I decided to finish up the last 2 verses of “My Favorite Things”. If Ellen and Candy have any photos to contribute, then I will redo it.
Girls in white dresses with blue satin sashes
Snowflakes that stay on my nose and eyelashes
Silver white winters that melt into springs
These are a few of my favorite things
When the dog bites
When I’m feeling sad
I simply remember my favorite things
And then I don’t feel so bad
My sisters and I were on a roll when Ellen first sent the Raindrops On Roses photo and I asked about Whiskers on Kittens – Candy’s cue to send a photo of her friends kittens. I realize now I thought I knew the words to My Favorite Things from The Sound of Music. NEWS FLASH! I don’t. So I needed to check out the lyrics and see where I went off track.
Raindrops on roses
and whiskers on kittens
Bright copper kettles
and warm woolen mittens
Brown paper packages tied up with strings
These are a few of my favorite things
That’s the first verse and we only did the first line – I went into the second verse with doorbells and sleigh bells and schnitzel with noodles after Ellen sent apple strudel. By then we were off track but having fun.
Now to the 2nd verse, we have several pictures for that.
Cream colored ponies
and crisp apple streudel
Doorbells and
Sleigh bells
schnitzel with noodles
Wild geese that fly with the moon on their wings
These are a few of my favorite things
The three of us have done well with the first two verses, it will be interesting to see what we come up with for the last 2 verses. Thank You Ellen and Candy – this “project” is fun to do.
It all started with my sister Ellen sending one of her photos and called it Raindrops on Roses.
So I emailed back – what about whiskers on kittens? So an email went out to my sister Candy since she has a cat. She sent back this one for whiskers on kittens – her friend’s kittens.
Next we needed fresh apple strudel – Candy sent photo of apple blossoms, Ellen sent strudel.
It was my turn, so I found a doorbell, sleigh bells and schnitzel with noodle.
Things have slowed a bit, I have the feeling I am missing something. Hmmmm, I will post this and figure out what’s missing. Since we are now older, the three of us sisters have grown a lot closer now – I am so happy about that. With Mom’s dementia, I am so grateful to have such supportive, encouraging, understanding and loving sisters. We may live far apart, but that is only in physical distance. We are close where it counts.
One thing I didn’t inherit from Mom was her green thumb; I have to improvise for a garden now. I also don’t want to have to weed and have a lot of maintenance, so I have been looking around to see what I can do that can be low maintenance while being a bit different. I have had the three beds rather bare for quite a long time and I am beginning to see what will work. I bought some flower seed strips (when will they finally arrive?) and I will use those for my color and then decide how I want to place them. I’ve been looking at tiles and things as design elements that will mix with the flowers while being able to take them up when I actually have a true garden design with Nancy. That’s a long way off, so this will have to do until then.
I decided I want a stream bed with rocks in the bed by the garage, plus use the pieces of tree as a design instead of lining the outside of the bed. I have another idea for the design of the wood circles for the back porch bed, I can do that by using the rake to move them from the border – bending over is not easy on the back. I have the foot path in the dogwood tree bed (cat garden) that works well there. I am going to put in a little pond, but not with water, with tile type pieces. Lots of plans but not a lot of execution yet.
However, last Sunday I went to a cake tasting in the morning and on my way home stopped to buy three bags of river rocks. Each are 40 pounds and cost $3.99 – not bad since most other places charge a lot more. Unfortunately I came home just before Eddie did and he decided the bags had to be on the ground. Not my plan at all. I had moved some of the heavier rocks from the back porch bed because I wanted something to that would keep the rocks from rolling on to the new drive – plus the downspout keeps sending water into the garage. I wanted to fix that and this was a great idea.
Also have the right date on my photo.
They may not look like very big rocks, but those puppies were heavy. Wow, I was winded very quickly. I may buy some smaller rocks to put between the drive and the bigger rocks to give it a more finished look. I saw some tiles that were made up of rocks and maybe that would be better because they would be less likely to slide.
