Grandma's Cookie Tin

It's funny, the fragments and memories of childhood that stick with you after so many years. When I was little girl, there were three kinds of cookies - chocolate chip, oatmeal raisin, and peanut butter; these were all my grandma ever baked. In retrospect, I have no idea why that was, but those three were so familiar and comforting that, as a child, I was suspect of any other type I might come across in the outside world.

On the bottom right side of Grandma's kitchen cabinets was a cupboard that always had an old Peek Frean tin or two in it filled with whichever cookie she had baked most recently. Us grandkids all knew where to find them, and they were free game for as long as they lasted, which was usually quite awhile. You see, not everyone was interested in eating them; those cookies were always burned on the bottom, but since my mother only baked once a year, I never really noticed anything amiss, and ate them happily. I was married when she finally told me it was because grandma baked cookies for church receptions, and only the "nice" ones got sent to church, the burnt rejects were for family.

Princess Cupcake and I were making cookies in her Easy Bake oven yesterday, and they kept coming out burned on the bottom. She was so proud of making those cookies herself, she said that she didn't care, they tasted good anyways. I guess it's in the genes.
Looks like Grandma's cookie tin is back in business.

Wordless Wednesday: Thursday Edition

Wordless Wednesday

One of my favorite beach shots ever.

This is the Way We Move the Rocks, Move the Rocks, Move the Rocks...

Summer in this part of the Pacific Northwest is a time for all those outdoor projects that don't seem to get done at any other time of the year. It's just too rainy/muddy/snowy in fall, winter and spring to grade roads, fix potholes, get up on the roof, mow grass, or traipse through said mud and acres of wet brush picking up rocks for ground cover.
This summer, hubby decided to take on the project of clearing the berry vines and shrubbery away from right up against one of our outdoor staircases, put in a much needed yard drain, and lay down cardboard to be covered in rocks as a barrier against regrowth. Now who, you ask, is going to round up and move all the rock required for this project?
I'll be the first person to admit, Cupcake's not a lazy child. With a few exceptions, she's pretty good about doing what she's asked, and normally loves to help with chores. This one was an exception though, and hubby mustered up a little old fashioned ingenuity to help get the job done. Witness the target on the cardboard.

It's a work in progress; picking up rocks is tedious, dirty, and ultimately, heavy work. But until the rock bowling and target toss gets old, I think we've got it covered.

bookMobile Monday: Remember When?

Having Princess Cupcake here for the summer means having books all over the house. Not just the usual stacks of current reading material and library books, oh no, but books all over the house. Cupcake's a girl who likes to read, and she has lots of favorite places to do it: on the stair landings, on the stairs themselves, in bed, at the table, on the floor, outside on the patio, in the car; in other words, just about anyplace she can make herself comfortable. I have an extensive collection of vintage textbooks of the Dick and Jane variety, as well as math and science, and those are her absolute favorite type of reading material. She's read most of them at least twice now over the past two summers, and is now on the third round, spending her summers days once again in the company of her old friends. I don't know if she's drawn to the graphics (as I certainly am) or if she honestly enjoys the innocent stories of the era, but when she's here, the contents of those shelves are spread around everywhere (there's a stash under the sofa she thinks I don't know about!)

Having those books out and around always stirs up a little nostalgia for the trappings of that era, a desire to recapture the sense of growing up in a simpler time and place, so here's a collection of my favorite titles, guaranteed to bring back memories, for those of a certain age anyways!

Camera Critter Sunday

When you take a lot of chipmunk pictures, eventually you amass some really cute shots. I've missed more than I've captured (like touching noses with each other, or yawning...really cute) but here's a series of our itchy little girl Chiplet, performing her toilette...



and what she thinks of all the attention!
Visit Camera Critter headquarters for more cute critters!

Wordless Wednesday: Saturday Edition

Round Robin Photo Challenge: Embarrassing Ebay Items

"Kim of Nekked Lizard Adventures has suggested you photograph the item or items you would like to get rid of but are too embarrassed to even admit to having! That's right, it's show and tell time!"

"An Item You'd Like To Sell On EBAY, But You're Too Embarrassed"

Mine's hideous. It's a braille ashtray. Not only is it politically incorrect in most states these days, it's pink. That, and who would use it? A blind smoker sure isn't going to use it to learn braille, and it would be an awfully inappropriate teaching guide for someone who was learning. What were they thinking when they made this?!! (What was I thinking when I bought it. That's a rhetorical question. No answers required.)

Visit Round Robin headquarters and find out what other embarrassing ebay items are out there!

Wordless Wednesday: Friday Edition

Azalea blossom

Sky Watch Friday

Only in the summer do we get such gorgeous blue skies. The rest of the year, back to gray. This shot was taken about a month ago along the road into town. I just love all the shades of blue and green at this time of year!

For more Sky Watch and a blogroll, or to participate, visit Old Wom Tigley here.

Meet Hoppy and....

George!

