(photo P Volker)
I am getting my day going with two slices of banana bread baked up by our daughter-in-law Henna. She and Wiley rolled through last evening bearing gifts for us. We got them trained. They also brought three wooden bowls perfect for tapas so you will see those at some point. I trust that there will be tapas on a grand scale in our future!
It has been raining off and on which serves to lessen the fire danger that we were exposed to recently. I don’t know how far south that goes but it is here for us in the Seattle area anyway. One less thing to worry about these days.
Rebecca and I went into Vashon town last evening to treat ourselves to a sit down meal. Boy, town was really dead and there were only two places that offered indoor dining. We chose the Hardware Store Restaurant. And there was one other couple in there to start and then they left and we were the only ones in the whole place. Pretty grim I’d say.
We came home and watched the adventures of Gil Pender in Midnight in Paris. One of my all time favorite movies. I skip the first third with all the introduction to the future in-laws and get to the good part when the bells toll.
Have a walk in a few minutes. Will have to find my rainy day boots which have been put away. It is time to go and buy some sunflower seed for our feathered friends next time I am in town. The seasons are changing. Not too far away we will be walking the afternoon walk half hour earlier when the time changes.
We put up our old hummingbird feeder outside the kitchen table. We haven‘t had it up in two years and it is such a joy. My Rebecca and I bet on how long it would take for them to find it. I said two days and she said one and it was one. They are so quick! Anyway, it is my personal belief that every new cancer patient should receive one of these so it can be set up and enjoyed. It is such cheap entertainment and absolutely no batteries needed.
OK, time to go gear up. I think Jen and Jim will be here for the walk. Not many folks are coming these days and it is like the near empty restaurant in town.
no batteries loves, Felipé.
I wish I was there!!!!!
Cris ~ We all wish you were here too! Felipé.x
A groaning tapas table with newly carved wooden bowls! I can’t wait for that moment. Meantime, I walk around the block, and drink my Sangria solitaire.
Olive you all.
Henriette Anne
Henriette Anne ~ “Olive you all.” How tapas! Felipé.x
Can you grow banana trees outdoors year round on Vashon Island?we have one type that grows in England and the Washington State coast seems to have a very similar climate, the Japanese Banana,which grows in south west England but I’ve never seen it up north where I live.I’ve seen Ethiopian Banana Trees in London but in sheltered yards .it’s not the cold it’s the wind that shreads the leaves.i reckon that the Japanese Banana would survive here in the north east coast in a sheltered spot but apparently the fruit isn’t too tasty so you wouldn’t get any banana bread!my biggest success with exotic plants is the Windmill Palm,Trachycarpus Fortunei,which I planted in the garden about 40 years ago when it was 1 foot high and now it’s 17 feet high!you could grow them as I’ve seen pictures of some in Stanley Park in Vancouver,the Canadian Vancouver not the US one although I’d doubt that the US one also has a Stanley Park to increase confusion!?
Kevan ~ wrote about you and Rawicz in the blog today. Good job on your palm tree. I know some folks have a palm that grows here but don’t know which one that is. Felipé.
It’s most likely the Windmill Palm as others are marginally hardy in such places.you sometimes see European Fan Palms here but as it’s more of a shrub it’s less popular.Canary Date Palms are reasonably common on England’s south west peninsula but it is pretty much frost free down there so they can grow lots of subtropical and even some tropical plants.
Kevan ~ is the southwest peninsula Cornwall? Felipé.
It is a large peninsula and contains 4 counties; Cornwall, Devon, Somerset and Dorset.it sticks out way into the Atlantic.
Kevan ~ we had motored through there all the way to Lands End. I thought the whole thing was Cornwall. Thanks. Felipé.
No Cornwall is just the end bit they has an intense rivalry with next door Devon and wouldn’t be best pleased to be mistaken for them.the people are said to have a different ethnic origin; the Cornish are Celts probably/possibly for the Iberian Peninsula(another peninsula!) and the Devon people are Germanic from north Germany and the Jutland Peninsula (another peninsula!) although I’m guessing that if you took their DNA you’d find very little difference so they’d be arguing over ancient differences which neither are full connected to due to interbreeding.
Kevan ~ thanks for the clarification on Cornwall. People can argue over the darkest things can’t they. Felipé.
Indeed they can…. welcome to Sarajevo!
Kevan ~ yes, we are prone to screw up. My memory is so foggy but didn’t all that happen shortly after we were all there on our TV’s for the Olympics? Winter Olympics, I think. Felipé.
I don’t think so as Marshall Tito was still alive for the winter Olympics and Yugoslavia didn’t unravel until about 10 years after his death.very sad what happened there.you can see the mortar burst marks on the pavements in Sarajevo and they are filled with red rubber and called Sarajevo Roses.it sort of went as follows; first Slovenia and Croatia left, leading to a brutal war between Serbia and Croatia. Slovenia largely avoided conflict as for the Serbs to get at them they’d have to come via Croatia.Macedonia then left and that was bloodless but Bosnia it was not to be when it tried to leave.Sometime after Kosovo left and another war.then the final end of Yugoslavia was Serbia and Montenegro going their separate ways.
Kevan ~ yea, that is more than I can keep straight. My little brain needs a whiteboard. So, the Olympics came first. Well, we all fell in love with the place and then we were super sad about the violence. That how it went. It was a while ago. Thanks, Felipé.
Bill Clinton was US leader and Tony Blair the English PM when Yugoslavia started breaking up so about 20 years ago.i think that it was only the winter Olympics in Sarajevo and not the full Olympics as Yugoslavia probably wouldn’t have the infrastructure for that?of course it’s always been a tinderbox and who could forget that World War One kicked off there with the shooting of Archduke Franz Ferdinand in Sarajevo by Gavarilo Princep,a Serb nationalist?if I recall the gun he used was a .32 calibre revolver.
Kevan ~ yes, you are right, that was the start of the war to end all wars. You are an amazing geography and history buff. Do you have other interests that you explore? Felipé.
I am an omnivore of information and always have been probably as I try to make sense of the universe…. which so far I haven’t! I’m concluding I’m probably a panentheist or pantheist but undecided….the jury,as they say,remains out.regarding the First World War my grandfather,on my Dad’s side, fought in the Battle of the Somme in 1916….104 years ago!my Dad’s brother, John he’s dead now,was one of the first of the allied troops into the Belsen death camp in 1945 at the end of WW2 and would never speak of what he saw there.
Kevan ~ an “omnivore of information”, that’s good. We may have work for you. Felipé.