Finally a Couple Finishes!!

 Now that this project has been finished and delivered, I can finally share it.  When I saw this kit, I knew it would be just perfect for our organist who is retiring next Sunday after 30+ years at our church. He also plays the piano, and his wife is an amazing flute player. It took a long time to stitch though.

And I actually completed a pair of socks as well as another bracelet.

At the moment, I'm working on another cross stitch that is quite complicated and another pair of socks, but in the meantime we 've been doing  lots of yardwork and taking lots of walks.

   Last Wednesday we had a crazy afternoon. It was really warm, so we decided to go to Gig Harbor, WA, for dinner and also visit one of my favorite yarnshops. When we pulled into the parking lot at the shop, I nearly fainted because the yarnshop was GONE! Luckily I looked up and saw that it had moved upstairs on the other side of the building.  After that we decided to go for a walk on the Cushman Trail before dinner.  Well,  we could only  find the alternate trail and got way too hot looking for the "real" trail.  We did see an interesting piece of artwork though as well as a great view of Mount Rainier.

 The post had carvings all the way around but this was my favorite part.

And then it was time to eat. Well guess what? The restaurant was closed for construction for 2 more days.  Luckily and thanks to our GPS we found another of the same restaurants on our way back home.  Our next walk wasn't nearly as exciting, but more about that another day.

Our Deer Lounge

 On an afternoon last month, we looked our our window and saw this deer lounging in our backyard.

And just a few minutes ago, we had another visitor!  This one seems just as comfortable but has larger horns and its coat seems a different color.  Before leaving, it enjoyed a snack of salmon berry leaves, but thankfully ignored everything else!

I wonder what we'll see next?  Hopefully not the bear that seems to wander around in these parts!

Finally a New Post!

 In case you haven't guessed, things here have been kind of crazy. Early in March I fell and was hobbling around for a while. Plus, we did quite a lot of child care for our daughter's two kids; she  is working at home, and after school restarted Max and Stella had to be picked up mid-morning and then they had online classes during the day each Wednesday. We had lots of fun doing things in the afternoons, taking walks and even an adventure at one of our local parks. It's in the middle of our town and is a working farm with goats, sheep, and horses plus a few chickens.

One day we saw a Mama and Papa Eagle at a park not far from their house in Magnolia! Apparently the eagles return to their nest in that tree every year.  We were happy to see them when we did because the tree is leafing out making it more difficult.

Apparently Papa stands guard while Mama tends the nest.

Stella is perfecting her knitting skills and was proud to make her dolly a hat!

And then just a couple of weeks ago, just to keep things really interesting they got a cute little puppy.  More about Lulu another day.  Just this week, Catherine's niece got home from college and took over helping out with the children, so we've been very busy doing some very neglected yardwork as well as catching up with friends. That's it for now; I'm off to read some blogs finally!

Lots of Walking!

On the way home from getting our second COVID shot we caught a glimpse of the new moon! 

Since then we've had some really nice days, so we've been exploring the local trails. We started out with a trail built where there were originally rail road tracks and did a few sections over four different days. Most recently we walked on the part of the trail that goes through our town.

Much to our surprise we came upon this art called "Nails. It's on the trail that passes The Soun Transit light rail link in Bellevue. Just prior to that, the trail splits and passes a very marshy area  where we saw these ducks.

Art and nature all in one walk!

Yesterday because it was cloudy we just walked on our neighboring hills. A couple of days ago though we decided to check out another trail called the Lake to Lake. We haven't walked on a lot of it, but it seems to connect with the lakes in our city.

 

 We did go to Phantom Lake and also saw Phantom Creek on a side trail. There are lots of houses around this lake but we found one spot where we saw some folks with their bikes; they'd actually been wading Brrrr!  On the street side, we saw a Monkey Tree! They have the strangest looking fruit.

And then we saw the most amazing outdoor train layout. Have you ever seen anything like this outside?

Today we walked in the other direction on this part of the trail, but I will save those photos for another post.  I did, however, finish one whole project in February! Another bracelet.  These are so fun to do.

The quilt and counted X stitch aren't  close to being done though.  Enjoy the rest of your week!

All Gone!

Our snow is all gone except for this little bit. The good news is that the plants seem to have survived the cold!

Warmer temperatures and the rain helped a lot.

 One day recently, after we had walked in the rain,the skies cleared and we had a beautiful sunset.

 A few days ago I got a surprise package in the mail, this beautiful table runner that was crocheted by my friend Becca.  She knows that I love anything with hearts.  Isn't it lovely?

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Nothing else to report.  My current projects are coming along but won't be finished any time soon.  We'll see whether I can finish something totally different this week!

Lots More Snow!

We had a crazy weekend! The snow started on Friday with little flurries on our walk, but then the snow got serious. By Saturday evening we probably had a foot of snow which is really unusual for this part of the world! Here's what our backyard looked like:

Can you see the bird bath? There have been no birds in sight for the last couple of days!

The Holly looks kind of Christmasy, doesn't it?

However this little rose looks pretty sad!

The last time it snowed this much was in January of 2019, and our neighbor made this chair. Someone who saw it recently said it needs Bernie! I got a good laugh at that. But our neighbor didn't make another chair this time; she and her husband and my DH helped shovel out enough of our driveway so that an uphill neighbor could park her car here since she couldn't get up the hill to her house. Me, I've not been outside since our walk in the snow on Friday. I've been cooking more than usual and doing a bit of counted X-stitch and piecing a quilt for a change!

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 It sounds like the weather everywhere isn't very nice. My sister lives in MN and it's been really cold there, and the news says it's even pretty frigid as far south as Texas!  So, wherever you are at the moment, I hope you're staying warm.

Crazy Weather Here!

 This morning we woke up to a little snow, but it's almost gone now.

The snow was a surprise although it's predicted for later in the week. Having been drenched on our walk the day before and the evening ended in a beautiful sunset, yesterday we set out under blue skies!

And on top of a nearby hill, we even had a great view of Seattle! Can you see the Space Needle? It's there, but hard to see!

But most surprising of all were the flowers that have popped up in our garden! (Today I'll have to check to see how they are after the snow.)

 I love primroses and Helebore because they are early signs of spring!

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Not really much of anything crafty to show today; I am working on the SAHHR quilt and actually went through my cross stitch stash. Oh my, there's way more there than I remembered. And then there's the fabric and yarn supplies.  Gotta go get busy, right?