Did'ya miss me?

So much to report but here is at least get started.  The end of June we hitched up our wagon  RV and high tailed it out of San Francisco.  It was a long and challenging year, (with so many good things mixed in) so the tail was kind of dragging, but you know what I mean.  

The restaurant is once again officially part of the past (except for the apparently endless paperwork Al is dealing with this very minute) and we are settled back in Sequim.  Weeds galore, but also amazing flowers.  Do you care about seeing any of them?  If not, please avert your eyes now, because I'm going to put them here anyway. 

This is the result of not picking an artichoke so it becomes the thistle it was intended to be.  Who was the first person who thought to cook and eat such a thing?
 Nothing a pound of butter can't fix, as Bonnie used to say.

And the lavender, oh, the lavender.  We now have forty-four glorious bushes, 

more than needed to  weave into wands or stuff into sachets.  

 

The bees hard at work provided a perfect excuse to avoid pruning.  Look very closely.  

  

Bay leaves for the taking.

Try to control your jealousy when you see my garden getup. It's hard to identify in this shot but the shiny rubber boots make up for the knee pads.  Let's pretend they are patent leather and fixin' to attend a high falutin' garden gala in a designer fancy dress, the result of merging two crappy sweatshirts in an effort to keep my ample butt covered when bending to the weeds. 

 I have more pockets than you do. 

Life is much better when Patch time arrives.  A most favorite and special project was working with Rhett's ties.  He was smiling the whole time, you can be sure of it.

 Delightful!

Okay,  enough for now.  I'm worn out, aren't you?  

Too much to tell

Yes, we - mostly Al - have been spending time in San Francisco.  Lucky we didn't sell Homer the RV because it has become his home away from home while working to revive the restaurant.  There is a really long story and the future is an undetermined work in progress.  Stay tuned.  

 A trip to San Francisco . . . .

In the meantime, I can show you what kept me busy while he was working.

To commemorate our trip to Chicago . . .

A 21st birthday . . . .

a high school graduation . . .

A fabulous snowstorm in Sequim. . . . . .

  Two to four feet, depending what part of town was measured.  A huge drift in front of the garage kept me snowbound for six glorious days!  I had enough food, wine, chocolate and yarn to keep me happy.  My Wisconsin snow shoveling skills served me well to get to and from the Patch.  It would have been even better with Al at home. But he would have gone out there and shoveled away that darn drift and spoiled the fun. 

And needlepoint to keep me busy . . . 

One for Paulette. 

 One for me.

Can spring be far behind? 

A tisket, a tasket

Somehow the light caught these spider webs just right to make me think that angel spiders visited.  Are there angel spiders?  Apparently.  But they were gone a couple hours later so I found them just in time, I found them just in time.  They changed my lonely life that lovely day.  

Look at these funny things.  Hardy kiwi, aka kiwi berry, grape kiwi, cocktail kiwi.  Cocktail?  Did somebody say cocktail?  Well, they grow on a trellis in our back yard and are really yummy.  Come pick all you want.

Remember the corn Al planted on the Fourth of July?  Well, The Corn Is Green.  Literally.  There is quite a bit so it's too bad that we don't have pigs to eat it.  It just didn't ever get hot enough to make it plump and yellow and tasty.  Too bad because he tended it so diligently, weeding and watering

This is my harvest from about a week ago.  The strawberries are finished now, but the raspberries must be on their third or fourth crop.  It's not raining  now so I'll take my little green and yellow basket and pick a few.  Bye.  

That toddlin' town

Al's berm produced this one sweet but lonely little poppy. 

Could that be a song title?

Fannie May chocolate!  It's sooooooo good.  Willie, Al, Julie and Robert were willing to give it a try when I bragged that it might be better than See's.  I might have done some market research myself.

Maybe.

Teri is pretty sure she likes visiting Chicago better than New York. 

 Maybe we should go back in January for a well-informed opinion.

 Those Petris are so darn cute.

A bit of nostalgia at the Museum of Science and Industry.  Those were the days. 

Remember when we could just go to the airport and get on the plane?  

Seventy????? The birth certificate must be kidding.

Well, how the heck did that happen?  Mirrors are to be avoided totally, especially those in dressing rooms and the frightening magnifying version, so I was quite shocked and appalled to see a wrinkled old woman staring at me.  Holy crap!  But you can see where we celebrated, so that made it much more interesting.  Prime Rib at my second favorite restaurant in the City made the trauma a little easier to accept, but only a little.  I would refer to myself as a crone but the dictionary says that is an old woman who is cruel, crusty, thin, and ugly.  Who wants to be that?  Well, the thin part would be okay and I've been accused of the other parts, too.  Another smarter article explains that our generation is redefining the concept and taking charge of a new type of wise and vibrant crone, so let's go for it.  Boomer Babes rule!

August in Sequim

That's Victoria.  Can you see Canada? Use that x-ray vision. This is 1/3 mile from our house, just 1/3 mile.  The fog horns are delightful.  Reminds me of that other foggy place we used to live, but this is so much more peaceful.  In so many ways.

 I think this is a clematis, but it obviously didn't get the directions to grow on the arbor, 

not beside the arbor.

Next year we'll have a class before the spread begins.  Or maybe I just pruned it poorly.

 There is a name for these cone-head hydrangeas but I forgot it and am too lazy to look it up. 

Let's just call it Jane Curtain. 

 This is is - the entire gladiola crop.  Kind of puny, isn't it?

 This is all one lavender plant.  It looks even fuller up close and personal.  

 Not ours, but one of the many lavender farms  Last I heard there were around 40.

 Come see for yourself.  

Lily finished the quilt for her new baby sister.  Excellent first project, doncha think?

There has been a lot of needlepointing belts this summer.  Should I show you how they look in progress, before they get blocked and leathered and buckled?  Kind of bizarre how the leather magicians can take this funky piece of stitching and make it into something beautiful. 

That's all - for now.  Happy August! 

It's been quiet

And I like it that way.  All that travel action wore me out, along with the fact that it really is Paradise in Sequim, so while most of you have been dealing with unbearable heat, we've been hovering in the 60s, sometimes way up to the 70s.  OMG, as the kids say.  I know, it's rude of me to mention it.  

Here's a little bit of the goings-on, but even I would be bored to tell you about the days of Al in the garden, me in the Patch, surreptitiously  avoiding the housework.  A nice part of getting older is the ability to not care if there is dust in the corners or crumbs under the table.  Erma Bombeck is channeling herself through me these days.  Just close the curtains, dim the lights, ignore the vacuum and pour another glass of wine.  A bit of really dark chocolate enhances the pleasure, of course.

 June 30 was the last legal day to burn so Al had a little bit of fun.  Sorry I didn't get there when the pile of weeds was enormous.  Fascinating how much smoke is created from a bunch of dried stuff.  I was hoping to see a fireman or two, but no such luck.

My new favorite Fourth of July activity with the City Band playing in the park, all patriotic and enthusiastic.  Last year a couple of Eagles soared over during one of the marches, but this year they must have been teaching the babies how to venture forth from the nest.  Or they didn't get the memo.

Lily came across the alley to work on a quilt for her soon-to-be new baby sister.  She's doing a super job and next time you'll see it finished.  Did the inventor of flannel ask herself just how much dust could be created with it?  Was that the goal or was the snuggle factor more important?  

The view from our front porch at 9:30 last night.