September 29, 30, October 1, 2009

Working backwards, today (October 1) I went to the Farmer's Market with Vicki. I thought these peppers were beautiful! I didn't buy any, I just admired them. All I bought were a bunch of carrots, half of which I cooked for dinner tonight. Another view of the market. We have had such fun here this summer. Clam chowder, Panini blt's, soup and salad, coffee, bakery treats! A lot of good times talking and sharing and helping each other out too.

Today was a teeny bit rainy and cold, and we saw a sign at Anthony's Restaurant (the parking lot we were in) that said HUCKLEBERRIES! Vicki looked at me and said, hmmm that sounds good for lunch! I said hmmm I'm game! and next thing we knew we were sitting in a fancy restaurant with a huckleberry slump topped with vanilla ice cream in front of us! It was delicious! We made it all last an hour and a half. : ) across the restaurant - through the window, I saw something interesting out in the bay. I happened to have my camera along and took this shot -- its a blue heron on top of a piling! Usually you see seagulls there. The herons like to wade in the shallow water. It must have been there just to be beautiful.

Tuesday (September 29) I had a nice visit with my sister. She has a new house and lots of new furniture. I should have taken a picture! Its very nice and even though she still has lots of plans, it looks great and will be very comfortable. I envy her little "studio" outside. I had such a good time I forgot my phone there. hmmm, doesn't that mean I want to come back soon?

Wednesday (September 30) I worked most of the day, then had an activity at Sharin Memories, my favorite scrapbooking store. Claudia was there and many of my Rubbermaids friends.

We're still watching Star Trek!

I am still working on my Michigan scrapbook and my craft room, but have nothing to share from it yet. My brain is just bubbling with projects I want to work on. Little by little, I'll get to them!

Monday, September 28

Today was a "work" day, so nothing too exciting has been going on. I didn't take any new photos, so with my new ability to transfer photos, I dug up these from my Spring garden. This Iris was the most beautiful flower! Claudia gave me the bulbs for it. I caught it at the perfect time -- all wet and dewy. No, I didn't spray it with water. : )

The Snowballs were beautiful as well. They look better every year. My friend Autumn gave me the start to this tree. It is six feet tall, with flowers just at the top, which is just as well, because the deer would eat it if the flowers were more accessible!

Autumn also gave me this Calla Lily bulb. Its like a miracle when it comes up this beautiful!

Of course they are all just lovely memories now. I'm glad I got photos.

I also researched Black Walnuts and it looks like a lot of work to harvest them. One site said to drive over them with your car to get the outer shells off! But, I found a "recipe" for making walnut stain or paint -- now that is something I can see myself trying some day...Here is the recipe:

"You can make wood stain or old fashioned ink from the nut hulls. Soak the hulls in a bit of fresh rain water, then heat - preferably outside, due to the strong odor! You need to use a metal pan, or add something metal to the mixture (ie. a few iron nails or a piece of copper) for a mordant, which makes the dye more permanent. Allow to cool, then pour through a strainer. Allow water to evaporate from the dye, for a more concentrated brown ink. Traditionally, lamp black (soot) was added to make the ink black."

What do you think?

Sunday September 27, 2009

I had to put this in my Blog for Walker -- he would love this sign we found in a gas station today. We couldn't stop laughing about it! Here is a photo of Mt. Rainier "the Mountain is out today". Doesn't it look like a painting? We hiked around and took lots of photos. I whined quite a bit (it was ALL uphill - then when we went downhill, that was almost as painful!). It was beautiful though, as you can see!

Afterwards, we went to Paradise Lodge to look around. This pianist was playing in the lobby - we really enjoyed his music a lot. I bought a few postcards. Phil took photos of a travelling group of folks.

This is the piano he was playing on! Very rustic looking but the sound was beautiful. We enjoyed it so much we bought two of his cd's (SOUVENIRS) and listened to them on the way home.

It was a beautiful day and we took a picnic that we ate with a view of Mt. Rainier. We stopped in Yelm to visit Phil's folks on the way home and I made home-made pizza (with TJ's pizza dough and sauce) for dinner. Excellent way to spend the day!

September 26, 2009 - Saturday!

