It's Tulip Time, Part 1

 We studied the weather and the tulip blooming progress. We picked a day when it wasn't going to rain and the tulips would be at their best. That day was Friday. We weren't disappointed. There were lots of others who picked that day too, so I just had to contend with people in my photos. But that was all part of the color and the scene.

What you are going to get now is a photo dump that will keep coming over several posts. I won't have to worry about being boring. :-)

All of these photos are taken in the display garden of Roozengaarde, the largest blub growers in the beautiful Skagit Valley in northwestern Washington state.  There will be very little comment on my part. Just enjoy.

More to come.

Am I Boring?

 We went to Costco this morning. We arrived near the end of the special senior hours, so the store began to fill up, but not bad, and we got a place close up to park. I got some walking in, while having the cart steady me. That was good. We got what was on our list and nothing extra. That was very good, and hard to do, but we do still have a bunch of Easter treats left at home. Surprisingly almost everyone, including us, was wearing a mask. 

We aren't exactly quarantining, but we are wearing our N95 and KN95 masks if we encounter anyone else. Hopefully we are protecting each other.

We have a date for our upstairs recarpeting, May 11th, so I am working a little bit at a time on room preparation. The second bedroom is almost done with all of the little stuff. We will have help moving heavy furniture. I am finding some things to give away. That's a good thing. I am also trying to get creative about where to store things. Contents of a bookshelf are now stacked in the bathtub, since no one uses that bathroom on a daily basis now. Clothing that hangs long will go there on top of the books. That large bathroom will eventually get filled with shelving and furniture. 

Outside Spring is still emerging slowly as chilly weather continues. We want it to warm up, but it is nice to be able to slow down the blooming and greening so this lovely beauty of early spring will last longer. 

Orange is joining purple. 

Native dogwood.

Native Oregon Grape.

Sword ferns beginning to unfurl. 

The later camelias are still pretty, but every leaf is coated with pollen from the fir and cedar trees. 

The mouse plants are hiding lots of little mousies under their leaves. 

Young and old trillium.

I cut back some Indian plum and pruned the golden euonymus. 

Tom pruned the whole juniper hedge along the driveway.

The neighbor's weeds add color to the self planted wood hyacinth and money plant, Lunaria, on top of the driveway wall. I guess you just have to appreciate what you can't control.  

 

Tom has moved his bonsai out of the garden box and onto their display shelves. The new leaves of the deciduous trees are so pretty in spring.

I guess writing about going to Costco and cleaning out rooms is pretty boring, but that's how we roll most days. I hope the plants help.

Easter Resurrected

 We got the call from Jill late Saturday night. The plague had struck. Isaac was mildly sick with a cough and fever and tested positive for COVID. Now what?

Jill was in a quandary, as were we all. Do we cancel? Do we tell Jan to stay home, and have Tom and Jake and I do take out from Jill's kitchen? I knew she was going to be very disappointed  when she said, "But I already set the table?" Of course we both had been cooking and preparing and looking forward to being together and celebrating birthdays.

We hadn't decided when she said, "I'll call you back".  Then she and Isaac talked, at a distance. He had not been home much at all the days before. That day he had been confined to his room. They were wearing masks. They have a large added on room, their computer room,  with a separate heating system and good cross ventilation and Isaac had not been in that part of the house. Irene and Jill were just coming off of three months since they had been quarantined after testing positive. 

We talked again. Tom and I and Jan are all vaccinated and twice boosted. We feel protected from serious illness. Jake is once boosted. We could wear masks in the main part of the house, air out the  computer room over night, eat together separately, divided by the glass doors, with Isaac in his room, and then do much of the rest of the day outside, bundled up.

That's what we did. 

Easter morning was beautiful, with a clear blue sky and sun doing its best to warm up the chill air.

We could see each other at our separate tables through the French doors. Isaac connected with his mom and sister from his room via Facetime. The food was all delicious and the conversation was lively.

We sent Jake out to hide the eggs and then the egg hunt was on. We're all kids now at Easter since everyone is growing up.

Of course we had to count the eggs several times to see how many were still missing. Get this: Jill knew how many eggs of each color there were. Jake knew where to look when he knew what colors were still missing. For instance, I found a purple egg in a purple Azealia. Yes, we're kinda' strange that way.

Then we had to open the eggs and collect the loot.

Irene scored big. Most of us got candy.

We had fun in the sun and relaxed the rules a bit. Hopefully we will all be OK. 

Then it was birthday time. Irene was 17 on the 17th, which I learned is a "golden birthday".

We felt safe enough by now to have birthday pie together inside, with Isaac still banished inside of course. 

Happy birthday to Irene and Jake! 17 and 47.

And that's how we resurrected Easter, and birthdays. We all had a great time, felt grateful to be together, and grateful for the science that brings us vaccinations.

Now we'll see.  

Easter

 

There will be the usual seven of us around our Easter table again this year after a two year pause. We will rejoice in being back to normal and in good health. 

Jill is hosting and cooking the ham, twice baked potatoes, buns, and asparagus. I am bringing the pies, fruit salad, and Easter baskets. 

I think the Easter bunny will be hiding eggs since the weather man says it will not rain on us. At Easter we are all kids now. We all hunt eggs and get treats. 

We will be celebrating two birthdays. Irene is 17 on Easter Day and Jake turned 47 on the 11th. They both requested pie, cherry for Irene and Marion Berry for Jake. 

However you celebrate Easter and spring and new life, I hope you experience joy and peace and love on this special day. 

Happy Easter!

Moving Along

 Medical update: It will be at least July before I can get an appointment with a neurological movement specialist. I'll have to wait longer to know more. In the mean time the blood work tests the neurologist ordered all came back normal. Today I had the thorough eye tests that he ordered and except for normal aging, my eyes are fine. I still wobble when I walk. 

We are in the process of recarpeting our whole upstairs - three bedrooms and our office. Several weeks ago we decided on a carpet selection and a vendor and this week we finalized the order. Today we received an install date, May 11. This week we also started the process of clearing clutter and prepping rooms. We have one bedroom ready for the installers to move the furniture.  The garage has been sorted and more room was made for storage. Tom took loads to the dump and to Goodwill and our recycle bin was stuffed. This will be an ongoing process and now we have a deadline. 

Wednesday we watched on TV as the Sounders played in the semi-final of the CCL Champions League. The Sounders won and will go on to play Mexico's top club later in April in Mexico and in May here in Seattle. We bought tickets this morning.

This afternoon we attended Irene's high school track meet again. This morning when I drove to and from my optometry appointment it was snow raining. This afternoon it was not, and we were glad. It's still chilly, but dry is good. The sky was dramatic.  

Irene ran the 4x200m relay, the 100m hurdles, and the 300m hurdles. Here she is winning the 100m hurdles.

Here I am, bundled up in the cold sunshine, watching all the action.

And here we are enjoying hot Ivar's clam chowder and fish and chips after the track meet.

It's not always easy be we do manage to keep moving along.