Time to Turn Around

 

 

 

On Saturday, two weeks ago, we took the drive to Sequim to celebrate the birthdays of Shannon, Grace and David.  Joleen was sick and couldn't go, and Ross got caught in a 3 hour wait ferry line in Edmonds. 

We chose to go mountain sightseeing and took the road to Blue Mountain.  The higher we got the dustier, windier, narrower, with sharper drop off, the road became.  Looking at the gas gage with 1 gallon of gas left, we were relieved to find a space in the road with enough room to turn around.

Sometimes it is just wiser, to know when to make that choice and come back another time when we are better prepared

 

 

 Beautiful Olympic Mountains frame Shannon's family.

 The sheer drop off is right behind us.  Hence, I am leaning to make sure I don't fall over backwards.

Grace, with engery to burn, is flying high!

 



Birds' Nests

 We left the garden shed door open this spring.  One day when Bob was getting the tractor out, some critter flew down and bonked him on the head.  Looking up, he discovered this unusually large pile of twigs in the form of a nest.  The squawking blue jay on watch from nearby branches let us know it was her domain.

Two perfect nest finds for Grace to take to school!  The big one, of course is the blue jay nest, and the small one belonged to the goldfinchs.  They were exceptionally visible in the earlier summer.

I am always amazed at how capable animals with little intelligence are.

The New Garden Queen: The Hydrangea

Whew!  I couldn't upload photos to the blogs yesterday.  A guess it is true, that things look better in the morning....From the hydrangea garden.......

I have come to prefer hydrangeas over rhodies in the garden.  Blooms on rhodies last only 7 to 10 days and by mid-June they are all gone.  And there is no lasting value to cut blooms in arrangements.

Hydrangeas begin blooming around the beginning of July and continue through August with blooms lasting well into September.  The colors gradually change shades of pink to burgundy, from bright blue to pale lavendar.  The blooms can also be dried for year round arrangements.

 Move over rhodies!

This Old House Part III

 I want to prove Dwight's lament to be true about "they don't make appliances like they used to".  The door was rusted through.  It did smoke from the back side one time after I had defrosted it.  But other than that, it just keep chugging, using up electricity.  Oh, yes, there were the occasional power outages or in the rare case when someone was eager to get ice cream and left the door ajar.  But that wasn't the freezer's fault.

We purchased the freezer over 50 years ago from the retail Monkey Wards store in Olympia.  Good brand!  The gold color matched everything else in our 1960s new home.

Plain white........

Motivation for the replacement?  A friend was moving and was selling their freezer.....cheap.

Nice winter home for those berries.....We'll see if there is any difference in the Puget Power bill.

Verbascum

At least 10 years ago, I started this lovely flower from seed that Kemp gave to me.  It has been indestructible, spreading has been manageable, and colors are soft and old fashioned looking.
This year it even got a little fertilizer and what a difference that made.

This Old House Part II

For the last couple of months, the downstairs bathroom smelled like the old cellar.  The smell would go away when we turned on the radiant heat in the floor.  Wondering if the toilet was leaking, we reset the wax seal and hoped we were done.

That was not to be.  So Bob cut this artful round hole in the wall.

It has to be spooky in there.

Sticking the camera in the hole revealed water in the empty space.  It was undoubtedly left over from the flood waters and never got a chance to dry out.  3 days of heaters and fans took care of that.

Bob gooped up the edges and stuck the wall back together.

All textured, painted and done!  AND no smell.............I am sensitive you know.

This Old House Part I

We suspected that we had an ant problem before we left on our trip.  This is the pile of "ant dust" that we discovered upon our return.

First Bob made a tidy hole in the siding and killed hundreds of ants, but the wood particles continued. Then he resorted to removing the gutter and really getting into the siding.

 The black spots are where the ants died and fell to their fate.

We found this monstrous hill in the back woods.  The sack of ant poison shows the comparison of size.

Ants up close and very busy.  Hope we got them all!

Light and Dark

After Ann introduced me to this lovely blooming oregano, I found that it dries very well and maintains the pale pink and green colors all winter.  I just took this year's cuttings and had some camera fun.

Grandma (and Grandpa) Camp

 Grace and her mother came to spend a week at G-ma Camp.  We had an agenda and really kept busy.

 Grandpa's camp job was to provide the fun......and they found it on the water at Boston Harbor.

 You can purchase the modern version of rag curlers which would be soft to sleep on.  Sure beats those hard plastic rollers we used to use before the availability of curling irons.  Don't we look like twins?  Our hair wasn't wet enough when we rolled it and we only got a slight wave.

 We started our sewing experience by looking at the construction of Grandma Tilda's dress, which is full of hand stitching, whale bone, horsehair and too many single hooks and eyes to count.

 Then it was Grace's turn to get acquainted with her machine.  We figured out how to wind a bobbin and thread the machine.  What else do you need?

 The moment of discovery!!!!  " See what I did?"

 Yes, Grandpa did provide the fun.

Grace had a 70's party on her calendar and so Shannon made this fun outfit, ball-fringe and all. 
It was a great week and over too soon.  I'm making plans for next summer............

Leaving and Going, Is It The Same?

Friday morning and we are headed north.  The beautiful new temple at Brigham City, a minature of the Salt Lake Temple and soon to be ready for the open house.

 The old Brigham City Tabernacle brings to mind much earlier Saints who built it and worshiped there.

 Our accomodations in Nampa, Idaho on the way home.

The wheat has turned to its' most beautiful amber color.  There is field after field through Idaho and Oregon. 
Then we head up the Columbia River with its green walls, and as we get closer to Portland, the clouds gather to cover the sun and the air is cooler, and we know that home is just a few more miles down the road.  The places we saw are memorable, but the people we saw are wrapped in our hearts.

Just One More Day.......

We had planned to leave for home on Thursday.  But with persuasion (it didn't take much) we stayed an extra day with Ben and JoLin and the kids. 

When trying to keep from swallowing the pits, Quinn generated lots of cherry juice.

Joel wanted to show us where he will be going to school.  This wall with the planets has captured his interest.  His bedroom at home is a mixture of planets and sharks......

There is also this wonderful map of the United States.  Joel knows where he lives and he asked Grandpa where his house was.  When Bob stood there, we could see the distance between us.

98 degrees in the sun.  We didn't stay at the school long.  Instead we headed for the air conditioned house.

Logo project complete.........So fun playing

Home for the next FEW years.

Love these kids.

I asked for a formal pose and this is what I got. 

I guess we really are going home in the morning.  Hmmmmm.

Wednesday Afternoon

Still flying high from seeing Ann, Paul, Laura and g-daughter Elissa, the afternoon found us making our way to Riverton to see Dwight and Velna.  Again, it had been 6 years since we had seen each other. 
For them, there have been many changes.  Health experiences have got to be as toughening and as tender as any life has to offer.  They have both weathered life changing difficulties.  When we felt the calm in their home, we were made to feel calm ourselves. 

Velna looked beautiful, the pain  masked for the moment.  How does she do it?  Dwight was fun and tried to stir up family controversy over at whose home we had stayed the longest.   We are going to take all of his advice.   A wonderful visit!!!!

I am sad that these are blurry..........