Sauce, Seahawks, and Settings

I forgot spiders. 

There are spider webs everywhere now, fine filaments stretching across anyplace that I walk outside. This photo was taken through the family room window. Fortunately I have not run into anything like that on my person. 

On Saturday I made more tomato sauce using the next picking of Roma tomatoes. This is a photo from before. I didn't take photos this time.

The big basket full of tomatoes made a good pot full of sauce, reduced down more this time, and seasoned with chopped fresh oregano, salt, and then fresh chopped basil later. I put the pot full of sauce in the refrigerator for overnight, because I had plans for it on Sunday. I decided on Friday that it was time to get this family of mine all in one place for a sit down dinner and a sharing of stories of what's been happening.

Sunday is Seahawks football day and Jill has season tickets. She and Jake were going to the game. Through the next 24 hours I got everyone to check in on line and managed to get everyone to commit to dinner here after the game.

Tom and I spent time Sunday prepping for the family event. The photos of the table settings are the only pics I took. You'll have to imagine Jill, Jake, Isaac, Irene, Tom and I in the chairs at dinner time. 

Irene picked up Jill and Jake at the light rail station after the Seahawks game, which they lost at the very end. Isaac came from work at Boeing. He's working all of the extra time he can.

As they arrived they dug into a platter of Caprese salad with home grown tomatoes. 

Dinner was a great big bowl of spaghetti with my homemade sauce, all of it, green salad with fresh picked cherry tomatoes, and Parmesan cheese bread. I thought there would be left overs but the kids just kept eating and eating. They liked that sauce so much that they spooned out what was left in the bottom of the bowl until there was nothing left!

We had good sharing of Jake's trail maintenance outing in the mountains, Jill's first week back at school, Isaac's chance to watch salmon spawning while getting his car window replaced, and Irene's more detailed account of her five days kayaking in the San Juans as part of her class. She got very high marks on her evaluation, by the way.

Irene brought a cake that she created using bits and parts of recipes and a little of that and this. She is a creative baker. It was very good, served with Tillamook ice cream. 

It was a very good "command performance". I don't very often expect all of them to "Be There!", but I am very glad that I did. It gave me the warm glow and uplift that I needed, and it looks like they were happy too. The sure ate like they were. :-)

 

Blooming

 The Brugmansias (Angels Trumpets) that were mostly in bud in my last post are now in full bloom.

It's Friday evening and I just walked down the driveway to get the mail. The heady fragrance of their perfume filled the air. 

This one is right by the gate to the  driveway. 

Yesterday I raked up all the the fir cones off the driveway that had fallen from this very large Douglas Fir. It all looks tidy again, at least until the next wind storm.

More Brug  blooms:

Sitting on the patio, I enjoy the complexity of the plants in the "Danger Garden".

Yesterday I finally took time to revisit my "throne". I sat and read there for a while, and then I was compelled to take more photos. 

The garden is looking pretty good for late summer. Tom and I, Tom more that I, have both been doing some trimming and cleaning up, getting our exercise and fulfilling our need to "get our hands in the dirt". 

Now as evening falls, we will soon see the bright orange moon peaking through the trees. We are having a lot of smokey air from wild fires west, east, and north of us. The sun in the day casts a smokey golden glow and the moon at night is a bright orange ball of almost fullness. 

We're having a cooldown starting tomorrow. Will there be thunder storms? We shall see. 

Back To The Ordinary

 With the Labor Day weekend behind us, we are settling into September. 

  I picked flowers for new bouquets.

We made a bit of good trouble on Labor Day.

Our daughter Jill went back to work today, part time PE teacher and part time district Health and PE Coordinator.  

We have been retired for 20 years now but I still get a bit of that feeling of melancholy that summer is over. Summer always meant freedom.

Of course we have all the freedom we need now, and do our best to keep busy. This morning we both worked in the garden. Tom does heaver stuff than I manage, but by 12:30 we were both hot and tired and ready for a long lunch break. Now it's 81 outside and I am inside, already getting my mosquito bite for this day. One is enough. Maybe we'll take an evening walk. 

Tom picked tomatoes.

There will be tomatoes and cottage cheese for lunch, Caprese salad or sliced tomatoes for dinner, and once is a while tomato sandwiches. 

Tom is very proud of his Brugmansias (Angels Trumpets). Each fall he takes cuttings from that summer's plant, discards the old plant and grows the cuttings in the greenhouse. The spring we decided to keep two plants, which started about about a foot tall. Now look!

Soon all of those buds will be open, emitting a lovely sweet fragrance as the evening cools.

Summer doesn't end until the calendar says so. We'll work a little, relax a little, read, spend time with friends, and stay informed. We'll find TV to watch in the evenings. It's all good. 

The 2025 Annual Phosie Gertie Picnic

 Once again it happened. We think this is the 53rd Annual Phosie Gertie Family Reunion and picnic, held at the Reeder Foster Fuller Compound on the shores of Useless Bay and Deer Lagoon on Whidbey Island. 

We elders are getting older, and so are our "kids". They can still stand. We olders get to sit. :-)

About noon we held our annual owners and users meeting for the Reeder-Foster cabin. It was great to have the next generation taking over many of the responsibilities of upkeep and finances of our precious retreat. 

During a lull in the action, Tom and I had time to sit with Irene and see her photos of her big adventure, her five week study of the Salish Sea and surrounding North Cascade Mountains, including native plants, animals, and indigenous peoples. 

On a scale of one to ten, she said it was definitely a ten, and her wonderful pictures prove it. She is also a very good photographer. 

The actual event was kicked off with the raising of the Phosie Gertie flag and the PG song. Tom and Irene raised the flag.

Then we took the group picture. I was happy to have Isaac help me out this year.

Next, those elders that I mentioned earlier needed to be honored, as tradition calls for. These are the direct descendants of Phosie and Gertie. 

There is always a bit of family history to share, in this case the original invitation, written in crayon, for the very first PG picnic, held in 1973. 

Tom always has something to share. Neither of us remember what it was now a day after but it must have been important. 

With the tide in, so no sand castle contest, and currently no little kids for the candy hunt, we went right to the balloon toss. 

The winners and the runners up. Good to see one of the elders in the victory circle. 

Then of course there was eating, lots of eating, but the only photo you'll get of that is just part of the dessert table. 

The eating was followed by lots of visiting, but Tom and I excused ourselves to sit in front of the TV in the downstairs room nearby to watch the Sounders play in a tournament final against Inter Miami, and the famous Lionel Messi. In Seattle 69,314 rabid fans were at the stadium. We had to witness it, and Seattle won!

As family members began to return to their homes, we joined the remaining cabin residents as the sun began to set on another great family picnic. 

Then Tom and I drove off into the sunset. It was a very good day.