer in the meet and greet grassed area chatting with them. It was a great feeling when they said yes to having him.

I’m back there next week taking a cat handling training class. On the way out I walked past the dog walking grassed area and got chatting to Cathy who has volunteered for 10 years. She was very friendly and was with Kennedy, a very cute dove grey pitbull who was mad about tennis balls and was running around with three in her mouth. She was loving the sprinkler and the paddling pool. I’m determined to get there at least twice a week.

On Wednesday, as I did my usual trick of having the car run on fumes, I went to a different garage to fill the mini up and try as I may, I couldn’t get the nozzle to fit in the petrol tank ‘hole’. I tried several times pushing it in and got a stick and checked the entrance hadn’t got stuck. I then managed to get petrol all over my hands. I had already put my card details in and by that stage had a few people looking at me. I abandoned the whole process even after pressing help on the instructions. I drove out, then realised in all my time here I had only used pumps with one lever as opposed to two. I had been trying to fill up the car with diesel – thank goodness it didn’t fit. Here the green nozzle is diesel and the black one is petrol, opposite to the UK – how had I not spotted this before I don’t know. Needless to say, I then went to a different garage.

Jannet and Eric came to stay with us this week and it was lovely to see my travel buddy. She lives in Montana and told me all about the black bear issue they are having at the moment where it has been going through peoples bins and there is evidence that it had come onto her grounds and damaged the goat pen….and I was worried about coyotes! She then told me all about her hiking and what to do if you came across a Grizzly bear – what apart from running away screaming?…. 😊 We had a lovely chat catching up on stories about her chicken and goats, as she has a new female goat who is very affectionate and the other boy goats are jealous. I told her about how it sounded like the BBC TV programme ‘The Good Life’, which she had never heard of. How I miss British TV.

The next day we travelled on the 101 to Pasadena and the Huntington Library and Botanical gardens. We had a lovely time and the gardens are beautiful. We spent the first 1 ½ hours walking with a group and very entertaining volunteer guide who was really fun. She appeared to be very prim and proper, but would come out with things like, ‘It’s not about the flowers, it’s about the sex’, which made us all chuckle.

Our favourite areas were the Japanese and Chinese gardens which were in great contrast to each other.

We had a high tea in the Rose garden restaurant which was the full cucumber sandwich, scones etc and tea and prosecco experience on layered stands – all very lovely. It’s fascinating how Mr Huntington decided to ‘retire’ there 3 months of the year and built it up from farmland. He was 64 when he started it. He built the house first with the gardens and then being a collector of rare books, built a library to house them – as you do! I will definitely go there again as I only saw ½ of it and would love to see the art collection and especially the Gainsborough Blue Boy painting, which recently they discovered had been painted over hiding a dog at his feet. Interestingly they are missing a trick, as unlike Wisley Gardens they don’t sell any of the plants and as it was the Huntington Centenary year and they had developed a celebration Huntington Rose, I was all primed to buy it, but it wasn’t available…… just like when I was keen to buy a snow globe when I visited Shakespeare’s Globe Theatre in London. The Globe in a globe! A missed opportunity for sure.

The following day we had another cultural visit to another property bought and fostered by a rich tycoon, the Getty Villa in Malibu. We saw the beautiful gardens as well as the marble and bronze statues and ceramics. It’s like being in Italy!! There was also an exhibition displaying the new artefacts they had dug out of the original Herculaneum villa which was still under tons of solid lava, just outside Pompeii. It’s fascinating and very beautiful, especially the murals.

Jannett told me that Eric’s dad was a collector of all sorts of antiquities and had sold one item, an original ‘Book of Hours’ to Getty himself – amazing! He thought he had bought a copy, then when he had it valued was told it was an original!

That night after a very hot day, we leapt into the refreshing pool and had a volley ball game with our new net. Brits v Dutch USA. Mark and I were terrible and being that Jannett and Eric are also tall, it was no surprise that we lost. It was hilarious fun though. Lulu also got involved and had a good swim too. Eric cooked us a fantastic Italian meal – seemed rude not to eat it, but I dread what next weeks weigh in will be.

So, I’m getting excited about my return trip to the UK and have set up a schedule on excel. I do miss organising school things – I did love a good excel spreadsheet, especially if I could have a colour code. Apart from family and friends of course, I am trying to think of all the things I’ve missed about living in the UK. It feels very odd to think I will be going home, yet not actually be going home if you see what I mean. I will be interested to see how the political scene is over there and look forward to seeing BBC News. Quite honestly, it all looks pretty shocking and sad from here – what a choice Hunt or Jonson…..and with all the good from the Trump visit gone out the window with the Ambassador comments (we do now have to align ourselves with the USA, trade wise, now we have turned our backs – literally – on Europe). The Ambassador is right of course, and should we let Trump decide who we elect as our Ambassador?

I’ve made this addition as I was talking to Stefanie at WW and realised I hadn’t ‘had my say’ about something that has made me very sad and worried this week. Just when you think it couldn’t be worse Trump decides to play his racist card and he is still saying it wasn’t racist. I remember numerous times as a teacher dealing with children saying those type of things to each other in the playground. We had to log racist behaviour and document racist incidents. This is and will always be considered by educated and intelligent people as outrageously racist and anyone who says not is quite honestly either of the older generation and/or a complete idiot!!!! The USA is and should be about people having different opinions – isn’t that in the constitution? You may not agree with the congress ladies views, but they have a right to have them as American citizens. Unfortunately I don’t think it will end here and I think that these MAGA loons will see it as a call to arms to say and behave in these extreme racist ways….. seriously, god help us all, if he gets in again.