A high Sabbath

The second weekend in April we drove to Spokane. In the Bible, a high Sabbath was when a special festival or event occurred on the same day as the weekly Sabbath, or seventh day. That Sabbath was just such an occasion, for my father, long estranged from the faith of his fathers, rededicated his life to God.

At my dad's request, Brian played his violin for special music.



Just like at the coast, the weather was wonderful the whole weekend. Wildflowers were blooming around my dad's house, and the Columbia River Gorge was green with spring grass coming and going.

I got a lot of knitting time in during those drives, but I'll spare you a photo of rows and rows and rows of garter stitch. ;-)

That's it for now from . . .

Back to the beach

Our church's annual women's retreat was the first weekend of April. If I hadn't already paid and agreed to give two other women a ride, I probably would have bailed out – that's how overwhelmed I was feeling. That, of course, speaks to just how much I needed the retreat....

The weather forecast couldn't have been nicer, making Kate and me positively twitchy about wanting our horses and dogs with us. That would have made a great weekend absolutely perfect. Alas, there are no boarding facilities at the lovely Dawn Treader, the house rented for the occasion the past several years.

Kate and I shared this king-sized bed; it's on a platform so high you need steps or a running start to access! I kept the window over my head open the whole time, which made the room cool and refreshing to sleep in.

The weekend speaker was excellent and the food was good, but the biggest draw for me is always the beach. Kate and I hit it early and often, enjoying it in all kinds of light.

During our walks we got dog fixes whenever we could. I especially admired this striking Shetland sheepdog; I wonder why! ;-)

We also both enjoy strolling through the surrounding development of Olivia Beach, looking at cute cottages and decorative details.

This lavender shrub/ground cover, common in area landscaping, was buzzing with bees. When I bent over to see if it was aromatic, I was surprised to find it smells like honeycomb!

I hope you enjoyed this little travelogue from . . .

Hobbling through the week

Eight-year-old Browning is looking less robust to me this year. Maybe it's just the bad haircut and grey nose. Hope so; he's Brian's sheep and one of our friendliest.

Sarai and Bramble are the only sheep here still wearing their winter woollies – and Sarai is dragging hers! I need to get her rooed ASAP (and get busy skirting the other nine fleeces), but right now I'm physically incapable of that.

If you don't read my horse blog, then you don't know I've been on the injured list since Monday afternoon. The sheep photos were taken before the wreck. Not that I'm sitting on the couch eating bonbons, I'm just moving a LOT more slowly and carefully than usual, and can't do much that involves bending over, twisting, or lifting. Bending over and using two hands? No can do. (Yes, I have had to get one or the other of my guys to put my socks on.)

But life goes on, even if riding and some tasks are shelved for the time being. Homeschooling continues to take the lion's share of my time and energy – as it should, really. Call me cheering squad and cattle prod. It remains to be seen if we will be repeating some subjects this summer – and what we do next school year.  :-/

I'm hoping to do posts covering the last two weekends soon. Revisiting good times should give me a boost.

That's it for now from . . .

Time zooms by

I haven't had a chance to compose a post of my weekend at the coast yet (except for a few on my other blog), and here we up and took a quick trip last weekend. Who knows when/if I'll be able to do a "show & tell" about either weekend (there have been a few pix on Instagram); they'll take more time than a quick photo tour of this – what we came home to.

 

And it's not just the landscaping that's alive with spring. Brian and I saw crows carrying in nesting material over and over again to a tall Douglasfir in our pasture this morning. Until/unless I can capture that, here is photo of one of them taking off:

That's it for now from . . .