Woody?

As I got back from walking the dog this morning, I heard a strange squawking sound and saw a large black bird land on the power pole across the street. It didn't sound like a crow, and then I saw the red peak on the head. A pileated woodpecker! I've seen them before, but never so close to my house. I hurried to grab my camera and take some shots before he flew off.

Fall Blows In

It was a dark and stormy night. High winds had been predicted all day, and sure enough, things started whistling as soon as we got back from our evening walk. (Yes, we lucked out on that one, but the bedtime walk was another story.) The power didn't go out, but the lights flickered dozens of times, rain splattered against the windows, and mysterious banging noises periodically made Peco jump. Nikki and I were too accustomed to the gate swinging against the house to worry about it. I thought we made it through without problems until I noticed the odd angle this tree branch was at this morning.

The spot where it is broken is about 25 feet up. It was a big upright branch, which completely blocked the neighbors' trees now visible behind it. I may end up having the whole tree taken down. It's overgrown anyway. 

Carpenter's Star

I finished the binding on this a couple of weeks ago. It's a little bigger than the lap quilts I'm mostly working on, so still no good place to take its picture. However, we did have some good light early in the week, so I draped it over the frame to take this shot.

I quilted feathers in all the colored areas, and a mix of straight lines and fills in the background. It's one of my more heavily quilted pieces. 

Today it's gloomy and showery, not so great since I have roofers here. They've found several bad places where the plywood has to be replaced before the new shingles can be laid down. Hope it doesn't get too wet in the process!

Mock Orange

This bush is perfuming my whole front yard, and part of the house as well, now that I can have some windows open. I just want to stick my head into and inhale, but there are plenty of bees with the same idea.

It really does smell a lot like orangeblossom, but not quite as pungent. I remember smelling oranges in bloom in Florida, but out in the country, it was frequently mixed with burning garbage. Not a good combination!

Eye-riss?

An early spring, with nice long evenings, not too much rain. And that brings out the roving salespeople, trying to promote new roofs, gutters, yard services, etc. One evening this week, a young man was trying to get me to book an evaluation for gutters (which I do need, but I'm not going to submit to an in-house sales pitch). He seemed a little distracted, for which he apologized saying it was the end of his shift, and by the way, what kind of flower is that? I said it was an iris. 'Eye-riss?' he repeated, as though he had never heard the word. He said he had never seen anything like it, and thought it looked alien and other-worldly. 

It is a particularly nice one.

Friday

So much for spring weather. Yesterday there was rain, hail, snow, thunder and then sun. Today I woke up and it was snowing. Oh well, it won't last long.

Same flower, now with snow on the ground.

What I'm working on: a quilt for my friend Trudy. It will be donated to the Humane Society for their spring auction. The focus print has puppies in many breeds, and the surrounding fabrics have little paw prints and bones.

Signs of Spring

It's officially Spring! It is on the blustery side here in western Washington, but the sun has come out for a few minutes off and on this morning. Pretty nice, after how much it rained last night.

Here are a few of the yellow flowers of spring:

One of only two daffodils that bloomed this year. Maybe it's time to get some new bulbs.

Forsythia bush, now with actual blue sky!!!

And of course dandelions start showing their faces to the sun. 

Happy spring, everyone!

Late Summer

In the Seattle area, we are enjoying an incredible late summer, perhaps to make up for the cool, rainy weather we had into July. The days are mostly sunny and the air is crisp. Temperatures in the low 50s at night and mid-60s to low 70s by afternoon. Soon enough it will start to be gray and wet again, so every day like this is a gift.

While walking Nikki on Saturday, I saw a bunch of pots at the end of a driveway. On Sunday, they were still there so I stopped for a closer look. There was no sign, but as I was checking them out, a man drove up and parked. He said if I was interested, to help myself. I thanked him, and said I'd need to go get my car. He seemed pretty nonchalant, like he didn't really care one way or another. I took Nikki home and drove back and loaded these in the back of my car. 

The blue glazed ones are similar to a couple I already have, and I know they're quite expensive to buy new at Molbak's. The crocks reminded me of the ones Mom and Dad had on the porch in Wasco. They're pretty heavy. The largest one has a crack, but everything else looks in good shape, even if filled with dead leaves, pine needles and cobwebs. It doesn't look like anything was planted directly in these containers; there's no dirt clinging to the sides so they should be pretty easy to clean up. 

I had to Google the company labels and see what I could find. Both companies were well known for stoneware. These pieces are too common to be truly collectible, but they're still worth something. 

REALLY Winter

Unlike the wimpy 1 or 2 inches we got over the weekend, today we got 3 or 4 more on top of what's remained Sunday through Tuesday. I mostly stayed in, working from home, and only went out a couple of times to walk Nikki and try to clear off the car. It's now switching to freezing rain, so it won't be easy getting out tomorrow either.

I also did a little quilting when I took a break, and took a picture in daylight. Not exactly bright daylight...

