Category Archives: Alpahbe-Thursday

Reflections on the River Trail…

On Wednesday early afternoon daughter and I went to the river trail to get some exercise. Along the way I had some reflections.

#1. Why don’t I take more advantage of this lovely trail close by? Answer: I do not like to walk alone.

#2. If I had a dog I wouldn’t have to walk alone but for me the benefits don’t outweigh the negatives in my mind about owning a pet. Before you judge me too harshly I do appreciate the camaraderie between this row boater and his dog. I can appreciate the fact that you might love owning a pet.

#3. The Pacific Northwest is afforded so much green lush beauty. For some of you who might be envious right about now you also need to consider that we get our fair share of rain and gloom to achieve this beauty. For the record…I’m staying here as long as God sees fit to allow that.

#4. There are a lot of plants out there that I have no clue about.

#5. No matter how bad my hips feel right about now I praise God that I can still walk 3 miles or 6 miles. I won’t be joining any 20 mile a day walks, though.

#6. I really appreciate shade on a sunny day and enjoy the light that breaks through. Did you know that God refers to himself as Light?

#7. How can these wonderful blackberries be noxious? They are if they threaten native growth in protected areas because they just overwhelm the land wherever they grow. They spread like weeds…

#8. Herons seem so lonely to me…

#9. I enjoy bridges…

I’m thrilled my daughter had the time and the ambition to take this 3 mile walk with me today. Not only did we get some exercise that we really need, and some vitamin D which has been lacking in the Pacific Northwest but I got an R post for Alphabet-Thursday! My reflections might not be too deep but they R what they R….

I’m linking up with Jenny for Alphabe-Thursday

 

Q is for…

Q is for a Quote by Queen Victoria

“Give my People plenty of Beer, good beer and cheap beer, and you will have no Revolution among them” ~ Queen Victoria

Q is for Quail, the California State Bird ~

Q is for Quilts. The State Quilt with State Flowers and Birds was made by my MIL Verna.

I can’t imagine the work that went into this. This quilt was made sometime before 1959 when Alaska and Hawaii became states. I’m pretty sure my MIL quilted this before she was married, too, in 1945. Verna taught school in a one-room schoolhouse in Kansas during WWII. She truly had the gift of teaching.

Quick, it’s time to join in the quest and find your Q to share with the Queen of the alphabet Jenny at Alphabe-Thursday! Just add you link to the queue quietly.

Purple Haze ~

Time to join in with Jenny for Alphabe-Thursday and we are on the letter P.

 

You might have thought my Lavender Festival shots were finished but not so. Today is perfect timing to share photos from Purple Haze Lavender Farm.

The Lavender Festival in Sequim Washington is always held the 3rd weekend in July.

This year because of our strange weather everything was a bit behind. The lavender was not as robust and full as it was last year. Here are two photos from last year just so you get the picture…

The next photo is approximately the same spot taken this year…

The lavender festival is a wonderful event to experience and if you are ever in Washington State the 3rd weekend in July you should consider it…

I hope to get around soon to see what inspired the rest of you with the letter P!

N is for Nests and Nature~

It’s time for the letter N with Jenny at Alphabe-Thursday! Thank you Jenny for hosting!

This past weekend I had a bloggy guest spend a few days and we were out and about in the Great Northwest. On the way and during a trip to the Sequim Lavender Farm Faire we were given the opportunity to photograph something neither of us had ever seen before, a baby Seagull. My daughter Katie spotted it off the car deck of the ferry. Later in the morning above the Dungeness Spit on Marine Drive Jill spotted an eagle. Eagle photographs have eluded me until now and then a local stopped while we were photographing the Eagle to tell us about a spot where we could see 2 young eagles still in their nest. Let’s just say that it was a glorious start to a glorious day of enjoying God’s creation and making note of that creation with our cameras.

Here’s the baby seagull that Katie spotted from the ferry dock. Mama seagull was standing over it keeping an eye on us while we clicked away.

The Eagle

He clasps the crag with crooked hands;
Close to the sun in lonely lands,
Ring’d with the azure world, he stands.

The wrinkled sea beneath him crawls;
He watches from his mountain walls,
And like a thunderbolt he falls.

© Alfred Tennyson

Nests – The shape of the eagle nest or aerie is determined mainly by the branch point where it’s built. Sticks placed in tree forks result in cylindrical or conical shaped nests. Disk Shaped nests are built on the ground or a tree branch which is nearly level. Bowl Shaped Nests occur where the tree trunk branches off into smaller upright branches.
   Bald eagles build their nests in large trees near rivers or coasts. A typical nest is around 5 feet in diameter. Eagles often use the same nest year after year.

We assumed this is one of the parents of the eaglets since it was perched just above the nest.

