Tuesday, May 23, 2017

Summer, and why I love living here

I'm writing this post in my backyard, with birds thrilling, bees humming and temperatures soaring to 80 degrees.  The chickens are walking by giving me dirty looks while they are panting through their beaks to cool off.  The goats can spy me through the fence and are yelling for me to give them more water.  

Summer!!!

We've taken full advantage of this weather the past few days.  On the weekend, a bunch of us wild women descended onto Whidbey Island for our friend's bacherolette party.

I love that we only have to drive about an hour West to get to Puget Sound and find spots like these:



And then, when we drive one hour East, we get to places like this:


Our boys went biking in Oregon with friends, so only Steve, Eva and I were home.  A few days ago, we grabbed her best friend and headed over the mountains.  On top of Washington Pass, we found a good amount of snow and took full advantage of it.

Snowballs might have been thrown.  Feet might have gotten wet in melting tarns.  Dogs might have been cuddled in front of a crazy-beautiful-Sound-of -Music-esque backdrop.





We had such a lovely day on the East side.  Getting treats at the Cinnamon Twisp Bakery, walking along raging creeks, playing on playgrounds, drinking cider at the Cider House, picking wildflowers, eating a picnic by the river, watching the two girlies frolic in nature...

I'm so happy that Eva has a best friend like that.  Although our daughter is homeschooled and her friend isn't, they still get to spend as much time as they can together.  











Back home, things are blooming and growing and producing.  This week, a couple of film makers will visit our homestead.  They used to make movies for National Geographic, so they know their stuff.  I'll keep you posted on their project - it sounds like a great one!

I hope you are enjoying the beginning of summer as much as we are!

Back to the patio I go.  Flowers are waiting to be smelled after all.

Oh, and I have to plant beans and cucumbers in the garden.





4 comments:

  1. OK this is the pictorial evidence of how living through winter and snow has it's abundant reward. Lookit that! So beautiful and peaceful. We have a little longer drive to the coast but an equal drive to the mountains. However, the in between (home) does not look a bit like your lush space. Dryz-a-bone. (except the watered plants and irrigated garden. Love it! Visual treat

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    1. Right! It was such a hard winter, and the pass opened soooo late this year because of it... but it sure is pretty!

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  2. Ohhh Snow.... and (melt)water, plus a bit of sea too.
    I feel refreshed already. Sort of....
    Here spring/summer hit us pretty hard. Temps soared up and past 20C and I am busy removing the 10 trees that were downed, when the sewage system was replaced. My favorite garden spot between the trees with a fireplace got demolished in the proces.
    Clambering up and over trees, cutting them, whilst wearing protective clothes is a sweaty soggy business. And I will sweat some more before all that wood is turned into firewood. But it will keep us warm for many a day!!
    Blooms are pretty scarce so far. Just the bright yellows and whites of spring. But the sprouting fields of cereals!! What a vibrant, positively glowing shade of green, Unreal!!
    I just hope we get some real rain, real soon otherwise it'll get real brown real quick. It has been very, very dry for months.

    Love that picture of eva in the forest with the yellow flower. Very dreamy.

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    1. Wow, last time you were talking about how cold things still were. Isn't it crazy how fast things can change? So you guys have problems with drought, eh? Isn't spring green the absolute best color in the world?

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