New Favorite

Last year (2019) I was bugged beyond comfort while working in the yard either mowing or pulling weeds or watering. I ordered this bug net in the fall and finally was able to test it out this Spring. I am so happy with it. Those pesky bugs can’t get to my face and eyes and I don’t have to constantly try to swat bugs away from my face. Such an easy solution to my buggy problem!

There are more bugs at our country bungalow then we had on the “Coast”.

The net fits over this hat and it works with a baseball hat, too. Since I have to wear headphones while I mow to protect my ears and to be able to listen to sermons while I mow I can’t wear that wide brimmed hat and my baseball cap fits the bill.

Last October before my bug net and probably the last mowing of the year.

Last May and probably the first mowing of the season before we got our grass catcher unit.

Mowing happened twice this past week. I’m glad we have most of the Fall and all of Winter off from mowing. It takes a little while into Spring to have to mow for the first time, too. Loved wearing my net over my baseball cap and headphones.

Had online church again this morning. Our church we’ll be meeting in our building next Sunday. We are looking forward to being together as a family again. Online church is not the way it was meant to be…

Adieu to May. Hope you all have a great first week of June.

Across the Sound…

…to the Kitsap Peninsula.

The Friday before my company arrived I headed out early all by myself to the Lavender Festival in Sequim, Washington. Sequim is pronounced Skwim, one syllable. I crossed the Sound on a ferry from Edmonds to Kingston on the Kitsap Peninsula. It took me an hour to drive to Sequim from the ferry landing. I crossed another body of water, the Hood Canal, to the Olympic Peninsula and finally arrived in Sequim which sits along the Strait of Juan de Fuca. The Dungeness Spit is close by which boasts home to the very popular Dungeness Crab. This part of the Olympic Peninsula has perfect weather to grow lavender and every year the third weekend of July is set aside for the Lavender Festival.

The first farm I stopped at was Jardin du Soleil. I arrived here before the official opening but was still welcomed to stroll about the farm.

“ladies fair, I bring to you
lavender with spikes of blue;
sweeter plant was never found
growing on our english ground.”

Caryl Battersby

The second farm I stopped at was Purple Haze Lavender Farm. This one was my favorite.

“lavender, sweet lavender;
come and buy my lavender,
hide it in your trousseau, lady fair.
Let its lovely fragrance flow
Over you from head to toe,
lightening on your eyes, your cheek, your hair.”

Cumberkand Clark Flower Song Book 1929

“here’s your sweet lavender
sixteen sprigs a penny
that you’ll find my ladies
will smell as sweet as any”

Lavender Sellers’s Cry, London England CA 1900

Each farm had food vendors offering some good eats and this farm even had some creative hard drinks for sale. I tried one and some of you will be able to guess which one I tried.

There were other flowers besides lavender to enjoy.

Before I headed to 2 more farms on my way back home I stopped at the street fair for a pulled pork sandwich and while I ate I listened to Cisco, a Northwest gardening expert.

Cedarbrook Lavender and Herb Farm was in a nice setting and has a Garden Cafe Restaurant on the premises.

Sunshine Herb & Lavender Farm was the last farm I stopped at. It was right on the highway and was my least favorite. There were lots of interesting things to see here besides lavender, though, like this little one…

Every farm had a U-Pick section of their farm where you could come away with a nice bouquet of lavender for $5.

It really is worth the trip to enjoy this heady lavender experience if you ever find yourself in Washington the third weekend in July!

Sequim ~ The Lavender Capital of North America

I’m adding this to Outdoor Wednesday with Susan at A Southern Daydreamer. Click on her link to see the Outdoors around the world.

Photobucket replaced all my photos with ugly black and grey boxes and they are holding my photos hostage until I pay them lots of money. I’m slowly going through all my posts and trying to clean them up and replacing some photos. Such a bother.

Metamorphosis Monday ~ Lawn

It’s time for Metamorphosis Monday hosted by Susan at Between Naps on the Porch.

Dear and I were at our home in Seattle for the last 10 days celebrating Easter with our kids and getting some things done around the house. While we were there it was time for the first mowing after the Winter lull in grass growth. So I’m showing the before and after shots that I took.

Don’t you just love the look and smell of a freshly mowed grass?! OK, Ok, truth be told we really can’t call this a lawn, it’s mostly moss and dandelions but all 1/3 acres of it is ours. Hopefully some day we can tear it all out and re-seed…

Dear and I are just back to our Condo in Southern California. We had some interesting flight challenges that put us in 2-1/2 hours later than we expected. Now I’ve got to replace my Seattle brain with my Southern California brain! Ejola!

To see some really great metamorphosis visit the lovely Susan at Between Naps on the Porch!

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.

Metamorphosis Monday ~ My Pear Tree

For my Met Monday this week I am at my home in the state of Washington. Usually I’m at my condo in Southern California. My before and after project was completed today during a short period of time while the rain was not falling here. I’m not a gardener by any means but my Pear Tree really was in need of a pruning. All I know about pruning a tree is that branches that grow straight up are the ones to go after. (I sure hope that’s true). So here is my pear tree with all those unsightly branches that are growing straight up…

I got the trusty pruning tools out of the garage and started to work all by myself…

Here is the result after about an hour and a half. And this next collage shows the before and after from the same angle.

