Seattle in October

Stuart and I spent Sunday at Columbia Winery, with generous pours from a very talented amateur watercolor artist, Mae. We had lunch at The Purple and dinner with my colleague Larry and his lovely wife Leslie at Etta's downtown Seattle.  It was restaurant week, so we really lucked out.

While at the winery, we walked around a few gardens with beautiful flora and aged trees.

On Monday morning, we walked to Bellevue City Hall and toured the Bellwether gardens where the Bellevue Arts Program had some outdoor exhibits.  More info here: https://www.facebook.com/BellevueArtsProgram

Dan Corson's "The Roots" is a large root system from a dead tree, painted silver and poised over a reflecting pond.

 

 "Lecturn" by David Turner included several lovely succulents on a podium.

There was a reflecting pool, as well.

Later that afternoon, we ventured to Seattle, had lunch atop the Space Needle, and perused the Chihuly Glass museum.

Spring Oaks Garden in July

I've been absent for a week and came home to a beautiful garden.  I have a multitude of purple cherokee heirloom and generic red tomatoes, giant zucchini, budding peppers, growing cucumbers and broccoli.  I also planted a bunch of wildflowers at one of the borderlines of the garden to attract pollinating insects, and that has turned out to have been a lovely idea.  Enjoy the photos.

Welcome sign for pollinators.

The lovely striated purple cherokee heirloom tomato (not quite purple, but with a lovely green crown on top).

Generic beefsteak tomato on its way to ripening.

Green pepper bud.  Habaneros are coming along.

Nearly mutant zucs.

Wildflower border.

Bee guest.

Butterfly guest.

Around the Yard - Summer Solstice

The yard is full of beauty as summer begins.  Here's a few of the pretty sights.

Fred the Garden Spider

Marigolds, protectors of the garden border

Squash blossoms.

Tomato Blossoms

Butterfly Bush Blossoms

Wildflowers!

Macka and Introducing... Mala!

Macka always tries to play with the Barn cats when they climb up onto the deck.  They usually want nothing to do with him.  When the Rakow's next door rescued the runt kitten from the Barn cat litter who was left behind in their yard, they were not able to keep him due to family allergies.  So, I took the runt to the Ruckersville Animal Hospital to get checked out.  With a clean bill of health, I decided to bring him in so that Macka would have a play buddy.  I named the kitten Mala, which means "little" in Slovenian.  (Macka means "cat").

Introducing... Mala!  He's full of energy so it's tough to get a still photo.  Consider the blur an action shot artifact.

Macka is very easy-going around me, but he is still skittish around strangers, even around the new kitten.  Mala intimidates Macka.  Macka runs away when he sees the Mala, but slowly as their first week of introduction progresses, they have gotten closer to each

other before running away.  Mala is fearless and stands his ground.

Macka likes to spend his time out on the deck when I am home.  If the weather is tolerable I'll leave the door cracked so he can come in and out.  He hunts down and eats any of the flies that make it into the house.