Ristorante and a Manor House

Dayle and I decided to go out for dinner the other evening and it was actually HIS idea to go to this little Italian place in Troutdale.  Ristorante Pompello.  I noticed the evening sun on the water tower and snapped this shot with my iPhone.  I know it's fuzzy but I like the image.

I had never tried their Gnocchi - so I ordered the Gnocchi & Scampi in a Cajun cream sauce - I asked for asparagus rather than the triple peppers.  It was good!

They have a cute little alfresco dining area out front.

Last evening I attended a community meeting - the US Postal Service has been trying to shut down our little post office in Bridal Veil, OR for years.  This meeting was called because it is threatened again.  It's known as the smallest Post Office in the country and brides send their wedding invitations from all over the world to be hand cancelled with "Bridal Veil, Oregon".

The meeting was held outside in the shade at the convent owned by the Franciscan Sisters of the Eucharist in Bridal Veil, Oregon.

There is a HUGE maple tree on the property - estimated to be approx. 200 years old.  

This building was built in 1916.  By the time the nuns found the building, it was in seriously bad condition with a leaking roof - all the wood floors were buckled up.  They bought it, rolled up their sleeves and got to work fixing it up - now it's just beautiful.  They started pulling up layers and layers of old linoleum and found a black and white marble checkerboard floor!

I wished this fountain was spouting water, wouldn't that be pretty?

Behind the nunnery is Coopey Falls and the creek gurgles by the house on it's way to the Columbia River.  

The good news is that the USPO will keep the post office open, but will cut the hours from 8 to 4 a day.  Bad news for the postmaster as she will lose all her benefits.  :-(  The sun was shining through the maple leaves as I left the meeting.

Evening falls on the nunnery.. 

Here is the carriage house which served the house in horse and buggy days.

The old iron gates and rock wall at the entrance are beautiful.

I enjoyed my drive home along the Historic Columbia River Highway, I pulled  out just above Vista House and snapped my beloved building from a different angle.

From the same spot I tried to capture the silver reflection of the river, that is Portland, Oregon in the distance.

My 2 granddaughters in Ohio were doing some primping and my daughter Amy sent me the photos.  Oh my.. Jenna is growing up!  See the clip on earrings and cute little hair bow?  I think she looks adorable!

And Miss Paige insisted that her mama buy her a "maxi" skirt.  Isn't she just a doll?  She's the dress up diva of the family.  

Today I'm heading to the pool.. they are working on the gym and it was closed on Monday and will be on Friday.  I'll be getting my exercise swimming in Waldo Lake as of next week!  :-)  I hope you're getting the most out of summer.. it's running by quickly!  ((hugs)), Teresa :-) 

Buntings and Picnics

Hello!  Welcome!  I've been happily crocheting away for several days on some colorful flags/pennants/bunting to hang on our shade canopy we put up over our picnic table at camp.  This is what I have so far and I want to at least double or triple it.  Don't mind the hanging strings on the bottom, I need to buy some bells to hang on the bottom of each one.  Two of them have bells I found in my craft drawer.  I thought it would be fun to have them tinkling in the breeze.  

These are easy - I chain 28, then double crochet into the 3rd chain from hook, and dc across to end, chain 3, turn, then dc into 1st dc (do not dc into beginning chain 3 as this is how you decrease) - dc across to last true dc, ch 3 and turn.. you do this back and forth until you have 2 dcs - tie off.  Make sure that each row is one less than the last.  When I get all my pennants done, I will chain a tie for about 25 ch or so, then sc across the pennants with 2 or 3 chains between the flags, on the end, another 25 chains, tie off.  Why don't you try this with leftover yarn?  I recommend cotton, but I'm sure anything would do.

