Finally! Our First Adventure Since Covid Hit!

Last week we finally got out of the house, and it wasn't for grocery shopping! We hopped in our car and went to Deception Pass which is a beautiful spot not far from here. It was a beautiful day, and we even did a bit of hiking!

We stopped at a wayside on our way and discovered an amazing tree. This sign explains it's history.

 Once this tree was once 200 feet tall with a trunk that is still 20 feet in diameter! It was chopped down sometime in the 1800's, and all that's left now is this stump. Thankfully someone preserved it!

This is the landmark bridge that you cross en route to the park. It connects Whidbey Island to Fidalgo Island. It is unusual in that it has both saltwater and freshwater shorelines.  It's also fun to explore.

 

We hiked down to this beach. It's a great hike; it is, however, uphill all the way back!

There are lots of interesting old trees all along the trail.

 We made it down to the beach, and here I am resting up for the trek back uphill. As you can see there are lots of trees that have washed up on the beach. It was great to get back out into the woods!

Today Is a Special Day!

 Fifty-five years ago today we started our life of love and adventure together.

Here's what our family looked like five years ago when we celebrated our 50th in Oceanside, CA.

Our grand children are more grown up now, and I guess the rest of us probably look older now, too.  But even though we can't get together today, we are counting our blessings.  Life is good!

A Younger Visitor!

This week we had a younger deer in our yard! He snacked on a few plants and then went out front to look around. 

He totally ignored the neighbor's potted plants and took off out to the back and then over to the uphill neighbor's yard.

Later in the week we saw another larger deer that was lounging in someone's yard further up on our hill.

Tucked inside this dolly's skirt is this dolly. 

The pattern is "Sister's" from Susan B. Anderson's book Itty Bitty Toys.  It's a fun but somewhat time consuming project!

We have some pretty plants blooming at the moment in our pots.  This begonia spends the winter in our garage but never fails to appear each summer!

This is probably my favorite plant this summer.  Its flowers are yellow when they first open,  then gradually add purple before the yellow pretty much disappears. I've never seen anything quite like this. Have you?

On a clear day this is our reward for walking to the top of our hill. The mountain is out!  Actually it's about 60 miles away.

Wouldn't it be nice to see this view from your window?  Can you guess what mountain this is?

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Enjoy the rest of the day! We are headed to a birthday celebration in a little while. Oh, BTW I think I'm using the new version of Blogger. I have no idea why my photos are so enormous! Well, I just discovered that I had to make my photos smaller. This version takes some getting used to!!  Also It pays to preview!

How'd It Get to Be August Already?

Somehow the days fly by quickly even though we're not doing much except lots of walking and gardening thanks to Covid-19. On our walks we've seen and remembered to bring our camera along to  photograph a couple examples of sidewalk/road art. It seems the color disappears after a few days though.

And during the last part of July, I finished a couple more knitting projects and am now waiting for some yard to arrive so I can finish another pair of booties. (I lost at yarn chicken!) This was the first time I ever knit a lovey.

It's not the first time I've made a this shawl pattern, however.

Then I finally finished this pair of socks for a friend who crochets. This is the sock that I ended up ripping out the second one when I was down to the heel.  But it's finally done now and being modeled by the recipient.  Best of all, it fit!! 

Apparently the garden has appreciated the extra attention because it's blessed us with some beautiful flower this summer.

Two different kinds of Hydrangeas

A  Stargazer Lily which now has 8 of the 9 buds open!

And this one is the strangest of all. All these roses are from the same bush!

For the first time I can remember, all but one of my violets are blooming at once.

This one is the prettiest with its ruffled petals.

Well, enough of this "flower show,"  I need to go water the outdoor pots.  See you next time. Hope you all are well and having a good week!

What's Up?

Nope, I've not vanished, but our garden has been calling along with lots of walking as well as some other projects to keep me busy.  I've been very bad about reading posts as you may have noticed, too. It's so hard to stay inside when the weather's nice.

Recently I finished this prayer shawl for the mom/wife of two choir members.  She is fighting an aggressive form of brain cancer, and a number of us choir folk have been providing food for the family as they are consumed every day with lots of doctor appointments.  It's very sad.

On a happier note, another choir member and his wife welcomed their first child, so I made her some booties. I have several other projects in progress....actually a whole lot!

This beautiful guy paid a surprise visit to our backyard recently! He looked around a bit and chomped a little on the dogwood before strolling on his way somewhere else.

This tiny baby bunny visited us, too. Now if we could only teach it to just eat the grass and skip everything else!

The  roses are about done now, but

there still are other flowers to enjoy fortunately.

Oh, I just remembered a couple other finishes.

I surprised a choir friend who's a nurse with this little person

and made a couple of hats, one for a baby boy that's yet to arrive and his big sister.

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Well, that's all for now; it's time for a walk.  I hope you are all weathering this strange time in good health!  Take care.

Finally Another Finish!

It took a while, but I finally finished these two finger puppets after ripping out half a sock! At least these turned out OK.  They will soon be headed  to the Midwest and a special birthday boy.

Lately besides lots of walking up and down our local hills, we've been enjoying lots of pretty spring flowers in our yard.

This little gem was in a Mother's Day bouquet. I'd never seen anything like it.  Have you?

Enjoy the rest of the week!  Now I need to get busy on some of my many WIPs, including that naughty sock!  Take care and stay well.

Happy Monday!

I must be the slowest post writer.  It's a crazy time isn't it? Right now DH is on a conference call with his men's group which usually meets on Mondays in person.  We are finding it difficult to even remember which day it is without our normal schedules!  And I bet we're not the only ones. There has been plenty of knitting going on here, but I'm being naughty and starting new stuff instead of finishing all my many WIPs.  I have been trying to only use stash yarn though......

I did finish this pair of socks and was happy that they matched up. They are supposed to be the Plain Vanilla pattern, but I failed to do the second knit row.  I need to read more carefully, don't I?

Here's my most recent finish.  It's the Tiny Minion pattern, and believe me, it's very tiny! I didn't have any googley eyes but improvised with a button, and that's why there's only one eye. There wasn't room for two!  Luckily there really is a one-eyed Minion!

I know what you're thinking, how come there's only two completed projects with all this extra "lock down" time.  Well, it's spring and our garden's been yelling for attention.  

Trillium

Azalea

Primrose

We've also been taking nice long walks almost every day in our neighborhood which has lots and lots of hills. It's also been nice to see other people's flowers, too.  Well, that's it for now except for one thing:

Kathy Boyer was correct. The snowy photos in my last post were from my sister in Minneapolis. Way to go, Kathy!  Stay well everyone!