The Annual Phosie-Gertie Picnic and Family Reunion

 We're up to 54 years and counting. The young adults then are now the elderly elders. Yes, me too. Our babies then are now adults with grown children leaving empty nests. But we still gather each year at the family compound on Whidbey Island, on the Sunday of Labor Day weekend, in a celebration of family named after two sisters who are grandmothers to multiple generations of direct descendants. 

Irene and Tom raised the PG flag and we sang our anthem. 

We took our family photo.

We honored the Direct Descendent Elders. Introduced youngest to oldest, they are now arranged left to right, oldest to youngest. Jan lets it be known that she is the younger twin, which makes Tom the most elderly elder. 

Then Jan shared some Phosie-Gertie history. 

Our long list of games from the early PG's has been reduced to just the balloon toss, leaving more time for visiting and eating. It could also be that currently we have no little kids. We did toss those balloons. It was somewhat eventful.

Since I have to use my stick to hold myself up, I don't toss any more so Jill appointed me the game director. All was well until an errant balloon appeared to be aiming for my head. I hurriedly stepped back, which I really can't do. There was a pause in the action while I picked myself up off the ground, with the aid of my grandson Isaac. I have no idea where the balloon landed, but my landing was slow and soft enough. No damage. The game was concluded with a "toss off" .

Scott and Irene were victorious. 

And then the activities were concluded, serious visiting began, followed by lots of eating and lots more visiting. 

It was another wonderful Phosie-Gertie. 

September

 Turning the calendar to September is not my favorite thing to do. As a former elementary school teacher it always meant the end of summer freedom and back to work full time. But as a long retired person I honor the calendar declaration that summer ends, and autumn begins, on September 22. 

The sunflowers in the garden are tall and stretching for the sun, which we have had plenty of, but our tall trees shade the patch too much of the day. Now the days are cooler and cloudier, with possible rain. We need rain.

School is starting and daughter Jill is back at work. Irene is settling into her new apartment in Bellingham, anticipating her senior year at Western and enjoying her full calendar summer. 

Yesterday, September 1st, marked the end of an era here at the Reeder Homestead. Tom decided it was time to end his 40 + years of Bonsai creating and maintaining. Over the years he has created about 25 little tortured trees. Some were just experiments and not long lasting. Some expired after ten or more years. He sold a few. The ones in the header photo are the survivors. Now they need more maintenance than he can give them, what with all of the other work that needs doing around here. Yesterday we took them to Bonsai Northwest to be sold either outright or on consignment. Now they are in someone else's hands. Part of downsizing. 

In the garden fall blooming hardy cyclamen are popping up everywhere, either planted by Tom or squirrels or sprung out on their own. It's fun to find them here and there.

We have "harvested" hydrangeas to be dried for winter flower arrangements. They are hardening off in the garage, stems in shallow water. 

Some that are picked too early may shrivel. We'll see. There are more in the garden but I wanted to get them before rain spoils them. 

While leaves haven't started turning yet on the trees, the dry summer is causing browning up on maple trees. But there is plenty of orange in the raised beds. While lack of sun makes it hard to get many blooms, French marigolds and orange cosmos are exuberant!

Spring, summer, fall, winter, enjoy every day. I'm trying to. 

 

Flowers from the garden that I picked Monday after getting the house work and laundry done. Confession: Tom does most of the house work these days. I do the laundry, and the dusting, now and then. 

The zinnias are somewhat scarce, as are the asters, but we have French marigolds in abundance.

Monday was busy. Tuesday was hot. We had our Zoom meet up, then I did 6 miles on the stationary bike in the garage where it was still cool enough. Tom worked outside for a while, as heat doesn't bother him as much. Then there was reading on the patio, where I am thoroughly enjoying the border of impatiens and plectranthus on the patio edge.

In the evening we watched Mariners Baseball, along with Tom's tablet and my laptop on our laps. Baseball can be kind of boring so we need distractions. The Mariners won and we switched to two series we are watching, "Outer Banks" and "Anna Pigeon". 