This is the cover of our ROAD TRIP scrapbook. The cover is a photocopy of a work of art Walker did in his art class, depicting the Central Hall at Hillsdale. I added a few things for the cover:Then, changing the subject -- today I went to Sharin' Memories Scrapbook store and bought some fun stuff at their used products sale: That is always so fun, people bring in stuff they don't want anymore with garage sale prices! Several of those rubber stamps were .10 or .25 and I thought they would be fun for my granddaughters to have! The black squigglies are acrylic stamps that I am going to use in the above project! I found some beautiful paper too.

Back to earlier today -- Today was harvest day at the Cedar Shores Farm. I picked all the grapes. There were more than I thought. I filled up a dinner plate with them. OK they are a little tart - but I am proud of them. I like tart fruit and I bet I eat them all. Phil thought they might make one glass of wine! kidder!

Can you see the maple helicopters in this vine maple tree? They seem especially plump and beautiful this year.

I haven't harvested these yet, but they are walnuts! I think they are supposed to fall to the ground, dry out, then you open them and find a walnut inside. I think I'll google it tonight and see if I'm right. There might be TEN walnuts on our tree.

OK, now back to my scrapbook...This is the inside cover. I've been gluing interesting bits from our trip there. Motel names, Wall drug, etc.

This is our first day on the road -- I drew a sketch of Mt. Rainier as the sun was coming up. The cherub with the wine glass was the back of a Trader Joe's receipt, from snacks we bought for the drive.

This is a sketch I made from a photo Walker took at the end of day one. We had driven a lot of miles, the back window of the Cadillac was stuck OPEN and we had a gourmet dinner at McDonalds. All in all, it had been a pretty good day.

Another little piece of our trip -- the front end of the cadillac, crossing the mountains with classical music playing.

One more thing -- I made Pesto for dinner tonight. I bought a bunch of basil at the farmer's market on Thursday and make it into pesto and pasta tonight. I just ate that, but Phil had some leftover roasted chicken with his, oh, and dilly beans. Here is my recipe which I LOVE!

PESTO

1/2 cup olive oil (use some to brown nuts)

1/4 cup pine nuts, or walnuts or almonds

2 cups fresh basil leaves

2 cloves garlic

1/2 tsp salt

3/4 cup parmeson cheese

1. Start water boiling to cook your pasta. I like bow tie pasta, but this time we used whole wheat penne. Cook according to directions.

2. Brown the nuts in some oil - watch them carefully. (I don't think there is much difference between pine nuts (which are EXPENSIVE) and almonds - so I use almonds)

3. In your food processor or blender, put 1/2 cup olive oil, 2 cloves garlic, 1/2 tsp salt, and half of the basil leaves. Give them a whirl. Add the browned nuts and all the oil they were cooked in and the rest of the basil leaves. process until pretty smooth.

4. Put your parmeson in a serving bowl, add the basil mix and stir together.

5. Drain the cooked pasta, and add to pesto-parmeson mixture and stir together until all coated and green. I sometimes add a little more parmeson on top. It is so gloriously green and gourmet! Enjoy.

I know I put a lot of photos in this post, but I might not have anything to put in next time! We had a very nice telephone visit with Walker today. He still enjoys his classes and his new friends, his job and the food at college. He had plans to play ultimate frisbee later in the day but mostly to study and catch up on his sleep.

September 25, 2009

I spent all day today at my "third job" filling in at the Storage Unit Place, from 9 - 5:30. It is still a pretty cool place to work, and because I didn't get any great photos elsewhere, I took some around the office. They have the most amazing clocks! They are tick-tocking all day! This coffee lady is one of my favorites. OK, it IS my favorite! Isn't she great????

This guy is pretty cute too!

This chicken clock makes me think of my daughter. See the egg pendulum?

This guy is so cute too! He's in the bathroom.

There is also a very funny clock made of a fly-swatter in there! I couldn't get far enough away to get the whole thing in the picture so I'll describe it: The swatter part has the clock, and there are flies on the hands of the clock! Very weird and amusing!

This is part of a picture frame on the desk there. Fascinating huh?

Otherwise, when I wasn't answering phones or posting payments or showing potential customers what a 5 x 9 space looks like, I worked on my scrapbook from our trip to Michigan. I should be able to post some pictures from that this weekend.

