More Snow

It's been snowing again for several hours. The power flickered about 25 minutes ago. So, I should be doing chores that require labor saving devices. Can you say v-a-c-u-u-m? I got a load of laundry started. Should charge the cell phone. But I thought the blogosphere could use a couple more pictures of snow. Doug and I went Christmas shopping last night, for the 2nd time, oh, and the last. The first Christmas shopping trip was only 1 hour long. Doug is at work today. Danny is off to work today. I want to go see my mom today, but I'm going to wait until later and incorporate it into my trip to church for the evening, which will start in the late afternoon. Tyler and I will figure out how to store the garbage which we can't get rid of because the garbage didn't get picked up last week. Sooo Christmasy! Merry Christmas everybody. The world is beautiful, hazardous and difficult to deal with. Oh, let's celebrate God's indescribable gift anyway!

Monday Morning

More snow ...............

Good night

Still snowing. Snowing again. We lost power for about 5 hours this evening, but it's back on now. Way past bedtime.

snowy

It's 8:45 Saturday evening. I don't plan to go out there an measure that snow, but I'm thinking that the new, plus the old, is about 10 inches. The forecast is for between 9 and 22 inches of snow by tomorrow morning. It is snowing steadily, tiny icy particiles. They look much more "snow flakey" in this picture than they really are. Still have power. No wind. Temp in low 20's.

Merry Christmas

I knew yesterday was my birthday, because we decorated the tree!

More about Lyle

Photographing Lyle
Trains in Lyle
The Columbia River at Lyle Point

celebrating 30 years

In the words (more or less) of Jackson Browne ....."The next thing I remember I was all moved in, and he was buying me a washing machine." Our dishwasher has been faltering, but Doug is investigating. It's not nearly as old as we are! Before household repairs, we celebrated this past weekend with a stay at the Lyle Hotel, on the Washington side of the Columbia River.
We drove over to the Oregon side and got to see what the little town of Lyle looks like from Rowena Crest on the historic scenic hwy 30.
One of the places we stopped was the Columbia Gorge Discovery Center. There is a raptor center there and one of the birds they had rescued was a Northern Sawhet Owl, only about 7 or 8 inches tall. He had lost an eye because of being hit by a car. His name is Hootie.








We also drove to Goldendale one night and met up with Lydia and Dave for dinner and a trip to the observatory. That was a unique experience. We didn't get to gaze much at stars because of lots of fog, although we did get to look through the telescope. Doug and I drove back through Goldendale on our way home, up the Klickatat River along the route that was used in the olden days by the

Goldendale-Lyle railroad. That was a great drive. We had our first picnic in the eurovan (I still think of it as a bus). I'll post those pictures later today.

wonders never cease

well, the cat sitting on the mouse is not so unusual, but the mushrooms growing out of trees was kind of unique. Those white ones were real tiny and in too much shade to get a good picture of. They look like something that should live waaaaay under water or something. Of course, Woody wants you to come over and play ball, any kind you'd like. And, yes that's a VW bus with the hood up.

three trees

going


going


gone














Woody won! We're just trying to make hay while the sun shines in Olalla.

dead batteries

everywhere I looked, so I couldn't take these pictures with my actual camera. Here are pictures from my phone of one of the beautiful maples out our back window, and what I presume to be a chanterelle mushrooom. It is the height of fall. I knocked down a bunch of tall weedy stuff, planted some little landscaping trees that have been surviving somehow in pots for a year, and discovered what could be a tasty mushroom.



And a picture from a walk I took about a week ago. Love that madrona tree with the sky behind it.

transportation

that's the big issue in my life now. Danny's, Tyler's, Doug's, mine. Transportation. Life would be so much easier if we could all just stay put. Here's a picture of summer's last bloom. It's so fall. I had a nice 24 hours in Ellensburg with Lydia. We stayed at a place called the Inn at Goose Creek, which was described by one of the guests who signed the little book in our room as "almost too cute". It was a nice comfy room and the breakfast was leisurely and delightful. We ate a couple of delicious dinners out with Gene, and Yusuke and other friends of Gene's from his dorm. We haunted St. Vinnie's and Goodwill and I picked something up for Andy at Lydia's urging (29 cents). Had a wonderful walk around the CWU campus and got to watch the marching band practicing for their performance on Saturday at Qwest field at the battle in Seattle. Brought home apples from the fruit stand at a rock bottom price. Sorry I don't have any pictures. I forgot my camera. Lydia?

These are a few

of my favorite things

bike on bridge

we had a nice ride out to the middle of the bridge yesterday, where the view is beautiful, but the noise is exhausting.

pretty sights

Here's a pacific tree frog. Thankfully, they still abound in Olalla. And, a hydrangea I bought without knowing what color it would be, and it turns out to be my favorite - purple! It's another of my one bloom wonders, with a little help from Woody.

Picture link

Here is a picture link from Doug's photo of events at Theo and Penny's house last weekend
http://picasaweb.google.com/dalewis33

"I play a geddar"

Theo's 2nd birthday party was great fun, and Penny's baptism day was delightful! (we all got a little wet)

lovely weekend

It started out on Friday with Penny spending the night with us (Theo stayed with Judy and Sherm) while Andy & Sarah celebrated their wedding anniversary. We had a great time and she was such a trooper.











Then, early Saturday afternoon Doug and I took off for a brief visit to the Olympic Peninsula. We started out in Sequim and ended up at Rialto Beach, just north of LaPush. The first night we camped in Sequim and the 2nd night we stayed in a motel in Forks. Lots of bike riding on the Olympic Discovery Trail and lots of beach walking. The weather wasn't great. It was raining while we put the tent up, but the tent stayed dry inside (as advertised) and it was great bike riding weather.





The beaches on the Washington coast that are in the Olympic Nat'l Park are so beautiful. They're just much wilder than the ones to the south. I'd love to spend a week out there!