This is my log slice design and I liked the idea of having the stream go through it. I have mostly used the bags of rocks to do the stream, but I haven’t quite decided how wide it will be.
As you see, I put a brick under the downspout to keep the water from messing up the bark and sending it on to the drive and into the garage. (The thumb isn’t visible as you actually see the rocks) I need to see what happens when it rains to know if my idea works. The three bags I bought took me up to the design – man was I tired. I was wondering about how my body would be, even though I released the belief of payback pain. I took Aleve and actually did quite well the next day. I also saw my chiropractor and she helped with adjustments. I also made an appointment to see her Wednesday morning as well. Tuesday (the 2nd day) I woke up around 3 or so and felt still around the edges. It wasn’t any place specific, but a little Aleve and some rest and I was doing okay.
This was far as I went on Sunday. I spent Monday afternoon having a nap.
During the week I kept think about my stream and I wanted to buy two more bags – that’s my limit at the moment – to be able to lay out the rest of the stream. Wednesday didn’t turn out to be good and I spent Thursday morning at my rheumatologist and then my infusion, so I rested in the afternoon. By Friday I was itching to get back to the stream, but first I went to visit mom. The last 3 or 4 times she has been more alert when I saw her. She always enjoys the cookies and chocolate and says she likes me reading to her. I find myself getting caught up in the story myself. She also enjoys a back rub, so I do some when I am there. I notice that suddenly there is a change, but I haven’t noticed it although it has been gradually happening. She is a little less easy to understand, yet she carries on a conversation as if I know exactly what she is saying.
After I left her Friday, I stopped to buy two more bags of rocks and headed home. This time I did it the way I planned it last Sunday, I left the bags in the truck, took a small plastic carton and my pail, then my wheelie walker to the back of the car. I could sit down and put rocks into the pail, then spread them from the pail. It was a lot easier on my back than bending down to the bag on the sidewalk.
The rest of the stream was laid out, which gave me an idea. I will put some bit larger rocks at the end of this side and themI may have to move it a little closer to the garage to get the effect I have in mind.
And now I have the design of my stream.
It’s now Sunday and the 2nd day after my “gardening”. So far I was a little stiff in my neck and upper back, but I am doing quite well. It is also chiropractor morning tomorrow and that is an excellent thing. Next thing to do is make the log design in the other bed and see what inspires me for that one. I have a couple of easy ideas and I am interested to see how they work out – will it be as easy as I picture it?
It has been a busy week and we have made a big change to those and yard. Delores and Bob Allen were having their drive repaved and they asked if we would like to do ours at the same time. theirs needed a lot of work while ours needed some more gravel and then it would be ready to pave. She gave us the name and number and Eddie had to think about it. He had called them when Delores first told us about them and no one answered, just a voicemail. Eddie left two messages and no one ever called him back. that doesn’t go down well when someone doesn’t answer the phone, so he was leery of them. This time he left a message on Monday and Tuesday morning I had a call back. He gave me a quote and I wanted to let Eddie know how much they would charge. He didn’t think it was outrageous, so I called the man back and left a message that we would go ahead. He called back and said he would be out in the morning with the contract for signing.
They were still at Allen’s when Eddie came hoe, so he went over to talk to the crew to tell him what he wanted, I decided he needed to have the way he wanted it. As he was talking with them, it turned out they are also doing the paving for the parking lot at the Future of Flight. This I learned when Kevin came on Tuesday morning with the contract. they said they would start that day, but I never saw them show up except to paint lines along the drive. Not sure what was happening.
When I came back from Breakfast Club on Wednesday morning, I found this in the drive and newly bulldozer gravel.
No way was I going to be able to park in the garage. So I put it over at John and Luzma’s house, tucked in among the other cars. I knew they wouldn’t mind. I took some pictures of the things they had done.
They scraped some of the other gravel down so they would be able to pave a level way into the garage.
There is a bit of a hail down toward the garbage cans, a bit much for me, so I go along the drive to a lower place.
