WAlk with me...

...around Olympia WA(my trip to see my sister continued) there is alot of fun stuff to see and do. The Farmers Market is really fun, it's big enough to have a good variety of things but not so big that it wears you out. Most of it is covered so even when it rains the buying and selling continues.

The food court has alot of fun choices from German to Oriental to Mexican and local. Tami had Curry in a Hurry, the name just made me laugh...and she did get her curry lickety-split!

So many seeds.

Flowers...
...and more flowers. This just amazed me that the beginning of October and flowers were blooming, not just the ones for sale at the farmers market but in back yards, front yards, along boulevards and in turn abouts.

Barb & I shared a crab cake with a side of coleslaw, it was so good and fresh. Then it was time for dessert.
Horn of Marzipan as big as my hand!

Bubby went for the brownie on a stick!
Tami the phoodie introduced us to "phoo" (like fa as in fa la la la). I'm going to make it for my family, I think I can come pretty close to duplicating it.

The proprietress of this retro little shop, isn't she fun!?!

The inside of the little place was just as fun for the Princess and I.
A stop off at this little place for a cup of joe-lt.

I love details like this. I'd stop for a cappuccino just to get to use that door pull.

Details:) Don't let the love on the top of my latte fool you this stuff was high on the jolt-o-meter! I'm a serious caffeine wienie, so about 1/4 the way threw it my hair was standing on end and I was starting to talk alot...the Princess finished it off for me...we dropped her off at dance so she had a place to utilize the caffeine:)

Playing at Puget Sound during low tide.

Such a creative WAy to WAlk on the beach.
My sweet sister Tami and I.
Shadow WAlking
Wood WAlking, Barb and I loved-loved the tree's they are just plain huge and tall...very very tall. It felt like the Hundred Acre Wood.

And after the little WAlks here and there...my heart WAs WArmed:)

WAahoo!!!

WAaaahoooo!!!
I was blessed with a trip to WAshington state to visit my sister and her little's!!

My friend Barb and I went, she was kind and let me have the window seat. I was like a 5 year old with my nose to the window on the flight out, I was also probably as annoying as a 5 year old can be with my play by play of what we were flying over. All the lakes of MN was so neat to see. Across ND and MT it was pretty much alot of uninhabited land, it had a stark beauty to it. The closer we were to the Rocky mountains the land looked like a velvet quilt made in hues of dark greens and browns, so pretty. Then mountains with silver streams and then clouds.

The first day there Tami took Barb and I to Steilacoom for a Thai shrimp salad(Tami is a serious foodie) and oddly enough as I type this out I am really hungry for that salad. We then did a bit of sight seeing, and then for desert to this quaint little place that was once a general store, pharmacy, and post office all in one...so that's where Target and Walmart got the idea:)

The middle white building is the Steilacoom city hall, it was so picturesque. And just look at the view of Puget sound.

Another day we visited the state capital in Olympia WA.

Statue of Mother Joseph, she was a huge part of the settling of the Northwest. She not only designed 11 hospitals, 7 academies, 5 Indian schools, and 2 orphanages, she also raised money to build them, oversaw, took part, and inspected the buildings, clearly she could bring home the bacon, build the kitchen to fry it in and then fry it up in the pan.

All of the lights in the capital were purchased from Tiffany's long before Tiffany was famous so they were purchased at a bargain price.

Two of these really pretty chandeliers hang in the State Reception room. The me that dabbles in a bit of jewelry making would love to just touch those crystals, or at least be around when they clean the thing, can you imagine!?!

In the Rotunda hangs the largest chandelier ever created by Tiffany, its chain alone weighs 1&1/2 tons, the chandelier weighs 5 tons. During one of the 3 earthquakes to really shake the place it swung for 3 days(it might have been more, I can't recall and so for the sake of not exaggerating I'll stick with 3 days until Tami sets me straight or I get curious enough to just call the number on my capital brochure and ask...I may suggest that they put this kind of information in the brochure so that inquiring minds like mine can know these things. I did try to google it but apparently its a state secret that only the tour guide knows and the rest of us can't remember long enough to get it on the web!)

The capital over looks this little man made lake that over looks Pudget sound. The rest of the trip is soon to follow. I have to do it in a few posts, there is just so much to share.

Birds of a Feather...

For about a week during the summer I had been watching this baby bird in our back yard who obviously jumped the nest well before it was ready to fly. It might have been Papa Robin but for the sake of my having a mini revelation we're going with Mama Robin. That Mama Robin fed and watched over her off spring like a hawk, and when it strayed too far or I was too close she called it back again. But there were times when all she could do was sit on a branch and watch.

