Tag Archives: RDP

To April!

Martini night

We have a friend who hosts a Martini Night on the last evening of the month. When she lived near us we used to go, but after she moved to Oregon we did not. Recently they switched to having it via Zoom. I was at my sisters last month so missed it. But my husband joined in, except he didn’t have a martini glass, or a martini. He was told that he needed to up his game: the rule is that you can drink what you want so long as it is in a martini glass. We picked up a couple at a thrift store for this month.

Unfortunately they had to cancel last night because the hostess took a fall and broke her arm. We toasted her and health and healing.

Jacqueline is an old friend, literally, she will be 101 years old this summer. I’ve known her for about 25 years. She is a real character. Aside: doesn’t it seem like the people who make it to 100 or more still sharp are characters?

She is very social and has organized many movie nights and parties and, before our time, she hostessed the “Alki Opera”, a chance to dress in your best and watch an opera on VCR. For several years now my husband and I have met her and her family at Mount Rainier for a few days of mountain time. Last year they closed the lodge because of coronavirus, but we do have reservations for this year.

Jacqueline is an interesting mix of conservative and eccentric and you never know what you will wind up discussing when you walk through the door or pick up the phone. She always dresses in long skirts and looks very conservative by today’s standards. But when young she went to New York City (she is from Seattle so that was quite a journey) to study modern dance and was active in the promoting socialism. She also spent a good deal of time studying, and even published a book, about Newgrange in Ireland.

So, my last photo for March was taken to send to Jacqueline with a get well card: of our new martini glasses all ready to toast her and wish her healing and health.

Almost Autumn

What passes for summer here in Seattle hasn’t quite let go, but signs of autumn are starting to show. Today’s dog walk showed signs of the seasons shifting.

The squirrels are active, we had to stop several times to see if they would come down and play…

…alas no. Even Ginger had to sit down after a while of waiting to see.

Even after several minutes the squirrel still didn’t come down, so Ginger finally let me lead her away. Is she stubborn or persistent?

These leaves are tinged with red, indicating autumn.
This dahlia is in full, glorious bloom, with buds coming on, indicating summer.
A quince about ready for harvest, indicating autumn.
Leaves starting to change, indicating autumn.
Fuschia in full summer glory.

Leaves starting to color shift for the new season:

Late summer cone flowers and a beautiful, shiny spider’s web for autumn.
The holly berries are reddening. Autumn’s colors foreshadowing winter.

My garden is still hopeful.

Maybe we’ll see an Indian summer.

For Ragtag’s daily post: autumn

P.S. Is anyone else having problems with WordPress letting you set a featured image?

Roses everywhere you look

I sometimes think that June should be its own season, at least around here, it is usually rather chilly, often times colder and grayer than May, but the weather is perfect for roses.

June is a very rosy month around here. I have a few bushes in my yard but some of my neighbors go all out. There is one lady who has roses climbing high up into her evergreen trees. I used to think of her (since I don’t know her name) as the crazy rose lady…but then I realized she probably really should be called the sane rose lady. Her yard is a bit overgrown, it’s not unkempt or neglected, just very alive, but the smell of roses greets you from a block away.

Ragtag Daily Prompt: Rose

Take luck

This afternoon I had a serendipitous experience. I was doing my coddiwomple thing after having coffee with my son and his girlfriend. They headed off to work and I just headed off. I tend to wander in a spiral, keeping a sense of where my ground zero is, but at the same time getting farther and farther afield. As I was headed back toward the center I spied a fascinating looking lion. Of the mythical type you often see on either side of an entrance in China. The thing that caught was the colors of the lion. It turned out that it was ceramic and the amazing coloration was from a brilliant job of glazing.

The shop appeared open but empty. I first peeked in through, then pressed my nose against the window to get a good view of the lions and other merchandise. From the shop next door a woman came out and said “Welcome to Shouguang” and invited me into her shop. She was happy to have me take pictures and she and her assistant served me tea. I believe, and I may learn more tomorrow when I visit another of her shops with my son, who will be able to understand her, it is a special collector’s type of ceramic. I am certain that it is gorgeous.

This is one of those times when I couldn’t have planned to do something I really enjoyed, because I didn’t know it existed.

Ragtag Daily Prompt: Serendipity

A Colorful Day along the Mihe River

Ah yesterday. Last night I tried to write a post about it and fell asleep. Jet lag plus busy day does not equal cogent prose.

Today’s RDP: Color brought a couple of things from yesterday to mind, so here goes again:

The day before yesterday there was rain and that resulted in a clear blue sky. These things don’t last: today is already hazy. Yesterday I rolled off the bed early, intending to enjoy the walk by the Mihe River in clear morning light. It was beautiful.

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Art installation of swimmers.

Walking back along a near-by road I saw this art studio painted in vibrant primary colors:

Later in the day I was walking back to my son’s apartment from his place of work, I had some time to kill so I decided to take a longer path, one that ran along a fun park/trail they had made from an abandoned railroad through town. It starts near where he works with a train station art installation:

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Train depot

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New friend

As I started to wander up the line a man came over and introduced himself. After a bit of almost communication (I finally called my son and had him talk to the guy and translate back to me), I wound up going with him and another gentleman to a huge rose garden, 250 thousand square meters, along the Mihe, well to the south of the stretch I had wandered in the morning. They worked at this garden on the structures.

They wanted to let me take pictures of their garden. You could tell they were rose buffs and also very proud of the garden as a whole…and rightly so. I’ve been to a few rose gardens here and there in the world, and this one is wonderful by any standard.

Quite a few roses were blooming and the weather was perfect. Sadly my SD card filled up and my extra hadn’t made my backpack.

As we were leaving the man at the gate came out with clippers and went around, in conference with the two I had come with and sent me home with this colorful sampling from their garden.

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