Lazy Sunday

Before snuggling into my favorite recliner with a book, I thought I'd post a little bit about this unusual (for me) Sunday: I've got nothing to do, no plans at all. The plans I had for the weekend were changed by the weather, since yesterday was sunny and bright, and this morning it's raining again. We should have a spell of some warm and dry weather after this front passes, however.

The picture I chose for this post is the best illustration I could find to direct you over to Teresa Evangeline's blog to read about the dream she had last night. She described it so perfectly that the images keep coming back to me, about floating silently down a stream in a little boat. She calls it "The Land Along the River," and I have pondered its meaning ever since I read it. It is very significant to me at this moment in time.

The other post that really got me this morning is from Friko, which she calls "Thank You, America." She's an Australian who lives in the UK and is concerned about seeing how unhappy so many of her American blogging friends are with this country's politics. Although I have refrained from posting anything about the politics of today (at least I think I have), I have not restrained myself in comments I've left on the posts of others. She reminded me of the kind and generous spirit that exists here, still to this day, and it lifted me up.

I am reminded again and again how important the virtual friendships I have made throughout the blogosphere are to me. I've even met a few in person here and there, and I find myself in a community of wonderful people who help point me toward concepts and ideas that I could not find alone. I follow a lot of blogs, and I sometimes fall behind and am forced to skip some of my favorites, but there are many moments these days when I change course completely because of something I have read, posted by a thoughtful and discerning blogger.

When I was working, I had no time for this activity. My days were spent in front of computers doing the bidding of my boss, my colleagues and coworkers -- not following the dreams and hopes and, yes, the trials and tribulations of my virtual community. Today, I can only offer my sincere gratitude for all of you for speaking your truths and opening your hearts.
:-)

{Cleaning} Apron

To make it easier for the kids to do their cleaning jobs I made them Cleaning Aprons. The aprons have pockets to hold the cleaners & rags.


I had some jean material to use. Cut 2 pieces of fabric into a rectangle(23"x15"). Cut 2 pieces of fabric(23"x7") for the pocket strip. Nice & heavy Duty.


Sew around. I didn't sew a finished edge because they only use them once a week & with jean I like the "aged" look.

For the top to tie around waist:

Cut 1 piece of fabric (5"x65"). Fold in & iron.


Attach the "tie" to the top of the jean fabric. Starting at one end of the "tie" stitch across the top, side, bottom, then other side.


Finished.


You could also put grommets on the rags & use the office badge clips(found at Walmart) to attach to the apron.

JOY in Service

We took hold of the greatest SERVICE opportunity today.


Our friends [a few houses down] are moving back east. We are going to miss them. They are some of the most kind people we have come in contact with. Today the movers were packing up the last of their things.

The kids & I got our cleaning supplies(I buy my home friendly ones here) and headed down to do some cleaning.



I made these aprons awhile back to wear and hold their cleaning bottle & rag.

Tutorial to come.

I love the JOY that comes from helping others & seeing a Smile on their face. How Rewarding!

Sunshine Award

Sharon over at Sharon's Paws Create just graced me with her Sunshine Award, which is quite nice. We here in the Pacific Northwest have been needing all the sunshine we can get, after all!

The award, as usual, comes with something the recipient is supposed to do. I have thanked Sharon for the award and will answer the questions, but I'm not willing to pick out ten bloggers from my buddy list. So, if you are one of my followers and would like to receive this award, just say so, it's yours! These are always fun, but only if someone really wants to play. Here are the rules:

Thank the person who gave you the award.- Write a post about it.- Answer the questions below.- Pass it on to 10 bloggers who you think really deserve it and send them a message to let them know.

Thank you, Sharon, for increasing the amount of sunshine in my little corner of the world. And here are my answers to the questions:

1. My favorite color: Purple
   
2. My favorite animal: Cats
3. My favorite number: 11
4. My favorite non-alcoholic drink? Coffee
5. Facebook and/or Twitter? Facebook, not Twitter
6. My passion: Skydiving!
7. Getting or giving presents? Getting, of course!
8. My favorite pattern? Oblique ones
9. My favorite day of the week? Mondays (since I retired)
10. My favorite flower? The elegant and fragrant Rose

That was fun, actually, except for the patterns. That was a hard one. At first I thought of diamond patterns, but then I realized that patterns could also refer to the lines within them, and I became aware of the fact that I like diagonal, slanty lines, so that explains my answer.

We actually do have quite a bit of sunshine right now, and I see its effect reflected in the smiles and good moods that seem to be blossoming everywhere. I do hope you are having a good day, wherever you are!

