May Rain

Well, we can't believe that May 2013 is already on its way out of existence! Time sure flies fast when you are a grown-up.  :) That being said, we had a pretty good May in Western Washington. It started off well -- summer like weather, but then we had at least a week of 10 degrees below normal temperatures. We could have just lived with the summer like weather, but as with most things in life, you have to take the good with the not so good. For May 2013, it looks like we had a total of 2.87" at our house. That seems like a lot less than our previous three May months, and weather.com confirms this by saying that the average is 3.39" in Woodinville for the month of May. Anyway, that's our snapshot.

On another note, can you believe that as of May, we have lived in Western Washington for 3 years?? Talk about time flying...

Cotton, Cotton, Cotton

Well, it is that time of year where the Cottonwoods are shedding their cotton.  While we have less cotton this year since we cut down our HUGE Cottonwood Tree last fall, there are plenty of Cottonwood Trees around to fill the gap.  Here's a shot of one now...

This is the stump from our old Cottonwood Tree, if you look closely, you can see all of the cotton sitting on the mulch around the stump.  That mulch is typically solid black.

In this shot of the yard, you can see the cotton all over the grass.  In some parts of the yard, it actually looks like snow there is so much cotton.

Our one iris bud that turned into an actual flower -- you can see the cotton on it too.

And this is not a blurry photo, it is focused on the cotton floating in the air and not the background.

  

 Here are some shots of our Thimbleberry bush; no berries yet, but there is a ton of cotton all over the bush.

And of course, the Salmonberry bushes have their berries. The wildlife is the backyard will be happy to have some dessert now!

This is a cool shot of another stump we have in the backyard.  It is actually the root of one of the stumps.

The backyard is coming together and looking quite nice these days! 

Indy on the deck watching her backyard (you can see all of the cotton surrounding her).

Kristina's lavender is looking quite good -- and the bees are REALLY enjoying it.

Happy Mother's Day

Happy Mother's Day 2013!

We had a good day here. Kristina started the day by playing tennis with Akiko. After tennis, Akiko and Kristina headed back to Jared and Kristina's House in Woodinville. Adrian and Alice (Akiko's husband and daughter) arrived there as well and we all had a late Mother's Day breakfast. Kristina made her famous sourdough waffles, scrambled eggs, bacon, sausage, fresh fruit -- and our guests brought Mimosas.  It was an excellent breakfast and a perfect way to follow up playing 90 minutes of tennis.

After we finished breakfast, we hung out in the backyard for a while (as usual, the weather was iffy -- but it turned out to be better than we thought).  Anyway, we all decided to head over to the river for a walk around and some play time for Indy and Alice.  Indy did her normal swimming and running around full throttle while Alice just LOVED the water.  It was a decent day, but the water was still pretty chilly -- even so, Alice braved the water!  By the time we were done, she was soaked!  Luckily, her rock star parents had an extra change of clothes for her in the car!  Everyone seemed to have a good day...doesn't Indy look happy?!

Happy Cinco de Mayo!

After spending a few hours in Fremont without Indy, we decided to head back to the house, grab the littlest dog in the world, and head over to her FAVORITE spot -- the Tolt River.  We needed to wear off some of the great food we had at the Mobile Food Rodeo and Indy needed a walk, so it was a perfect combination. Here we are at her favorite spot in the river and she is really fetching that stick today.

Of course after every stick retrieval, she had to go over and see Kristina.  And Kristina was nice enough to give her a treat each time.  What a spoiled little dog! 

Today after swimming in her favorite hole, we decided to go up and cross the bridge and hike along the Snoqualmie River Trail.  It was a very nice trail and could literally go one forever.  We hiked for a while and then we turned around -- all in all, we probably went on a 5 mile hike.

After we got back to the house and relaxed a little, Kristina decided to make watermelon margaritas, homemade flour tortillas, and some spicy pork tacos for dinner -- in honor of Cinco de Mayo.  We didn't spend all of the those years in Arizona without bringing some of that culture with us to Washington.  hahaha!

Fremont

Today we took advantage of the 80+ degree weather and headed over to Fremont (in Seattle).  Fremont is a very eclectic and happening place.  It always has a ton of events going on, lots of shops, great restaurants, and just a cool vibe.

Since it was Sunday, they had the Fremont Sunday Market going on (it is EVERY Sunday) -- and the Mobile Food Rodeo.  Our main objective was the Mobile Food Rodeo, but the Sunday Market was a BIG bonus.

First, we hit the Sunday Market.  They shut down the street to cars and this allows all types of vendors to set up and sell their stuff.  There are vendors that sell produce, flowers, jewelry, various arts and crafts, clothes, food, etc...  Just about anything you can imagine, they probably are selling it.  Here's a shot of the Market...

You may be wondering what the Mobile Food Rodeo is, for exact details you can check out this link:  Mobile Food Rodeo.  However, the short description is a gathering of about 35 food trucks all in one place. It is free to get in -- all you have to pay for is your food.  And there is quite the variety of food.  Pretty much any food you can imagine, you can find.  Seattle is known for the great food trucks -- and this was a great way to sample a bunch of different ones all in one place.

Here's a shot of the canal that the Mobile Food Rodeo bordered on...it was a great place to sit and try out your food.  It was a GREAT day! 

Backyard Visitors

It was a GREAT weather weekend in Western Washington.  Not only was it sunny, dry, and clear, but the temperatures were summer like temperatures -- which is a good thing here.  Instead of it being in the mid 60's, we reached mid 70's on Friday and Saturday, and it is forecast to be even warmer on Sunday.  That being said, Jared took the opportunity to take some shots of our backyard visitors.

And of course, no post on backyard visitors would be complete without photos of the squirrels.  Jared did a great job of capturing this one, step-by-step, snagging a peanut from the peanut box.  He/She kept looking over at Jared to make sure he wasn't coming any closer than he already was.

And last but not least, this is the wildest of the backyard visitors...INDY.  Here she is watching Jared very intently.  Jared was somewhat surprised by her and just happened to snap a picture of her.  Crazy dog!

Fruits of Our Labor

Anyone reading our blog knows that we have spent a lot of time working on our yard this spring.  Well, the fruits of our labor are starting to show.

This is the backyard.  It was basically a "do over" this spring.  Not only did we do the normal de-thatching to get rid of the moss, we had to bring a dump load truck of dirt in to repair it after the Cottonwood Tree was cut down last fall, then re-seed it, and fertilize it; you can see it is bouncing back quite nicely.

You can still see a few bare spots, but we have made tons of progress.

 

 

This is a shot of a flower in our flower bed near the dog area.  We both thought this plant was a goner, but it has recovered quite nicely and it growing like crazy this spring.

This is the side yard -- it needs a little more TLC, but it too is getting there.

The front yard is in pretty good shape from last year.  We had to do some clean-up, but no major repair like in the backyard.  It looks REALLY good.

 

A few plants from the front yard -- lilacs are one of Kristina's favorite.  She loves the smell and the purple color.

One of our favorite things to do is to just sit back or lie back and just look at the blue sky through the green leaves.  Here it is at its best...