It is So Great…

…when your husband was a former master painter…

In a day he transformed this…

into this…

And now we have a proper guest room ready for company.

With the lighting in this room it was hard to get the real color of the walls in the photos. The color is called Grass Cloth. We had this bedroom set from the condo and had to find a place for it in our home in Washington. I wasn’t willing to buy new bedding so Dear changed the wall color to something that would work with the bedding. My desk still fits in the room and it works as our office when we don’t have overnight guests.

The desk had to be moved to the opposite wall. I even tidied it up so it wouldn’t be such a eyesore in this transformed space…

Thank you Dear for your hard work!

Ruby Tuesday ~ Memories…

Time for Ruby Tuesday and my photo editor is giving me grief so I can’t upload new photos but I had this one in my drafts and I’m missing and remembering our fun times at this old Camarillo establishment. So bear with me as I reminisce about the good ole days a few months ago in Southern California. Visit Mary at Work of the Poet to see more Ruby posts! Mary! I was going to be posting a photo of my very young and new pears that are just starting to grow on my tree but my photo uploader is failing me!!

And for clarification we moved from our Southern California condo back to our home in Washington State at the end of February of this year. We are very thankful to be back in Washington but that doesn’t mean we don’t miss our friends and some of our favorite restaurants! We’d love to transfer the great chips from El Tecolote to our favorite Mexican restaurant here. The salsa here is fabulous but their chips “…have been weighed on the scales and found wanting” .

Happy Tuesday to all who pass this way…

ht: The Holy Bible; Daniel 5:27

 

Birds & Squirrels…

So if it’s Sunday night it must be time to post some Mosaics for Mosaic Monday with Mary at Little Red House and something blue for Blue Monday with Sally at Smiling Sally.

We’ve had a regular flock of these Evening Grosbeak finches at our bird feeder.

And then Mr. Bluejay visits once in a while shooing everyone else away!

And then this trapeze artist really kept me entertained!

Hope your new week is starting out nicely. I’m hoping to get around better this week as things are finally getting organized around here from our move…

Before Thy Mercy Seat, O Lord ~ Hymn

Before Thy Mercy Seat, O Lord

Before Thy mercy seat, O Lord,
Behold, Thy servants stand,
To ask the knowledge of Thy Word,
The guidance of Thy hand.

Let Thy eternal truths, we pray,
Dwell richly in each heart;
That from the safe and narrow way
We never may depart.

Lord, from Thy Word remove the seal,
Unfold its hidden store,
And as we read, teach us to feel
Its value more and more.

Help us to see a Savior’s love
Shine forth from every page,
And let the thoughts of joys above
Our inmost souls engage.

Thus, while Thy Word our footsteps guides,
Shall we be truly blest,
And soon arrive where love provides
An everlasting rest.

Cruising to Alaska…

…I’m not but my junior high and high school buddy was leaving today out of Seattle. She and her husband and 4 friends traveled from L.A. to board their Cruise ship at Pier 91 in Elliott Bay. I picked them up when they arrived at the cruise ship and we all went to lunch before they boarded the ship for their 7 day cruise. Another beautiful day in the Pacific Northwest!

If you look closely you can see the Space Needle behind us in the distance!

It was fun to meet Nancy’s husband for the first time and her friends that have been by her side for many years.

We’re deciding where to go to church tomorrow. We still haven’t found a church home yet.  Now I’m going to go put my feet up and watch the Sounders play the Red Bulls. Hope you are enjoying your Saturday wherever you are…

FFF ~ All Things Beautiful…

Time to think about the last week and come up with 5 favorites! Visit Susanne at Living to Tell the Story to join in.

1. Mother’s Day was a wonderful day from the food to the weather to having most of my kids around for some part of the day.

2. Buying new plants and planting them in the ground or in pots was an accomplishment I feel good about. I’m not a great gardener but I love pretty plants around to enjoy. For years I’ve been wanting a Dogwood and this week I splurged and bought a Cherokee Chief Dogwood. Dear planted it on thursday and I can see it from my kitchen window and from our deck!! Update: The flower in the center of the collage is a Columbine!

3. Old established plants that are blooming in the yard. Boy I love this time of year when everything seems to burst with color.

 

4. A quick stop at the Japanese Gardens in Seattle to see if the Wisteria was in full bloom. Ahh, yes beautiful!

5. New visitors to my bird feeder.

 

 Oops that isn’t a bird!

