Tom and Patti Saunders
Dog's Breath Acres 2006 Annual Report
2006 Annual Report
We're running a little late this year with our annual report, thanks to our vacation over in Africa. In fact, as of this writing, Patti still hasn't arrived home yet; she's visiting our latest grandchild in Hartford, but more on that later.
Allison and Mike's kids, Kiara and Sienna, are now ages 4 and 2, and we get to see them quite a bit. Sienna spends one or two days a week over here, while Kiara has started going to preschool. They're a whole lot of fun and are growing up way too fast. They know Patti as "Noma" (or is it "Knowmah", or any of a whole bunch of other spellings?). Patti thinks it should be pronounced "Newmah", but Kiara and Sienna and Tom know better. Tom is known as "Tom".
And the big grandchildren news is the arrival of Andrew Scott Werden on October 15. He's the first child for Scott and Joelene, back East in Hartford, and named after Patti's father, Andrew Mitchell. Scott and Joelene are completing their various doctoring educations. Patti's stopped by in Hartford for a couple of weeks right now (approaching Christmas) to help with the new grandchild. But of course he'll be brilliant, just like his two cousins Kiara and Sienna.
I'm still managing to keep busy around Dog's Breath Acres. My model railroad continues to grow, glacially, but it's getting there. Clearing blackberry bushes is an ongoing adventure, along with trying to scare off various nocturnal critters, mostly raccoons fighting on the deck. We've seen deer around the area for the first time this year, and seemed to have gained a resident bobcat. Patti's seen him (or her?) a few times, and I saw him flash out of the shrubs and grab a hapless squirrel under the bird feeders. We've also discovered a salamander or two, for the first time in 15 years, maybe they're making a comeback.
The house is holding up fine. I replaced the walkway with a new curved stone walk, looks quite nice if you ask me. We survived the big December wind storm without too much damage. There was one tragedy though: a tree in the yard blew over and squashed my favorite piece of yard art, "Neil" (a moon-walking astronaut). A major undertaking is new shelves and cabinets for the upstairs "Potato Bin" (so named due to its couch potato residents). That will take a number of months to complete.
The three Saunders siblings (Kate, Tom, and Carol) had a big thrill in November when we finally got around to selling the Calder mobile. A little history: way back in 1952 our Uncle Bill and Aunt Caro gave our parents a house warming present, a mobile by artist Alexander Calder, for the new house on North Cove in Old Saybrook. After 50 years hanging around and a great deal of inflation, we decided to sell it before the art bubble burst. After various negotiations we decided on auctioning it at Sotheby's in their November Contemporary Art Auction. Kate and Ger and Patti and I, along with cousins Jon and Sandy Stoddard, converged on New York City for the big day. We were treated like art world royalty, and the auction went very well, quite a thrill. Now, when will some Lewis Creek Glassworks art come up on the auction market?
Patti still spends a whole lot of time on her blog: email us to find its address. In July we took a short camping vacation on Orcas Island up in the San Juan Islands, and I got a lot of nice hiking in again this year, the old bones seem to be holding out okay. My clogged heart arteries seem to be clearing out, at least for the time being. Warning to all you cousins: don't forget you've got 1/2 my genes. Pets Reggie and Phoebe are also still doing well, although Reggie seems a bit bewildered most of the time.
And of course we spent Thanksgiving down in Neskowin.