Salmon

I know that I planned to show cross stitch today but we had an adventure very unique to the area that I want to share. Salmon is a big deal up here. A lot is being done to conserve their habitat. Around this time each year, they can be seen swimming upstream to lay their eggs. There are many many streams that eventually end up in the sound. The amazing thing is, they return to the same stream in which they were hatched in order to lay their own eggs. I have absolutely no idea how they know which stream to travel up to lay their eggs. This is a very difficult thing for them to do at the end of their lives. Basically, they lay eggs then die. The smell is pretty bad as you can see the dead fish lying around. However, to see them swimming against the current in such fast moving water is truly amazing!

The water is rushing toward you in this photo. The salmon have to go upstream through this culvert.

I tried to show how fast the water is running in this picture. This is fresh water that flows into Puget Sound , a salt water body. The fish begin to die as they reach the fresh water.

This was a good close up of a salmon.

If you look carefully, you can see several.

This guy was dying. It was still breathing when we took this picture.

This lovely little duck , a female hooded merganser was very busy eating things in the stream.

Our best guess, after consulting our Puget Sound Bird Book, is that this is the female hooded Merganser.

Tomorrow we are decorating the lighthouse for the holiday house tour that will feature the lighthouse. I'll try to get some good pictures. Hope you enjoyed learning about the travels of one of our most tasty fish!!

I hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving. We had our daughter, son-in-law, the SBA's brother, and a couple that are good friends for dinner. We all had a very good time. I, being chief cook and bottle washer, felt quite tired when we were finished. The SBA(super blog assistant(husband) was a huge help this year! My daughter, chief designer for Woolpets, presented me with these three adorable snow people. If that's what the turkey provider gets, it was well worth it! I'll be working these little guys into my winter decorating. In a future blog, I'll be showing you more of her creations. I finished 2 cross stitch projects. The JBW mittens and the JBW lamb. The lamb is for my daughter and she has a real and a created sheep named Hazel. You can meet the imaginary Hazel at the blog"Hazel, Basil, Pudding Pie." I hope to have pictures of the real Hazel soon.

Doesn't he just make you smile?

This cutie too.

I think she's just bursting into song!

The mittens are ready for framing.

Here's Hazel. I'm not sure I like her on the Cappuccino Weeks 30ct. linen. I used DMC white. I think it's a bit small. I may do it over on a different fabric. I'm going to let my daughter decide.

Tomorrow, I'll show photos of my current project. Thanks for looking!

Happy Thanksgiving !!!

Here's wishing everyone a very HAPPY THANKSGIVING !

What??!! A Shopping Center??!!

I find it rather odd to be doing a blog about a shopping center considering I'm not that much of a shopping center person. But this one is special. First, it is outside. I go mainly to see the planters! Each season brings some new ideas. I would love to get advice from the gardener who plans these lovely containers. If you enjoy working with containers, you will enjoy this blog.

This pretty fall box was in front of a typical shop.

A cabbage close up.

They put some unusual things together and they all look great.

Lots of large containers were planted with trees and lovely foliage perennials.

This was a pretty little water fall.

The white in the tree trunk and then again in the ivy was quite striking.

This was the largest water feature in the center.

Several planters had evergreen for winter color.
Well, better get back to the kitchen. I'm hosting Thanksgiving so it will be a busy few days. Thanks for looking!

A Trip Across the Water

Yesterday we took a trip to Seattle. We both wanted to get our for a bit since we had been sort of stuck in the house while I recovered from the hernia surgery. They had a art-craft show called " Best of the Northwest." We decided to go. My husband likes this show . It is juried and the artists are quite good. I didn't take pictures of the show but I did take lots of photos of the trip. I have been trying to get pictures of snow in the mountains. Even though we had sun, the mountains(Olympics) seemed to be covered in clouds. We got some nice pictures of the Cascades from the ferry.

You can see the Cascades behind the city. They have gotten lots of snow.

The famous space needle with the mountains in the background

More snowy mountains.

Now we are on our way home. It was a beautiful sunset. The colors are not nearly as bright in the photos as they were.

This is Puget Sound with the sunset in the background.

