The Hearse, the Dog, the Mob and everything.*

A woman walking down the street was delayed by a passing funeral procession which was so unusual that she started paying attention. There were 2 hearses

 

 

followed by a woman walking with a large dog on a leash, which were followed by what had to be several hundred women.

 

 

The woman was so intrigued that she let good manners take the backseat and approached the woman with the dog.

"Please, what is going on here?" she asked. 

The Widow responded: "In the first hearse is the body of my husband. He was attacked by a dog and killed.

In the second hearse is the body of my mother-in-law, who was on the scene and tried to protect her son, of course, but the dog turned on her and killed her as well."

The woman thought about this for a moment and then asked "May I please borrow your dog?"

The Widow replied: "Get in line."

* A take-off of the book title: The Girl, the Goldwatch & Everything by John D. McDonald. 

I knew it had to be something like that.

“Well, you see, Norm, it’s like this: a herd of buffalo can only move as fast as the slowest buffalo. And when the herd is hunted, it is the slowest and weakest ones at the back that are killed first. This natural selection is good for the herd as a whole, because the general speed and health of the whole group keeps improving by the regular killing of the weakest members.

In much the same way, the human brain can only operate as fast as the slowest brain cells. Now, as we know, excessive intake of alcohol kills brain cells. But naturally, it attacks the slowest and weakest brain cells first. In this way, regular consumption of beer eliminates the weaker brain cells, making the brain a faster and more efficient machine. And that, Norm, is why you always feel smarter after a few beers.”

Cliff Clavin to Norm Peterson, one day in Cheers.

Fuchsia's on the deck

This year, instead of one lone hanging fuchsia basket wilting on the front porch where the scorching hot sun hits all afternoon, making it impossible to keep it hydrated, we're putting several on the deck in the back.  The back yard is full of big Douglas Firs and butts up to the green belt, also full of big trees.  There's some sun but mostly not, so hopefully the fuchsias will do better.  Here are the ones we're trying out this year.  Photos taken July 3rd, 2012.

Bicentennial w/ Lysimachia in the center; one fuchsia on each end of planter;

purchased at Molbak's in Woodenville.

Pink Marshmallow, one in each corner of the planter.

We bought these on our Bellingham road trip in April.

Blackie and Voodoo, also from the Bellingham trip.

Can't remember the nursery name, but it was full of little fuchsia starts.

This is Dark Eyes w/ Duranta 'Gold Edge' in the middle, also from Molbak's in June.

It's got a few buds but no blooms yet.

This unnamed fuchsia came from Bartell on the corner of 148th and 99 in Edmonds.

It was in full bloom when we got it.

More blooms next week.

Road Trip to Wenatchee, part 2

The way to Wenatchee: into the mountains on Highway 2 going east out of Monroe, Goldbar and Sultan.  It's pretty country and the mountains aren't scary on the inside lanes going east; it's a different feeling going west because we're on the outside lanes of the freeway, the 'cliff side', where the mountain falls away and it's a very, very long way down.

By 10:00am we were mid-road-trip, past Leavenworth and heading for Cashmere, the town not the goat.

This is our favorite fruit/vegetable stand east of Leavenworth, Smallwood's Harvest.  We didn't stop because we were running a bit behind schedule for our 11:am w/ Betty, plus we were still full from breakfast.

The Wenatchee River runs along Highway 2 on the east side of the mountains.  It's a short trip from Seattle to white-water rafting and camping, neither of which we do but it's there is we want to.

Peggy was driving and I was taking pictures out the window. 

Here we have an example of Law Enforcement in action.

And here is an even bigger example.

You just don't see that every day.  My guess is the trucker was doing better than 45mph.  

We arrived in the parking lot of the Wenatchee Walmart (as close to actually going to Walmart that we ever get) and met up with Betty.  Betty was mighty surprised to see the new car!

We swapped wheels ~ Betty took the Koa

and we took Bruce, a wheel owned by Jerri in Monroe and that Betty had been repairing.

Jerri came to collect it shortly after we returned.

We sat down for a nice visit and then headed home, but not before visiting  Ohme Gardens.

They have a nice but limited supply of plants for sale; their focus is The Garden Itself; the plants they sell are all on display in the natural setting and all the plants are native.  We bought a couple variegated Silene for the stone retaining wall by our drainage ditch. 

The goal is for a variety of ground-cover-draping-type plants to cover this: 

 July 2010

July 2011

July 2012

We think the plan is working.  The wall looks much better.

