Category: Home and Garden
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The Reds and Greens of Autumn
“The trees are about to show us how lovely it is to let the dead things go.”– Unknown “I’m so glad I live in a world where there are Octobers”– L.M. Montgomery, Anne of Green Gables “Winter is an etching, spring a watercolor, summer an oil painting and autumn a…
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Shades of Blue: Part 3
I’d better pick up the pace with these spring themed posts or I’ll still be working through May photos after the 4th of July. 🙂 Today you get to see Ryan and I out in the neighborhood looking signs of spring, roaming the beach skipping rocks and finding interesting driftwood/seaweed…
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Earth Day 2017
If we do not permit the Earth to produce beauty and joy, it will in the end not produce food, either. — Joseph Wood Krutch I hope everyone took a moment today to appreciate, acknowledge and protect the earth around us. Happy Earth Day all.
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Dogs are our link to paradise…
Dogs are our link to paradise. They don’t know evil or jealousy or discontent. To sit with a dog on a hillside on a glorious afternoon is to be back in Eden, where doing nothing was not boring–it was peace. Milan Kundera My goal for today was to write an…
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Weekly Photo Challenge: Symmetry in Seasons
There is in all things a pattern that is part of our universe. It has symmetry, elegance, and grace – these qualities you find always in that the true artist captures. You can find it in the turning of the seasons, the way sand trails along a ridge, in the…
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Travel Theme: Garden
This isn’t a traditional garden picture but March in the Pacific Northwest is a challenging time everyone who loves the outdoors. It’s cold and damp 90% of the time with a few brief stretches of sunny weather that give us all spring fever but send pollen counts into the double…
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Weekly Photo Challenge: Three
Michelle’s latest photo challenge asks us to use a three picture posting style to tell a story through images. This is a technique I’ve enjoyed in the past and when you have a son with a flair for the dramatic composing a visual story is a fun way to pass the time. Today, with three images,…
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A Word A Week: Violet
One of the things I love about Heather is its determined nature, blooming right on schedule no matter the conditions. This little plant flowers in my front yard every winter providing bright spots of color in a season filled with green, brown and white. Posted as part of Sue’s A Word A Week: …
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iPhoneography Monday: 1-13-14
Yesterday I sat down in our wet backyard grass and decided I wouldn’t go back inside until I found something interesting to photograph for today’s macro challenge. I’m happy I took a few minutes to look at things from a different angle because I had completely missed how pretty this little mushroom was…
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Our Landscaping Project: Progress Update
Writing an updated post about our big landscaping project has been on my to-do list for several weeks (months) but hey, life is busy and I rarely make it to the bottom of a list. I didn’t think I would be posting anything today but when I saw that the Daily Prompt was Progress I realized I was out of excuses. Here is…
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Travel Theme: Winter
When I read Alisa’s latest post announcing “Winter” as her weekly travel theme I knew I wanted to wait until December 21st and take a photo of the first day of winter. December 20th brought our first snowfall of the year but we were still officially in Fall so I waited……
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Weekly Photo Challenge: Layers
Layers. Layers can reveal, conceal, and make something more complex. They can vary in size, texture, color, or functionality. Each layer can have its own story, meaning, or purpose. They can overlap, blend, or be distinctly separate. A layer doesn’t have to be a part of a single object but can…
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Phoneography Monday: Macro 10-14-13
Posted as part of Lens and Pen by Sally’s Phoneography Monday Challenge. If you would like to join the fun this weeks theme is Macro.