This was looking east and the cloud behind the building was pink from the sunset.

The skyline as we left.

The space needle has a tree for the Christmas Holidays.
Since this is the week of Thanksgiving, I'm thankful that I live in such a beautiful place!
Tomorrow, I'll share pictures of a shopping center that I like to visit just to see the plant containers! Thanks for visiting.

A Favorite Walking Trail plus a little cross stitch!

We live about 10 minutes from the largest commercial area in North Kitsap Co. WA. One would think there would be just stores and more stores! Someone (I have no idea who) preserved a wonderful piece of land. It is called the Clear Creek Trail System. One trail takes you by an inlet of Puget sound. The one I'm showing today was probably once farm land. Much of it is a wet-land. They built(volunteers) this great board-walk. You can walk a couple of miles on this trail and then go on to more if you have the energy. We walk this trail several times a week!

Here's a great example of the board-walk.

I love the deep blue sky with those wonderful pines and cedars at the skyline.

There are several of these signs telling you about the area. At the bottom of each sign is a pattern that comes from the Suquamish, a tribe that has been in this area for hundreds of years. These patterns were used in their basket making. The city Seattle was named after a Suquamish chief.

A lovely yellow dogwood.

This is an old farm that they are trying to preserve.

When you approach this part of the trail, it feels like a tunnel. On a warm summer day it is quite welcome.

This is a wild rose bush. there are lots of them on the trail. In June, they are covered with pretty pink roses and in the fall , the pretty hips.

Here's progress on mitten number 2. I found a great frame at Eastside Moldings. I plan to order it on Mon. (Should have the mitten done).
Thanks a lot for joining me!

Storms and Cross stitch!

Well, we did get our Pacific storm last night. They had predicted high winds but they weren't too bad. Fortunately because we often loose power with bad storms. We did get enough wind to take down lots of leaves. This morning the deck was fairly covered. The mountains got LOTS of snow. I'll try to get a picture of them in the next few days. It looks so pretty to see them with snow again! Hope everyone is having a good week. I need to get busy with Thanksgiving stuff as I'm having a group of 8!

Oh, I keep forgetting to take my little witch down!!

This tree was still full of leaves a few days ago. Looks like I forgot Mr. Pumpkin too!! Maybe I'm just trying to make Halloween last a bit longer!

The front yard.

My wonderful paper -bark maple is almost bare by the looks of the ground.

The first red mitten is done.

Plus, Quaker Thanksgiving is finally framed and looks good on the desk. The pilgrim kids had to go.

Thanks for having a look!

A Cross Stitch Catch Up

Well, as I've said for a few days, I 'm doing a cross stitch catch up. We had a beautiful day here in he Pacific NW. Lots of sun. Tomorrow a big Pacific storm is suppose to blow in so it was super to be out and enjoy today-even if it was errands and getting 12 staples out! I have been doing quite a bit of cross stitch with all the sitting I have been doing. My big problem is getting thread for a new sampler. I need to go to Issaquah or Portland to get the thread, mainly because I haven't used the colors I want to use in this new sampler. So I've kept busy with little stuff, using fabric , thread, and patterns that I have in my stash.

Here's the Quaker Thanksgiving all done but yet to be framed. Great fall colors! It was done on 32 ct. parchment with recommended floss. It's a Bent Creek design.

Since I had to make do with what I had, I found this mitten pattern. I had great silk floss left over from another project. I decided to stitch them side by side on one piece of fabric. I like the fact that they aren't too Christmasy. I can leave them up all winter. I love the way the little designs emerge as you stitch. The design is on 32ct Belfast linen antique ivory. The color is NPI silk Clove Range color 636. I have used this red in many projects. This is a JBW design.

Here's my start. Sorry for the wrinkles.

This is my next project. I'm doing this one for my daughter. She raises sheep. Because my daughter is NOT a pink sort of young lady, I'm doing the design on a burlap colored fabric and the sheep will be white-just like her sheep both in fact and fiction. She has a great little blog called Hazel, Basil , Pudding Pie. that's the fictional Hazel . As I do this, I'll put some pictures of the living Hazel on my blog!

Thanks for joining me.