Life Lately...

<Miss M.'s last evening at home.
She and Mr. G.are contemplating a game of cribbage... >

Where to start? 

Both kids have returned to their respective universities and 

Mr. G.'s school work has started again as well. Summer is over....

<Summer's last hurrah:
swimming on a 90 degree day at a friend's house on Lake Washington...>

All in all we've had a wonderful summer with perfect weather 

(not as hot as the previous years) and lots of fun day trips in the area in our new car. 

(Subaru Outback) 

But, everything has been overshadowed by the passing of our dear Olive. 

The loss is still very real, especially now that I'm at home all alone without her keeping me company...

Just very slowly I feel just a tiny spark of creativity coming back to the surface. I'm knitting a wonderfully light sweater our of sock yarn (so very many tiny stitches), with a fun 'river' motif on the arms. I'm working on those sleeves now so will show you pics next time...

I also bought some fabric this summer designed by Annemaria Horner, 

but haven't decided on a pattern quite yet. 

It will come to me...

I've come down with a bug (swollen glands right underneath my ear) and so I'm taking it veeeery easy this week. It feels like everything is going in slow motion. 

Slowly all the emotions of this past summer are coming to the surface...

--  **  --  **  --

Ocean Bound...

Ocean Shores, WA...

We spent three days at the Pacific Ocean last weekend, a final hurrah before the kids go back to university again... (what, already?!)

We arrived Friday just after lunch (the drive takes a little over three hours with all the traffic etc) and the weather was just perfect! We knew the other two days were not going to be that great weather-wise, so we enjoyed every minute of the sunshine. We had bought a second kite and added a striped tail to our old one and off they went. No swimming for anybody, the Pacific ocean this high North is notoriously cold...

Mr. G. and Miss M. wanted to do some sunset fishing and boy, what a sunset we got! And fish too! {smile}

Fish On!

Saturday morning we woke up to a thick marine layer (coastal fog) that never really went way again. We played 36 holes of put-put golf (mini golf) which was something I couldn't remember the last time I did that, fun!

We tried a different beach in the afternoon, but the wind picked up even more and almost became a storm. Not very pleasant with all the salty sand blasting your skin...

Yes! Here you can drive and park right out on the beach!

Miss M. really wanted to go on a horse ride on the beach so she did that Sunday morning in the fog before we returned for home. At least the wind had died down a little bit. She loved it!

Miss M. is on the black and white horse in the front...

We drove half an hour through the fog before we hit the blue skies again and man, it was hot out there! It would have been nice to have a bit of that heat on the beach, but oh well. Great times were had anyway! {smile}

... in two weeks time both kids will be off... 

{no smiling there}

Oh Happy Day!

Yes, so this is happening today! {smile}