What a beautiful day this first Saturday of Summer has turned out to be!
We spent the morning touring Soos Creek Botanical Garden with our garden club.
The long borders drop down the hillside from the lily pond.
The Kalmia (mountain laurel) were very berautiful in the back borders.
Seating in the vegetable garden was a welcome rest for some.
The rose garden was at it's best.
We were back home in time for a late lunch on our patio.
Now Tom is mowing the lawn and I will do a bit of puttering in the garden. Then I'm coming back to the patio to read.
I'll put together a light early dinner, and then we'll settle in front of the TV at 6:30 for a Sounders match being played in Salt Lake City.
There should be time afterward for a short walk in the neighborhood before sun goes down and as the twilight lingers.
Aaaaah - Summer!
The summer solstice marks the official beginning of summer in the northern hemisphere.
The timing of the solstice depends on when the sun reaches the farthest point north of the equator. Obviously that is not happening in the western hemisphere, because our solstice is tonight.
Just when? Well, that depends on where you live. On Universal Time the solstice occurs at 5:04 AM on Friday, June 21.
In the US:
Friday, June 21
Eastern Daylight Time - 1:04 AM
Central DT - 12:04 AM
Thursday, June 20
Mountain DT - 11:04 PM
Pacific DT - 10:04 PM
For me, this is Solstice Day! I sorta' feel the need to dance around a bonfire! But it's going to rain this afternoon and maybe tonight. I might have to wait until Saturday to celebrate the sun!
Happy Solstice, everyone!
I remember my father fondly. He was a good man and a good father. But he has been gone now for a long time.
The father that we honor now, this weekend, is my husband, the father of my children.
Yes, we were all younger once. Those were very busy times. I think Jill just had her braces removed and Jake had his teeth recently wired up. Jill was in Campfire and I was the leader. Jake played soccer and Tom was the coach. There were track meets and soccer games and school activities and all that goes with active parenting.
I worked part time, and Tom was a full time teacher. But we always had dinner together, and debriefed our day. Our lives centered on our work and our family.
Time passes. Families grow up and have kids of their own.
Here we are two years ago, all meeting up in Colorado to attend a soccer match, of course.
Now Jill and the kids live near us again. We spent Friday with them, as documented in my last post. Today we will meet up with son Jake to have dinner together in a brew pub, our usual venue when Jake is involved.
Parenting is a job for life. Tom spent much of Friday with his grandkids and daughter. Yesterday we spent several hours watching our grandson's baseball team win the first round of the Champions Tournament. It was amazing to see how much skill ten year olds can have. Today we will spend time with son Jake.
And this week we will be helping Jill transform her storage unit and her house into better working order. It will involve lifting and carrying and sorting and repacking and moving and transporting and rearranging. But that's what dads do, for as long as they can. Tom has quite a few more years of giving in him, for his kids and grandkids.
Happy Father's Day, Tom. We love you.
Happy Father's day to all of you dads out there.
Because of busy schedules, we celebrated Grandfather's Day today.
Jill had meetings to attend, so she dropped the kids off at 11:00 this morning. They brought their bikes, and soon we headed out, first to the local school to ride around on the blacktop, and then we loaded bikes and kids into the van to drive to the Green River Trail at River Bend Golf Course.
First stop was the fishing hole.
It didn't take Irene long to locate the new little ducklings.
Around the pond we checked out the totem pole...
...and another duck family. These four ducklings have survived the infant stage and are well on their way to becoming adult Mallards.
Then we hit the trail along the golf course
following the bends in the river.
What's Isaac doing? Oh, stopping to pick clover. They like to suck the nectar from the pink clover.
The kids rode on ahead. Tom and I were walking. We checked out the garden at the old Neely Mansion just alongside the trail while the kids rode to the turn around point.
Here they come. it's time to head back home for lunch.
With everyone fed, we all occupied ourselves. Tom mowed the lawn. Isaac had screen time. Irene and I toured the garden to see what was blooming, and to pick a few things.
Irene's flower shop is looking good.
The kids made cards for Grandpa, and Isaac and I played a game. When Jill arrived we had wine and root beer and cheese and crackers on the patio, and then Jill and the kids played while Tom and I got dinner organized. We grilled teriyaki chicken sticks, asparagus and foil pocket potatoes, accompanied with corn on the cob and fresh fruit.
Grandpa loved his cards from Jill and the kids. After dinner we played Scattergories for a while before having dessert - raspberry cobbler and ice cream.
It was a grand day.
Last night we joined 41,000 of our soccer fan friends to support the US Men's National Team, as they continue their quest to qualify for the 2014 world cup in Brazil.
We car pooled with Jill and a a friend, arriving in the city early enough to pre-func. The youngers went off to a supporter beer garden. Tom and I went to Starbucks for our lattes and brownies.
Then we joined up with the gathering throngs in Occidental Park for the pre-game action.
We were nearly front and center for the March to the Match.
Both Jill and Jake were involved in turning the air blue. :)
As we reached the stadium, we dropped out of the march and watched the long procession pass by.
We had club level seats for this special match (read expensive), so ascending the ramp gave us some good views.
Who said it might rain? Looks like Seattle blue to me.
And inside, a sea of red. The opponent was Panama, and their few supporters blended in with their red, white and blue colors too.
The President greeted us and congratulated US Soccer for 100 years of action.
Glass artist Dale Chihuly created a special trophy just for this match.
Scarves up, Seattle, ooops, I mean USA!
The seats are filling up, the national anthem is sung, and up comes the tifo, produced by The American Outlaws, Seattle Chapter. this is the official supporter club for US National Team soccer. Locally they are many of the same people who are our own Emerald city supporters for Sounders Soccer.
It was great fun! Two Sounders players are on the team, both were starters, and one scored the second goal.
And it's always more fun when you win. Final score USA 2, Panama 0. The US Men are well on their way to qualifying.
USA! USA! USA!
