Good Fences ~ Log Boom Park

I’ve started walking with a group from the Senior Center on Tuesdays and Thursdays on the Burke Gilman Trail starting at Log Boom Park in Kenmore, Washington. I was a little early last Thursday and walked out to the lake to take some photos.

The trail runs close to Lake Washington going west from Log Boom. If you walk in the opposite direction the trail continues along the Sammamish River that runs between Lake Washington and Lake Sammamish. The trail is a great place to walk or ride a bike.

It was a lovely peaceful morning at the northern edge of Lake Washington.

This morning I’m headed out again to the trail in the misty rain to walk. I’m relieved by this coolness after being in 100+ Southern California. I’m enjoying my latest activity boost with walking on Tuesdays and Thursdays and my exercise class on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays. Got to keep at it!

I’m linking to Good Fences #26 hosted by TexWisGirl from Run*A*Round Ranch Report. Thanks for being such a great hostess for your link-up.

I Love This Time of Year…

The beginning of the traditional school year is a favorite time for me. I’ve been absent from Susanne’s Friday’s Fave Five for a while but I wanted to chime in with some things this week that make my favorite’s list.

My exercise regiment has been totally non-existent for quite a while. It’s been hit and miss at best. Today I hope I’ve found some things to remedy this problem in my life. So here are my five…

1. I’ve had a hard time finding a regular walking buddy since I’ve come back to Washington. If you are part of Susanne’s weekly fave five you know who Willow is. Well…she used to be my walking buddy when we lived in the same city in Southern California but since I moved back to Washington in the Spring of 2010 I’ve been without a regular walking buddy. Boo hoo. Today I joined up with a group from the Senior Center who walk every Tuesday and Thursday rain or shine on a great walking trail close to my home.

What a beautiful day it was to walk and a nice bunch of ladies. We saw this wonderful view of Mt. Rainier at our turning point on the trail.

2. After being encouraged with being out of doors and walking, I showered and headed to the Senior center to sign up for an exercise class that meets Monday, Wednesday and Fridays. I’m excited about my daily exercise commitment.

3. I’m happy to be done, done, done, with the Bathroom Renovation company. I’m looking forward to Dear finishing up the bathroom and sharing it with you all in the near future.

4. This new expanded family will be my favorite for a long time. I am really looking forward to meeting my new little nephew from the Ukraine.

5. Celebrating Dear’s birthday with most of our kids was another favorite for sure. It is so good to be together and enjoy each other.

I found a photo I took on September 11, 2001 and wanted to share it here, too. We can never take for granted the freedoms we are afforded here in our country and we can never forget that there are those who would love to destroy those freedoms. So thankful to God for his protection over us and that no matter what, we have a hope in our future that cannot be taken away!

What makes your thankful list this week?

A Taste of Ste Michelle

Moving along with my tour guide hat on Monday June 17th we visited Ste Michelle Winery in Woodinville, Wa. This is on the quiet side of Lake Washington about 17 miles from Seattle.

The winery is open for tours every day and during the week you can see the bottling operation in progress. They do not bottle on the weekends.

After the short informative tour filled with the history of this land and winery we were guided into the tasting room.

We were told to hold up our glasses and look at the color of the wine. I’m so obedient…sometimes.

After the tastings my niece and her hubby got a lot more animated.

Is that the wine talking?

From Ste Michelle we went up the road a bit to the Redhook Brewery. The next available tour there was at 2:00 so we had lunch at the Forecaster’s Pub attached to the brewery and then I left Debbee and Lenny with my Brother-in-law for the tour and I headed home to get ready for the U.S.A. vs. Ghana World Cup Game. Thanks for coming to the rescue Steve because I didn’t want them to miss the tour but I was not willing to miss a second of the once in a lifetime game. Josh and Laura arrived before the game started and the rest of the crew arrived in enough time for the 2nd half and the win by the U.S.A. We all had dinner together and a few rounds of Mexican Train. Soon I’ll show our tour of Whidbey Island and the grand finale of Debbee and Lenny’s trip to Western Washington.

It’s Friday today and soon we’ll be in full swing with our Weekend Warrior hats on. While Dear works on ceiling lights, ceiling fan and ceiling drywall I will be available to offer a hand here and there and feed my warrior. What does your weekend look like?

April Note Cards

It’s time for Vee’s Note Card party.

Thank you Vee for hosting this monthly party!

Sunset over Lake Washington in Kirkland, Washington.

Rows of spent daffodils in Mount Vernon, Washington during the Tulip Festival.

