A Rainy Day

It's been very rainy and cool for the last few days. 

All the Easter decorations are put away, except for this sweet vintage embroidered cloth and some foil wrapped chocolate eggs. 

A little bowl of happiness :)

Today there is mist all around. 

 I hear the Pitter Patter of  tiny raindrops. 

Giving the table a beaded edge. 

But the coffee pot keeps me warm inside. 

 Along with  Homemade Minestrone Soup and Irish Brown Bread

I made a nice big pot of it the other night. 

It is just the thing on these wet, spring days. 

I forgot to take my chair cushions in and now they are soaking wet. 

Everything is wet. 

Wet dogs, Wet feet, Wet hair when I go out to feed the birds. 

Towards evening the sun gets low enough to spread some glow beneath the clouds. 

These rainy days are perfect for doing some stitching. 

Once the daily chores are done (are they ever really done?), I reward myself with a nice cup of coffee or tea and sit and stitch for a while. 

I am making a tablecloth for my summer table. 

While I sew each tiny stitch, I think of all the wonderful meals I will share on my handcrafted cloth. 

Meals shared with precious family and friends. 

But for now I will share some strawberry shortcake on a lace covered tray. 

Just Ol' Blue Eyes and Me. 

On a rainy evening in front of the fire. 

Warm and Cozy. 

What are you doing this weekend? 

xoxo

Nature's Garden

Thank you to all of my sweet friends for your lovely comments on JoAnn's book, 'Are We Walking To Alaska'. 

You can find all the links for this wonderful book on my side bar. 

I also want to thank you, Dear Friends, for coming by to visit me! 

I so enjoy reading all of your kind comments and appreciate every one. 

Yesterday was a beautiful, sunny day. 

As I was watching, this red-tailed hawk flew to the 'hawk tree'. 

This is a large Western Red Cedar that stands by itself with a very good view of the valley beyond. 

Birds always land on this tree and have a look around. 

Right after I took this shot, he flew down to the ground and didn't come up. 

Must be good hunting grounds. 

Signs of spring are everywhere now. 

The wild plum trees are blooming and the daffodils are still going strong. 

Can you see my two dogs, Champ and Whitey? 

There's Champ peeking through the plum blossoms. 

The bird feeder is in the tree in between the daffodils. 

My sweet boy, waiting patiently for me to play with him. 

He loves to fetch the ball. 

Whitey couldn't be bothered with all that foolishness. 

He has a bone. 

And when Whitey has a bone, he doesn't let it out of his sight. 

Except to bury it! 

Yes, I have bones buried all over. 

He always has dirt on his nose!

But no time to worry about that, I have daffodils and roses to fertilize. 

The very early daffodils are starting to fade, 

so they get a little fertilizer to make sure we have more next year! 

I will be sad to say goodbye to these little happy faces! 

They are scented, too! 

I do try and plant only scented flowers. 

Here's my boys resting in the dandelions. As you can see we don't use weed killer. 

We keep everything natural and healthy for ourselves, the pets and our water supply. (We have a well). 

As we walk towards the house, we pass the blooming 'Pink Current' bush. 

Now that the berry bushes are starting to bloom,

 the hummingbirds have not been visiting the feeders as often. 

I can hear them chirping and buzzing around me, as I walk around.

There are also bumble bees!  

Another favorite hummingbird flower; 'Salmon Berry' blossoms. 

White daffodils bloom among the mossy rocks. 

These are very old and were planted when my children were small. I don't know what variety they are. 

I try to keep track of things like that, but I always lose the tags. 

I want to start a garden journal and document all that I plant in the future. 

Do you make note of varieties when you plant? 

This is a wildflower that is very much like Coral Bells. Instead of the flower wands being Coral, they are green with a slight tinge of pink along the edges.  I spread the seed around to ensure future wildflowers. 

I now have large colonies of these. 

Nature's garden beneath the Cedar tree. By nurturing wild plantings, I have encouraged nature to create it's own gardens. 

Here we have Holly seedlings, wild 'Coral Bells', and a wild thistle that has the most unusual leaves. 

Oh, and a dandelion or two. 

Nothing I could ever plant would thrive beneath this tree, so I have welcomed these wild interloper's. 

I spent the day weeding around some Forget Me Not plants that migrated out of their rock garden into an area where we lost our Golden Chain Tree in last winter's ice storm. 

Golden Chain tree in summer of 2011

The Forget Me Nots had seeded themselves in under the shelter of the flowering branches. 

I will replace the tree with something else and allow the flowers to stay. 

That's how I garden. 

Mother Nature does most of the work and I just help her along. 

Are you able to get out in the garden yet? What are you growing this year? 

xoxo

Books I love

I've just finished reading the most wonderful book! 

