Vee’s Note Card Party ~ It’s Fall Y’all!

I’m heading back over the Cascades to Eastern Washington and our son Dan’s land for my one previously posted Note Card for Vee’s Party. This was taken Fall, 2012.

These next two photos are from Jolly old England from September of this year that I haven’t gotten around to posting yet.

This last one is from this past Sunday in West Seattle of our daughter Katie…

It’s been the story of my life this year but it’s fall and I haven’t pulled any fall/Thanksgiving bins out yet. Time will tell if I do. Seasonal decorating has been out the window all this year. That is O.K. It really is best for me to go with the flow and accept the events of our lives and interruptions as they come. Reminds me of that song from the 50’s that Doris Day sang…

“Que Sera, Sera
Whatever will be, will be
The future’s not ours to see
Que Sera, Sera
What will be, will be”

Hoping to get around to see all the Note Card offerings this week! Blessings…

Our First Frosty Mornings…

We have had a cold spell in the Seattle area. It’s fun to see the frosty leaves in the morning.

Clear nights have meant colder days. I love the fact that the leaves are even falling on top of the full yard waste bin. The sun crowns the yard waste bin with a lovely glow…

This is going to be a full week filled with fun gatherings. Tuesday is my Women’s Bible Study morning. We are meeting one of the Mennonite Girls and her husband in downtown Seattle on Wednesday. Thursday we have our small group here. On Friday we are heading across the line to another of the Mennonite Girls for a dinner party. Hope you all have some fun gatherings to look forward to.

In this month of the Grace Challenge I’m thankful to God for friends and gatherings that encourage and bless us. Don’t miss today’s Grace Challenge post one of our Mennonite Girls is mentioned in it!

Looking Back at Fall Scapes…

I’m busy thinking about the last few recipes I need to complete for our new cookbook. I’m also beginning to make plans for our Thanksgiving celebration.

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Our son Dan will be making the trek across the mountains over Snoqualmie Pass to join us for Thanksgiving.

We decided to invite mutual friends of Dan’s and ours for our time together. With our friends and with my sister and husband there will be 10 of us.

Josh and Laura will be celebrating with Laura’s family this year. Those of you with married kids will understand the every other year concept for holidays.

Katie and Andrew can’t travel far so they will be joining Andrew’s father and step-mom in Florida for Thanksgiving.

We have a fun get together to look forward to next week in downtown Seattle with some Canadian friends I’ll share more next week.

I made Osso Buco for the first time on Wednesday night and boy was it good. Did I just pat myself on the back? I love to order it when it’s on the menu when we eat out and decided to try it in my own kitchen. I’ll have to share the recipe on MGCC blog soon. I also bought Katie a fun little apparel item for the Marine Ball that she finally gets to attend this year. I’m mailing it tomorrow and I’ll let you know if she decides to wear it instead of returning it. I always include the receipt with my impulsive buys and have no problem if they are returned…

I’m thankful for people who understand me and my griefs and joys and my humor which needs some explanation at times. What are you thankful for and what are your Fall plans?

I’m linking with Cuisine Kathleen for Let’s Dish and hoping her power stays on in Long Island and that the Nor’easter doesn’t add any more damage where damage has been done! Praying for you Kathleen and others on the East coast!!

It’s Worth it…

…to have to rake all these leaves.

I am grateful for 4 distinct seasons. Growing up in southern California I didn’t get the joy of seasons like I do in the Pacific Northwest. The fall colors, the crisp mornings, the crunch of our first frost. These are all enjoyed by me.

We took down the patio covers so they wouldn’t be destroyed in high winds and snow later in the winter. They probably won’t go back up till next May.

While I’m typing here, Dear is out blowing all the leaves into one big pile. Our yard waste bins, 4 of them, are all full already. After the yard waste is collected tomorrow I’ll work on filling the bins back up from the big pile Dear is building right now.

This post does have something in common with Steve’s Grace Challenge post today on being thankful in your work.

What are you thankful or grateful for today?

Inspiration to Shoot…

I’m thankful today for fellow bloggers who inspire me to look at the big picture and the beauty in the details. Karen at Ocean Soul is one of those bloggers along with her co-blogger Jukavo who inspire me with their photography.

Here are some of my artsy fartsy shots from Dan’s place…

This post and the rest of my posts in the month of November will be connected to the Grace Challenge I’m participating in. Here’s a quote from my brother’s blog about grace:

“Grace may be the word that best summarizes Christianity. In English, “grace” is connected to two other important words that teach us a response to grace: Gratitude and Graciousness.

Here is how it works. First and foremost, our life, salvation and everything in between is a result of the grace of God. Every breath I take is a grace of God. I cannot be saved apart from grace. Grace emphasizes and points to God as the center. Life is all about Him. He reveals Himself to me not by force, but by grace.”

To read the whole post click here.

I want to continue being specific in my thankfulness. I’m really thankful for digital photography. Digital photography affords me failure in photo taking while at the same time giving me an incredible chance of shooting a beauty. God does the same thing for me through grace. I fail and he picks me up and He lets me try again and with His help He makes things good for me.

Hope your week has gone well. This weekend ends daylight savings. Don’t forget to fall back an hour!

Fall, Fun, Food, and the Future of Flight!

We had a very peaceful Fall day on Saturday here in the Pacific Northwest. We are still dry…breaking records with our dryness. Everyone here is trying to get out and enjoy this unseasonable weather because we know that soon enough our rain will return.

Saturday morning my sister and I headed to Country Village in Bothell to check out a Fall Craft sale and our 3 favorite shops at the village.

Fall decorations and wares were everywhere to see in the very bright sunshine.

At the craft fair our favorites were the letter blocks and we each purchased 3 sets of them. I chose Thankful, Gobble and Joy.

