Jill's Spicemill

Here are some photos I took before the Candle Light Tour at the Fort October 3rd. Some of them turned out very well.

Our dear friend Hughie St. Martin turned 99 yesterday. Congratulations, Hughie!

Aug 1-3 Brigade Days at Fort Langley, BC

Aug 4 gift from Jimmy


Aug 8-9 Fort Nisqually Brigade - Rivka came to visit



Aug 15 Tacoma Car Show

Aug 22 NW Harley show

Aug 22 Gladiolas are blooming


Aug 22 Pears are getting ripe

Aug 23 DuPont Picnic at the Ft Nisqually 1843 site

Aug 28 Lemay Car Show

Aug 30 Plums are ripe, too.

9:00 I did my nightly ritual--opening up the house and turning on the fan to let the cool air in. I use the term "cool" loosely as it's still over 80 outside. The high at our house today was 108--totally un North west. But what can you do, grin and bear/ bare it or buy AC. So far we have been sleeping OK and I am in the AC all day-it's still too cold in the library. Jimmy looks pretty wilted by the time I get home. It won't last forever. I hope when it breaks we get some nice days with highs of 75 and lows around 55.

Ahh, peach tea right out of the refrigerator, great for hot weather.  Its 85 degrees by the inside thermometer and, before the sun came around and spiked it up to 100, it was 94 degrees outside. What happened to our lovely 75 degree average high?

 

We spent the weekend at English camp on San Juan Island. http://www.nps.gov/sajh/  It’s a lovely spot, grassy  and on a sheltered bay. Click on Encampment 2009 Set for July 25-27 then on pictures for 2008. I am all dressed up in “A watched teapot”, and dressed down in “The British contingent” (front row sitting down). Jim is in the back row and dancing in “Swing your partner”. Pictures from this year would look pretty much the same. This was the 150 anniversary of the Pig War—definitely the best war the US was ever in—the only casualty was a Berkshire Boar.

When we moved into our house this was a scrawny plant back behind the evergreens. It is looking beautiful this year, at least as long as we remember to water it!

Interesting 4th. We went to Ocean Shores to visit Mike and Donna and see the spectacle. Six miles of cars parked four deep on the beach, campfires and thousands of people setting off fireworks. It was pretty cool from 9:30 to 10, then the smoke started building up faster than the breeze could blow it away. By 10:30 you couldn't see anything unless it was right in front of you. The noise level was pretty incredible. The next morning my eyes were still feeling gritty. Reminded me of the smog in LA.

Ladybug birthday Party at Seward Park, Seattle

Every year a group of people from Tacoma Community House, where I work, walk in the American Cancer Society's Relay for Life in Lakewood, WA. This year Jim and I went over and visited them Friday evening and purchased Luminaria for two people who had died from cancer. We were amazed at the number of people at the event--the number of people whose lives have been touched by cancer. And this is just one of many such events in our area. From 6pm Friday evening until 6pm Saturday, someone from each team will be walking the track. Each team has a "base camp" with food, drink, games for the kids, and usually a raffle of some kind. (The teams have been fund raising for the past 3 or 4 months.)  Some people camp out in tents or RV's and other just come out when it is their turn to walk. At 10pm Friday evening all the Luminaria around the track and the word Cure on the bleacher is lit. There is a speaker and when he finished the word Hope is lit up. Then a Bag Pipe band plays Amazing Grace while they walk around the track. It was enough to give you goose bumps.

from the kitchen window

Jimmy watering the veggie garden. Nice to have it done. Lots of potaotes, leftovers from last year. Plus, peas, beans, carrots and beets from seed, and starter plants for corn, tomatoes, bell peppers, celery, brocolli, and brussel sprouts.
     

April 26th   The weather was not looking too good towards the mountains, so we headed the other way up 16 to University Place, and south to Fort Lewis, DuPont and lunch at Farelli's. The pictures were taken at Solo Point park on Ft Lewis Military Reservation. The water is the sound between the Narrows Bridge and Nisqually Reach. Not too far south of here is where the HBC set up the first Ft Nisqually trading post in 1833.

The evergreen trees are doing their thing. The pollen was falling so thick a couple of days ago you could see it coming down like a fine misty rain. It was quite amazing.

About 45 miles from the house--great burgers.

We had plans to go out to Gari of Sushi for dinner.  Jimmy’s back was bothering him, so I asked him if he was sure he really wanted to go. He didn’t answer right away, so I said, “Well, if we don’t go you either have to spend half and hour or so standing in the kitchen preparing something or you have to eat my cooking.” He said, “Yeh, I know. That’s my dilemma.” We went out.

 

We had a really nice meal. Jimmy had Shrimp Tempura and I had Seaweed Salad, Mussel Miso soup, and Dynamite/Crunch Eel. It was the first time I had had the soup. It was fantastic. The Crunch Eel is one of my favorite specialty rolls. And the Dynamite was similar to Crunch Eel, but pretty spicy.

Last Friday (20th) we went down to Katie Downs for Guinness and dinner and I noticed a ton of debris on the beach. All sorts of branches and trees that had come down the Puyallup river during the storm that brought heavy rains, snow melt and flooding to many areas of Western Washington.   Sunday, we were back on Ruston Way for brunch and I noticed that some of the wood  had been stacked up like a teepee ready for a bonfire. Curious, we stopped to investigate and saw that people had been "arranging" the branches. I needed pictures, so we headed home to get cameras. When we came back, we took pictures and added our own creations to the "gallery".

 

Friday afternoon

Jim had to go under the house to check out a weird noise. He thought it was a loose pipe. He wanted me to hang around so I could get him tools if he needed them. He was right about the loose pipe, so he secured it. While I was waiting, I started weeding the garden. Of course, once I got started I couldn’t just stop. So we got most of the front gardens weeded. The temp was only in the mid-forties, but the sun shone the whole time we were working, so that was nice.

 

Saturday we went to Ocean Shores to visit with Mike and Donna. We went to an Antiques and Collectables Show. It was quite good—nice variety of booths. I didn’t find anything, but Jimmy got a bear tooth. Mike got Donna a pair of buttonhole scissors. These scissors are for hand finished buttonholes. They cut the hole in the fabric a certain distance from the finished edge of the garment and are set to a specific length, so all holes will be identical. Then you finish the raw edge with the buttonhole stitch. Altogether a good day, lots of good chatter, cards and food.

 

Sunday morning we finished up the weeding in the front yard. It started raining after lunch, so I started working on some rearranging. Jimmy put some shelves in the “dungeon” (the family room) and I started putting some books on it. I don’t like hauling books around—too heavy, but I wanted to clear some shelf space in my work room.

 

Monday the sun was out again and we were back in the yard. Pictures show us working in the vegetable garden. The soil has been worked for so many years, it turns over very easily. We mixed in compose from our composer. We collected a bucket of potatoes that had been missed last year. I’m hoping for some potato salad. When we finished we made a fire in the fire dish and had lunch by the fire.

Saturday, Jan 31, Jim and I went to the Seymour Conseratory at Wright Park, Tacoma to see the exhibit of Chihuly glass. It was  sunny day and the contrast between the glass and the plants was truly amazing.

Due to the extreme cold and snow closures in December the Zoo kept the Zoo Lights up and extra weekend. It was a nice evening--no rain. It was very pretty. Much better than the pictures. All LED lights, with really sharp, clear color.