Tag Archives: Sunflowers

Dallas to Colville

My brother and our nephew traveled to Colville to enjoy a Father/Son time with us. Leonard is the youngest of my siblings being born 6 minutes after his twin, Lana. Andrew has an older sister, Hope. Hope was enjoying some cousin time in California. We stopped at The Master’s Brewpub in Deer Park on the way home from the airport for a meal.

As we continued home, we passed many sunflower fields. Andrew was born in the Ukraine so we pulled off the highway to get a photo of him with the sunflowers. They are Ukraine’s national flower and are associated with peace, the sun, and the warmth of the Ukrainian spirit.

Once home we had a walk about and played some Corn Hole.

On Sunday we met up with our family at church.

After church we enjoyed Greg’s famous Swedish Pancakes.

Sunday dinner was on Bayles Mountain. What a treat we had, lamb gyros with homemade gyros and tzatziki. Homemade Ice Cream with huckleberry sauce was our dessert. Our kids picked all the huckleberries themselves.

Jamie remembered to take the group shots and we are grateful for them. Andrew is our children’s cousin. He is cousin once removed to our grands.

Driving down our kids’ driveway for home we stopped for our traditional spot for a photo.

I’ll share our Monday and Tuesday doings in another post.

We had some intense thunderstorms yesterday and our temps dropped by 20 degrees by the time the storms ceased.

Happy August to you all.

Hello September

My Grands via their dear mom gifted me with seeds to plant at Mother’s Day. The Sunflower is finally blooming in all it’s glory. There are three more buds that could bloom any minute.

The rest of these photos are of the nicest areas of our yard taken on September the 1st. Our high today, Sunday, was 97 degrees at our Country Bungalow after several cooler days. Sunday was the hottest of a few days of warming in our neck of the woods. Labor Day, today, is a bit cooler in the forecast.

I’m happy that our potted hanging plant we bought in May has survived until now.

Don’t look too close or you will see all the weeds I have not been able to keep on top of.

We are so thankful for our little plot of land that affords us peace and contentment in this stage of life that God has afforded us.

Happy September to you all. Happy Labor Day to all our friends in the U.S. of A.

Weekend Wrap-Up

On Friday afternoon there was an advertised Birthday Party for Smokey The Bear at the Colville Museum but Smokey never showed. It was still a fun experience to walk around the museum and the museum grounds.

On Saturday we took a early morning trip to Spokane to make purchases to re-stock the kitchen cupboards at church since our VBS week depleted all the stock. The sunflower fields were not in their glory but it was fun to whiz by the fields of yellow and green.

 

 

Sunday morning was a wonderful church service with our VBS kids starting us off with one of their VBS Songs, God made the Manatee. From beginning to end it was good to worship God together.

On Sunday evening we celebrated our Grands’ Granny’s birthday at our Colville kids and this was the sunset we enjoyed driving down their driveway for home.

It was a good full weekend. Looking forward to Mid-week when Uncle Joshie and Auntie Lolo are planning a drive over the mountains for a short visit to enjoy some summer activities with us.

Have a good week everyone.

Adieu to July Hodgepodge

Thank you to Jo From This Side of the Pond for coming up with questions during her busy summer season on the lake.

1. Four words that tell us something about your July?

Eyes: Cataract surgery

Eyedrops: 4x a day for a week then 3x a day then 2x a day and then 1x a day. Start over for second eye.

Heat:  When it’s hot pull out the pool and water toys.

Fires: Adding smoke to the heat.

2. Four of your favorite summer foods?

Nectarines, watermelon, corn on the cob, and apricots.

3. What were you doing at a quarter past four yesterday? 

At exactly 4:15 yesterday (Monday) I had a doctor appointment and not for my eyes. Now I’m waiting for a appointment with someone more specialized about my non-emergency issue. How’s that for vague.

4. fore!, four letter word, four sheets to the wind, ten-four, 24/7, four eyes, these four walls….pick a ‘four’ phrase and tell us how you relate currently

Four eyes: Prescription glasses have been part of me for a very long time. There was a period of time that I switched to contacts but then switched back to glasses. Now that I’ve had my Cataract surgeries I do not need glasses except for up close reading. For me it’s too much of a bother to pull out readers every time I need to read fine print or what’s on my phone so…I’m going to get glasses that are clear with a bifocal section for reading and stick with the eye glass look!

5. Something you own that is four years old? 

All the things we have that we’ve owned for four years are related to our grandchildren. Our first grandchild was born in 2017 so we added some things like a porta crib, high chairs, walkers, toys. Our second grandchild was born in 2019 so we can still use the items we purchased 4 years ago and the things they grew out of we donated elsewhere.

