Moscow Sunsets

Solo Rides

I've taken some solo bike rides lately.  I enjoy them much better than I thought I would.  The only drawback is that I have no judge about how fast or slow I am going.  Wait a minute, is that actually a drawback??

Summer Rains...

...are weird if you live on the Palouse.  The first few days of August were unseasonably cool and RAINY!  I'm not sure what to make of it--volatile weather patterns to say the least!  But rain when it's been so dry is much appreciated, even as it disturbs you with its unpredictability.

Yesterday I did something that I hope will become a more regular habit--solo bike ride!  So lovely to ride to Troy and smell the ripening wheat and the pine trees!  Even the spring wheat is turning golden, so summer is truly winding down.

Things are still a little unsettled around here, much like the weather.  Hopefully we will have more certainty and "settledness" once I start to feel the chill of fall in the air.  The drama of the day was that our washing machine died--mid load, if you can believe it.  Lovely.  We made ourselves feel better by completely reorganizing our son's room, to much success.  I guess you win some, you lose some!

Garden Beauties

Relic of a railroad age on the Latah Trail

Made it to Troy!

Moscow Mountain

 

These Are the Days

Just some shots from around the house and garden this week.  The weather cooled down to be just about perfect this weekend.  We spent the afternoon hiking at Phillip's Farm Park, followed by ice cream and a ride in a horse drawn carriage at the McConnell Mansion Ice Cream Social downtown.  An old-fashioned Moscow Sunday afternoon.  

I said a while back that May and June are the most beautiful months on the Palouse.  July isn't bad either! 

Happy and Tired

The irony of summer...we wait and wait for it to get here and we fill our days so full of fun and adventure and trips and busyness that we exhaust ourselves.  What a fun filled Independence Day weekend we had!  Parades and bike races and friends and fireworks!  I was so tired last night, and just wanted drift off to sleep and forget that today would be Monday.  Sadly, it was not to be.  The sound of thunder woke up the little one and we all had a sleepless night. 

Even still, I treasured this weekend.  It is so, so achingly lovely on the Palouse right now.  The spring wheat looks like velvet and the winter wheat is fading to pure sunlight.  Hay is being baled and put up for the long, cold winter ahead.  We were so stressed in June, though we tried to hide it with all our trips, as we waited to see if my husband would have a job in the coming months.  Thankfully, he does, and we shall stay here a bit longer, it seems.

Oh Palouse, when I think it is time to leave you, you find a way to keep me here a bit longer.  How is it that you do this to me, year after year?  Every passing year, I love you more.  You don't have the hardwoods and the wetness of my childhood home, but you have the sweet scent of pine and grass.  You are the place I am raising my baby, his happy home.  My happy home! 

May the Fourth Be with You

We made the traditional July 4th pilgrimage to the Johnson, WA parade.  You never know what you might come across...

Han Solo, giving new meaning to "this thing is a piece of junk!"  Ok, well maybe not actually, but it is made of a trash can!

Han Solo, frozen in carbonite, accompanied by the green skinned dance hall girl.

Whoever came up with this AT-AT idea deserves a medal!

Aren't you a little short for a stormtrooper?!?

Being a Jedi Master is hard work, and sometimes you need to take a little cat-nap when being toted around by Jedi's in training.

In addition to what I felt was the most creative group in the parade, there was the usual mix of classic cars and restored tractors.  Some were quite impressive!  Altogether, I felt it was one of the better Johnson parades I'd seen in a while!

 

Extreme Garden Makeover

The garden bed directly in front of the house on the east side was a disaster.  And I don't mean it in the epic, tragic, storybook version like the Titanic.  I mean in the mess and destruction, Hurricane Katrina since, minus death and injury.  We couldn't stand the site of it, and also kept thinking "it's going to take a ton of work to fix that sucker."

We were right.

Last weekend, we dug up (and not easily, I might add, since we'd had a very dry May up to that point) all the old stuff and hauled dirt and roots and plant bits to the dump.  This weekend, we had three tons (that right, tons) of topsoil delivered, which we moved into place with a walk-behind skid steer.  At $21 an hour, my husband reasoned it was cheaper than physical therapy.  We mixed in compost and raked and raked.  Then, we put in a border to prevent grass from growing back and laid a weed barrier.  We concluded the day at Fiddler's Ridge Garden and Nature Center (apparently they are old school and don't have website for me to link to).  My husband hates gardening and yard work, so the highlight of the day was watching him walk around and look at one plant after another, finally exclaiming, "I can't believe I'm saying this, but this is kind of fun!" 

I'm sorry but I don't have a good "before" picture.  I forgot to take one last week, and the garden has been so ugly that I hadn't taken a picture of it since 2008.  I looked.  

Sort of before, which is to say, after the really hard work was done.

After the new topsoil was in place.

Plants sitting out.

The stump still needs to be dug out.

On the way home from church today, we took the old Moscow-Pullman highway, which we love to do on fine mornings.  My son exclaimed "Mama it's so beautiful" when we stopped to take pictures.

My son too this picture of the sky!

And these of the wheat fields!

     

Our Little Nature Park

Amazingly lovely Easter weekend.  Weather in the 60's, highly unprecedented.  We visited friends--two dinners out!  I'm already making plans to repay the hospitality this summer once we have our large, outdoor dining table out.  Our extra outdoor rooms will soon be available!

Easter Sunday afternoon was lazy and delightful.  Our neighbor's daughter had a Fairy Tea Party in the backyard.  While we were enjoying watching the children play, we spotted a beaver and a pair of mallards in the creek.  The mallards didn't seem at all disturbed by children running up and down the bank chasing them.

It inspired me to clean up the backyard and get it ready for summer playtime.  Today I mucked out part of the creek.  I actually enjoyed it; there is a certain satisfaction in throwing large, beaver chewed logs onto the bank that beats working out at the gym amongst frat boys.  So much more to do, but at least I have my self-imposed marching orders--and a creek that's already pretty beautiful in its own right!

Beaver neighbor!

Mr. and Mrs. Mallard

 

Sun and Snow

It's the first week of spring and it has been f-f-freezing!  Except when it's super sunny.  Which is usually followed five minutes later by sleet.  We've managed to get outside, usually running back in for extra hats and mittens at periodic intervals.  The cold weather has kept me knitting, as my hat obsession continues.

The neighborhood Great Horned Owl has been roosting in our tree and leaving owl pellets--very exciting!  As soon as I get them sterilized, we will have a dissection party.  Our bulbs are coming up, and today my son and I planted out the lettuce.  He also went around the yard taking pictures, and took some of these!  He's learning so many things right now, it's pretty amazing.  Baseball, for instance.  I'm sure the ball sport thing he did not inherit from either one of us!

Despite the cold, we're so excited that it's spring.  Easter is almost here, and today we got the decorations up!  I love love love spring, and get so giddy this time of year!

Owl Pellet

The artsy fence photo taken by my son.

The fact that I finished this is pretty amazing in and of itself.