Category Archives: Washington State

Inspiration to Shoot…

I’m thankful today for fellow bloggers who inspire me to look at the big picture and the beauty in the details. Karen at Ocean Soul is one of those bloggers along with her co-blogger Jukavo who inspire me with their photography.

Here are some of my artsy fartsy shots from Dan’s place…

This post and the rest of my posts in the month of November will be connected to the Grace Challenge I’m participating in. Here’s a quote from my brother’s blog about grace:

“Grace may be the word that best summarizes Christianity. In English, “grace” is connected to two other important words that teach us a response to grace: Gratitude and Graciousness.

Here is how it works. First and foremost, our life, salvation and everything in between is a result of the grace of God. Every breath I take is a grace of God. I cannot be saved apart from grace. Grace emphasizes and points to God as the center. Life is all about Him. He reveals Himself to me not by force, but by grace.”

To read the whole post click here.

I want to continue being specific in my thankfulness. I’m really thankful for digital photography. Digital photography affords me failure in photo taking while at  the same time giving me an incredible chance of shooting a beauty. God does the same thing for me through grace. I fail and he picks me up and He lets me try again and with His help He makes things good for me.

Hope your week has gone well. This weekend ends daylight savings. Don’t forget to fall back an hour!

A Month of Grace…

I’m taking part in the Grace Challenge from my brother Steve’s church that begins today. One of the things I’ll be doing is being deliberate and specific about what I’m thankful for.

There are so many things to be thankful for each day. Today I’m thankful for the home God has blessed our son Dan with. Not just the home but the land and and all the equipment that came with the home.

I’m just guessing but I think Dan might be most thankful for his huge shop!

This is the back of the house. We’re discussing new paint colors with Dan and the possibility of building another deck off this part of the house.

He has lots of time to make things his own and according to his style.

What are you thankful for today?

Put Your Boots On!

It’s time for a trek through Dan’s 6.5 acres!

Head past the old barn…

through the gate…

past the brush…

up the rise…

now down the other side of the rise…

keep going across the brush that the deer and the bears enjoy…

keep going…we’re headed to the creek…

past more beautiful fall colors…

through the evergreens…

along the boundary marked by barbed wire fencing…

to the creek…

Don’t forget to look up and see the distinctive Western Larch.

“The largest of the nine larch or tamarack species growing in the Pacific Northwest, the western has pale green foliage, a rather “feathery” graceful arrangement of branches, and an open crown. Brilliant yellow in late fall, the needles drop in November. In fact, this species is one of only two coniferous species that sheds its needles every fall. Its thick bark is reddish-brown in color and features elongated scale plates.”

And speaking of elongated scale plates…

More fencing marking his boundaries with fair warning to those who might pass by…

At the boundary of his property on the old mining road…

We trek back listening to his ideas of what to do with this piece of land…

He describes to us what he has learned about the Western Larch…

I keep exclaiming about the beautiful fall colors that we are enjoying on our trek…

A close up of the Western Larch…

We are shown the evidence of this being a favorite of deer for bedding down at night. I’ll spare you the close up of what they have left behind…

I’ll end this part of our trek at the road and his little stand of “Christmas trees”…

More to come from our time at Dan’s…

We are so thankful to God for his provision for a home and land for our son Dan. We put in lots of hours to organize the shop and house for his comfort. I’ll be sharing more in the future. Our trip over the pass to and from Eastern Washington was good with no snow or significant slow downs.

Dear is back to work today and I’m trying to get back in my groove. Our niece’s family is still without electricity and running water in their high rise in New York City. Continued prayers are going up for the people effected and for all the first responders who are working hard to restore services to everyone without.

I’m also getting ready to hand out treats to the children in the neighborhood who will brave the cold and wet to ring my doorbell!

Catching Up…

…after 4 days of no T.V. or Internet. We had a wonderful productive time with our son Dan and I will share more after I catch my breath. Here’s one view of his property in Eastern Washington.

I’ll be visiting your posts and see what I missed while I was away. I am praying for friends and family on the East Coast who are suffering from effects of hurricane Sandy. Katie and Andrew are safe in North Carolina. My niece’s family in New York are without power or running water. Thinking about our bloggy friends in New York especially Pat at Mille Fiori and Kathleen at Cuisine Kathleen. How are you doing Vee? Hope everyone else is doing fine. Blessings…

No Internet…

…or TV! I will be way out of the loop until the middle of next week.

Spending time away at our son’s new home. We are walking the acreage, checking out the old barn, spending time in his amazing shop. I’m sure by the time you are reading this my camera is slung over my shoulder and I’m clicking away. My son is shaking his head at me but grinning all the same. I brought my boots along. We’ll see if he likes the house warming gifts we bought. I’ll share some of the highlights next week.

