Projects

 We expected a rainy day. We thought of things we could do inside.

We never get an early start around here, unless we have to. Most of the time we don't have to. 

I have dropped out of our teacher friends Zoom meetings, since we see most of the same people on Friday, and Tuesday morning is when I do one of my three-times-a-week physical therapy workouts. We made it just in time for our 9:30 starts, Tom at the computer and me on the carpeted floor in the bedroom. 

If I am slow, which I was today, it takes me about an hour and a half, an hour and a quarter on good days. Tom finished up before I did and went out into the garage to work on his indoor project, shaping and wiring bonsai. 

This is a new one, just beginning training, that will go to sister Jan.

This afternoon while I was outside, Charilie/Mewdini found me and joined Tom in the garage. He got his much sought after head rub. 

I see that Tom has glued the broken petal on the wounded glass flower. Tape is holding it till it dries and then it will join the rest already stowed in the attic. We did that yesterday. There is usually some project waiting for Tom on the work bench or out in the greenhouse. 

This morning after PT I joined him in the garage to do a workout on the stationary bike we keep out there. It seems most of my projects involve keeping myself moving, pretty much a full time job. 

We noticed that it wasn't raining and it was getting sunny, but it was windy and cold, below 60, which after a warm summer feels cold to us. And everything was drenched from the heavy rain overnight, so we stuck to our indoor plans. 

When I wandered outside after my late lunch hour, I captured a bit of that sunshine. Taking photos and posting them on blogs is always a fun project for me. 

I wandered down to the deck, a place I don't frequent much this time of year. It's a mess, but it will get messier. Cleaning it up is a project in waiting. 

I was rewarded, however, with this pretty Abutilon in bloom in a pot on the deck. 

I do have an indoor project to work on. It has only been months in progress. I look at it more than I work on it.

I am not a quilter and these quilt block patterns are a challenge, as well as a way to use up scrap material.  I might even get a few seams sewn today before I take time for a little reading before I stop to cook dinner. 

Cooking dinner is a daily project too. 

Fall Is About To Fall

 It's a beautiful Saturday evening. The UW Huskies are playing football on the TV on the small screen over my shoulder as I sit at the desktop computer. The light outside is slowly fading and we pass 7:00.

Tom and I are tired. The weather is changing tomorrow, from warm and sunny - it was 78 today - to cold and wet. We had to make hay while the sun shines.

Tom has been working all week to get the lawn repaired so it would be ready for the rains. He has spent hours and a lot of elbow grease, thatching the dead grass and moss from large patches of lawn that were fried way back at the end of June.  Then he spread grass seed and a layer of compost. Today he finished. Let it rain!

It seemed early, but because I don't know when the next warm, dry day will be, I decided to "pick" all of the glass flowers and wash them and get them ready to store in the attic. That kept me busy for three hours this morning, plus more time this afternoon carrying them from their drying tarp out on the lower yard up into the garage. We can get them stowed away while it's raining. 

Then I harvested the ripe or almost ripe tomatoes and peppers. Tomorrow I'll roast, chop, and freeze some of the peppers. 

Charlie/Mewdini came to visit and check out all of the activities.  He seemed pretty laid back, with his eyes at half mast, in the summery weather. 

It's not all work around here. On Thursday we had lunch with our breakfast group with our friend Jeanne hosting. She is in fragile health and doesn't make it to breakfast now, but she really wants to host an occasional gathering in her home. We make that happen.

I'm there but I'm taking the picture. 

And of course we still went to breakfast the next morning. It was Friday, after all. 

And now we get ready for a weather change. TV Seahawks football and Sounders soccer will keep me occupied on Sunday, along with all of the exercises that keep me mobile.  There are more social gatherings in the coming week.  The new season of TV kicks in this week. 

Fall is falling. 
 

College?!

 Those of you who have been following my blog for a long time have watched my grandchildren grow up. This photo was taken in 2008, shortly after I started blogging. 

Isaac would be five here, Irene three, and Jake much younger too.

Yesterday Isaac started his first day of college classes. 

Isaac is now a freshman at Western Washington University in Bellingham, WA. Yes, that same Bellingham that our blogger friend DJan loves so much. It is a beautiful town in a beautiful area of our state, and a great place to spend one's college days. Jake is also a graduate of WWU.

On Sunday Jill and Isaac drove up to Bellingham to move him into his dorm. Unlike the free-for-all of moving in that I remember, they had appointments for their move-ins because of Covid.

Ah, dorm life. Minimal, but also streamlined. Much less to have to take care of.

