A Real Snow Storm - Sequim Style

We got a real snow storm the other day. I say real, because on occasion, you'll look out and we'll have five minutes of those beautiful white, puffy flakes. Then it stops.  This time though, well look:

I need to learn how to use photoshop so I can do something about the dog derriere in the picture, but isn't it beautiful? (The snow, not the dog butt!) I just love the snow here because, as my Quincy friends say, "You can shovel that with a spatula!" And its true...if I wanted to shovel--which I don't!

The boys thought it was great too.  A little too bright for Dash who could barely keep his eyes open.

And Cash (a.k.a. Moose), whose intent focus is on Dash. Cash has the most herding instinct of any of our Border Collie I've ever owned. Whenever they're outside, Moose herds Dash--or tries to.

And finally, a picture of both boys in my studio.  Used to be that Dash was the only one that wanted to come in. Now they both do, but they're on their rug and being adorable. How can I resist??

Stunning Mornings

The mornings have been absolutely gorgeous here and I wanted to share a few pics. Yes, that is snow. But here in Sequim (or south of Sequim), it generally falls in inches--not feet. We LOVE the snow now!!

This view is from the room that will probably become my sewing studio. It will have a hide-a-bed couch and/or a Murphy bed in it for company, but will no longer be a dedicated sewing room.  More on that when/if it happens. This room looks out over the back of our house.  You can see the sun rising over the Olympics.

A couple showing our pond and the gazebo in back...the pond is starting to ice over.

I couldn't decide which one I liked better so you get them both. (I know, I know...they're practically identical)

The front while we were feeding this morning. This is our totem pole with the flag pole behind it. You can just barely see the color of the sun in the background.

Kate, enjoying her breakfast and wishing the sun would hurry up! A bit later, all the ponies were basking in the sun while they ate. 

Every day when I go outside I admire the Olympics and where we live and feel blessed to be here.

Thanks for looking. Sorry the pics aren't better quality, but I took them with my phone.

A Short Break...

from our regularly scheduled program.

How was your 4th of July? While I didn't do anything terribly patriotic, I did full take advantage of a "day off." We started the morning watching the end of the Federer tennis match at Wimbledon while drinking our coffee. Then we loaded up the bikes and went for a ride on the Olympic Discovery Trail.

Rather than heading in the normal direction, we headed East. We started just to the west of the segment that covers Fir Road to Blyn, and road almost all the way to Blyn. It was a fun ride and more strenuous than heading west, many more hills to conquer and it was a beautiful day with brilliant sunshine. We finished our ride with breakfast at the local 101 Diner, a fave of ours.

A little later in the afternoon, we headed out again...this time on the motorcycle. We went exploring to places we hadn't been before. This shot was taken from the Marilyn Nelson County Park. (There was a huge container ship going through the Strait when I took this; you can't even see it in the photo!)

From there we headed around by the bay and admired the gorgeous homes and bay views, ending up at the Dungeness National Wildlife Refuge. We didn't take the five mile walk to the Lighthouse then, but we plan to in the near future.

We returned home late afternoon and were just lounging on the couch thinking of all the things we should be doing when the phone rang. Friends invited us over for a crab bake on the bay. A quick shower and we were on our way to the Sunset Marine Resort, good friends and good food.

All in all, a very successful 4th of July. Hope yours was splendid!!

Dory

April Fool's Day...almost

As you all are quite aware, today is April Fool's Day. Yesterday, however, we woke up to this trick thanks to Mother Nature!

Miss Emma was not impressed!

Fortunately, by early afternoon, the snow lost the battle and had almost completely disappeared. Spring snow storms are beautiful!

Dory

Is it really April??

As I sit inside the office by the fire typing this, it's snowing outside. Snowing...isn't this supposed to be April? Seriously, it would almost be funny if I weren't so sick of cold weather!

It does give me lots of time to quilt though. Since we're still not riding, I haven't had to rearrange my schedule much. Marei has given me four beautiful quilts to do for her. Two have hearts on them...this is one. This one, I thought, was the one she wanted back quickly. I finished it on time, put it in the mail and she called me to tell me that she loved the quilting, but....yep, wrong heart quilt. *sheesh* Good thing she loved it!!

A close-up so you can actually see the quilting!

