cherry tomato

Grandy's Garden

This past Saturday was the opening day of fishing season in Washington. I'm not that big on fishing, but have done a good bit of it in my life. My family has waterfront property on a small lake about and hour and a half from me. I've written about it here many times, like here, for example. For my family, Opening day is our day for a family reunion. For some, it is the only time we will see each other for the entire year. So, even though I don't really fish anymore, I always make a point of going to visit family. It rains most years, so we were completely prepared for that. However, this year the weather surprised us with a mild, sunny day.

After leaving the lake, we stopped off at Grandy's house. My mom and aunt were visiting her for the weekend, and Eric and I dropped off some tomato starts for my mom. We arrived early, so Eric, Johnny and I toured Grandy's garden.

 

 

   

 

 

The dogwood and rhododendrons were in full bloom.

I have always loved my grandparents' garden. When I'm there, it feels as if I've stepped into another world, and I'm no longer in an urban environment. An inexplicable calm sets in the moment I walk through the gate. When I was a very young girl, my grandfather gave me my own spot in the garden - a garden full of pansies, and it was all mine. I was so proud of it. I still am. We have been teaching Johnny about gardening and plan to give him his own little spot this year, just as I had as a child.

I also had a wooden swing beneath towering plum and hazelnut trees. The swing is no longer there, but I still love to walk to this spot. The trees are so tall and dense there, that it stays completed shaded all day, with only small ripples of light coming through.

These days, my grandmother's yard is a bit overgrown. She is now in her 80's, and it's gotten to be too much for her to manage. Lucky for me, I adore overgrown gardens much more than well-manicured ones.

Slow Sunday

Our Saturday was filled with obligations (more on that later this week), so we were happy to have today to ourselves. My day was nice and chill with ample outside time, both at a local park and in our backyard, a pedicure, journal writing, gardening and making a healthy, delicious meal for dinner. Oh, and I tossed in a refreshing cocktail to boot!

 

Vodka with pomegranate/blueberry juice with a splash of mineral water and some fresh lemon. It was the perfect thing to sip on while preparing dinner.

Here's to a great week ahead. Cheers!

Bursting to Life

 

Since today is Earth Day, I thought I would take the opportunity to share some photos from our garden. Every year our garden becomes a little bit larger, and we seem to start planting earlier and earlier - this year we started in February. We essentially have a greenhouse in the kitchen nook of our house, where my dear husband has about 30 heirloom tomato starts he is nurturing. In recent years, gardening has become my husband's primary hobby. In his youth, he was a phenomenal skateboarder. Now his passion is gardening. In fact, he is in the development stages of a gardening blog that I will certainly share with you when it's ready to go live.

In the meantime, please enjoy a few more photos from the garden. The first photo is of our peas.

   

Garden beds.

 

Allium

 

Tulip.

Happy Earth Day!

Gray

The gray has returned here, but it's not bothering me so much. The couple of days of true spring weather have made everything burst into life. Our flowers have all opened their petals wide to soak in every bit of spring sweetness. Even people have come out of their hiding places to reintroduce themselves to just being outside. I work a block north of the famous Pike Place Market and often step out to take a break and walk down to participate in the buzz at the market. There is an alley way at the market called Post Alley, and this is my favorite place to stroll. Yesterday, as I walked along the alley, I felt like I had been transported to another city. Every restaurant had opened their sidewalk cafes, and diners were out enjoying an afternoon snack, coffee, beer. Scooters were parked along the other side of the alley, and planters were overflowing with gorgeous green life. Bright rainbow windsocks hung from the roof, blowing in the gentle, warm, humid breeze. I fell in love with Seattle all over again, as I always do on such walks. 

I made the terrible mistake of not photographing any of this. So, I will just have to try to capture another moment of joy like this in the future. Instead, I will leave you with a photo of a chair we picked up at the thrift store last week. It's screaming for a makeover. More to come on that.

Hope you have a great day!

Slow Sunday

Sundays are the days I am making a concerted effort to slow down. With Monday morning looming before me, I want to squeeze every last bit of sweet weekend from my Sunday. My husband and I recently adopted a toddler, so it’s become much more challenging to slow things down and soak in the delicious weekend. All too often, Monday morning arrives, and I feel that the weekend flashed before me so quickly that I couldn’t even tell you what I did. No more!

I am making a promise to myself to keep Sundays sacred. By that, I just mean that I don’t want to book every moment of the day with responsibility. I want to leave it open to revel in the mundane. Don’t stay on a set schedule. Take some time to prepare a special meal, maybe even invite friends over. It’s sunny? Well then spend the day in the garden or go to the park and have a picnic. It’s raining? Stay inside and work on a sewing project. Pop some popcorn and watch a movie. Play a board game. I’m calling it Slow Sunday, and today was my first.

Today was a perfect start to the ritual – I got up with the boy and let the man sleep in while I made a simple French toast breakfast.  After a relaxing morning, we headed out to the farmers market. We are fortunate enough to live in a place where there are year round farmers markets, and we take full advantage, even in the winter months. During the bleak days of winter, there are only a few vendors and brave patrons out there. But spring has hit Seattle, and today’s market was truly hopping. We loved seeing all of the stalls bursting the vibrant tulips and the volumes of vegetable and floral starts. We picked up some much needed rosemary and dill and some vegetable staples.

After the market we headed home for lunch and decided to have a BBQ and invite some friends over. I got to work on making strawberry shortcake, with the shortcake made of a sour cream pound cake.

We called up our friends, and by 5:00 had a lovely soirée filled with plenty of sun soaking, lounging and catching up. Oh, and of course, there was an abundance of meat involved.

It was a day filled with sunshine, fresh produce, family and good friends. Now I have my feet up, relaxing on the couch and feel ready to take on Monday.

Spring Inspiration

It's another gorgeous day in Seattle, and I'm looking forward to the weekend. I stocked up on some fabric last weekend to begin a quilt, but I still have plenty to do before I can get started. When I begin a quilt, I usually start with the fabric and determine the pattern I want to use after that. I get so much inspiration from fabric, that I feel like it gives me the push I need to get started on something. Here are some of the fabrics I picked up last weekend:

The truth is, I've wanted to make a quilt with predominant shades of blues and yellows for awhile now. My plan is to pull some additional fabric from my stash to complete the palate then figure out the pattern I want to use. I'm looking forward to getting that wrapped up this weekend.

I will leave you with another image from walking in the neighborhood. This is from a dogwood tree that is just beginning to bloom. I look forward to taking some pictures of it in all it's blooming glory.

Have a great weekend!

Is This Thing On?

It's been awhile - 2 years in fact, since I've last written. I bet you thought I would be gone for good. There were times I thought I was too, but lately I've had that little stir inside me and the feeling that I want to get back on the old girl. The sad truth is that I haven't been doing much creating. I've been focused more on laying down roots in my life and creating a strong sense of stability, which I was lacking for a few years. The roots are feeling strong and nutritious now, and I'm feeling ready to just enjoy making things again.

There will be much more to come, but for now, please enjoy some photos I took from a walk in the neighborhood yesterday. It was a gorgeous Spring day in Seattle - the joy of which seemed to permeate every pore and give me a greater sense of well-being. It was just one of those days where my life felt balanced and clear. Joy.

It feels good to be back.