Catch-Up Collages

I have some catching up to do from the month of May. Country mosaics with barns and critters and a special baby girl.

Scenes while driving in central Washington State and Eastern Washington State in mid May, 2017.

The farm above with all it’s red out buildings was taken from the Sprague Rest Area.

On the drive from the Seattle area across the Cascade Mountain range into Central and then Eastern Washington on Interstate 90 you approach the 2nd largest city in population in the state of Washington. Spokane is 279 miles from Seattle and 70 miles south of Colville, our final destination. From the 2014 census figures Seattle has a population of 668,342 and Spokane comes in second with 212,052. Spokane Valley has 91,729. Colville has a population of 4,706. Once we pass through Spokane and head north there are no interstates or freeways, we drive on highways and country roads. On the 70 mile trip from Spokane to Colville we only encounter one traffic light in Chewelah which is approximately 20 miles from Colville.

The collage above shows the approach to Spokane on I-90 and some buildings you can see in the city with a mural on the side of an old brick building. There are a few grand churches in Spokane I’d love to explore and photograph.

Leaving Spokane we see more cattle, horses and deer along the country roads. Deer are one of the most dangerous road hazards in the country. The next collages are from Dan and Jamie’s and close to their home.

Hummers on our kids’ front porch.

This hawk might be the one who is eating our kid’s chickens. There’s a price to pay for being free-range.

A riding lawn mower and a good tractor are a must when you own 20 acres and have to tend to a mile long driveway to your home. I caught a glimpse of Dan mowing the brush around his property. Dear and Dan moved the chicken coup to have better access in the winter.

This little one gives us an extra draw to travel to the country. Thankfully Dan and Jamie are patient with us showing up on their doorstep more often. Soon I’ll be sharing several photos of Addy in some special dresses. Here’s a sneak preview of a haphazard elephant prop pose.

She is such a good sport!

These last shots are of some properties closer to our kids.

Congratulations on making it through one of my catch-up posts. I’ll be linking up to a few parties this weekend since Dear is in Chicago and I have lots of time to myself.

Linking up first to Eileen’s Saturday Critters. Next up will be The Barn Collective with Tom. Last will be Mosaic Monday with Maggie in Normandy. When the link ups become available I’ll add them so you can click over and see lots of critters, barns and mosaics from around the world. Thank you to Eileen, Tom and Maggie for hosting these blog carnivals.

Skagit Valley Barns

These photos were all taken on our way to Roozengaarde Garden on May 2nd to see the tulips.

I’m linking up to The Barn Collective with Tom the Backroads Traveler.

Dear pressure washed the deck and part of the drive and put up our patio covers on Friday. Now we are ready to bring the patio furniture down from the loft in the garage. That will happen once we have a dry spell again. We continue our quest to go through boxes of records to sort and shred. Our major Spring project is to let go of a lot of stuff! Our kids will reap the benefit of not having to do it for us! If you are a mother and are visiting here I hope you have a very grateful and peaceful Mother’s Day!

This is a side by side of our daughter-in-law when she was a baby and our granddaughter a couple weeks ago. Addy’s mommy will be celebrating her first Mother’s Day tomorrow. Happy Mother’s Day Jamie! You are a great mommy for little Addy!

Barns in Tulip World

When we travel to Skagit Valley to see the tulip fields we get the added bonus of seeing some barns along the way.

I spy myself taking this photo in our side view mirror!

The purpose of our trip to Skagit Valley was to visit the gardens at Roozengaarde and the bonus were the views along the country roads.

A horse beyond the tulips out of focus but the tulips were the focus of this trip.

I’ll leave you with this masterfully taken selfie of me and Dear. I have a lot of work to do on my selfies, yes?

Our Saturday is a mix of tweaking, painting, sorting, recycling, and trashing. I’ll have a few hours break at noon for soccer south of downtown Seattle. What’s on your agenda?

Linking up with Tom the Backroads Traveler for The Barn Collective.

Highway 231

Our journey home from Colville via Highway 231 on Tuesday April 18th started just on the outskirts of Chewelah. We turned west off of Highway 395 and continued south on 231 all the way to Interstate I-90 in Sprague. All the photos were taken from the passenger seat of our car.

We traveled through the small town of Valley, stopped to have breakfast in Springdale. Continuing south we passed through Ford, Long Lake, Reardon, Edwall then connected to the interstate in Sprague. We enjoyed going on this unfamiliar road instead of our usual trek down Hwy 395. Not having to deal with Division St. through Spokane was a treat!

Linking up with Tom the Backroads Traveler for The Barn Collective.

April Showers…

We took a different route home from Eastern Washington to I-90 taking us through small towns on highway 231. All along the way we saw excess water on properties and water very close to spilling over the roadway.

We had breakfast in Springdale at the Kozy Korner. We knew it was a good choice when all the locals kept coming in while we enjoyed our meal. Instead of heading back to Highway 395 we continued on 231 south to I-90.

This steeple on this church caught our eye in the little town of Edwall. The steeple was the best feature of this church.

And earlier in March on our trip to Colville for our granddaughter’s birth I took a photo of this church in town without a steeple but with an interesting exterior.

Speaking of our granddaughter I will add a photo of her, too, just to show her later in her live what was happening in the towns around her at her birth and shortly after.

This is me saying goodbye to our little Addy before we headed home on April 18, 2017.