Yesterday we made a huge pot of Orange Baked Beans in our big turquoise French oven to take to the Friends of Multnomah Falls Annual Volunteer Appreciation Picnic at Guy W. Talbot State Park in the little village of Latourell in the Columbia River Gorge.  Each year one of our male volunteers brings 2 special cakes from the amazing bakery called "Petite Provence".  Take a gander at this one!  And it was good.. 

He brings the same ones each time - the chocolate one and this strawberry one with lady fingers all around.

One of the guys told me.. no photos this year.. they are all the same.  WELL.. excuse me, but we had a photo.  :-)  Actually, it's kind of fun to get everyone posed.. the bravest ones go on top of picnic table, then the bench, then the standers, then the sitters.  I think it came out well, what do you think?

Dayle and I brought and put up our shade canopy, with the help of 2 of the guys.  We also brought a folding 7 foot table with my retro green oil cloth tablecloth with cherries on it.

Here is our BBQ lunch.  We never assign potluck items to bring, but we might have to do a bit more planning as most everyone brought dessert!  LOL!  Not one potato or pasta salad!  :-)

One of our volunteers, Chris, brought several old jars filled with flowers from her garden, I got to bring this one home with me!  I think it was one of our best picnics and everyone told me it was a great time.  

My yearly photo of the poor old Latourell house.. the family is letting it rot away instead of fixing it up or selling it to someone who would.  ::sigh::  The blackberries are winning this battle.  :-(

On our drive back home from the picnic I pulled over to get a shot of these pretty wild sweet peas and Queen Anne's Lace.  I'd spotted them on our drive there and vowed to get a shot on the way home.  And we did!  Behind these are the Columbia River and Washington state across the river.

We wheeled into Portland Women's Forum State Scenic Viewpoint and snapped this shot of the flowers.. I loved it so much I made it my desktop picture.

And a shot of the gorge.. we are having horrible forest fires in both Oregon and Washington, so the air is not as pure and clear as usual.  I do hope they get them out soon.

Our son Travis took his family to his 20 year High School Reunion picnic yesterday and shined up his car - which is the one he had when he graduated from high school.  When we bought the car he was 15, and he took it all apart and put all new suspension, springs, shocks, and steering in it.  It's a 1966 Mustang GT Fastback.  His pride and joy.

Time to make another pennant?  And check our camping lists.. it's a beautiful day here.  What is happening in your neck of the woods?  ((hugs)), Teresa :-) 

Saturday Stuff

Hello, how is your weekend going?  We're just cruising along, doing this and that.  Yesterday we had some rain and obviously some wind as when Dayle and I returned home from errands, lunch out, and my swim - a few of the Stargazer Lily stems were leaning down.. so, hubby snipped me 3 stems for the table.  I wish you could smell how aromatic they are!

I can't tell you how wonderful it is to actually grown your own exotic bouquet!  Thanks, Dayle for planting these bulbs after I ordered them!

After a few days of clouds and some rain the sun is back.  It looks so pretty outside!

Do you have some flowers in a vase?  I love seeing different bouquets on other's blogs.  It's inspirational.

I'm using my leftover KnitPicks cotton to make some colorful pennant flags for a bunting strand.  This is #1.  I'm working on an orange one now.  I plan to decorate camp with them.. leaving a week and a half from now.  :-)

On our errands yesterday we got the boys these HUGE styrofoam glider planes.  Today they got help from their daddy to put them together and were out flying them in the field.  I even tried flying one and it was fun!

Wheeeeeee!

The littlies really enjoy the open spaces that we have here on the farm.. so do I.  The best neighbor is a big patch of your very own ground.  :-)

I told my friend Shirley that if they saw an old jar of marbles in an antique store to grab it and I'd pay her back.  She found this jar of old marbles for $20.  Caleb has had a good time playing with them.  She even bought 3 "shooters" - aka big marbles - 1 for Dayle and each of the boys.  Isn't that nice of her?