You know the kind - you stay up until the wee hours reading, hoping it never ends! 

That was how I felt while reading this sweet book, 

titled 'Are We Walking To Alaska'

by Author and fellow blogger, JoAnn Dunlap Bayne. 

You can read her wonderful blog,  Scene Through My Eyes  where she takes beautiful photographs and writes about life here in the Pacific Northwest. 

The book recounts her childhood adventures growing up in Southeast Alaska. 

Written from a child's point of view, you feel you are experiencing the world through the eyes of little JoAnn as her family sets up housekeeping on the remote shores of Alaska after leaving all that they have ever known and loved in California to operate a fishing boat in the cold waters of Kalinin Bay. 

You can read some wonderful excerpts and order the book through her blog

 Scene Through My Eyes. 

I have always been fascinated with stories about Alaska. My Father was stationed on Kodiak Island during the Korean War when he served in the Army/Airforce as a Sergeant and Tank Commander. 

He told us stories of riding in an open jeep on nightly patrols and hearing wolves howl. 

Of Kodiak Bears barging into the mess hall while soldiers scrambled like children out windows and doors. 

Of going hunting in the hills around camp and encountering wolves and bears so big they stood 12 feet tall on their hind legs. 

Of hearing train whistles from Russia on still, moonless nights. 

It was the time of his life and every day of his life he carried an etched whale-tooth hunting knife from that wonderful time, which was passed down to me. 

Sadly, he never got to go back to Alaska. 

But in 2005, Dennis and I did get to go. By then my Father was in the early stages of Alzheimer's, but his long term memory was still intact and he fondly spoke of his adventure's once again as we showed him the photos we took on our trip. 

When I found JoAnn's blog and saw that she had written a book about growing up in this enchanting place, I  couldn't wait to read it. 

Alaska truly is the 'Last Frontier' and has always held a fascination for anyone interested in how people live in remote and wild places. 

People who live in Alaska are a special type of person. Open, friendly, helpful and resourceful, they depend on one another due to the harsh environment. 

This warmth and friendliness comes through in JoAnn's book as her family endures the hardships and travails of life in the remote outposts of the Alaskan shore. 

You will truly love reading this wonderful example of childhood resourcefulness and find yourself sad to see it end. 

But you can continue the journey of JoAnn's life through her lovely blog as she interprets life as 

Scene Through My Eyes

xoxo

It's April!

Isn't it wonderful? 

April is here! 

I know that for many of you, it has been a very long winter. 

I hope that you had a very Lovely Easter! 

I hosted Easter Brunch and it was so wonderful to have my whole family together. 

My daughter Heather made these sweet little Easter gifts. 

A little nest with a tiny bird and a long feather tail. 

So sweet. 

This darling bouquet in the blue teapot was from my daughter, Jennie. 

The lovely pink tulips were a gift from my daughter in law, Erica and son Gabe. 

The lily was from my sweet Mr. 

My dear, daughter in law to be, Jen, baked these sweet cupcakes with edible 'grass'. 

The one with the yellow chick was for The Mr.'s birthday. 

We celebrated his day on Easter. 

Here is the table all set for our Brunch. 

I served glazed ham, deviled eggs, fried potatoes, fruit salad, blueberry muffins and bagels with strawberry cream cheese.

We had juices and we also opened a bottle of champagne to have Mimosa's to celebrate the Mr's birthday.

Here is his cake, decorated with carrots and peeps. A carrot cake, of course!

Here I am with my two sweet 'Jennifers'. My daughter Jennie on the left, and my future DIL, Jen on the right. 

You can see the bright sunshine pouring in from the glass door.

Here are my 4 girls posing together last Easter.

In the rush of the day I didn't get a photo of them all together!

From left to right, Heather, Erica, Jen, and Jennie.

It was 70 degrees! I had all the windows and doors open and after we ate, we sat out on the deck enjoying the warm sunshine. A very rare treat for the last day of March! 

It was so bright, we all needed 'shades'! (From left to right, Heather, Jen, Dustin, Gabe and Eric)

All eyes were on this guy, the man of the hour, opening cards and presents. 

Jennie brought her two mini-dachshunds, Peanut and Weenie Baby. As you can see, Weenie Baby was shamelessly enjoying the sun! 

These little faces cheerily looked on! 

The sunshine coaxed these tiny 'Tom Thumb' daffodils to bloom, too. 

But soon the sun dipped lower in the sky, casting shadows on the walls. 

It was time for everyone to say goodbye. 

A beautiful day, enjoyed with family to celebrate two very special events. 

And as the moon rose over the quiet hills, sweet memory lingered of the many blessings we shared. 

xoxo

I want to take this moment to welcome all of my new followers. 

And to thank all of my loyal friends. 

I hope your Easter was as special as you are!