Category Archives: Spring

Favorites Into May!

Attending a wedding of forever friends is special but it’s a double , triple, quadruple blessing when you get to celebrate it with family and more friends, new friends, friends that are yours for eternity.  The fairy tale wedding of Lucy and Kris tops my favorites for this past week.

1. We traveled to Whidbey Island on Saturday, checked into our Inn, had a light lunch in Langley and headed to the wedding at a garden destination minutes from our Inn.

2. The weather held for the bride’s dream of being able to have the wedding outdoors. Our son and daughter in law were in the wedding. Our son is like a brother to the bride who is one of 3 girls in her family. We met the bride and her family in 1984 in Ventura, California and have been good friends since that time. Our boys and daughter and the 3 girls in this family have always gotten along brilliantly.  The bride’s sister was our daughter’s maid of honor a month ago in her wedding.

3. Our son Josh gave a wedding toast to the Bride and Groom at the reception. We were so pleased with his encouraging affirming thoughts and wishes for the new couple. We love to hear a toast that honors instead of demeans or makes fun of the couple.

4. It was so nice to have a short drive to our Inn after the reception looking forward to one more day on the island. We had a restful sleep, a nice early morning walk where we got to observe an Eagle and a whale, a tasty breakfast and a nice drive to some beautiful garden settings. Oops…we had 2nd breakfast, too.

Crab Cake Eggs Benedict!

5. Its always good to come home to all the familiar comforts. My last favorite for the week was a fun evening at Century Link field watching the Seattle Sounders gain a victory over the Los Angeles Galaxy. The weather was good for the game and the drive to the game with my son and daughter in law gave us time to get caught up with life.

So what were your favorites this week? You can link up with Susanne at Living to Tell the Story to share…

Let’s Dish ~ Earth Day

For Kathleen’s Good Earth Theme for Let’s Dish this week I’m revisiting my earthy apple blossom setting. The blossoms just started blooming again this past week.

I used some old depression glass to feature the blossoms.

It’s fun to bring the outdoors in to add some color and depth to a table setting.

Here are some photos of my apple blossoms so far this year. They should be fully bloomed soon.

“Let the heavens rejoice, let the earth be glad, let the sea resound, and all that is in it; let the fields be jubilant, and everything in them. Then all the trees of the forest will sing for joy; they will sing before the Lord.” (Psalm 96:11-13)

Spotting Spring in Seattle…

We had a glorious sunny weekend in the Seattle area. On Friday my son, DIL, and I stopped at Kerry Park on the way to the Sounders Soccer game to enjoy the views of Seattle with Flat Stanley. Have you had Flat Stanley visit you? Flat Stanley was very happy that the Sounders beat Houston 2-0!

On Friday morning I walked with a friend on the Sammamish River Trail for the first time this Spring.

We saw some lovely signs of Spring.

On Saturday I drove North to Blaine which is on the U.S/Canadian Border for a Mennonite Girl Can Cook event at the Blaine Library. After our time at the library we enjoyed a nice lunch at the Blackberry Cafe in Blaine. I was thankful for a nice sunny day for the drive.

Since the sun was shining again on Sunday I mowed the lawn for the first time since November. It was a great workout. Are you enjoying any signs of Spring in your neck of the woods?

I’m linking up with Mary at Little Red House for Mosaic Monday.

Spring has Sprung…

 

A Prayer in Spring

by Robert Frost

Oh, give us pleasure in the flowers to-day;
And give us not to think so far away
As the uncertain harvest; keep us here
All simply in the springing of the year.

Oh, give us pleasure in the orchard white,
Like nothing else by day, like ghosts by night;
And make us happy in the happy bees,
The swarm dilating round the perfect trees.

And make us happy in the darting bird
That suddenly above the bees is heard,
The meteor that thrusts in with needle bill,
And off a blossom in mid air stands still.

For this is love and nothing else is love,
The which it is reserved for God above
To sanctify to what far ends He will,
But which it only needs that we fulfil.

Hope you have a wonderful Spring weekend everyone!

May

It’s branches are arrayed in gold
It’s boughs the sight in winter greet.
With hues as bright, with leaves as green
As summer scatters on the scene.

