Willms' View

This was the view of one Willms anyway, when I went on my regular walk the other day. My walk is doubly rewarding if I get a view of Mt. Baker and also the northern Golden Ears range with Mt. Robbie Robson standing massive and resolute in the distance. These mountains have been a source of great joy and encouragement to me for more than fifty years. At any season of the year they are spectacular. Now watching as the first dusting of snow has arrived on the northern range, I'm awestruck at the grandeur and majesty of these amazing land formations. As the snow will fall in increasing measure from now until late spring, every day brings a new and refreshing view of these stellar sentinels. But I digress, I have no photos here of those mountains but this beauty of a slightly shrouded Baker was such a delight as I glimpsed it a few days ago. Baker is always snow-clad of course and I will be watching as the Cascades and local mountains welcome the snow in abundance over the next months. This is of great importance to our watershed.

This is the first time that I took my camera on my neighborhood walk hoping to catch something wonderful. I did. Mt. Baker had that misty stripe running through it -something I'd never noticed before.

Luscious red berries, decorative only, even to the birds I think since I saw no birds flitting among these loaded branches. I don't know the name of this bush located in a gulley nearby.

I didn't catch sight of one little bunny rabbit which I'd hoped for. Usually they're out but they may be getting ready for winter. But back at home I needed to show off the snapdragons that were such a surprise to me this spring. Late spring I noticed a mass of seedlings growing near our back deck. After a while I realized they must be snapdragons. Although I hadn't planted any, I did have some in a large planter on the deck the previous summer. Wow! What a gift! I transplanted those babies-there were tons, I couldn't use them all and oh the color was so rich and vibrant. Such lavishness!
"For man, autumn is a time of harvest,
of gathering together.
For nature, it is a time of sowing,
of scattering abroad."- Edwin Way Teale

Those lovely fall chyrsanthemums - these plants survived last winter and thrived. I'm hoping they'll do it again! "The Lord God made them all!"

"I will lift up mine eyes unto the hills,
from whence cometh my help.
My help cometh from the LORD,
which made heaven and earth."
Psalm 121:1-2

Tea Party - "Kringle"

Do you know what "Kringle" are? It's the German word for pretzel, although our Kringle do not taste like pretzels at all. Kringle are simply bun dough which is rolled into a thick rope and while twisting and turning them an amazing kringle is supposed to appear! My Mom's were always very well done - but I tried that today and well, although they were tasty they didn't exactly look like the authentic ones from earlier years. We always only had a few of these since most of the bun dough was used for buns which everyone enjoyed even more.

My lovely niece Bonnie (I have permission to post this picture!) called today and we decided to have tea at our place. She was delighted with my very fancy chintz-like China which I inherited from my sister-in-law, Alice Willms#1 I seldom use this little set and when I saw how Bonnie was taken by the dainty cups I was very pleased and we enjoyed our tea party together very much. Traditionally we would be having coffee with kringle for sure but we opted for tea which we poured from the matching teapot. My mother told me many times how she as a little girl would sit on her Daddy's lap and enjoy warm kringle which her mother (who died when Mom was only 3) and later her grandmother who looked after them then for a year before she died, had baked. These were always dunked into sugar poured into a saucer "a Schattel" and then washed down with wonderful coffee. This was a precious memory for Mom since her Dad died while she was still so young -only 5- and she had so few memories of her parents.

So today Bonnie and I followed suit by dunking our first bites of kringle into some sugar in loving memory of my dear Mom and grandparents who have gone before us. Bonnie had courageously stayed with my Mom through the night the day my Dad passed away. It was so kind of her. Less than two years later when my Mom passed away, some of us gathered at Mom's condo to enjoy freshly baked "kringle" which I brought over for our coffee break while looking after some things there. Bonnie couldn't remember if she'd been there that time.

Al proves that he can use the camera too!

The rose in the butter.

I like to carve a rose into a fresh slab of butter before setting it out. My family's gotten used to it. So it came as a nice surprise earlier this summer when in a hurry to get the butter out and get on with the supper since little people were anxious to get going, our son-in-law casually stated, "Oh, no rose on the butter." Today Bonnie's first comment when she saw the butter was, "Oh,I've always wanted to know how to do that rose?" I told her to simply have some fun gauging up the butter:

- use a small teaspoon with pointed tip, have a small glass of hot water ready, dip spoon in hot water and working from the center of the butter dig a small half circle, dip spoon and continue around and around until it looks the way you want it to. You can always smooth things over by taking the back of the hot spoon and levelling it out, start again. It's that simple but adds a neat touch.

Hydrangeas

Yesterday I cut the hydrangeas and set them in water in this large vase. I keep them like this until the water has mostly evaporated and the leaves begin to dry up. I've found in the past that if I wait too long after Thanksgiving the frost may come unannounced and damage the flowers before I take them in. I only take in a few bouquets and although there are masses of flowers still on four of the five shrubs, many of them had already been marred by the ravages of the summer - probably too much direct sunlight and not enough water. Hydrangeas need a lot of water in order to flourish. But looking out over the yard these amazing bushes still give off such beauty.

The hydrangea bush in early summer.

Hydrangeas - your best bang for your buck - enjoy them outdoors throughout the summer and then indoors - dried- throughout the winter.

