Category Archives: Photography

God’s Amazing Handiwork

On May 10th I stayed up late to see if I could see the Northern Lights which were predicted to be visible in our area and many other areas around the world. I looked up and could tell there was something different happening but no color was visible to the naked eye. When I saw other people posting on Facebook the pinks and greens in color I was confused as to why I couldn’t see the same thing. When I looked at the image of the sky I just had snapped on my phone I could see the colors in the sky. How odd that was. I just kept snapping away and here is what my phone captured.

 

At the end of my time on our deck taking photos, these lights below which were more on the horizon and not looking straight up, were visible to my naked eye.

It was amazing to witness and a bucket list item that I could check off my list.

In the stars His handiwork I see…

“The heavens declare the glory of God,
and the sky above proclaims his handiwork.
Day to Day pours forth speech,
and night to night reveals knowledge.”

Psalm 19:1,2

We are running out of May days. Over the weekend some of our kids and nieces and nephews were together in Arizona for their annual ‘Cousins Memorial Day Weekend’. On Monday our flag pole was taken out of it’s Winter storage and back in it’s worthy spot in our front acres. Long may the Red, White and Blue wave!

We have lots of pretty color popping up along with so many weeds that we have not kept at bay. I’ll share some of those colors, soon. What’s popping up at your place?

Lake Washington Celebration

We arrived in Western Washington on Thursday the 16th of May. When we make it to that side of the mountains we like to stop at our old faithful, La Corona in Kirkland. It was was our weekly Tuesday hangout when we lived on that side. The owners still remember us and it is nice to be recognized by them. Our good friends met us for a meal and catch-up before we made a few more miles to Josh and Laura’s for the weekend.

On Friday the 17th of May our Westside kids took us out for dinner at El Encanto in Kirkland for a belated Mother’s Day celebration. It was a good time to be together. It was a cool evening with moody skies. This is a relatively new restaurant in Kirkland. I enjoyed an upscale Chile Relleno that was delicious. Kirkland is on the shores of Lake Washington in Washington State.

Before our dinner gathering Laura, Greg and I shopped at a few spots for mostly shoes. We had an appetizer lunch so we wouldn’t be too full for our main event on Friday night. We had those appetizers at another Westside hangout of ours and it was fun to be there again, Gratzie in Bothell.

Foggy With a Chance of Sunshine

We have had quite a stretch of foggy days with several days of rain, too.

“Faith is like radar that sees through the fog—the reality of things at a distance that the human eye cannot see.” – Corrie Ten Boom.

 

And then a glorious couple hours of this…

The sun broke through the fog and we could see blue sky for just a few hours on Friday and now we are back to fog and rain. That couple of hours reminds us that the sky is still blue and the sun is still there and the fog will lift again.

How are the skies where you are?

 

First Weekend in January

The first weekend in 2024 proved to be a busy one. On Friday we enjoyed a last minute open house at the home of our friends and met some of their neighbors. On Saturday a big pot of borsch was cooked from scratch with broth from a seven bone roast. A few quarts of borsch will be shared this week. One small pot was delivered to our neighbor.

On Saturday evening we attended a Karaoke party for a friend from church who turned 50. We met another couple from our community and had a nice time getting to know each other. There have been lots of predictions of snow that didn’t materialize until Sunday in the wee hours. We woke up to a pretty blanketed landscape.

The following collage is photos of our ride into church on Sunday morning. Our series in Colossians continues to be excellent.

We didn’t have anymore snow on Sunday but they are threatening us with more starting Monday Evening into Tuesday. Time will tell if they are right.

Fountains Abbey Part Two and Onward

Continuing Day Nine of our travels, after the ruins of the Abbey we kept walking a circular path that would take us back to the main entrance going past the water garden.

We went through this dark tunnel upward to view the octagon tower.

We crossed the lake and continued to St. Mary’s church instead of going on to the deer park.

We were disappointed to see the church would not open until 1pm.

We made it back to the main gate and enjoyed lunch before heading back to York to drop off our car and take a train to Liverpool. At the Enterprise car rental station we had another good experience and we got a special ride back to the railway station. Once at the station we had time before our train would depart so we found a table at a pub at the station and played Phase 10 to pass the time. Soon it was time to head to platform 5 for our 2 hour train ride to Liverpool.

Thankfully our train ride had no delays and no cancellations. We enjoyed meeting a gal, sitting in front of us, who had just gotten back to England from our neck of the woods. We were surprised to hear her talking about being in Bellingham and she was shocked to hear that Laura went to university in Bellingham. We arrived at the Lime Street station in Liverpool with a short walk to our hotel.

We got our luggage into our rooms and then ventured out for a place to enjoy dinner. We headed to the Denbigh Castle and realized right away there was not even an inch of space with the crowd enjoying an Everton game. It was so great to be there on the outside looking in when Everton scored and the whole pub erupted with cheers.

We moved on from The Denbigh and found the Hawksmoor and there was a table in the bar for us even though we did not have reservations.

We placed our orders and it took quite a long long time before any food appeared at our table. They finally came to our table apologetically and told us that my hamburger was dropped on the way to our table and they had to go out and buy some buns because they had run out of buns. LOL!

