Moving Along

 I went for my short walk in the park today, in the sunshine. The native red currant is blooming and the underbrush is greening up along the wooded path.

The cherry trees are almost in bloom.

I walked without my partner today, since he had gone into the city for an appointment with an orthopedic doctor. He is developing some serious issues with his hands, specifically his thumbs.

I had my last scheduled physical therapy session Monday and I'm working on a few new exercises. My hip is progressing well, but my back is still stiff. That may just be the way it is, but I am putting myself through the paces three times a day in hopes that I can loosen up a bit. 

I really wanted to post today because we had our desktop computer scrubbed and we have been doing our best to restore what was on it before the viruses were removed. I think I just successfully got iCloud installed and got my iPhone to talk to my PC and download the photos my phone is sending to it. I store all on my phone photos on my desktop where I can edit them and save them in files. By Joe, I think I've got it!

Not to mention that Google chrome is restored, my blog is now back as a bookmark, and email is coming in steadily. We have more to do, but we are back in business with our main computer usage.

Now my laptop is being scrubbed and when we get it back we'll have to start over on it, but with more experience. :-)

It's time for another round of PT exercises and I've got to get vegetables in the oven to roast. They'll go with grilled lambchops and green salad with pear, walnuts and dried cranberries. 

That's how we roll here. We're moving along. 

Fifty Two Years

 

Once we were young. This photo was our going away photo on our wedding day, March 29, 1969. Of course we didn't "go away" very far, just a mile or so to Tom's parent's house in Puyallup, where we had a big family gathering into the evening. The reception at the church after an afternoon wedding was just the typical-for-the-day cake and punch, tea and coffee.

We eventually ended up at the rustic family cabin on Whidbey Island for our honeymoon. It was free, and that's what we could afford on young teacher's salaries, after paying for most of our own wedding. It was enough.

Now we are not young, but we are still happily together. This photo was taken two years ago on March 29, 2019, our actual 50th anniversary. Now we are marking 52 years of marriage. We feel blessed to have been able to grow old together, and we hope for many more years as life partners. 

We have no big plans for the day. We'll do the usual Monday chores, and get a take out dinner from a favorite restaurant. It won't seem like much of a special day, but we will know it is special. It's our Anniversary!

Springtime Decorating

While flowers decorate my springtime outside, I call on my pottery collection and my Easter/Spring friends to decorate inside. There are lots of chicks and ducks and bunnies from my collections.

I most likely publish these same photos, or mostly the same, every year. Most things seem to go back in the same places, but with slight variations that only I would notice. But I have fun placing them around the family room, the kitchen, the dining room and the powder room.

We'll start in the family room.

This basket is old, probably from Tom's childhood. 

The mantel in the family room.

This special bunny from my Grandmother's house decorates the kitchen table.

 Chickens in the powder room.

In the dining room. 

These characters came from our dear friend Mavis, who we still miss after two years. That white egg dish will hold JellyBelly eggs but I don't dare put them out yet. I can't resist them.

Back in the kitchen.

This is where all of the chicks and ducks live when they are not in their Easter parade.

Moving them out leaves a bit of room to decorate here too.

And now almost everything is out of the big Easter tub that is usually stored in the attic. Except for the baskets. And it looks like we may need them this year. Jill's lawn is under construction, so Easter will be here this year. Hopefully it won't rain on our parade, or egg hunt.

It's Daffodil Time

 

We don't have a lot of daffodils, but I sure am enjoying the ones we have.

These I can see from my kitchen window, out across the back yard. 

These are down in the lower yard. 

You may have noticed the primroses too. They are especially happy this year. 

Each year I empty out my porch pots and plant that year's primroses in the garden. Most persist and come back year after year. 

The Brazen Hussy Ranunculus are blooming too. 

They are brazen, and very prolific. We rip lots of them out every year. But you have to love their early bright glow in the garden. 

It looks like we might get up to 54 today, with partly sunny, partly cloudy skies. More rain tomorrow, and colder.  That's our spring, I'm sure glad the Daffodils don't mind. 

A Walk On the Wild side

 

Yes, it's the first day of SPRING! The vernal equinox. Of course it is currently 46 and raining lightly here at the Reeder Homestead. 

I have the NCAA tournament on the TV here next to my desk top computer. One of our smaller public colleges, Eastern Washington University, is at this point holding their own against Kansas. Go Eagles! It's a good day for a sports diversion. 

On Thursday we had decent weather and we got in our mile plus walk at the local park. Then Jake texted and said we should come to the Black River. Jake has been doing a surveying job in and around the pumping station at the Black River Riparian Forest.

We know this place, just about five miles from home, but we haven't been there for a while. My limited walking is mostly the reason. But we were aware of some new improvements, and the rain wasn't happening yet, so after lunch we went over to see what we could see and maybe meet up with Jake on the job.

We found the new bridge and the newly paved bicycle trail, but not Jake. So we reversed course and went back to the wild side of the river/wetland, with the unimproved trail next to the water.

We found Jake's tripod, but not Jake.

So we walked on the wild side along the wetlands. The rain started up lightly and the water fowl we hoped to see headed for the safety of the far shoreline.

Ducks in the distance.

One reason we used to love to walk here was that these trees were loaded with Great Blue Heron nests. It was a well know heron rookery. Unfortunately a pair of Bald Eagles decided to set up residence in a tall cottonwood tree at the end of the wetland, and then proceeded to decimate the nesting herons. The herons moved out, most likely without that year's young. 

Then several years ago the cottonwood tree broke up in a storm, dumping the eagle nest. Karma. Now it you look carefully you might see a few dark spots high up in these trees. We did see one heron land on one. Nests are being built here again. 

Canada geese honked their disapproval and flew off, not liking our intrusion.

We saw a couple of herons, and quite a few ducks off in the distance. Without a good zoom lens, we never did quite figure out what these were. 

But we had another good walk, and we look forward to returning to this special place of wildness in the city. 

PS: The Eastern Washington U Eagles lost, but they gave the Kansas Jayhawks a good scare. The Eagles gained a lot of respect. And they have a very cool logo.

Cabin Gardening

 It was past time to get up to Whidbey Island to do some weed control in the cabin garden. After all, the tulips are up and bloom time is not far away. Our little cabin garden is the talk of the beach road walk when the tulips are in bloom.

The weather was promising, so we were off about 9:00 to spend the day on the island.

We got a couple of hours of work in before stopping to have lunch on the deck, since the weather was mild and calm. 

Tom had to do most of the weeding because I am not allowed to get down on my knees yet. That was hard for me, but I managed to keep busy doing other things and bending over more than I should have. The results look pretty good. Yes, we did use chemicals on the gravel portion. It's full of seedlings of weeds and volunteer flowers. 

When we were done we walked over to the beach to sit on a log and study the view of the sound for a while. The tide was out. 

Seattle is over there

Double Bluff and the Olympic Mountains. 

Tom inspected the new weather station that Jake purchased and installed, and the new replacement dock that Jake, Jill, Isaac and Irene built a couple of weekends ago. 

The lagoon at the golden hour. 

We ordered take out dinner from a little restaurant up on the hill and ate at the cabin before heading home as the sun was setting. We looked back on the view from the top of the hill before driving away to catch the ferry. 

This morning we have gone for a walk to work out the stiffness of yesterday's gardening.

All is good.