It Was Another Grand Old Fourth!

 Things don't change much for us these days. You could say that for our celebrations too, but that doesn't diminish them. We attended a morning parade party and small town parade. We came home and caught up with social media and the news and the World Cup action. We drove to SIL Jan's house on Henderson Bay for time with family, lots of eating, and fireworks. The fun is in the details. 

I didn't get a photo of the Parade Party, but Jill, Irene, and summer granddaughter Allie joined us along with a lot of other friends and family of the hosts Becky and Jim. We ate well and visited and then moved to the curbside to watch the parade. Yes, it was mostly cars, old cars and new cars and fancy cars and trucks loaded with kids. The kids along the street scrambled for the candy being tossed. It was all fun.

I like red cars, and a few yellow and green and blue cars too. 

Celebrating soccer

Boat floats

Balloons and red, white, and blue everywhere. 

I had lots of fun talking to people in the cars, entertaining Irene with my Grandma carryings on, and watching kids scramble for candy. 

The drive to Jan's later showed off America the Beautiful.

The usual suspects: front row, Jan, Allie from Nebraska, Tom, Linda; Back row, Irene Seila, Isaac, Jill. 

There was lots of food. Jill assembled fresh fruits and vegies and cheeses and crackers and chips and I don't remember what all. 

Then later there was dinner: grilled hotdogs and burgers and mac salad and corn salsa salad and more. 

Eventually we had to take time out from eating to watch and do fireworks. Jill had her stash, and Jan's neighbors around the bay went all out this year.

I made it down to the waterfront to do sparklers with the kids. I like having kid fun. 

I stayed down by the water with the kids. Jill's fireworks were fun and were backlit by the enormous displays all around the bay. 

Then we ate some more. Here is Irene's American pie. 

It was just after midnight when we got home but we had to delay going to bed for digestion time, and the booming that was still going on in the neighborhood. It was another bang-up 4th of July. 

Today we got up late, went for a walk in the park, caught up with news and social media, and have watched the Norway vs Brazil World cup match.  Yay Norway!!! 

 

There will be a light supper, with some left over mac salad while we watch the next soccer match. England vs Mexico should be another good one!

We are fully into summer mode here. 

Celebrating America

 It's America's birthday. We celebrate birthdays.

In small towns and big cities and everywhere in between there will be parades and picnics and flag waving and fireworks bursting in the night sky. There will be joy!

No matter what your politics, we all have reasons to celebrate. My opposition to our current administration won't let negativity spoil my celebrating. 

We have been watching a lot of World Cup action. Wednesday we geared up to cheer on the USA team.

The USA won and moves on to the round of 16. That match was in Los Angeles. On that same day Seattle hosted a match between Senegal and Belgium. The city was crazy with soccer fans from many nations. Next Monday the USA team will meet Belgium in Seattle.  That may even be more crazy.

Today we watched an amazing match between world champs Argentina and the little African island nation of Cape Verde. Cape Verde took the match into overtime and held on almost to the end, finally losing 3-2. While Argentina won, the world was celebrating the heroics of Cape Verde. The world comes together through the international sport of soccer/futbol. 

As a nation, so can we. No matter what divides us, and there are good reasons, we can come together over what unites us. 

This afternoon  I made my celebration food, brownies and macaron salad for our family gathering tomorrow evening.  Jill makes the pie now. I bought some cookies for the Parade Party hosted by friends tomorrow morning.

 

After dinner I picked some flowers to refresh my kitchen bouquet, trading pink for red for red, white and blue. 

I'm ready to celebrate America! 

USA!

Gig Harbor Garden Tour, Part 3

 Garden #5 is a walk in the woods. Rebekah and Zach Blue have planted their woodland garden with more that 100 Japanese maples, which must be glorious in the fall. In spring banks of rhododendrons bloom. In early summer it is just a serene place to stroll. 

The music sounded like lovely wind chimes.

Water music added to the ambiance. 

Garden #6 is a 5 acre naturally forested space surrounding a stately home, gardened by Dan Shoap and Jeff Stelmach.

Follow me up the drive and around to the back of the house.

A colorful border and seating areas along the back deer fence.

A rose bush provides an arbor for alstroemeria and clematis. 

There is a water feature near the house and deck. 

I can think of so many more photos I could have/should have taken. It was all wonderful.

Gig Harbor Garden Tour, Part 2

 

Garden #3 surrounds an historic home on the harbor with classic elegance. Jill and Chris Denis made us feel at home from the entry gate to the potager to the formality of the front garden to the spacious beauty of the slope to the harbor. 

The Matilija poppy down by the water's edge was huge, well clipped to a tight bush, and I'm sorry I didn't get a photo of the whole thing. I got distracted by the comfortable seating area next to it, which, since I was sitting, didn't get a photo of it either. You'll have to take my word for it that the harbor was also right there. 

A very impressive old Black Walnut tree punctuated the lower lawn. 

Garden #4 is a property now in its second generation of family ownership and is now gardened by Beverly ash Gilbert and Jerry Gilbert. 

Tour guests enter through a wooded area, part of the 20 acres surrounding the house and garden. Then we  cross the orchard to be greeted by a magnificent 500 year old Douglas Fir Tree. 

Themed gardens lead around the corner of the house to the koi pond.

A sloping path takes us under trees and down the bank to views of the sound. Watch out! Duck!

After some moments of serenity, sitting on that deck, we climb back up.

We find a sunny sitting spot, and then the shade of that big old fir. 

Part 3 to come.