Two Eyes, One Nose, Tulips!

Today, Jordan and I finally made it to the Skagit Valley for their annual Tulip Festival. This festival is more than an hour NW of of our home. What we've read is that it's a great festival during the month of April. What we learned is that one should probably arrive earlier in the month. We retrieved a local map for all the flowering areas from a gas station ( gas was priced at 3.11!!!) and off we went. We kept looking at the map that was marked with little tulips each time we should see a field of tulips, yet, we either saw a dirt field recently turned over, or a field of recently deheaded tulips. There were many houses around and ranches that had blooming tulips in their yards, yet the fields were empty. We figured that we just missed it but it was confusing since so many homes still had beautiful showy blooms. We took a few more turns, happy to be out and about on a shared day off from work, and destined to picnic no matter the weather! We finally got to see what's left of this valley's fame. This current week has been filled with sunny sunny days and about 70-75 degree weather. Today though, it was blustery cold, windy and rainy. These are the shots we were able to get today. Enjoy. I know there are a lot of photos of flowers, so I hope you are patient looking through them. I've concluded this entry with our own creations and interpretations into today. I will say however that Jordan got crafty with his camera and taught me something new. You'll see two shots that are similar in their effect. The first one is his own, and the second is my try at it. My shot is called "Jordan gives me a flower," or "Here, smell this!" Thank you Jordan for always being interested enough in our shared interests, and patient enough as well, to take the time to show me something so cool. Thank you also for lending me your jacket today when it got to be so cold. Should I share with everyone that it snowed up here today? Nah, suffice to say we had a roaring fire tonight in our woodstove and shared a bottle of wine that we picked up along our trails today trying to recover.

Nature Reclaims! We saw this home on a wrong turn that turned into a right nice photo.














Okay, onto the Festival. I encourage you to click on the photos to show more detail, and if all you get is code, Refresh the page and it should appear correctly.

Pastures of Bleu

I love that shot. It's not a cropped photo, it's how it was taken and I just really like it. Jordan and I spent last weekend at the Collin's ranch in Battleground WA. We got in late on Friday night, and after an hour or so of catching up, we crashed. I think that was around 2:30am! I got up around 7 to walk Jack around their 5 acre property and we ended up wandering over to the pastures so Jack and Bleu could meet. Blue is an Arabian horse, and maybe Heather will give me more details about Bleu. All I know is, he's GORGEOUS! He's also very smart and sweet. Jack and I hung out at the gate, which wasn't hot-wired, and Jack sniffed under the gate to get to Bleu. He was in a play stance and the two of them were sniffing at each other. It was very cute of each of them. Bleu sort of left me alone, staying out of reach of my hand. Later in the hour, he was sniffing at my face, and tasting my sweatshirt when I finally got a good petting in. He then leaned into my hand and really enjoyed the scratching I was giving him. Jack just kept eating Bleu's grass, instead of settling for the grass that was on the outside of the pasture. He later lost all that grass in my car. Thanks Jack! The next morning proved more interesting when Heather and I let Jack into the pasture with Bleu. Jack now knows what hot-wired means. He has not learned what causes it yet. I have confidence it won't take too many more zings like the one he took to figure it out. Poor boy, but he recovered quickly. He ran around the pasture, but mainly stayed out of our way as Heather got to working Bleu. He cantered around the pasture and huffed and entertained me so much. Heather, you and Bleu are a fantastic match, I'm so happy you have one another, you are very lucky. We tried to visit with the other horse, a miniture something-or-other named Tinkerbell. As we entered his pasture, I put down my camera bag outside Bleu's pasture. We walked across Bleu's pasture to Tinkerbell's. We got in and started sharing treats. I was trying to get Jack and Tink to play and run around, when Heather showed me that Bleu had gotten a hold my camera bag and was dragging it with it's contents into his muddy pasture. AHHH! I shook the box of treats to get his attention and poor Heather went in to save my goods! Thank you Heather! No harm done, just a real good scare! My lenses, my flash...AHHH! All is well Lori...all is well...whew! At that moment, Tinkerbell was running around, towards me, and then turning around. I learned reeeeaaaaal quick he was trying to kick me! I learned he must be part donkey, cuz he sure is one heck of an ass! He tried the same thing towards Jack and after a few times we shot out of that pasture's gate in a hurry, getting out of the rain you'll see forming in the sky in the pics below and out of all horse contact for a bit. I encourage you to click on the photos to make them larger. If the newly loaded pages only shows some weird code, choose to Refresh your page and they should appear correctly. I've been having troubles lately...or rather, Blogger has, and so that's been the only remedy! Have fun! We sure did!

