Chills, Spice and Hummingbird Wings

Yesterday was full of new and tasty experiences. We started out early and headed for the artesian well on 164th in Lynnwood. Larry had learned about it from his boss at work, and since our water here in Clearview tastes of iodine, he thought the well would be a good alternative source for drinking water. I, of course, was doubtful and had to check it out online. I found that the well is maintained by the Alderwood Water District and was even able to check the well sample results. It appears that they check the water quality frequently. The most recent test was last month and everything was OK.

I also learned that the well is in excess of 400 feet in depth and is cased to approximately 120 feet. The source of water at the well is an underground aquifer (water-bearing layer of permeable rock, sand or gravel).  The well taps the Intercity Aquifer at approximately 200 feet. The water flows through the two spouts at a rate of about 10 gallons per minute. 

The place was busy! It seems that a lot of people enjoy clean, untreated water, and we had to stand in line for awhile, but since we only had four gallon-size bottles to fill, we were able to do so pretty quickly.

We left the well and began my quest for the perfect watering can. I hadn't been able to find one that was the right size for my little plants in the indoor conservatory. It had to be small with a narrow spout - didn't seem like too much to hope for, but I hadn't been able to find one at Home Depot or Fred Meyers, so since we were in the vicinity of a Target, we stopped in. No luck. They only had big clunky watering cans that would work fine for outdoors, but were not what I was looking for. We walked over to the World Market - they didn't have watering cans, but we did find a lot of other goodies, including orange flavored KitKat bars from England. 

Our next stop - the Franz Bakery Outlet Store. Larry loves their little pies, which we found, along with Moon Pies - I couldn't resist. How many years had it been since I'd had a Moon Pie? And they tasted exactly the same as they did sixty years ago!

OK - on with the quest for the watering can. Next stop - Lowe's. We wandered over to the gardening area and found a number of the "wrong" watering cans. I was giving up hope, when Larry turned around and said, "is this what you're looking for?" Voila! And they even had them in red! I was happy! It looks great in the conservatory...

The plants are going to be happy, too!

While we were at Lowe's, we looked at some small refrigerators. Our refrigerator in Jumbo stopped working shortly after we brought him home and try as he may, Larry hasn't been able to get it running. It does make a good storage spot, however, but we're getting tired of relying on ice chests to keep our food cold. We have to replace the ice every other day or so, and it's a messy job, so a small refrigerator seemed like a good idea. None of the ones at Lowe's were quite right, but I remembered having seen one at Fred Meyers a few days before, so that was our next top. Sure enough, we found one, and on sale, too! We loaded it into my car and headed for home. The plan was to keep it in our storage shed and run an extension cord out to it.

but now we've decided to put it in the space where the washer/dryer used to be. I didn't like the idea of traipsing out to the storage shed in the dark in search of ice cream - especially since a few people have spotted a mountain lion in the area!

Walking back from the storage shed, we noticed how much our lettuce has grown this past week, what with the rain and sun breaks. I think salad will be on the menu tonight!

Larry built this shelf on the back on Jumbo to keep the lettuce, rainbow chard, and bok choy out of the reach of the bunnies...

The peas are doing great, too. Their tendrils are attaching to the "cage"...

and the cosmos seeds are popping up like crazy!

 

Larry had been craving some Thai food, so we journeyed down to Mill Creek to Thai Rhapsody. This place is great! It was very pretty inside...

 

and the food was excellent! I started out with a Pomegranate Mojito... yummy!

 

Larry had a pot of jasmine tea...

We started with some crispy spring rolls, which were delicious (my photo didn't turn out, though).  Larry ordered Mussaman Curry. The waiter suggested a level three of spiciness, since Larry said he liked it hot. When he got it, the flavor was great, but he wished he'd ordered a level four! 

I ordered the Golden Cashew with chicken breast. I told the waiter that I wanted mine not spicy at all, and it was perfect! Chunks of carrots and cabbage with cashews in a scrumptious sauce. Mmmmmm.....

 

and this morning, the refrigerator is humming away in its new spot in the kitchen, and a hummingbird visited the feeder we hung last week. All is well!

"Red, red wine you make me feel so fine ..."

What a lovely day it's been. Larry woke up early and decided that he would do a trial run to see just how long it will take him to get to work from here, so he hopped on the motorcycle and was off, leaving me here to sort through some of the stuff that is filling up our storage cabinets inside Jumbo. I was just beginning to think that he should be pulling in the driveway soon, when my phone rang. It was Larry telling me that he was somewhere in Woodinville, but didn't know quite how to get back home. Since we have the "old-fashioned" non-smart phones, he needed me to go online to Google Maps and give him some directions. I don't know if I messed up or if he simply made a wrong turn, but somehow he ended up in Duvall. He did eventually wander home, however, and decided that Duvall was a nice place, even though it hadn't been his destination. He suggested that after lunch we get in the car and do a bit more exploring of the Woodinville area, so that next time he finds himself there, getting home will be easier. But before we did that, I poked around in some of the boxes in the storage shed, and found my missing summer clothes - what a relief. I was sweltering in my jeans, and didn't want to buy a whole new wardrobe!

