Fairies...

We headed south for a cache this morning, breakfast at The Kettle, but made up for it by a walk around the lake in Nolte State Park. On the hike out, we met a couple of women who were sprinkling sparkly glass gems along the trail, getting ready for a pre-school group. We saw them all the way out, placed on stumps and mossy tree roots, and even balanced on fern fronds. The kids will have a fun hike.

The gardens were soggy, so I caught up on some inside chores: logging TBs, deleting photos, making notes for the wine cellar inventory. And I wrote a few blog posts for May. I can't believe I didn't post anything all month long. And that I took so few photographs, in spite of how beautiful the garden has been. I saw it and reveled in it, but didn't record it.

Snow in May...

It isn't, of course... but when the cottonwood trees bloom, white fluff sails through the air in clumps, and collects on the ground and on the tree limbs just like the frozen stuff of winter.

It's the only bloom or pollen I'm allergic to, which means that for most of May and early June, all I want to do is sleep. It's no wonder I always fall so far behind in my journal, my blog, my photography this time of year.

I always vow to rise above... but those little puffs of white always bring me to my knees.

Hidden places...

We explored another small park today, down a steep ravine to a dry creek bed, and up the other side through tall firs and maples. There's a big horse farm just north of the park, but no signs that any horses get to use these trails. There are a lot of these hidden parks, stretching from one side of a ravine to the other, some with rushing streams, some overgrown and tangled with blackberry vines, some with small clearings of bright green grass.

It's one thing geocaching has brought us... a way to these hidden places we would not otherwise have found.

Georgetown...

Tonight we met friends for the annual Georgetown Brewing release party for Bob's Brown Ale.
Parking karma got us a spot in front, and our early arrival got us one of the big round booths.
We shared great beer and burgers with equally good friends,
At one of my favorite neighborhood bars.
If I could, I would live in this neighborhood.
If city living was for me, that is.

Coming home...

I let this big flowerbed go... hoping the wild things would sow themselves and make a garden without my help. Sometimes, this is the best way to establish a new garden. Flowers will sprout where it suits them, and they do a much better job than I can do.



I love the Rose Campion, and I know I've written about this antique flower before. It great in the garden of my childhood home, and when it showed up in the garden at Pennylane Farm the first spring we lived there... well, I knew I had come home.

Birthday with friends...

Our closest friends came for a visit, just in time for DW's birthday. The weather cooperated, so we spent most of a day and evening outside on the patio. We cooked outside, ate outside, then sat around the firepit until late. We even had breakfast outside the next day, on a bright spring morning.

The four of us have spent a lot of hours doing just this... talking and laughing and sharing meals together.

Double white...

A week or so ago, I took a detour on the way to my Tuesday quilting group, and drove the backroads north of Maple Valley. It's an area full of dead-end roads, thanks to a state highway that bisects the old farms, cutting them to pieces.

But there are still a few old barns and even more farmhouses remaining, and green pastures. And of course, lots of trees. We grow them everywhere in this part of the state, whether we want them or not. Turn your back, and trees appear. I love that about the wet side of this state.

I came to photograph one of my favorite barns one one of the dead-end roads, in the early morning on a rainy day. It stands next to an older, smaller barn, and there's a beautiful restored farmhouse next door. Finding a barn so well tended is a pleasure; there are so many more that are unloved, in disrepair, or falling down. It takes a lot of time and money to maintain a barn. Think about what it costs to put a roof on your house, and double or triple that.



As I turned to go, I spotted another white barn across the road, behind some trees. With the low-lying clouds partly screening the mountains, it made for a beautiful setting on this rainy day.

May...

May is...

Lilacs
Scotch broom... so glad I'm not allergic, like my mother was
Weeds... I am always behind, but this year, I'm catching up fast
Soft morning air...
Tea outside in the morning, in an Adirondack chair, under a pair of apple trees
Skunk cabbage in the ditches...
Trails that are finally dry...
Searching for shorts and tank tops...
Birds arriving, looking for a place for babies...
Mushrooms sprouting everywhere...

It's my favorite month for the flower gardens. Lilacs and columbine and dogwood, followed by rhododendrons, iris, foxglove, and daisies. It's the best and most colorful month at the farm.