Today we had a cool morning. Yay! I wanted to work outside. After my PT exercises I spent 2.5 hours outside. I clipped all the the lavender along the driveway, cut back the spent lily stalks, and did some other deadheading. Then I was tired.

This afternoon I am taking it easy. I had a long lunch with the newspaper. News is disheartening these days. Rest in Peace, Dolly. Now I an entertaining myself by blogging. It may, or may not, be entertaining to my readers. :-/

 It's time to go sit in my recliner and play Wordle and Connections. My Kindle will also be nearby.

Dinner is spaghetti, Zucchini, and salad. Not too complicated. 

Late Summer Flowers

 

A lot of late summer flowers have autumnal tones, like the Sunflowers in our garden.

This Saturday, after a field trip with our garden club and lunch together, Tom and I stopped at a nursery nearby that we like to visit.

The Rudbeckia (Black-eyed Susans) and Echinacea (Coneflowers) were putting on a show.

Sometimes it's hard to tell the difference between the two species, what with all of the new hybrids. Now that I am away from the tags, I think the photo above is Rudbeckia. The photo below looks like some of each.

And these, with their prominent center cones, are Echinacea.  

They are all beautiful, and the bees were loving them. 

Here it is another Sunday in August fading away. I had time today for all of my physical therapy, a mile walk at the park, and a visit with daughter Jill, who had just finished a scuba dive session this morning and is about to go on another one. She saw cool things, like a very GIANT Giant Pacific Octopus, Dog fish, which are little sharks, and rat fish. 

We heard all about her trip this last week with daughter Irene and Aunt Jan to the San Juan Islands the four days. She is making the most of her last days of freedom. She starts back to work at the school district admin office tomorrow -Monday. 

I spent a lot of time with the Sunday newspaper over lunch and did a little snipping in the garden. It's just about time for Seahawks football, which I'll sort of watch while I play my online games. There will be supper, but it will be simple. 

Enjoy every day, even the house work and laundry ones. I'll try to do the same. 

Photos!

I found a work around for inserting photos. My phone sends iPhoto's to my PC as iCloud photos, but apparently Google Chrome and Blogger now only want Google photos. I have set up my PC so that my iCloud photos also go to Google photos, I hope. Blogger lets my insert Google photos. 

Now I have to remember how to do this and keep checking to see if my photos are going to all the right places. :-/

Anyway these are a few of the photos I took at one of the NPA  Open Gardens on Sunday. You can see that wonderful Rudbeckia. 

 And here we are having our coffee and almond croissants at the Quarter Deck at the Marina. 

Here are some of our tomato plants, now ripening rapidly. Caprese salad in now on the menu.

And lastly, for today, Tom's wonderful collection of fancy leaf geraniums.

Yay!  Photos!

The Weekend

I can't get any photos to insert into my blog post today and I had a really pretty one of a bi-color Rudbeckia. It's a bright golden yellow with red/orange petal tips. I haven't seen this one before and yesterday I saw it at an Open Garden. As members of the Northwest Perennial Alliance we get an Open Gardens book showing the fellow members gardens that are open on weekends from May through September. We haven't gone to many this year, but since a member of our garden club had her garden open, we visited hers and three others. They were all beautiful, all different, and involved a lot of walking. I was worn out by the time we got home about 2:30. 

Then Sunday evening we watched the Sounders get back to league play. Unfortunately the injuries continue to pile up, and our once great soccer team is struggling and not looking very good at all. It was a hard fought loss. 

Because we hadn't been going out much, I decided we would get out of the house, and the garden, this weekend, so on Saturday morning, after a leisurely start, we went to the Des Moines Waterfront Farmers Market. There were lots of locals enjoying a mild partly sunny Saturday morning. We bought some fresh green beans, since we don't grow our own anymore, and some fresh local sweet corn.  We also stopped at the bakery stall for two almond croissants, our favorite treat.

The farmer's market is on the docks of the marina, on the Sound, south of Seattle and Burien, in the suburb city of Des Moines, WA, not to be confused with the one in Iowa. :-)

We took our croissants to the Quarter Deck, where we bought lattes and sat and "dined" al fresco. It was a lovely treat, the food and the setting. 

