Daffodils ~ William Wordsworth

Daffodils ~ William Wordsworth

I wandered lonely as a cloud
That floats on high o’er vales and hills,
When all at once I saw a crowd,
A host, of golden daffodils;
Beside the lake, beneath the trees,
Fluttering and dancing in the breeze.


Continuous as the stars that shine
And twinkle on the milky way,
They stretched in never-ending line
Along the margin of a bay:
Ten thousand saw I at a glance,
Tossing their heads in sprightly dance.


The waves beside them danced, but they
Out-did the sparkling leaves in glee;
A poet could not be but gay,
In such a jocund company!
I gazed—and gazed—but little thought
What wealth the show to me had brought:


For oft, when on my couch I lie
In vacant or in pensive mood,
They flash upon that inward eye
Which is the bliss of solitude;
And then my heart with pleasure fills,
And dances with the daffodils.


Ruby in the Northwest…

Ruby Tuesday is hosted by Mary at Work of the Poet. Click on over to join in or to see more Ruby.

 

The tulips, Rhody, and Angel are all photos from a tulip garden in Mount Vernon, Washington. The Camellia is from my own yard.

Thanks for stopping by…

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Busy Around The Homestead…

 

We’ve been working hard around our place here in Washington getting things ready for Spring. Last week we tackled the yard. We have two major projects that we are going to hire out and then in a year tackle some more. The center photo is the “after” with the side yard cleared and all the branches are finally clipped and taken away.

We are anticipating the future arrival of most of our stuff from the Condo. We wonder where are we going to put the stuff? The piles of throw away and save for Garage Sale are getting huge. We still are in a debate about the benefits of an all consuming all day garage sale versus taking all the stuff to Goodwill. My daughter seems to be more in favor of the Garage Sale.

Dear and I walk around each room thinking “will that fit here? or should we get rid of that?”

I went through my closet today and emptied all the items I haven’t worn in years. Next stop my dresser drawers. I’m also slowly going through my really old posts on my blog. You might be seeing some re-posts soon…

In the meantime things are not neat and tidy and organized around here…I think I need some blinders!

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Blue Monday ~ The Blue Agave Restaurant

When were were strolling along Main Street in Pleasanton, Califronia last Saturday we spotted this great looking Mexican Restaurant.

 

Unfortunately they were not opened so we continued on our way to find another spot to have some refreshment…

 

Loved the Mariachi Band!

To see more Blue Monday please visit Sally at Smiling Sally.

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Mosaic Monday ~ Daffodils!

 

Mount Vernon, Washington is known for tulip fields but before the tulips bloom they have beautiful daffodils!

Dear and I took a quick trip north to see anything blooming Saturday morning. We saw some beautiful daffodils but a great surprise was seeing Trumpeter Swans! Trumpeter Swans come to Mt. Vernon each year for a time! The swans are dwindling now but they still were great to see…

The largest of the North American native waterfowl and one of our heaviest flying birds, the Trumpeter Swan is large and white. It holds its long neck straight up, often with a kink at the base.

 

Please visit Mary at The Little Red House to see more mosaics!

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Lord, Who Throughout These Forty Days ~ Hymn

Lenten Rose

Lord, Who Throughout These Forty Days

Lord, who throughout these forty days
For us didst fast and pray,
Teach us with Thee to mourn our sins
And close by Thee to stay.

As Thou with Satan didst contend,
And didst the victory win,
O give us strength in Thee to fight,
In Thee to conquer sin.

As Thou didst hunger bear, and thirst,
So teach us, gracious Lord,
To die to self, and chiefly live
By Thy most holy Word.

And through these days of penitence,
And through Thy passiontide,
Yea, evermore in life and death,
Jesus, with us abide.

Abide with us, that so, this life
Of suffering over past,
An Easter of unending joy
We may attain at last.

Words: Claudia F. Hernaman, Child’s Book of Praise; A Man­u­al of De­vo­tion in Sim­ple Verse, 1873.

The Rose Hotel in Pleasanton ~

At the end of the first day of our roadtrip last Saturday we stayed overnight at The Rose Hotel in Pleasanton.