One day when J came home for a visit he yelled for me to come quick and bring the camera, he had rescued a bird from the jaws of the "beast". I told him how we had been observing it, we put said beast in doors and he let the little guy go and it wasn't long and Mama bird was checking her baby out and no doubt a bit thankful for the rescuer.

Our J didn't jump the nest too soon but where he landed at times saddeneds us. We feed him when he comes around, hang out and love on him and the pretty girl who sometimes tags along. I probably chirp a bit too much for his liking a times. I do hope that when things get too much and the world out there would like to chew him up that there is someone who would rescue him from the jaws of life...and I will be thankful.
Meanwhile in the front yard a whole nother saga was taking place.We live on a busy main street on the edge of town, traffic moves fast, you have to pass our home to get to the high school, the pool, the Piggley Wiggley, etc. And look where a Robin couple built a nest, and they kept it in use for weeks, I think they had 3 different clutches of eggs. I tried to not be too much of a busy body neighbor.
I heard a story about a contest that was held to paint a perfect picture of peace, the final two pictures where unveiled. The first was of a glass smooth lake with sheep grazing along the shore. The second was of a storm darkened sky over a rushing torrent of a waterfall, a tree growing on the precipice and on a branch sitting on a nest was a mother bird, covering her young.
Peace in my own front yard.
We had some wild storms this year and this Mama held tight. I would watch her, once I thought the nest was blown away so I went out on the veranda and could hardly see the few feet threw the rain and yet there she sat, all hunkered down in her nest waiting for the storm to pass. I'm learning.

And look that Mama Robin even built her nest with love!
Can you see it woven in?

5 and big!!

When our Randi was little she couldn't wait to turn "5 and big"! Oh the things she was going to do, the closer she was to turning 5 the more fun she was sure she would be having. When Randi married and started having babies, I was so excited to be part of my own grown up version of "5 and big".

5 generations!!!
1st-my Grma Brown, 2nd-my Dad, 3rd-ME!!! 4th-my Randi and 5th-my Grandsons Elijah and Connor. I love this picture! My Dad looks proud as a peacock...but that was before Grma "got after" him, not once but 3 times for not telling her we were coming, it was priceless! Let me tell you at 94 Grma is sharp as a tack and a still a force to be reckoned with! This was so special for me! Randi was right...it is oh so fun to be "5 and big".

If ya can't take the heat...

Grilling out is one way we keep our house cooler in the heat of summer. I would really like one of those green EGG ceramic grills...but here's the honest truth...rarely do I do the grilling. Jon does our grilling and he is pretty much a master at it on our Weber kettle grill. I'm the kitchen prep part of this dynamic duo. Although I'm pretty sure if we had an EGG he would love it...and I would love him loving it. I did decide if I was going to say that we would really love an EGG I should at least make and attempt at grilling a meal or two. So far this summer I've done one meal all by my lonesome.I made pork and grilled corn. I found a recipe for grilled corn with a mayo mixture smeared on, it was really good. Most of the time when we grill there are 2 things that are a grill staple for us, grilled toast, and potatoes on the grill.
When we make Grilled Toast we try to use bread that we can cut thick, I like using sourdough. Butter both sides and sprinkle with Lawry's season salt and grill both sides, so good that even the ones that get a bit to dark get eaten. This year we are using natural lump charcoal, so far we are pretty impressed.

Potatoes on the grill.
Grated potatoes
Thinly sliced onions
Butter, salt, pepper, Lawry's, lemon pepper.
Spray heavy duty tin foil. Put potatoes, onions, butter and seasons on tin foil then wrap up and then wrap with another piece of tin foil. Grill until done. We usually put on before we put the meat on unless we are grilling something that is really thick.

Tastes even better than they look!! The sweet corn is from our garden, we plant Gotta have it from Gurneys and it is by far the best corm we have ever had or grown.

Summer supper out doors...keepin' it cool inside.

Here I am helping clean up(fulfilling my part of the dynamic duo;) in my new apron from Cowgirl Goods, I love it! Oh yea Cowgirl has an EGG, and she hardly uses her oven...yup she's cool.

Going Home

My Mom & Dad dee. I. vee. oh. are. see. e'd when I was 20, by then I had already been gone since I was 17, my Brother who is just a year younger had came and went a couple of times , my Sister Tami left shortly after the big D. at age 13. Our youngest Brother stayed the longest but was bounced between our parents and Ants & Uncles. I have often felt saddened when someone would say "we always come home on the weekends" or "I'm going home to see my folks". Fragmented family's often times don't lend themselves to having a roots kind of home. I remember when my Mom or Brother would say "are you coming up home for Christmas?" I'd reply "I am home but we are up coming for a visit"...petty I know. Trips north to visit family have always been so special to me, it has also been bittersweet. Recently one of my favorite Uncles passed away after nearly 3 year cancer battle (just for the record...most of them are my favorite, 9 on my Mom's side and 4 on Dad's). Packing and heading up north this time was that very rare feeling of "I am going home". A trip back to see Aunts, Uncles, cousins and neighbors that I hadn't seen in years, catching up, and being surrounded by people that I really love alot, at a very hard time...bittersweet.