While Tom puttered in the yard a bit, I did no work. Supper was light and accompanied by the Seahawks in there first preseason game, on TV of course, although there were plenty of fans at the stadium downtown. The result wasn't great, but it was just a practice game, and the good thing was there were no injuries. 

Now Monday is slipping away. Tom and I did a lot of work this morning: laundry, house cleaning, flower picking, and some yard clean up. Now at 3:30 we are done for the day. I'm still figuring out dinner. 

Cannas

 I can still only post one, or none, photos. When I have more time and more inclination I'll will look into it again.

In the meantime the lilies are almost done but the Canna in large pots on the patio are blooming. I love the bright colors.

Work in the garden has slowed down now that the big jobs are done for a while. Late summer/fall clean up will be the next big job.

The weather has been mild, high's in the upper 70's with fog or clouds in the mornings. Lovely. Wild fires are still burning but the fires attacking cities are under control for now, after devastating damage was done. Our wild fire season lasts well into September so danger still lurks as our draught continues. Rain, if it comes, is usually in the mountains, accompanied by lightning. Not good. 

Tom and I are enjoying more leisure, while I am still trying to get in enough exercise to keep me moving. This morning we went to the Des Moines Waterfront Farmer's Market, our first of the season. Corn on the cob and green beans were on my list, and then a stop at the bakery stall for almond croissants. Then we walked along the marina dock to the Quarter Deck for coffee to have with our croissants and enjoyed the mild late morning air and al fresco "dining". Now that we are back home, lunch is being skipped, When I wrap up this post I'm heading for the patio with the newspaper. I'll skim much of the news, read a few complete articles, and work the puzzles. 

The Seahawks play a preseason game at 5:00 today, we have an open garden to attend tomorrow morning, and the Sounders resume league play at 7:30 Sunday. There are appointments next week. That's more than enough to keep us busy. 

Now I would close with a photo, but I can't. My creative outlet is thwarted. But I'll make my face smile. That helps. 

One At A Time

It looks like I can now get one photo, but just one, at a time on a post. 

Here is a close up of the Brugmansia or Angels Trumpets. They release there scent in the evenings and at night. Heavenly. 

Maybe I can get lilies tomorrow?

You can probably imagine how hard it is for me to chose just one photo.

Update: Yay, I got a new photos inserted on my header. There are some of the Casablanca lilies in the rose bed. 

Warm August Nights

 

I just spent a wonderful hour sitting on the patio reading while the scent of Angels Trumpets, Brugmansia, wafted through the warm, calm August evening air, enhanced by the fragrance of lilies blooming in the rose garden.

While I can't get the photos of the Brugmansia or the lilies to load, I did get this one photo, and you can see the Angles Trumpets in the background. 

While these evenings are fleeting, they are the kind we remember after the chill of Autumn arrives, and linger in our memories through the dark of winter.

You Can Tell It's August Because...

 This is the post I was going to publish on Tuesday, but now updated and without photos. I spent more than two hours yesterday waiting for a Geek Squad agent to find a fix. There was very little communication other than he needed more time. Finally, after a long period of no chat update I asked if he was close to a fix, that there were fixes on line but I didn't have enough tech knowledge to complete them, was it time for a new agent, should we quit. I guess he chose quit because I got the message "Session Ended". That's it.

So, in follow up to my title "You Can Tell It's August Because...

...the sunshine is orange and the blue sky is turning white. It's wild fire season and fires are burning out of control in many areas of Oregon and Washington. The city of Spokane in Eastern Washington is being attacked by 3 large fires driven by wind and hundreds of homes are being destroyed. As many as 900 homes are now ashes. A little smoke here is nothing compared to the misery those folks are suffering.

...because lilies are blooming in my garden, pink Stargazers and white Casablancas.  Just one in a vase in my powder room perfumes the whole area.

...because even with watering the lawn is going brown.

...because sunflowers are blooming.

...because the yard waste bins went out full of plants that were done and were cut back in the clean up we did over the weekend. 