:-)

Keep Cool once again

Right now, because of the continuing high snow levels, we are relegated to the same hikes over and over in our little Mt. Baker wilderness area. This is my second trip up to the Yellow Aster Butte area, because the first time (on July 5) we were only able to gain the meadow because of the snow. Today, we got just a little bit further, but still nowhere near the summit of Yellow Aster Butte. Here's why:

Yellow Aster Butte, July 5 and July 28, 2011

As you can see, the snow has melted a good deal off the summit of the Butte in less than a month, but the trail is still pretty impassable to that summit. We will make yet another attempt later on, but today, twelve Senior Trailblazers gave it a try. Linda and Ward, some of my favorite Trailblazers, were back with us after taking off for parts unknown, so they were happy to make an attempt and not reach the summit. Here is Linda surrounding by all the greenery at the lower elevations:

As we climbed higher and higher, we got great views of Mt. Shuksan, and then we stopped for a nice lunch break a little after noon. We had to find a place in the sunshine that gave us a view, but the deep snow meant that a nice breeze blowing across the snow gave us our very own air conditioning.

Fortunately, most of us have an inflatable little pillow that allows us to be nice and dry while sitting on top of the snow. We all had a very nice lunch and I was able to take this wonderful shot of Mt. Shuksan from our vantage point. After lunch, we headed back down the trail and made it back to our cars before 3:00pm, with a fairly long drive back to the Senior Center. On the way, I saw this very interesting fungus that demanded that I take its picture.

We are so fortunate to have built-in air conditioning (it still is a rare day this summer to see 80 degrees F on our thermometers in Bellingham), and in the High Country, we were still in the sunny sixties today. I hope that my friends in the hotter part of the United States will be able to cool off a little while joining us on the Keep Cool trail today. We walked less than six miles and gained and lost around 1,700 feet elevation. It was truly a great day, sunny and warm. Our first one this month!
:-)

Mellow Wednesday

Okay, it's not ALL been as mellow as this picture indicates. This was taken this morning at Avelino's of me having my usual morning latte. Robert, Leo's dad, took it with my camera. Our usual coffee klatsch has been missing a few components, since my fisherman friend Gene was in Alaska for a few months on his usual summer fishing expedition. It's been a while since I saw him and his 22-year-old parrot, but now they're back.

Four eyes, sort of

I almost didn't use this picture because of the alien looking over Gene's shoulder. It's interesting to me how, when framing a picture, the background doesn't always come into your awareness, but when you look at it later, amazing features appear. I think it's a billboard, but I don't remember seeing it at all!

Little Leo ran over to me as soon as I came in, with a book about farm animals, which we read together. He brings me such joy, and I realize that had I been blessed with grandchildren, I would have been a doting granny. As it is, I get to enjoy Leo and my grand-niece Lexie, as well as the grandchildren of my blogging family. I sometimes gaze at the little ones and remember what it was like to have a two-year-old myself. The nice thing about enjoying them as I do: there is no responsibility for their care. Just loving them and watching their progress.

I took off at 8:45am and headed to the YMCA for my hour class, then swam a quarter mile. I learned that the pool will be closed for two weeks beginning next weekend. In previous years, it didn't matter to me at all, but now I'll miss those swims. Then, after catching the bus back home and joking with the driver, I had a nice lunch.

And then I got to go to the dentist to get my permanent crown placed. I told Olivia (my dentist) how so many of my blogging friends reminded me to hang onto her, since she was so helpful that Thursday when I only had a few minutes to get to the office to have the temporary crown adjusted. (She was pleased.) I'm now sitting at my computer, thinking about my day, and after downloading this morning's pictures figured I'd write a short little post. I am realizing that, all things considered, my life is full of varied activities. Tomorrow is the usual Thursday hike; last Sunday I got to make four skydives (all of which were good), and the weather is looking promising for this coming weekend.

Yep, not much to complain about right now.
:-)

Tin Foil Dinners

We've been up camping, a handful of times already, this year. One of our most favorite things about each camping trip is our first meal there- Tin Foil Dinners. Our kids even ask for them now, even when we are not camping. We love them!

HOW do YOU make your tin foil dinners? WHAT do YOU put in them? Please leave me a comment on this. I am always looking for new ideas.

HERE is how I make OURS...

Mine consist of these items:
Heavy Duty tin foil
Raw hamburger meat (lean ground beef)
Cream of mushroom soup
Potatos- peeled and cut small
Carrots- peeled and cut small
Frozen white corn
Dry onion flakes
Garlic salt- lots!
Pepper, olive oil, other herbs or spices I think of adding in, etc.

I peel and cut up the veggies (into small, bite-sized pieces so they will cook faster with the meat). I combine all the cut-up veggies, frozen corn, and dry onion flakes into a large bowl and mix them together with a little bit of olive oil.

I tear off a piece of tin foil and lay it flat. Then I spoon out some cream of mushroom soup (right from the can) and smear it onto the foil in the center. I put about a cup of veggies down first (on top of the soup).

