Sunshine and Rainbows of Color - In the Skagit Valley

We are weather watchers.  We keep track of the weather weekly, daily, and sometimes hourly via online Weather Underground.  So we knew that the right time to go see the tulips in the Skagit Valley was Tuesday.

About an hour and a half after leaving home, we arrived in the valley.  See that sky?  Yep.  It's gonna' be a great day.

Our first stop was at a service station, a pit stop for us and the car, and then to the espresso stand for coffee.  Now we were good to go.  We always stop at one of our favorite nurseries first, Christianson's.

And we always come away with at least a few plants.

See that hat in the upper left corner?  I bought it.

 As we drove across the valley we passed fields full of color.  Here late daffodils were still in bloom.

We were headed next to RoozenGaarde, one of the largest bulb growers in the valley, and the site of the most wonderful display garden.  This is the greeting outside along the road.

 The colors are breathtaking.  I caught myself with my hands to my face, saying "Oh, Oh!" And then I took hundreds of photos, of course!

 After lunch at the display garden we walked over to some of the bulb fields.  They have to rotate the fields every year, so this year they were not adjacent to the display garden as they were last year.

Of course these are just a few of the tulip and daffodil fields here in the valley.  The Skagit Valley is the largest producer of tulip bulbs in the United States.  

It was about 2:00 when we decided we would spend the rest of the day doing some touring on Whidbey Island as we worked our way down island to the cabin for an overnight.  

That will be another post.

Irene's Birthday Pageant Begins

Irene will be eight years old on Wednesday, April 17th.  Since that day is full to the brim with school and work and activities, we are celebrating before and after.  Irene says she will have a full week of birthday wishes!

Today we three girls - Jill, Irene and I - had high tea at the Secret Garden Tea Room in Sumner.  The tea room is in a lovely old house   reached by a drive out into the rural valley, south of Seattle, to the  small town of Sumner.

In the hustle and bustle of getting Irene and Grandma accessorized, I forgot my camera!  Thankfully Jill had her cell phone.

 The setting was lovely, and so was the company.  Irene and I enjoyed checking out as much of the house as we could poke our noses into.  There were lots of temptations in the gift shop.

Irene had her own tower of food, with yummy peanut butter and honey sandwiches, fruit and sweet goodies on the top.  This was after the first course of scones with Devonshire cream, raspberry jam and lemon curd, and a cleansing bit of mango sorbet.

Of course there was the equivalent of adult delicacies which Jill and I managed to down most of, with lots of pots of fragrant tea.

And then cake!  Most of that came home in a box, But Irene did get to make her first wish.

I got my wish by just being there.

Jake's Birthday

Our son Jake is 38 today.  How time flies.

Here he is at two weeks.  Sister Jill has taken full possession of him by now.  The truth is, she very much helped raise him.  It wasn't always easy.

It was often a lot of fun, though.

It still is.  As Jill said of her brother on Facebook today "Jake: making life more interesting since 1975".

A true introvert, he does not like to have his photo taken, so we don't have many of him as an adult. I captured this one from his Facebook profile.  

Jake has played soccer since he was eight, and still plays, as well as coaches.  He'll be celebrating his birthday with his soccer friends this Saturday before, during, and after the 1:00 Sounders match.  It sure would be nice if he was gifted with a win.  

We'll be there too, of course, but we'll leave that partying to the younger crowd.  We are taking him out to dinner this evening for own little celebration.  

Happy Birthday, Jake!

A Blank Page

When I flipped over to a new week in my planning calendar, I found Monday blank.  Oh, no.  I don't like completely unstructured days.  

After a busy Saturday (see previous post) we had a slower Sunday. 

Well, it wasn't all this slow.  We did clean house and do laundry in the morning.  It poured down rain most of the day, setting a new record for this day in April.  April showers, and all that, making for soggy April flowers.

I did my exercises indoors, including 10 miles on the stationary bike.  Tom spent a lot of time on the computer, searching still for clues to those illusive Reeder ancestors.

In the late afternoon we attended a 50th Wedding Anniversary party for some friends we know through teaching.  I wondered if we would still be hale and healthy in six years and if we would want a big to do.  

But then, that Monday blank page.  What to do?  It's still cold outside, but the rain has stopped.  It's very lush out in the garden, lovely to look at from inside.

As usual when I have time on my hands, I migrated to the desk top computer, where I spent at least an hour reading and responding to all of your blogs.  That was fun, and a luxury I don't usually allow myself in the morning.

Then I spent about an hour on my physical therapy exercise, the ones that make it possible to keep moving without pain.  I interrupted myself to take some of these photos, my mind on a post about nothing.

Now the antique clocks have all struck 12:00 noon, except the old clock that just makes up any time it wants to strike.  I love that old clock best.  And here I am sitting in my recliner, another thing I never do in the  morning, writing this post about nothing.  

That's what happens when you have nothing planned - nothing happens.

But I think I'm saved.  Tom has just come down from the desk top computer with a stack of paper and the Pennsylvania Atlas.  I think he is ready to talk about our summer trip. He is in charge of planning this one, because, besides attending my niece's wedding, we are going in search of his ancestors.  I get to go along for the ride this time instead of being the one who does all of the research and planning.  

And the rain has stopped, so maybe I can go for a walk this afternoon.

Dodging Showers on a Soggy Saturday

This morning we headed northeast of Seattle to Monroe, to check out the Monroe Antique Show and Sale at the fairgrounds.

What a treat it is to see the hills greening up again.  I love that new green color!  It was partly cloudy, partly sunny, enough to light up the green and make it glow.

This was a new antique show for us, and we were interested to see what we would find.

 I took a few photos before I began my serious shopping.

We really liked the show and spent more than two hours there, looking at everything, and buying a few things too.

 We bought this little Craftsman style shelf for the Whidbey cabin.

 The blue glass violin bottle has sentimental value. My Aunt Alma always had hers hanging somewhere in her kitchen, in all four of the houses where she lived.  She is now in a memory care facility in Oregon.  I will not see her much now that my mother is gone.  They were sisters living in the same town.  My violin bottle will always remind me of her.

And this 1930s McCoy vase will remind me that sometimes I am just extravagant.  Hopefully not too often.  But it is a wonderful addition to my collection.  And I really do need to stop adding to that collection.   

Tom added to one of his collections too, but I forgot to take a photo of his new old watering can.

After lunch at a nearby Subway, we headed back south and stopped in Woodinville at Molbak's Nursery.

It was pouring down rain when we arrived, so we ran inside.

 It is a wonderful place full of beauty.

But then this happened!

Of course, we went outside.

We loved looking at everything, bought two plants, and were on our way again.

The sky looked pretty threatening when we got to the Bellevue Botanical Garden, but we put on our rain jackets and took a chance. There was a "vintage" sale in this building that we wanted to check out, but it turned out to be just garage sale stuff, we we went on to the garden, since the weather was holding.

 The main border has been recently redone, and is still filling in, but bulbs are blooming and lovely little things are popping up through the soil.

 Families were out strolling in the garden.

 And the native woods were glowing green.

 In the Yao Garden

 Color is subtle here in early spring, but oh, so beautiful.

 And then we raced back to the car, which was parked next to this lovely cherry tree, just beating the downpour as the next squall hit.

There will be more rain tomorrow, but we'll be content to wait it out at home for a while now.  We had a great day out and about.