The sky is blue and our ornamental grasses are golden. The Goldenrod is in it’s prime.
I’m patting myself on the back for being able to tackle a cart load of weeds.
We are so grateful to be able to see the layers of our mountains again and blue skies. The smoke has cleared and we are breathing easy.
Hope all is well where you live these last few days of September.
I’m at our Women’s retreat today. I won’t be getting around to blogland until Monday. Cheers!
A couple of weeks ago we started building this birdhouse with Addy and JJ. The involvement with hammers and nails and glue made me fail to get photos of A and J while they were working on it.
Both Addy and JJ are good with directions and the whole building process. Addy’s window is a little more detailed than JJ’s.
It was Addy’s idea to add the B. We had to let all the glue dry at this point and it was time for Addy and JJ to go to Awana. The finishing of the roof would have to happen at a later date.
On Monday afternoon JJ was here while Addy was at dance so we started on the shingles on the roof. The royal ‘we’ was JJ supervising me and giving me tips while he ate an orange.
Here’s an older Autumn photo of Addy and JJ.
I wanted to update y’all on the fires in our parts. The closest fire to us is 74% contained and another fire a little farther from us is 46% contained. The folks from our church who had to evacuate have been able to go back to their homes and they weren’t destroyed. We had a downpour on Sunday and that was helpful, too. Hope all is well in your neck of the woods.
Autumn is beginning and so are some Autumn hues on our property. Fall is a favorite of mine. Do you tend to say Autumn or Fall when talking about this glorious season?
Our weekend started with an early trip to Spokane to pick up Greg’s new eye glasses with his new correction that is appreciated. On the road to Spokane we pass this bill board in Clayton.
They change up the message about twice a year and I always keep an eye out for it.
On Sunday after our church service we watched the Memorial for Charlie Kirk. We appreciated several of the speakers. Erika Kirk, his widow, was an inspiration to listen to. It was a beautiful service with the Gospel of Jesus Christ shared more than once. Many shared it well. The music was beautiful and worshipful. It must have been amazing to sing with 70,000+ voices together.
Our Westside family sent photos of their experiences in California and Scotland on the weekend!
Josh and Laura were in Southern California. Our Laura and my nieces and grandniece along with my sister Kathy enjoyed a Sound of Music sing along at the Hollywood Bowl! That was epic and fun for all. They were celebrating birthdays, especially Avery’s Sixteenth!
Further birthday celebrations were enjoyed with my other sister, Vera, with nephews and grand nephew and our son, Josh.
And then all the way across the Pond in Scotland, Katie and Andrew enjoyed dinner at the same restaurant Josh, Laura, Greg and I enjoyed a year ago in Stonehaven, Scotland.
It brought back so many good memories.
Today they will be hiking to Dunnottar Castle. We’ll be waiting to hear how they survived the climb there and back again.
It’s time to pull out my Autumn/Fall swag. How was your weekend?
Update on the Crown Creek Fire north of us.
This is a map of the Crown Creek Fire that is 0% contained in our area. Green means be ready, yellow means get set, red means GO!
Our home’s approximate location is the blue dot. We are not in eminent danger at this time.
For those of you who pray, please do add our firefighters and community to your prayer list. The work is exhausting, the air is unhealthy and the anxiety is high. Families from our church have been evacuated. Thank you for your prayers!
This isn’t the only fire burning in our state. The Katy Fire is another active fire across the Columbia river from us, in our neighboring county. The evacuation map for that fire has gotten larger this week, too.
I’m adding this map above to give you perspective of where Colville is located in the state of Washington. Canada is above the state. We are in the Northeast corner of the state.
Thank you friends for your prayers and concern. Hope all is well in your corner of the world.
From Spurgeon on Isaiah 43:2
We have had some rainfall that gave me a break from watering.
The little toddler quail are hard to see but are so much fun to watch. We are inundated with quail, babies, toddlers, and teens. They grow fast.
If they didn’t blend in so nicely with their environment they’d be easier for predators like this next one who flew in on Monday.
Today is mowing day. What’s up where you live?
Another year of swimming lessons are in the books!
Our museum unveiled a new mural that was recreated from a black and white photo taken 100 years ago of Kettle Falls area on the Columbia River as it was before the Grand Coulee Dam was completed downstream in 1941. This area is now under water.
In other news Greg replaced our aged and failing gate this past week.
As usual he does great work!
The 2025 soccer season is on full kick ahead. Addy and JJ are busy on the pitch.
It’s a ‘kick’ to see their dad referring, too.
Hope y’all have a great Friday!
We’ve had many visits from bucks, does and fawns lately.
A regular stag party on this evening.
This little one tried to crash the party but was called away quickly by it’s mother.
On another day there was another gathering.
