I have been enjoying watching the Women's World Cup, now whittled down from 32 teams to just four. Friday the USA Women beat favored France to advance to the semi-finals. Next up for the USA is England. Since the games are in France, I am watching then during the day, usually around lunch time. It's a great way to extend my lunch hour to two. :-)
Also going on is the CONCACAF Gold Cup tournament, in which the USA Men's National team has also advanced and they play again Sunday.
Saturday evening the Seattle Sounders finally had another home match after almost 6 weeks. They are missing many of their regular players, who are playing for their national teams in tournaments all over the world.
The Sounders pulled together a team of a lot of young players who have not seen much action in matches so far this year. Our opponent was a neighboring rival, Vancouver, B.C.
It was a beautiful summer evening, perfect for a soccer match.
June is Pride month, and this is Pride Week in Seattle, so there were rainbows.
And we got to sing "O Canada".
And of course our national anthem also.
There were bombs bursting in air
and giant sparklers.
The Emerald City Supporters deployed a wonderful tifo.
The game was hotly contested and the tensions rose as we approached the 90 minutes plus eight minutes of extra time with no score. When the Sounders scored with less than two minutes to go, the roar that erupted from the crowd of 45,000 was glorious, surpassing any crowd reaction I have ever experienced.
With victory making our spirits soar, we faded away into the lingering light of the sunset,
eager to return again for the next home match.
But before then, we have USA Women and Men to cheer on.
While I think we could all agree that our garden is most likely viewed as a place to escape TO, sometimes we, the caretakers, need to get away for a bit.
On Tuesday we hosted a very successful end-of-the-school-year party for Tom's former elementary school, because a good friend was retiring, and it had long ago been a tradition to have the retirement party in our yard. When we found out, at the party, that our friend Kelly had always dreamed of having her retirement party here we were doubly pleased that we had offered.
Wednesday was a slow day, as we put away a few things and rested and recovered.
Thursday there was a Vintage Sale being held at the Belleview Botanical Garden, as a fund raiser. We had not been before and didn't know what to expect, but we decided it would be fun to go, and besides we could also visit the garden.
There was a crowd already at 10:15, so we had to wait so as to not exceed the room capacity.
It was interesting and we bought a few little things, but it was an example of pretty things that we "vintage" people collected that now nobody wants, like china and crystal. If you are looking for sets of pretty dishes or glassware at good prices, this is a sale to check out. It runs Friday and Saturday.
Japanese iris floated like butterflies next to where we were waiting. And then we went strolling in the garden.
Here are just a whole bunch of pretty pictures of plants that are blooming now.
This young lady, a volunteer helping to groom the garden, looked so cute with her clothing blending into her surrounding blooms.
And then we lingered longer and had coffee in the visitor's center.
We are hosting several big events this summer. The first is this Tuesday, an end of the school year party for Tom's former elementary school, where one of his teacher friends is retiring.
Years ago we used to host the end of the year party every June, and many of our friends, and Tom and I also, had our retirement parties here. We thought it would be fun to provide the venue for one more. So we have been spending lots of time on the yard, primping and making it pretty and perfect.
The vegetable and cut flower garden is taking off.
We'll have a few berries in our new raspberry patch.
June is a time of exuberant abundance in the garden.
Hydrangeas are beginning to bloom.
The front porch.
By the now empty green house, the tomatoes are soaking up whatever heat we get in the afternoons.
We'll be ready, hoping the weather cooperates, and glad that someone else is providing the tables, chairs and the food. Hopefully they'll bring the fun too.
