Author Archives: Ellen

Rosebud Azaleas

My favorite Azalea is the Rosebud Azalea. I have 2 older plants and 2 young ones in my planters.

Yesterday I helped Katie at K&A’s new apartment. She built her bookshelves and we emptied book boxes and a couple random boxes.  They still have the bulk of their apartment to move but don’t have to be out of it till the 31st of the month. All the stuff we’ve organized so far were the things they were still storing at our house. Their new place has about 250 more square feet.

I’ve been away from my computer a lot this week and missed doing my usual visiting. Someday soon my blogging mojo will return.

 

The Four Loves ~ C.S. Lewis ~ Quote

I’m reblogging this from May 16th, 2007, my first year of blogging. As I’m going through all my posts I’ll reblog some along the way.

Ellen's avatarThe Happy Wonderer ~ ellen b.

 

 This quote is from The Four Loves by C.S. Lewis. My friend Jan sent it to Jody and I as it describes what happens in close friendships between 3 or more people. I love this quote and I hope it will augment your idea of friendship. I chose this book to illustrate this quote because the 3 friends Lewis speaks of are pictured on the cover.

Lamb says somewhere that if, of three friends (A, B, and C), A should die, then B loses not only A but “A’s part in C,” while C loses not only A but “A’s part in B.” In each of my friends there is something that only some other friend can fully bring out. By myself I am not large enough to call the whole man into activity; I want other lights than my own to show all his facets. Now that Charles…

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Now and Then

Our daughter in law posted this great selfie of her and our little grand. Mommy and daughter, love it.

Our other daughter in law posted this photo to facebook on Mother’s day with a lovely tribute. This was taken before Addy was born. Our girls with me.

These are two of our rhododendrons that are in their glory. I took this photo on Mother’s day. They are generally in their fullness for Mother’s day each year.

Hope you had a good weekend. We enjoyed a meal downtown with our western Washington kids on Saturday evening. On Mother’s day we worked hard with temps reaching 85 in Seattle. Mowed the lawn and finished an addition to our landscape with one more section of privacy fence and a new arborvitae.

Here’s the sad long story of my arborvitae purchase at the Home Depot. While Dear was finishing the staining of our new fence section, I took the truck to the HD to purchase the Arborvitae. It was close to noon and the HD was hopping with people buying plants with or without their mothers in tow. With difficulty I pushed and shoved the heavy potted plant onto one of those rolling carts to take it into the store for purchase. The line to the cash registers was circling around the indoor plant section and it was a nice breather after my muscle man effort getting the plant on the cart. When I reached the register the employee said she’d call for someone to help me load the plant into the bed of the truck. With high expectations of help I walked quickly to the truck which was a fair distance in the parking lot and drove without running over the groups of humanity walking down the center of the parking lot and reached the designated loading area. A young man was waiting by my cart to “help” me. He was 25ish, I’m 67ish. I had to help him get that heavy plant into the truck. Poor young man was weaker than me. I still said thank you but truth be told he should have thanked me.

Katie and Andrew arrived shortly after me getting the plant home to borrow the truck to move some of their stuff to their new apartment which is a lot closer to us. Andrew single handed picked up that Arborvitae and set it on the ground. That was the kind of help I was expecting at the Home Depot. Sigh…

How was your weekend?

Spirit of God, Descend Upon My Heart ~ Hymn

Spirit of God, Descend Upon my Heart

Spirit of God, descend upon my heart;
Wean it from earth; through all its pulses move;
Stoop to my weakness, mighty as Thou art;
And make me love Thee as I ought to love.

I ask no dream, no prophet ecstasies,
No sudden rending of the veil of clay,
No angel visitant, no opening skies;
But take the dimness of my soul away.

Teach me to feel that Thou art always nigh;
Teach me the struggles of the soul to bear.
To check the rising doubt, the rebel sigh,
Teach me the patience of unanswered prayer.

Hast Thou not bid me love Thee, God and King?
All, all Thine own, soul, heart and strength and mind.
I see Thy cross; there teach my heart to cling:
O let me seek Thee, and O let me find!

Teach me to love Thee as Thine angels love,
One holy passion filling all my frame;
The kindling of the heaven descended Dove,
My heart an altar, and Thy love the flame.

Words: George Croly, 1854.

Weekend Roundup “S”

1. Starts with “S.”
2. A Favorite.
3. Silver.

Starts with S…

Sisters and siblings with our dear old Pop in Southern California. He turns 95 on May 25th. Left to right, youngest to oldest, Lana, Ellen b., Vera and Kathy.

