It's Been a Gorgeous Weekend!!!

We've had an absolutely gorgeous weekend. The weather couldn't be more perfect. We've been down to the beach two out of the three days. Saturday was spent getting compost and pulling weeds. We bought some rhodies a couple of weeks ago and a bunch of herbs and vegies to start, but we don't have a place to put anything yet. What we really need is some tractor time. I'm sitting at my desk looking out at a huge pile of weeds - more than I could ever pull. I told Steven that if we don't hurry up, the blackberries and nettles will take over the house!

Here's one mother load of weeds...



This is just part of the plant stash...



Here's one of the spots I'm clearing for a plant nursery. You can see the pile of compost off to the right. That represents two half ton pick-up truck loads that we shoveled in and shoveled out. Thank goodness it was free!



Yesterday, we had guests from out of town - friends formerly from here, transplanted to NH and then on to Virginia. They were only here for a few hours and then they were off to visit another couple in Sedro Wooley, but we could tell they didn't want to leave. We took them to lunch in downtown Langley and then came back to the house to visit. We got in a walk on the beach and came back to hear some of Phil's silly songs. He writes songs in his spare time - on the way home from work and in the evenings. They are hillarious.

Today has been a wonderful,leisure day. I spent most of the morning working on a design for the duvet cover I am making. I bought ten yards of this really neat fabric called Serene by Moda Arcadia in the eggshell coloration. Originally, I wanted to make three panels with the fabric, joining them with a contrasting piping for the top. Then I got the idea to do an inset panel with dragonflies. So, now I'm designing this dragonfly fabric. I'm not sure how it's going to fly...

The design...



The background fabric...



We had a -3.8 tide today and couldn't resist the draw to the water. There were so many eagles - at least 25 both perched on the beach and flying in the sky. There were also at least 15 great blue herons along the water's edge, all around the back side of Baby Island. But best of all was the gray whale that we got to watch for almost an hour. I really wish I had the camera. We got to see it spy hop. Our neighbor, Teddy, said they like to take a peak at the shore line in places where there are good eats. That way it can remember where to go when it's hungry again. We couldn't believe all of the life along the shoreline. There were moon snale shells and egg casings everywhere, tiny little crabs hiding amongst the mussels, hundreds of sanddollars and several star fish. It was the best day ever! Here's a picture of our haul...