Early Blooms

An unseasonably warm January and beginning of February has resulted in all kinds of flowers coming up in our yard. Since we moved in at the end of October, we didn't get a chance to plant any bulbs, and I had been lamenting not having any spring blooms to enjoy. But over the last couple of weeks we've been noticing all kinds of shoots coming up in the front and backyard, and this week, some of the crocuses started blooming! I couldn't be happier! It's funny since we never planted flowers at any of our old places, and now we really want lots of them everywhere. Something about it being "our" house, I guess. :)

Some pretty dark purple crocuses. They were stretching to follow the sun all day yesterday, it was fun to watch them change positions and arching toward the warmth. It was nearly 60 degrees yesterday!

Lighter purple crocus, these guys are everywhere!

Sedum, holding in the morning's dew in their lovely little rosettes.

Not really sure what this is, and the picture isn't showing how pretty and pink they are!
Probably a weed knowing me! :)

Periwinkle, myrtle, vinca, whatever it is called, the little flowers are so pretty! We have this all along the back of the property where the fruit trees are, and had originally thought about pulling it up and putting grass there, but these flowers are so pretty we might have to keep some of it!

There is also a ton of what I think are irises coming up, as crocosmia, and something else that has little tufts of grass looking leaves that I assume will flower into something! Who knows what else might come up! I'm so pleased that I get to enjoy some flowers this year even though I didn't manage to get any in myself! This yard is just full of surprises!

Yesterday we spent part of the morning at a pruning class at our local nursery and learned some good things, and got home and went straight to work in the yard. Kevin mowed, and I cleaned up some of the rhodies that had been poorly pruned. Then I whacked back a bunch of the dead wood on our chrysanthemum, and I can't wait to see what it does later in the spring. It looks so much better! Then we went a little crazy and started removing a ton of the forsythia that has taken over the back of the yard and is crowding on our fruit trees. We had originally thought we would just cut it back a bit and see if that worked, but we removed almost one entire plant and now have several months worth of yard waste piled up in the backyard! Looks like we'll need to borrow a truck again to get rid of it. But, it opened up the back so much, we think we'll probably just get rid of all of it. I'm not a huge fan of it anyway, and I'd rather have the fruit trees get the space to produce fruit! :)

Next on the agenda is cleaning out the rest of the garden beds to get ready for planting veggies. Time is moving very quickly, we usually are getting ready to plant our snap peas around now, and we still haven't figured out where to put them! Yikes! We're also thinking about putting in at least one bed in the front of the house, so we'll have to do some terracing. Then it's time to get the chicken coop up! Wow! We've got some busy weekends ahead of us.

A Trip to the Coast

Our lovely friends Taylor and Nathan invited us out to the Long Beach area for the weekend at Nathan's grandpa's cabin. Another couple joined us, and we had a great weekend of relaxing. playing games, walking on the beach, eating lots of great food, and catching up. Since T and N live in the Vancouver area, we don't get to see them terribly often, which is unfortunate because we really love spending time with them! But alas, we make do with awesome weekends every once in awhile!

The trip started off with a real bang. Kevin was flying in from Sacramento on Friday, and I was meeting him at the airport, taking the fancy pants lightrail from downtown. I had made a big mushroom, sausage, and spinach lasagna the night before, and took it to work with me. I stuck it in the freezer at work, and at the end of the day, I was ready to go a bit early and was excited to get the trip started. I pulled the lasagna out of the freezer, and it flew straight out of my hands! It was seriously like watching something in slow motion, as it fell to the ground, I sent a quick and ultimately useless prayer to the pyrex gods that the pan not break. Not only did it break, it shattered into about a billion pieces! I was swearing up a storm, let me tell you, and was very glad there were only a couple people present to witness my meltdown!

Fortunately, the lasagna actually came out of the pan as it shattered, and landed on the foil side, so it didn't get all floor nasty! I cleaned up the glass, and then ran like the wind to the Bed Bath and Beyond 5 or 6 blocks from work, found the pyrex dishes, grabbed a 9x13 pan, and flew back to work. I pick the lasagna back up and start to put it into the pan, and realized, hey, 9x13 inch pans are apparently not standard size. The pan was too small! So I just cram as much in and gather all the rest of my stuff and hope for the best!

It ended up being great, of course. But man, what a pain! The whole ride to the airport, I was clutching the thing like someone was going to kidnap it! Anyway, the rest of the weekend was pretty calm in comparison, and we had a nice time just chilling out. We'd love to go back again!

Attempting to take a little hike at Leadbetter State Park. The trails kept ending in the water, we're thinking the tide was unusually high!

Kevin and Taylor

Taylor and me! :)

See, no trail, just water! This is on the Willapa Bay side of the strip of land.

Poco in orange, and Hildy in grey. The bestest dogs! Kevin and I have threatened dognapping every time we see them!

These crazy gates were along a couple different roads around the park. We speculate that this might be the Leadbetter Estate!

A drizzly walk on the beach

On our way out, we decided to check out Cape Disappointment and see where the Columbia River meets the Pacific Ocean. It was a glorious afternoon, the sun was out in full force!

We're suckers for lighthouses! :)

Thank you Taylor and Nathan for hosting a lovely weekend!

Boulder River Hike

Since we don't think there will be any snow for the rest of the winter, we took advantage of this unseasonably nice weather and hiked 2 weekends in a row! Yesterday, we headed up north to Boulder River, which is east of Darrington. We haven't really done much hiking outside of the Central Cascades, so it was fun to try out a new area, and really nice to get outside again. This hike was a bit longer at 8.6 miles round trip, and a bit more strenuous than the stroll we had last weekend, so we are getting good and warmed up for some tougher hikes this spring and summer!

