Category Archives: Spring

Robins Old and New

We don’t remember them with white on the tail feathers like this.

This young one was just improving it’s flying skills, just fresh from the nest.

If you squint you can see the little one on the branch to the left. It flew up into the trees in our front yard.

It’s been fun to watch the festivities of the Queen’s Platinum Jubilee! We recorded it and are slowly making our way through.

In other news we have had to turn from heat to air conditioning the last couple of days and the Columbine is blooming beautifully!

Hope your first weekend in June is a good one.

Three Cheers for the Red White and Blue!

It’s the last Wednesday in May and time for Wednesday Hodgepodge. Thank you to Jo From This Side of the Pond for the questions and being the hostess with the mostess.

1. It’s National Wine Day (May 25)…do you like wine? Red or white? Dry or sweet? Do you have a favorite?

Yes, mostly red and mostly dry. We aren’t regular drinkers of wine but when we had it more often we enjoyed merlot from Chateau Ste Michelle Winery in Washington State. We moved to red blends more recently.

Have you ever been to California wine country? Or any other wine region?

We’ve been to California wine country North of Napa/Sonoma, Central Coast California and in the Santa Ynez area northwest of Santa Barbara. We also used to live close to Woodinville where Ste Michelle and other wineries are located. Chateau Ste Michelle was one of the favorite places to take our out of town visitors. The grounds are gorgeous and the free tours are fun.

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Our niece and her hubby in 2016 at Chateau Ste Michelle.

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What’s a dish you make that calls for wine? 

Sangria. LOL Seriously though a yummy mushroom sauce that calls for white wine and cream. Oh and this memory popped up when I searched sauces on my blog.

Sat. July 5-Chipping Campden 016This was my proper pie with all the trimmings.  The description from the menu: Chicken, Ham and asparagus short-crust pastry pie (with top and bottom), white wine sauce, new potatoes and peas. It was delicious. We had a fun conversation with our waitress on “proper pie”. She was appalled when she ordered pie at another establishment and it came to her with no upper or lower crust but just a round piece of pastry propped up along one side of the filling. It was cute when she exclaimed “how can they call that pie?!”

This was in Chipping Campden (Cotswolds, England) at the Eight Bells.

2. What’s something you’ve whined about lately? 

Oh boy. I’m trying to eliminate whining in my life. I’ll go with our internet connection and connectivity. It’s a Country hazard!

3. Last time you were ‘wined and dined’? Tell us about it. 

I’ll go with Mother’s day when we were visiting our kids on the West side of the mountains.

4. Three cheers for_____________________.

…the Red, White and Blue!

5. This will be the last Hodgepodge in the month of May. Somehow next Wednesday the calendar rolls into June. Before we go though, sum up your May in twelve words or less. 

A little bit of travel, sunshine, good eats, rain, and loved ones.

6. Insert your own random thought here. 

Hope you all have a good Memorial Day Weekend and that you can pause and remember those who died for our freedom and protection.

How Things Sit in May…

I wanted to get some views of our country bungalow so I would have some before shots since painting the exterior of our home is on our minds.

We are still deciding on the color palette. Our garage and shop are a biscuit color. We aren’t planning on matching the three structures.

While I was doing this walkabout I took some photos of our views first looking North.

This section of our front yard has this lane and to the right are some bushes and trees, a ditch and then the road.

Following our road you will eventually get to the Canadian border.

Southeast you see some of the destruction from a fire a few years before we moved here.

Looking to the East from our property.

We are more and more thankful for God’s leading in our move to this part of Washington State. I didn’t know how I’d manage being so far from a large city and all the conveniences a large city has to offer. We’ve managed just fine. I’ve embraced Wal-Mart. We have many small businesses that we try to support. We have a hospital. Our church is Bible believing (Inerrancy of the Bible), Bible teaching, Gospel centered (Teaching God’s Truth, not stories or opinion), and doctrinally sound. If that was missing it would be tough to live here. Having our middle son, his wife and our two grandchildren here goes a long way in adding to our country comfort. We are able to travel South whenever we feel the need to stock up the pantry with offerings from Costco or Trader Joe’s.  We travel about 70 miles generally without any traffic and at 60 miles an hour most of the way. There are only 2 stop lights between our home and the Spokane area. One of those stoplights is in our town and the other one is in Chewelah twenty three miles apart.  Spokane has all the box stores and a myriad of restaurants to choose from.