Then I grab some raw hamburger and flatten it like a patty to put on top of the veggies. (Big enough to cover the veggies and about 1/2" thick. I sprinkle LOTS of garlic salt over the meat (and some pepper) and top it off with another cup of veggies. Then I dollup another spoonfull or two of soup over the veggies and fold up the foil to seal it all in. After wrapping it once, I get another piece of foil and wrap it again for better protection in the fire.

I make them big so we can all share. We cook these foil dinners right in our campfire. DELISH!! Clean-up is super easy with this meal. I love it for camping!! Do you make foil dinners too? What do you put in them??

Happy birthday, Norma Jean

This beautiful little girl is having a birthday today, but it's been a few years since this picture was taken of her. She's no longer a little girl wishing for her two front teeth, but is now a mother and grandmother. This is my sister Norma Jean, wearing her amazingly uneven bangs and a corduroy coat and hat made by Mama, who was much better at sewing than cutting bangs.

She is currently in Michigan visiting her son Peter, spending some valuable time with him, along with her sweet little dog. As a recent widow, she's finding her own way into the world, and I spend some time every week talking with her and finding out how she's doing. These talks are as important to me as they are to her, and we both have our crying hankies that we use often.

My sincere wish for her 67th year is that she find her own authentic way through all the grief and pain of the past, and that she emerges on the other side of it all, filled with happiness and contentment. I love you, Norma Jean.

Summer Canning

I am finally done with my summer Canning!


I found this new Canning magazine from BHG(on stands til Aug 9th). LOVE it!


I was able to try 15 new recipes(some of my favs: nectarine vanilla/ blueberry pecan/ kiwi lime). I have already tried some of them & I have not been disappointed at all.

I LOVE Homemade Jam- it truly is the best!

It's a small world

This beautiful sunny morning in Bellingham began with me meeting the Fairhaven walkers for a nice brisk (almost chilly) six-mile trek through the Western Washington University campus. Then I headed over to the Farmers' Market to pick up some vegetables, and these flowers just took my breath away. You can see some veggies on the periphery of this picture, which I also checked out. My favorite vendor, Rabbit Field Farms, already had a dozen people lined up waiting for the bell to ring so they could purchase their own bounty for the week.

Aren't vegetables beautiful in their amazing variety? I bought some collards and kale and brought the goods home to Smart Guy, who has already steamed them up and put them in the fridge in separate containers, with my greens a little bit more done than his. We'll each take a bit when piling up our plates with the rest of our dinner and stick them in the 'wave to reheat. They don't last long, since they are so tasty I often have them twice a day, for lunch AND dinner, until they're gone and we start over again.

From Climate Prediction Center

Then I got on the Internet to read the news of the day. The Climate Prediction Center just put out a new set of probability maps covering the next two weeks. This one shows that the heat in the east will continue (maybe not quite as hot, let's hope), while we in the Pacific Northwest will remain below normal, temperature wise. However, it's a relative thing: now that the sun is shining and the rain has stopped, I'm certainly not minding the temperatures heading upwards of 70 degrees F (20 C). Right now, at almost 2:00 pm on Saturday, it's 71 out there, making me feel like we're in the middle of a heat wave. But of course we're not: it is not even cooling down at night over most of the country to our daily high temperatures.

And then there's Norway. I read about the perpetrator of all of yesterday's violence in Oslo and at the youth camp on the island of Utoya. Apparently the SWAT Team had difficulty reaching the island, and the gunman mowed down child after child for one and a half hours. I was chilled to the bone when I read about it on KOMO News here. The world is such a small place now; I felt their pain and cried for their parents and the surviving students. Norway is a place with so little gun violence that most police don't even carry weapons. Somehow I think all that might change after this.

Nobody knows his motivation. Is it just me or is the world beginning to come apart at the seams? Although twenty or thirty years ago, days would go by before all the details would be available to the rest of the world. Now, something that happens in Oslo is front page news on my news reader. People are sending each other messages on Twitter which race around the world in less time that it takes for me to catch my breath. My Facebook friends will be sending me to pictures and links that they think relevant.

So maybe it's not coming apart but coming together at the speed of light. Maybe because of the Internet we are more connected than ever, and that is the change I feel. Right now I grieve and am unwilling to read any more news, for fear of becoming overwhelmed by it all and allowing hopelessness to have the upper hand. On a beautiful sunny day, at that.
:-{

First time for Goat 2011

This will not be the last time the Senior Trailblazers will try to make it up Goat Mountain this year. But today, ten of us set out for the summit, with little confidence that we would even make it to the meadow, because of all the snow. Down at the lower elevations of Goat Mountain, however, the trillium are still in bloom, and this picture (when enlarged) shows all the RAIN we had pelting down on our heads today. Last year, we tried to make it to the summit a few times, and in this post I show the views we missed today.

