Suddenly, last summer … I was all set to continue a busy week of gardening and enjoying summer weather. I even looked at the weather forecast and it was all sunshine, appreciated in the rainy Seattle area. However, it began to rain; then it rained some more. Almost an entire... Read more →

For most summers, my daughter Lisa, who lives in Madrid, visits me with her kids, Rafa and Cecilia. Although the visits are shorter now that the kids are older and want to spend more time with their friends, we had a great time. Fun times included a barbecue, swimming, walking in an arboretum and parks, dining out, and a July Fourth celebration. Read more →

It seems today that writing about extreme heat is strange. This weekend, I was so cold when I did yard work here in the Seattle area that I wore my extra-sweater-and-leggings outfit I wear for winter gardening. And, although everyone is warning about not to avoid heat exhaustion and even death, I’m going to write about it, too. Read more →

My birthday is May 4, a wonderful time in the spring when everything is blooming. When I was a child growing up in Central Washington on an apple ranch, I used to run through the orchard on my birthday when the trees were in full bloom, an enchanted place. The blossoms were spectacular and the fragrance marvelous. Read more →

Winter is the pits. In the Seattle area, where the weather is usually moderate, we had a week of 20-degree weather and snow – just a skiff where I Iive but in Bellingham, Washington, near the Canadian border, snowfall totals varied across western Whatcom County, with some areas reporting more than 10 inches on the ground. Read more →

It’s a flurry of activity getting ready for the holidays. I’ve purchased my plane ticket to California, started my shopping, and am contemplating decorations. My daughters came for an early Christmas last year and the year before. I “decked the halls” with a living Christmas tree, got out the nice China and red table runner, and we cooked up a storm. Read more →

In the Seattle area, we’ve had a few nice days among the rainy ones. I’ve had some more time to work on getting my yard ready for winter, along with assistance from my yard work helpers. One fun thing that happens in October is my daughter Mona’s birthday. What a wonderful day when she was born. Such a beautiful baby, who so quickly became a wonderful woman. Read more →

It lasted five long months. The strike between the Writers Guild of America and Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers has been settled. I’ve really missed my favorite late night host Stephen Colbert. Colbert hosted his first program after the strike on Monday. During the strike, I watched Jimmy Kimmel instead, until I was seeing reruns, too. Read more →

World Alzheimer’s Day, every Sept. 21, is a global effort to raise awareness and challenge the stigma around Alzheimer’s disease and other dementia. More than 55 million people across the world are affected by these diseases. One in three seniors dies with Alzheimer’s or another dementia. It kills more people than breast cancer and prostate cancer combined. Read more →

For the last few weeks, I’ve been working on organizing my historical family photos. About 10 years ago, I had around 200 photos scanned. I named and dated about a third of them. The rest are numbered. I paused the project until I could buy a good scanner so I could scan the rest of the photos myself. Now, I need to name those and scan others. Read more →