A big thanks to Hawksdomain's Photos for coming up with a name for the newest member of our chipmunk crew. George is the same size as Chiplet, has a slim tail like Alvin, and bounces instead of running like Hoppy. George also has a couple chewed up spots in the fur on her back, which you can see in the picture; it makes it easy to tell her apart from the rest. She has not visited the chipmunk hotel yet, but is curious enough to have come up to our back door to look in the window at us.

Lest you think I am either very lucky or very fast with my camera, let me show you what I frequently get for chipmunk pictures. This is Hoppy:
He finally settled down considerably though, following big brother Simon's example (playing in the hotel, not that comical grab and run technique!) and I was able to get several good enough shots. Hoppy is the tiniest of all, barely big enough to drink out of the water dish. He seems to be a pretty congenial little fellow, willing to share his playspace and leftovers from the bird feeder without stirring up mischief with the others (yet.)

Keep those chipmunk names coming; I'm sure there''ll be more new ones around before summer is over!

Wordless Wednesday: Thursday Edition

Wordless Wednesday

Oceanspray

Meet the Chipmunks

Since I started taking pictures of our resident chipmunks a few weeks ago, I've gotten many comments asking things like how I tell them apart, are they tame, and most frequently, how do I get the shots I do of them. (The other question I get is how do I tell if they are male or female. Trust me, it's obvious.) Without further ado, meet the chipmunks:

Alvin. She was our first, and is the most curious. Alvin lived in our wheelbarrow of kindling for a time, and has a rather slim tail, the least bushy tail of all our chipmunks.

Simon was our second. He has a ratty looking tail, and never sits still to eat, preferring to "grab and run" instead. It's fun to give Simon big, heavy things like whole apple cores or slices of bread and watch him try to make off with them. He frequently does.

Theodore is our third, and most vocal, often calling to the others while perched on the hotel. She has the bushiest tail of all of them. She is also the chubbiest.

Chiplet is number four, and for a short time was the tiniest. She hops instead of runs, is more timid than any of the others (except Hoppy) and likes to itch herself. A lot.

Dale is the fifth, and has a tail that starts out bushy, then kinks and narrows out. Dale likes our front porch as well as our back where the hotel is located, and will frequently come right up to us. I have to be careful I don't step on Dale because he likes to check my feet out when I go in the front door.

Dave is our sixth, and the second smallest. She's a scrapper, and has the notch in her ear to prove it. That's her and Chiplet flying through the air as they chase each other around the hotel.

Hoppy makes seven, and is the tiniest by far. He can hardly reach the water dish, and is never in one place long enough to photograph. I'm hoping he settles down a bit before he grows much bigger so I can have some pictures of him to post; he is so adorable.

Are they tame? Depends on what you call tame. Alvin and Dale get the closest to us, and would probably be easiest to hand feed, but I don"t like to encourage that behavior. They are wild animals, after all. Simon and Theodore will hide behind a post or in the grass and watch us when we come close; Chiplet, Dave, and Hoppy are quite skittish.

Photographing them is a challenge. It requires a long (200-300mm) lens, because only two of them are tame enough to get close to and they usually don't stay still for long. A lot of the time, I will lay in wait on my stomach 6-8 feet away from the Chipmunk Hotel and wait for them to come around. They are pretty active all day, from shortly after dawn until about 2-3 hours before the sun sets. I've also been able to make myself comfy in a chair nearby and wait for the action to begin. Whether I sit on the chair or lay on the ground depends a lot on the current lighting situation, and where they are playing. Patience is an important virtue when photographing these little critters. They come and go before you have a chance to turn on your camera, and move so fast that even the auto focus can have a hard time keeping up.

Cupcake says that she has counted at least 12 different chippies running around the back yard, and I'm out of ideas for names, so feel free to make suggestions in the comments, and if I post any new chipmunk pictures that use any of the names that you come up with, I'll make sure to give a shout out and link back to the contributor!

Wordless Wednesday: Tuesday Edition

bookMobile Monday: Back by Popular Demand...

My friends all know me as a person who is passionate about good food, and I'm not necessarily talking gourmet here, just freshly prepared, healthy food. No high fructose corn syrup, trans fats, or artificial flavors in this house, thank you, and a minimum of preservatives. Over the past year, I've read a lot of great books on the subject of local, or slow food, the benefits of grass fed beef and poultry, and the mounting evidence against highly processed food products. Back by popular demand, a list of my favorites on these subjects:

Wordless Wednesday: Monday Edition

Thimbleberry blossoms

I Won!

I'm so excited! Building A Log Cabin had a contest last week for the best nature quote, the prize being a subscription to Log Home Living magazine and this one by Lord Byron that I submitted won:

"There is pleasure in the pathless woods, there is rapture in the lonely shore, there is society where none intrudes, by the deep sea, and music in its roar; I love not Man the less, but Nature more."
George Gordon Byron, 1788-1824

Anyone who has been visiting Robin's Woods for awhile knows that I live in a log house in the woods near the beach, and how I feel about living in such an isolated locale; this quote could not be more appropriate, nor the prize for it more appreciated! Take a moment and stop by Building A Log Cabin soon, not only has Shelly got a great blog full of everything you could ever want to know about log homes, she has also recently become a representative for Hiawatha Log Homes!