The food was good and we were okay with the wait. Greg had a vegetable wellington that looked cool and tasted good. Josh called an Uber for us when we finished dinner instead of walking back to the hotel.

This was the end of day nine and time for a good sleep after a very long day of travel and walking. Two more full days of travel before it was time to fly home.

The Dales Way ~ Part 2

This continues the post of our walk over hill and dale from Grassington to Hebden and back to Grassington along the River Wharfe. The whole walk was closer to 6 miles than 4 miles but the steps that Laura’s device clocked were 20,077! This was on Thursday September 21, 2023.

We left our cozy Pub and headed through the village towards the River Wharfe.

The Old School Tea Room, Hebden. Family run, traditional but quirky tea room. Gifts, crafts and cards also available. School dates back to 1874 and the old bell still chimes every hour! (Laura, we missed going in here)

Hebden suspension bridge: The bridge, next to stepping stones, was built in 1884 to connect Hebden with Thorpe after a man drowned trying to cross the Wharfe. Nearby Burnsall Bridge, also on the river, had been swept away in a storm the previous year. The new bridge was built by the Hebden blacksmith using 262 yards of redundant steel rope from the old lead mines. It was restored in 2014/15.

If my hips were any bigger I wouldn’t have been able to squeeze through here! 🙂

 

The water at Linton Falls was in full force due to the storms the day before.

It was tempting to go down this lane and investigate Linton Church and village but our feet said no.

Back in town we treated ourselves to some famous Love brownies and got a recommendation for dinner and made reservations. As if we didn’t have enough steps in already to strolled in town and did some last minute shopping before we got ready for dinner.

Our dinner this evening at the Grassington House would be in honor of Greg’s 70th birthday, a treat from Josh and Laura.

Cheers to Pops on 70 years!

It was a lovely dinner and an American couple from Utah stopped by the table for conversation since they noticed we were from the States, too.

After dinner we took some evening shots for our memories.

We were thankful for being able to walk in sunshine with glorious blue skies and fluffy clouds and to see the wonderful landscape of a portion of the Dales. Capping the evening off with a delicious meal was a nice treat.

Although there was talk of taking part in Quiz Night at The Devonshire we all opted to tuck in and rest our feet and legs and get ready for Day 8 of our trip.

Dublin Day Two ~Tour Part Two

Our second stop on Saturday September 16th was Dunluce Castle on the Coast of Northern Ireland at the North Atlantic Ocean. We were able to see Scotland!

The sun came out for our stops here and at the Giant’s Causeway. We gave thanks to the LORD for this smile of sunshine on our day!

Wonderful time spent here and onward to lunch and then the Giant’s Causeway.

At our lunch spot we were last to order our lunch (back of the bus) but we had enough time to enjoy it. This Cafe was fine tuned to serve a crowd. We had a very short hop to get to The Giant’s Causeway which will be my next post.

The Fawn

Gimpy mama and the fawn appeared a couple weeks ago and since then they both have spent time in our back acres. The doe has a broken leg and limps so she gets more grace from us on what we let her nibble on our property. We put water out on these hot days.  Healthier deer get run off when they come after our flowers.

Fawns are so much fun to watch when they are on the go.

Our quail population has increased with baby quail looking like teenagers and a whole new batch of baby quail, too.

We are looking forward to the week ahead. What is new in your neck of the woods?

Under the Pier

The beach in winter is a favorite of mine. These were some photos from our time at Huntington Beach during our family vacation in January that I haven’t shared yet.

I find the underside of a pier interesting and love watching the waves roll through.

Our niece Debbee and Lenny were married in 2013 in Huntington Beach and they took their engagement photos here so it was fun to try to recreate that moment.

This day was also Lenny’s birthday.

Today we are nowhere near the coast and we still have that white stuff on the ground and it’s not beach foam.

Our Colville kids are coming over for dinner tonight. Speaking of dinner, tonight will be the third dinner in a row that I’ve made. It’s a Notable February for that reason and others, too. Wednesday we had an Asian Stir Fry with actual vegetables. Here’s the dinner we had Thursday night. Leg of Lamb with vegetables in my Jamie Oliver Retro Roaster. We like lamb and I know many people don’t.

Tonight we’re having Oven Baked Tilapia with rice and vegetables or salad.

Speaking of food, 18 eggs were $4.24 at our local Wal-Mart on Wednesday. They were not the brown eggs, or free range eggs, or Beverly Hills Eggs, just the white caged bird eggs.

What have you been eating these days? Happy First Friday in February.

Feather Variety

Wednesday Hodgepodge is taking the month of January off. It will resume on February 1st.

I’m going to speed up the rest of my England posts and finish them off in the month of January.

We continue to enjoy our bird sightings.

This was our first viewing of the House Finches this winter. The others have been daily visitors.

It was fun to see the red feathers thrown into the mix.

January has started very quiet around our Country Bungalow. That suits me fine. I’ve started another puzzle, much harder than the one we put together on Katie’s birthday. We enjoyed watching the Rose Parade on RFD TV. I found their coverage so much better than the major stations. The college games droned on in the background as I worked on the 1,000 piece puzzle.

Hope 2023 has started kindly in your corner.