Tag Archives: Summer

A Pickle of a Hodgepodge

If it’s Wednesday, it must be time for the Hodgepodge. Thank you, Joyce.

1.What’s something you find extremely difficult that most people would say is simple?

Exercise for the sake of exercise. I can have good intentions but I find it difficult to be faithful in the endeavor.

I do enjoy getting out in the yard and mowing, etc. I do deep cleaning. I’m great at errands and shopping. We walk a lot on trips we take. I’m not a total couch potato. 🙂

2.  “And so with the sunshine and the great bursts of leaves growing on the trees, just as things grow fast in movies I  had that familiar conviction that life was beginning over again with the summer.” 
~F. Scott Fitzgerald
 
Does the season of summer make you feel this way? Elaborate. 
No. Summer is not my stimulating time of year. I look for shade and try not to sweat too much. Life begins again in the Fall for me. 🙂
~

3. Pickles. Love ’em or no thank you?

Love them!

What’s your favorite type of pickle?

Kosher Dill, the kind you find in the refrigerator section.

What’s something you eat that definitely needs a pickle added?

A hamburger tastes better to me with pickles. I also like chopped up pickles in tuna mix and potato salad and call me crazy but I love the combination of a boiled potato with a pickle as a treat.

4. Tis the season…do you know any June brides?

Our Colville kids got married in June so our Jamie is a June Bride.

Are there any weddings on your summer calendar?

No summer weddings on our calendar. We do have a Grand Nephew who is engaged but it sounds like their plans are for a Fall wedding.

What’s your favorite movie wedding? 

Pride and Prejudice and other British series weddings (Downton Abby) where the whole town lights up for the special day and the bride arrives after all the guests are in the church and gets dropped off in a special carriage or car and then the couple leave together in style right from the church to wherever the reception is to be held.

5. June 1st is/was National Say Something Nice Day…say something nice here. 

Thank you, Joyce and Hodgepodgers, for this weekly get together and for all the nice things you say in your comments each week. You are a fun community and I appreciate each of you.

6. Insert your own random thought here. 

Speaking of exercise, we started June off with a return to the Rotary Trail here in Colville for a walk. Woohoo! It’s been well over a year that we walked the trail. That was due mostly to my Plantar Fasciitis. I’m happy to report my feet felt fine after our walk, thank you, LORD!

We enjoyed lots of birdsong and seeing our National Bird, too.

A great start to our goals for June and beyond.

An Apple a Day…

It’s time for another round of ABC Wednesday! Thank you to Mrs. Nesbitt for starting it up and for a wonderful team of people keeping it going!

A is for my apple tree and the apples that I have no inspiration to do anything with at present.

So time will tell if an apple crisp or an apple tart or an apple pie or applesauce is in our future! What would you make with my apples?

Summer ~ Hymn

Summer

The long, long days of summer,
The sunny days are here;
The ripening grain is bending,
The air is soft and clear.

Refrain

O God, Thy tender mercies
Like evening dews descend;
Thou givest rain and sunshine,
On Thee our hopes depend.

The glowing heat at noontide,
The hush of evening’s calm,
Remind us of Thy presence,
To Thee we raise our psalm.

Refrain

In life’s fair summer weather,
Oh, may we look to Thee;
And when the storms o’ertake us,
Our refuge Thou shalt be.

Refrain

Words: Julia H. Johnston, 1899.

Happy Father’s Day!

June Photo-A-Day Challenge

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Continuing with Kati’s challenge Day 15 thru Day 21.

15. Backyard

IMGP062916. Bright

17. Stripe

Fourth of July Decorations218. Something Old (Wells Cathedral)

Alton to Cotswolds 30919. Refreshing (Cornwall, England)

Wells to Porthtowen food1

20. Book (Crime and Punishment – Fyoder Dostoyevsky)

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21. Summer (Chilliwack Corn)

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This Saturday marks the beginning of Summer in the Northern Hemisphere and the beginning of Winter in the Southern Hemisphere so World Cup will finish up during the Winter in Brazil.

We continue with our Weekend Warrior bathroom work this weekend. We have to use this weekend well since we’ll be traveling to Portland for a wedding next weekend. What are your plans for the first weekend of summer?

Still Working…

2013-08-14 TV +oldies

…on some before and afters of our floors. These are just a few of the changes that I’m enjoying. I really like our new smaller TV stand and that the TV now fits tucked in nicely under the stairwell.

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The stairs to the basement are a great improvement, too. The new chocolate carpet color enhances the walls and the tile in the basement.

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I’m still working on the right angles of the new shots of the living room compared to the old looks. I’ll share more soon. WE are really happy with the roomier feeling we’re getting in the living room.

We have had some “oye” moments around here. The Ikea storage units we bought for our closet in the spare room were off by 3/4 of an inch so now we need to make some adjustments to have them fit in the closet. Little things like that make a big impact on your planning.