April showers and March showers and snow melt have caused a lot of headaches for everyday travel in the tri-counties in Northeastern Washington. This next photo is just one example of a travel nightmare for lots of folks. This is part of highway 395 north of Colville and north of Kettle Falls.

We enjoyed our “off the beaten path” route to get to Interstate 90 and were happy that the roads had held up on this route.

I’m linking up to InSPIREd Sunday with Beth and Sally and

to The Barn Collective with Tom the Backroads Traveler.

On this Saturday I mowed the lawn while Dear weed wacked and we got the job done before another rain shower came through. We had glorious sunshine on Friday and in between rain showers today we have had some welcome sunshine.

We enjoy every minute of sunshine we get after so much rain and grey days! Hope you are enjoying sunshine in your neck of the woods.

A Sunday Drive…

On Sunday after church Dear and I drove up to Snohomish County and enjoyed the views.

We enjoyed lots of country scenes.

We turned down the roads less traveled and saw new things.

In the town of Snohomish there are many grand old homes that I wouldn’t mind living in with these welcoming porches.

Some old churches have been turned into wedding venues.

Since we attend the 8am service at our church we still have a few morning hours to enjoy out and about after church. We had breakfast in Snohomish at Jake’s Diner and drove down some new roads stopping at the grocery store before heading home so I would have the key ingredient in a new recipe I wanted to try. I’ll be posting that recipe on the Mennonite Can Cook Blog later in March.

Linking up to The Barn Collective with Tom the Backroads Traveller and to Mosaic Monday with Maggie at Normandy Life.

Barn Mosaics

We spent the last 7 days of February with our kids in Northeastern Washington. We saw many great scenes like these from the road. The photo above is of a barn that you will probably see in many different seasons as it happens to be one we have to pass to get to our kid’s home.

This mosaic above is on our road trip to Dan and Jamie’s along Highway 395 after getting off I-90 and heading north of Spokane.

This series in the mosaic above are on the road on our way back home just off Highway 395.

This last barn with the quilt was taken off Interstate 90 in Cle Elum. We are just on the East side of Snoqualmie Pass and the area that can be the most troublesome in our journey about an hour and a half from home. Thankfully on this day we didn’t encounter anything that hindered our journey. We are always thankful to God for traveling mercies.

Some of my family favorites from our time in Eastern Washington. History being made with family.

Linking up to The Barn Collective with Tom the Backroads Traveller and

Mosaic Monday with Maggie at Normandy Life.

Our end of the week and weekend was not ordinary at all and we were called upon to care and support someone we love. I won’t share the story because it’s not mine to share on social media. We spent some time in an emergency hospital waiting room where we were exposed to a lot of drama from other people waiting to be cared for and a couple others who were just there to cause trouble. We got to see one of those people escorted out and into a police car. Most of all we experienced caring and kind nurses and doctors and public safety officers who were as thorough as they could be to give help. I was struck with how challenged police officers, fire fighters, doctors, nurses and other staff people are in the whole public service areas of our communities.

Hope you all had a good weekend whether it was ordinary or crazy!

This is the day that the Lord has made;
let us rejoice and be glad in it.

Psalm 118:24 (ESV)

Barns in Snow

We are spending some time in Northeastern Washington with some significant snow still on the ground. We are helping our kids get more settled in their new home before their baby, our first grandchild arrives in March. Many things look great with a snow backdrop.

Linking up to the Barn Collective with Tom The Backroads Traveler. Just want to show Tom what he’s missing while he’s basking in the sun in Hawaii!

Twice in December

Twice in December we drove north to the town of La Conner to enjoy a meal and a stroll.

We enjoy the farm scenes that we pass along the way.

At the end of December we celebrated Katie’s birthday at Anelia’s which features some good Polish fare and other light dishes.

At the beginning of December we ate at the Oyster and Thistle for our anniversary.

I’m linking up to Mosaic Monday with Maggie at Normandy Life.

I’m also linking up for The Barn Collective with Tom The Backroads Traveler.

We had a cold quiet weekend mostly with small projects accomplished and started. I lasted just a very short while outside starting the Apple Tree Pruning. It didn’t take long for my hands to complain from the cold. I’ll be doing that project in short shifts. The Pear tree needs pruning also. January is full of events for us at this Old House.

Today at the Mennonite Girls Can Cook blog I posted a French Onion Soup for two recipe. I was inspired by the soup I had at the Oyster and Thistle in La Conner in the mosaic above. Happy Monday!

Holmes County Ohio Farms

Farms from a distance for The Barn Collective in Amish Country Ohio.

Linking up with Tom the Backroads Traveller for The Barn Collective.

We had a lazy mostly indoor Saturday with lots and lots of rain. Today, Sunday, we’ve had some blue skies and sunshine. We spent the afternoon with our oldest kids. They fed us well and we had some good conversation. We’ve followed super Sunday in Major League Soccer to see who will move forward in the playoffs towards the MLS Cup final game. Montreal is moving on and it looks like Toronto will, too, eliminating both New York teams. We (Seattle) play Dallas this evening. Colorado eliminated Los Angeles earlier today. This information is probably only interesting to me and that’s okay.

Hope you all are having Sundays filled with good things you enjoy!

The Happy Wonderer ~ ellen b.

To honor and encourage

Tag Archives: The Barn Collective