Category Archives: Summer

Summer Vacation #1

After our 3 day escape to Eastern Washington Dear decided to do this on his remaining days off…

He removed the old siding. Added new plywood where needed along with new tar paper. He hopes to get to the new siding installation this weekend.

You always find unexpected things when you work on an older house. The job is never straight forward. I’m glad he’s still smiling.

In the meantime I’m finding other things to enjoy like these flowers at Country Village in Bothell.

I’m not sure how much I’ll be sharing here during the rest of August. I’m contemplating a break for now. If something interesting happens I might post.

Dear has another week off at the end of August. I’m hoping he gets this siding project done before then. It just depends on the weather during upcoming weekends.

Do you still have vacation to look forward to?

Summer Fullness…

I love this time of summer when everything is still lush and green and full.

Soon enough things will dry out and wither.

Tonight we’re having a party on the deck. Our Bible Study small group is getting together since we haven’t met since May. The weather sounds like it will cooperate for us.

Dear’s vacation starts tomorrow. We have some fun things planned before just like an American he has some work on the house planned. Why is it we Americans use our vacations for work? Europeans really know how to take a holiday. I think I’ll dub 2013 early as our holiday year! I declare that 2013’s vacations will be vacations. Now Lord willing we’ll be granted that desire…

Have a great day everyone!

Mid-Summer Note Card Party…

I’m linking up with Vee at A Haven for Vee for her Note Card Party.

We are still in an interesting weather pattern here in the great Northwest. We’ve had thunderstorms and sunshine off and on. Wednesday night I’m looking forward to an International friendly soccer game between the English Premier team Chelsea and our own Seattle Sounders. I’ll be attending with my son Josh. Hope you are all having a good summer…

A Lovely Weekend…

This was our first true summer weekend here in the Pacific Northwest. The sun has been shining brightly since the 4th of July. We finally just puttered about the yard and stayed home.

After I finished my puttering inside I sat out in the shade to keep an eye on Dear while he was up on those high ladders.

He worked on the trim on the garage. Thankfully he was shaded most of the time.

I think pansies and violas are the sweetest little flowers. They make me smile.

I still have a few more pots that need some fresh flowers in them. On Sunday there was one more project I needed to get done.

Rosella reminded me that it was time to add our next layer of fruit to our topfs! Rosella’s is Rumtopf and mine is Smirntopf! We both added cherries. I know I have a cherry pitter somewhere that Dear’s mother owned but it’s probably tucked away in the attic so I improvised and used a fondue fork to pit my cherries. You were right Rosella…it’s not easy to pit cherries and it’s good to wash a load of dishes when you are done so you can get the cherry juice stain off your hands and fingernails! My blueberries aren’t quite ready to pick yet so they will wait till the next layer…

This is the beginning of a very busy week for me with travel to Canada for 3 days included. I don’t know how often I’ll be checking in. Still praying for those of you suffering in the hotter than normal temps and for the areas that are desperate for some rain. May God shade you and refresh you with his rain…

Summertime…

Happy Summer to You!

We have sunshine, woohoo!

This is from the 50’s at Big Bear in the San Bernardino Mountains,  Southern California. The three families represented here are all Russian immigrants who arrived in the U.S.A. in the late 40’s.  I’m the one with the buster brown haircut sitting on the table. At this point I was the youngest in our family. Our next 4 siblings were born in 1958, 1959 and twins in 1963.

To celebrate the first day of summer I’ll be out in the yard mowing and pulling weeds…not camping.

What are you doing?

 

Ode to Summer ~

Summer, oh summer

You skipped in quite late

and left us in haste

and now we are left to ponder

Will you reappear

when winter is near

and cause us once more to wonder….

Summer, oh summer.

Hint: Read this ode as if you are a Beatnik giving a reading at the local coffee house…or as Mike Meyers in So I Married An Axe Murderer…

I’ll see you all in the Fall!

Finally…

…we pulled out the patio furniture.

Just in time because you know what these early morning shadows mean…summer has finally arrived in the Pacific Northwest!

This is the latest we’ve ever waited to pull out the furniture.

It was just right today and the next few days are predicted to be hot, hot, hot!

We’ve heard about the scorching temps in the Northeast and hope you get some relief soon.

I’m hoping for a nice stretch of 75 degree weather after this little heat wave rolls through.

My hydrangeas are deciding it’s time to show their color. I’ll be pulling out the hose to water the rest of the week. That’s the first time I’ve had to do that this summer, too.

How’s your weather?

I’m adding this post to Susan’s Outdoor Wednesday!

Summer?

Oh where oh where is our summer?

I hope it’s arrival comes soon.

The flowers are bright.

But the weather’s not right.

Hope the sun will arrive by noon!

So how’s summer starting where you are? We are cloudy and a bit drippy with some wind. Instead of barbecuing yesterday for Father’s day we celebrated inside with breakfast for lunch since we had steady rain for much of the day. The kids honored Dear and we had a nice relaxing time together. What are your plans for summer? We don’t have any trips planned this year. We do have visitors coming in July and August and we’ll plan some summer activities with them. Thanks for stopping by for a visit. Hope your week is a good one!

She’s Not Cooking ~ She Got Cooked!!

Monday was a travel day for me. I flew from L.A. back to Seattle. My sweet lily white daughter picked me up at the airport and I was shocked by the pink glare coming from her skin. Yes it’s been sunny and hot in Seattle and my daughter went on a bike ride and in all the excitement of getting the bike in her car and getting to the meeting point she forgot the sunblock. She rode for 25 miles. I think it’s safe to say she won’t forget next time. It’s been an AloeVera ointment ~ vinegar bath kind of day for her.

I hope to return all the sweet comments on my Monday posts on Tuesday while avoiding looking at my daughter. OUCH!

These photos of Katie were taken earlier in July before her overexposure to the sun.

No Internet Today!

Well we hit a snag with our internet service and were down for most of the day. The kind Comcast man came and fixed our problem and we’re up and running again. It was a good day to be off-line…

I went outside early (to beat the heat we’re experiencing) and worked on my patio containers. Dear and our son Dan had already put the cover on our gazebo and brought out all the patio furniture. My new oven was also delivered today and Dear installed it. He is such a handy guy. I’ll try to get some good photos of my new oven but right now with all the sunshine streaming in the windows there’s a lot of glare :0) I plan to break in the oven by baking some cookies tomorrow. Here’s hoping the temperature is calibrated a whole lot better then the old one…