..and because Seafair, the big annual festival of fun in Seattle, culminated with hydroplanes zooming on Lake Washington, and the Blue Angles roaring in the sky over the lake. Jill, Irene, and Jake were there on the lake shore. I watched some of it on TV.

I hope you can get a mind movie of some of this.

I don't know when I'll be back. I might have to resign myself to just words, and that's not nearly as much fun.

Blogger Trouble

 I have been trying to create a new Blogger post, but suddenly my photos won't load on Blogger. I've already tried for too many hours and it's time for Geek Squad. I'll be back eventually.

We Used Up July

 It's Saturday again, and the beginning of a new month. August is deep summer, a last chance to play or travel or be lazy before Labor Day unofficially ends summer. But not for retired teachers. 

I had to look at my calendar to see where this week went. 

On Monday, besides the usual Monday chores, I had to appear in person to renew my drivers license, since I am "old". I had an appointment. I was told to come prepared with what was necessary but they never told me what that was. I had my expired license, my birth certificate, my expired passport, and my mail in ballot. The agent didn't need any of that. Just read the second line on the eye chart and pay $107. Good to go. 

                 Geranium collection by the front gate

     Hardy fuchsias , hanging fuchsias, Impatiens, and  shrubs along            the front walk. 

Tuesday we worked in the garden, I had a snipping and clipping job to do, on my knees. Since I am blessed with the overly zealous need to not stop until the job is done, I sort of overdid it. The job got done though.

On Wednesday Jill came over to sort through stored stuff in the attic. She and Tom picked up boxes and bins she wanted to take home to sort and mostly to dispose of. Some of it was interesting and some of it was just dusty and smelly, having come originally from her great grandparents home in Tacoma. Locals will know about the Aroma of Tacoma in the old days of the pulp mills. A "highlight" was the mummified piece of wedding cake from from Tom's grandparents. Jill said since it had been saved this long we had to keep it. 

On Thursday we went to the Farmers Market for some produce, then some errands and shopping. I am in need to new shoes and I wear a size 10.5 to 11 wide. Those are hard to find and I need supportive shoes. We went to UPS to return one pair from Amazon that didn't work. I looked on line and we tried Nordstrom Rack. Nope.  On line I found a store in Renton called Only Wide Shoes. We ended up there. I was actually fitted for shoes! I bought a pair of expensive walking shoes and a pair I hoped would work to wear just in the house. The walking shoes, Brooks, I'm keeping. The other pair I'm taking back, along with the second pair that arrived from Amazon today.  I'll keep trying. I don't need expensive shoes that just sort of work.

Friday was breakfast day, grocery shopping, and then we drive to Tom's sister Jan's house for a family gathering.  

From right to left, Tom's sister Jan, his brother Dave, Dave's wife Vicki, Vicki's brother Mac and his wife Ann, and Tom. I'm behind the camera. 

Dave and Vicki live in Los Altos,CA, so their visits are an occasion. 

Tom's cousin Dean and his wife Sharon were there too but had to leave before the picture taking. There was good food, catching up,  and lots of reminiscing, added to by some of Tom's "stuff from the attic". It was a fun gathering, and good to have as we are all aging, a fact also "mentioned" in our conversation.

Now this Saturday we are catching up at home. 

It's SeaFair weekend in Seattle. The hydroplanes are racing on Lake Washington. The Blue Angles are roaring over the lake. Jill and Irene will be at the lake on Sunday. Tom and I will be content to be home. 

Happy Summer!

Quilts in the Garden

 Last Saturday, as part of my birthday weekend, Tom and I attended the Mukilteo Garden and Quilt Tour. 

Each of six gardens displayed numerous quilts in a joint event between the Mukilteo Way Garden Club and the Mukilteo Lighthouse Quilters. It was a beautiful tour, one we discovered two years ago. They hold it every two years, because, after all, they have to have time to make new quilts. 

I had to work hard to navigate the gardens and take photos since all of the gardens were on hillsides with steep grades and  steps with and without hand rails. There were great views though. 

I took a lot of photos, mostly of the quilts, not the gardens. I tried to pair down my photos, but again this is a big photo dump. I hope you enjoy it. 

Detail of above quilt