Through Sunshine After Rain…

 

My friend Beth and I walked along the Sammamish River Wednesday morning after a rainy blustery night and before a rainy blustery afternoon and evening. We felt blessed to have this window of time to walk in the sun and enjoy some remaining fall color while catching up a bit on our lives. The sun cast some beautiful reflections on the water. God truly has created wonderful things for us to see and enjoy.

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Outdoor Washington State!

Time to travel around the Blogisphere and see the great outdoors!  Susan at A Southern DayDreamer is our hostess for this weekly event.

On Saturday I flew from our Condo in California to our home in the state of Washington. It’s been good to be home.

 

Here’s a view of the Maple tree that drops all it’s leaves on our lawn in Fall. It’s our neighbor’s tree but we get to enjoy it and suffer from it! On a really wet day I took the photo on the left. The window was dripping with raindrops so the tree is blurry. Today the sun peeked through and gave a different view.

 

My daughter’s 2nd class of the day was cancelled so she and I took advantage of the extra hours and went shopping on the Eastside of Lake Washington and also went in search of some remaining fall color.

 

It really was a beautiful day. We arrived home and I decided it would be good to take advantage of a little dry spell and mow the lawn for the last time this Fall (or we hope it will be the last time). We were wondering if we’d be able to get the lawn mower started since it hasn’t been started for quite a while. Well…between the two of us we got it to roar and then we said “I am woman, hear me roar!” You see until next week it’s just the two of us ladies around the homestead. I managed to get most of the lawn done before the raindrops came falling on my head. By the time I was done I was soaked but happy to have gotten the job accomplished! When I came inside I told my daughter that I felt like I had just finished my “last chance workout!” If you watch The Biggest Loser you’ll understand what I mean.  Here’s a little bit of unexpected color I still have in my yard…

Have a wonderful Wednesday everyone!

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Tea Things Tuesday!

We started a little tradition last year during Thanksgiving Weekend. On Friday after Thanksgiving the girls head to Goodwill to shop the sales in hopes of finding some little treasure for real cheap and then we go out to eat. Last year we decided on tea at a favorite spot of Lana G.’s and mine but since that time our sweet tea shop changed hands and we’re not impressed with the new establishment. We were hoping to continue the tea tradition after Goodwill shopping. Well I’m so happy to say a new Tea Shop has opened in Downtown Bothell and we have reservations for 11:45 on Friday after Thanksgiving and Goodwill. Yippee! We hope all the usual suspects will be able to come!

 

 

My girls Katie and Laura. Aunt Letty and Katie. Aunt Lana G! and Katie. Lana G! and Ellen b. My DIL Laura and her mom Pat.

 

I’ll take lots of photos from the new spot Three Cups of Tea and show you all in December…

Happy Tea Things Tuesday to you all. Please visit Kim at Shabby, Pink and Pretty for more Tea Things…

Photobucket is holding all my photos that I stored on their site from 2007-2015 hostage replacing them with ugly grey and black boxes and asking for a large ransom to retrieve them. It is a slow process to go through all my posts deleting the ugly boxes.

 

Ruby Tuesday ~ Raspberries

 

Taken last week in Camarillo, California on a Raspberry Ranch. To see more Ruby please visit the lovely Mary at Work of the Poet!

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Leaves…

My house in Washington is surrounded by wet leaves.

 

I had to surrender and don my trusty Gortex shoes and my Gortex jacket and brave the wind and wet to rake.

 

While raking I found some pretty color. I filled a large yard waste bin and 3 extra trash cans with leaves and some bush clippings. Hope the yard waste truck gets here before they all blow away!

 

This bush in my yard is sporting the best fall color. Have a great Monday everyone…

Photobucket is holding all my photos that I stored on their site from 2007-2015 hostage replacing them with ugly grey and black boxes and asking for a large ransom to retrieve them. It is a slow process to go through all my posts deleting the ugly boxes.

Mosaic Monday ~ Sunset

 

Sunset looking towards the Pacific in Camarillo, California on Thursday November 12th.

On our way home from dinner last week Dear stopped the car so I could get some shots of this grand Sunset. The colors were really amazing.

To see more Mosaics visit the recuperating Mary at The Little Red House. I hope you are feeling well soon, Mary!

Photobucket is holding all my photos that I stored on their site from 2007-2015 hostage replacing them with ugly grey and black boxes and asking for a large ransom to retrieve them. It is a slow process to go through all my posts deleting the ugly boxes.

