Author Archives: Ellen

Welcome Summer ~ The Hummingbird

 

Winged Jewel
(The Huming, Bird)
Feathered fire of emerald .
Aflashing through the air,
Its throat a glowing jewel,
A ruby solitaire.

Intrepid wings are whirring
In airy, fairy flight,
Careening through the sunshine,
A scintillating sprite.

Then pendant o’er flower
It dips its dainty hill
And gathers honeyed nectar
From flowery cup and frill.

Now darting, swiftly turning,
It seeks the trumpet vine,
A little tropic jewel
Aflame with nectared wine.
-CORA L. CONE

HAPPY FIRST DAY OF SUMMER TO EVERYONE WHO PASSES THIS WAY!

Photobucket is holding all my photos I stored with them from 2007-2015 hostage. They have blacked out all those photos on my blog posts. OH BOTHER! I’m slowly cleaning up my posts.

Tagged for My Unimportance!

Cori G. from Gingerbread Crumbs and Co. has tagged me for a meme. I’m suppose to post 6 unimportant things about me. Now which 6 to choose.

 

Here are the 6 I settled on.

#1. I drink coffee every morning.
#2. Orange is not my favorite flower color.
#3. Hats aren’t flattering on me.
#4. I am not a vegetarian.
#5. I enjoy strolling through cemeteries.
#6. I do not bake pies.

During my last stroll through the Santa Barbara Cemetery look what I saw. Ellen B. is buried there, thankfully not this Ellen B.

Thanks for the tag Cori G.!

I’m not going to tag anyone but if you want to play let me know so I can come and visit.

Photobucket is holding all my photos I stored with them from 2007-2015 hostage. They have blacked out all those photos on my blog posts. OH BOTHER! I’m slowly cleaning up my posts.

Getting Ready

 

My front porch plants were just sitting on the concrete floor so Dear suggested I look for a plant stand. Don’t have to suggest to me twice to shop for something we need want. So on my way to buy replacement batteries for our garage door openers I went to Ross and found this Plant stand that folds up!

 

I love the details on the metal. It was Tuesday so they give us older gals an extra 10% off! Sweet!

 

Now my three plants are nice and tidy and up off the concrete.

On the shopping note we are getting ready for a big Bagdanov family weekend. My nephew Tim is getting married to Jessica a week from this Saturday. Since we are going to cram a few extra bodies into our condo for part of the week I went in search of an extra aero bed. We have a queen size one and we’re adding a twin size one.

We are very pleased with this product!

Got some jersey sheets that were on sale to go with the bed…

Our son and his wife are flying in on Tuesday night and our daughter and brother’s family are flying in on Thursday. Family Day at Disneyland is planned for Thursday for whoever is here. It will be interesting to see when I can fit in some blogging as I’m also in charge of catering the Rehearsal dinner. I’ve got lots of help for that but it takes a lot of creative mind effort to pull it off. My family is wonderful at pulling together and making an event happen so I’m not concerned. If I don’t get around like usual you will all understand why…

Photobucket is holding all my photos I stored with them from 2007-2015 hostage. They have blacked out all those photos on my blog posts. OH BOTHER! I’m slowly cleaning up my posts.

Jane Austen Quote

 

“What dreadful hot weather we have!
It keeps me in a continual state of inelegance.”
~Jane Austen

We’re having a heat wave and I’m glad my condo is air conditioned. I’m heading to Huntington Beach tomorrow for a family cooking event. What a day to cook but it can’t be helped. We’re making Russian Pelemeny for a family function coming up…

Photobucket is holding all my photos I stored with them from 2007-2015 hostage. They have blacked out all those photos on my blog posts. OH BOTHER! I’m slowly cleaning up my posts.

BooMama’s Before and After ~

BooMamaBeforeAfter

It’s a before and after project. So all you have to do is post about something you want to re-do, re-decorate, clean up, etc. and then do it before July 25th and re-post your before and after results. How cool and motivating is that. To get the official scoop click over to BooMama.

Here’s what I’m going to try to do.

1. Create an inviting atmosphere on my deck in Seattle (I’m in our condo in So. California right now but I get to be at my home in Seattle from July 1st – August 15th )

 

2. Do a thorough cleaning of my Seattle home since my adult children have been “taking care of it” while I’m in Southern California.

3. Show some photos of our huge project…redoing the basement. My husband only has 3 weeks in Seattle so I don’t know what we’ll be able to accomplish but I will show the progress…

Here are some photos of the torn up basement. We had some water issues so this was a “have to do” project! The hard part about my husband completing this project is that we are living 1200 miles away right now because of his job.

 

So I hope to show you some great changes July 25th!

Photobucket is holding all my photos I stored with them from 2007-2015 hostage. They have blacked out all those photos on my blog posts. OH BOTHER! I’m slowly cleaning up my posts.

WFW ~ Gossip

Proverbs 11:13 ~”A gossip betrays a confidence, but a trustworthy man keeps a secret.”
Proverbs 16:28 ~”A perverse man stirs up dissension, and a gossip separates close friends.”
Proverbs 18:8 ~ “The words of a gossip are like choice morsels; they go down to a man’s inmost parts.”
Proverbs 26:20~ “Without wood a fire goes out; without gossip a quarrel dies down.”

Leviticus 19:16 ~ “Do not go about spreading slander among your people.”

And on a more positive note…

I Thessalonians 5:15 ~ “Make sure that nobody pays back wrong for wrong, but always try to be kind to each other and to everyone else.”

For more Word Filled Wednesday Posts visit Amydeanne.

Photobucket is holding all my photos I stored with them from 2007-2015 hostage. They have blacked out all those photos on my blog posts. OH BOTHER! I’m slowly cleaning up my posts.

May I Recommend…

There’s a wonderful new food blog that was started by Lovella from What Matters Most. It’s a group effort from Mennonite and other gals who post wonderful recipes to share with bloggy world.

The blog is called Mennonite Girls can Cook.

Check it out, you won’t be disappointed. Just look at those images at the top of this post that come from this site. Yummy!

Photobucket is holding all my photos I stored with them from 2007-2015 hostage. They have blacked out all those photos on my blog posts. OH BOTHER! I’m slowly cleaning up my posts.

ABC Wednesday ~ V is for…

V is for Ventura, California

 

On Father’s Day (June 15th) Dear and I took an early morning walk in Ventura, California. We walked along San Buenaventura State Beach to the Ventura Pier and back again. We are having the typical June morning marine layer along the coast in Southern California so the pictures are a bit gloomy.

 

We saw some fun creatures on our walk. A ground squirrel, A Pyrenees Mountain Dog, A Seal, and A Godwit.

 

We also saw some interesting vegetation.

 

This big bush with these interesting flowers caught our eye. The petals look crepe like. I just did a google search and found out this is a Crinkled White Peony…

For more ABC Wednesday posts click over to Mrs. Nesbitt’s.

Photobucket is holding all my photos I stored with them from 2007-2015 hostage. They have blacked out all those photos on my blog posts. OH BOTHER! I’m slowly cleaning up my posts.