A Beautiful Sunny Day in the Pacific Northwest

I spent most of the day running errands.  With the soaring gas prices, I decided to do everything in one day, making a big circle thru the community stopping here and there to get my errands accomplished. It was a beautiful day, sunny and warm enough to use the A.C. in the car.   I bought more bedding plants this afternoon, so can do some more planting the next few days.  Yesterday, I planted a few geraniums and lobelia in hanging baskets.  As I drove into the mobile home park where I live I marveled at the beauty of all the shrubs and plants right now.  So I came home & grabbed my camera and drove back thru the park and took a few pictures to share.  This park has 160 spaces and was laid out in the 1960's.  Whoever did the planning did a marvelous job.  There are so many trees of various varieties, every space has at least one Japanese maple of some sort.  Mine is more of a tree and others are low growing shrub types.  There are rhododendrons, of every size and color throughout the entire park.  The rhododendron is the state flower here in Washington state, so the literally grow like weeds.  I have two in my yard and each year I really have to prune them back so they don't completely cover my house.  Also, almost every space has at least one lilac tree, and several azaelas.  Probably 95% of the people here keep their yards in good order.  We are required to keep our lawns mowed and if the management sees a yard that's unkept, they leave a notice giving them so many days to mow or clean up, whatever....and if the resident doesn't comply, the management will send someone to do the job and then bill the resident for the work done.  A lot of people, like my next door neighbor, have taken out their grass and put a barrier down and put in rocks or beauty bark...because that of course in the long run is less maintainence.  But, like my neighbor...they also have nicely trimmed hedges, and the other shrubs that we all have.

On another note...Charlie Gibson the ABC evening newscaster from New York, is broadcasting from Seattle for a few days, so if you think of it...turn into ABC evening news and you can see Charlie broadcasting from the outdoor deck at KOMO TV in Seattle.

After a long (way too long) break...my friend Barbara and I are going to a movie Friday.  I think it's been a couple months since we've been able to do that.  Anyway, I think we're going to see "Georgia Rule" starring Jane Fonda, Felicity Huffman & Lindsay Lohan.   If anyone wants to join us, be at my house about 12:30pm and we'll all go together......

I'm so glad to hear that the horrible Los Angeles wild fire is close to being contained.  It has been burning very close to the Los Angeles Zoo and one of my favorite places...Griffith Park. 

I've been distressed that Ms Gabi has been shedding so much.  It seems I vacuum and I hardly get the vacuum cleaner put away and there are little patches of grey or white hair on the carpet.  I know she'd shedding her winter coat (even though she's an indoor cat) and her fur is adapting for the warmer temperatures.  Well, after a whole lot of brushing (which did absolutely no good) guess who had a bath the other day?  She was not happy and she meowed louder than I have ever heard in the past.  I had special cat shampoo recommended by her vet and the water was warm, I spoke softly to her but she still howled.  I had a pile of towels and after I got her rinsed off, wrapped her all up and snuggled her like a baby.  I finally got her dry and she was so fluffy looking...but still I find a little fur here and there.  At least she wasn't mad at me...so that's good.

Well, that's all for now...next time, I'll tell you about the Las Vegas experience.    Until then...........Linda