I got to drive Peggy's new van part of the way home (the scary bit going down the mountain in the outside lane) and by 3:pm we were finally hungry for lunch, so we stopped in Monroe.  We were home by 4:30.

And that was our Thursday.  Taking a day off for a short road trip is so much fun!

Dear Dave,

**If you're easily brought to tears at the thought of 'innocent' animals being slaughtered (hopefully), please skip this entry.***

Forget about rushing right over and bringing traps for the fracking moles.

 Nobody should have to be nice to anything that ugly.

We've taken matters into our own hands:

Plus, as we were standing at the Mole/Gopher display at Lowe's, two other groups of people were also contemplating what to do about their moles, all of us having them for the first time ever and in over 20 years.  We all decided that any method to just drive them out of the yard simply makes them another neighbor's problem and what is the point of that?  (We agreed it would be great to meet back at the Mole/Gopher display next Sunday afternoon for a 'success v miserable failure' review...)

So last evening we spent 45 minutes punching holes in hills, dropping in a few 'peanuts' and covering the hole back up.  That's 1.5 HOURS of our co-lives that we'll never get back. 

We could have been spinning.  

It's the Tour de Fleece, for dog's sake!

Thank you,

Bothtwins

Road Trip to Wenatchee, June 21st

Last October Betty came from her home in Oroville for the 3rd Annual Betty Roberts Spinning Wheel Owners Spin-In and Potluck, which was held at our house.  She brought along 3 new wheels from her most recently completed batch of 6.  She likes to have our group test-drive them, and maybe buy one.  We all test-drove but resisted wheel acquisition.

Betty left her Koa castle wheel for us to take along to fiber events, big 'for sale' sign attached.  It got a lot of attention but no buyer at the three outings it had: St. Distaff Day, Madronna and the Whidbey Island Spin-In.

Fast forward 8 months and Betty has sold the Koa to a spinner many states east of here, so, since both of us love a road trip, we agreed to meet Betty in Wenatchee for the hand-off. 

But first: breakfast at the Maltby Cafe.

 

My $6.95 Basic French Toast was $2. cheaper than the nearly inedible french toast at the Blue Bird last month.   

This French Toast was outstanding in the way that I hope every French Toast experience will be and 99% of them aren't.  Fresh butter, warm syrup, fat bread.  It was all great.

(Or, it was 'brilliant' as my new friend from England would say.  Raphael is a visiting professor in the department where I work, and he likes to stop by my desk to inquire how my 'quest for global domination' is going.)

Peggy's Country Breakfast eggs were perfect, the freezer jam on toast was perfect, the sausage was perfect and the potatoes were interesting.  She would have preferred hash browns.  She couldn't finish it all, portions are huge.


We consider our first trip to the Maltby Cafe a success, and will be back as soon as we can.  Yum!

**********

We left for Wenatchee at about 8:30

~ to be continued ~

Dear Dave,

Forget about moving the hydrangea just now and let's deal with a serious mole problem.  We've never had moles until now.  It started with one little mole hill over on the other side of the driveway only 2 weeks ago:

It (they) dug all the way under the driveway and came up next to the house, dug all the way under the lawn and came up in the garden:

 They're heading for the rhubarb, Dave, the RHUBARB!

 Clearly we're out of our element, which is fiber.  
Beasties: not our element.

Please come deal with the moles, Dave.

Thank you, 
Bothtwins.

Dear Dave,*

The Harry Lauder's Walking Stick is doing well.  Very well since it was planted in May, 2011.

The Endless Summer Hydrangea is also doing well but it is far too close to Harry, as you can see from the two photos, the first from May 2011 and the second from today, June 12, 2012.

So ~ Dear Dave, please move the hydrangea.  There's a really lovely spot in another part of the garden, not too far away.

Thanks!

Bothtwins.

 Dave planting blueberries in 2011.

 *Dave is our 'guy'.  Not 'our' guy, Dave is the husband of a dear knitting/spinning friend.  He loves taking a yard that has seen far better days and making it something to be proud of, he has huge fence-building skills and can climb on a roof and clean gutters.  The man is multi-talented and can multi-task.  Until he's bored.  We think Dave is bored with our project.  Maybe the fun is over now that the fun part is over and it's just drudgery.  Tell us about it, Dave.  We don't want to dig out that hydrangea any more than you do but we'll pay you to do it. 

The Bigger They Are

the more disgusting.  