My mom is hanging in there and my mom and pop have decided that they don’t need one of my siblings spending the night at the apartment anymore. My siblings still come by during the day to clean and cook for my parents. My pop is doing a lot better with the situation and walks to the store now that is close by to replenish milk, etc.

Katie and Andrew have made it to Denver and will be in Salt Lake City on Tuesday. We’re hoping to see them here by Saturday.

So many bloggy friends are talking about Fall already and I’m so surprised to hear about kids starting school. Are you looking ahead to Fall or are you still enjoying the long days of summer?

Count Them!

Here are my five blooming blessings for Susanne’s Friday’s Fave Five!

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1. I got to enjoy 5 Peony blooms from my plant this year. Last year I only had two! Peonies really delight me.

 

2. Dear returned safely from his business trip to France and we enjoyed a relaxed Father’s Day weekend.

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3. After non-stop activity for a few months we had a very slow uneventful week and that was good as we head into a flurry of prep work to replace all of our floors by the end of July.

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4. Last Saturday my sister and I went on a garden tour in a neighboring city and enjoyed lots of wrong turns and laughter.  A post is still coming about that morning…

 

5. Lots of good talks on the phone with our grown children this week. Our daughter and son-in-law are anticipating lots of changes over the next several months and it was good to be able to listen to all the possibilities and help them in the “waiting”.  We are starting to get real excited about our plans for our England trip with our oldest son and DIL. We were waiting on the Premier League “Fixtures” to be released and now we can plan in earnest. (Fixtures are the teams schedules for the coming season) Now we are hoping we can actually get some tickets for the game we want to go to. Our son Dan is doing well on the other side of the mountains and that makes us happy.

Yesterday we had a solid day of rain. We are hoping for some dry time this weekend for some of our scheduled projects. Today is the first day of summer and looking out my window it’s hard to believe that. We joke around in the northwest that summer doesn’t really start up here until July 5th! Do you have some fun summer plans?

Almost Fully Bloomed…

Our hydrangea is finally showing us it’s color. Soon it will be fully bloomed.

I made 2 trips to Canada this past week. My first trip was full with a reunion of the girls from Mennonite Girls Can Cook. It is rare that the 10 of us can all be together but we were able to pull it off on Wednesday of last week. We enjoyed a full day together with great food and fellowship. Tuesday and Thursday sandwiched all 10 of us together on Wednesday with smaller gatherings. Hearty slices of time with a wonderful filling in between!

Fun little gifts kept coming out at our different gatherings. Here are the gifts I brought home across the line…

Gracious words are like a honeycomb, sweetness to the soul. Proverbs 16:24

Friends are the flowers in the garden of life…

This description for this gift made me smile!

A fun basket of treats on my bed from my hostess Marg. Marg brought all of us a special treat from St. Petersburg, beautifully woven napkins. My gift to the girls was not confiscated at the Border…

Bags filled with lavender. I’ll be staying in the U.S.A. this week but am looking forward to a soccer game with the English Premier team Chelsea vs. the Seattle Sounders on Wednesday.

I’m linking up with Mary for Mosaic Monday.

Good Things Come…

…to those who wait.

Ever since we moved back to Washington from California I have been hoping that a HomeGoods store would open in our state. This past Sunday we had 2 stores open in the Puget Sound area, one in Lynnwood and Federal Way. Dear and I were a little wiped out on Sunday so we didn’t leave the house but on Monday I felt alive again and headed north to HomeGoods with a list in my hand.

I bought several things that we will decide about keeping or not. HomeGoods has a good return policy…

These three pieces will be mounted on the garage wall that I face from the kitchen sink. It adds a lot of interest to a big boring surface.

These wall planters will be easier to see once they are mounted.

While I was outside I took some photos of sections of our deck.

As you can see we don’t have real bright sunny skies even though it’s summer. We are hoping for a nice 4th of July this year. Time will tell. We are having our annual 4th of July barbecue so it would be nice to be comfortable on the deck. What are your plans for the 4th?

Summer Suns Are Glowing ~ Hymn

Summer Suns are Glowing

Summer suns are glowing over land and sea;
Happy light is flowing, bountiful and free;
Everything rejoices in the mellow rays;
Earth’s ten thousand voices swell the psalm of praise.

God’s free mercy streameth over all the world,
And His banner gleameth, by His church unfurled;
Broad and deep and glorious, as the heaven above,
Shines in might victorious His eternal love.

Lord, upon our blindness Thy pure radiance pour;
For Thy lovingkindness we would love Thee more;
And when clouds are drifting dark across the sky,
Then, the veil uplifting, Father, be Thou nigh.

We will never doubt Thee, though Thou veil Thy light;
Life is dark without Thee, death with Thee is bright;
Light of light, shine o’er us on our pilgrim way;
Go Thou still before us to the endless day.

Words: William W. How, 1871.