Joy is still packaged in the cellophane because it will probably be a gift for Christmas.

Santa was happy to see we were already thinking about Christmas.

This was another purchase at the fair at the right price.

On Saturday evening we joined Josh and Laura along with Laura’s parents for an evening at a dinner fundraiser for the Future of Flight at the Boeing campus in Everett, Washington. The event was to raise funds for the education programs that partner with local schools to promote math and science. Josh’s company Axia Home Loans in Lynwood, Washington sponsored our table.

Father and son checking out the silent auction. Josh ended up winning 3 or 4 of the items he bid on at the silent auction.

The theme of the event was “The Adventures of Amelia”. We found Amelia and took a photo with her.

We sat amongst the aircraft and engines for our dinner and live auction.

The food was surprisingly good for a big event like this one. They had the tables silent bid for our desserts. The higher bidders took all the chocolate choices early! It was another creative way to raise more money for a good cause.

I took this centerpiece lantern home with me after placing the only bid for it at our table.

On our way out there were gift bags to take home with the Airfield Bombshell Wine from the evening along with a wine opener, cork, and a signature rub from the caterer. That was a fun surprise.

Tonight I’m headed to a rivalry game between the Seattle Sounders and Portland Timbers. There have been over 66,000 tickets sold for this game so the atmosphere will be electric! The fans longtime favorite player, Roger Levesque, who retired earlier this season will be honored with the “Golden Scarf” tonight, too. I’m wondering if this will be our last game of the season in the sunshine and no rain.

Hope your weekend has gone well.

Uninvited…

…but welcomed!

This little visitor arrived in my yard and I had never seen it before. I let it know that it could come over any time if it just promised to take home the unwelcome rats that enjoy my yard, too. I hope this pretty black and white creature understood my request…

Speaking of black creatures, on Monday morning the crows were making a constant high pitched cawing noise with no stop in their intensity. I went outside to see what was up and there was a murder of crows and it looked like they were trying to commit murder on one of their own. I got a broom from the garage and walked out to the fence where one of the crows had gotten one of it’s wings stuck in the chain link. I talked nicely and took the broom and gently pushed the wing out from the link. It immediately flew away and the rest of the crows all took off and haven’t returned yet. I hope they have me on their favorites list now and go cawing somewhere else…

I looked up murder of crows and came up with some interesting information. This is pretty gruesome so you might want to stop reading here but I think this was exactly what was happening in my backyard Monday morning…

“…I do know, however, that the behaviour of ganging up on one crow (which does not necessarily have to be the weakest) is real. In Swedish, it’s called “kråkriksdag”, roughly translated as “crow parliament”. I’ve seen it happen, and it is a brutal event. There is some general squaking, but there is no clear target. Suddenly it starts and all of them jump on one crow, picking at it until it is dead, literally tearing it to pieces. They are so focused on this that you have to run straight in among them to scatter them.”

I guess I really did save the life of this crow that was stuck and defenseless.

Glimpses…

…of Fall in my world.

I couldn’t walk away from this mum for $9.99 to add some late color to the deck.

Love these cascading vines on the neighbors fence.

I made a quick stop at Ste Michelle Winery and one of the resident peacocks was out but camouflaged…

Some dahlias were still showing beautifully at the winery but there wasn’t much fall color showing yet in the trees.

We are headed into another busy week at this old house. I’m looking forward to Dear coming home from Austria on Wednesday. What’s happening in your world?

Septembers Past and Present

September 2007, Woodinville, Washington

September 2008 in California

September 2009 Stanley Park in Vancouver, B.C.

September 2010, Beaufort, South Carolina

September 2011, Kirkland, Washington

September 2012, Seattle, Washington

September 18, 2012. My mom and dad at their apartment. My mom got home from the hospital on Tuesday and my sister Lana took this photo.

Plans are afoot for my time in Southern California this weekend. The first day of Fall will include a taco party with my family at my niece’s house. More big plans are afoot for October. I’ll be able to share more soon. Hope all is well with you my friends…

What’s New…

…in my zoo!

Speaking of new…Happy Rosh Hashana to all our Jewish friends. The Jewish New Year begins this evening and ends September 18th. L ‘Shana Tova!

I finally put away my red, white and blue. My fall bins are ready to come down from the attic. I was at Target and saw these fall tin wall pieces and they were priced right for me…

I subbed out my plates for the tin pumpkins and pear for the Fall season. That might just be a tall skinny pumpkin but we’re calling it a pear after our pear bounty here. At Christmas time I’ll add something new again.

Here’s a closer view of the pumpkin. These pieces were $2.50 each.

On Saturday Dear and I went to Cabela’s in Tulalip and while he was spending his gift card from the kids I found this table top tripod for myself. I’ll be using it for my food photos.

I bought this crown shelf piece to incorporate with my Christmas and Easter decor celebrating Christ as my King.

My hydrangeas are fading but still beautiful to my eye.

The maple leaves are falling and before we know it the lawn will be totally covered! Look at all that clover in my grass…

Later on Saturday the work continued on the siding with Josh helping again. I made a big pot of chili for the workers to enjoy when they were done.

Progress is good to watch…

We are still promised many dry days and Dear is encouraged with the extra time to finish the siding before the rains come!

When our Saturday was almost done we got one of those dreaded calls that my dad had to call 911 because my mom was very disoriented and didn’t know what end was up. Family met my dad and mom at the hospital and the doctors think she had a TIA event. They kept her overnight and are doing more tests today. I’m happy to be flying down to Southern California next Saturday so I can visit with my mom and dad in person.

So…what’s new in your zoo!?

The Happy Wonderer ~ ellen b.

To honor and encourage

Category Archives: Fall