Author: Ellen

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Mount Baker Highway

On Tuesday morning bright and early we headed north on Highway 9 to see some sites on the Mt. Baker Scenic Highway. Our first stop was in Snohomish for breakfast at Jake’s Diner. Fueled for the day we headed farther north just below the U.S./Canadian Border.

“Rated one of the top hiking, skiing, snowboarding and scenic drives in America, Mt. Baker Highway takes your breath away.”

Our stops were at Nooksack Falls, Picture Lake and lastly Artist Point at the end of the highway.

From the falls we traveled on toward the Mt. Baker Ski area. We started the part of the road that in 10 miles climbed 3,200 feet.

I’m not sure what the significance of the raven sculpture on the sign is. Dear and my last and only time here was in 1988 or 1989 for a winter ski trip with friends just after we moved to Washington State from California. It looks a lot different in the winter.

Our next stop after the falls was Picture Lake and I’ll devote a whole post to it on another day.

Picture Lake is in the Heather Meadows Recreation Area.

Today we are awaiting news on who our next Senior Pastor will be. Our former pastor followed a calling to become a Navy Chaplain. We will get to meet the new candidate on August 27th. We are excited to see and hear him on that day. I’m taping my feet and keep checking my emails to see the announcement. I’m not called the Wonderer for nothing! Hope you have a good day!

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Dog Days of Summer Hodgepodge

1. Do your actions match your words? Elaborate.

“They are both approaching the same level of confusion” says Dear. We’re having some issues with the word match in this sentence. My actions are in harmony or in agreement maybe not so much matching. Seriously though, I do think I speak and act consistently.

2. Sick as a dog, go to the dogs, dog days of summer, dog tired, it’s a dog’s life, every dog has it’s day, can’t teach an old dog new tricks…now doggone it which saying could most recently be applied to your life?

Probably the Dog Days of Summer. Summer makes me lethargic. Truth be told…it’s not my favorite season.

On the whole subject of dogs we have never had a pet dog in Dear and my house. Our son Dan now has a dog he inherited when he married Jamie. Rayna is the golden in the photo above the photos in the collage are of the dogs coming to the self-catering cottage we rented for a week in the Cotswolds when the sausages we were cooking reached their noses.

3. Your favorite book featuring a dog in the storyline? What makes it a favorite?

I’m going with Spot in the Dick and Jane series. I can still remember how excited I was to learn to read and I just couldn’t get enough of reading in my elementary years. Spot was the first dog in the first books I read and now I just found out in the original books from 1932 that Spot was a cat to begin with and then they changed Spot to being a dog! I cherished my time in the bookmobile when it came to school. The only books we had in our house growing up were the Encyclopedia Britannica and a Bible…written in Russian. We eventually got Bibles in English, too. My older siblings and I would walk a couple miles to the library every month to return and check out new books. We would always check out as many as we could carry home. The above photo are of the original 4 of us who walked to the library together before my mom and pop had 4 more to make our sibling count eight!

4. What’s something you hope to one day have the confidence to do?

Make bread. Yes, I’m part of the Mennonite Girls Can Cook but I don’t make bread and I’d like to change that. I have mastered the roulette above that was a favorite that my mom made growing up and I’m pleased about that.

5. August 16th is National Tell a Joke Day. So tell us a joke.

Just changed my name on Facebook to “No One” so when I see stupid posts I can click on it and it will say ‘No One Likes This’.

Hope you are laughing…

6. Insert your own random thought here.

Here’s something I really like, love and can’t get enough of, Addy May!

Love the eyebrows on this little one and all the expressions she makes. Counting down the days when I can kiss those cheeks…

I’ll be linking up with Jo From This Side of the Pond for Wednesday Hodgepodge. She comes up with the questions and we come up with the answers.

Dear and I had a great road trip on Tuesday to Mount Baker Scenic Highway. We enjoyed beautiful vistas and a lake and waterfall. I’ll post about it soon.

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We Can See Clearly Now…

…the smoke is gone.

We have blue skies again and white clouds that are visible after we enjoyed a light rain last night and today.

Our pear tree is full to the brim and I always wonder when the time is right to pick the pears. I will have lots to share this year. Our apple crop was very small this year compared.

Since we had some cooler days Dear decided to freshen up the shingles and scrape and paint the overhang.

Things are looking a lot better.

The hydrangeas are still looking nice even though they are waning. The raindrops on their leaves and petals looked refreshing.

We’re enjoying the look of the ground cover varieties we planted. Looks like I need to weed out a couple of grass blades.

It’s a full time of year in our yard.

We are so thankful for our cooler nights and our clear skies. It is so refreshing and we were tired of moaning about the smoke and haze!

“Shower, O heavens, from above,
    and let the clouds rain down righteousness;
let the earth open, that salvation and righteousness may bear fruit;
    let the earth cause them both to sprout;
    I the Lord have created it.”

Isaiah 45:8 (ESV)

 

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Sweetly the Holy Hymn

Sweetly the Holy Hymn

Sweetly the holy hymn
Breaks on the morning air;
Before the world with smoke is dim
We meet to offer prayer.

While flowers are wet with dews,
Dew of our souls, descend:
Ere yet the sun the day renews,
O Lord, Thy Spirit send.

Upon the battlefield,
Before the fight begins,
We seek, O Lord, Thy sheltering shield,
To guard us from our sins.

Ere yet our vessel sails
Upon the stream of day
We plead, O Lord, for heavenly gales
To speed us on our way!

