Sunday Salon, August 5th

A day on Mt. Rainier with two of my favorite people.

Weather: Hot. As I look around my neighborhood and town all I see is plants which look like they want water and brown lawns. We are definitely in the dog days of summer.

Mt. Rainier: Rita, Ian, and I went to Paradise on Mt. Rainier on Tuesday. It was foggy in the valley so it was a leap of faith that we would rise above the fog to see the mountain. We did indeed. Aren't we lucky to live so close to this beautiful spot? During our hike I earned 25 flights on my FitBit (like climbing up 25 flights of stairs.) I won a badge for it. We kept the day short, and Ian was a dream kid to have along. He kept admiring the trees.

70,000+: First time since I received my first FitBit, I got over 10,000 steps a day, totaling over 70,000 steps for the week. I also beat my daughter and husband. We are all in a little family competition. Woot Woot.

Foraging the Hive. Each test tube is filled with some treasure.

New perk: My library offers checkouts for free admittance to local museums. My long-time girl friend, Margaret, and I used a pass and went to the Tacoma Museum of Glass on Wednesday this past week. The museum has a hot shop where we watched people actually making glass things, though we couldn't tell what they were. All the glass looked orange until we figured out that orange meant HOT!.  Ha. The exhibits were pretty interesting. One was called Foraging the Hive, going on a beehive concept of little compartments of honey (special stuff), small test tubes hung from the ceiling. Each tube was filled with special stuff the artists had found in the environment. See photo above. Dale Chihuly also had his glass on display. Chilhuly is a Tacoma artist, but his art is rarely on display at the Museum of Glass, at least not inside. One has to just walk outside and cross the the glass bridge to see his art.

Margaret and I on the Glass Bridge

Highland Games: Last Sunday Don and I went to the Highland Games at the King Country Fairgrounds. It was over 90 degrees but we still had fun watching the Battle of the Bagpipes, we watched a man gain a world record for the Sheaf Toss (over 36 feet), and listened to Celtic Rock where one of the instruments was a didgeridoo. It felt a little like we were on a different planet.

The video we took won't transfer. Sorry.

Books read (past two weeks):

• Paris for One and Other Stories by Jojo Moyes. Moyes wrote a book which I thought was quite good, You Before Me. This collection of stories was along the same line. "Paris for One" was a novella, a love story. The others were short, fifteen pages long on average. (Print)
• The Bear and the Nightingale by Katherine Arden. Based on Russian folktales. I found this to be quite compelling. (Audio)
• All the Light We Cannot See by Anthony Doerr. A re-read for me. I liked this as much as the first time. Click on the hyperlink for details. (Audio)

Currently reading:

• The Book of Pearl by Timothee de Fombelle. Truly a fairy story. Set in our world and a far off kingdom. Translated from French. (Print, 76%)
• The Name of the Rose by Umberto Eco. This is my Classics Club Spin book. I'm a little freaked out about this one. Click the hyperlink to see why. (Audio, 9%)

I hope you are having a lovely time this summer (or winter to my Aussie friends down under.)