The house on Kalispell Av

Howdy Nancy,
The "clothesline" picture of the swallows in your last post is striking. As I said, I'm really enjoying the birds around our new place. I've posted some photos on webshots, I hope to take more pictures. Friends who come by remark that our little rental has a good feeling to it, and two have said that it seems more "Mary" than our last house. I find this interesting. Am I run down and shabby? Since I really have a good feeling being in this house, I don't mind. It's always amusing though, to ponder the impression others have of you.

I just have to post this picture of the angel leaf begonia blooming. It's remarkable (to me). I have friends with these plants and I've never seen one blooming before. I have no idea what prompted this one to bloom. I also have a Hoya plant start in a milk bottle of water that bloomed as the move commenced. I wunna why?

And now for something completely different: we woke up at 4 a.m. so that ol' bear could catch a flight to Ketchikan, Alaska where he starts a new job for the Alaska Ferry system. We don't know all the details of the job yet, but it's where he wants to work, and it's who he's been aiming to work for, so we're keeping our fingers crossed that it turns out to be what he hopes it to be.

And that's the news from Kalispell Av this morning. I think I'll go take a nap before work....zzzzzzzz

Birds

Did you ever see the Hitchcock movie The Birds. Me neither. But I have a yard full of swallows that makes me think of it.

The mix is barn, tree and bank swallows.

Every year the swallows from this area suddenly gather in my yard. I suppose it is the old seldom used barn and all the wires since an electrical line goes around our yard on the west and the north. Also we have a couple of unused wired that run from our yard light pole to the barn. So we have the perching area needed. This is what happens. It has been this way for about a week and then one day I will go outside and it will be empty and still.

I enjoy it while I can although the car doesn't look good at all.

Love,

Nancy

About a new, old house

To my sister, the alien:

Our new house is not new. It's old, and shabby. But yet there is something about it. For one thing, it has mature trees and lots of birds live here.


We've tried to make it as inviting as possible, but don't know if we'll be able to keep up with the food bill! I think we're feeding a whole flock of Pine siskins, with some kind of sparrow (Brian looked it up but I forget), an occasional nuthatch, and we even have a blue jay visiting! (They're not supposed to live around here, but I've been seeing them for the past 3 years now, at least twice a summer.)

PJ the Fatty Kitty is settling in too, getting used to no cat door.
He even has mail posted on his refrigerator wall.

Here's a view from our living room into the dining area. You can see the small woodstove there. Our neighbor says that this house is cold in the winter, and suggests that we get a couple cords of wood. O joy! Messing with wood again! A fire is a nice thing when it's a luxury, but when it's a necessity, it's a dirty pain in the ass. Oh well.

Yes, those are real oak floors there. This house is not without its charms.
Very interesting, moving from a 1600 sq ft house to a less than 1000.
But it does have a basement, not unlike Mom & Dad's - even have laundry down there.
I've taken lots of pictures and will post them on Webshots soon...I hope. Something else is starting to take up my time, so it might take awhile to get to it.

How is your August going, besides lots of fun quilting? I seem to be
on a knitting hiatus, but did buy some giant cones in my favorite
color at the second hand store this week. Heh heh. Some things never change. Love you, Mary

What I 've been doing

Waiting of course. Waiting and waiting for you. Now you're back. I have our blog as the webpage that comes up when I start up IE so every day I would see the fireworks picture. Bummer.

Also I have been quilting since it is summer and that is when I Quilt. I will be spending this weekend in what we call a 'lockin' because we quilt together at Faye's way into the night and get locked into the store.

The reason for this is that Jim is away to a bluegrass festival near Brainerd so I will be home alone. So I would rather be quilting with my friends than sitting alone with my Elizabeth Peters books. (I am up to the Guardian of the Horizon which is number 11 if you read them in order of events.)

So my project today is to start a quilt for my great nephew Dylan. He is in the blue tiedyed t-shirt in the picture. And that is me, not an alien, peeking in the window.

