DARRELL AND THE TREE

 In 2005 we planted a tree in front of our house in Renton on Darrell's birthday.  And I've been taking a picture on this day ever since.

2025

2020

2015

Planting day 2005

JELLY TURNS 10

Happy Birthday Jelly!  

She turns 10 years old today. 

NOVEMBER EIGHTEENTH

 It's Darrell's birthday today.  I took him out to lunch at Easy Street Records in West Seattle.  We've never eaten there before today.  So, I took my sketchbook to record the event.

I spent the rest of the day in my studio catching up on some sewing.  I got another month's blocks of the SeaMQGBOM2024 made.

OSCAR THE BIRD KING

 We got on the 7:40am ferry to Vashon Island and made our way to Point Robinson Park where Oscar the Bird King lives.

I came to sketch him. He was in the shade and it was a bit cold, but there were logs arranged to sit and visit with him, so it was very pleasant.  Darrell walked down to the beach to see the lighthouse.

Then we headed back to the ferry and got some popcorn.  When I worked and went to Vashon, a lot of the times I would get a little bag of popcorn - the highlight of the day sometimes.  

Today turned out to be a beautiful day.  The sun was shining and life is good.

Then we made our way to Ballard for our next stop.

70 and 91

 My cousin Clayton was born on my Mom's 21st birthday.  He says they've never celebrated their birthdays together.  This year was Clayton's 70th, so we figured it was time to remedy that.

A lot of the family got together at cousin Ron's in Lacey for a big birthday celebration.  It was so nice seeing everyone.  Ron and Marva have a beautiful home and everyone had a great time.

The April birthday kids.

JELLY IS EIGHT

 It's Jelly's 8th Birthday.  HAPPY BIRTHDAY!

BIRTHDAY FLOWERS

 Darrell got me a nice bouquet of flowers for my birthday yesterday.  I found a canvas, dusted it off and rounded up my acrylics and brushes.  And painted.

MOM'S 90TH BIRTHDAY PARTY

We all gathered at Julie and Jeff's home to celebrate Mom's 90th Birthday, which was on the 13th.  Most all of the family, my cousins and their families, showed up, plus Aunt Marlys (whose birthday was yesterday) and some family friends.  It was really very nice to see everyone again.  There was lots of good conversation and catching up.

Julie did a great job on the food and there was a cupcake tree, with a special one for the birthday girl.

I brought a bunch of quilts with me.  I offered them to anyone that wanted one to take one home.  I got a lot of takers.  It was nice to see them find a home (if a little sad to see them go at the same time).   My Ribbons quilt found a friend with my cousin Steve's son Chad's youngest daughter, Emi.  She seemed quite pleased with it.

JELLY TURNS SEVEN

 Today is Jelly's seventh birthday.  We stopped at our regular spot for her annual birthday picture in Lincoln Park.  I'm just getting back to taking walks in the park since my knee surgery.  I'm walking pretty slow, Jelly gets frustrated with me.

IMOGENE CUNNINGHAM EXHIBIT

 For Darrell's birthday we attended the member preview of the Imogene Cunningham Exhibit at Seattle Art Museum (SAM) this morning.

The opening statement about exhibit

'Magnolia Blossom'  1925

'Tower of Jewels' 1925

'Hens and Chicks' 1929

'Banana Plant' 1925-1929

Afterwards, we went to Cafe Con Leche and picked up Cubano sandwiches to go.  Then we stopped at Daniel Smith where it's the last week of their retail store.  They've been discounting everything in the store for the last month or so.  Everything still there is now 50% off.  I didn't think there'd be anything worth having, but surprisingly there was still some good things left!  I managed to spend over $100.  Darrell even picked up some colored pencils that he uses to hide repairs to his furniture.

JELLY'S BIRTHDAY

 Today is Jelly's 6th Birthday.

We went to Lincoln Park to take her official birthday photo.

Then we took some more photos...

65

 When I was young I never thought about actually getting to be 65.  But, here it is, such as it is.  

Happy Birthday to me!  Life is good.

I started the day out attending a zoom Sketching PlayLab workshop with Paul and Suhita.  They provided a reference photo.  We did a lot of thumbnails and then sketched it.

I really enjoyed it.

Then when I went grocery shopping I got a piece of GF birthday cake, Chocolate Pistachio, and I sketched it, along with my free birthday coffee from Starbucks.  

I'll have some of it after dinner tonight.

73/100

It's Jelly's birthday today.  She turns five.

I got excited and made ten very plain whitish triangles before lunch.

Then I replaced the dark ones with these lighter ones:

 Then another ten after lunch.  

I put them all up on the wall and it now looks a lot better.

Then I started sewing the top two rows together.

44/100

My birthday.  Hmmm.  The day didn't start out very well.  I woke up a little after 3am to pee and on the way back to bed stepped in a big pile of puke - dog or cat, who knows.  It really startled me and then I had to clean it up.  By that time, I was wide awake and couldn't get back to sleep, so I got up and promptly stubbed my toe.  It's going to be a good day.

I' sorry, I don't mean to be a complainer, but I was just surprised at how the day started.  I hope it isn't an indicator of the year ahead.

So, with my slight backache, my headache and aching hands, we started working on the deck.

Only a few more really long boards to go.  After we quit for the day, I got three more triangle blocks made from the scrap bucket.

I got a fish card for my birthday.  I love it.  Nicole and Victoria bought us dinner (takeout) from El Camion.  Victoria went and picked it up.  I love El Camion, so things are taking an upturn.

After dinner, I went to take a hot shower so I could get cleaned up and then let the hot water pour onto my aching neck and hopefully my headache would let up.  And, guess what... there was no hot water, none.  And so it goes.

Happy Birthday to me.

NORTH CASCADES

For my birthday, we left today to drive the Cascades Loop.  We went up Highway 9 instead of I-5 and saw some places we'd never seen.   At Arlington, Waze had us turn off onto Highway 530 which took us through Oso, where we'd never been.

Finally, onto Highway 20, we stopped to stretch our legs at a short walk out to a lookout over the High Gorge Dam.

We continued onto Newhalem, where we stopped at the National Forest Visitors Center.  We bought some souveniers and got our passport stamped.  We talked to a Ranger to confirm that our choice for a hike was a good idea and off we went to the trailhead of Thunder Knob, a four mile roundtrip hike with an elevation gain of at least 400 feet.  At the top was a great view of Lake Diablo.  The weather was absolutely perfect.  Once at the top we sat and ate our lunch.  Darrell wandered about taking pictures while I sat and sketched.  It was wonderful.

Afterwards, we continued east, with a short stop where the Pacific Crest Trail crosses the highway.  I wanted to say I'd hiked the PCT, but there was too much snow (!), so I just took a picture of the sign.

We spent the night in Winthrop at a cute little place called the Bunkhouse Inn.  We brought homemade spaghetti.  We heated it in the microwave and ate sitting on a picnic table out front.  

It had a great open shower with nice pressure and very hot water.  The furniture was rustic and handmade.  It was really nice and just what we needed.