The FOURTH QUARTER 2020 is starting with beauty and movement. Or?

Whaaaat? You're already in the final quarter of a startling year. Can you believe it?! 

Everyone's saying the same thing, "At New Years 2020, I would never have imagined that this year would ...."

How would you finish that sentence? 

Here's a motive from the wonderful Indonesian batik on the chaise where I sit to write this morning. Looks comfy, right? But even the batik is shocked by the endurance of Covid. haha

I wish you could hear what I'm hearing now. Chimes. Birds. Dogs barking. People singing. The wind in the trees. The metal roof flapping where it's coming loose.The hiss of someone's broom sweeping leaves off the pavement. It's a windy sunny morning.

Most of you can probably identify with our flaked-out dog and the fish swimming in the bowl behind him. 

"Goin' nowhere." That's what what it feels like sometimes, doesn't it? Hang in there.

Thursday

We get to walk the hills of Lembang. The day is hot but breezy. Some parts of the hike are easier than others.

Today, we start at the bottom of a hill that we usually drive halfway up. With 3 cars and some motorcycles, we're not sure we can turn around at the top. So we walk 2'-3' paths between fields on either side. A slip of the foot means a 2' or 5' fall.

It doesn't seem as steep as it is ... most of the way. The diverting thing is that we follow the leader, looking at our feet, especially on the edge of a drop-off or when climbing rocks. We stop for selfies, which helps us catch our breath in the +85o sunshine. We have to keep drinking water or we dehydrate.

We're headed to the top of Gunung Batu (Stone Mountain). Someone is erecting monuments, left and right, at all the hiking destinations. They're also carving out roads, making this hill an easy tourist destination. But there's currently a detour while they pave the main road. And the detour road into the area is one car wide. 

Men stand at either end of long blocks, letting one lane of traffic through at a time. Not sure how that works on weekends when cars already were lining up bumper-to-bumper for miles, without the main street closed. People are patient, especially if they're traveling with friends or family. Every part of the experience is part of the journey.

We used to climb a very rough trail to enjoy this panoramic 360o view. Bandung is on one side of the volcanic bump and Lembang lies on the other. Now there are steps hacked into the mud or rock, and the path near the top is wider.

Notice the new bamboo "fencing" at the side of the hilltop. If you lean on it, you'll take a flying leap into the valley hundred of feet below. 

Here people know not to lean: it's more of a boundary marker than anything: "Any further and you've begun your own flight. You're on your own, idiots." Even the little kids are smarter than that.

"It's all downhill from here," says our fearless leader Veronica, once we've climbed almost 30 storeys to the top of the hill. But I seem to remember more climbing ahead. 

Sure enough - there are at least two more long slopes along the way. We make a total descent of almost 50 storeys. We have four young people along today; they say they'll be back to "walk off some of our Covid-belly." My empathy is whole-hearted.

Here's the life-cycle of jackfruit in one picture: buds, blossoms, the small fruit emerging, and two fruits, one almost ripe and one ready to pick and already buggy. When you drop the bugs ones, dozens of white maggots hurl themselves of the fruit. Ugh. Been there, done that.

At points the trail peters out. Then we have to clamber up a bank to keep going and re-join the trail.

The views and fresh air are totally worthwhile.

We marvel at the condos built into a dirt hillside opposite us (center, below). A good rainfall and combined with an earthquake might bring that down in a hurry. But maybe the footings are bored into the rock. Maybe.

Of course, what goes up has to come down. Our walking sticks are total lifesavers. We're a happy group of 11 plus 3 dogs today.

Twice, we traverse two steep paths through villages. One bumps us onto a main street. Yes, this is a main thoroughfare. People exclaim at the domba (sheep - our poodle) and the other 2 dogs. Most people are deathly afraid of dogs and make a wide circle around us or dart into a corner between houses.

There are lemons ripening in groves beside the path. Many yellow fruits lie under the trees. Fields of tomatoes and chili peppers are also unpicked, the fruit dropping to the ground.

"It's not worth the transport to town so they are left on the vines," Veronica tells us.

"Pick-your-own" is not yet a concept here. Jakarta and city tourists might enjoy roaming the fields to pick and buy the fresh crops. The flowers overhead on the trees are lush and brightly colored.

And in the graveyards, the shrubs flame red over the Muslim graves. All the headstones point toward Mecca.

We marvel at the terracing that cuts entire mountainsides into farmland. Can you see the big platforms niched into the hillsides? All that labor is done by hand with picks or hoes.

Another handmade treasure is the bamboo and rope gazebo Kiki and Troy (Veronica's family) have just completed. There's no nail in this traditional construction. We end the hike with a picnic in the shade. 

There's predictably too much food. Marie has brought Greek yogurt and yogurt drinks; Angela has made several dishes so delicious I take some home after, Paulina and her daughter bring cakes; Angie bakes German bretzel; Veronica has her famous cheesy eggplant bake; and on and on ... it's a feast!

After, everyone loads up with a ready-made supper.

Friday

My home office desk is a complete wreckage of projects when I arrive in the morning. I start churching through existing projects. First up are a few edits: articles and books waiting for attention. 

Once those are sent off, I load up a fresh supply of birdseed. Bandung locals love their birds and you can buy every bird imaginable. Locals have competitions every weekend, betting on formation, song, color, etc. - with big prizes for the winning bird.

