A Walk On a Sunny Weekend

It is a sunny summer afternoon when these pictures were taken...Instead of just a written synopsis of a walk I took with my daughter, I thought I would document it with photographs.

Yes, it is wonderful to find that one footpath in the local park that can fool you into thinking you maybe miles from civilization...that is, until you hear the whine of the float-plane headed to nearby Lake Washington for a landing.

This bracket fungi is everywhere in Hamlin Park, where we were walking, and after some VERY brief research HERE, I found out that this is actually an indication that the tree on which it grows is dead or dying. Now obviously, this picture is of a fallen log, ergo dead tree, but many of the standing trees had this fungus on them which will probably explain one of the upcoming pics...

Random red leaves:)

The good news is they're trying!

And we're headed back to civilization...

Someone in the neighborhood has some amazing Lillies, below also:



Lily enjoying the rare sunny day walk in North Seattle area...

view up the street:)

Ready for some street ball...

Now, this? I will have to find something to add and definitely return...

And Home Sweet Home...But the sun still shines, for now! Enjoy!

Wine and Camping

This past few days, I and the fam went camping out on the coast and were lucky enough to find a spot to post up right on the beach. Besides all the wonderful memories created, this trip was especially nice because I discovered that I am perhaps pretentious enough to forgo the beer and drink wine while camping. While I didn't plan ahead, my darling spouse did and had brought our corkscrew. The combination of location and beverage choice were perfect, and I made a few mental notes...


1. Chardonnay pairs perfectly with s'mores.
    No, Lily was not drinking chardonnay. She just ate the most s'mores, ergo, the picture:)

This is especially true if you are on the third or fourth "glass." I put that in quotes because after the first being consumed from a not-so-well rinsed coffee cup, I decided that the notes of pear would taste better straight from the bottle (which I was sharing with my husband, so don't jump to any conclusions about intoxication levels, now) and I am roughly estimating at the quantity at which I decided to bust out the mallow-chocolate-graham mix. I opted for only eating one s'more anyway, as I discovered that fire, melting chocolate/marshmallows and alcohol consumption are not conducive to one's good health. Lily ate the most, and paired hers with an aged (sat in the sun on driftwood all day) red Gatorade.

2. While watching the sunset at an awesome beach campsite, you will end up with enough photos to show the time-lapse version to all.

I do say, sipping wine and watching the sunset makes one feel quite the bourgeois. This does not, however, make one feel like any kind of photographer. After each snapshot I took, I felt that I had not truly captured the essence of the awesomeness of the incredible view I was watching. I tried my best to will my phone's camera to become a professional Canon...This resulted in over 50 photos of a 15-20 min period of time and included one 5 second video of me mumbling something about "what the eff is wrong with th..." I did manage to turn my focus twice within that time to the moonrise behind me, though.

3. A cobble-stone mattress, though INCREDIBLY uncomfy and even painful at times, makes for a wonderful hangover prevention method.

The tent was not located on the sand. We had placed it above the high tide line (for obvious reasons) and that put us on stones large enough to be immovable and lumpy but small enough to be lumpy (yeah, I know). And I could not for the life of me locate the pump for our air mattress and sooooo....But in the end, as I stumbled happily into "bed" at the end of a wonderful day of sunburn and surf, this strange uncomfiness kept all the pain in my back and away from my head. Hooray!

So, cheers! I am officially trading my preference of beer-pong beer for a cheap bottle of wine during my camping excursions.

Impatient and Hungry

I am not convinced that people were ever able to survive by growing/hunting their own food. Earlier this spring (a month, month and a half ago? Before May 23...) We started a garden:

I AM NOT A GARDENER.
I wrote that in caps because I will not be a garden blogger. I read them, for informative reasons, and they have helped, but I am essentially winging this thing and it is only by luck that today, this is what my veggie-patch looks like:

Problem is, I don't want to eat the flowers. Why are the damn veggies (and/or fruits, there are tomatoes, peppers, squashes, etc. I don't know if you are a cook or a botanist...) taking so long to "fruit?" I am tired of going grocery shopping....
As for the hunting...this urban area gives me few options:

But I am pretty resourceful:

;)

Sea-Surfing

As summer tries its damnedest to come to the Pacific Northwest, the surfboards are brought out and ready to go to the coast. Of course Jeff has been making boards and surfing through the winter anyway, but Lily is getting a little antsy. I don't blame her, as this is the summer that I am determined to get out on the water. Now, I have been surfing, a few years ago. It was a memorable spring? summer? (unsure, as the seasons in SoCal are relatively indistinguishable) day on the beach at Camp Pendleton down by San Diego (contrary to popular belief, "San Diego" is in fact NOT a whale's vagina, but a manatee's butthole...):

I had received for my birthday, an eight-footish long board from my wonderful family and had yet to surf it. We (the fam; Jeff, Lily and I) gathered up two surfboards and a boogie (Lily wasn't surfing quite yet...) and headed south to get on Pendleton and soak up sun and surf. I was excited. While we set up on the beach, we glanced around and I noted that we must be early birds; no-one on the beach yet....Wait. I was wrong. I noticed a wall of orange slowly pushing toward us. I strained my eyes. Then I chuckled as I realized that the residents of the brig were tramping across the width of the beach picking up every single bit of litter there. We were, in fact, such early birds, that on a military base we had even shown up before the EMI of litter patrol.
Anyway, to the very first surf session in the history of Dorian.
Jeff had been catching waves for an hour before I waved him in to keep an eye on Lily while I gave it a shot. He insisted, of course, that she would be fine for a few minutes while he gave me a hand standing up on the board....Whateve, I thought, I can figure it out but I will humor you. I splayed out on the board and began paddling. The water was shallow far enough out for Jeff to wade out with me to a decent spot. So we waited...then he saw with his expert eyes, something ride-able and told me to start paddling into it as he gave the tail a little shove. I paddled, turned and pushed with my arms...up, up, drop, and sanding....teetering...and roll. I saw it coming, so I held my breath, but forgot to shut my eyes. I felt the tug of the leash on my ankle, I turned toward the sea-floor and screamed...loudly gurgled, actually...at the monstrous stingray that swam under me. This caused me to flail backward toward my board, which then, instead of floating steadily away, caught my turbulence, lunged sideways then flung back...right into my forehead. I gurgled hysterically again as the momentum sent me back in the direction of my sea-monster friend. I forgot about the other hazard in the water and flailed right back...into the nose of my board with my sternum. Luckily, all the water was slowing everything down and I managed to not fatally injure myself. I finally found footing where I thought was a good distance from the stingray and stood up...right under my board which caught the top of my head this time.

When I had finally made it safely back to my beach towel, weakly carrying the board under my arm, I flopped down and set the board beside me. I lay happily in the sun, revelling. I looked over at Jeff, who had only seen part of what had gone on, and smiled. He asked if I was OK, I said yes. I will not be doing that again today, though.

And so I have surfed once, and not since, for a variety of reasons. But I am most definitely looking forward to giving it a shot up here, where the sea-monsters are much larger and stronger.