Celebrate With Those You Love

Happy Valentine's Day

(Photo taken April 2008 in Keukenhof Gardens, The Netherlands)

Skywatch - Port Gamble

Snow moving in over the mouth of Hood Canal, taken from Port Gamble.

Earlier this week we traveled on the Kitsap Peninsula and the Olympic Peninsula to Port Townsend to visit an Aunt and Uncle. We stayed overnight there, but kept our ear on the weather forecast. Snow was on the way, with a predicted 6 to 9 inches possible along Hood Canal.

We had traveled across the Narrows Bridge in Tacoma and north up the Kitsap Peninsula to our destination, but we were looking for the most northerly and quickest route off of the peninsula to get home. Snow was coming to the southwest.

We drove through the woods and over the Hood Canal Floating Bridge.

On our way we passed through Port Gamble. Once a busy sawmill town, it is now a National Historic Landmark. Since the weather wasn't so bad here, we stopped to look around.

Click to enlarge for a bit of history. The General Store was open, but most everything else was closed. Not too many visitors were expected on a day like this.

We will have to return when the weather is better and the shops are open. It is a delightful place, and it's really not that far away.

But now it was time to catch the Winslow - Edmonds ferry and get back to the mainland.

My New Hero

Stump is the new champion of the Westminster Kennel Club, and in human years, he is 70 years old! You didn't have to teach this old dog new tricks. He just had to activiate his memory. There's hope for us old things after all. NEW YORK — An old Sussex spaniel taught dogdom a new trick. At 10, Stump became the oldest best in show winner ever at the Westminster Kennel Club, coming out of retirement only last week and walking off with the top prize Tuesday night. Click here for photos. A nearly full crowd at Madison Square Garden cheered loudly when judge Sari Tietjen pointed to the new champion. Perhaps the fans knew Stump's backstory — he almost died in 2004 from a medical condition, saved by the vets at Texas A&M. "It was miraculous," expert handler Scott Sommer said. Then again, maybe folks just liked rooting for the old guy. In human years, he's almost 70! Never before had a Sussex spaniel won the nation's top pooch show. The previous oldest winner was an 8-year-old Papillon in 1999. With floppy ears and a slow gait, the golden-red Stump beat out a sparkling field. Sommer guided him past a giant schnauzer that was ranked the nation's No. 1 show dog, a favored Brussels griffon, a Scottish deerhound named Tiger Woods, a standard poodle with 94 best in show wins, a Scottish terrier and a puli. Stump won the sporting group at Westminster in 2004, then went into retirement. Soon after, he nearly wasted away and spent 19 days in a pet hospital. "It was very traumatic," Sommer said. Once he recovered, Stump mostly spent his days hanging out with Sommer, living a dog's life. That was more than fine with Sommer. He'd already handled a great Bichon Frise to the best in show at Westminster in 2001, and wasn't looking for Stump to try again. Then five days before this show, Sommer thought Stump might enjoy one last walk on the green carpet at the Garden. And what a walk it was.

A Trip to Port Townsend

We returned today from an overnight in Port Townsend, located in the shadow of the Olympic Mountains, on the Straight of Juan de Fuca. I have an aunt and uncle living there. They are in the process of moving back to Seattle after enjoying retirement years in this historic old town.

My Aunt Evelyn had some old family photos she wanted us to have, to be the keepers of, since we have a collection of other family photos and are interested in family history. My maternal grandfather, Otto Paul Hofstetter, was born in 1892, in Marysvillle, CA, and came to Western Oregon as an infant. The family bought a farm in Clarks, Oregon, the same farm I remember visiting as a girl, and the location of many family gatherings.

My maternal grandmother, Meta Catherine Mohr Stark, was born in 1896 in Wilcox, Nebraska. She was adopted by the Starks at the age of 18 months when her birth parents divorced. After her adoption she came to live in Salem, Oregon.

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Otto and Meta probably met at a church conference. They married in 1920 and had four children, the oldest of which was my mother Violet Ruth Hofstetter.

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My grandparents lived on the 180 acre farm where Grandpa grew up. Grandpa used a team of horses to clear forest land and turn it in to farm land. They had dairy cattle, and later beef cattle. They raised wheat, oats and corn for animal feed. Being the oldest, my mother helped her dad with the chores, including the milking. Life was planned around the needs of the cows and the seasons.