When I got home, Phil was anxiously waiting for me and wanted to go out to dinner! Hurrah! I don't have to cook! We went to the Thai Garden. I ordered Teriaki Chicken with Vegetables #2 hotness (choose how hot: 1,2,3,or 4 - two was plenty hot). It was delicious. I brought half of it home because there was way too much for me to eat at one sitting. Phil ordered a yellow curry with prawns. It was SO GOOD! That's what I want next time!

We came home and watched another episode of Star Trek. I only have the season for 3 weeks before I have to return it to the library - no renewals. We don't have anything planned for the whole weekend. I hope to catch up on housework and have some kind of fun! : )

September 24, 2009

Walker's Artwork! finally
framed and hung in our home gallery

A thrift store "rescue". It's fabric stars, then crocheted around the stars and linked together. Its about 8 inches x 12 inches. Very sweet!

Aren't these beautiful? Vicki bought an apple as large as cantelope! And an Asian pear and red cherry peppers. They were beautiful too! We meet for lunch every Thursday. I had a spinach fritatta and Vicki had a Tuscan Panini that looked delicious!

This is my box for my acrylic stamps. It isn't finished yet - I plan to glue on postage stamps and some other paper ephemera. I have to wait for the ink to dry though!

I had a really great and fun day today. After going to Greek class with A.J., I went to visit my sister Jonny - we had a great visit and talked for almost two hours! Then, back to town for a couple of hours at my office. Next to the Farmer's Market to meet Vicki for lunch. But first, I bought basil for Pesto (one of my favorites!), two chocolate dipped macaroons for our dessert tonight, and a couple of red bartlett pears and three "President" plums that look like Italian Plums on steriods! Afterwards I made a quick trip into my favorite thrift store and found this very cute doily type thing ($1.00). I just couldn't resist it; it begged to be rescued and loved. I also bought two rolls of ribbon - very different with a colored ribbon and jute. I don't know what I'll do with it yet, but it will be perfect for something!

Last night I tried to organize a craft corner, and got distracted decorating this wooden box to hold my acrylic stamps. That was very distracting and I had a lot of fun playing with it. But, the ink is taking forever to dry! See how my right brain (artistic) hijacks my left brain (organized) and keeps me from my goals!

September 22, 2009

A beautiful day in our neighborhood! I think its the first day of Fall (maybe the 2nd) and the weather got up into the upper 80's. Ever since Walker started driving, I worried about him running out of gas, and was a constant nag about it and worried unnecessarily but relentlessly. Whew, he's in Michigan and not driving. Worry no more! Right? Wrong! Phil was driving the truck, and ran out of gas! I was happy to be the roadside hero for him though. I found a gas can, filled it, and delivered. We had three cars in town at the same time! Go Figure. All's well now though. I guess I have to keep worrying and nagging though!

September 21, 2009

This is Walker's "self portrait" he did in art class this year. It is THE DARK LOBSTER plotting how to take over the world! I bought a great frame at Goodwill today for $4.99 (metal frame - glass, etc.) and Phil has promised to put it all together. Above is the before picture, it is just taped on top of the glass of our Ansel Adams print!

These apples make me very happy! I picked all the ones I could reach with the ladder last night. They were just ending up on the ground for deer to munch, and even some in the tree had big bites taken out of them - racoons? We got a lot of apples - I made a big batch of applesauce and always have in mind to make a little pie. I think I'll make half a pie tonight - fold over one round pie crust + ice cream!

Well! I goofed and my "before" photos are way too fuzzy! So, all I have are "afters". I'm still pretty happy with this first little corner of my craft room though. The picture below is just a close up of my favorite part, all the little bottles and jars filled with cool stuff to use in projects!

Tonight I will work on a different section...

September 20, 2009

Our Front Porch plantings. We bought all these for Walker's graduation party and they are still nice! Reminder to self: next year get geraniums, begonias and Hostas for front porch! They love it!

Our back yard - these tiny fuschias are all over this five foot high plant. They are so delicate and they come back every spring!

Here's one of Phil's stacks of firewood. That's the only thing that makes me look forward to winter - toasty fires in our wood stove!

