cherry tomato

how NOT to behave in a crisis situation

Thank you for the kind welcome back. It's nice to know there are still people out there interested in checking in on me. It is much appreciated.

This past week was filled with odd occurrences, not the least of which was my darling puppy getting her right eye scratched by one of our cats. The event went something like this:

- cat runs up to dog and scratches her eye
- dog lets out agonizing whine
- dog's eye starts dropping tears
- Mary looks at dog's eye and FREAKS OUT
- Mary's freaking out scares the dog even more
- Mary starts running around the house trying to get her brain to function because, apparently, in trauma situations, Mary loses all brain function and ability to breathe.
- Eric arrives home and calmly assesses the situation.
- Mary continues to freak out because she can't breathe
- Eric calmly calls vet and finds out what we need to do
- All to go vet
- Mary cries the whole time

As you may be able to tell, I don't handle crisis situations very well. The good news is Zoey has a good prognosis. I'm still extremely worried, fussing over her at every opportunity, but she should be okay.

Poor little girl:

Now, I'll leave you with some photos from a walk in the neighborhood over the weekend. Spring officially begins this week, and the signs of its arrival are everywhere. I couldn't be more pleased.

 

a trip to the peninsula

A few weeks ago, Eric and I visited my mother and step-father on the Olympic Peninsula. They live in a small quiet town surrounded by salt water, fresh water and a nearby mountain. Their home is on 5 wooded acres, and during a break in the rain, we were able to take a hike through the property.

It was a cold foggy morning, and I spotted a mushroom colony in the yard.

And here are some things we spotted on our hike.

I've always had a thing for moss-covered trees...

A single huckleberry.

Some lichen.

Some mushrooms growing from a tree stump.

It was a perfect, restful weekend, and I look forward to returning next week to celebrate Christmas.

This will prove to be a busy weekend full of my work holiday party, a birthday party and another holiday party. On top of that, our little startup is being featured on the Today show tomorrow, and we're expecting an extremely busy day that will begin at 4:00 am. It's going to be really exciting, but I think I'll probably end up collapsing by Sunday.

With that, I think I'm off to bed to prepare for the early morning. I hope you all have a wonderful, and most importantly, relaxing weekend.

snow days, birthdays, holidays

they days fly this time of year. so many commitments: so many birthdays: so many parties. it's hard to keep from feeling run down. how does this always happen? it's september, i blink my eyes, and i'm suddenly near the middle of december! how. does. this. happen?

december 1st was our first snowfall of the year, and while it only lasted for about 24 hours, it was sublime. zoey was crazed with excitement at the cold, white frost covering everything in sight.

i think it's safe to say she loved it.

I have been working on a few projects I need to share with you, but for now, I'm leaving you with a couple more photos from our snow day.

i haven't forgotten that i promised you some photos from my trip to my mothers. i'll share them with you in my next post. i was able to capture some interesting images i'm looking forward to sharing with you.

be well, friends.

it's nice to live 10 minutes from the beach

Oh, dear readers, i didn't mean to be away all week yet again. I've been hit with some sort of bug and haven't quite been able to kick it all week. I meant to share these photos with you early in the week, but, well, it didn't really work out that way, did it?

I'll just leave you with some images from our trip to the beach last weekend.

 

 

Have a great weekend, friends. We're going out of town for the weekend, and I should have some more photos to share with you next week.

element::earth

decay

birth

the harvest

Our blackberry bushes are now producing a bounty of juicy berries. I picked these on Friday evening, a day before things got crazy. I spent both Saturday and Sunday nights in the emergency room suffering a mystery affliction that hit me on Saturday. I seem to be on the mend now, but it's difficult to tell. I expect it won't be a very productive week for me, so you won't be hearing much from me at least for another week.

As for the berries, they're in the freezer awaiting their mates. Once I get a large enough number of them, I'm going to make some blackberry and apple preserves from this book. I love making preserves, and this book is filled with recipes for pickles, mustards, jams, compotes, cheese and more. Stunning photos compliment the recipes, and every time I look through it, I feel an overwhelming urge to make every single thing in there. We keep eating the berries as we collect them though, so it may be a few weeks before I will have enough for the preserves.

stopping for a break

Of course, it's all about the home right now. It has been a long weekend of unpacking, and it feels so nice to just sit down and relax on a Sunday evening. Now that things are settling, I'm noticing some of the little details of the house.

This is a view of the kitchen fan above the sink. We don't have any sort of hood above the stove, so I think this is meant to serve the same purpose.

Dishes in the sink:

And, because it's in bloom now, I thought I'd share a photo of our hibiscus.

