back in seattle again

We listened to La Traviata yesterday, as we drove across central Washington. It was perfect. The golden fields, waiting for their winter wheat crops to be planted, the rolling green alfalfa fields and gentle yellow acres of mustard, the farm houses, barns, streams, and ponds, all looked that much more beautiful set to the opera. I never considered classical music or opera to be good road companions. But now, while I'm no expert, I'm certainly a believer.





We stopped at the Columbia River overlook for a little break. It's a pretty spectacular river, and only one of so many we've seen these last few days. I'm always trying to get Rick to allow himself the time to do some fishing, but now I think maybe I'm really talking to myself here. I'm thinking of taking up fly fishing. Not because I want the fish. I'd probably let them go. But spending some good chunks of time in a sexy pair of waders, learning to cast that line and land that little hand-tied fly just so, seems so appealing to me now. Funny, it never really did before. My Grampa Herman used to tie his own flies, and took my boy cousins fishing. My Dad fished some when we were younger too, and taught us a bit. But my Mom was the real fisherwoman in the family. She preferred bait and worms to fly fishing, but still, she was amazing. Maybe fishing is something that lies dormant in a person until they have the time and concentration to understand the zen of it. I might be getting there. Or it might go the way of so many other of my great ideas, drifting down the stream, forgotten... we'll see...



We didn't linger long on any of our stops. Just popped in for a fuel stop once, and later bought a big box of peaches at a nice fruit stand. Oh hallelujah for fresh peaches! Then we drove on through the Cascade Mountains, which is always a favorite part of this trip to western Washington.




We arrived at Ken & Vicki's place in Bellevue, WA well before cocktail time, and settled in to our "home" for most of the month of September. Rick's sister and her family have this amazing little "farm" here, right next to the freeway, and smack in the heart of Microsoft Land. It's wonderful, and fairly easy to pretend the freeway noise is actually a rushing river. We have chickens and turkeys out back, and the neighbor's beautiful garden to look at from our window. And maybe best of all, there's room in a corner office in the big barn for me to set up my bead studio. I haven't been thrilled with the temporary setup I've been using in the trailer. Not sure what to do about that bit of dissatisfaction, but for now I can ignore it, and work from a semi-permanent space for a while. Nice. I'm happy to be here.





Danny and Lauren came over last night from their place across the lake in Seattle. We had dinner from the garden, and planned some things to do this weekend. They took Daisy, Lauren's cat, home with them too, which is a big relief for me. Traveling with a cat was just too much. Now he's home with his kids, where he can just keep getting old, and lounge around with no dogs to bother him.



So now we'll settle into some sort of routine... maybe... if we can still remember how to do that.