Grandma J. gave me these flowers from her garden. Aren't they pretty? The big blue one is a hydrangea, I think the purple are asters, and I have forgotten what the white ones are, but aren't they great? The vase was my grandmother's. I had a really nice visit with my mom and dad after helping out with the Shaves. My dad always makes me laugh!

Here is what we really did today. We moved Wayne and Elizabeth to a new home - assisted living where Wayne will have his own apartment and Elizabeth will get extra care, but they can still be together. Wayne is supervising the loading of the trailer. The little girl on the bike visited Wayne a lot and kept shouting "Hey Wayne, look at this!"

August 27-29 2009 Road trip to Hillsdale

Yellowstone

A friendly and photogenic Buffalo.

Walker and I in front of Mt. Rushmore. "Rushmore" could be the theme of this trip! Especially this particular day, as we rushed from Yellowstone to Mt. Rushmore (and a quick stop at Wall Drug, and through the Badlands!) to Albert Lea Minnesota to be in place to rush for Hillsdale college the next day. Plus, the time zones were against us and the more we rushed, the more time we lost! We arrived in Albert Lea at 11:00 p.m. and got up at 4:00 a.m. and make it to Hillsdale at 4:00 p.m.

September 19, 2009 Pt. Townsend

Phil and I went on a road trip to Pt. Townsend this morning. We sometimes like to stop at this antique shop on the way - Walker Mountain. We didn't find anything to buy but it was a nice stop. Foggy and wintry looking. It reminded me of the night I drove to Port Townsend just before Jonathan was born!

We went into some stores there, including an antique store where I bought this cute cigar box. (they always smell really good - like cedar). I have collected a few and use them for "things" in my craft room. This one is quite unique. I also brought my sketch journal and give you a peek-a-boo view of my sketches - done in ink so no erasing! Yes, that's Phil, can't you tell?

We went to lunch and I had a really really good bowl of clam chowder and lots of Phil's french fries. He got fish and chips but wished that he had ordered the chowder. The weather in Pt. Townsend was not all that good. As we came home, just before Shelton, the sun started shining and it doesn't look like it rained here. I thought of the Blanchards all day!

September 14, 2009

Today is Victoria's 7th Birthday. We celebrated at a Japanese Steak House, where our food was prepared and grilled in front of us. Here the staff is singing (and drumming) "We will Rock you!" and bringing out dessert. The next photo is Phil and Victoria watching delivery of the dessert and finally the beautiful dessert. I didn't get a chance to photograph Victoria blowing out the candle because she was fast and my camera was slow. She did eat almost all of it, after eating rice and shrimp.

They were really into flames. First they squirt cooking oil on the grill and light it on fire! Big whoosh and flames 5 feet high! Then he starts cooking fried rice. He rolled a bunch of eggs onto the grill, then whacked each one once, and golfed the shell into a hole in the grill. Next he cooked a chicken breast, and chopped it into tiny pieces - he had three guests (including Phil) just open their mouths and he flipped bite size pieces of chicken right into their open mouths! Since it was Victoria's birthday, he made a little volcano out of onion rings, and lit it on fire -- big whoosh and 5 ft of flames again!

The rest of the meal was less theatrical, but yummy - steaks and shrimp. Finally at the end, the staff came out in a parade singing and presented Victoria with a cake. She was a little shy but she loved it. It was fun for me to visit with Sara and her mom, and her mom's friend Carolyn.

August 30, 2009

Convocation at Hillsdale College! Inspiring speech by President Dr. Larry Arnn.

Kind of a self-portrait (I'm holding the camera and Phil is directing) on the Hillsdale campus. We have just said good bye to Walker.

Hillsdale Michigan.

Walker's first few minutes in his dorm.

This day was the world's fastest whirlwind! We arrived at 4:00, just in time for the Convocation. Then Phil and I were rushed off to the parent's send-off dinner while Walker had a barbeque with his new friends! We met up afterwards to unload everything Walker needs for the next 9 months. He still had lots to do: unpacking, dorm meetings, games and stuff. Phil and I took photos of the campus and went to our motel. We got up at 7:00 a.m. the next day, stopped by to see Walker and deliver his i-pod as he rushed off to take a Latin placement test and bye bye Walker and Michigan.