Hope your weeks are going well. Have a great weekend everyone…

 

Tablescape Thursday ~ Mother’s Day

Since the table was set for Mother’s Day I’ll be able to participate in T.T. this week. I’ve been buried with other jobs around this old homestead and haven’t had the time to scape much. Please visit Susan at Between Naps on the Porch to see other tables set to dine.

There were 6 of us for dinner on Sunday night. Dear barbecued steaks and baked potatoes, Katie put a frozen pie in the oven, and Josh & Laura made a salad and salad dressing. It was all real good and wonderful to be around the table together. Katie’s boyfriend from Florida was with us, too.

I have 5 of the Blue Onion plates and 4 of the Churchill plates that look like Finlandia. I decided to mix and match with 3 of each.

I mixed and matched some more by using 3 of the Finlandia cups and saucers and 3 of the Blue Danube. The Tea Pot with the Rhododendrons in it is Blue Danube.

 

The napkins are Blue Danube also. I layered the plates with a blue glass dessert/salad plate and used my pewter chargers.

It was a wonderful evening.

 

Yard Art ~ Seasoned and New…

Call me weird but I love hunting down Yard Art these days. Please visit Mary at Work of the Poet to join in the fun.

The mushrooms are in a yard in my neighborhood and the Owl was in Descanso Gardens in Southern California.

On Mother’s Day on our way home from brunch we stopped at this Flea Market/Antique store and I photographed these new beauties that haven’t found a home in a yard yet…

The weather has been just glorious here in the Northwest this week. Today on my way to my hair appointment in Seattle I hit the mother lode in yard art. I’ll be showing you that yard next week.  Have a great day and thanks for stopping by…

 

This & That…

These are all school photos from my Elementary years and Junior high years. The last shot is my graduation from junior high photo. Don’t you just love how they would airbrush the photos and make your skin look perfect with no blemishes!! They even removed a prominent beauty mark mole from my left upper lip. I have since had it removed as it got quite prominent as I got older and since I was having some other minor face surgery done.

The minor surgery I had was to remove road gravel from my chin that got embedded when I crashed and landed on my face while riding downhill on my road bike. I hit a patch of gravel going around a curve and that’s all I remember. I was riding with Dear and a few friends near Leavenworth, Washington. They all made it down the hill with no incident and began to wonder where I was. Two guys in a truck found me convulsing on the side of the road. One of the guys stayed with me and the other one went down the hill and found my deserters companions and brought Dear and my doctor back to the sight of the accident in the truck. Yes, we always ride our bikes with our Doctor. I had an ambulance ride to the local medicine man hospital and they didn’t clean out my wounds well at all. So I still have road pebbles embedded in my knee and I had the gravel from my chin removed by a butcher plastic surgeon. Boy, I had a horrible experience with that Butcher Plastic Surgeon and I wouldn’t recommend him to anyone.

Today I’m headed to the miracle lady hairdresser who will remove all signs of my gray roots. Let’s just call this my crossing out words post. The weather looks like it will be wonderful so I’m wondering what mischief me and my camera can get into today.

The ducks are regulars in our yard now but they’ve decided the deck is the place to leave their unsightly squishy deposits. I gave them a talking to and instructed them to do their business on the grass please!!

Hope you have a wonderful Wednesday and you find joy wherever you are…

Evening Grosbeak ~ Finches

For Outdoor Wednesday I wanted to show some more of my photos of the Evening Grosbeak Finches that have started visiting my feeder.

Visit Susan at A Southern DayDreamer to see more of the Outdoors across the country and beyond.

There was a lot of activity at my Apple Tree yesterday. I was delighted to see these Finches come and visit. They are a bit greedy at the feeder. There was a lot of flapping of wings and pecking going on to get the good advantage on the feeder.

 

Some waited patiently for their turn a safe distance away.

Most of the photos were taken from my kitchen window and a few were taken from my deck trying not to scare them off.

I was happy to see the female bird have a turn.

Evening Grosbeak ~ Hesperiphona vespertina

A chunky, short-tailed finch, size of Starling: has a very large, conical whitish bill. The undulating flight indicates a finch, and its stocky shape, large white wing patches mark it as this species.

Male: Dull yellow; dark head, yellow eye stripe,  black and white wings, large pale bill.

Female: Silver-gray and yellow, large pale bill.

ht: A Field Guide To Western Birds by Roger Tory Peterson