Nearly every neighborhood has a bird shop. They sell cages with/out birds. You can buy seeds, maggots for the bigger birds, feeders, and perches.

I put away the quilting fabrics before hauling my trusty Bernina sewing machine onto the desk. It's business before pleasure this morning. (Plus I hate a cluttered desk.)

 The 27 beanbag chairs we purchased for BIC and movie night are over-full so they're not comfy. What to do? How about 3 new sets of liners and covers for the excess stuffing? I make one enormous chair, a kid-sized one, and one inbetween.

I'm grateful for the 100 yards of white zipper purchased last week ($12 incl. 200 pulls). W patiently threads the pulls on the zippers; we use up 6 yards and slip a pull onto the remaining roll so I can cut the next zipper to length and start sewing. 

Actually, sewing is the easy part of this task = each liner and bag has only a zipper and 2 other straight seams. Easy, right?

It takes most of the afternoon. My first chore is undoing the plastic bags around the purchased chairs. Our helpers push-pull the knots closing all kinds of plastic bag. I'm terrible at that - I sometimes need a fork to pull them apart.

The 54 knots (@2 per big storage bag) are just as stiff and tight but bigger. Takes a while. 

The second chore is opening each chair to empty styrofoam pearls from its packed, slippery liner into the new one. I slip the open zipper of the new sack over two chair backs and pour. And pour. And pour the styrofoam. Finally, I pull a new cover over the new liners, repacking everything for storage. Whew. I'm happy that's done.

And then I've run out of headroom for more sewing. I leave the machine on the desk for the next project. It's more fun= two quilt tops. Online, W has ordered a cutting mat (@25% of the cost at my USA shop). When it comes, I'll zip through layers of fabric with a rotary cutter. Sometimes, scissors are overrated.

Saturday

We take a break from Pizza Saturday with company. Waldemar, Kirsten and I enjoy a Tupperware full of toppings on our personal pizzas. It's quiet and restful. Except that on Saturdays, W does the captions for tomorrow's BIC Online Gathering. I read, edit, and relax while he works.

Sunday

Oh the joys and pain of Covid season. Sundays that means monitoring the Gathering from our porch. For lunch, we eat out, social-distanced at the Ethnic courtyard, a restaurant nearby (2500 steps there and back, a short walk.) 

We leave our neighborhood through a narrow opening between houses. (Straight ahead, see that little gap?) If you don't know the staircase is there, you'd walk by without suspecting that the 3' opening leads to an entire subdivision of +80 dwellings.

Mind you, there is a 1½-lane road in as well. It's narrow for abut a block. When one car comes in, the one going out has to wait at one end - unless both cars are little. Two experienced drivers can squeeze by ... often with mirrors pulled in. Did I mention that there were two drainage ditches on each side of the lane? Last year, they filled in one, so now you just have to watch that you don't drive off the edge when you exit. On the other side, just make sure you don't scrape the car on 8' concrete wall that bounds the lane.

Once up the uneven steps, we're in the next kampung (village.) People are sitting in the lane, mostly unmasked. They visit and eat food from little shops, like this new pop-up that spans the thoroughfare. We step aside for motorcycles zooming through. It's too narrow for cars.

At Ethnic, I try a new menu item - herbed roast beef with roasted vegetables ($6.50).

W says, "I'd order that!" after he tastes it, but his rösti (fried potatoes) whit mushroom, cheese, and chicken is just as good. K's happy with her grilled cheese sandwich, too.

One of our friends is sitting in the same courtyard. "Is that Danny?" we ask, but we can only see half of him from the back: he's behind a post.

He wanders over later to say hi. I don't know about you, but at this point, every person we see in person is a treat for the heart. When we get to the counter to pay, he's given us another treat - the bill is paid. Thanks, Danny. You're a good cook!

One of my favorite desserts at this time of year is Chinese mooncake, baked for the fall harvest season. I bought some lotus flavored ones through Dr Hanna last week. Those came from Jakarta, the last lotus batch of the seller's season.

Clau sends over a fish-shaped mooncake with sweet red bean filling. Clau's drop-off point is Dr Hanna's house, so we pick up the gift on our way home from Ethnic.

Life is better with good friends.

Read more:

*I have seen their ways, but I will heal them; I will lead them and repay them with comfort. Isaiah 57:18

*Though the fig tree does not bud and there are no grapes on the vines,

though the olive crop fails and the fields produce no food,

though there are no sheep in the pen and no cattle in the stalls,

yet I will rejoice in the Lord, I will be joyful in God my Savior.

 

*The Sovereign Lord is my strength; he makes my feet like the feet of a deer, he enables me to tread on the heights. Habakkuk 3:17-19 NIV

*“Because your heart was penitent and you have humbled yourself before me, I also have heard you,” said the Lord. 2 Chronicles 34:27

*Jesus said, “Those who are well, have no need of a physician, but those who are sick; I have come to call not the righteous but sinners.” Mark 2:17

*I am the least of the apostles, unfit to be called an apostle, because I persecuted the church of God. But by the grace of God I am what I am. 1 Corinthians 15:9-10

Moravian Prayer: God of grace, we come to you for forgiveness. Thank you for listening as we confess our sins and for giving us the hope of life eternal through your grace. 

Oh Lord, our shepherd. When we have lost our way and are hurting, you are always there to pick us up, comfort us, heal us, and bring us back to the fold. Thank you for caring so much. Amen.