There is a bit of a gradual going down so Eddie can put away the wheelie bins without an obstacle.
They made it so there is a gradual incline to the end of the side-walk.
They planned to take a bit of the hill and smooth it a little, plus they dug by the pavement.
You can see one of the orange paint marks they did the day before.
No one showed up until around the time Eddie came home, about 1 or after. Then we saw Bob Allen checking it out because the guys came to pave. I wanted to take pictures of the process but Eddie wanted to get going to do what we needed to do, so I have a few pictures of before and after but no during. This is what we saw when we came home – the Volvo was parked behind my car at John’s.
A brand new drive!
No more step up to the sidewalk.
A small ridge by the trees.
They curved it on both ends.
They also scraped at each end at the foot of the drive.
That’s how it first looked to us – we left the tape on until the following afternoon.
It all happened faster than we expected – it was a future project and now it is a reality.
I must give my sister Ellen credit for these photos, she sends some really cool pictures and I thoroughly enjoy them. I had no idea what she meant with the title until I opened the photos, what a surprise and delight to see what she had done.
I checked out Wikipedia to see what they showed about it:
Ocean Grove was founded in 1869 as an outgrowth of the camp meeting movement in the United States, when a group of Methodist clergymen, led by William B. Osborn and Ellwood H. Stokes, formed the Ocean Grove Camp Meeting Association to develop and operate a summer camp meeting site on the New Jersey seashore. By the early 20th century, the popular Christian meeting ground became known as the “Queen of Religious Resorts.” The community’s land is still owned by the camp meeting association and leased to individual homeowners and businesses. Ocean Grove remains the longest-active camp meeting site in the United States.
Now you have a bit of history which explains why there is a lot of gingerbread there. Here are some examples:
The Victorians loved gingerbread on their houses, even their “summer places”.
I have to admit, I love it; these have enough to make them interesting but not over done.
And if you didn’t have a fancy gingerbread, there are some lovely cottages that are just as nice.
And of course, a real cool Main Street!
Ellen has also been sending pictures of flowers – everything is a little later there because they have had so much snow and ice. I feel as if I am enjoying Spring for a second time.
Thank You so much Ellen!
I am a little slow when it comes to some technology – especially when I don’t know something can be done. I found I have a camera on my iPad (I know there are a lot of you thinking “Well, Duh!”) and by accident found out how to do it. So I was out in the garden the other day when we had a bit of sunshine before the next rain showers and I tried out my iPad. It took some finagling because I kept having the screen blocked – I found I had my finder over the lens. Plus I have a case it sits in and the cover was a bit of a problem because I have to make sure it doesn’t block the lens.
So there I was, one hand keeping the cover out of the way, holding the iPad with the other and trying to take pictures. It was hard to find a finger to push the shutter button and also not end up have it take three or four pictures in a row. Next thing I know, I am ready to take a selfie – now how did that happen and how do I go back to pictures of the garden. I finally figured that one out, then found I was doing square pictures – it’s been an experience and an education. Would you like to see what I took with my iPad? All I have to do is figure out how to down load them.
I just connected my iPad to my computer and guess what! The pictures on are on my computer. Will wonders never cease!
The Scillas in the porch flower bed are more profuse and thick than this photo
The blueberries are blossoming so I am hoping for a good crop.
The Scillas by the garage are doing very well.
They also are blooming by the corner of the garage and where the cherry trees were.
We don’t really have pear blossoms left after the wind and rain. We’ll wait to see if we have pears this year.
The apple tree had fared fairly well, all depends on how much the fruit set before the rain.
Even so, the apple blossoms are still lovely.
Delores bought a couple of tulips at the tulip fields up north last year – they are beautiful.
It was a sunny bit after the rain and before the next bout of rain.
As you can see, I did better than I expected, even managed to somehow turn it back to rectangular pictures. I also took photos with my camera, I’ll show you if there is a difference in the next post.