Beyond the Dungeness Spit is the Strait of Juan De Fuca which separates this part of the Olympic Peninsula from Vancouver Island, B.C.

The Dungeness Lighthouse. Built in 1857. Manned and maintained by US Lighthouse Society, New Dungeness Chapter. Six mile walk to the lighthouse. Open year round.

This is also the Dungeness National Wildlife Refuge.

We saw other animals, too. Besides needing some serious orthodontia work, aren’t they cute? We stayed far enough away so they couldn’t spit on us.

Another first for me on this day was being able to photograph this peacock with it’s feathers fanned. Too bad he was behind the wired fence.

Hope you enjoyed my nature shots. I’ll be around soon to see what other N’s will be represented this week.

Marvelous, Mysterious, Masterpieces…

…from Museums in Washington D.C.

It’s time for the letter M in Jenny’s Alpabe-Thursday.

This is fire etched wood relief called The Adoration of St. Joan of Arc, 1896, J. William Fosdick.  This first series of photos were taken at the National Portrait Gallery.

Sadly I didn’t take photos of all the descriptions of the art and I didn’t have my museum husband or daughter with me who read everything in museums to help me out. OYE!

This was so mysterious and sad. This is a bronze memorial of Henry Adam’s wife “Clover”. She committed suicide in 1885 by drinking chemicals used for processing photographs. Adams commissioned Augustus Saint-Gaudens to create this memorial of his wife.

A most interesting canvas…

Now I’m moving on to the National Gallery of Art…

For my finale I’m posting 2 more Masterpieces from Monet…

I’m going to be traveling out and about being a tour guide for the next few days. I’ll try to visit sometime this weekend.

We were so excited that the U.S. Women beat France on Wednesday to go to the World Cup Finals on Sunday. They will be playing Japan who beat Sweden on Wednesday. Go U.S.A.!

K is for Katie!

K is for Katie

K is for our Katie. Katherine on her birth certificate. This photo was taken by Jamie Spiro. This is a repost from a few years back but I was stumped for the letter K and am always ready to share about our wonderful daughter Katie.

Our Katie has an amazing amount of knowledge stored in her brain and I will show you some photos that might explain where some of that knowledge comes from.

At a very young age if Katie went missing this is where you would find her.

She was most drawn to books with words, not picture books. We had a few old school reading books and these are the ones she’d pull off the shelf and carefully go through.

As you can see she did not have a shortage of toys but she always seemed to go for the books.

We didn’t realize how well she could read until a trip to Meadowdale Beach Park with our friends the Spiro’s. Jody was walking hand in hand with Katie when they came to the tunnel under the railroad tracks that took you to the beach side of the park. As they approached this tunnel with this sign Katie said quite clearly to my friend Jody, “Caution Low Head Clearance”

We realized then that we had an almost 4 year old who definitely knew how to read. Who knows how much she was reading without us knowing before this experience.

Here’s Katie in a Kilt that I bought in Scotland in 1973! Hard to believe it fit me once.

Here’s our Katie in 2010 on the night she got engaged to Andrew.

Katie and Andrew were married at the Magistrate’s office in North Carolina when she visited Andrew March 11, 2011. He is deployed at present and when he returns we will be having an official wedding. Right now it looks like that wedding could be on March 11, 2012. We have to wait on the Marines to know for sure. For those of you who pray, please pray for our Andrew in Afghanistan and for our Katie as she waits for his safe return. Semper Fi!

I’m linking to Alphabe-Thursday with our great teacher Jenny! Thank you Jenny for keeping us on track.

Photobucket replaced all my photos with blurred out versions and photobucket stamped versions. They are holding my photos hostage until I pay them lots of money. I’m slowly going through all my posts and trying to clean them up and replacing some photos. Such a bother.

Fountains and Ford’s Theater

Jenny our faithful teacher is the hostess for Alpahbe-Thursday.

Here’s another A-Z stamp from the Postal Museum in Washington D.C. F is for Firsts!

Also from D.C. are my other choices for the letter F, fountains and the Ford Theater.

This is the fountain at Dupont Circle. In 1871 the Corps of Engineers began construction of Dupont Circle itself which at the time was called Pacific Circle. In 1882 Congress authorized a memorial statue of Rear Admiral Samuel Francis duPont in recognition of his Civil War service. The bronze statue was erected in 1884. In 1921 the statue of Dupont was replaced by a double-tiered white marble fountain. It was designed by sculptor Daniel Chester French and architect Henry Bacon. Three classical figures, symbolizing the Sea, the Stars and the Wind are carved on the fountain’s central shaft.

Ford’s Theater where President Abraham Lincoln was shot by John Wilkes Booth.

 

On April 14, 1865, John Wilkes Booth shot Abraham Lincoln at Ford’s Theatre in Washington, D.C., where Abraham and Mary Todd were attending the play Our American Cousin. He died at 7:22 a.m. the following day, April 15th, at the Peterson Boarding House across the street from Ford’s Theatre.

