This book was a perfect summertime read – a good mystery/drama/love story kind of a page-turner. It’s the story of a young Amish woman in rural Pennsylvania who is put on trial for murder. Kind of mindless, but in a way I appreciated – it had been awhile since I picked up one of those books that you can sit down with and blow through 50 pages at a time. And this glimpse into Amish life was fascinating – though fictional, it seems from my small amount of Internet research that the author was pretty true to Amish standards and traditions. Their commitment and strict adherence to centuries-old traditions is both admirable and hard to imagine. Are there seriously still people in this country who choose to live life without automobiles or telephones? Mind-boggling. So, this book gets one solid thumb up – it doesn’t quite warrant a second thumb, but it was certainly one of those ‘fun’ kind of reads.
Wandering the streets of downtown Portland was wonderful, but getting to spend some time hanging out with my niece was even better. Elise is motoring all over the place these days, darting from room to room, pausing only occasionally to catch her balance, and then she’s off once again. She still loves books, and I treasure the moments that she’ll snuggle up on my lap and let me read to her. She is expanding her vocabulary daily, but still uses the bit of sign language she has learned when she really wants to get her point across (the sign for ‘more’ is very popular when it comes to snack-time). As with any one and half year-old, she has her mellow moments and her not-so-mellow moments. I caught her on one of her more mellow mornings yesterday, as I hung out with her on Alberta Street while Kathryn got her hair cut. We went to a coffee shop together, and she sat on my lap as I drank my latte and she munched on rice cakes, while we flipped through the paper together. It was lovely, true auntie-niece bonding time. I love this little girl so much, and although I hate to miss out on so much of her growth, I am already looking forward to seeing what new words she has learned or interests she has developed when I catch up with her again next month. It’s fun to see her personality shine through more and more with each visit. And is it really possible that she just keeps getting cuter and cuter?
I returned yesterday afternoon from a three-day trip to Portland – a work-related conference took me down there, but I was fortunately able to squeeze in some time to enjoy the city and hang out with family. It was nice to have a few hours to myself to wander through downtown with my camera – I was reminded of how much I love the city’s textures and charm.
Portland has this unique industrial richness to it that imparts a sense of age of vibrancy to the street fronts and neighborhoods. The brick warehouses and historic water towers of the Pearl district, the fire escapes that zig-zag across the fronts of so many buildings, the facades in varied colors of stone and tile… I’m a sucker for all of it.
And for better and for worse, the ‘grittier’ areas are slowly being infiltrated with trendy cafes, boutiques, and galleries. I love coffee, fashion, and art, so far be it from me to complain, but I hope that these new establishments are able to respectfully work within the existing architectural and urban character of the city.
Ahhhh, I love this city…
Sunday nights are definitely not my favorite time of the week – sometime between 6 and 8 pm, I usually start moping around the house, mourning the passing of another weekend, dreading the incessant ringing of my alarm clock that will begin without fail come Monday morning at 6:30. But tonight, as the Sunday night funk began to set in, I stopped, and instead tried to focus on what a great week this has been. It was a bumpy start, with a couple of long, stressful days at work, but those long hours resulted in a client meeting going extremely well on Wednesday morning, and things were looking up. The rest of the day was full of highlights: I enjoyed a nice lunch and dinner with Shane’s parents on their last full day in Seattle; I took my first ever Harley ride with Shane’s dad along Lake Washington; and I spent Wednesday night enjoying VIP treatment at the Seattle Sounders v. Barcelona game, courtesy of a new friend. The rest of the week was enjoyably low-key, with a couple of deadline-free days at work, a nice stroll through Pioneer Square on Thursday evening to check out a few art galleries, and some quality chill-time spent at home enjoying Shane’s company. The weekend was also relaxing, though productive, as we stocked our fridge with blueberries, tidied up the yard a bit, and logged some miles on the old runnin’ shoes. I caught up with friends and family that I hadn’t talked to in awhile, spent some time in my sketchbook, found a cute new pair of sandals on double-clearance at DSW, and finished up a couple of knitting projects that had been nagging me for awhile. Nice. And so I won’t mope about the fact that tomorrow is Monday, but instead enjoy the feeling of a week well-spent.
