First Thursday

Hi, I've been drinking, would you be so kind as to indulge me in looking at a bunch of photos I took on First Thursday tonight?









I once took a very similar photo:



Stop here if you don't like pictures of random strangers.

Things That Got Left Behind

A year or so ago, I was getting clothes out of the laundry room before heading to work, and I stopped to admire our "spider clicker." It's this little device that makes an intermittent clicking noise, which apparently spiders mistake for some sort of predator. Before we got it, I would find big spiders in the laundry room sink all the time. Now I never do.

Anyway, I was standing there marveling at it when I happened to notice a trickle of water coming from the water heater. Because I happened to be spacing out in the basement at the exact right time, we were lucky enough to have caught the leak before it turned into a big nasty flood. (Yay, me!)

Our luck continued when my husband started looking for the valve to turn off the water flowing into the heater. He removed a couple of the ceiling tiles above the water heater, and down plopped these two magazines:



and



Until today, I thought these were the funnest relics we'd ever found in the house.

But now we have an older, better artifact, from January 1959. It was discovered in the attic when we had the old insulation removed.

It's only the cover, but I think you'll agree that it's much cooler than the other two. Dude!

Bubbles!

Yesterday we went to a beautiful summer party out on the Olympic Peninsula at a house that overlooks Puget Sound and the northern surburbs of Seattle.

And Mt. Baker.



A cruise ship headed for Alaska.



Cool garden art. Hey, is that a snake?



Ayup.







The food was great, the company was great, the vinho verde was great. But best of all were the bubbles.



Oh my God. Every summer party needs a bubble setup like this.



Luckily there were only a couple of kids at the party, so the grownups got to hog the solution and the wands.













Fun!

Hartstene Island

Stayed at my friends Scott and Raleigh's cabin on Hartstene Island yesterday. We took the Bremerton ferry route, and my passengers needed to stop for coffee in Pioneer Square. I waited in the car.

Looks like Rubaiyat isn't the first place around here to make shoes.



On the way to the island, near Shelton, there's a nursery called Heaths and Heathers. They're not open until next month, though.





OK, here we are at the cabin.





Looking out toward Olympia.



And right across the way at Squaxin Island, an uninhabited Indian reservation.



I love all the madronas.



Did I mention they also have a yurt?











I want to plant madrona and spruce in the yard.



We take a walk on the beach before the tide comes in.





Then we have a crab and salmon feast.



With some 2004 Châteauneuf-du-Pape from Domaine Font de Michelle.