I hope I didn’t kill it. Time will tell.

To see more Metamorphosis click over to Susan’s at Between Naps on the Porch.

Photobucket is holding all my photos I stored with them from 2007-2015 hostage unless I pay them a lot of money. I’m slowly cleaning up many posts from this time period and deleting their ugly grey and black boxes with a ransom request. Such a time consuming bother.

BooMama’s Before and After ~

It’s a before and after project. So all you have to do is post about something you want to re-do, re-decorate, clean up, etc. and then do it before July 25th and re-post your before and after results. How cool and motivating is that. To get the official scoop click over to BooMama.

Here’s what I’m going to try to do.

1. Create an inviting atmosphere on my deck in Seattle (I’m in our condo in So. California right now but I get to be at my home in Seattle from July 1st – August 15th )

2. Do a thorough cleaning of my Seattle home since my adult children have been “taking care of it” while I’m in Southern California.

3. Show some photos of our huge project…redoing the basement. My husband only has 3 weeks in Seattle so I don’t know what we’ll be able to accomplish but I will show the progress…

Here are some photos of the torn up basement. We had some water issues so this was a “have to do” project! The hard part about my husband completing this project is that we are living 1200 miles away right now because of his job.

So I hope to show you some great changes July 25th!

Photobucket is holding all my photos I stored with them from 2007-2015 hostage. They have blacked out all those photos on my blog posts. OH BOTHER! I’m slowly cleaning up my posts.

Our Quick Trip Home

I’m back at the Condo in Southern California after a quick weekend to my home in Seattle. I’m sharing some photos of my walks around the yard while I was there and a couple from my typical outings when I’m home in Washington.

The Planters are filling in. The Azaleas are at the end of their pretty blooms. The Camellias are at an in-between stage. I chopped off their tops so I hope I didn’t kill them. We’ll see. My two lavender plants are getting ready to show off. They sure smelled good when I was weeding around them.

Azaleas, Lavender, I can’t tell you what the center plant is *but two of my lovely commenters say Corral Bells, yippee, and my Lenten Rose that has gotten quite hardy!

Rosemary, pears, ferns, hydrangea, little blueberry buds, wild rose, stuff in pots, my pear tree, and another photo of my blueberry bush.

The wonderful Washington State Flower the Rhododendron. I have 4 bushes that are in the need of some serious pruning to make them even hardier than they are. Just so you all know, everything I’ve shown you grows by the Grace of God. I do not want to pretend that I’m a gardener. I truly appreciate gardeners and praise God each year when these plants bloom again despite my neglect.

While I was home I had a quick walk with my Washington Walking buddies, Jody and Jan. The Burke Gilman trail is amazing in the Springtime.

Lilac bush/tree along the trail. Lilacs bloom everywhere here. I’d love a lilac tree in my yard.

Before we headed to the airport to fly back to California on Monday, I made a quick trip to my favorite thrift store in Washington State, Goodwill, not to be mistaken for California Goodwill’s. I found this pretty hand painted tea pot and creamer from Japan. (no sugar bowl to match)

But I picked up this cute little glass sugar bowl to compensate!

Greeting and Farewell ~ Quote from Anne of the Island by L.M. Montgomery

“Anne dressed in the cheerless grey dawn, for an early start was necessary to catch the boat train; she struggled against the tears that would well up in her eyes in spite of herself. She was leaving the home that was so dear to her, and something told her that she was leaving it for ever, save as a holiday refuge. Things would never be the same again; coming back for vacations would not be living there. And oh, how dear and beloved everything was – that little white porch room, sacred to the dreams of girlhood, the old Snow Queen at the window, the brook in the hollow, the Dryad’s Bubble, the Haunted Wood, and Lovers’ Lane – all the thousand and one dear spots where memories of the old years bided. Could she ever be really happy anywhere else?”

Well just so y’all know I’m not quite as sentimental as Anne is. I can be happy somewhere else and I do think that I will return to this home sometime in the future but there’s always a little sadness when I arrive home and then when I have to leave again. And until I can return “my heart will keep on singing” and I will choose to find joy each day I’m away.

I’ll be posting more photos from the Japanese Gardens we visited tomorrow. In the meantime I hope you find joy today.

Photobucket is holding all my photos from 2007-2015 hostage and they have blacked them all out. I’m slowly working at restoring my posts without their help. Such a tiresome bother!

Home Alone ~ What to Do?

Since Dear is somewhere north of Redding, California delivering a car from Southern California to Washington State for our daughter, I’m without my Saturday morning walking buddy. What should I do with my day all alone?

It’s coffee for one this morning so I decided to pull out the French Press.

Perfect amount for my big mug.

Well let’s see. My kitchen is clean already. My bathroom is clean already.

My livingroom is clean. My bed is made and the bedroom is clean. My office is OK. My huge garden is weeded and watered. Hmmm, and here it is 8:00 am already.

So I’m debating, should I go to Santa Barbara to pick up some necessities at Nordstrom? Our Nordstrom in Thousand Oaks doesn’t open until the fall and I hate to drive to the San Fernando Valley for the closer Nordstrom. Or maybe I should just drive up to Ventura and do some thrift store shopping. Decisions, decisions. Have a wonderful Holiday weekend everyone!