2. A favorite…

Spring in my yard.

3. Silver…

A table set with my sterling silver flatware and other silver touches.

And my parting shot…

Sailboats sailing on Lake Union in Seattle last summer.

Linking up with Tom The Backroads Traveller for Weekend Roundup.

Hope all of you enjoy Mother’s Day weekend and if your mom is still alive that you have the chance to honor her in some way.

Before the Rumble!

Yesterday we had a sunny and windy start to the day. This is a view of our Pink Dogwood from the kitchen window and then from the yard.

We have 4 mature Rhododendrons in our yard and they are getting to full bloom.

Closeups of the lilac and dogwood blooms. Those lilac blooms are filling our yard and deck with their fragrance. Of all these blooms they are the only ones with a strong fragrance.

Blooms from two of our rhoddies.

In the late afternoon the clouds got dark and grey and we had a loud thunderstorm that lasted for an hour. A lot of noise and a little rain. The winds continue today. In the meantime our house is still clean and organized waiting for that family who wants to buy our home.

Reflecting Back On May

British Columbia, Canada May 2018

The Seattle Japanese Garden 2017

P1060302

San Antonio River Walk 2016

Chewelah, Washington May 2015

Bellefontaine 142Bellefontaine Cemetery St. Louis, Missouri May 2014

British Columbia, Canada, May 2013

I’m still working through cleaning up my blog because of the Photobucket change of policy which resulted with them replacing 8 years of photos with ugly black and grey boxes asking for money to release my photos. I’ve made it to 2010 and have miles to go before I delete all those boxes. In the meantime I have these highlights from past posts in May. So much to be thankful for over the years.

We are in a warm weather pattern right now with just one wet day predicted this week. Right now a high of 75 degrees expected for Mother’s Day! We had a nice mostly quiet weekend here. The highlights of the weekend: time with Josh and Laura on our deck after the Sounder’s game, church on Sunday morning, and an afternoon meal on Sunday with friends in Kirkland. Hope you all had a good weekend.

When the Roll is Called Up Yonder ~ Hymn

When the Roll is Called Up Yonder

When the trumpet of the Lord shall sound,
And time shall be no more,
And the morning breaks, eternal, bright and fair;
When the saved of earth shall gather
Over on the other shore,
And the roll is called up yonder,
I’ll be there.

Refrain

When the roll, is called up yonder,
When the roll, is called up yonder,
When the roll, is called up yonder,
When the roll is called up yonder
I’ll be there.

On that bright and cloudless morning
When the dead in Christ shall rise,
And the glory of His resurrection share;
When His chosen ones shall gather
To their home beyond the skies,
And the roll is called up yonder,
I’ll be there.

Refrain

Let us labor for the Master
From the dawn till setting sun,
Let us talk of all His wondrous love and care;
Then when all of life is over,
And our work on earth is done,
And the roll is called up yonder,
I’ll be there.

Refrain

Weekend Roundup ~ R

Starts with “R.” 

A Favorite. 

Red

Here are my choices from the prompts for Weekend Roundup.

Robin starts with R.

A Favorite: Reflections including some family members on Lake Roosevelt.

Red: Red tulips growing in a rather long row behind Judy and me in Chilliwack, B.C.

Parting Shot:

The raging Spokane River because of Spring runoff.

Cllick over to Tom The Backroads Traveller to see more selections from the prompts.

Today is mowing the lawn day and then I’m going to a soccer match with my adult kids on this side of the mountains. Happy Cinco de Mayo to all!

Round Trip to Canada

On Thursday Marg hosted eight of “the girls” who live out west at her home in Canada for brunch. This event was planned because of my and Dear’s imminent move farther away from the Frasier Valley MGCC’s. The trip that now takes me a couple hours or so will take upwards of six hours in the future. We all contributed to the meal and we were not lacking for anything. I did not get photos of all the dishes we enjoyed. We missed our two Manitoba girls.

Marg’s little granddaughters helped her set the table. They said “we are the little Mennonite girls”. After we got up from the table we went outside to enjoy our sweets.

The day was beautiful and after a little while we got so warm we had to move into the shade. Besides eating we had some heart to hearts and some good laughs sharing around the circle.

A few of us were able to meet up at the #tulipsofthevalley in Chilliwack to enjoy the last few days of tulips in their glory.

We enjoyed swinging with the tulips, too.

Girls just want to have fun!

I left Canada around three and at the border crossing I was picked randomly for a full car search. Oye. I still managed to make it home by 5:30 for which I was grateful.

Hope May is starting well for you.