Mama's Jewels

Mother Nature does like to show off in Spring

Pretty in Purple

This purple rhododendron bush was huge!

The blooms are oh so pretty shimmering in the sunlight.

(Or is this azaleas? I don't know).

The Pollinator Gets the Job Done

Time for the rhododendrons to take the main stage

with this worker's help

End of Season

The last holdout

They all fall down

Yet those vistas!

White Magnolias

Most of the white magnolia blooms at Ruff Park had faded by the time we visited.

Those that remained put on a show.

Branches

Blooms

Buds

Twins

A double dose of magnolia love

Magnolia Heaven

Dale and I finally made it out to Ruff Park, the magnolia arboretum. My ankle held up just fine on our mosey down the path. It's finally healing.

It's late in the season, but there are still some blooming trees. 

This is my favorite shot of the day.

#tuesdaytravels

Postage Stamps

When I first looked at this puzzle image, I thought it looked fun. Lots of specific images. Lots of words. My strategy for putting this puzzle together appeared to be fairly straight forward. 

On closer inspection, though, I realized this is the same set of stamps repeated on different colored backgrounds. It wasn't a different set of stamps - different images - on each background. So, what's the new strategy? We started by sorting the background color. Gold first because all the edges of the gold could be seen. It was front and center. That section went together fairly smoothly. A puzzle within a puzzle.

After that, it got tricky. Do we sort by shape? By color? Neither of those strategies worked.

I ended up making piles of stamps of a single design. We matched up the stamp parts first so we could place sections instead of individual pieces. Then Dale and I made heavy usage of the image on the box top to figure out which color background went where. There were four shades of red, at least three green, at least three blacks and some blue. It was tricky, though, and the process was slow.

I began with this set of four stamps because the bold illustration in red, green and black stood out and we could combine several pieces together to form a relatively large section that we could place.

Then I worked with the mailboxes

and the Santas. That got the ball rolling.

This is one of those puzzles that took too much brainwork to be fun for me at the end of a long day. I'm glad it was only 500 pieces.

Holiday Traditions is a puzzle from the U.S. Postal Service and published in 1997. The cardboard pieces were thick and sort of spongy. They didn't click together well, so we weren't quite confident on the fit. 

As a puzzle, I wouldn't recommend it. As a piece of postage history, the illustrations are extremely cool. It's fun to see Christmas stamps from way back when a first class postage stamp was five cents. I can remember that from my childhood!

Back at It

Prepping rocks with a base coat this morning. This is the first batch. I plan to base coat with black next time.

I'm not exactly sure when I'll paint them with designs or what my theme will be this time. I do have quite a number of tutorials saved up that I might try out. Time to do some imagining and dreaming.

For now, I'll get the rocks and paint prepared. That way I can jump in when the bug bites again.

Gold Star Day

It's the little stuff that counts.

Like tidying up the kitchen office supplies drawer.

Like learning how to fix the bottom of said drawer so it stops dipping.

Like deep-cleaning the four fans that help circulate the air throughout the house.

Like taking care of my gnarly broken fingernails.

Like picking fabric to line the crocheted purses Jodie and I made.

Like helping out my niece who found herself in a sticky situation.

It's good to get things done that I've been putting off, so I'm patting myself on the back and giving myself some gold stars.

Eugene Park Tour: Richardson Park

Dale and I got out for a short drive on Sunday. We were enjoying the weather in between raindrops and seeking out flowering trees and vistas. I messed up my ankle a while back, and have been feeling sorry for myself that I can't walk around parks and arboretums right now. As we approached the park, we were greeted with this beautiful tree in full bloom.

Richardson Park is fairly close to where we live in the countryside just west of town. It's been developed by the county at the edge of the reservoir.

Here's the description on the county website:

At 115 acres, Richardson Park is the largest developed park in the County Parks system. It is accessible by major roads in all directions, and is the closest RV campground to the cities of Eugene and Veneta. With 88 sites, a large day use area, and three picnic shelters, it is one of the most visited County parks. An 8,000 square-foot picnic shelter was completed in 2004. The three-roofed structure houses a full-service, outdoor kitchen and seats 300 people. Richardson has a 212-slip marina, a swimming area, play structures, game areas, and an outdoor amphitheater.

We didn't get out for a walk, but from a parking lot we spotted this charming little house tucked beneath the huge trees. We're pretty sure this is the amphitheater site and the structure holds the sound and video equipment.

Down by the lake you can borrow life preservers. What a great service!

The lake level is back up after the winter low. It's gorgeous!

In the distance we saw some sailboats. They way they were staying close to shore gave us the impression that it was a learn-to-sail class. 

This is yet another park we'll be sure to return to every year.

Tangled

Ugh.

Every knitter, crocheter, weaver knows this frustration.

So I dug out my handy dandy 1950s (1960s?) hand-cranked yarn winder. "Made in Japan" but no patent date. Original price: $4.69. Similar models now cost between $20 to $50. I think I found mine at a garage sale. Or maybe another needleworker gave it to me.

Ahhh! 

SO satisfying!

Corner Bookshop

Dale and I put this excellent puzzle together about three weeks ago. Buffalo puzzles are good quality, so they feel good in the hand. 

This is the ideal kind of puzzle for us. 500 pieces. Colorful. Lots of detail. Words. A scene we wouldn't mind living in for a while.

It's always nice when a puzzle comes with a full-size poster. We don't have to squint at the box top so much.

Here are some of the great details:

Unfortunately, there were three missing pieces, one of which was an edge piece.

But for a thrift store price, I don't mind so much.

This was so much fun to put together!