Things are really starting to come together now. I'll be sharing some more photos this week, and sharing links to some of the things I want to get for the house.

Have a great week!

the arborists...

My grandfather simply could not have chosen a worse day to plant trees. It was raining in Seattle on Saturday morning, but by the time we got out to our property it was snowing and obviously had been for awhile. By the time we went out to start planting, the snow had turned to rain. A lot of rain.

My grandfather is turning 80 in just over a month, but there he was, out planting 300 douglas fir saplings on his property. Here he is looking a bit like the Gorton's fisherman:

And here's his assistant, Eric. We worked as a team: he did the digging, and I did he planting.

And finally, here's on of the saplings we planted:

Isn't it adorable? I'm looking forward to seeing these trees mature and look back to this day when we planted them as tiny baby trees. 

While out at our lake property, I spotted some new goodies I had never seen before. My grandmother had several little birds sitting on the window sill. She told me a friend of hers was trying to get rid of some of her things and my grandmother selected these:

I was so excited to see her new friends, and I'm glad she brought them out to the lake for us all to enjoy.

so, so cute...

Now that the busy weekend is over, I'm looking forward to getting back to some projects. I have been working on a quilt for my friend's two month old daughter. I'm hand stitching the top, so it's a little more time-consuming, but really, I just haven't been steadily working on it. I had some ambitious plans to hand-quilt it too, but I think I'm going to just do it with the machine. I am determined to finish it this week though.

I have finally gotten my studio set up to a point where I am happy with it. I won't say I'm "finished", but I'm really happy with it right now. I'll be sure and show you some pictures this week (probably tomorrow). I'll have to snap some photos before I mess it up again. It never takes too long, does it?

Oh, and by the way, Eric and I tied to win the Oscar contest! That's two years in a row for me...

the most wonderful time of the year?

I went out and took a few photos of the bulbs blooming in the front yard. Once I got down on the ground, I realized the photo was much more than just pretty flowers. I love how the bulbs force themselves through the dead leaves of autumn and winter to bring color and life to the ground. Add some sunshine, and you have a little scene that is sure to bring a smile to your face.

Message to Spring: Bring it on!

Eric and I are heading to the family lake property this weekend to plant some trees for my grandparents. Of course, it's supposed to be a beautiful day today and rain tomorrow for the tree-planting. It's a bit disappointing, but it shouldn't really matter too much. I'm just happy to have the opportunity to help my grandparents.

As you may be aware, the Academy Awards are on Sunday. It's the one day of the year that I always make a point of having a party. It started out very simply nearly ten years ago now, and over the years it has become a bit of an event. I love movies, but the Oscars can be a tad long and boring. To make things a little more interesting, I print up ballots for everyone, and everyone has to place their votes before the start of the show. I decorate the house, get gussied up, and make a variety of finger foods for the guests/competition. By the time the show airs, most people vote pretty much the same way for the major categories, so it ends up being the other categories like Cinematography, Documentary and Foreign Film that separate the winner from the losers. The prize is , of course, bragging rights, custody of the Oscar statue for the next year and usually something  else. I haven't decided on the gift yet.

Despite my love of films and being the host every year, I lose. Every year...and usually to the same person (ugh!). However, last year was the first year I won, and I plan to hold on to my Oscar statue this year.  I will  keep you posted. Keep your fingers crossed for me.

I hope you have a wonderful weekend!

getting back to normal

Is there anything quite so delicious as a cup of hot chocolate with fresh whipped cream on top? I think not. This was my little treat today in the middle of a day of cleaning. It was a gorgeous, sunny, frigid day here, and I was quite happy to stay inside, listen to some music, clean and, of course, sip on some hot chocolate. I'm really not supposed to eat dairy, but non-dairy whipped topping just doesn't cut it for me.

I have been a horrible blogger, and for that I am sorry. Between my ailing back and trips to visit my mother and my sister, my schedule has been quite full. I took the train to Portland last Friday morning.

and spent the weekend visiting my sister. We awoke to clear blue skies on Saturday, so we headed to Cannon Beach for the day. The weather held up nicely until precisely 1 mile from the beach, where it started raining.

I couldn't have cared less. We are well aware that going to the beach in the Pacific Northwest means bundling up from head to toe and preparing for blustery conditions. I actually think it adds to the beauty of the beaches here. There were very few people on the beach, and Amy's dog, Cody, had a blast running along the beach.

Amy and I walked the beach shooting photos. Amy was using one of her Brownies.

It was a lovely day, and a great weekend. ..