This and that

Yesterday was Glynn's 29th birthday, again. I made this for him, not sure if he'd appreciate my efforts or not. He surprised me by being quite delighted. I want to hang it on his bathroom wall but first he wants to take it to work for 'show & tell'!

While organizing and sorting though Ellen's house in Beaverton, these architectural finds were screaming to be salvaged. Glynn and Elda think they are dumpster fodder but I simply remind them that 'one man's junk is another man's treasure'.


It's a spider time of year. We were brave last night and went to sleep with a HUGE one resting on the ceiling of our bedroom. (Unless the spider appears to be a threat to society, I spare its life.) I'm finding spider webs on the surface of our lawn.

While running errands yesterday I stumbled across garage sales, many of which I did not have to time to shop. Arrggh! I found more ephemera for projects and this bowl full of old Christmas baubles for $2. They are vintage - flocked, speckled and well loved. Not sure what I'll do with them except add them to my growing collections of odds and ends!

Weekend happenings

This picture could be better quality but I think you get the idea..... great Grandma Ellen is absolutely, positively delighted with her grandson, Cooper! We visited Ellen at her retirement home where any child is an instant hit. While walking down the hallway with Cooper in hand, Ellen would stop her fellow residents (whether she knew them or not) and proudly introduce Cooper as 'this is my great grandson'!


After all, who couldn't love this child?!

Blackberries are in season. I picked 4 cups from vines hanging over my back fence; enough to make a delicious blackberry cream cheese dessert for the annual Lincoln Creek Lumber bbq we hosted on Saturday. The dessert was an instant hit and I'll be picking more blackberries soon for a repeat.

Sunday found me in Seattle once again, this time meeting my sister & cousin Erik (from Austin) for the day. The Fremont Sunday market was our first destination.

I have wanted to go there since.... forever & wasn't disappointed. It's not like the Olympia Farmer's Market as there are no produce or nursery/plant booths. Most booths are either artisan type products or antique and good junk booths. I will go again!

We drove to Swanson's nursery for lunch as they claim to have a lovely restaurant in a large greenhouse. It was worth the drive (thank goodness for GPS!) for we had a delicious lunch and bought plants, too.

We didn't eat these for lunch! These happen to be the biggest Koi I've ever seen in a pond in the restaurant......

Lastly, here are a couple of completed journal pages for the week:

a class photo taken from 1946

Be an original

While reconnecting with a friend last week, I toured her yard and acreage having not seen it since they began a huge remodel years ago. Catherine is an attorney so I wasn't at all surprised when she she identified her plants, down to the actual cultivar! What I wasn't prepared for was her passion, drive and hard, physical work in creating her landscape. She desired expressive movement and continuity and has successfully and beautifully created an incredible space.

As I gazed upon Catherine's yard, one with a plan and purpose, I felt the stirrings of unrest begin within my belly. "My yard is just a hodge-podge of flowers stuck in the ground with no plan in mind. Soon, I was thinking, "Oh my goodness! I have to change my yard!"

Thankfully, as I was relating all this to Kathleen and Courtney the next day, each sputtered, "but, I love your yard!"


Thank you, girls, for helping me remember what I often easily forget; that I am an individual with unique, one-of-a-kind talents and gifts. Life isn't a contest to see who can have the biggest or prettiest or most interesting ________. We are here to share our gifts and, in doing so, honor ourselves in the process.

I made an entry in my art journal to help me remember the next time I forget because, unfortunately, this comparing myself with others happens on a much too regular basis....

2nd Saturdayz

Saturday found me at Magnuson Park in Seattle at 2nd Saturdayz. Junk dealers from around the region set up their booths in an old brick hangar on yes, the 2nd Saturday of each month. $5 gets you through the door but watch your pocketbook or it will be void of cash by the time you leave!
My purchase is an old tricycle painted white that I'll use somewhere in my yard with a basket of flowers hanging from the handlebars.

Magnuson Park is a mere 5 minutes from University Village. In the 'village' is Crate & Barrel, Pottery Barn, Anthropologie (my fav) plus many more shops, many one of a kind (a rarity these days)... If nothing else, it's fun to stroll through the village and shed the hicksville mantle of Tumwater and bask in a more cosmopolitan air!