We've had bird feeders on the back deck for years and the worst 'critter' we've seen, aside from the afore mentioned squirrels, was a mouse the size of a hamster.  

 He and the Douglas squirrel 

went at it for several rounds, giant mouse the victor, which was a surprise as the Douglas is a 'stand your ground' kind of guy and has been seen chasing off the bigger gray squirrels.  

Happily, we haven't seen the mouse more than once in the last year, but now this.  One rat you see means 50 that you don't.  Eek.  It's always breeding season for rodents.  

Until we figure out the solution, we have brought in the two bird feeders.  The birds have flown to other feeders, the giant rat hasn't been seen since.

With so many squirrels, raccoons, feral cats and all manner of birds that call our green belt home, we don't want to set traps that might catch some of the 'not rat' community.  How can just one species be targeted?

We're open to suggestions.

Guns are not an option.

Skagit Valley Road Trip May 26

Last Saturday the Peggy's, MaryEllin and I hit the road in Peggy's new van, a Chrysler Town & Country, for a day-long meandering through the Skagit Valley.  

Our goal was to get out of town, hopefully with good weather, and hit a couple of favorite destination stores: the yarn shop and the quilt shop in Mt. Vernon (WildFibers and Paw Patch Quilt Shop) and then anything else that came along. 

The weather was glorious, the perfect combination of a cloudless sky and a high of 71.  There was a light breeze.  We headed out at 8:15am.

First: breakfast at the Blue Bird Cafe in Arlington.  

3/4's a success: blueberry pancakes, the eggs and especially the hash-browns were all very good; the French Toast a dismal failure.

 

 

 

 As we left the Blue Bird, we found this place just up the street: Petite Sweets.  We'll try it for brunch next trip.

Then we crossed the street (had to, the Van was parked over there) and found this little treasure:

The Quiltmaker's Shoppe.  She opened a few minutes early when she saw 4 sets of eyes ogling the window display.  We went into what looked like a tiny shop of two small rooms, but it went on and on to the back of the store and then we found the sale rack, 40% off 1 yard or more, 60% off of 3 yards or more.  We quickly discussed the possibility of a 'Pillow Case Marathon Weekend', decided "OH YEAH" and this is what I bought: Moda in three colors, enough for 6 pillow cases and plenty of left-overs for cuffs and trim for many more.

Peggy chose these.

She also found Grandma's Stain Stick, which we will give a try next laundry day.

After Arlington we headed north to Anacortes and Ana-Cross Stitch.

There was evidence of a Yarn Bombing out front. 

Here we have 4 sks of Poems, a total impulse buy which I haven't done for years, at least not with yarn.  Guess I was due.

 

On the way back southbound from Anacortes, we stopped at the Rexville Grocery on the extreme outskirts of Mt. Vernon, a brief stop with some excellent photo ops:

 The building is vintage. 

Their floors are precious to them, so they ask the multitude of cyclists to remove any footwear with cleats before entering.  People actually do read signs, so this is probably very effective...

The gas is real.

 

 The ice is very cold.




The displays are...quaint.
 

Worth a short visit.  No need to return.

Working our way to La Conner around 2pm, we stopped for a late lunch of fish & chips at the Waterfront Cafe.

This is lunch before,

 and this is after.

The fish & chips: fine, not outstanding.  Certainly not the 'best'.  But the company was excellent, which mattered more.

We cruised a couple of La Conner shops, (very touristy, La Conner) and came away with shaking heads at the sad, sad, sad Jennings Yarn Shop.  It's just sad.  They are offering yarn we haven't seen for years at any other yarn shop; the staffer was uninterested in eye contact, let alone speaking.  We think there is huge potential to make this a destination yarn shop, ala Churchmouse or Ana-Cross Stitch ~ it would be so easy and keep sales up in the lean, non-tourist months, but (again, sadly) they aren't any different than they were the last time I was there, in the last decade of the last century, which is just SAD!  Don't be misled by the two 5-star reviews on yelp for Jennings, but if you're interested in buying an established yarn store in a quaint, tourist-trap town, you might want to find out if Jennings is for sale.

We never did make it to the two stores in Mt. Vernon that we started out thinking were a 'must see' this trip.  We got back home at 6pm, tired and happy, and considering dates for the next road trip.

By the way, the Van rocks.  Smooth ride and quiet.  We were all four able to hold a conversation between front and back seats, bonus.  Gas was $54. round trip.  A bit spendy but if you consider it a full day of fun split four ways, not bad at $13.50/ea (not counting individual food and shopping.)