Mother's Day Out

When our kids were little, they attended a mother's day out program while I would run errands. Last week,our grown up daughter, Kira gave me a mother's day out, only now she not only planned the day but also was our personal guide as Henry and I toured northern Washington.
Lunching by the waterfront in the village of La Conner, we spotted Native Americans holding a pow-wow to celebrate the opening of the salmon season. Just up the hill was located a quaint Victorian mansion that is a quilt and textile museum. I relished the feast of colors and talent as we "oohed and aaahed" our way through each room of historic and contemporary array of unique fiber art. What a treat!
Proceeding north, we admired the abundant rhododendron blossoms and hiked to the shore exploring tidal pools at Larabee State Park, where we saw orange and purple starfish clinging to the rocks. The view from the Oyster Bar was fabulous, looking out over the San Juan Islands. So was the delicious seafood! But the best part of this fantastic day out was spending time with our daughter, our guide.

Kalmia

My loving husband turned 62 this month. That's the age some people retire, but not Henry. He's full of vim and vigor and I'm very thankful that his daughter, Tacy pointed out he is King of the Mountain! He jogged in an annual King of the Mountain run on Lookout Mtn. According to the stats in the newspaper, he was the fastest in his age group for those who live up here!
All that to stay, we are taking on a new project, a river cottage. His grandparents had a summer cottage in Summertown on Signal Mountain named Kalmia, which means Mountain Laurel. So we have decided to carry on the tradition and use the same name for our summer cottage.
We are thankful to the LORD for the blessings of family and family traditions. And we look forward to sitting on the porch sharing our beautiful view of the river with many of you!

The Mountain Laurel is Blooming

We returned from gorgeous Seattle on Sunday night. Puget Sound was sparkling with the clear air and sunshine. It is so beautiful to be with our loved ones; we celebrated Peter's 30th birthday. Kira took us exploring up north towards the Canadian border; we saw orange and purple starfish clinging to the rocks on the shore. A large, majestic eagle landed in the pine tree outside their apartment. I rode the ferry to Bainbridge and over to Polsbo, the Norwegian town that was having Vikings Days!
It was hard to come back to humid Tennessee. But then I walked around our house and found pink peonies and mountain laurel blooming in our backyard! How lovely to bring and armload of blooms into the house and place in a crystal vase on our dining room table.
Both places are wonderful, especially when blessed with family reunions!

May Day

Imagine my surprise when the doorbell rang and a strange man (a florist) handed me a beautiful, multi-colored basket of flowers! Our daughter in Seattle had sent them to celebrate my birthday and Mother's Day.

When our children were little, we would make up a basket of flowers from our yard and go hang the basket on Granny B's door knob. Then we would ring the doorbell and run and hide in her yard. It was a lot of fun because of course she would make a fuss over them. "These are the prettiest flowers I've ever seen" she would exclaim! And then she would invite us in for cookies and lemonade. It was a May Day tradition we carried on for many years. Good memories of a grandmother who appreciated our visits!

Can I ask you an easy question? "What woman isn't delighted to receive a gorgeous bouquet of flowers?"

I was actually going out the door to a luncheon given by my dear friend, Terry and had flowers in a vase from my garden to share with her. It made me think of that old saying, "You can't out give God."