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A Word A Week: Silhouette
Sue’s latest word of the week over at A Word in Your Ear is Silhouette. I’ve posted a smaller image of this tree before but thought the contrast of the dark leafless branches against the bright white sky was worth a second look today. Unfortunately the tree died last year and was removed to make way for…
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Weekly Photo Challenge: Saturated
Every year I find at least one place to plant this combination of ferns and red begonias. I enjoy almost every color variety of begonia but non stop red has claimed the top spot as my favorite with the maidenhair fern. This pot spent most of the summer in a shaded spot…
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Phoneography Monday: 9-23-13
I recently realized that even though both my About page and widget mention we love to cook, I haven’t posted a single recipe or even a photo of something from our kitchen. You’ll need to wait a little longer for my first recipe post but since this is the fourth Monday of the month…
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Our Landscaping Project: Weeks Five and Six
We have been so busy working I missed my update last week so this is a combo post showing our progress through weeks 5 and 6 of the big Landscaping Project 2013. We have had some long days and a few scheduling setbacks but several big items on our renovation wish list are complete and we feel like…
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A Word A Week: Pink
Sue’s last word of the week was Pink and yes, I know, I’m a little late with this one. Over the next few days I hope to catch up with the recent posts waiting in my draft folder – starting with the word Pink. Though I am not usually a…
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Black and White Tuesday: 8-27-13
For today’s Black and White Tuesday I have two more images of old farm equipment displayed outside the stone yard we visited a few weeks ago. John and Ryan had a great time searching through the stone choices for our new front yard steps while I wandered around the property taking pictures of their rusty, well used collections. Spread across…
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Our Landscaping Project: Week Four
We are wrapping up week four of our big project and have reached the inevitable plateau that comes after initial excitement of breaking ground meets the sweaty reality a lot of work still left to do. The heavy equipment is gone and the days of huge changes are (hopefully) behind us leaving lots of hard…
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The First Lost Tooth
From the moment he lost his first tooth Ryan insisted he would keep them all forever. The Tooth Fairy was kind enough to leave this first one behind, along with a shiny silver dollar… Ryan’s teeth continue to fall out but while the anticipation of a visit from The Tooth Fairy has diminished, he…
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Our Landscaping Project: Week Three
Week three was filled with more shopping trips for plants and materials, a lot of dirty/dusty work framing the new front porch, some time posing next to big equipment that doesn’t usually decorate our front yard, and a few new plants successfully placed in the side yard. The caution tape…
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Our Landscaping Project: Week Two
Just in time to escape the dusty excavation mess John, Ryan and I spent a few days away from our project shopping for new plants and stone steps. We found most of the large plants on our list at one local nursery and thankfully their delivery fee was reasonable because there was no way the trees were going to fit in our Subaru. The next day found…
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The first days of our landscaping project
About six weeks ago I posted an overview of our big 2013 home improvement projects in response to the Daily Prompt: Weekend. If you have read my About page or Hello widget you can see I mention right away we love gardening and remodeling our home. In fact one of the reasons I…
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Weekly Photo Challenge: Masterpiece
Masterpiece…a location or scene that’s special, unusual, or even magical in some way. Weekly Photo Challenge: Masterpiece Cheri Lucas Rowlands on July 26, 2013 This maple tree, tucked in the far corner of our backyard, shares its beautiful pattern with every season. Posted as part of the WPC: Masterpiece
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Weekly Photo Challenge: Fresh
Fresh. The definition for fresh has a bit of a fork in it – it’s a state (new, recent, previously unknown)… – Sara Rosso This morning, home after a busy week in Texas, I couldn’t wait to sit down and catch up with the latest posts in my reader. As I expected it is filled with…
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Black and White Weekly Challenge: Family
Last summer we decided to stay close to home and try a touristy “staycation” in the Seattle area instead of leaving town during the best part of the year. We filled our house with family and spent a great weekend exploring Seattle, The Pike Place Market, taking a Ride the Ducks Tour and having…
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Travel Theme: Simplicity
The simple things that bring me back to the beach day after day. Posted as part of Alisa’s weekly travel theme: Simplicity.
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Phoneography Monday: Nature
For today’s Phoneography Monday: Nature post I have two cool images from our Pacific Northwest Spring to share. My afternoon forecast is for the mid 90’s and the season of pretty spring flowers is over…
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Flower Friday 6-21-13
I am going to miss the Weekly Photo Challenge today but here is a Peony from my garden for Flower Friday. Photo taken with my iPhone 5 and edited in Snapseed.
