Following The Sun Around The Yard...

...That is what I'll be doing today!

Depending on where the sun is at I will be sitting in one of these locations...

Pics taken at 8:30am, just look at all that sunshine already!

I have my book ('Niccolo Rising' by Dorothy Dunnett) at the ready. This is the first part of an 8 part series, my absolute most favorite series EVER!!! You can read about it all here and here.
The books are historically very complicated but also very true to life. You will never look around Europe & Beyond the same way as you do now again: absolutely stunning! I think it is at least my fifth time reading this whole series. (each book has about 550 pages in small print)

Finally!  {sigh & smile}

When I Drove Home Today...

...I saw this:

 And this...

And behind me I saw this house belonging to the Camp Korey estate...

Glorious weather today. A lot of wind but nice and sunny. Tomorrow and the next two days after that are going to be HOT!  I did lots of weeding today so that I can just lounge in the sun tomorrow and soak it all up...   {smile}

Jo Nesbo...

Oh no, I just read on our library's website that they have a 'meet the author' event this Saturday with the Norwegian writer Jo Nesbo: I love his books!!! Unfortunately I cannot make it since daughter M. will have her final performance of her school play "The Odyssee"...

Here is a little bit about the author. You can read more about him and his books here.

Jo Nesbo (Nesbø) is a musician, songwriter, economist, and one of Europe's most critically acclaimed and successful crime writers today. He lives in Oslo, Norway.

His first novel featuring Police Detective Harry Hole was an instant hit in Norway, winning the Glass Key Award for Best Nordic Crime Novel—the most prestigious crime-writing award in Northern Europe. In 2004, The Redbreast was voted the "Best Norwegian Crime Novel Ever Written" by members of Norwegian book clubs.

Here Comes The Sun!

Yay, the first day of a whole bunch of sunny days has arrived! There is still a lot of fog around but the sun is trying its best to burn that off...

It is my longer Little Bit day today (2 lessons in a row) which will be just lovely in the sunshine.

Yesterday I again found some wildlife right in front of my office room. (so not in a zoo! {wink}) Here you can see two squirrels running around the Hosta. If you look closely you'll see the fluffy end of a tail right underneath the Hosta's leaf:

Sorry for the blurryness, they were running really fast!

Later I also saw this pair of Gold Finches:

"Here comes the Sun! Did-da-dee-daa..."

Signs of Spring #12...

This what we saw at 8:15 pm last night after 24 hours of record breaking rain (all the rain for the month of May fell in that time period!): a glimmer of sun so bright, I ran outside to try and catch it!

What a Spring it has been! (not a good one...) But, we have had no tornadoes or extreme flooding, just lots of clouds and rain and that is nothing (not much anyway) to complain about.

We did have some very nice afternoons last week and that is when I took the following pictures...

And, later this week they are forecasting the first 70 degree (around 20 Celsius) weather days so Woot Woot to that! I can't wait...

Uwajimaya...

$6.29 for a box of Dutch hagelslag?????

A good thing we'll be having the chocolate sprinkles in Holland soon!

This afternoon G. and I decided to check out the new Uwajimaya in Bellevue: it was so wonderful!!! (it is an Asian food  and gifts market) Their old location was rather grungy looking and always so crowded. This was a huge store with way more products than before and so much room. I had a great time looking at all the fabulous packaging. Here some impressions:

Cute Beer Owls...

Pretty in Pink bottles of ???

Made me laugh. For the Brits among you...

Corn & Cheese Ice Cream??? I don't think so...

Cute little Moomin notebook...

We had some lunch there as well and it was just a plain fun outing. Just like being abroad while still at home...

Memories of Holland...

Since it is still raining so hard, I'm spending a little extra time behind the computer. I found these pictures on one of my favorite Dutch websites (Weer Fotos). These pictures were all taken this weekend by weather photographers in NL (and so NOT by me) and they all, in one way or another, remind me of my 'olden days' in Holland....

(please click on the pictures to enlarge them)

Hellevoetsluis



Woudrigem

Haringvliet

Nabij het Veerse Meer

Noordzee Strand

My parents own a sail boat (a Hallberg Rassy! for you Swedes out there) and we spent almost every weekend and every summer vacation on the water. Good thing we'll be visiting this summer after a 6 year absence and we will spend lots of time on and near the water...   {sigh}  {smile}

Rainy Sunday Morning...

Drip, drip, drip...

It is so very quiet in the house. All you can hear is the rain on the windows and the gutters overflowing once again...

Stampede!

Look what I saw as I was driving along our CowRoad this afternoon: a Stampede! All the cows took of running, towards the barn is my guess. What a jolly sight!

So many lovely smells along the way as well (I had my car windows open): blossoms everywhere, freshly cut grass, a dead skunk somewhere (not so lovely...) and lots of cow poop! I love it all. It shows us once again that we live in a rural area...

Yesterday afternoon was unexpectedly nice and I spent several hours out on our patio, trying to teach myself (once again) how to crochet. I actually made some progress! Here are some impressions:

Single, Half and Double crochet stitches...

And even some Trebles as well!

Here I attempted a circle.

 It became more the shape of a raindrop but not bad for a first try....

Later that afternoon (as I was trying to figure out what on earth was going on with Blogger) I had a visit from this bright yellow beauty:

Isn't he/ she gorgeous!

Today I'm driving back and forth in to town: 4 hours in total! First to Little Bit and back, then to school to drop off M. for a play rehearsal, and back, then in a minute I will pick her up again and drop of C. at school so that he can take the team bus for another Ultimate Frisbee game and then I will have to pick him up again at school around 9pm: Crazy!!!! G. is off to The Prom to chaperone so he is busy with other things and he won't be back until after midnight I guess....

Four more weeks until Summer Vacation!!!  {smile}

CowRoad's photostream

CowRoad's photostream on Flickr.

Things I've made...