Once moved in they came back home, since classes wouldn't start until Wednesday, and besides they had a date for Sunday.

Jill has three season tickets to the Seahawks. She sells half of them to pay for the other half. They brought along Isaac's good friend Conner for a final fling. Too bad the game ended in an overtime loss.

Then Monday morning, while everyone else was at school or work, Isaac said goodbye to his kitty and drove away to his new life as a collage student.

We parents and grandparents are still dealing with his growing up so darn fast. Fortunately we will see him again soon for a big family celebration. And Bellingham is only a short two hours away. 

Newness

 Today is the last day of summer for 2021. That is not a favorite milestone for me, and yet, when Autumn comes, I am somehow ready for it.

We are having a beautiful day here, very cool and crisp around the edges. It will take most of the day to warm up to the predicted 76, and then the temperature will drop quickly once the sun goes down. 

I know it gets chilly fast because last night I was on the sidelines at 7:00 watching Irene playing soccer for the beginning of a new high school soccer season. The game started under a pretty sunset sky.

It got dark. It does that much earlier now. Irene played on the JV team for this game and got lots of playing time, running the whole game, long blonde hair flying. They won handily. 

We had just come off of a bad sports weekend for Seattle. Losing the home opener is a new experience for our Seahawks, and for their many football fans. It didn't help my mood that the Sounders lost on the road the day before. They don't do that often either. 

We had a lot of rain over the weekend. That's very new after a very long dry summer. We needed it, and the wildfires needed it. Now Tom will have to start mowing the lawn more often, but he also has a lot of lawn repairing to do. 

We will take advantage of the dry days now to get some yard work done. There is cleaning up to do after the wind and rain of the weekend. A new season begins tomorrow, and Autumn means cleaning up and putting away outside.

We got new phones yesterday! Since Apple is launching their new iPhone 13, there are good deals on the iPhone 12. We spent over two hours yesterday with a very nice young woman, Arantxa, at the local T-Mobile store, making the crossover from Sprint to T-Mobile - same company now - and selecting our new phones and accessories. By the time we left everything that was on our old iPhone 8 was now on our new 12's and we were back in business.

My new phone is a pretty coral color and I decided to go with a little bling, adding a glittery clear case. Fun. Of course a new phone these days means a new camera and I had to try it out right away.

Charlie/Mewdini showed up to pose. Of course he was looking for a little something in that dish.

And of course there are still flowers to photograph.

A little fall, a little summer.

My photos traveled on the iCloud right to my desktop computer, where I found them later, just like they are supposed to. Every tech transition should be this smooth. And the photos look great!

So that's what's new around here. I've finished my old PT routine for this morning and it's time for me to go outside. I'm hoping for a bit of new enthusiasm and energy in my life. I'll work on it as I move into this new season.

Happy Autumn!

Whidbey Getaway, Part 3: Walking On the Wild Side

 The dike on Deer Lagoon is hardly the wild side, but I liked the title, and my second walk is a bit wilder.

Our weather for our short stay at the cabin was mostly fair: cool, often cloudy, sometimes sunny, and with a bit of rain. Typical September. 

I walk on the beach road often when I'm there. It's right out the door, flat, not busy, and it's easy to get in a mile and then end up at the beach.

At least once a trip, especially in  spring and fall, I like to hike the dike, which separates the wetlands from the tidal lagoon. It's only about a mile round trip unless I extend it farther, but the subtle autumn colors and the sky, reflected in the full lagoon when the tide is in, make for a very pleasant walk. 

Snowberries and wild rose hips add color to the tawny grasses and yellowing leaves.

My second featured walk was a bit more of a destination. We have driven by a sign on the highway that says "Earth Sanctuary" many times, and we have heard of it, but although is is not very far from our cabin, we have never been there. It was time to check it out.

Earth Sanctuary combines exemplary ecology with art and spirit to create a sanctuary for birds and wildlife and a peaceful place for personal renewal and spiritual connection.

The online photos are of an earlier time when everything was fresh and new. Things age. But the wildness of the place and the trees that were planted as an arboretum still shape this nature reserve, punctuated by sculpture and rock cairns and even a temple. 

We walked some this way and some that way, avoiding the steep places. I would have loved to do the whole loop around the pond but that is not for me anymore. There was a lack of bird song this day, but I very much liked my walk on the wild side of the pond.

Birds and bugs and critters make good use of the decaying trees here.

The less wild side. The trees on the left are some that were planted when the sanctuary was newly formed.

Say a little prayer for peace. 

It is indeed a peaceful place. I think we will need to come back in the spring when the woods and pond are full of bird song.