And the back. I always love Marei's backs. They are usually such that the quilting shows up nicely. Its like two quilts in one.

After it snows...

The sun comes out and makes you realize that even the freezing cold snow is beautiful!

...and then the snow melts and you're left with mud :0(

Might Snow...

The house and yurt from the barn

Probably not taking the Toter or the horse trailer anywhere anytime soon...

Front porch has a few feet of snow piling up from the roof and coming up past the deck...

Just getting to the yurt was a challenge.














I took this from inside the yurt. The snow is about 2-3 feet above the windows.

Snow never bothers Chloe when the horses are around.

Ba

Bailey's tail has snowballs!

Emma making her way into the barn through the snow tunnel--she practically has to duck to keep from hitting her head on the barn roof!

I think Emma may have been hanging around outside.

Springtime Quilting in the Yurt

The yurt has become a very interesting place to be this time of year. Its generally between 53 and 55 degrees in the morning..chilly. But, if you light a fire, its entirely too warm by mid-morning. We have a little electric heater that we put on to get the morning chill off.

Then the sun raises more and shines directly on the yurt. You can actually watch the temperature rise as that happens. Sunday it hit 81! I was able to stop the ascent by opening a couple of windows and raising the top, but where the suns hits directly is sweltering. I finally gave up and took Kate out for a spin.

Before it got real hot, I finished this cute Wizard of Oz quilt for Joanne's niece, Annie. Its her first quilt; she picked out the pattern and the fabric. (Naturally, I love everything "Wizard of Oz"--its the only good thing about being named Dorothy!) I think she did a great job. I used the Alfresco pantograph and didn't quilt over Dorothy's face.

I now have a lovely Selvage Quilt loaded from Carolyn. And best of all, after a quick trip to Reno last weekend, I am now the proud owner of an air conditioner that will cool 750 sq. ft.  Since the yurt is only 450 sq. ft, I'm hoping it works!   

The Ultimate April Fool's Joke

...courtesy of Mother Nature:

Those white dots are not problems with your monitor; they're big snow flakes.  Here's a better look of what's going on here today:

Can you see both deer??

I'm surprised they're out; generally they're in the barn eating our hay!

Successful Reno Shopping

We headed for Reno and Christmas shopping last Friday.  The roads were relatively clear, the sun was out and the snow was glistening from the mountains.  We'd attempted this same trip on "Black Friday," but got about 20 miles from home before turning back...for the second time.  We left town later than expected, got about 10 miles from town when it started to snow those really, big beautiful flakes.  We knew it would only get worse the farther east we travelled, so we turned around and headed back to town.  As we got closer to Quincy, the weather cleared and the sun came out and we started second-guessing ourselves.  Really...how bad can it be???  We turned around and started off again.  About 20 miles from town we got behind a group of cars going 35!  The roads had snow on them but really...35!!  So we opted to go another day.

That day came and this is the weather we had on the way over...it was really pretty.

While in Reno we bought Christmas gifts for the family and did a little shopping for us.  It was actually fun to Christmas shop since it had started to snow lightly, made it feel like Christmas. We made a trip to R.C. Willey to look at their couches.  We'd decided on a leather couch, with a sleeper for company, since fabric just doesn't work.  Our dogs are often on the couch with us and fabric just doesn't stay clean.  So we bought this one...on sale!!!

The trip home was a bit more challenging.  We had left home late again because we opted to put the horses in before we left rather than when we got back.  This is what we drove through...  Red Rock is about 10 miles north of Reno, before CA and our cut off to Highway 70.

This picture is of the truck we followed through Sierra Valley.  The roads were actually a bit better by the time we left Portola and were headed for Quincy. 

It was a successul day despite the weather.

Just in the Nick of Time...

The weather  report yesterday said that we were in for big winds and rain today.  So this morning, before the weather had started, we moved the horses from the pasture into the barn.  I know this doesn't sound like a big deal; however, for us it is.  We've been married nine years in February, together for almost eleven, and this is the first time we've moved the horses before the storm.  Yep, the very first time!!!

This is what the doppler shows.... (we're under the white; east of Redding and south of Alturas--our entire County is in white and we're pretty much directly under the pink area)

And this is what it looks like outside now....

I'm planning to spend the rest of my day quilting (while we have power) and sitting by the fire when it goes out.