Category Archives: Our Country Bungalow

May Growth

We are in the greening time of the year which also means it is mowing season.

Our red peonies are bursting forth and we’ll have many bouquets to enjoy.

I was sad to see one of our 90 foot trees is dying. You can see the one that looks brown. That tree will be coming down soon.

The buds on our White Peony. I really need to divide this plant up.

Our deep red peonies. We have 5 bushes of these.

Irises grow well here and grow wild and multiply!

We are ready for Memorial Day, Flag Day, The Fourth of July and more!

On Sunday we had some severe thunderstorms with gusts of wind, downpours of rain and hail, too. The noise of thunder and the flashes of lightning kept me awake from 2am on. We had some minor damage but nothing serious. We have never had storms this intense. Exciting to watch. They predict more excitement into Monday. The bonus is that I do not have to water for a few days. I had to mow twice last week things are growing so quickly. All of these photos were taken last Thursday and Saturday.

Happy Victoria Day to our neighbors North of us, O Canada!

Hawk Flying and Turkey Strutting

The hawk was too high in the sky for me to get better photos. I zoomed as close as I could.

 

The male turkeys have been strutting about these Spring days.

 

 

Besides hawks and turkeys we have visits from quail and robins and swallows. Hummingbirds are returning, too. Everything has grown quickly and I’ll need to get out to take some photos of the greening of the yard and the peonies about to open. With the heat we’ve been having I’ll need to water instead of counting on the Spring rains to do that for me. We are getting some of the haze from the fires in Alberta. Fires this early does not bode well for our fire season. A peculiar thing that we’ve noticed this year, too, is an abundance of moths flitting about.

Hope all is well in your corner of the world.

Our State Bird

We’ve been enjoying some summer weather here the last few days. Things are growing fast.

It was fun to spot our state bird in the bushes of one of our planters and it stayed long enough for me to zoom in for some photos.

The American Goldfinch was designated as the Washington State Bird in 1951. This beautiful golden bird is found throughout our state and is commonly seen in flocks in fields, bushes and trees.

The state bird proved a point of contentious debate in the state of Washington. After more than two decades of voting and arguing, the state chose the American Goldfinch (Spinus tristis) officially in 1951.

We had a good weekend with lots of outdoor work that takes it’s toll on my wrists and back but still gives a measure of satisfaction to get the work done.

We had a nice Mother’s day starting off at church and having dinner at our Colville Kids’ home. Thanks for stopping by.

Hello May

Happy May Day!
“Come, my soul, put on your springtime clothes and gather garlands of heavenly thoughts.”
Spurgeon

Looking forward to our May flowers! Our last couple days of April brought temperatures into the 80’s!

Spring has brought some common visitors back to our yard.

These stay right where they are all year round in all kinds of weather.

Our daffodils came up and they are in their full glory.

Spring Rhubarb.

Soon we’ll be enjoying the Peonies.

For close to 5 years we have been half-satisfied with our internet service. Where we live Satellite service has been our best option. Our plan was expensive and doesn’t deliver for the cost in our opinion. Lately we have another choice for Satellite and we took the plunge and ordered Starlink. Dear is on the roof getting the space ready for the Satellite dish.

That dish moves and finds the optimum position in relation to the Satellites. Very cool. It lets us know if there are obstructions. It also will melt snow that might accumulate on it. Our other service had a data limit and this service does not. We are happy campers. It was expensive for the initial cost of equipment, etc., but the monthly fee is $50 dollars less than our previous provider. We are pleased. When we called to cancel our previous service they offered us more data and a $50 discount on our plan. Too little, too late.

Hope you can enjoy lots of pretty blooms in May and joy in your hearts!

Thirty Years Older…

After JJ’s 4th birthday party we celebrated this guy who is 30 years older than JJ. He joked about a trapezoid so he got a trapezoid.

Happy Birthday, Andrew. We are all thankful for you and glad God brought you to our family.

While family was in town we enjoyed digging through some very old bins of stuff.

Addy loved twirling in one of Auntie Katie’s dresses from years ago.

JJ gravitated to this infant sized superman t-shirt that he squeezed over his head and onto his body.

Some good conversations transpired.

More bin fun with Katie’s old Barbie and Ken dolls. Clothes and lots of itty bitty things got dumped on the floor!

 

Mid April

On Tuesday of this week we took a drive to Chewelah for lunch and I took this photo on the way home as we traveled back towards Colville. This was a nice change after a very rainy Sunday night through Monday late into the early hours on Tuesday. So grateful to see blue skies and be warmed by sunshine!

We still are dropping into the freezing range at night but the days have seen sunshine and temperatures into the 50’s. We worked outside today getting some things cleaned up and cleared out at our country bungalow. We have a truck load to donate to a garage sale at our church to raise money for our MOPS (Mothers of Pre-Schoolers) program. Dear changed out our winter tires to our all purpose tires so we are ready for travel on roads with easier conditions.

Our westside kids are traveling today to our home for the weekend. We look forward to a good catch-up and some celebrating.

How’s your April shaping up?

Time is Passing Hodgepodge

The two guys in this photo above celebrate birthdays this week.

