There are several reasons I chose this photo for Alisa’s travel theme “Edge” but my favorite element is the line of Gulls patiently waiting their turn to stretch their wings and fly away.
Travel Theme: Meeting Places
There’s nothing quite like the mix of summer weather, interesting beaches and kids with plenty of imagination and time on their hands. Driftwood forts are a common sight on Lopez Island and each beach we visited had at least one great structure ready and waiting for the next group to meet up and play until bedtime…
Posted as part of the Weekly Travel Theme: Meeting Places.
Travel Theme: Shine
Travel Theme: Cities
Alisa’s newest Travel Theme: Cities is a great excuse to post another photo from our recent visit to the top of the Space Needle. This view is looking south towards the Downtown area over Elliott Bay and one shot manages to show you a gray spring day, the Port of Seattle, a Washington State Ferry and the lower part of Downtown.
Travel Theme: Blossom
For Alisa’s new Travel Theme: Blossom I have one more photo from our spring trips to the Skagit Valley Tulip Festival. This colorful display was filled with so many varieties it looked like an enormous bouquet!
Travel Theme: Misty
I love living by the waterfront with easy access to the beach but our proximity to Puget Sound also brings plenty of misty days . In the fall we can spend weeks at a time wrapped in thick fog and even though I know the trees are turning brilliant shades of red and yellow and that the sky is bright blue above the fog line everything around us is muted, pale and quiet.
Both of these photos are from the same day in October, 2013. The first view is what greeted us as we walked into to the park and the second was our surprise as the 10 day stretch of fog finally lifted just before sunset. Some of you might remember the bright image below from my Wordless Wednesday: 10-23-13 post.
I like to think this kind of view is our reward for making it thorough the long, foggy days of October.
Posted as part of Alisa’s weekly Travel Theme: Misty.
Travel Theme: Statues
The Santuario de Guadalupe in Santa Fe, NM is the oldest shrine to our Lady of Guadalupe in the United States. I wrote a little about the history of this place in a Black and White Tuesday post about the Church here and today, as part of Alisa’s Weekly Travel Theme: Statues I have a view of the beautiful statue at the entrance.
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 digits. Instead of a photographing the wet and weedy mess of a garden we have today I thought I’d post one last shot from our front yard before the excavator got to work digging out stumps and moving rocks boulders. This photo was taken about 10 months after the Public Utilities District cut down our large cedar trees and shows how aggressively the native ferns and salal expanded with additional light, water and space to grow.
Posted as part of Alisa’s weekly Travel Theme: Garden.
Travel Theme: Tempting
In honor of Alisa’s newest travel theme “tempting” I have a set of his and hers photos.
Grocery shopping at Trader Joe’s is always full of tough decisions. This morning I stopped in the entry debating if I should get the Bunch of flowers or do I pick up the Bigger Bunch. Maybe I could make room in the cart for the Biggest Bunch?
My husbands dilemma is a little more difficult as this year he chose to give up alcohol for Lent. Five days in and he’s doing great but look what’s on his phone…
His last Manhattan, lurking in the photo roll.
Posted as part of the weekly Travel Theme: Tempting.
Weekly Travel Theme: Romance
As part of Alisa’s Weekly Travel Theme: Romance I’m sharing a well-loved photo my husband’s Grandparents as a young, engaged couple in the early 1920’s. They married soon after and had four children starting with my father-in-law and followed soon after by three beautiful sisters. I’m sorry I never got a chance to meet Joe and Bess but am happy we have plenty of stories and a few treasured photos to keep their memories alive in our home.
Travel Theme: Yellow
Alisa’s Yellow travel theme has me dreaming of spring days and a visit to the Skagit Valley Tulip Fields. I can’t wait for April!
Travel Theme: Dry
I’ve found the only sure way to enjoy home-grown Pacific Northwest flowers in January is to cut an extra bouquet or two and set them aside for drying. I have the best luck with late season Hydrangeas and if kept out of direct sun their deep purple, pink and blue pigments can last for years.
Posted as part of Alisa’s weekly Travel Theme: Dry
Northwest Frame of Mind 