Apple blossoms on our apple tree taken this past Saturday.

Russian sweet cheese spread served with Russian Easter Bread (Kulich/Paska).

Христос Воскрес!

Воистину воскрес!

Here we are in the middle of April and we’ll finally be celebrating Easter this coming weekend. I’m looking forward to our Good Friday service and Easter service. After services on Sunday some of our family will be coming over to celebrate an Easter meal here. We are having rack of lamb, rice, asparagus, salad and Italian Easter bread (Colomba) with strawberries for dessert. Our annual Kulich/Paska baking day is not happening this year so I was happy to find a source for the Colomba. It tastes and smells very similar to Kulich/Paska.

How are you celebrating Easter this year?

Welcome April!

We aren’t big on April Fool’s Jokes around this old house and I’m happy about that. We have friends that have enjoyed quite elaborate jokes on this day.

Here’s how March went out like a lamb in my neck of the woods.

On Sunday Josh and Laura took us out to dinner at The Wild Ginger in Bellevue. We enjoyed a view of the city from our table.

After dinner we stopped by Whole Foods to check out their bakery to choose some sweets to enjoy at home together. On the way home we traveled along the northeast shore of Lake Washington and stopped to take a photo of the sun setting.

I love the gifts Josh and Laura gave me.

Framed photos of some of the highlights of our trip to England in September of 2013 and these great Cd’s from Wells Cathedral. We had a real good chuckle over the title on the Christmas Cd, Jingle Wells. I might not wait till Christmas to listen to it. We really had a memorable time at Wells Cathedral so these Cd’s are very appreciated.

On Monday, the last day of March, it was warm enough to go out in the yard and complete a project I started last Monday. I planted two Rose bud Azaleas in the spot where I pulled out another plant I wasn’t enjoying. I purchased the two Azaleas with a gift card my friends gave me to purchase a plant in honor of my mom, she died last September 13th. My mom loved soft pink flowers and I thought these two Azaleas would be perfect.

My mom’s birthday was April 8th and I was glad I could plant these before that day arrived this year. I have been successful with the other Azaleas in our yard so I felt these would be a good choice. I wouldn’t want to choose something that might not thrive.

April is a very eventful month at this old house. This Saturday I’m hosting a table at a Friendship tea, Easter is coming, and then Katie and I have to be packed up and ready for a road trip across the U.S.A. We leave on Sunday April 27th. I hope your April arrived nicely and that no one made a fool out of you!

Winter Sunshine and Celebrations…

We had two beautiful sunshine filled days last week and one of them landed on Katie and Andrew’s Anniversary. Dear was in Orlando for a conference so Katie and I decided on a waterfront restaurant to have her anniversary dinner.

We ended up at Anthony’s Home Port in Kirkland on Lake Washington.

We got a very good dose of Vitamin D sitting with the sunshine streaming through.

Can you feel the heat?

So many people were out and about enjoying the weather that it was impossible to get out of the restaurant parking lot. We had to find a different route home because of the stream of traffic traveling along the Lake road.

On Friday we traveled east across the Cascade Mountain range to spend the weekend with our son in Eastern Washington. I’ll share our interesting travel experience in a day or two.

Sunlit Sunday

Sunset over Lake Washington from Daniel’s Broiler in Bellevue

Sunlit Sunday is a meme hosted by My Little Home and Garden. I’m joining in and if you click over you will see some other sunlit themed photos.

Seattle was all abuzz this weekend because of the Seattle Seahawks and their run for the Super Bowl. They won their game on Saturday which I was happy about because a loss would have put our city into a sports depression. I’m more of a Soccer fan but I support my football enjoying friends. My husband’s office building won an award for their display of 12th man support for the Seahawks.

Yep he works in one of the offices behind that huge 12!

To join in the Seattle fan fun we had a big pot of chili and cornbread ready when my sister and her hubby came over to enjoy the game with us on Saturday. Tomorrow I’ll share about the celebration we had on Friday night. How was your weekend?

Fashionably Late…

Here I sit on this Friday after, Black Friday, It’s beginning to look a lot like Christmas Friday, still in my robe Friday but still very thankful Friday!

I’m joining in with Susanne at Living to Tell the Story with my favorites from this past week. Five (or so) faves but lots more than five photos!

1. I’m thankful for this leftover photo of when my kids were all together a couple weekends ago.

2. I’m thankful for our Son-in-law, Andrew, serving his country in Afghanistan. He had to have Thanksgiving in what he calls the sandbox.