Hydrangeas

Hydrangeas are one of my favorite flowering shrubs, even though they're not fragrant. I love the deep blue or bluish purple the best, but the only one I have is a lighter blue. It was supposed to be a short one. I'm not sue of the name, but it might be 'Blue Danube'.

Fall Color

This Japanese maple at the side of my house provides wonderful color every fall. With the background of greens and purple, it really stands out.

If the sun is just right, it almost seems to glow. Unfortunately, what little sun we've had recently has been while I've been at work. This morning it was clear and a little frosty, but soon after I took these pictures, it started to cloud over. And it's been raining most of the day.

I live in a suburban neighborhood, a mix of older homes with newer developments squeezing in on previously vacant areas. But there is also a pretty big, wooded state park only a few blocks away, a county park a few blocks in a different direction, and some steep, unbuildable ravines. So it's understandable that we get the occasional wild animal passing through or poking around the back yard; usually possums or raccoons. A couple of weeks ago, Nikki and I surprised a raccoon snuffling around in some leaves and sent it up a tree. This morning, we were walking our usual route in the pre-dawn, slightly foggy, when what appeared to be a large cat ran across the street in front of us. Nikki went into her alert stance, and then started barking as it ran across some lawns and passed us. As it was going by, I thought, boy, that's a really big cat. When it was a couple of houses past us, it came back into the street and looked back at us. It looked then more like a medium sized dog than a cat. A man coming out for his paper called to me and asked, was that a coyote that just ran by? And I said, you know, I think it was.

I saw a pair of coyotes down in the park early one morning, but that was years ago. I didn't think they were still in the area, let alone right in the neighborhood.

Fall Weather

The weather this Labor Day weekend has been more like November than September. Cool, cloudy, rainy, with occasional gusts of wind. I took Nikki out to walk about 5 last night, and just around the corner saw this:


From a different angle, I could see where a giant branch had broken off the fir tree and taken down the wires. I think it was only the wires leading to that house, but of course they were lying across the street. By this morning, the road was back to normal, but the branch was still there. (I experimented putting little captions within the photos, which you probably can't read or even see unless you click on the picture to enlarge.)

Why I love my Subaru

See all the snow? See how deep it is on the roof of the car? I cleared the snow from the windows, ran the defroster and window heaters for awhile, but left that.


I shoveled some snow away from the back of the car, so it wouldn't have to go from bare driveway up on to a foot or more of snow, but then I just backed out. No problems, not on that, not on the snow and ice packed street, not on the bumpy, rutted roads.

When I came back, I didn't park as far in as before, so this shows the depth of the snow I drove through.

Winter

We've had a week of wintry weather here in the Seattle area, with more to come. It started last Saturday night with a couple inches of snow, followed by a cold front that helped turn the streets into ice rinks. Another big snow was forecast for Wednesday, but while many areas got a lot, I was in the snow shadow 'donut hole' that didn't get anything that day. But we did get a few inches on Thursday, and then last night got about 4 inches more. Fortunately, the major windstorm that was predicted did not materialize, at least at my house, so the power's stayed on. And it's been snowing off and on all day today.

I went out to do errands yesterday, but today was a good day to stay home, except for a walk in the park with Nikki, a neighbor and her dog, Bodhi.

The Fourth

Happy 4th of July to friends near and far. Nikki woke me up extra early this morning, so we walked early and I took a nap later. I think she gets jealous having another dog around; she keeps coming in my bedroom to keep Buddy out. It was nice this morning though. After the heat wave last weekend, the rain we had Wednesday night and Thursday made things refreshed. It was overcast, cooler and a bit muggy. The scent of honeysuckle kept me sniffing. Tomorrow morning it will probably be overtaken by the smell of gunpowder, as fireworks have been going off all day, and will crescendo tonight. I live in an unincorporated area where rules are few and enforcement even sparser.

What's Blooming Now

In this picture, foxglove, roses, peonies, valerian, red valerian and a small shrub I don't remember the name of (to the far right). I also have a mock orange in bloom. It's rather ungainly looking, but it smells like heaven.

I went to Flower World and Molbak's and got some things to fill in with: lupines, nicotiana, stocks, snapdragons, hollyhocks, etc. Only 2 or 4 of each, but it's a lot of work to get them all planted. I got some of it done this weekend, and the coming week is supposed to be pleasant weather so I'll do a bit each evening.

Trimming the Yard

Last week I had some guys come to do a yard cleanup. They did a pretty good job, although in some places they got rid of some plants I liked, and the grass is pretty well scoured. But overall, I was quite pleased. It finally has lost that jungle look. I can see down the front walk to the driveway, where before the rhododendron was crowding it on one side, and the forsythia and heather on the other: In the backyard, the steps and rocks are once again visible, as is the retaining wall above. The landscape timbers that compose that wall are starting to rot, so my next step is to replace with stone or pavers:
Nikki enjoys being in the back yard again:



Last week I had some guys come to do a yard cleanup. They did a pretty good job, although in some places they got rid of some plants I liked, and the grass is pretty well scoured.