Jodie's Rose

 #flowersforfriday

Throwback Thursday: Birthday Cakes

Julie made a wonderful Owl cake for Annie's 3rd birthday. It reminded me of the many special cakes I made for Jeanne, Julie, and Jodie as they grew up.

This is one of my favorites. I made it for Jodie's 13th birthday the year we couldn't get enough of Project Runway.

#throwbackthursday

Easter 2022

Our family was blessed to be able to spend Easter weekend together in Moscow, Idaho. Julie and Jeff hosted the weekend at their home. All of us were together! 

It was also the weekend of Annie's 3rd birthday, so we had multiple celebrations and lots of excitement with birthday presents and cake and Easter egg hunts and more gifts. Julie did a spectacular job of feeding us for most of the meals. Jodie and Kenny gifted us with breakfast one morning.

It was fantastic to be able to get together again. It took a while for the grandkids to get used to being around people who can touch and hug. They've been isolated for far too many months.

By the end of the weekend, it was hard to pull us apart. 

This is definitely a weekend to be treasured. Now that the pandemic is tamped down, we hope to visit more often. It might happen as early as next month so we can celebrate Melody's 5th birthday.

Throwback Thursday: The Birds

A few photos from years gone by of birds looking out over water.

Because ... why not?

Dive bombed!

Sweet Corn and Summer Dreams

This is the very first jigsaw puzzle Dale and I put together this year. That may not seem like such a big deal, except in comparison to last year. During my year of anxiety, I'd already put 24 puzzles together by mid April!

The image on this puzzle is by Jane Wooster Scott. It has all the things Dale and I most enjoy in a puzzle, namely lots of detail in a picture of an Americana countryside. 

It's unlike puzzles we usually construct in several ways. First, I don't know that I've ever put a puzzle together with a scalloped edge. That was slightly tricky. Instead of putting the edge pieces together first, we started building the individual inside scenes, connected the scenes together, and fitted the edge to the rest of the puzzle last.

It had some fun surprises in that the some of the puzzle pieces came in recognizable shapes of animals and objects. Here are a few of the many, many fun shapes. Some of the shapes were a single piece. Others were recognizable when 2 - 4 pieces were put together.

One of the most interesting bits about this puzzle is that it is backed with cork! That made for nice, thick pieces. Once the puzzle was completed, I could pick up the entire thing without it falling apart.

It felt good to be back in a puzzling groove.

The Four 'P's

Puzzles & Podcasts, Pasta at Pastini

This is how Dale and I chose to celebrate our anniversary. We put this puzzle together 

while listening to several episodes of Conan O'Brien Needs a Friend.

We had a video chat with Julie and the Littles in the afternoon.

Then we headed out to our favorite local restaurant, Pastini. We don't eat much pasta these days, so this was a treat!

Google Image

In the evening, Jodie stopped by with a flowering plant and some treats to eat.

It was a super chill way to spend our special day.

More about that puzzle in my next blog post.

31 Years

Happy Anniversary to Dale and me!

We're better together

Photos by Jodie Delsere

Daffodil

 A few of the daffodils I planted over a year ago bloomed again this year. 

This is the loan survivor by the driveway.

I love to highlight pretty details.

Ruffing It Again

Dale and I headed to Springfield on Saturday to get our Covid booster shot. Since we were in the neighborhood, we asked Jodie and Kenny if they'd like to have lunch with us at our favorite diner. 

After our yummy meal, we popped over to Ruff Park to take in the beauty of the magnolias again. The pink and purple blooms are everywhere now!

This exuberance of color caught my eye. I was so pleased to see its name.

Susan. Like my friend who has a colorful, exuberant spirit.

This one is for you, my friend!

Eugene Park Tour - Bertelsen Nature Park part 4

Bertelsen Nature Park is 34-1/2 acres of natural wetlands. Dale and I approached it from the Stewart Pond entrance on the south edge of the park.

The park is managed by the BLM in partnership with our local department of parks and open spaces.

We entered from the small parking lot, down a short trail, to this tiny picnic area. There's an information kiosk, a bike rack, and some practice holes for the disc golf course.

From this vantage point, we saw a large, undeveloped wetlands to the west. That's where the three ponds lie. To the east is a large open space on a hill, dotted with the huge trees.

To the north is a line of trees and the start of the 18 hole disc golf course. We saw a surprising number of families playing, even through we visited on a weekday.

The disc golf course flows in a rough oval, along the tree line, up the back side of the hill, then back around toward the picnic area. Hole 18 stands on this prominent structure.