I was a bit wiped out writing three long posts about my Dad – sometimes I was seeing pictures from the past, sometimes I was a bit drippy and many times I was smiling as I recalled things about that dear man. I have been making a list of things I had forgotten so there will be other post about him. It was a stressful week because of Dad’s birthday, but also because f Mom, probably more emotional stress than physical.
So I thought I would put a few photos on this post to lighten the mood and maybe make you smile or giggle. There is no doubt about it, cats can put themselves in the most peculiar positions and places.
It’s a wet, rainy and chilly day, a few cat pictures cheer me up no end.
It’s the 1st week of March and the flowers are slowly blooming – won’t be Spring officially until about March 21st. Doesn’t seem to faze them about the hard rain and wind along with the cooler temperatures. I saw a few flowering fruit trees all in bloom, the crocuses have been up and blooming for a couple of weeks. Unfortunately it has rained so hard and for so long, the poor things are lying flat on the ground. They were lovely when they were upright – I didn’t get out to take pictures soon enough.
I just notice by the side along the garage the little daffodils are about to bloom. The Scillas pushing leaves up all over the place, the back porch bed is full of them.
I noticed some thin, twirly leaves in the garage bed while the Scillas were bringing up leaves – not sure what they were, almost pulled them out.
What do you know, they are grape hyacinths. Not easy to see in the photos.
I certainly can’t complain about the weather, I much prefer it to the white stuff and that seems to be happening over most of the country – all our rainstorms will turn into snow as they go over the Cascade mountains and head east. My concern is when the fruit trees blossom, if it rain and is too windy, all the blossoms are gone and we won’t have pears and apples. I do need to make sure there are fertilizer stakes for things this year – poor babies have been starved for the last 2 or 3 years. Now they are in full bud.
Unfortunately they are also covered with lichen and some fuzzy stuff – they would probably do better if I cleaned it off the branches.
I bought something for the cat garden – a cat of course. I checked Home Depot and they had a cat curled up asleep, I bought it and Eddie put it on the Fortinia stump so she can sleep in the sun. I must admit, I am sorry to see her in the rain, but she will be fine. I am also thinking about putting in some pieces of sea glass as decoration, or maybe as a small pond. Still deciding where and how to arrange it. Still not sure what to do about the other two beds, the rest of the yard is on its own for the moment. Most important right now is removing weeds.
Some days I feel badly leaving her out in the rain and cold.
3 Days Later
Wow! You should see all the flowering fruit trees out in blossom; the camellias are out as well – I took a picture of the big camellia tree but I stuck my finger in the middle, so I will retake that.
That didn’t come out too well either.
I had the two forsythia bushes taken out in the front, but I looked down the bank and this is what I see now.
Two bushes have taken up residence on the bank. There are a few daffodils down the front bank – who would have thought it.
I never know what I will find blooming these days, I admit i I am not much of a gardener at this point, though I have a lot of ideas I want to try. Today is one of our sunny days, it is supposed to rain again and of course, all that rain goes over the Cascades and becomes very wintry weather for everyone east of us.
When I was on the duck tour, I saw a lot of houseboats and they intrigued me. I took some pictures and then looked on the web to find better pictures of some I saw. Most I have no idea what they are or who owns them, but found them very interesting.
This photo of Ride the Ducks of Seattle is courtesy of TripAdvisor
This photo of Ride the Ducks of Seattle is courtesy of TripAdvisor
This photo of Ride the Ducks of Seattle is courtesy of TripAdvisor
This photo of Ride the Ducks of Seattle is courtesy of TripAdvisor Someone has a paddle wheeler. Next to the white paddle wheeler is one that can be taken out on the water. There is a black box facing the paddle wheeler, right under the smaller window. That is where the steering helm is located.
This one I saw from the duck on our back to the launch ramp.
This photo of Ride the Ducks of Seattle is courtesy of TripAdvisor
This photo of Ride the Ducks of Seattle is courtesy of TripAdvisor Gasworks Park
This photo of Ride the Ducks of Seattle is courtesy of TripAdvisor
This photo of Ride the Ducks of Seattle is courtesy of TripAdvisor
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