I woke to the sound of rain again today, the only day of the entire week that it is supposed to fall, and of course it's Thursday. Although I went on the hike anyway, many of us were not at all happy about having a fourth Thursday's soggy hike in the rain. Al in the above picture is not smiling, he's grimacing. As we made our way across the snow field, the rain and sleet continued to fall. It's almost noon and we are looking for some place relatively "dry" to have our lunch. The skies lifted enough for me to get this partial view. See the blue? It's kind of there.

Our lunch spot was a mostly protected area free of snow nestled in the trees. The only problem is that the trees above us dripped constantly, so it wasn't what you would call a "rest area." We endured while we ate our lunch and tried to stay warm. I know the rest of the country is in the middle of a heat wave, but I couldn't get my gloves on fast enough once we stopped. This was also the first time out for what will be a constant new friend: my boots.

Boots in action

My new boots wouldn't have allowed me to stay home today. They almost pranced around the front door as I got ready to leave, letting me know that it would be a perfect day to try them out. They were wonderful! No kidding, I didn't realize that my old boots were so worn on the bottom; I had perfect traction, dry feet, and no hot spots after seven miles and 2,200 feet up and down!

On the way down (isn't it always this way?) the sun began to break through the clouds and the rain stopped. Here you see Dennis soaking up the rays. All this rain makes our environment so lush and green that it's almost impossible to be grumpy, even when it's so wet. All in all, it was a good day, and I suspect that we will again make another attempt on Goat Mountain this season, since so many of our usual summer hikes are impassable because of the snow. Once we reached our cars, we stopped on the way back down the mountain at a place known to the locals as a magical spot, where old growth trees almost a thousand years old still live. This tree was the most amazing of all.

Not more than a few hundred feet from the highway, no sign tells you to stop and park your car and take a short walk to look at these giants. This tree stretched up into the heavens, with no way for me to show you how really huge it is, except for Fred and Diane stretching their arms around the base. I stood at the base of the tree and gazed up, and it took my breath away. This old soul has been watching us all for so long, so many centuries, and will continue to do so for what I hope is many more centuries.

Some of the crags in the bark are so deep that I'm sure many small little mammals know this place as home. We will return to this place again, but for now, I wish that this ancient tree will be here for our descendants to admire for a long, long time. Until next time...
:-)

Time for new boots

On Monday's hike, I was able to ascertain unequivocally that my hiking boots have begun to leak. They had been doing this for a couple of trips now, and I treated them liberally with boot sealer, but it was obvious after walking through some streams and across the snow fields that I could not deny what was happening. These boots have been waterproof and wonderful for almost two years now, so I headed down to REI (where I purchase most of my outdoor gear) to find out why my wonderful old friends are no longer keeping out the wet.

Well, it turns out that the instructions to care for my new pair have given me the answer: neglect, pure and simple. These wonderful German boots are still in pretty good shape, except for one little problem: the hard rubber on the front has begun to pull away from the leather. There is a reason for this, I realize. Leaving your wet boots in the trunk of the car to dry out until next week is NOT the best way to care for them. Lowa, the boot manufacturer, says this:

Good footwear deserves good care. The footwear will repay the time and effort invested by remaining comfortable, water repellent and -- above all -- regular care and attention will increase the lifespan of the product considerably. Leather is a natural material with valuable natural attributes. However, even leather is subject to a certain aging process. For this reason, regular care and maintenance is a must.

For some reason, at the end of most of my hikes, my trusty shoes (which never let my feet get wet) would remain covered with mud and dirt and allowed to dry in peace. There is a specific warning against this: "Never leave footwear to dry next to a heat source, or or in the trunk of a car. Wet leather "burns" (becomes brittle and shrinks) very easily." Although I have only practiced this procedure for two years, my shoes finally began to leak. The informative person at the store told me it was possible to take them to a shoe repair shop and see if they might be able to bond the rubber to the leather once again.

But I knew that the boots had served me well, and that the fault lay not at the feet, so to speak, of the product, but at my own negligence. I decided to donate my old boots to the Salvation Army and let another person, who might not put them through quite as much stress as I do, get some wear out of them. And I will treat this new pair with much more respect and see how much longer they will last!

It's hard to believe that the shoes in the picture above are exactly the same, with only a hundred-plus hikes to separate them, a few times having been treated with water repellent stuff, and many days spent coated with all the mud and gunk from the hikes. Just a typical example:

I think leaving them in the trunk of my car coated with this particular mud might have been what pushed them over the edge. They've never been the same. From now on, I will rinse them off in the bathtub before I call the hike finished. After this particular excursion, I probably should have gotten into the shower completely dressed, and rinsed each piece of clothing before taking it off. Lesson learned!
:-)