Rounding out the weekend weather
The end of an extreme weather weekend: sun, rain, hail, snow, warm, cold, clear, cloudy, rain, drizzle, fog, mist but no high winds.
This was from the front yard this afternoon as another system moved down from the North.
Professor Snow Sentry
Another day, more snow and another snow-person. This one couldn't decided whether to be professor snowman or snowman sentry.
The trauma of the indecision must have been too much, 'cause he's gone now
L
More Weather
After the snow the skies cleared...
...in time for a short, sharp, hail storm.
We now have low stratus and drizzle.
Spring Snow
Excitement with some early spring snow overnight, led to small snow-person building in the garden.
"An inch? That's nothing" said Gran "we had two last weekend!"
Note: This post was updated on 2020-11-28 to fix broken links
Clearing Evening Storm
Snow forecast and hail storms for Fay to dodge while out walking this evening.
It just cleared as the sun was going down.
Day out
F took Fay out for the day to Woodland Park Zoo .
Note: This post was updated on 2020-11-28 to fix broken links
Office View
The view from my office today...
actually, you need to turn left out of my office
and climb two flights of stairs to get this view ;-)
That's, I think, Mount Index or there-abouts. Approx. 27 miles and two valleys away.
Cake hunting
Word spread like wildfire about the cake, soon the squirrels were combing the garden for the leftovers.
I'm trying to train them to find hidden eggs...
Egg Hunting at Easter
A small egg hunt in the garden yesterday. Matt and I lost count of the number of eggs hidden, I suspect we'll be finding them for months to come.
With ~20 kids running around, I was surprised to realize that nearly all the mums had vanished...
...they had succumbed to the temptations of cake.
Cake, they like cake.
Fay assures me that people left with cake, lots of cake; but I still think it was all eaten.
Thanks to everyone for bringing such lovely cake, puddings, deserts, pastries, more cake etc.
More next time?
Foot warming
When I was a lad we used to wear socks.
Now feet are kept warm on chilly mornings by standing on the heating vent.
Last of the Sycamore seeds
There's a big
American Sycamore
tree in the garden.
In the summer it shades the sand pit and soccer pitch.
In the autumn it dumps huge leaves all over the garden.
In the winter it lets the sunsets sneak into the family room.
In the spring, actually I can't remember what it does in the spring.
Getting Technical
H is still a tad young for Lego Technic , but Dad needs to get him moving up to some Mindstorm stuff ASAP so we have an excuse to play with the robotics SDK in time to challenge KZ and Anish at work :-)
Parklife
Time (again) to burn off some energy, so the usual plan down at Cottage Lake Park:
cycle the circuit; play in the playground; beat dad at basket ball
Note: This post was updated on 2020-11-28 to fix broken links
Cranes
When we moved H could find his way around by the number of cranes. "Lots" was Seattle; "a few" meant we were in Bellevue; and "one" was probably Redmond. There's a few more in Redmond at the moment, the office is expanding again and this is what you see from the 545 bus stop.
Idyl in Idylwood
The boys had a sleep-over
so we burnt off some energy at Idylwood park.
H spotted one of the Eagles while swinging.
Note: This post was updated on 2020-11-28 to remove broken links
Gear
Hat and poles.
(A proper walk)
Note: This post was updated on 2020-11-28 to fix broken links
Slog
A plan to summit Mount Pilchuck turned into a workout slog up forest service road 2124.
What would have been a nice 2 hr hike to the starting point at the trail head with snow shoes... wasn't.
Lessons learnt:
1. In winter, check trail head accessibility as well as planned route.
2. Long hikes to trail heads are easier with snow shoes and/or x-country ski's (when there's snow around that is).
3. Snow cover on the ground is very dependent on tree coverage.
4. When a nice alternative like Heather Lake presents itself, go for it.
West Point Lighthouse, Seattle.
West Point Lighthouse , Seattle by Canon SD 1000 .
Note: This post was updated on 2020-11-28 to fix broken links
Proper Walk
View other proper walk posts.
Note: This post was updated on 2020-11-28 to fix broken links
Discovery Park & the Beach
When we got down to the beach there
was lots of big sky to gaze at...
...rock pools to investigate...
...and drift wood to play beneath...
...and balance on.
Oh, and various combinations of the above.
As we walked slowly down to West Point
and
West Point lighthouse
.
Discovery Park
The boys demonstrated the quickest way down a flight of steps with various jumping styles. But, I wasn't quick enough with the camera to capture the double back flip with 720 twist.
Spring is here (it remembered the date) with buds opening all over the forest.
H snapped us with the green bee on the bridge. You won't remember the bridge because I didn't post that pic ;-)
Two up
What to do when friends can't agree on which star wars story to read while waiting for Mac N' Cheese to arrive?
Mart demonstrates the solution: reading two books at once.