Thank you Joyce From This Side of the Pond for Wednesday Hodgepodge! Click over to join in the fun.

1. April 13th is National Scrabble Day…are you a fan? 

Yes, I enjoy Scrabble. Haven’t played in ages!

Do you enjoy word games in general? 

Yes, mostly.

What’s an eight letter word that tells us something about your life currently?

Peculiar; unusual, or particular or special. We are heading into a period of hospitality at our Country Bungalow that does not involve biological family. We are confident that it will be a blessing as we adjust in the month of May and into part of June.

2.  Do you have a junk drawer? Is it full? Do you know what’s in it? What’s in it? 

Yes, yes, and yes. It’s full of things like keys, tape measures, charging wires, and junk! Thank you so much for this question as it caused me to clean out that junk drawer and make it more useable!

3. When does time pass quickly for you? When does it pass slowly? 

When our family is all together, time passes quickly.

Time passes slowly when I’m awake in the night at 2am and not able to get back to sleep.

4. These eight vegetables are in season during spring-asparagus, broccoli, cabbage, carrots, celery, collard greens, garlic, herbs. What’s your favorite? Any on the list you refuse to eat? Last one on the list you ate? 

Favorite would probably be carrots. I wouldn’t refuse any of these but I’m not a fan of collard greens. On Monday we had some asparagus, carrots and new potatoes roasted.

5. What’s the oldest thing you own? Tell us about it. 

Dear has a French Violin from the 1700’s. That is old and probably the oldest thing in our home. Dear’s dad got it from someone when Dear was 10 or 11 and decided he wanted to take violin lessons. Dear’s dad Rex has always acquired interesting things. Our baby grand piano which we got from Dear’s folks is over a hundred years old.

6. Insert your own random thought here. 

This little guy turns 4 this weekend and we will celebrate him with Dinosaurs. Time flies when you have Grands!!

All of our kids will be together this weekend and on Friday evening we’ll start things off celebrating our Son-in-law’s birthday which happens to be today. Happy Birthday Andrew. Can’t wait to celebrate you on Friday!

Thankful that you stopped by to read this post and leave a comment.

The Rest of Last Weekend

On Saturday the 18th, we moved from the birthday party of one of the youngest in our family to celebrate the oldest in our family, me. Our kids made soup and salad and even baked a loaf of marbled rye for us to enjoy for dinner. After dinner we enjoyed strawberry shortcake. Before the cake was cut we had the obligatory blowing out of a few candles.

I had the best helpers to help blow out the candles.

This guy had a full day of watching others open presents.

I got puzzle piece sorter trays, a puzzle subscription, a framed bouquet of flowers that represent all the months of our family birthdays. Names are written on the stems and some leaves.

Josh asked for silly faces and two of the five obliged. Time for the littles to go home with their parents and for the older folk to hit the sack after a full day of celebrating.

We gathered on Sunday for breakfast at Dan and Jamie’s and we all enjoyed some time outside ending with a nice walk down the driveway and up again.

Our Westside kids hopped into their car and headed back across the mountains for home.

I’m adding this next collage for my benefit.

Love the delight captured in Addy’s face at her ‘friends’ party a week prior to the family party. The bakery owner made those cute unicorn cookies.

Back to the Present: After a few sunny days with temps up into the 50’s we are having a brief cold snap with possible rain in the mix. Looking forward to warmer days next week and hopefully I’ll be able to finish clearing our planters of their old growth. It will be a quiet weekend after our very busy one. Hope you all have a nice weekend.

Looking Back Seventy Two Years…

Some thoughts and collages looking back on my Seventy Second Birthday.

Lived in proximity to the Pacific Ocean for 72 years anywhere from a couple miles away to now over 400 miles away. I’m a West Coast Girl.

A city girl for 67 years.

A born again believer in Jesus Christ for 60 years.

Sadie Sadie married lady for 48 years.

A most thankful mom for 44 years.

A grateful grandmother for 6 years.

A country gal for 4-1/2 years.

Thanking the LORD for His steadfast love to me and my family. The best eternal gift I have received is my redemption with so many added blessings through the years some in the form of trials. Many sweet earthly gifts, too. Pressing on and looking to my future hope.

“Now to him who is able to keep you from stumbling and to present you blameless before the presence of his glory with great joy, to the only God, our Savior, through Jesus Christ our Lord, be glory, majesty, dominion and authority, before all time and now and forever, Amen.” Jude 1:24

We had a lot of rain on Monday and today we might get some sunshine breaking through. That will be nice for our day in Spokane for shopping and eating at a new spot to us.

Welcome Back Robins

 

Piping Robin

by Annette Wynne

Piping Robin, piping so,
Tell the snow
It’s time to go;
Tell the rough winds not to blow
Any more through field and glen;
Call the bluebirds home again,
Tell the little flowers to grow,
Piping Robin, piping so!

I was happy to see the first of the Robins return to our yard this past Saturday. We still have not seen daffodils pop up. As you can see the snow has not all melted in our yard. The roads and fields are brown and muddy looking as are parts of our acreage. How is your corner of the world?

HT: Discover Poetry