Moving onward into the last full week of May and ending with Memorial Weekend. Hope all is well from where you are sitting.

Memories Hodgepodge

 

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It’s Wednesday and that means Jo From This Side of the Pond is asking questions for us to answer. Thank you Joyce!

1. What’s something that makes you feel stressed? How do you cope? 

Confrontation makes me stressed. If I can I walk away, I do. One of my coping mechanisms is to avoid it altogether. That’s okay unless I’m the cause for the need of the confrontation. Asking for forgiveness is a good solution. There are other situations where being a peacemaker is the solution.

2. What’s a food you eat that evokes a memory? Explain. 

Borsch (Borscht) evokes lots of memories of growing up. I hated it when I was little. The cabbage was not a pleasant texture to my palate. Having to sit at the table until I finished my bowl is not a good memory. I sat there for what seems hours after everyone else left the table. My solution was rebellious and I suffered for it by the reprimanding from my mom. While I was alone in the kitchen I decided the solution to my problem was to pour my bowl back in the pot. This would have worked except for the fact that I had soaked lots of bread in the bowl of soup. It was clear to my mom that I dumped my bowl of soup back in the pot. Oye, was I in trouble!

I love borsch now! Here’s our mom’s recipe.

3. This week’s Hodgepodge lands on National Visit Your Relatives Day. Will you celebrate by visiting a relative? If so is travel involved? Geographically, who is your nearest relative (not counting those living in your own house)?

No, I will not be visiting a relative. Our nearest relatives live 8 miles away from us. They are enjoying sunshine elsewhere right now. I will travel to their property to water the garden and maybe check the chicken coop for eggs. Our other relatives (children, siblings, aunts, nieces, nephews, cousins) live in Western Washington, California, Colorado, Texas, North Carolina, New York, Illinois, Florida and Israel. Dear and my parents, grandparents, uncles and all but one aunt are deceased.

I will see some of our California relatives and friends when I travel to Southern California for a Memorial Service in June.

4. What’s your most frequently used emoji?

Probably a heart or smiley face.

Do you make more phone calls, send more emails, or mainly text to communicate with friends and family? 

It used to be phone calls and emails but now it’s mainly text. Phone calls are few and far between because our country connections are dismal.

5. Tell us the story behind a favorite piece of furniture. 

We have an eclectic collection of furniture with lots of stories behind them but one of our newer purchases of an old piece is my current favorite. I wrote about it here.

6. Insert your own random thought here. 

It’s Ice Cream weather for these two! Love seeing their faces via texts!

Mother’s Day Weekend

Dear and I drove over to the West side of our state to spend time with some of our family and friends who live there. We met up at two separate restaurants on Thursday afternoon and then Saturday morning with dear friends and spent a couple hours eating together and enjoying conversations and catching up. On Mother’s Day we attended our kids’ church for a great time of worship and preaching. I’ll share some quotes from the sermon at the end of this post. Words I want to remember.

At 1:00 on Sunday this group met up for a Mother’s Day Brunch. It was an honor to enjoy this meal with our westside kids and my sister and her husband. Thank you to Laura for making the reservations and getting everyone together.

Me and my baby sister.

Me and our firstborn son.

Josh and Laura on the waterfront in Kirkland, Washington. The sun finally crept out from behind the clouds for a glorious afternoon.

Josh and Laura created this embroidery together for me as part of my Mother’s day gift. They also treated me to an ornament and tea towel commemorating the Queen’s Platinum Jubilee. We enjoy so much about Great Britain and remember fondly traveling together in England back in 2013!

A meal out with our daughter and her hubby was another special treat and this lamb shank was a delicious surprise to see on the menu.