I am constantly looking for new ‘Schnell Family Traditions’ that Shane and I can instate and take part in year after year. Today I think we may have found a perfect summer ritual – we called a couple of friends, hopped in the car, and were off to do some blueberry picking. Our destination was Bybee Nims Farm in North Bend, which was beautiful. We wandered among the aisles between heavily-laden bushes as Mount Si loomed beneath a layer of misty clouds in the background. Perfect.
The berries were fat and juicy – so good in fact, that for every few Shane dropped in the bucket, I caught him popping one or two in his mouth.
The darling hands of our little helper plucked the berries from the lower boughs…
We walked away with over 5 pounds of berries, at the bargain price of only 10 bucks! We’ve been gorging ourselves on them all day – sooooo good.
I had been on a bit of a knitting hiatus lately, but with the onset of the slightly cooler weather, I was motivated to finally finish these two project which have been sitting in my knitting basket for months.
The scarf was knitted with a thick wool yarn, stranded with a sparkly thread-like ribbon. Seed stitch, 13 stitches across, size 15 needles.
The cowl was knitted with a chunky silver-gray acrylic yarn. Stockinette stitch, size 13 circular needles, cast on 60 stitches and knit round and round…
We were up bright and early yesterday to catch a ferry from Mukilteo to Whidbey Island, to do some sightseeing with Shane’s parents and some catching up with friends we hadn’t seen in awhile. We spent most of the day hanging out at our friend’s beautiful beach home - Shane and his dad fished off the shore, while Shane’s mom and I enjoyed lounging in the sun. I believe there are few things better than the feel of a cool ocean breeze blowing across your face as you squish soft, warm sand between your toes. Heaven.
Shane was not so lucky in fishing endeavors, as he didn’t catch anything other than a sunburn on the back of his neck and the tops of his feet, but he wasn’t complaining. Just the act of standing by the water, casting his line in and watching the waves crash, was enough to put a smile on his face.
Not a bad place to park yourself for a Sunday afternoon, huh?
Once we’d gotten our sand and sun fix, we headed into Coupeville for some scrumptiously fresh mussels at Toby’s, followed by ice cream cones from the parlor down the street. Bellies full, it was time to bid farewell to the island, which we did by way of Deception Pass. The view of the bay was amazing, but I was just as taken with the lacy structure of the steel bridge that crosses the pass.
And so another beautiful summer weekend in the Northwest came to a close (and I silently cursed the arrival of Monday)…
I’ve felt rather uninspired lately, having to force myself to open my sketchbook. But I’m coming to understand the value of just getting into the habit of making art – it’s better to produce something I’m not necessarily crazy about than to produce nothing at all. And those moments always do eventually come when I touch a paintbrush to paper or draw a line in ink and think ‘nice!…’ So I forge on with this little exercise of weekly sketching. These are the latest…
springtime (2009.07.13):
raindrops (2009.07.28):
abstract fireworks (2009.07.25):
balloon ride (2009.07.28):
Today was painfully hot in Seattle, as we reached the hottest temperature ever on record here. Now, I lived in California’s Central Valley, so I know heat, but I also know that in California, you can usually count on coming home to an air-conditioned house. No such luck here, so once again, we headed right back out the door once we got home from work to seek refuge from the heat. After calling a couple of restaurants in search of AC, and visiting a couple of others, we finally found ourselves at Pyramid Brewery and promptly ordered a round of cold beers. Sweet relief…
After dinner, we spent some time hanging out at REI, fiddling around and waiting for the sun to go down, and left the store just in time to swing by Elliott Bay to catch the last remnants of a vibrantly pink sky.
This weather has been a great incentive to get out and enjoy the city, but then again, tonight we’re sleeping on an air mattress in our living room, because it’s just two degrees cooler down here than in our upstairs bedroom. This is what desperation feels like. (Yes, I do know that I’m being dramatic…)
Seattle is hot, hot, hot this week, with temps approaching 100 degrees. I feel like it’s heresy for a Seattle-ite to complain about heat, since we always seem to be complaining about the absence of sun, but we are approaching the point of unbearable-ness. This, coupled with the fact that Shane’s dad is visiting and we’d like to show him the city, is incentive to do all we can to get out of our AC-free house in the evenings. And so tonight we headed out to Ballard for Thai food (after calling ahead to make sure that the restaurant was air conditioned), then decided to check out the Ballard Locks. It was a great night to be out near the water. We watched the boats travel through the canal, oohed and ahhed over the huge salmon that were running in the fish ladders, and reveled in the feel of the cool breeze coming off the lake. Lovely.