We were finally ready for yet another adventure, and locked up Jumbo...

and just as we were about to leave, Sharon, the manager of the park, came around the corner with our rental agreement for us to sign. I feel a lot better knowing that we are official residents!

We took off, made our way to Woodinville, and I thought that we should try to find Ste. Michelle Winery, if only just to drive through and look at the beautiful grounds. He asked, "Do they have wine tasting?" Well, of course! So that was our plan. Larry seemed to think I should know the way, but it had been over twenty years since I had visited with my Mom and Dad and Matt and Rachel. After a few U-turns we finally found the signs that pointed us in the right direction, and soon we were driving through the gates.

Sometimes I  just can't resist these through-the-windshield shots, even though they always turn out pretty bad.

Such a pretty place... we didn't do a tour, but did visit the wine tasting room. It was so much fun!

Of course, it would have been rude to leave without buying something....

As Larry was taking my picture, this duck walked right in front of us.

Soaking up some sun...

 A bottle for each of us - he likes red, I like white!

Too bad we didn't have a picnic with us...

We didn't forget about you, Duchess.

Now, while Dot enjoys a glass of wine in her recently set-up dollhouse, I can join her!

This is a little blurry, and I haven't even had a glass yet!

Back at home in Jumbo,  Larry and Duchess are curled up on the bed, taking a nap. A great way to end such a beautiful day!

Home At Last!

Larry and I are settling into our new home here in Clearview East Mobile Home/RV Park. It's still hard to believe that we don't have to pull up stakes and move to one Casino parking lot or another, but can actually put down some roots again!

We stopped at Li'l Sprout Nursery in Mill Creek on Saturday morning. I was sure it used to be Wileywood Nursery where I took Matt and Rachel when they were little in search of flowers for our garden. They used to have red wagons for customers to put their plants in as they shopped, and Rachel would climb in and I would pull her around the nursery. When Larry and I checked out I asked the clerk and indeed it was the old Wileywood. I was disappointed that the red wagons were a thing of the past, but we filled up our cart with  three tomato plants, some basil, baby bok choy, and a couple of pepper plants, along with some pansies and stock, which filled our car with its wonderful aroma.

We stopped off at an estate sale and found these chairs. They fold up and fit just fine in my car for the ride home.

I scrubbed and scrubbed and was able to remove most of the moss from the chairs, but couldn't get this brown stain off.

The  basil in a Mexican pot from the estate sale. I offered to scrub the moss of this one, but Larry likes the weathered look. At least we didn't bring the slug home that was living inside of it when Larry found it at the sale.

Larry bought these buckets at home depot and painted them green for the tomatoes.

My beautiful Mother's Day lily from Matt, Nora and the boys. Larry found this bunny planter abandoned alongside our shed here. We have learned that there are many, many live bunnies living here as well, and have seen a couple. It will be a challenge keeping them away from all of our little seedlings. The lady who lives kitty-corner from us has her lettuce covered with plastic milk crates and upside down laundry baskets to keep the critters away. We'll have to come up with some kind of a solution as well - maybe a little plastic picket fence.

After we got everything in pots, we just wanted to sit outside in our new chairs, have a glass of wine and a beer, and relax. We hadn't been out there long when the guy who lives across from us came over and began chatting. We're as friendly as most people, but a little bit of this guy goes a long way - he just doesn't know when to stop talking, and tells the same stories over and over. This had been going since we moved in.  Whenever we set foot outside Jumbo, there he was! Finally, Larry told him we were going for a walk, and off we went...

Some of the mobile homes in the park...

Yesterday we got Internet and TV thanks to the speedy people at Comcast -yay! We've only been able to watch whatever we could get with our antenna for so long that we're overwhelmed with the selection we have now. And I can be online whenever I want! While Larry was here dealing with the Comcast hook up, I discovered the Central Market in Mill Creek - what a place! The produce was amazing - I came away with some gorgeous rainbow chard - and while I was wandering about in the vicinity of the salad bar, I discovered that they had a large assortment of Indian food that could be purchased by he pound, the same as the salad bar. Larry & I are going to stop by there tonight on our way home from Everett to pick up dinner!

Matt and Nora and the boys came over yesterday afternoon, bearing gifts of beer and wine! We sat outside and dodged the raindrops, and were happy that our overly-friendly neighbor didn't join us. Don't get me wrong - he's not a bad guy - it's just hard to get a word in edgewise when he's around!

Larry had a meeting last night at work, and on his way home saw some free black plastic pots along the side of the road, so we simply had to go to Flower World this morning to get some more plants to fill them up!

We have a couple of varieties of lettuce and some rainbow chard...

We added a purple Cherokee tomato plant, a zucchini, some snow peas, and strawberries...

 Whew! I think that's enough for now. Every pot has something in it! Now I just have to keep my eyes on those bunnies!