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My Grandmother had a large vegetable garden. I remember going there in the summer to help shell peas a time or two, but my mother and her siblings spent hours and days doing this and other harvesting chores. Grandma canned the produce on a wood stove. I think the only time I saw her without an apron was when she sat down to Christmas dinner, or at church on Sunday, of course. As long as they were on the farm, we gathered there every Christmas eve with the aunts and uncles and cousins. We kids sat in the kitchen around the old oak table and had lots of fun being silly.

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My mother remembers when they first got electricity in 1935 under Roosevelt's Rural Electrification Administration. Telephones came later. Grandpa got his first tractor in 1942 through a government war support effort to increase agricultural production. Each summer the women would cook for the threshing crews, made up of neighboring farmers, as they came through to harvest the grain. They consumed lots of farm raised chickens, and home baked bread and pies. And yes, my mother did walk to school through rain and snow and heat, but maybe only two miles, downhill in the morning and uphill back home in the afternoon. Then it was time to milk those cows again.

A Glass The Contents of Which Are At Mid-level

We all have our pet peeves, don't we? One of mine was activated yesterday, but I graciously kept my mouth shut. The conversation went something like this: "She is a very negative person." "Oh, she's a glass half empty kind of person." "Yes." You may remember that I described myself as a glass half empty sort of person a while back. I said that I would rather be pleasantly surprised than bitterly disappointed. Some would say I was a pessimist. I preferred the term "realist". Some of you identified, some encouraged me to become "hopeful". One wisely said she was a half a glass person, no valuation attached. Half full, half empty, half a glass, half-assed. Whatever. Why do we ascribe a valuation, a judgement, to something that is a matter of style, not character? When I say I look at things as half empty, that means there is more to do. Get busy! That is not negative. It indicates a person who is not satisfied with half a job. How can we make it better? I suppose alternately, a half full person wants to acknowledge the accomplishment so far. Half is good, more might be better, but we've made progress. Look on the bright side. Either way you look at it, the reality is that the valuation comes in what one does next. Character is determined by what you do about the missing half.

A Project and a Promise

The Project: This week I spent many hours on this bridal shower gift for a close relative.

These are kitchen/powder room hand towels decorated with machine embroidery. Each design takes about three hours of sitting by, monitoring progress, selecting colored threads, threading each color, re-winding bobbins, and being ready to hit the stop button if something goes wrong.

Then there is the set up before and the snipping threads and clean up after.

It's time consuming, but I'm happy with the results. I hope the bride likes them. She is joining our family by marrying my brother. They are in their 50's and this is her first marriage.

The Promise:

Walking down the driveway to get the paper this week, I noticed that a few blossoms are opening on the cherry trees lining the drive! It's a promise that, while it may stall a few times before it arrives, Spring is truly on the way!

Skywatch - Winter Landscapes

Wooo-hooo, the sky is blue! So we went out yesterday to enjoy the warmth, surrounded by nature. These photos were taken at the Waterworks Garden in Renton. Here storm water sedimentation takes place in an artistically created open space/park.

A Walk On The Wild Side

It was warm today! 63 degrees warm! I decided we needed to celebrate the day with a destination walk. While we live in bustling suburbia, there are wild areas tucked in here and there, if you know where to find them. One of these places is The Black River Riparian Forest, a remnant of a former river, now a wetland, in the Southcenter area, just off the I-5 and the 405 freeways. The trail here is just duff and natural litter. You can hear the cars nearby, but you can't see them. The Black River is well known by bird enthusiasts as a Great Blue Heron Rookery. You can see their nests high up in the trees. When we were here several years ago, there were herons every where. Not so today. A frequent visitor who we struck up a conversation with told us why. The trouble is the occupants of this nest - eagles. They moved in several years ago, and have been raiding the heron's nests of eggs and chicks. The man said it is a murderous scene, with screaming and squawking filling the air. As a result, the herons are gathering in another location, but will probably return here to nest.

We didn't see any herons or eagles today, but we did see some great ducks. This is a Green-winged Teal.

An assorted and motley crew watched the river flow by. They were enjoying the warmth too.

Bufflehead male and females.

A Common Goldeneye.

The Black River area connects to an extended trail system.

While nothing is blooming yet, there is color.

A pair of mallards.

It was great to get out and enjoy the day and nature. We'll have to go back later and check on the herons.