Exhale. I am here, not my home but a home that I and my siblings spent ALOT of time at when we were kids, there are other homes, but for this trip this is where I want to be. The farm of my Uncle and my Ant. home. This is where I spent many summer days on the back of a horse or a pony herding the milk cows in the field out behind the barn. I also spent alot of time riding pigs and those milk cows, Uncle was fine with us riding pigs...not so fine with us riding the milk cows, especially when their milk production dropped. He never passed up a hard luck case or a good laugh. Over the years my Uncle and Ant took in many strays...human and critter...young and old. No one was ever turned away from their table. When he "went home" tickets were purchased post-haste, nieces, nephews, friends of his children that came to stay for the weekend and left over a year later...or never left until they were adults...we all came "home".

This is Sandy.
My Uncle and his son went to buy tractor parts, and came home with her, they bought her off a slaughter truck for $20, hooves over grown and nothing but skin and bones, she was in really rough shape. Another Aunt of mine, who lives down the road from Uncle had to have knee surgery...she was in rough shape too, so the donkey was named after Ant Sandy.

One day Kyle ran to the house saying "Grandpa Sandy is down, we need the 4 wheeler!" Uncle said "We'll take the truck, hop in" then he drove to get his son to help "get ol' Sandy up" all the while thinking it was Ant Sandy who was down. He pulled up to where Dan was, and said at the same time he saw Sandy the donkey on the ground "Dan, Sandy is down we need to go..." The story was still being told and laughed at as we all sat around and visited as families do when a loved one "goes home".

Ant Sandy's knee healed, and Sandy the donkey managed to get pregnant and have little Ellie Mae a couple of weeks ago, even though she still looks a bit rough she looks a whole lot better than she did when she stepped off the slaughter truck, another stray taken in. My Uncle will be missed, he was a good example of giving and reaching out to so many of us. It was a bittersweet trip...so if home really is where the heart is...then I can truly say...

...it was good to be "home".

Winds of Change

On June 17, 2010 a tornado ripped threw the Wadena MN area, Jon's hometown. With in hours facebook was full of pictures from the area. Can I just say I love facebook!?! With in a short time after the storm I knew that my Aunt Ruth was fine, although 3 blocks from the twister her home was fine. I also knew that my Aunt and Uncle in Deer Creek were ok and their farm had been spared, I knew that my cousins Grma H. who is over 90 years old was ok and had just lost power. Then the pictures started to pop up on fb, for days we had a virtual tour of the devastation. The 6 hours away from family and friends, didn't seem as far. Yup, love that facebook. Over the 4th of July weekend we traveled there. So sad to see places that we hung around just gone. All but one of the pictures I took, keep in mind that I took them two weeks later, and ALOT of clean up had taken place. If you want to see more pictures YouTube or google.

The north end of the Wadena County Fair grounds, this was one of our date spots.

I don't think any of these school buses will be ready for next fall. Some of them were thrown across the highway.

This is the high school Jon graduated from. The roof was peeled off and balled up like aluminum foil. They will bulldoze and build a new school, in the fall the kids will go to the local community college and the college students will attend other colleges in the area.

This is the ag service that my Uncle used all his years of farming

The cemetery lost so many huge trees, and stones were flung around, a couple are still missing. The cross with Jesus on in the middle, stood threw the storm. As we were driving around looking at all the debris and damage, Grace said it looks alot like Mexico.

One of Jon's friend's grew up here, Jon spent may hours hanging out there.

Now that puts things into perspective.

That tree is plastered with insulation.

No need for commentary on this picture, it was the 4th after all.

This is the one picture I didn't take. It was taken by my Aunt the day after the storm. When this picture made it to facebook via her grand daughter for me this was the one that broke my heart the most. That is my Uncle, and he is usually smiling. Even though I couldn't see his whole face I knew he was in a state of awe...and not a good state of awe either. To know that his landscape the way he knew it, now had been forever changed, it made me so sad. We can see havoc and devestation on the news and web, and be saddened by it, it is when it touches those you love that it becomes a reality, when it really rocks your world. Reminds me of of this song. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aq-_zwyTeGc