This photo is from his cold weather training for Afghanistan.

3. I’m thankful for some leisurely shopping the evening before Thanksgiving with Dear and Katie topped off with Happy Hour at Daniel’s Broiler in Bellevue. I know from here on out it will be crazy out there in the stores. I am still sitting here in my robe on this Black Friday with no intentions of going anywhere.

A good meal with a lovely view with people you love…priceless.

We could see all the way across Lake Washington to downtown Seattle.

I’m always grateful to see a glorious sunset!

4. We were invited to our friend’s home for Thanksgiving. There were forty five of us gathered and the food was amazing and oh so plentiful. I made double the amount of yams needed and I could have fed a whole neighborhood with just the yams. Oye. By the time we ate my memory card was full so I can’t show you the ginormous pan of yams with marshmallows on top browned to perfection. You’re going to have to take my word for it.

The cousins table, the kid table and the collective table. The collective table was for those of us who had the most collective Thanksgivings…translation ~ the old people table! We had those of us starting in the 50’s to two matriarchs that are very close to 90 represented.

Some of the younger guests!

When you see a crowd on the deck poised with their phones, quick, grab your camera and fun out there, too!

There was a cloud layer resting above the Puget Sound and at sunset we got a fun view of the Olympic Mountain range peeking out above the fog with the lovely colors of the sunset above. What you see with the naked eye is very hard to capture with a camera or phone. The view with the eyes God gave me was so much more spectacular than this photo.

5. I’m thankful that with our technology we can talk to and communicate with people across the world and in a different hemisphere than us. Our hosts’ youngest daughter is on a 2 year trek around the world living in different countries. We were able to communicate with her and see her on one of the I-phones from Australia.

Hi Jamie!! We love you and miss you! (Jamie was our Katie’s maid of honor)

Did I mention I’m still in my robe? I love the morning after Thanksgiving when there is nothing on the calendar and I can just dilly dally the day away!

Sunday starts another week of celebrations around this old house. Now that Thanksgiving is behind us I’ll start getting serious about Christmas, too. How about you? Have you started on Christmas?

August Notecards

For Vee’s August Notecard Party

I’m sharing some shots in the Seattle area from summers past…

August 2011 ~ Josh and Laura at a Sounders Soccer game with Seattle in the background.

2010 Kayaking in Anacortes, Washington with Dear, Josh, Laura, Andrew and Katie.

July 2009 on Lake Washington with Seattle across the lake. Laura and Katie with my niece Debbee between them.

Summer 2008 ~ Canoeing on Lake Washington with Katie. You can rent canoes and rowboats at the University of Washington Waterfront to mess around the lake. “Believe me, my young friend, there is nothing-absolutely nothing- half so much worth doing as simply messing about in boats” ~ Kenneth Grahame, The Wind in the Willows

The State of Washington is filled with Lakes and Sounds and other water ways to enjoy. It’s no wonder people invest in boats in this area. We live within 2 miles of Lake Washington and one of my favorite walks is along the Sammamish River/Burke Gilman Trails a short drive away. When I’m on the water, I prefer to be able to see the shore. I’m not fond of being out in the middle of the ocean surrounded by water with no land in sight.

Hope you are still enjoying some lazy summer days. I’m hoping to get some lazy days in before summer is over! To see what we’ve been doing this summer that has been anything but lazy, you can scroll down to the post before this one to see our floor project with before and after shots (or just click here).

Gloomy with Promises…

We’ve been on the gloomy side here in the Pacific Northwest. On Sunday after church we decided it would be good to enjoy brunch out. We headed to the Kirkland Lake Washington waterfront Beachhouse Bar and Grill. You can see the gloominess out the windows. But not to worry because what appeared on our plates was not gloomy at all.

I had the Pecan French Toast and Dear had Eggs Benedict.

It was nice to have a meal put in front of me and have a bit of relaxation after a hectic week.

That was Sunday. On Tuesday we had a wee bit of sunshine and on my way home from Costco I got to see this amazing view. A rainbow filled with promises!

Today is Wednesday and it’s a free day for me for which I am grateful.Thursday is a special day and you’ll see why with my post. On Friday I hope to show you the star I bought wrapped in lights that Dear hung on our garage/shop. I’m waiting for a dry night so I can take a photo outside without getting my camera lens wet! On Saturday we are going to get our tree.

Hope all is well in your corner of the world…

The Happy Wonderer ~ ellen b.

To honor and encourage

Tag Archives: Lake Washington