Yesterday Travis took the boys and roared off in his 1966 Mustang GT for an adventure.  They ended up in Cascade Locks and hiked over to the island across from the old locks where the fishermen have great luck catching fish - I just LOVE this shot he got of the boys wearing their new riding gloves - see the sternwheeler in the background?

Here are Caleb L and Hayden R - on the bridge over the old locks, on the left is where the fishermen line up and the Bridge of the Gods in the background.

Have you noticed a running thread in my posts..?  Ice cream?  We are a proponent of ice cream in this family.  

The boys and their dad are heading out hiking at Latourell Falls.. Dayle is working on making sure our boat trailer is ready for the trip.  He's re-wiring and installing new brake lights and turn signals.  He needs to lube the bearings, too.  We have a double berth boat trailer for our 2 Sunfish sailboats which I haul behind my car.  Dayle hauls the 30 foot trailer behind his Dodge 1 ton dually.  

How is your weekend progressing?  I hope you're having fun and living for the moment!  Carpe Diem!!  ((hugs)), Teresa :-) 

Blooms, Boys on Bikes and a Birthday

Hi there.. thanks for stopping by!  We had a busy day yesterday, I joined Gracie in the pool for a swim, then came home just after our older son, Shawn, and his family arrived.  Everyone was outside filling gas tanks and gearing up for some motorcycle and little 4-wheeler riding and some zooming about was happening.  I snapped a few photos of my Stargazer Lilies as I was taking my swim gear into the house.

These are right up there in my top 5 favorite flowers, they are so vibrant in color, exotic and the aroma is aMAYzing!  

It had rained earlier and there were water droplets on the blooms.

See?

I lost all my "hardy" fuchsias - but this one - the others were in pots and this one was in the ground.  We had a hard freeze with snow, then nice weather where things began to grow and then another ice storm where everything was coated with ice for about a week.  That is when I lost all my young potted roses and hardy fuchsias.  It was nice to see this one survived.

I went down into the pasture to see the boys riding and saw how well the pear trees are doing this summer.  This one has a nice blush of color on it.

What a full tree of pears!

Shawn gave the little guys his boy's old quad (4 wheeled motor ATV - All Terrain Vehicle).  Here is one happy 5 year old - Caleb.  They have the speed control set at a learner's pace.

A shot of the 2 pear trees, the barn and Shawn and Beth's truck, Grandpa sitting next to the truck watching the boys zoom around.

I also walked over to our 3rd pear tree and it was also covered with pears.

I think we have Bosc and Anjou pears.

The boys are so lucky that we have a nice big property where they can zoom about on their cycles.  There is a whole upper pasture that is part of their track, too.  

Of course Grandma asked for them all to pose for a photo.  Look who is making sure he's front and center?  :-)

Here is the birthday boy - Gabriel - who turned 10 years of age last Sunday.  When he came home his parents surprised him with a new "dirt bike" and this was his maiden voyage.  Under that helmet and safety goggles is a boy with a big smile!

Here is Hayden.  Some background - last year on a quad riding trip to the dunes, Hayden had a bit of an accident and hit a tree and hurt his chin - an abrasion from the strap.  This is the first time for the quad to be available to be ridden since then and Hayden was apprehensive.  Finally, Grandpa encouraged him to try again, and it took some talking, but finally he did it and he was very happy!

When he got off to give Caleb a turn, I caught his victorious moment.. his roar of happiness.  How cute is this?  A 6 year old, conquering his fears.

Boys having fun.  5 years old.  Amazing.

Here is the cake for Gabe.  A dirt bike track.. the cake itself was delicious, light yellow cake, fluffy filling with a layer of raspberry jam.  

Happy Birthday to you.. happy birthday to you.. happy birthday dear Gabriel, happy birthday to you!

We took everyone to Chinese dinner and they let us bring the cake in for dessert.  All in all a very good day.  Do you have any fun weekend plans?  We are footloose and fancy free, no idea what kind of mischief we can get into.. yet.  ((hugs)), Teresa :-)