Nominated Movies - The Reader

In our quest to see all five of the movies nominated for an Academy Award, we went to see The Reader this weekend. I didn't know much about it before we went, except that it was considered a Holocaust movie. There is a connection, of course, but I was grateful to not have to sit through a reenactment of the horrors of the camps. When we left the theater, we were quiet at first, thinking, processing, coming to terms with our responses to the movie. Then we began to talk, to discuss it, and the talk continued the next morning. Tom doesn't usually get into such analysis, so it was unusual. As an English major of some years ago, I was in my element. On one of my last weeks postings, Sherry commented and summed up The Reader as "haunting", it changes your thinking, or "perspective alters perception". I would say that is right on, and add that character is impacted by circumstances, and making judgements is not always a matter of all right vs all wrong. Where I'm going with this is that this is one complex movie. After seeing Benjamin Button, we regarded it as an entertaining story with little clear message. Slumdog Millionaire had more impact, especially concerning the plight of children living in abject poverty in India. But in a way, both were fairy tales. Not so with The Reader. This is no fairy tale wrapped up in a happy ending. And in thinking about it, discussing it, you realize things about your own character. This is good literature on the big screen.

It's Officially February

I should be in bed. It's after midnight and I'm still catching up with blogging. But hurray! January is over. It's officially February. I don't want to wish my life away but January is not an easy month. It's dark and cold and there's not much to celebrate. At least this year we got to celebrate a new president. Tomorrow/today is Superbowl Day. Since our Seahawks didn't make it to post season play this year, we've not paid much attention to football this month. But, was it three years ago?, we played the Steelers in the Superbowl in Detroit and got robbed. We hate the Stealers. While Tom won't pay much attention to the game, I'll be rooting for the Cardinals, even if they did win our division. Happy February, everyone!

Finished Project

Here's where I started.

Here's the finished project - a Birthday / Easter dress for Irene.

I had a vision and it took some doing, re-engineering the pattern, adding ruffles and flourishes, but it does match my vision! Hurray!

I can just see her prancing around in it.

Tagged - What Do You Watch?

Yesterday Lin tagged me with the Lists of Eight meme. I have decided I am not too enamored of most of the questions, but just for fun, I'll answer the first one: 8 TV Shows I Watch Regularly 1. Countdown With Keith Olbermann - MSNBC 2. The Rachel Maddow Show - MSNBC 3. The Daily Show with Jon Stewart - Comedy Central 4. NBC National and local news 5. Antiques Roadshow 6. House 7. Chuck 8. Grey's Anatomy, Ugly Betty, Private Practice (OK, I cheated, but they're all on ABC on Thursday) There are a few more, but I'm trying to follow the rules. I had others that are now gone, among them Boston Legal. I loved the court room soliloquies on social and political topics dear to my Liberal heart. And the characters were so delightfully whacky. I am working on my Academy Awards nominated movie list. So far I have seen Slumdog Millionaire and The Curious Case of Benjamin Button. Slumdog was an amazing movie, filled with hope and despair, kindness and extreme cruelty, bondage and freedom, unspeakable horror, and again, hope, all projected from the most beautiful faces. See it, even if it takes a few days to get some of the images out of your head. Benjamin Button is a good movie, full of grace and kindness, and wonderful to watch once you suspend disbelief at the concept of living life from age to youth.

Domestic Goddess

The bushwhacking is under control enough that I have moved my venue indoors. Tom helped out as we did light housecleaning and laundry this morning. He is getting ready to go outside to resume pruning, but it's down to a one man job now. Yesterday Tom took off to go to a glass blowing class, just for the fun of it. I stayed home and began my next sewing project and made soup. Last summer we cooked a ham on the outdoor grill when our kids were visiting. We had several dinners from it, plus sandwiches. It was time to take off for one of the cabins, so I wrapped the remaining ham bone and stuck it in the freezer. This weekend I decided it was time for a good winter soup. I sauteed some onion and celery in a bit of olive oil in a big heavy stock pot, then added water and the meaty ham bone, seasoning with salt, pepper and marjoram, and let it simmer for an hour. In the meantime I had lima beans soaking. Now I have to confess I don't really make soup that much anymore, and I was just making it up as I went, getting some ideas from the bean package. The stock had a wonderful smoked ham aroma as it simmered. I let it set to cool, and pulled the meat off the bone. I added the beans and some diced carrots to cook an hour and a half before dinner. Later I added chopped cabbage and the meat. I whipped up some corn bread to go with the soup. Yesterday Lin wrote about compliments and that we should even compliment ourselves. So I did. The was one wonderful soup supper for a cold winter day. And I have leftovers so I don't have to cook today! I am finally making progress on my next sewing project, another dress for my granddaughter. I have been putting it off because once again I am sort of making it up as I go along and I had some engineering to do in my head. And of course I have to overcome the fear of screwing it up and the inertia of getting started each time I launch a project. I'm on my way now. But the sun is shining, so I'll have to take time to go for a walk. After all, dinner is already cooked.