Are We Walking to Alaska

Are We Walking to Alaska
Are We Walking to Alaska - A True Story

Thursday, May 30, 2013

Lunch Time





We love thrift stores, swap meets, consignment stores, and yard sales.  Come see all the wonders that I've collected over the years.  Enough for a lovely lunch setting, by the ocean

Grapes, cracker and cheese, one of my favorite lunches.  The silverware is the only thing purchased new (well, and the food too, I draw the line at thrift store food).  The yellow napkins are from a thrift store - 4/$1.00 and the placemat is a napkin with Coca Cola bottles on it, that I made from a thrifted tablecloth.

The napkin rings are little vintage sail boats, recent Etsy purchase.  The lighthouse figurine is from a recent yard sale trip.


  The lighthouse cheese spreaders are from Ebay - another of my favorite online thrifting  places 

The plates are white ironstone restaurant ware, purchased at yard sales in California years ago.  
They are small oval platters, the perfect lunch size.  I have even smaller ironstone platters that I use for butter dishes.



It appears that the sailboat napkin rings are handmade

For the centerpiece, Mr. Pelican, he came from a yard sale near Concrete, WA for 1.00 - a last minute decision, but who can resist a pelican on pilings?  Or a yard sale near a town named Concrete. It was the town where the Concrete was made for Grand Coulee Dam on the Columbia River in Washington.  It is a very descriptive name, and giant cement silos mark their city park.


Especially a pelican with shoes

And a starfish for company

The glass balls and cork floats are also from yard sales in California, before we moved to Washington, set on one of the smaller ironstone platters






Wednesday, May 29, 2013

Signs, Signs




These signs are what we see out the window of our favorite restaurant



In case we are planning a trip at least we'll know how far away it is



Sunset on Bellingham Bay


One of our favorite places to watch the magnificent sunsets of Bellingham

The clouds pile up

Rain showers 

A plane landing at the Bellingham Airport


The sun sets 



A quick stop at Squalicum Harbor for one last look at the sunset 





Odd Little Jumbled Thoughts

Vee, at A Haven for Vee has done a cute post about Odd Little Jumbled Thoughts and wanted to know if we have any - oh - I have some.

It is so dark in Washington when there are clouds that the street lights come on, as if it were night time.  I've never seen clouds so thick before - that must be why it rains so hard and so much here - and therefore is very green.


As for green, most people in Washington (and especially quilters) think of green as a neutral color, we are surrounded by so much green.  There are lots of houses in Washington painted green, and almost none of them match the green of nature.



I have a clock that has a different bird song for each hour.  I have several friends that also have a bird clock - theirs are all alike - mine is not the same as theirs - I wonder how I found one that was so different.  We found it on sale in a drugstore one time.

I like clocks - I have several.  There is the good old alarm clock - but we don't like regular alarm sounds, so we got one with birds chirping, or frogs signing singing, or ocean sounds. I typed signing first and it amused me, so I left it in - frogs signing, that would be fun.   Much nicer to wake  up to nature sounds, except occasionally when it gets confused and turns the radio on at the same time as the alarm and you wake up to some announcer shouting above the frog sounds - that  is exciting and wakes you right up. 



 I have a mantle clock that I got at a yard sale - it sits on top  of my 1895 piano.  The lady that sold it said that her mother didn't want it anymore because the chime was so soft.  When I got it to the car I turned the volume up and it has been wonderful ever since. It chimes every quarter hour.



I also have a Cuckoo Clock - because I have three clocks that sound every hour, I have to set them a few seconds apart so I don't hear all three at once - bedlam!! So the Westminster Chime Clock on the piano goes off first, then the bird song clock and finally the Cuckoo Clock.  Some friends find it disconcerting - I find that I often haven't heard all three on the hour if my mind is busy.  I never can remember which clock is the actual correct time, but I  think it is the Bird Song - no - the Westminster Chime - oh well, at least I am approximately on time.


I have a clock in the kitchen shaped like a slice of bread.  It was purchased the Green Stamps over 40 years ago.  Our SIL recently put new innards in it and it is happily ticking away in the kitchen.  It doesn't make any sound, except for the soft ticking.  Whenever we've moved it didn't seem like home until the Bread Clock was hung.  Oops - Bread Clock seems to need a new battery.  That's what happens when you are quiet in this house.



In my studio I have a Kit Cat clock - his tail and his eyes go back and forth.  My cousin Linda gave him to me for Christmas one year.

Speaking of cousins, I have one named Penquin, and another named Cat - in case you were wondering.

Funny how these Odd Little Jumbled Thoughts lead to other Odd Little Jumbled Thoughts.

*  *  *  *

I miss the Brown Pelicans that we had in California.  I don't know why there are none here - there are some in Seattle - and that is only 90 miles away.  I liked to see them skimming over the water.


I do have a little pelican that sits on some pilings, got him at a yard sale for 1.00.  Sometimes he visits the gnomes on the deck

Sometimes he is a table decoration

And right now he is sitting on the coffee table.

*  *  *  *

Yesterday I pressed 104 pansies - and yes, I did count them.

Baskets and baskets of Pansies

It had been raining so hard for a week that I couldn't find a time when the pansies would be dry enough to pick.  Finally one night the wind blew all night and it didn't rain - so first thing the next morning I was on the deck picking pansies. Some had a little water droplet here and there but I dabbed those dry.


This is not a job you can put off - the flowers have to be put on the papers right away while they are still fresh.  


Pages and pages of pansies



This is the big bird book that I pressed them in - the black thing on the side is an electronic player -you program in the page number of the bird you are looking at and it plays the bird song - pretty clever, eh?  I am sure that this book weighs 847 pounds.

Some pansies with long stems - I just had to have a bouquet or two.


Then I baked an apple pie - just a thought.

And we bought a gigantic head of lettuce at the farmer's market two days later.  The  fork is for size comparison, you don't have to eat the lettuce right now if you aren't hungry.  I'm thinking those outer leaves will make the greatest tuna wraps - add some thinly sliced tomatoes and some avocado and you have a super wrap for lunch.  See what you missed today Julee?  Sorry you are not feeling well.

You can see the almost empty pie pan to the left of the head of lettuce.

So those are my Odd Jumbled Thoughts - things that flit through my head from time to time.  How about you - any thing odd and Jumbled you might want to share?

Tuesday, May 28, 2013

A Loon

We often seen Loons near the Alaska Ferry Terminal in Bellingham, Washington.  Sometiems one - sometimes two - though one time we saw several, which is unusual.


Can you see how tiny the loon looks next to that big ferry.



She had just come up from a dive - a lucky capture


Gotta love that camera and its magnificent zoom.  Canon PowerShot SX30IS
It can zoom up to 140X


So pretty when the sun comes out










One time we saw a loon at Squalicum Harbor






I have a stained glass loon in the dining room window.  This picture was taken on one of our rare snowy winter days a few years ago.  My SIL has excellent taste in picking gifts, wouldn't you say?


On a tree in our backyard - there are no loons here - really - none - but I love the sign.