We drove back home on Monday morning and it was a rain free event until we entered Spokane, on our last stretch home. We stopped at our Eastside kids’ home to deliver gifts and greetings and were happy for sweet hugs and time with our grands. Home again we get busy with laundry and the need to mow the lawns!

Back to the Sunday service we attended at Canyon Hills Community Church in Bothell, Washington. Dr. Nicholas Ellen from Houston, Texas was the guest preacher for this Sunday. His sermon was titled The Premise and Process of Trusting God. I’m sharing the link.

Some quotes from the sermon that I wrote down…

“The God of reality is bigger than the God of your imagination.”

“Stand Under so one day you will Under Stand”

You Can Obey God ~ some hindrances…

  1. Lack of knowledge
  2. Lack of skill
  3. Lack of will

Don’t be strong and wrong!

God has called us to the process. We need to follow God’s direction. He gives promises and in those promises we need to follow the process He provides.

May is ticking away at full speed. We are enjoying all the color that Spring brings.

A Bright Hodgepodge

It’s time again for Wednesday Hodgepodge. Thank you Jo From This Side of the Pond for asking the questions.

1. What do you never get tired of? 

A beautiful sunny and puffy cloud filled day.

2. My mother made the best ________________________________. 

So many things that she made were the best but I’ll choose her blintzes.

You can see our mom’s recipe and process that we learned and copied here.

3. What machine or appliance in your home aggravates you the most? Why? 

If my machines and appliances are working I’m happy for that!  That said, the oven we have in this home has a loud fan that is annoying. That is something new that we haven’t experienced with other ovens we’ve had in other homes.

4. What are three things that brighten up your day when they happen? 

An unexpected card or letter in the mail always brightens my day. A surprise visit from our kids. A photo messaged to us of our grandchildren.

5. Thursday (May 12) is National Limerick Day…write a limerick about relating to spring weather, spring blooms, or a spring event (five lines, the first two lines rhyme with the fifth line, the third and fourth lines rhyme together)

May brings with it much to discover
With growth and color to uncover
But do not neglect
and do not forget
To love and honor your Mother

and here’s another one that’s a life lesson and not just Spring related…

There is an old Book that is treasured
With worth and wisdom unmeasured
Stick to it’s truth
And value it’s worth
Or your life will be tragically severed

6. Insert your own random thought here. 

It was so good to catch up with family and friends on the Westside of the mountains over Mother’s Day weekend.

The Merry Start to May

April ended with a crockpot meal at Baba and Gramps’. We dug out our daughter’s University of Washington cheer outfit from the 80’s for Addy to try on and enjoy.

On the fourth of May we attended the Awana Awards night at church and Addy got her promotion from Cubbies to Sparks. In the Fall she will move on to the Sparks while her brother gets to start Cubbies. Here’s Addy helping to lead one of the Awana songs.

We are so thankful for the dozens of volunteers who make this program successful.

With the sunshine we are having at the beginning of May our dandelion crop has overtaken our grassy areas. The bees are happy. Maybe we should look into Dandelion Tea.

We are catching up with family and friends on the Westside of the mountains here in Washington State. A mix of good reports and hard reports. My computer time is scarce. The rain is plentiful. We’ve shopped at Business Costco filling up the rear of our vehicle leaving just enough room for our suitcases for our return trip. We’ve traveled roads we traveled for 20 years before we moved to the East side of the mountains. Things have changed and some things remain the same. We are still happy and content with our move.

This is Mother’s Day weekend in the USA and Canada. Happy Mother’s Day to all the moms that visit here!

Slim and Fluffy

We have feral cats that show up regularly and we have given them names. We don’t interact with them and when they see us they run away. They aren’t the socializing variety. They aren’t strays. They are feral. They live in a wild state.

Fluffy and Slim are regulars around here.

Since the birds have returned they are more regular in their visits. The were having a growling competition on this day and we watched for a long time to see who would win. I think it was a draw.

There are free spay and neuter clinics in our county to control the feral populations. You can tell if a cat has been ‘fixed’ because they put a tag on one of their ears.