Goodbye to Summer…

…and a look back at one more stop off the road from the Washington Coast.

We stopped at the Willapa Interpretive Art Trail…

The Willapa Interpretive Art Trail was created to commemorate the restoration of a small stream near Refuge Headquarters. The art trail is a one quarter mile curving boardwalk.

Artwork located along the boardwalk helps to tell the stories of the stream and the many species who live there.

Students from the University of Washington Public Arts Program designed, constructed, and installed the artwork for the trail under the direction of professors John Young, Ian Robertson, and Jim Nicholls.

From a distance we thought this little guy was real and you should have seen us approach it very very carefully so we wouldn’t scare it away.

We got closer and closer and it didn’t move…

When we got this close we realized it was part of the artwork along the trail. We laughed till we cried about how careful we were not to scare this fake frog!

These feather sculptures didn’t trick us.

These salmon sculptures in the trees didn’t fool us either.

This dragon fly table was designed by UW Art student Gary Carpenter. The quote on the table is from a poem by e.e. Cummings ~ …the world is mud luscious and puddle wonderful.

The moss on the trees was so soft…

It was a treat to stretch our legs here on the way home from the coast.

Tomorrow I head South for some more adventures. I’ll be back in the Fall y’all! I had to say that because I’m watching Paula on the food channel while I’m preparing this post.  See you next week.

The Oyster Capital…

…of the world is right here in the state of  Washington, at least that’s what the sign says.

We couldn’t leave without trying some of these oysters from the oyster capital. They were good, plump, and fresh. I’m not the biggest oyster fan and even I thought they were good. Here are more sights from around the small town of South Bend on Willapa Bay.

Seafood processing plants were in abundance. We went into one of the retail shops at this plant and bought some canned garlic jalapeno wild caught albacore. Haven’t tried it yet but I’m thinking it will make a great filling for a sandwich.

We spotted this great building looking up the road from the main drag and drove up to investigate.

A wonderful view from the courthouse. It was worth our stop in South Bend on our way home from the Long Beach Peninsula.

Tuesday I was back to Women’s Bible Study and it was nice to see friends from our last study again after our summer break. Looking forward to the new season and deepening some friendships.

How will you be spending the waning days of summer?

Out of the Ordinary…

During our time in and around the Long Beach Peninsula we saw some things that made us pause long enough to take another photo.

This store was a hoot with quite a variety of junk stuff to sell and strange things to see. Your kids would be able to find a souvenir here.

You don’t see many cities that fly all our military flags. I was impressed!

Along many of the roads to the peninsula and on the peninsula there were tsunami escape routes clearly marked.

There was a great combination of goodies at this shop. We made our only purchases beside food here. A copy of Pilgrim’s Inn by Elizabeth Goudge and a part we needed for an old glass door knob set.

It was fun to see this in the front window of a specialty shop in South Bend. We stopped in South Bend for fresh oysters on our way home.

Happy Saturday to y’all.

Sunset and Sunrise…

…at the Pacific Ocean is always a treat. I’m sure it’s a treat on the East coast, too.

We had an evening walk on the beach before we headed back to the room to enjoy Sunset from our deck. On our way back to the room we spotted this group of horses with riders headed for a beach stroll. Maybe next time we’ll enjoy riding horseback on the beach…

“How fine has the day been! how bright was the sun, How lovely and joyful the course that he run! Though he rose in a mist when his race he begun, And there followed some droppings of rain: But now the fair traveller’s come to the west, His rays are all gold, and his beauties are best; He paints the skies gay as he sinks to his rest, And foretells a bright rising again.” Isaac Watts

The first ones up before sunrise were the fishermen. We were up early, too, and took a rainy walk before it started pouring and we headed back to our room. The rain didn’t last long.

I’ve got a couple more posts from our time to the Long Beach Peninsula and back again. This weekend is going to be full with work on the house, soccer, a going away party, church, more work on the house and we’ll culminate Sunday celebrating Dear’s birthday barbecuing with Josh and Laura. Life is rich! Hope your Friday and weekend go well!

North Head Lighthouse…

On our way to the North Head Lighthouse we stopped at a scenic lookout. We were able to get a small glimpse of the lighthouse from here. We also read about the tragic history for ships in this area.

Three shipwrecks in one week in 1853.

It was an easy walk from the parking area to the lighthouse.

Remember on your walk away from your destination that it is good to look back and get yet another view.

Yesterday was a very busy day around this old house. Is anyone else surprised that it is Thursday already? I’m elbow deep in ripe pears trying to get creative. Today I’ll be working on pear sauce. I finished off my smirntopf with a few cups of diced pears. My jar is full so now we just wait until Christmas for the results!

Happy Thursday everyone!