This hike goes along the Boulder River, and passes three lovely waterfalls before ending at a nice camping area at the river's edge. You can keep going, but you have to ford the river to get to the trail on the other side! No thanks!

This was a cool spur on the trail that we headed up, with a crazy view down to the river FAR below us. Being a bit freaked out by heights, we didn't take any pictures and quickly headed back down to the safety of the main trail!

The sunshine peaked through all the lush greenery along the trail. I have been suffering from some pretty intense sinus headaches the last couple of weeks, but as soon as we get up into the mountain air, they disappear! Now all I want to do is go walking in the woods!

Pretty views along the way, not many of the mountains in the distance, but this one was great!

The lovely Boulder River. I love the sound of rivers flowing over rocks, such a soothing song they sing!

We scrambled down a rocky wet trail to get a view of the first waterfall, not realizing this was the little one!

The second falls were much bigger and spectacular, though we weren't able to get down to the river for a closer look on these ones.

Taking a breather on one of the huge fallen logs along the river!

This pretty little bridge was the only stream crossing that was actually in tact. The railing was nice, as there was a substantial drop on one side!

We've got some big trees in these woods!

The third waterfall, so pretty!

Settling in for a nice lunch along the river bank. There was some great spots to camp here on the river, and Kevin is itching for some overnight trips. We may have to head back soon for a camping trip! I'd like it if it were a little warmer, but I'll sacrifice for my husband! :)

The drive home was very pretty with the sunset, and a great big rainbow! Another awesome day in the woods for us! Kevin is taking off in a little bit for another business trip. I'm looking forward to the long break he has until May with no traveling booked! Too many days apart lately! I'm hoping to get lots of knitting done, including a pair of socks for him that I have been working on off and on for well over a year! Sheesh! Then on Friday we are heading to the coast for a weekend getaway with some friends at a cabin! Looking forward to the little vacation!

Middle Fork Snoqualmie River Hike

We decided to go for a hike on our extra day off on Monday up in the Cascades. How could we resist, with this glorious weather! It was sunny and 50 degrees, and I needed some fresh mountain air in my lungs!

The view from our kitchen into our pretty backyard. Love my house!

Awesome bridge at the start of the hike spanning the river

The base of Stegosaurus Butte

Gorgeous views of Garfield Mountain. So little snow up there for January!

This is outside a gas station in Twin Falls, next to the air and water dispenser. Random!

We had been hoping to get out on our new cross country skis, but the weather is just not cooperating on that front! Oh well, we have them forever now, there's always next season, or maybe February will bring some snow to the mountains! We're thinking about going for another hike on Saturday if the weather holds.

Thinking of Haiti

Or another disaster relief charity. Give what you can. Thanks!

It keeps you running!

Heads Up - This is one long post about running!

Since we moved, I have not once gone running. In fact, the exercise department in general has completely fallen by the wayside, other than a handful of walks around the neighborhood. I've been feeling lethargic and lazy. I needed to step up and make a change. One of my goals for the year is to run a 10k race, and if I have any hope of doing that, I need to get running! :)

So after work, I got into my running clothes, figured out a path around the neighborhood, and set off. It was drizzling, but pleasantly cool out. And the first 10 minutes....well, they sucked really really really bad. I have not been running in 3 months. Yikes! My lungs were burning, my legs didn't want to hit a stride, and I was not enjoying the feeling that I had let all my hard work from last year waste away. Then at about minute 12, my lungs started to clear out, and I hit that movement of the legs where you feel like you can just keep running forever. I love that feeling.

Now, let me back up a minute, and disclose a little something about myself. I have always been a hater of runners, running, and would take any opportunity I could to make fun of runners. After all, we're all going to die, why would you want to be all hot and sweaty and out of breath. Yuck. A couple years ago I tried running, would go for about 5 minutes, and think, what the hell is this??? I think the problem was that I was RUNNING, instead of starting at a slower pace, a gentle jog. I gave it up after a few weeks.

Last year though, I decided to give it another shot. I had lost 65 lbs before out wedding, and thought maybe it wouldn't be so bad anymore. I started out just walking about Green Lake, and one day I just felt like I was ready to break into a jog. Eventually, I just decided to see how far I could make it. I gave myself a 10 minute minimum, and after that I could go back to walking if I needed to. Surprise, surprise, I didn't need to stop! I just kept going, and for the first time since middle school, I ran more than a mile. 3 miles in fact. And it just sort of stuck after that. I started to understand the runner's high, and looked forward to running.

I never really got a routine down, I would just get the urge once or twice a week, but I really loved it. Then we moved, and I no longer had the lake right next to me. And winter arrived, it gets dark so early, and I just hadn't made it a priority to go after work. And I didn't really know the neighborhood, and felt uncomfortable going running here before I really had my bearings.

Today at work, I just decided, enough is enough, time to get off my duff! And away I went! My legs are stiff, but it felt really great to be outside and doing something good for myself. I went about 2.5 miles, about 30 minutes. I've got work to do! I saw a 10k race around Lake Union in August, and think I need to just register for it, so I don't slack off again. Never got around to doing a 5k last year, can't let that happen again! So I'm going to check in every once in awhile here, track my progress, and keep myself accountable. Whew, sorry for the long rambling post! Happy trails everyone, and anyone who cares to join me for a run, let me know! :)