On the lone mountain side,
Before the morning’s light,
The Man of sorrows wept and cried,
And rose refreshed with might.

Oh, hear us then, for we
Are very weak and frail,
We make the Savior’s name our plea,
And surely must prevail.

Words: Charles H. Spurgeon, 1866.

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Cruising on Lake Union

On Tuesday after a hike to the bottom of Snoqualmie Falls in the morning our kids decided a 2 hour cruise on Lake Union in an Electric Boat would be a nice thing to do with our company from Southern California. Our niece Debbee and her husband Lenny were with us for 2 days before heading north to spend time with friends in Surrey, British Columbia.

These Electric Boats hold up to 10 people. Josh started the journey as our skipper and soon we were wondering how to avoid the float planes landing and taking off over, beside and in front of us!

We headed to calmer water. The sights we saw were varied. The Space Needle was shrouded in smoky skies as was Gas Works Park. The floating hot tub had us laughing. There are floating home all along the shores of Lake Union including the home used in Sleepless in Seattle. I didn’t get a photo of it.

We were warned that after five we’d probably be dodging sailboats. They have the right of way.

Soon Lenny took over as the skipper. What are you trying to hide Skipper?

We went under several bridges that we normally only drive on. The blue and orange bridge is the Fremont Bridge and it’s a drawbridge. The larger bridge is the Aurora Bridge.

Behind Dear and me is the University Bridge.

We headed toward the Montlake Cut but the Electric Boats aren’t allowed through the cut. The Montlake Bridge is also a drawbridge.

As we headed back to port Laura tried her hand at steering the boat and decided Lenny could take over again. Two hours went by quickly and our time on the water was refreshing even with the smoky haze that has settled on the Pacific Northwest.

On their way back to our house the cousins stopped at Brooks for Debbee to get some running gear. Debbee is a marathoner. She has run the Boston Marathon twice. You know you can’t just sign up for the Boston Marathon you have to have a documented qualifying running time from another marathon to qualify to run in the Boston Marathon. The picture on the right of the collage is her during the Boston Marathon in April of this year. She’s a high school math teacher and she also coaches track and cross country at her high school.

We had a nice two days with Debbee and Lenny.

Another summer weekend is upon us. Dear is scrapping and painting overhang and freshening up the shingles on 3 areas of our house. I try to do a few chores in the cool of the morning and am waiting for more serious household projects next week when we are promised cooler days and cooler nights. Happy Friday and Happy Weekend to you.

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Blueberry Cobbler

Head on over to Mennonite Girls Can Cook to see the recipe for this cobbler. I like it because you can use frozen or fresh fruit and the cake topping doesn’t get soggy. I made a larger one with a mix of apples and blueberries, too. Serve it cake side up or cake side down.

They say we are finally going to get some relief from our dry days and heat and smoke filled skies soon. I hope so.

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Light My Way Hodgepodge

1. Do you try to set rules for yourself about how you use your time? Explain.

Sometimes. Right now Dear and I have set rules on our eating and drinking habits. The rule is not to eat after five and not to drink after six. This works well when we don’t have overnight guests.

When I’m in a slump I like to use the fifteen minute timer rule. Set the timer and get busy for 15 minutes. It’s amazing what you can get done in fifteen minutes and sometimes this is just the kick start I need to get going and finish a project.

2. Monday was National Lighthouse Day. Have you ever visited a lighthouse? If not, do you have any desire to see one up close? Of the 10 Most Beautiful that made this list which would you most like to see in person-

We have visited a few lighthouses in Washington State, see collage above. These are from the far southwest edge of Washington, the Northeast edge of Washington and the Puget sound area of Seattle.

Lindau Lighthouse (Germany), Fanad Lighthouse (Ireland), Portland Head Light (Maine), Yaquina Bay Light (Oregon) The St. Augustine Light (Florida), Peggys Point Lighthouse (Canada), Start Point Lighthouse (England), Tower of Hercules (Spain), Bass Harbor Head Station (Maine), and White Shoal Light (Michigan)

I’d like to visit Portland Head Light in Maine and Fanad Lighthouse in Ireland.

When you’ve been away, what’s your ‘lighthouse’ telling you you’re on the right road home?

When we are on the road on a longer than usual trip the “lighthouse” for me is turning on Simonds Road and heading up the hill to our street and finally our driveway.

My spiritual lighthouse leading me to my ultimate home is Jesus.

Again Jesus spoke to them, saying, “I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will not walk in darkness, but will have the light of life.”

3. What have you unintentionally stopped doing? Is this something you need to pick back up and begin again, or is it something you need to let go of for now (or even permanently)?

Counting calories and cutting down on what I’m eating has stopped because of our summer company. We’ve had three different groups of loved ones come from far away to enjoy time at this old house and what the Seattle area has to offer. I intend on picking it up again tomorrow since we have no more company coming, that we know of.

4. We’ve had a full week of August. Share a GRAND moment from your month so far.

We had a grand time on Lake Union yesterday late afternoon into the evening on an electric boat. I will share a full post about it soon.

5. Tell us one song you love with the word ‘baby’ in the title.

Baby, Baby by Amy Grant

6.  Insert your own random thought here.

I’m late to the Hodgepodge party as I’ve been busy with our latest company.

We won’t be seeing our eastern girls and our eastern son till September…boohoo. So thankful for text messages with photos attached!

See what others are posting for Wednesday Hodgepodge at From This Side of the Pond. I’m sure you’ll get to see Jo’s new little grandson who has freshly arrived this August!