E is for Old Ebbitt Grill & an Old Ecuadoran…

 

It’s that time of the week to join Jenny for Alphabe-Thursday. I’m just back from a trip to Washington D.C. with my Dear and have some fun E’s to share.

 

The Postal Museum had an great A to Z exhibit and this is the display for the letter E. E is for EFOs ~ “Errors, freaks and oddities”

I’ll be sharing a new stamp display for each letter of the alphabet.

 

Ellen b. was ecstatic to find this great eatery in D.C. The Old Ebbitt Grill is Washington’s oldest, most historic saloon. It was founded in 1856. It has evolved over the years from a boarding house to a saloon and now to a restaurant. It also had several moves over the years and has been at this location at 675 15th St. N.W. since 1983. The brochure calls it a virtual saloon Smithsonian.

 

It is just a couple blocks from the White House. We were happy to be dropped off close to the front door of Ebbitt’s on our Trolley Tour. Washington D.C. is amazing to visit but your eyes and feet get tired from all the seeing and walking. You also get quite thirsty on a hot humid day.

 

After our crab cake sandwich we decided to share this dessert…

 

 

Ellen B. was happy to be off her feet in front of food and a drink.

 

On our last day in D.C. while Dear was busy at his conference I went back to Old Ebbitt for breakfast. I had strawberry french toast with ham and it was the best ham I’ve ever tasted. My breakfast was just over $10.00 with coffee included. That’s a deal in D.C.! From Ebbitt Grill I decided it was time to go get a closer view of the White House. One of my favorite experiences in D.C. happened there.

I saw an Ecuadoran family and the son asked me to take a photo of the family here with the White House in the background. After I took the photo of the family I asked the young Ecuadoran to please take my photo, too. I stepped over to the fence and the little old Ecuadoran mother wouldn’t budge from her spot. She wanted a photo with me. The son tried to convince his mother to get out of the photo but she said NO! I love this photo and I was happy to have it with her. After the son took it he finally convinced her to move out and took another photo of just me and the White House. Fun times in D.C. with my new Ecuadoran friend! Ecuadoran or Ecuadorian are both correct in referring to someone from Ecuador.

That’s a wrap for the letter E. We just got home yesterday and I’m still adjusting to the time change. Spring has finally arrived here and I’ll have to get out and mow the lawn. Hope you all have a wonderful Thursday!

Photobucket replaced all my photos with blurred out versions and they are holding my photos hostage until I pay them lots of money. I’m slowly going through all my posts and trying to clean them up and replacing some photos. Such a bother.

Celtic Cross

It’s time for Jenny’s Alphabe-Thursday the letter C.

 

When we decided on the venue for Katie and Andrew’s wedding next January we started a quest to find a Celtic Cross that we could have in a prominent location during the ceremony. We were going to have the wedding in a church with the reception elsewhere but things could get real complicated because my daughter married a Marine. We might have to change the date at the last minute so we wanted an all inclusive venue to make that change easier. The venue we chose has a military change clause. Since the venue is not a church we wanted to bring in this symbol that is important to our faith. Now if you are a believer you know that Believers are the church so wherever they are together is the church but we still thought it would be cool to include a cross on the wedding stage. Katie and I stumbled upon this cross at a roadside garden art fly by night kind of place. We paid someone for the cross who wasn’t the owner so we hope the owner eventually gets our check. So far the check hasn’t been cashed. We thought it was a good deal at $35.00.

Curious to see your choices for the letter C!  Thank you Jenny for being a grand teacher of the Alphabet!

Thursday is Cinco de Mayo and I have a recipe for Carne Asada Marinade at Mennonite Girls Can Cook on Thursday. Click and cook and enjoy!

Photobucket replaced all my photos with blurred out versions and they are holding my photos hostage until I pay them lots of money. I’m slowly going through all my posts and trying to clean them up and replacing some photos. Such a bother.

A is for Apple Blossoms

I’m going to try to participate in Jenny Matlock’s Alphabe-Thursday this time around. The meme is at the beginning again with the letter A.

A is for Apple Blossoms

 

 

Since this is just about Maundy Thursday during Holy Week I’ll tell the truth that these Apple Blossom photos are from last year. My apple tree is behind like everything else this year and is just starting to bud nicely. I’m looking forward to what will come my way in the form of B for next week. Until then Have a wonderful Easter weekend everyone. We’ll be busy around this old house with Good Friday, then Easter baking on Saturday and having a grand Resurrection celebration on Sunday!

Photobucket replaced all my photos with these blurred out versions and they are holding my photos hostage until I pay them lots of money. I’m slowly going through all my posts and trying to clean them up and replacing some photos. Such a bother.