As we walked back to the parking lot, we watched a hawk in the distance. This photo belies his large size and wide wingspan. For a while he perched on this branch. Then all of a sudden, he dove into the tall grass. He stayed for a bit, then we saw him take off again. I dare say, he'd found a spot of lunch.

Further to the west, a flock of geese rose from the wetlands, calling, and moving into formation for the next leg of their flight.

We didn't walk the entire course on this visit, but we do plan to return to give it a go. Besides the many birds that call the wetlands their home, I hear there are lots of dragonflies, damselflies, western pond turtles, and even some river otter.

Eugene Park Tour - Bertelsen Nature Park part 3

Expansive. Beautiful. Creepy. Huge. 

I'll let the trees speak for themselves.

Eugene Park Tour - Bertelsen Nature Park part 2

The nature park is known for its trees. Prominent among them are ash. 

The buds on this specimen were just starting to open the day we were there.

The website states, 

"The Bertelsen Trail and Malik Trail wind past the pond, through the prairie and oak habitats, and into the riparian woods. The Malik Trail is named for the native Ash trees here (Malik means “ash” in Kalapuyan)."

The Kalapuya are the native peoples in this part of the state.

After writing the majority of this post, my Google image search identified these photos as in the magnolia family. The images of Oregon Ash buds don't look like this.

Ah, well. I like to take pictures of nature, even if I don't know much about the names of the flora and fauna I'm photographing. I'm attracted to what is pretty.
:: shrug ::

Whatever this tree is, it was big and beautiful and didn't much look like the magnolia trees in Ruff Park that we saw last month. These buds weren't fuzzy like those magnolia. They also have green clusters ready to pop out of the bud, rather than a single magnolia flower. It's the clusters that intrigue me. What a neat texture!

I'll post more of the trees from Bertelsen Nature Park soon. They remind me of Halloween, with bare, creepily-shaped branches and hollowed-out trunks. The day we visited, the trees looked quite dramatic against the cloudy sky. 

Tuesday Travels: Lake Creek Falls

Dale and I are going to try something for a while. We've cleared our calendars of chores and appointments on Tuesdays. We're going to hop in the convertible and go for a ride. This is when we may visit the parks to fulfill our 22 goals in 2022. Or we might simply explore more of our beautiful new state of Oregon.

For certain, we most enjoy rides in the countryside. This week we headed west to find Lake Creek Falls. Along the way ...

we saw fields and fields of sheep. 

The lambing season is upon us.

Pastoral imagery lay before us in every direction.

Lake Creek Falls lie at the base of a ravine in a deeply wooded area. Sunlight filters through the mossy trees to reveal the rushing water.

These falls are made up of a series of rock steps, and manmade concrete fish ladders. The water rushes wide and shallow down the rock steps,

then gains in momentum at the fish ladder.

We were the only people around, alone among the forest, the spring runoff, and the wood nymphs. I swear, I could hear them! They are my kin.

#tuesdaytravels

Melody's Kitty

Look who's come to hang around our house for a while. It's Sailor, the Sleepy Cat.

I found this adorable crochet pattern through a designer I follow on Instagram. @FireFlyCrochets is her company moniker. She creates whimsical amigurumi animals and gnomes. I bought this cat pattern from her Etsy shop as a downloadable .pdf file.

The quality of this pattern is superb. There are 16 pages of detailed instructions with wonderful, clear photos of each step. 

Due to supply chain issues, I wasn't able to get the exact soft yarn I wanted. But I was able to find some Red Heart Super Saver yarn in white, light grey and dark grey. I had a partial skein of Red Heart Soft yarn in black.

I gathered the rest of the supplies from my stash, including a soft pink yarn, my hooks, a yarn needle, and some stitch counters. The kitty is fluffed up with polyester fiberfill.

Amigurumi crochet uses small, tight stitches to give the softies some structure. This kitty was all done in single crochet using this size E hook. Each body part begins with a magic circle, rather than a chain. 

This kind of small, tight stitching in the round with lots of color change is still fairly new to me. It took a lot of concentration which never quite helped me get into that nice meditative state that crochet usually leads me to. In fact, sewing all the parts together and adding the facial details was rather anxiety-producing. I was all itchy and sweaty by the time I finally put in the last stitches.

I am pleased with the outcome. My kitty doesn't quite look like the original, but she'll do. She'll hang out with Dale and me for a month or so, then will be delivered to her real owner. Our granddaughter Melody will receive the kitty on her 5th birthday.

Rest well, little one.