Oh, the ironies of life

Strolling through the neighboring campground this evening I noticed the following:

-Satellite TV dish on a stand in the bushes
-Folks eating around the table inside the motor home (yes - I spy)
-a hammock strung between two trees
-numerous tented canopies erected over eating areas
-tents with extensions & entry ways
-bicycles, pool toys, Bocce Ball,


all the conveniences of home carefully packed into a metal box on wheels (trailer or motor home) (or in a large trunk + car carrier + backseat space) so we can 'experience the out-of-doors' and 'get-away-from-it-all'.

Yes, this is the interior of a motor home

The irony kills me.

I must admit, although I sleep in a humble two man pup tent, I will not leave home without my double sized air mattress and hair dryer!

Keeping it all in perspective

I awoke this morning feeling ...... sad.

It's cloudy outside, a slight breeze is blowing and the temperature likely will not make it out of the 60's. It feels like a fall morning. I stepped out the back door and heard a flock of geese flying overhead. "That's great", I mused. "They are heading south already." When I spotted them, thankfully they were flying north... perhaps they had a change in perspective and turned around.

'Here she goes again, whining about the weather', you might say.

And I'd agree. Here I am lamenting about the weather when there are Kenyans and Somalians (and Texans) who would gratefully trade places with me.

A talk show host recently spoke about Yakima, WA. For those of you who haven't visited Yakima, it's kinda sorta considered the armpit of the world. Where once it was a thriving, middle income community situated in the desert of eastern WA, due to harsh economic times over the years it has now become a magnet for crime, high unemployment and a mecca for gangs. It houses a huge transient migrant worker community and the host pointed out that although you and I may not choose to live in Yakima, there are Mexicans sneaking into our country, swimming dangerously across rivers and hiking through arid landscape, anxious to leave Mexico all for the opportunity of living and working in such a place. It's all about perspective.

Which brings up another philosophical point. Often, I say, "It is what it is". But it is really? Our viewpoint of life in general is dominated by our personal perception of any given event. Yakima, WA may seen like the armpit of the world to you but it's a thriving paradise to another.

So, back to the our cool temperatures....

TODAY IS A GIFT and since gifts make me happy, regardless of the temperature outside, today will be a great day!

(Postscript - 4 hours later... the marine air has burned off and not a cloud in the sky can be seen. I'm thinking the weatherman is wrong, once again.)

Queen of the Prairie

This flower, Queen of the Prairie, is aptly named. It looks like something that would be used to adorn a hat worn by royalty. Having a handful of these flowers reigning over the other flowers in my flower garden is very regal indeed!

I'm having great fun creating an art journal. I'm not one to share my thoughts by writing in a journal. However, my heart is full of emotion, longing to be expressed. I'm a huge collector of quotes and by creating art around these quotes, I find I'm able to express those feelings .

(This page is waiting for inspiration.)

Camping fun at Ft Flagler state park

The weather gods were obviously pleased with the Jensen clan, thus ordering up pleasant weather for a camping trip to Ft. Flagler state park last weekend.

Allow me to insert a 10 second bite of history: Ft Flagler, east of Pt Townsend, is one of three forts established in the late 1890's to guard the nautical entrance to the Puget Sound. The fort closed in 1953 and was purchased by the state in 1955.

The majority of our clan stayed in their tents in the campground area. The Howard's rented an NCO house, circa 1903, because #1, Glynn does not sleep in tents and #2, Nick and Courtney were not interested in tenting it with a non-walking 13-month old.

The house is located on a bluff overlooking the water. Early morning found me sitting on the front porch soaking in sounds of silence broken only by the twittering of birds and the lap of gentle waves on shore.

3 generations, relaxing.

The park contains underground bunkers and armaments ready to explore. It's a great place to exercise one's imagination muscle. Ghosts likely haunt the nooks and crannies after dark....

The beach was glorious. Plenty of driftwood, shells and rocks for beach combing.

Dirty campsite feet. Thankfully, we had a clawfoot bathtub to wash off the residue of the day.

Mr Clean - how does he manage to stay pristine even when camping?