Heather and Bleu have a chat









































































































So, Bleu, after all this running around, what do you think?


















hmpf!

Morning Joy

Did I mention that we love it up here? This shot was captured around 5:45 this morning. What a way to wake up!
If you click on this photo and get code, simply refresh your page and it will appear correctly.

Cabachons and Labradors

Howdy!
The passed two days I got to take part in Carolyn Eddy's fantastic wire wrapping class at Gem Faire in Seattle. Friday I got to make a bracelet and Saturday, a wire wrapped cabachon to create a pendant. Let me know what you think! I'll post pics of the bracelet later this week, I just don't have the time tonight to get it up here. Sorry! This entire project, including the chain all started with one clasp, one bead, and a lot of wire. I think a pretty good job for a first timer.





















Jordan and I got to playing with Jack after work today and here are some playful photos of our special little guy. I like the way Jordan took this first photo, getting Jacks face in focus and blurring the background as he moved the camera with Jack's motion. I sense the movement! Good Job Jordan!
















Did I mention Jack was really good about having his picture taken?




























Jack? Tell us what you really think!






























Okay, so maybe he's not as good as I thought...sticking his tongue out at us and all!

All in all, we had a relaxing weekend catching up on chores, crafting, date nights, playing with Jack as usual and Jordan playing on his computer getting Windows installed on his Mac. Check out his blog for details on how that went.

Catching up!

See Mom and Dad, Jordan read the manual! Just in time too! We were wondering if the JD could pick up sticks. We got our answer today as we saw it just chomp'm up with no problem what-so-ever.




























We LOVE our John Deere. We have so many trees on our property and they drop a bunch of twigs everywhere. I started a new compost pile of sticks, twigs, and kindling today, from the fallen limbs that were too big for any lawn mower and it will come in handy when we finally do our burn pile. One of these days, we'd love to just have a firepit to sit around and have a beer, so I'm sure the steady supply of kindling will be appreciated.



I found Jordan relaxing while mowing too. He got comfy right away! Hee hee Jordan...you didn't think I caught you, did you? He's not steering! He's laying back, enjoying the ride!!!















Only one casualty of the day...poor poor rug.















Spring is coming in beautifully around here. The sky today was fantastic! Flowers were blooming everywhere, and soon our mystery fruit trees will reveal themselves!


















































Dad? I forget what you called this plant that is essentially our backyard. Can you tell me what it is again? I thought you said some sort of buttercup, but I think I'm remembering wrong.














I tried a new jewelry technique this morning, and it seemed to work out real well. This is made from chain, wire and one bead. Several lengths of wire are woven to create this ring. I'm going to make one that has no bead on it, and I think I'll love it even better. I'm just not a fancy gal.












Well, that about covers us for a bit, at least from my end. If Jordan has some things to catch ya'll up on, he'll be addin' on in a bit. We're barbeque'n tonight since the weather is so sunny and warm. I want to get to some quilting tonight so I can finally get this project from under my wing and show it to ya'll....in the meantime, there's still some daylight to burn...and Jack needs a playpal!

NOTE: I noticed if you click on the pictures to make them larger, you end up with some weird funky code. Refresh the page, and they will show up just fine. I'm still figuring out why that happens, but "refreshing" is the closest I've come to any resolution. Enjoy!