Although it does look an awful lot like an alien.

Love,

Nancy

Back in the swing of things

A Picture for Nancy - Tiger Swallowtail

Well, I'm back to blogging finally, after a month of selling the house, packing, and moving.
This is the kitchen of the old house in the midst of it. What a relief that's all over! My computer was down for only 8 days or so, but I just haven't got back into my old habits of taking pictures and putting them right into the computer. I"ve been too busy trying to fit our stuff into a house that's quite a bit smaller. So I don't have any pictures of the little old house we're renting now.

Frankly, we're lucky to have gotten into it. The first two houses I applied for fell through after I filled out the applications. In both cases, the owners decided to rent to friends or previous renters. Argh! Meanwhile the deadline of Aug. first loomed. I had to pack and get out before this house was ready, so I spent four days housesitting for one friend, and three days at another friend's house who was out of town. This meant moving all our stuff to a temporary storage (luckily a neighbor lent a garage) and then a week later having the moving guys come back to bring it all to our little old house. Plus, moving PJ the fatty kitty all around with me. He got more comfortable with it after awhile, but did give me one scare - disappearing into a wooded back yard for 12 hours!

Our little house is an old Whitefish house - right in town. We're lucky to have had it painted and recarpeted (with the cheapest carpet it's ever been my pleasure to run my gnarly toes over - they keep snagging it!) before we moved in. Plus, it has oak floors in living, dining and office rooms. I think the office was used as a bedroom previously, but since it's downstairs in basically the middle of things, and you have to walk through it to the bathroom, we decided to put our computer desks and bookcases in there. The upstairs is a glorified attic. They enlarged the windows on the gable ends to make the rooms lighter and more livable. We have one bedroom, and the other is for the college student when she comes home to visit (it's crammed with boxes now). There's also a full basement with the laundry. Reminds me of Bruce and Maggie's house!

I'll get some pictures of it sooner or later. Until then, here's PJ the Fatty Kitty with his own refrigerator artwork:
I'll be in touch with some more pictures and etc. Love you, Mary

Last fireworks photos

Hi there Mary,

The last night of fireworks was Friday the 10th and again we didn't get in until 3 a.m. I was just so tired the next night that I couldn't get to sleep. But I am all caught up now. I just uploaded a ton of photo's to the webshots site and am putting two only on here. What a fun week.

So are you in and with cat yet? Is the 'old bear' back and unpacking his boxes or are you just going to keep them boxed up till you find out where you will be living?

Inquiring minds want to know.

I went to the movies last night. Nancy Drew was at the Delchar and a whole group of us went. We had ice cream first. It was about what you would expect and the surprise was they let me in free! I tell you small towns are great!

Love ya,

Nancy

Late last night

PGI the third night

The first photo below was one of the last of the night and as you can see it filled the sky. Yes, fire rained down on the bleachers. I was shooting straight up. No fire on us though, whew! Just like going to the ball game. You have to look out for foul balls. Love,
Nancy

I am getting way behind on processing these photos. I have the camera battery charging up as I type this. I really like this camera. It has so much more memory than the old that I can zoom in on a detail and it stays sharp. Anyway these are photos from Tuesday night and I had to take a nap today since I got to sleep at 3 a.m. last night.

more pyro

It was not as good a night as Sunday, more wind and the smoke came right up to us at the beginning. However a few good shots and more tonight.

Love,

Nancy

Pyrotechnics

Yowwie! I hope you are getting all set up in your new house. I hope you have lots of friends to help you carry things in. I hope you get your computer up soon. I am fussing about trying to make my new camera work. Since I bought it mainly for the fireworks, here are a few shots from last night.

It was a perfect night for fireworks. Not too hot, not too cold. Black as the bottom of a well and the slight breeze blowing the smoke away from us.

There is only one thing wrong with this wonderful week of fireworks - you are spoiled forevermore for regular fireworks shows. I took 75 pictures so more will be forthcoming.

M

And of course, more tonight.

Love,

Nancy