It’s a European Boutique Hotel with lots of nice amenities. Located right on Main Street in downtown Pleasanton we had easy access to several restaurants, shops and fun sights. It was nice to walk after our long drive.

 

Our room was spacious with every creature comfort we would need.

 

We loved the fact that they had good coffee and spring water and a french press to make it with!

 

We recommend this lovely hotel especially if someone else if picking up the tab! :0)

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FFF ~ The Kind That Grow On You…

So I’m chiming in with Susanne at Living to Tell the Story with my favorites from the past week!

 

My week started out with a 3 day road trip that included beautiful scenery, fabulous places to sleep, and lots of good food to eat! Next week I’ll have to tell you my favorite diet to take off all the pounds I’ve accumulated with joy.

So here’s my five in a nutshell…

1. Beautiful scenery and stops on our roadtrip.

2. Amazing food that I wouldn’t even try to duplicate.

3. A lovely hotel and fabulous Inn that we stayed in on our road trip.

 

 

4. Meeting up with a bloggy friend on our road trip.

 

5. The welcome home we received from our children and being with our children in our home in Washington.

 

And the most amazing thing that I’m still not used to is the fact that I get to stay home in my house in Washington.

I’m mowing the lawn today so if I don’t see you early I’ll be getting around to see your favorites after a good dose of Ibuprofen later in the day! Blessings on your weekend!

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Finding Beauty ~ Pleasanton, California

Click on the badge above to join in the beauty with Claudia at Dipity Road.

We traveled 1200 miles over 3 days last weekend and we found lots of beauty along the way. We traveled from Camarillo, California north along Highway 101 stopping in Santa Barbara, Paso Robles, Gilroy, and then for our first overnight in Pleasanton, California.

 

Main Street in Pleasanton was a nice street with lots of great shops, wine tasting rooms and restaurants. The rain that fell on us for much of our journey subsided when we arrived in Pleasanton so we had a very nice walk before dinner. Our hotel was located on Main Street and I’ll publish a post about it soon.

 

This Veterans Memorial Building really stood out against the blue sky and clouds.

 

 

They changed the original verse from the Bible to read “for his country” instead of  “for his friends”. I’m including more of the context of this passage with the verses that follow. These are from the King James Version of the Bible.

John 15: 13-17

13Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends.

14Ye are my friends, if ye do whatsoever I command you.

15Henceforth I call you not servants; for the servant knoweth not what his lord doeth: but I have called you friends; for all things that I have heard of my Father I have made known unto you.

16Ye have not chosen me, but I have chosen you, and ordained you, that ye should go and bring forth fruit, and that your fruit should remain: that whatsoever ye shall ask of the Father in my name, he may give it you.

17These things I command you, that ye love one another.

Thank you to Claudia for hosting “Finding Beauty” and I do hope you all have a beautiful Friday!

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Where’s the Garlic?

Gilroy, California…The Garlic Capital of the World!

After breakfast in Santa Barbara we continued north on Highway 101 till we got to Gilroy. We wanted to stop here specifically because we had made a stop here way back in December of 1974 on our Honeymoon.

On one of my Goodwill outings I found The Garlic Lovers’ Cookbook Volume II from Gilroy. This is where I found this information.

“The first annual Gilroy Garlic Festival was held in August 1979 and drew over 30,000 people. Now the crowds exceed 120,000 each year for the three-day event with many people returning again and again for the food and fun of a fair dedicated to the enjoyment of garlic.”

“The big doings- guaranteed to take your breath away – will include a Grand Garlic Cook-off…”

While in Gilroy last Saturday we decided on lunch at the Garlic City Cafe. It was a good choice. We were determined to have garlic in the garlic city.

We started with the Cream of Garlic Soup and I was tempted to lick the bowl.

Then we split the Garlic Chicken Sandwich special of the day.  It really was a wonderful taste treat. We felt sorry for anyone we would come in contact with the rest of the day because I’m sure we took the essence of Gilroy with us for miles north…

Thank you Gilroy for the trip down Memory Lane…

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