Pumpkin Planter

At this time of the year I lose my enthusiasm for getting out in the garden - the rain and wind have taken their toll and yet so much in the garden is still lush and vibrant, like the patient impatiens, the resilient fibrous begonias and fall asters. But when I was blessed with a gorgeous magazine "Autumn Garden Scapes" the other day, I was mesmerized by the stunning colours of fall gardens displayed, including a picture of spectacular pumpkin planter. I was determined to copy the idea as soon as possible.

So off to my favourite Garden Center I went this morning. I found to my dismay that they were all sold out of purple Kale. Instead, I chose two regular planters and two small fall mums - all reasonably priced at 2 for 1. From these two 12" planters I pulled out the plants and foliage that I thought would complement each other. On my way home I stopped at the country produce center and found an almost perfect pumpkin. This project couldn't wait. I cut a large opening into the pumpkin to accomodate an 8" pot...in no time at all I had it done. Nice isn't it?

Now we'll see if it the pumpkin will keep for the next few weeks at least...and I still have lots of lovely "stuff" left in those planters I bought this morning!

October

"Summer good-bye

Summer good-bye

You may no longer stay

Autumn is on her way -

Summer good-bye

Summer good-bye."

Nostalgia hits with autumn. Memories tumble in ... that golden harvest moon - the largest full moon of the year which rises closest to the autumnal equinox - and the ditty we sang in our youth..."I see the moon, the moon sees me, down through the leaves of the old oak tree...", delightful bonfires in crisp, chilly prairie air along with charred hotdogs and marshmallows roasted on the best stick we could find in the surroundings.

Kicking up leaves, another delightful autumn pleasure..."but isn't it lovely, kicking up leaves." When our first grandson was about a year and a half I would take him for a walk in the stroller. He loved the sound of the leaves crunching under the wheels of the stroller and laughed with glee as the light breeze swirled leaves over the sidewalk scratching a tune as they danced ahead of us.

Autumn has always been a favourite season. In earlier years it heralded the beginning of a new school year, a new box of crayola crayons - only eight beautiful, deliciously waxy-scented crayons, but what a treasure. Oh yes, I did long for that extravagantly large collection of crayola crayons which one of my friends had, containing every hue and colour imaginable.

"Summer Good-Bye", the opening poem today, is the first song I recall learning in school - Grade 1. It has a rather mournful tune and I sang it with much fervor as a kid and have taught it to my students in later years. I loved to sing and over the years, as a classroom teacher, I've used singing to pull the class together over and over again in a wonderful way. Singing is a great tonic and a healer...an exquisite communicator of feelings, thoughts and dreams.

Another rather doleful song of my first Grade has to do with pumpkins. My Dad reminded me in later years how I would reverently sing this song over and over again:

"Jack-o-lantern, jack-o-lantern,

You are such a funny sight

As you sit there in the window

Looking out at the night.

You were once a yellow pumpkin

Growing on a sturdy vine.

Now you are a jack-o-lantern

See the candlelight shine!"

I didn't grow pumpkins this year and so will go and get one, today I think. So no photo today but watch...I've got a good idea...but that will come later. Or "Later, Mater"...as my grandson likes to say.

Late Summer Garden - continued

The driftwood I mentioned in the last post can be seen here as a divider. Click on it to enlarge.

'Tis the last rose of summer
Left blooming alone;
All her lovely companions
Are faded and gone...'
by Thomas Moore -written in 1805
I checked the lyrics of that romantic song and spent an hour or so on You Tube listening to some amazing Celtic singers as well as Charlotte Church - check it out. As to the lyrics they're painfully sentimental. Also in my garden this little mini-rose bush which grew very nicely into quite a large container rose,has developed a number of fresh thick buds and if the frost is not too severe or too early I might well have roses as a centerpiece at Christmas, which I've had before.

A close-up of those gorgeous wave petunias and dahlias - see "Late Summer Garden" post -these photos were also taken at that time.

Whidbey Island (pt3)

When I blog from my picture organizer, Picasa, it only allows me to blog 4 pictures at a time. I find it easiest to blog this way-first choose my pics and then do the write-ups. So now you get the Whidbey Island blog in three parts and in reverse order. I'd also thought of doing the pics as a slideshow and added the gadget as you might see in the right hand column but after that I didn't take the time to think through the next steps - another time.

Oh this gull was very entertaining and I got a lot of shots of him. I was wondering if he only had one leg so I threw a small piece of driftwood gently to a log close to him. He put his other leg down and hopped over to a neighboring log - no worries. He had been preening himself or simply scratching himself under his wing with the other foot for the longest time. Later he sat down and tucked his head under his wing, even his eye seemed to disappear later.

Driftwood is stacked up for miles along the shore. Some years ago I found a wonderful long curved piece of driftwood to which I helped myself and now use in my garden as a prop.

This stalwart flower flourishes along this rugged coast growing unconcernedly in the sand. These flowers along with the grasses help keep the sand from blowing away.

The Arbutus Tree is unique and eye-catching because of its red bark and gnarly branches. I remembered from earlier studies that this tree is unique to our West Coast. I Googled 'Arbutus Tree' and found:
"The Arbutus Tree is the only native broadleaf evergreen tree in Canada. Arbutus is restricted to a narrow band along the south coast (of BC)and generally occurs within 8 kilometres of the ocean. It is often found on exposed rocky bluffs overlooking the ocean."