*   *    *    *    *    *

An angel mid the woods of May
Embroidered it with radiance gay-
That gossamer with gold bedight-
Those fires of God – those gems of light.

~from the Welsh of Dafydd ap Gwillym

Chorus From ‘Atalanta’ ~ Spring

 

Chorus From ‘Atalanta’

For winter’s rains and ruins are over,
And all the season of snows and sins;
The days dividing lover and lover,
The light that loses, the night that wins;
And time remembered is grief forgotten,
And frosts are slain, and flowers begotten,
And in green underwood and cover
Blossom by blossom the spring begins.

~Algernon Charles Swinburne, 1837-1909

Sky Watch ~

 

Clear skies again in Southern California without a cloud anywhere to be seen. This was taken on Wednesday of this week at the Gardens of the World in Thousand Oaks, California. If you scroll down past this post you’ll see a photo tour of these lovely grounds.

For more Sky Watch photos head over to Wiggers World.

Photobucket is holding all my photos from 2007-2015 hostage and they have blacked them all out. I’m slowly working at restoring my posts without their help. Such a tiresome bother!

April Flowers

Praise God from whom all blessings flow, I woke up this morning and my spasms are gone. All I have now is a stiff, weak back that I will carefully and slowly exercise back. Taking a step at a time. Thank you so much for all your prayers for me. Your phone calls and your emails were an encouragement, too. Have a wonderful day!

Psalm 30:2 “O Lord my God, I called to you for help and you have healed me.”

 

April is a rainbow month,
Of sudden springtime showers.
Bright with golden daffodils
and lots of pretty flowers.

Gracious Hospital-i-Tea Blog-a-thon ~ Stitches

 April 6th – 12th ~ Share ideas and pictures that involve stitching for the tea table. Any kind of stitches count: sewing, embroidery, knitting, crochet, tatting, quilting, etc. The work can be yours or of someone else, but should be homemade rather than done by factory machines. Ideas are
napkins, tea cozies, table linens, and other creations made with tea themes.

 

I have always called these dish towels tea towels so I’m including them in my stitch post. The Tea Cozy in the center was a gift that a friend in England knit for me after I was so excited seeing my very first tea cozy at her house in 1973. The doilie to the right of the tea cozy is great for setting a teapot on. I have a lot of tablecloths and napkins that I use for pretty tea tables that do not have a tea theme in particular. Most of these items are in my home in Washington and I don’t have access to them for this post. I’m looking forward to my visits to your sites to see what stichery you have…

I forgot about these fancy teaspoons we inherited from my MIL and decided to add them to this post

 

For more Hospital-i-Tea blogathon posts on stichery click here.

Photobucket is holding all my photos from 2007-2015 hostage and they have blacked them all out. I’m slowly working at restoring my posts without their help. Such a tiresome bother!

Sycamore Hike ~ Walking Club Totals

 

When we got to the Sycamore Canyon Campground Parking at 7:15 the gate was still locked. Hmmm see the sign that says gate open 7am – 10pm? The attendant finally arrived at 7:30 to open the gate…

 

We stayed on the main trail today and saw a few joggers and several groups of cyclists.

 

The trees are really interesting in this canyon.

 

The shrubs were blooming nicely. It was gloomy with a thick high marine layer.

 

These purple wildflowers deserved a photograph.

 

Spring is a great time to do this hike because of all the pretty blooms.

 

We even happened on some California Poppies.

 

Some of our old and new favorites. The wild fennel is an old favorite of ours. We love using fennel in cooking and the smell when we rub it between our hands is licorice wonderful. The coreopsis is such a interesting plant the way it grows on that stalk. In the Spring it’s all over the hillsides. The one downside to our hike today were the mosquitos! They were out in droves. Anyone know of an Avon distributor so I can order some Skin-so-soft?

 

This looks like a parrot to me.

 

At the end of the hike we strolled over to see the high surf.

My walking total steps for the week averaged out to 10,152.

I’m going to keep on walking. How about you?

Photobucket is holding all my photos from 2007-2015 hostage and they have blacked them all out. I’m slowly working at restoring my posts without their help. Such a tiresome bother!