Skip to main content

Before and After

Before

After


Before

After 


We had smokey skies here in Seattle for the past week from the wildfires in Washington and Oregon but this morning, after a rainstorm and westerly winds chased out the smoke, we woke up to clear skies.  I cannot even tell you how happy we were today to know that it is safe to breathe again.  The above photos are what we could see from our house.  My neighbor immediately called me up and we went out for our Saturday neighborhood walk and it felt so good.  


I wanted to take photos of everything because it all looked so beautiful after a week of smoke.  Our little friend, Jeb, was even out of his pen grazing in the vacant lot next door from his corral.


We unexpectedly ran into Jeb during one of our walks when we decided to take this shortcut to see where it went.  And lo and behold, a little pony was living at a house there.  Who would guess in the middle of a city?  This is why we love our neighborhood.  What a cute gate at this house. 


One sole apple was on this newly planted apple tree.   I was tempted to pick it and give it to Jeb.  But I'm not that kind of neighbor...plus I know that Jen is on a special diet, as are most equine, which we know from personal experience of owning a horse in Idaho.


Here was an outdoor birthday party going on during this era of covid. 


We noticed these interesting trees everywhere bearing odd looking fruit that looked like raspberries on steroids. 

We looked them up and I think it is a Korean dogwood tree and these odd looking fruit are actually edible.  We noticed that birds were eating them.  

They really stand out this time of year and we noticed them everywhere. 


 If you live in a smoke effected area, I hope your air clears up soon and you can get out and enjoy clean air again soon.  We sure enjoyed our day today.  



Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Meatloaf by Mark Bittman

Once again, I turned on the television yesterday and saw that Mark Bittman was on the Today show and was making his version of  meatloaf .  This must be meatloaf season.  It was surprisingly similar to the  Pioneer Woman's version  who was also recently on.   I was a little surprised of his version because Mark Bittman is into healthy eating and has lost a lot of weight and improved his health by changing his diet which he writes about in his book,  Food Matters .  His meatloaf recipe also included bacon and cheese!  I must be doing something wrong.  The thing to remember, which he writes about in his book, is that you can eat healthy without going extreme or changing your whole life.    If you don't know who Mark Bittman is, he is a food writer and a four star chef with multiple cookbooks who loves to eat but changed his food philosophy to improve his health.  He tells his story in Food Matters and provides ...
4 comments
Read more

Trader Joe's Gluten-Free Oatmeal, Peanut Butter and Chocolate Chip Cookies

I don't have very many gluten-free cookies on my blog because quite frankly, I usually don't like gluten-free.  But occasionally, I do find a good recipe and this is one that is from the back of the Trader Joe's oatmeal and it's a good one.  My friend brought some over to our house last weekend when Nick and family were here for our birthday celebrations  and we all loved them. My friend lives a few blocks away and we walk the neighborhood together on weekends.  We can easily go 5 miles in no time, talking non-stop.  She loves exploring our neighborhood as much as I do and we discover so many favorite little spots.  We even found a property with a horse (or more like a pony, I should say.)   The views are always quite lovely, too.  Bruce and I had our thirty-ninth wedding anniversary on July 18th and I made a point of walking past the house where we had our wedding reception.  I told my friend, "Thirty-nine years ago today, t...
2 comments
Read more

Waking Up in Vegas

and just like that...we were Waking Up in Vegas.   Just like the Katy Perry song. We went to her 78th performance which was her second-to-last Las Vegas residency show entitled "Play".  That was perfect for us because we went to Vegas simply to play.  Her concert was a great finale for us because it was high energy and full of silliness, just the way Katy Perry is.  And we were feeling it after three nights in Las Vegas. "Get up, and shake the gutter off your clothes now, That's what you get for waking up in Vegas".    Here's what she said about her show: "I created this show after the birth of my daughter, Daisy Dove. When I met her, it was like all the love I was ever searching for finally showed up. This show is for everyone’s inner child and for the hope that maybe if we could all see life through the eyes of a child, we would be free. Because never forget, love is and will always be the key,” she said. We went to Vegas spur of the moment because Br...
Post a Comment
Read more