Elephants and Aprons

My friend Mary sews many, many aprons.  She loves sewing aprons.  A stress reliever, she claims. She sells them and gives them as gifts.  She even will sew this style of apron in custom material that the buyer brings to her.  Wanting to make sure that this grandma had plenty of supplies on hand for Emerson, she has sewn several items for me to have at my house, among them these three aprons: one for grandma, one for Emerson and one for favorite dolly or stuffed animal!  This way, we can all don the aprons while she is at my house and bake up some goodies!  I guess I have to wait until she is a bit older, however.  And eating real food. Sugar and all. And BTW, Emerson's animal is Elephant.  Emerson Elephant. Can't wait to cook with her and these..........  :-}

Funny!

Just had to post this!

Flower Moon

On our way home from the airport from our Mexico trip, the Cinco de Mayo moon happened to be the Super Flower Moon, the full moon that was bigger and brighter than any other moon this year. 

The Swing

The men folk made a tire swing last Sunday so that Olivia could enjoy it while she was here!

 The Swing

by Robert Louis Stevenson

How do you like to go up in a swing,

Up in the air so blue?

Oh, I do think it the pleasantest thing

Ever a child can do!

Up in the air and over the wall,

Till I can see so wide,

Rivers and trees and cattle and all

Over the countryside ---

Till I look down on the garden green,

Down on the roof so brown ---

Up in the air I go flying again,

Up in the air and down!

(I enjoyed it a wee bit myself :-})

Puzzling

Someone from Darrell's work heard we liked puzzles, so sent home this one for us to complete.

We worked on it for several evenings while watching movies.

It was harder than it looks, but we enjoyed piecing it together!

Green Day

Happy St. Patrick's Day !!!

Daylight Savings

Big Trees and Nests!

While we were meandering through the herb gardens at the UW, we came upon some mighty tall, old trees, as well as a few huge egret nests!

 I didn't take the photos right to stitch them together perfectly, but they are connected where they should be!

In another tree we spied gigantic nests made with little branches and sticks!  No twigs or soft downy material for these babes!

Close-up of the nest so you can see the baby poking his head out on the left side of the nest.  The mama bird was busy trying to chase away a big black bird that was trying to eat her chicks.  What a commotion they made!

Strolling

From this beautiful old tower, the bells pealed and echoed across the UW Campus as we strolled through it looking at the scene set before us in the following photo:

Mt Rainier is in the background posing a striking picture behind the UW fountain 

 Looking back toward the upper campus from the other side of the fountain.  Rose gardens surround the fountain.

One of the magnificent libraries opening out into Red Square, called so because of the  red brick patio slanted at angles for a reason.  It is here that protests and 'assemblies' took place in the 1960's (I think that was the time frame), as the administration buildings sit on the north side of the square.  If the students got out of hand, it was designed so that police could shoot them with pressurized water hoses from up above, causing the bricks to become extremely slippery.  This would effectively prevent the students from being able to be effective in any aggressive movements they might start. Double meaning in that name!

This campus has got to be one of the most well designed and landscaped of universities!

Breathless in Seattle!

If for no other reason, this stunning view of Mt Rainier behind the huge fountain on the University of Washington Campus on a clear, sunny day is a compelling reason to seek admittance to this institute of higher education! Darrell and I were fortunate enough to be there with Bethany this Sunday.  'Bout took my breath away!

Lipizzaners!

As a young girl, Bethany was given this book from a neighbor for whom she did some laborious work for.  She loved horses, and spent some years in riding lessons and riding.  When she saw that the World Famous Lipizzaner Stallions, the White Dancing Stallions of Vienna, were coming to Everett this weekend, she was excited to be able to see them in real life, and Darrell and I were invited to accompany her!

 They also had a 1500 pound Black Parisian Dancing Horse!  It was amazing to see something so massive prance around as if he were walking on clouds!

 One could barely hear the hooves of the big stallions as they danced and pranced across the floor to classical music.  Truly an amazing sight to behold!

Architecture

Before we ate our gourmet cupcakes, Bethany and Peter took us for a bit of a walk-about on the UW Campus. The campus is beautiful and the older buildings intriguing.  I love the artistry they boast. Bethany lives just a couple of blocks from the college.

The sun was shining, the flowers were blooming and the company was superb!

Polish Craze

Hand painted Polish pottery seems to be everywhere these days!  I absolutely love the beautiful colors and patterns, and there are plenty of styles, shapes and color variations to choose from!   Above you see the one bowl that graces my kitchen, from the pattern Blue Butterfly.  If you want to wile away some time browsing patterns, check out this website!

In Town

Awake, thou wintry earth -

Fling off thy sadness!

Fair vernal flowers, laugh forth

Your ancient gladness!

~Thomas Blackburn, "An Easter Hymn"

  "Pied Beauty"

GLORY be to God for dappled things—

For skies of couple-colour as a brinded cow;

For rose-moles all in stipple upon trout that swim;

Fresh-firecoal chestnut-falls; finches’ wings;

Landscape plotted and pieced—fold, fallow, and plough;

And all trades, their gear and tackle and trim.

All things counter, original, spare, strange;

Whatever is fickle, freckled (who knows how?)

With swift, slow; sweet, sour; adazzle, dim;

He fathers-forth whose beauty is past change:

Praise him.

~Gerald Manley Hopkins

Sun!

We saw the sun today in the Pacific Northwest!   I enjoyed watching birds from my sunroom.

Honored

Last evening we went to a dinner given by the Elks for the fire departments of Seattle, Bothell, Northshore, Renton and Kirkland.  Awards were presented to exceptional firefighters mostly, but in Kirkland the Building department is a part of the fire department, so a few non-firefighters received recognition as well.

 Darrell received the Employee of the Year for 2010 (non-firefighter), as well as a Group/Team Award for both he and fellow building employee Hans, who chickened out on attending the dinner!

The Seattle Bagpipe band played, also, and was quite impressive!  I know Darrell can step on some toes, and his 'sense of humor' can be called into question, but he certainly does put in the time and cares about his work.  Ask him any code question and he can cite the code, sub code, etc to the tee.  Probably the page number, too. Out of surely what are millions of codes, with new ones always on the horizon!

Congratulations, Darrell!

Kites

One day while walking in the tide on the Florida beach, a man was flying a pretty kite over our heads.....

Before & After

We've had this outdoor furniture for close to 25 years!  It was time for a make-over!