Summer V - Snapshots

In summer, the song sings itself. ~William Carlos Williams

Pileated Woodpecker

We had this fledgling at our suet feeder today!  Although the pileated woodpecker is said to be a fairly common year-round resident in the forests of Western WA, it is the first I have seen at my feeders!

Summer IV ~ Crescent Bar

On two separate occasions, once in July and once in August, I was invited to visit the sun at my friend Mary's vacation home in Eastern WA along the Columbia River.  This is no small thing, as though I realize it has been an unreasonably hot summer just about everywhere else in the United States this year, the opposite is true in Western WA.  This makes two summers in a row with hardly any sun to show for it.  You wonder why depression is so high in the PNW?  There you go.

 There is such a beauty to the dryness and various assortment of grasses where it is hot!

 There were 5 of us the first time I went.  Mary is missing n this picture, as she is snapping it.  Janet and I knew only Mary (not even each other), but we all found the 5 of us were a great mix!  Dry humor, great cooks because we all love to eat, flexible........ it was a wonderful time of meeting new friends!

 Incredible cliffs

 We rode around in the golf cart, did a few walks, played Hand and Foot (Marvel and Janet cheat), collected fallen apricots in the area and made delicious desserts and spent time reading by the swimming pool!  Heaven!  And yes, here I was receiving yet another call from work....... LEAVE ME ALONE ALREADY!!!!

Thanks so much, Mary!

Summer III ~ Fort Stevens

In July our family met up with my sister's family for a camping trip at Fort Stevens on the coast of Oregon.

 Ian took Lela, Ryan and Ginny up for an aeriel tour in the plane they flew down in.

 The campground is right by this lake.

 20 years ago we camped together at Fort Stevens also, and snapped this picture of the cousins.  My sister had the photo put onto mugs at the time.  Good thing, because I cannot find any pictures in my albums from that trip!  Hard to believe a camera addict like myself did not take pictures of a fun time! We tried to duplicate it but could not remember the order they were all in!

 The Stanley Clan

Hope to do this camping trip again in the near future!

Summer II ~ Old Wooden Boats Festival

A rare occurrence, the Fourth of July dawned a bright, sunny day this past summer!  Darrell and I met Bethany J down at the Old Wooden Boats Festival in Seattle to browse the many incredible boats and enjoy the sunshine!

So many boats.....here are just a few of them.  Notice one of them even had a hot tub on its upper deck!

Anyone could sign up for a free boat ride on Lake Union in one of a number of boats offering.  We chose to ride on the Amee, a relic of a wooden sailboat from days past.

The sights were terrific, and the sun so warm and relaxing!

Early in the day private boats started staking out their position on the lake for the evening's amazing fireworks display. Before we left in the early afternoon, the lake was filled to the max!

Crowds gathered early to grab their favorite spot at Gas Works Park as well.  I now understand why it is named Gas Works!  In the 30 years we have lived here, I had never seen it!  Sad, I know.

What an enjoyable way to spend a clear day!

Vermicelli with Fresh Herbs

 Wondering what to do with your plentiful harvest of Sweet 100 cherry tomatoes?

Our family loves this dish from Betty Crocker's cookbook!

Vermicelli with Fresh Herbs

1/4 cup olive oil

2 Tbs chopped pines nuts

1 Tbs chopped fresh parsley

1 Tbs capers, drained and chopped

2 tsp chopped fresh rosemary leaves

2 tsp chopped fresh sage leaves

1 tsp chopped fresh basil leaves

1 pint cherry tomatoes, cut into fourths

1 16 oz pkg vermicelli

Freshly ground pepper

Serves 6

 Gather the fresh-picked ingredients from your garden, as well as remaining ingredients.

You will please notice that I pay no attention to measured amounts!  I use my fresh herbs liberally!  I only made 2 servings of pasta to serve these amounts of herbs and tomatoes over, and it is oh so much tastier :-}

 Chop the pine nuts, parsley, capers, rosemary, sage and basil. Cut tomatoes.

 Mix chopped ingredients with the olive oil.

Gather your pretty Italian pasta bowls!

 Cook the vermicelli (I use Angel Hair Pasta), place into the bowls and spoon the herb/tomato mixture over all.  Grind the fresh pepper on the top.  Serve and enjoy!

Summer I ~ Colorado

I rarely blogged this summer, but I did do some fun adventures, as well as seemed to pick up plenty of hours at work.  I think I will now try to blog the highlights over the next little bit. 

 First off, I flew to Colorado to visit my dear friend Elisabeth and see the many beautiful memorial gardens they created for their son, Carson.  Colorado has stunning  clouds, too! At least compared to the Pacific Northwest's solid, flat gray clouds......

 Stones, bird baths, a beautiful variety of plants and even catnip for the his cat!

 Games, good food and relaxing in the backyard grandeur...........

Wild animals......... the squirrel and the lion! 

It was a very relaxing visit.  Nice and warm as well!

Important Message!

See the blog below this one?  IT IS NOT PUT THERE BY ME!!!!  DO NOT TRY TO OPEN ANY MESSAGE THAT APPEARS ON MY BLOG THAT LOOKS LIKE THAT ONE!!!!! Someone is hacking into my blog, even though I have changed the password a couple of times.  I do not know how, but I suspect if you were to try to do what that message instructs you to do, something evil will happen to your computer.  So please never try to view that slide show!  If I ever put one in, it will look completely different.  I try to delete them as I catch them, but am not on the blog enough to keep up with it anymore.

Thanks,
Beanball (for reals :-)

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