6. Insert your own random thought here. 

A quick photo of the sunflower field as we zoomed past on our way to Spokane on Tuesday. A great sign of summer.

Girls Day Out…

We had a girls outing to Junk Drunk at the Ag Center in Colville on Saturday morning and JJ was our bodyguard.

He was a little trooper in his daddy’s sweat suit from 1981!

Addy had her mommy, granny, granny great, auntie and baba to watch over her.

She was wondering where the animals were since she was at this location (the fair grounds) just a couple weeks ago to see all the fair animals.

We took the obligatory selfie to document everyone at our outing and then stopped to take a few more photos at the sunflower patch.

 

We ended our time together with lunch out. Addy was a great little conversationalist, asking each of us the question, “where is your mommy?” When we told her where our mommy was she asked, “what is she doing?” I told her my mommy was in heaven with Jesus and she was probably singing. Jaymison slept through lunch.

Our weather has been wet and promises to continue in a wet pattern. I won’t have to water this week and might not need to water again until next Spring.

Another quote from Spurgeon…

Sunflowers!

A field of sunshine! On the way back from picking up Laura at the airport in Spokane we pulled off the highway to take some photos of the acres of sunflowers on this farm.

Addy was so excited that Laura came to visit. Addy loves her auntie Lolo.

And…she loves to hop!

Jaymison is charming us more and more with his smiles and verbalizing.

We have been summer busy at our country bungalow and my computer isn’t getting much action. My creative brain is being zapped by the sunshine and yardwork. Hope you are enjoying your summer.

Country Living

Here are some things I’ve learned in the country.

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Horses and other animals graze peacefully and make for idyllic photos.

chewelah 006You can use large old tires from farming equipment and add some dirt and wild flower seed and enjoy a wild tire garden.

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You can’t take having a store close by for granted in the country. For our kids the closest is just 7 miles away, though. Vegetable gardens are the best for having fresh outside your door produce. So far we’ve enjoyed potatoes, squash, green beans. Zucchini bread is just out of the oven. Later today we’ll have tomatoes and lettuce from the garden on our hamburgers. Cucumbers the size of small baseball bats were picked today.

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Having a chicken coop and chickens that lay eggs everyday is a bonus. A rooster can be annoying, though. Yep, that rooster is still alive and cock a doodle doing. You don’t need a rooster to get eggs from the chickens and roosters can get real mean. Even though you think you just purchased birds with no rooster you can be surprised as time goes by. Your days are numbered spotty! The other thing I found out about chickens is that skunks find them to be a delicacy. Our kids don’t put egg shells in their compost pile because they don’t want to attract skunks to their property. A friend of our kids just had several of his chickens killed and eaten by skunks.

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There are lots of wasps, hornets, mosquitoes and other flying things in the country. It’s best to get rid of nests in the winter time.

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There is plenty of room for dogs in the country. They make for good companions. They do shed just as much in the country as in the city, though.

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Birds in numbers like to hang out together. Sometimes they all take off at the same time and that’s a sight.

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You have to be extra cautious when driving in the county because you never know what you’ll encounter along the way. These turkeys took to flight as I approached. You need to be aware and watch for deer and other wildlife because car v. animal never goes well for the humans or the animals. We always crack up at the road signs that say “Watch for Deer next 10 miles” How do they know the deer will stay within that 10 mile area?

Are you a city mouse or a country mouse?

 

An Interlude…

…in the northeastern area of Washington State, where it is hot but no hotter than our western part of Washington right now. Why not sweat in a different location than our own for a few days?

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This afternoon doe, a deer, a female deer and her fawn were grazing in our son’s yard. I’ll share those photos soon. We’ll be eating farm fresh eggs the next several days and we might have to put the rooster to rest if it keeps crowing at all hours and then we’ll have chicken and dumplings. Dear has projects to do with our son and I’m going to walk the dog in the cool of the morning. Hopefully I won’t meet up with any bears or cougars, oh my.

Are you having an interlude, an intermission from the regular?

What Makes you Smile?

Sunflowers make me smile.

Birds flitting around the yard make me smile.

Wild bunnies eating my clover make me smile.

Seeing my children blessing their friends and each other makes me smile.

Seeing good times that my nieces and nephews are having on Facebook makes me smile.

Completing my to-do lists makes me smile.

Enjoying a good meal with friends makes me smile.

Seeing someone smile at me makes me smile right back!

Seeing God’s mercy and grace in my life and in other lives makes me smile.

Hearing about answered prayers makes me smile.

What makes you smile?

Celebrate God all day, every day. I mean, revel in him! Make it as clear as you can to all you meet that you’re on their side, working with them and not against them. Help them see that the Master is about to arrive. He could show up any minute! Philippians 4: 4-5 (The Message)