Living it...

The weather up here has been perfection. Not only has it been a week of sun and 70 degrees, but we have even had a few thunderstorms for authenticity. Real ones with lightening and thunder boomers over the house. Poor Roosevelt has run for cover several times. They have moved on now. Other harbingers of summer remain, however. The House Martins which take up summer residence in our chimney eaves are still here. The family is in full chorus day and night and since they are only about two feet from our bedroom window, it's lovely to listen to them. They will be gone as soon as the youngsters gain their flying credentials. Beautiful Western Tiger Swallowtail butterflies are about now. They are yellow and black and seem to be everywhere in the lawn/meadow/jungle clearing. John also found a nest yesterday with some brown eggs in it. Don't know what they are but hopefully it has not been abandoned.

John has actually been home this week to enjoy our summer. Tomorrow he is off to California where it is pereptually summer, if not picturesque. I had a busy week at work and it was such a joy to have him around in my off-work hours. Dinner would usually be in the works when I arrived home and the only decision I had to make was "red or white?".

On the home front, in his off-hours he has been digging a trench to lay conduit and run electricity out to the shed. It's a deep trench, but it looks nearly complete. He got the permit from the county, so we're official and all. Once that's done, he will speed through the rain gutter installation so we can place rain barrels before the rainy season arives. Meanwhile his hard work in the garden is starting to pay off. The garlic and shallots are drying in the shed and he picked the first peas yesterday. The addition of a couple "tents" have allowed the squash and tomatoes to gather enough heat to actually grow this year. Potatoes seem to grow well here and we actually had a little lettuce and spinach for dinner. The raspberries and rhubarb took off right away.

I've made more progress on the baby quilt only to decide that I want to adapt the design a little. So, today, I will make that alteration and I should be able to finish the top by end of day. Then I'll create the backing and it will be ready to quilt. I'm planning to have it quilted on a long-arm machine since it needs to hold up for a long time and that will also allow for more intricate quilting than I can achieve on my machine. The quilt finally told me what it wanted  to be and then it fell into place. It's like that with most things, I find.

Last evening, we drove into nearby Kingston (about 3 miles), parked the car and walked aboard the ferry. We enjoyed the 30 minute ride across to Edmonds where we walked 5 minutes to a restaurant (Cafe de Paris) to celebrate my birthday belatedly. The food was good, the ambience was relaxing, and the experience was magnifique! We noticed a couple of other places to try and will definitely expand our usual circle of "local" restaurants to include these across the water. We walked back and enjoyed the return trip while the sun started to go down. How civilized is that!

I will spend a week in Indiana later this month trying to sort out what can be done for my father as his health declines. There are things which must be done in real-time, face to face. I'll stay with my aunt and uncle while I am out there which will be a nice consequence of the visit. Life...