Chilly! The ” last” blast of winter, perhaps? Yesterday, the temperatures dropped about 30 degrees, and we had about a three hour snow flurry. Nothing accumulated, but Chilly Peak was supposed to get around 4″. Carolyn and I met at 7 am at the trailhead, and it was 21 degrees. After double checking that we…

Joel and I need to get some MTB miles in to prepare for our 120 mike Kokopelli Trail ride next month. Antelope Island is a favorite as the trails are manageable and, depending on the day and time, you can have most of the Trails to yourself … except for the wildlife. We planned an…

Found this gem on the ocean trip with Mom. I’m not sure where the permanent home will be, but for now, it is on the mantle!

My daylillies seemed to have survived the fact they never went dormant this winter and the hard frost we had a couple of days ago. They look to be on track to bloom about a month early. With the snowpack at about 12% of normal, this looks to be the worst water year since we…

Joel and I have vastly different opinions on horticulture; pruning specifically. He goes for speed and efficiency –  basically whacking everything to the ground. I prefer taking my time and purposely shaping the tree or bush. Our resident deer have their own spin on it! Last night they carefully nipped the new growth off the…

We placed some new flowers at the wall at church for Dad, attended the service and then headed over to Yea’s Wok, which is apparently an institution in the Newcastle area. The food was great, and Mom ended up with leftovers that would last for days. My last chore was to rip apart the wreath…

Probably the highlight of Natalie’s visit last month was taking Mom to the Cat Cafe in Kirkland. It is run by a local humane association with the intent of adopting out all the kitties. I scheduled an hour session, and Mom certainly got her fix!

On the way home, I surprised Mom and took her to the Westport Winery/Sea Glass Grill. Seafood again, and it was excellent.  They also had a distillery and a great gift shop, a mermaid museum, and were hosting the upcoming Mermaid Festival. It’s a bit of a detour, but a great stop. Mom did a…

I was able to sneak in a trip up to see Mom and was also able to book a cabin at Iron Springs for a couple of days so we could spend some time at the ocean. We planned on it raining, so we had all the appropriate rain gear ready! When I arrived,  Mom…

Here it is a month later and it dawned on me that I hadn’t finished the posts on my Mexico trip – OOPSIE! On the way off Orizaba, we stayed for the evening again at the little compound of the Orizaba Mountain Guides. On the way back to Mexico City we had a great stop…