Little Puffer Bellies All in a Row
March 3, 2025
I wished I’d gotten more pictures of the sky today. Today is exactly why spring is such a gem of a season… the air was tinged with warmth and was so clean and so clear. The sky was impossibly blue and dotted with those perfectly white puffer bellies.
(I know that the song about puffer bellies refers to trains, but I’m assigning the term to clouds here because it’s my blog and I’m allowed.)
Sour grass has exploded yellow all over our neighborhood, including in our yard, and trees are blossoming with their own puff balls of white and pink. Some are sprouting wee leaves of green — all dewy and fresh.
Here’s the one picture I got today.. our own backyard birch against that champ of a blue sky, with a couple fuzzy puffer bellies aloft.
Mick
March 2, 2025
I hate to say how many hours I devoted to watching the Oscars today… what with coverage of the Red Carpet, the actual show, and then the after parties… it was the better part of my Sunday. Lots of fun fashion, lots of stars, and all manner of awards handed out (or not) for movies we’d seen (saw all of them, I believe, so had plenty of skin in the game, or at least opinions and favorites). I can say I got some good exercise while watching: spent a solid hour of the show hiking uphill on my treadmill, and another good bit of time on my stationary bike! Spent another portion of the show sitting by the fire drinking a cold smoothie. Luxuriated in all of it. Watched on Hulu (which I had to subscribe to this afternoon in order to get the show at all). After three-plus hours, and at the moment the last two awards were to be handed out, Hulu’s coverage of the Oscars abruptly stopped (clearly an accident). This apparently and understandably outraged viewers from coast to coast, including me! Two of the most anticipated awards of the night… OMG! Thankfully, the news was readily available within minutes, and Youtube had clips up pretty fast, so all was well.
One of my favorite parts of the evening was when Mick Jagger came out to present the Oscar for best song. Don’t really remember the song (it was from Emilia Perez), but it was a gas to see him appear on stage. This isn’t much of a pic, but it’s the best I could snap as I was treadmilling along. He was really funny.
Pinks are Popping
March 1, 2025
The redbuds are getting their game on down at the Arb. Today was my first shorts day of the year. I love air on legs after a long winter. Temps hit 70 today!
Canada Geese and Music
February 28, 2025
Today was really about the president and vice president of the United States bullying an ally (Volodymyr Zelenskyy, president of Ukraine) in the Oval office on live TV. Today also marks a radical departure from a foundational, 80-year commitment to our European allies in favor of a cozier alliance with Russia.
So.. putting a pin in that. Will likely be talking about this again and again. It’s huge news and very disturbing, on top of all the other very unsettling developments in the past 5 weeks.
For a photo, and in lighter news, we drove up to Dutch Flat this evening to hear our friend Bill play with two other guys at the Monte Vista Inn. Now, that was fun. We met Sarah and Gabe, Susan and Jim, met some friends of theirs, and even saw Jimmy Johnson in the bar. Felt warm, comfortable, joyful.. all an exceptional antidote to the dread that’s slamming us daily.
A couple pics…
First, as we crossed the causeway, the skies were just thick in migrating, honking geese heading back North.. that stream of birds filled the flyway and kept coming and coming and coming … it was a remarkable site.
Right out the window, overhead
And here’s a shot of Bill (Edwards, in the middle) playing with Rob Bonner and Peter Wilson at the Monte Vista…
Crystal Clear
February 27, 2025
Sally gave me this stunning crystal vase (yup, it’s Baccarat crystal from France). She said it was a delayed wedding gift, and a nod to decades of friendship, and a make-up for anything bad she ever said or did to me. LOL. It caught me by surprise. All I could do was accept it and appreciate the symbol and generosity.. which I did. And now I just have to make sure I don’t break it!
White Bird
February 26, 2025
On a grayish log, on a springy day, in the sun.
It’s Spring Now
February 25, 2025
Orchard at corner of F and Rd 29. Shot through the windshield, so it’s got that blueish tint (I was stopped, but cars were coming and I didn’t have room to pull to side and get out).
But.. the orchards are popping. It is so pretty out there.
Bulbs are Bulbing
February 24, 2025
A few days ago, I noticed a speck of purply blue on the mound.. and sure enough, the first bulbs are coming out (not counting the narcissus that started blooming before Christmas). Mary planted dozens, and maybe dozens more, in the fall.. excited to see how many come up. We have a regular crop that’s been regularly blooming for a few years now. If the plan holds, we’ll have a riot of continuous color for the next couple of months.
Kindergarten Pals Turned Great Photographers
February 23, 2025
Chuck Babbitt and Lance Kinney are two of my favorite photographers. I went to elementary school with both of them! We reconnected over Facebook and have been FB friends for at least a decade, maybe more now. Much as I have come to dislike Mark Zuckerberg and what his platform has become, I’ve been deeply grateful for the connections with friends, old and contemporary.
Chuck and Lance post a lot of photos on social media (grateful for that, too). I’ve been a fangirl since my jaw first dropped lo those many years ago.
Here are two shots posted in the past couple months. I can hardly take my eyes off them.
Lance’s photo from Whidbey Island area:
Chuck’s from somewhere on the Big Island:
Gorgeous, no?
It Helps to Look Up
February 22, 2025
It’s stunning to me, and a good reminder, that if you take a moment to look up, you will likely be rewarded. At the very least, looking up will take you out of your present reality and deliver you to new views, new perspectives, or at least something different, maybe even pretty.
As I walked out of the coop this afternoon, this blooming tree drew my gaze upward. Glad it did.
Life of Wry 