O Give Thanks To Him Who Made ~ Hymn

 

O Give Thanks to Him Who Made

O give thanks to Him Who made
Morning light and evening shade;
Source and Giver of all good,
Nightly sleep and daily food;
Quickener of our wearied powers,
Guard of our unconscious hours.

O give thanks to nature’s King,
Who made every breathing thing;
His, our warm and sentient frame,
His, the mind’s immortal flame.
O how close the ties that bind
Spirits to the Eternal Mind!

O give thanks with heart and lip,
For we are His workmanship;
And all creatures are His care:
Not a bird that cleaves the air
Falls unnoticed; but who can
Speak the Father’s love to man?

O give thanks to Him Who came
In a mortal, suffering frame—
Temple of the Deity—
Came for rebel man to die;
In the path Himself hath trod
Leading back His saints to God.

Words: Josiah Conder, 1836

ht: Cyberhymnal

Up, Up, and Away…

 

UP

 

UP

 

AND AWAY!

Have a great Saturday everyone and you’ll be hearing from me from the Great Northwest soon!

Photobucket is holding all my photos that I stored on their site from 2007-2015 hostage replacing them with ugly grey and black boxes and asking for a large ransom to retrieve them. It is a slow process to go through all my posts deleting the ugly boxes.

Friday’s Fave Five ~ Walks-Relationships-Food

My favorites can always be narrowed down to these three…a nice long walk, peaceful relationships, and good food. A fulfilling walk is one shared with someone who I have a good relationship with or am building a relationship with. Food, sitting around a table, is always better if it’s shared with someone. My past week has been rich with walks, relationships, and good food.

Visit our kind hostess Susanne at Living to Tell the Story to join in with your favorites from this past week…

 

1. Early Saturday morning Dear and I walked at Emma Wood State Beach and enjoyed the cool crisp air. We usually will stop at our favorite breakfast spot in Ventura after these walks. Allison’s has the best hot out of the oven baked biscuits and fresh raspberry jam. Oh they serve eggs and stuff, too.

 

2. Saturday evening we met my brother Steve and his wife Kelly at Tam O’ Shanter in Glendale for a birthday dinner. Kelly is celebrating a milestone birthday and we wanted to treat her at our favorite spot for prime rib. The chocolate souffle and C.C. Brown’s hot fudge were pretty good, too. Oh, right about now you are probably wondering how my healthy weight loss program is going, aren’t ya? Well with these habits of mine it’s going slow but I am losing instead of gaining. So far I’ve lost 4 pounds.

 

3. For Willow and my walk this week we met up at Joy’s Blueberry ranch and then walked through a neighboring ranch or two. Instead of going past rows of blueberries we walked through an avocado grove and past rows and rows of raspberries. Joy told us we could pick some raspberries even though it wasn’t her property. Those ranchers are all like family :0) I still felt guilty for picking and eating…

 

Here’s the great variety of growing goodness we’ve spotted on our ranch walks…

4. On Tuesday afternoon I drove across town to my parent’s apartment for a meal with four of my nieces, my three sisters, one of my SIL’s, two nephews, my grand nephew and grand niece. Would you believe I didn’t take one photo? It gets a little crazy when we all cram into that little apartment for a meal. It was good to see everyone and to get caught up a little. I was happy to get to spend some time with my folks before I head North for the rest of the year.

5. On Wednesday I decided to go to a regular kind of store instead of a thrift store and I was able to buy 4 shirts and 2 pairs of pants for Dear and 2 tops for myself for $150 with $30.00 cash coupon back to spend next week. I was pleased with the experience and now I won’t have to go back to a regular store for a long time. We aren’t your fashionista/fashionisto.

Bonus!! My #6 is a looking forward to…

 

spending lots of time with these peeps and my kids over Thanksgiving!!

Blessings everyone! Looking forward to seeing your favorites…

Photobucket is holding all my photos that I stored on their site from 2007-2015 hostage replacing them with ugly grey and black boxes and asking for a large ransom to retrieve them. It is a slow process to go through all my posts deleting the ugly boxes.

Bittersweet…

It’s always bittersweet to get on a plane and fly away from the Condo to our home in Seattle. I’ll be separated from Dear which is always hard but reunited with my children which is always good. I’ll miss our favorite early morning walks at Emma Wood. We haven’t established an early morning walk in Washington yet because duty calls when we are there. Here are some scenes I’ll miss…

 

 

 

 

 

 

Have a great Thursday everyone!

Photobucket is holding all my photos that I stored on their site from 2007-2015 hostage replacing them with ugly grey and black boxes and asking for a large ransom to retrieve them. It is a slow process to go through all my posts deleting the ugly boxes.