Then we had several visits from the fawns and their mother.
We also had a visit from our hawk.
On to our humans!
Our Grands had a great week of Vacation Bible School.
Jamie worked hard as a leader all week! Marvel at Jesus, Live for His Glory!
The weekend ended with a birthday dinner party for our Grands Granny. Our Grands are blessed with lots of adult love.
Things are heating up around here again this week. I’ll have to resume some watering. What’s going on in your corner!
Our summertime visitors have been entertaining us here at our country bungalow. I’ll post more photos later in the week.
Time for the Midweek Hodgepodge with thanks to Joyce From This Side of the Pond.
1. The midpoint of summer (believe it or not) is August 7th. Describe a perfect summer day. Have you had one this year?
A nice clear blue sky with fluffy clouds at 78 degrees or less with no mosquitoes, yellow jackets, or wasps to bother me. Have not had one this summer.
2. What’s one thing you wish you knew before starting high school?
It was a waste of time, emotions and regrets to have boyfriends. It would have been good just to keep all relationships at the friend level.
3. What’s something that bothers you if it’s not done perfectly?
I think perfectly is a very high standard that has different opinions attached. I like events that are well planned and that have flexibility if things go wrong.
It does bother me when you arrive to help someone move and nothing is packed or that there aren’t boxes and paper and tape to get the job done.
It bothers me when an event is planned but then there is no one really in charge.
4. What’s the most overrated food you’re convinced people are just pretending to enjoy?
Green Juice.
What’s a trendy food you actually do enjoy and would say is definitely not overrated?
Thai Food
5. Wrapping it up this week with five fun this or thats…
6. Insert your own random thought here.
Our younger summertime visitors from the animal kingdom.
These two were crying for their mother on Monday night when I got home from VBS. A sad cry I had never heard before.
Our church is having Vacation Bible School, Wonder Junction, this week. I’ll be selling t-shirts and hats each evening.
Tuesday July 29th was my brother and sister’s birthday. They are twins. It was fun to have one of the ‘twins’ with us to celebrate his birthday this year. Our Colville kids own a boat and the plan for this Tuesday was for them to treat their uncle and cousin to a day on the water. Their boat is not a yacht so Greg and I stayed home for boat time.
While the crew were boating I baked a cake and prepared our taco dinner. The candle on the cake had a small explosion of edible confetti that was fun. Note to self: read the directions before you light the candle. For the first candle I didn’t read the fact that I was supposed to put in the edible sprinkles ahead of lighting the candle. Thankfully there were two candles in the package and Jamie loaded up the second candle and Dan lit it for a successful ‘second take’ on singing and lighting and exploding!
The evening was capped off with a game of SkyJo which has become our ‘go to’ card game this year.
Wednesday morning was pack up day with a trip to the airport for our visitors. We stopped for breakfast at Frank’s Diner and another stop at Spokane Falls for a quick view before we continued on to the airport.
The Spokane International airport was a short ten minute drive from here. We dropped off my brother and nephew with hugs and good wishes. ‘God be with you till we meet again’.
We still had to make a couple shopping stops on the way back to Colville for supplies for our Vacation Bible School. After stopping at the Chef’s Store and Costco we drove the rest of our 70 mile trip to Colville with views of clouds that warned of Thunderstorms that were ready to burst at any minute.
We are thankful for the time we could all spend with my brother and nephew in our corner of the world.
My brother and our nephew traveled to Colville to enjoy a Father/Son time with us. Leonard is the youngest of my siblings being born 6 minutes after his twin, Lana. Andrew has an older sister, Hope. Hope was enjoying some cousin time in California. We stopped at The Master’s Brewpub in Deer Park on the way home from the airport for a meal.
As we continued home, we passed many sunflower fields. Andrew was born in the Ukraine so we pulled off the highway to get a photo of him with the sunflowers. They are Ukraine’s national flower and are associated with peace, the sun, and the warmth of the Ukrainian spirit.
Once home we had a walk about and played some Corn Hole.
On Sunday we met up with our family at church.
After church we enjoyed Greg’s famous Swedish Pancakes.
Sunday dinner was on Bayles Mountain. What a treat we had, lamb gyros with homemade gyros and tzatziki. Homemade Ice Cream with huckleberry sauce was our dessert. Our kids picked all the huckleberries themselves.
Jamie remembered to take the group shots and we are grateful for them. Andrew is our children’s cousin. He is cousin once removed to our grands.
Driving down our kids’ driveway for home we stopped for our traditional spot for a photo.
I’ll share our Monday and Tuesday doings in another post.
We had some intense thunderstorms yesterday and our temps dropped by 20 degrees by the time the storms ceased.
Happy August to you all.
The Happy Wonderer ~ ellen b. 