Red Tomato, Post Office Visit and Gorge Views

Finally.. we have one red tomato.  It's not quite fully ripe but soon.  More tomatoes on the vine should start to turn red as time goes by.  Fun!

I can't believe how huge these plants are.  

I tied up the blanket to send to my youngest granddaughter for her 12th birthday.  Then I filled my Yard-O-Led fountain pen with pretty magenta ink so I could write a letter to each of the girls to include in the package.  I also filled out a pretty birthday card to mail at the same time.  

I went back to my office/studio and found two necklaces that I made to send to the girls.  It will be interesting to find out which necklace the girls choose.  I hope they don't want the same one!

This one I love, I used faceted turquoise rondelles, red coral beads, sterling silver spacers made in Bali, a big chunk of turquoise and a pendant of carnelian I tied on with a strip of leather that I cut myself.  It was hard to part with this as I love it but the girls deserve to have special things made by their grandma.

This one is Chinese inspired with the porcelain beads, fresh water pearls, silver Bali spacers and green jade beads with cinnabar beads impressed with designs.  :-)

I packed the necklaces and letters in the sweet little bag you see above, made by my friend Bev.  I have several as I love them and she sells them as a fund raiser for Portland Women's Forum.  So, I took the blanket and necklaces and card to the Corbett Post Office and bought a box to put them in and got them duly on their way to Ohio.  After that was done I decided to take a drive to enjoy the beautiful day and visit Portland Women's Forum State Scenic Viewpoint.  Ahhh.. windows down and this view.. I walked out to the point to snap a few photos and then got back into the car and just enjoyed the Columbia River Gorge for quite some time.

For new readers, that building is the Vista House at Crown Point State Park.  It was built in 1918 and is amazing inside.  I joined in with several other local citizens to get involved with the building in 1982 and we created The Friends of Vista House. I was hired as the first Executive Director of the Friends and helped get the building rescued and restored.  Great memories.

This is the sign at the entrance of the park, I'm a member of Portland Women's Forum and have served as president.  Click on the name to find out more history.

I decided to drive on to the Vista House, spied these wild sweet peas and pulled over for a snapshot.  The yellow wildflower is Yarrow.

Oh.. a big black and yellow bumblebee is captured!

I had Tom Petty blasting "I Won't Back Down" on my stereo with the windows down as I took a turn here and snapped a photo from the car window.  :-)  Once a 60s rocker hippie chick.. always one.

Home again. I can't get enough of my pot of Hot Lips Salvia.. are you tired of seeing them yet?  :-)

I had to snap a "Before" photo of the barn and shed.  The roofers are here right now scraping the moss off of both of them to prepare them to install new metal roofs on both.  I will show you the after shots when they're done.  

I didn't mind the moss on the roof.. until weeds started growing in them.  THEN it got embarrassing.  LOL!

Dayle and I have an appointment today that we're both nervous about.  We are both getting eye surgery next week and this is the pre-op appt.  Wish us luck.  I hope you have a wonderful weekend!  No big plans here.  Some crocheting on my lantern is on the agenda.  ((hugs)), Teresa :-)