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Daily Prompt: Weekend
Photographers, artists, poets show us something from your WEEKEND. If you have read my About page or Hello widget you can see I mention right away we love gardening and remodeling our home. In fact one of the reasons I started this blog was create a space to document and share a few big…
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(i)Phoneography Monday: Nature
Every Monday I look forward to being a part of Lens and Pen by Sally’s weekly phoneography challenge. The first Monday of each month is reserved for Nature and while I planned to have a post ready to publish first thing this morning, life and work got in the way. Here…
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The Edmonds Spring Garden Market
One of my favorite ways to spend a few hours is walking through a Farmer’s Market. Lucky for me Edmonds has a wonderful space in the Downtown area that hosts both a spring and summer market. The Spring Garden Market opened Saturday, May 4th and continues every Saturday until the Summer Market opens,…
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Daily Prompt: Green
Today in the Daily Post the photography prompt is Green. I almost posted this iPod picture a few weeks ago but in the end decided the finished image was too green to fit with my other photos. Today it gets a second chance for a moment in the sun. This is a small view of my…
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iPhoneography Monday: Black and White
This old Maple tree was a beautiful focal point in our front yard until it suddenly (to us) died last year. Yesterday my husband and I spent the afternoon trimming branches and finally cutting down the trunk to clear the space for our new garden plan. I am sorry to…
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A Word A Week: Orange
This week Sue’s dictionary at A Word in Your Ear has opened to the word “Orange”. I love listening to Vivaldi’s The Four Seasons so for this challenge I thought it would be fun to show you how orange changes through Spring, Summer, Fall and Winter in the Pacific Northwest.
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iPhoneography Monday: Nature
For this week’s iPhoneography Monday theme of Nature I have a picture of freshly cut Rhubarb from our local farmer’s market. Photo from my iPhone 5 and edited in Snapseed and PhotoToaster. If you would like to join the iPhoneography Monday photo fun please visit Lens and Pen by Sally for the schedule and details.
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Weekly Photo Challenge: From Above
From The Weekly Photo Challenge: Above. Change your perspective on something. Find a subject and instead of taking a picture from in front of, at an angle, to the side, or from behind, take it directly from above! With Sara’s directions in mind I went outside looking for something that I don’t usually see from…
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iPhoneography Monday: More portraits of Mother Earth
Sally of the beautiful Lens and Pen by Sally is continuing her April theme of Mother Earth for this week’s iPhone photo challenge . I am just starting to experiment with the camera on my iPhone and hope to try a new technique or approach every Monday. I know some images will be more successful…
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Weekly Photo Challenge: Color
I love bright, beautiful colors and many of my pictures are filled with images of vivid flowers and sunny waterfront days. For me the hardest part of this Weekly Photo Challenge: Color was sorting through these pictures to choose just a few photos and finally I decided to share some of the Rhododendrons that grow freely in Washington and fill…
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Weekly Photo Challenge: Lunchtime
My Travel Theme post about the color green mentions our first crab caught from the Edmonds Fishing Pier. We had a great day figuring out how what kind of bait to use (chicken), how to throw the pot, visiting with the other fishers and crabbers around us and discovering what kinds…
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Phoneography Challenge: Neighborhood
Today the Weekly Photo Challenge is all about capturing your neighborhood through phone pictures. We love our small town and I’m always taking pictures on my iPhone so after school my son and I had a little fun on Main Street. All pictures were taken with my iPhone 5 and…
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Travel Theme: International Women’s Day
This week my mind is filled with memories of my two beautiful Grandmothers. I quietly observed the 18th anniversary of my maternal Grandmothers death a few days ago and had the great fortune to attend my paternal Grandmother’s 95th Birthday party in February. In celebration of International Women’s Day and Alisa’s…
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Saying goodbye to March 1, 2011
I was really looking forward to March 1st, 2011. My parents were coming to visit, my mom and I had tickets to attend a favorite author’s book signing and it was the final dress rehearsal for my son’s school musical. I felt like we were turning the corner on winter and getting ready for spring with happy…
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Weekly Photo Challenge: Lost in the Details
Today’s photo challenge is about getting lost in the details. Late winter in my backyard can be dark, muddy and sometimes a little depressing. I love to garden but this time of year is tough for me to appreciate as the ground is covered with debris from winter storms and too wet and cold for most spring flowers. After spending…
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Weekly Photo Challenge: Home
When my son heard we were selling our house and moving to a new neighborhood he insisted he wouldn’t leave without his “thinking” rock. Turns out his idea of home was a quiet place to sit in the backyard and I suspect he thought if we couldn’t lift the rock he wouldn’t have…
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Why I love Glassybaby
There is isn’t a lot to love about standing outside at 7am on a cold, wet January morning but I’ll set my alarm if it gets me a place in line at the semi-annual Glassybaby sale. The hours long wait is challenging under the best conditions and it pays to get up early. For those of…
Northwest Frame of Mind 