Sunday Salon---Good weather edition

My favorite boys at the beach

Weather: It is gorgeous here in the Pacific NW with daytime temperatures above 75°F. We drove to the beach with our grandson on Friday and couldn't believe the warm temperatures right on the beach with light winds. In fact, it is possible we haven't been to the beach here in Washington, even during the summer, when we were met with finer weather.

The beach: Ian loves the beach. Who doesn't? We were set for our trip. We had three, count them three, kites just in case one or two didn't fly. We had a bucket and a trowel for digging. We had three pairs of shoes for the boy: boots, sandals, and shoes. We had a sweatshirt and a coat per person. It is the Washington Coast after all. Often when it is warm inland, it is cold and foggy at the coast. As it turned out we did need three kites, and for different reasons. the bucket and trowel weren't that fun probably because it is more fun to collect shells and an toss them into the ocean. And the shoes (boot/sandals) weren't necessary because it is more fun to run around on the beach barefoot. Same goes for the coats and sweatshirts. It was way too warm for outerwear.

The kites: 1. Ian's Grandpa Rick made a homemade kite for Ian out of black plastic, bamboo sticks, a tail made from plastic, and his name taped on in large letters. This kite went up without a hitch and flew beautifully until a. Ian let go of the string and had to chase the kite down the beach, b. the string broke and had to be repaired, and then c. the bamboo sticks broke when there was a strong gust of wind. 2. Ian's Grandpa Don bought him an inexpensive all-in-one Batman kite which also flew pretty easily until the grommet that was supposed to be where the string attached broke and we had to jerry-rig a fix which didn't really fix it. 3. The third kite is more complicated with two different string controllers. We could only get this kite up in the air for a minute or two before it would crash back to earth requiring a lot of extra work to get it ready to fly again. It was the most frustrating of the three but the only one that wasn't in tatters by the end of the trip. See photo below for a moment of letting go of the Ian kite.

Ian is letting go of the string here just as grandpa snaps the photo. Look closely. The kite is named 'Ian' for Ian.

East Egg hunt, part two: Last week I reported that The Puzzle Cats were busy hiding plastic eggs under furniture after they batted them around the house for a few minutes. This week-end, while Ian was here, we did a hunt to locate all the eggs hiding under chairs and couches. We were all shocked at how many we found. See photo below.

Imagine finding this much stuff hidden under your couches.

We also found two wiffle balls, a bow, a few lids, a catnip banana, a hair-tie,  and a few dog balls.

The forest: During Ian's visit, we also visited a nearby grove of trees we call 'the forest' to hide a few more painted rocks. Unfortunately the dog, who we had just bathed, stepped on a bunch of sappy flower debris and we had to work with brushes and scissors to get them out of his fur.

Hiding in plain sight...on the middle of a tree trunk.

 

Bookish stuff: I wrote a few book reviews this week, spending far more time on them than on reading. Please check them out. Please!?

1. Dearly: New Poems by Margaret Atwood
2. Poetry Calls Out to Me and I listen ---Four reviews in one
3. A Beautifully Foolish Endeavor by Hank Green
   
4. Just Us: An American Conversation by Claudia Rankine
   

Currently reading:

1. A Promised Land by Obama. Yes. We were still reading this...I can't believe we haven't finished it YET. 97%. Audio.
2. The Girl With the Louding Voice by Dare. I purchased the audiobook and managed to listen to an hour of it. 9%.
3. Ledger: Poems by Jane Hirshfield. I read this book last night in the middle because I couldn't sleep. 40% e-book.

More flowering trees: I am trying to enjoy them frantically. The temperatures have been so high, they bloom out and then fade at record pace.

 

Just two funnies this week:

 

And finally. I took no photos of the Puzzle Cats today but I did take an old photo and made it into art. Enjoy.

George looking very handsome and artsy.

-Anne