Camera Critter/Green Thumb Sunday

Scratch that itch!

Does this angle make my butt look big?

Flying chipmunks!
Foxglove with a twist, anyone?

An Embarrassment of Riches...

I have been awarded the Arte y Pico Award (see sidebar) for the 4th time. The honor has been bestowed upon me this time by The Clamor of Kalinga, and she has also been kind enough to link back to my article on installing Sezwho (below.) I hardly know what to say, except thank you!

In the Good Old Summertime

When you live in the woods, out in the boonies, with no immediate neighbors and significant acreage to be responsible for, things like laundry and dusting furniture take a back seat to more pressing pursuits, like fixing potholes, salvaging logs for firewood, or when Princess Cupcake is around, making Playdoh chipmunks and playing dolls with my granddaughter.

Picture this: At my dining room table, a 20 year old nondescript stuffed bear named Hazel sits down to a dinner consisting of a pink glazed doughnut, strawberry ice cream cone, carrot, peas, and potato chips (all play food, thankfully) served up on my fine china and silver, all while dressed in one of my old flannel baby nighties, Cupcake's plaid shorts, and rabbit ears with a pink satin sash off an old formal tied jauntily as a scarf around his neck. (Yes, Hazel is a he. Don't ask. Pictures and the full story on another day.)

Cupcake has always enjoyed playing dressup. At the ripe old age of 2, she broke her elbow while running in a pair of high heels. At 3, subjecting the dog to her particular brand of fun was a favorite pastime. When she learned how to dress herself, my vintage clothing and lingerie collection became free game. (You can only imagine the fun a 4 year old can have with an old corset.) Now that she's a few years older, dress up is still fun, but has taken on a whole new dimension now that it includes the dolls Nana keeps around the house. The floors and all available chairs are strewn with vignettes of dolls and stuffed animals in various finery- hats, each others (and Cupcake's) clothes, and vintage dressup items, a tea party here, an impromptu classroom there, and "beds" everywhere.

There's a certain sense of freedom to be had in allowing an almost 8 year old to take over your house for the summer. Life was pretty casual around here to begin with, but now the house looks like a whirlwind hit inside, the scent of Playdoh is in the air, and I don't mind a bit.

Having Problems With Your Sezwho Installation?

The following information (most likely) only applies to Blogger/Entrecard members.

Three days ago, Entrecard made the announcement of their pairing with Sezwho, in what appears to be one of the most exciting changes to happen to the blogging community on Entrecard since it's inception. After dealing with my initial frustrations with installing Sezwho, I found that I was actually over thinking the whole process and making it much more complicated than necessary. It really is (almost) as easy as it sounds. Read carefully, from the EC blog:

"If you have Blogger, you’re going to add a page element HTML/Javascript and paste some code. You don’t need to re-register if you’ve already registered through Entrecard. Also please note that if you have Blogger, SezWho takes a few hours to crawl and start sending notifications to us."

It's pretty much that simple. For people on Blogger, you will initially register with Sezwho from your Entrecard dashboard, and will not have do a separate registration at the Sezwho website. (The support forum at Sezwho is a separate registration however.) You will receive an email with a line of script, login, and password. Go to your customize page, add a page element, and use the html/javascript choice. Copy and paste the script code they gave you, click save, then click on save on the layout page itself. That's it. Nothing will show up in your sidebar because the code is not for a widget, but just so Sezwho can link to you. The rating stars and other Sezwho elements should show up in your comment section within a few hours, as soon as they have time to crawl your content. If you want a widget, that is available on the site, along with a bunch of other options that warrant further exploration.

Obviously, everyone's experience is not going to be identical, and I admit, a little more information about it's less than obvious installation would have been helpful in the beginning, but it's not rocket science. Explore the links on the Sezwho home page, read the Entrecard blog, and don't be too put off by all the frustrated posts in the support forum at Entrecard. Right now, many people's questions, answers, and issues are flying around in a cloud of confusion within the Entrecard community. I, for one think I've got it figured out; what I've got to work out next is where I'm going to find the extra time to play with all Sezwho has to offer and put it to work for me!

Wordless Wednesday: Friday Edition

Sky Watch Friday

Click on picture to enlarge slightly and see more detail. These clouds were just phenomenal the other day.

More Sky Watch here!

Once Upon an Enchanted Summer

No child but must remember laying his head in the grass, staring into the infinitesimal forest and seeing it grow populous with fairy armies. ~Robert Louis Stevenson, Essays in The Art of Writing

After much time spent collecting materials, construction on our fairy houses has finally begun. A grown-up friend joined Princess Cupcake and me for an afternoon of pure, unadulterated fun in our backyard. Here are the results. Pay special attention to the pretend fire in the fairy fire ring that Cupcake came up with. (Even fairies have to respect the burn ban!)


Soft moss a downy pillow makes, and green leaves spread a tent,
Where Faerie fold may rest and sleep until their night is spent.
The bluebird sings a lullaby, the firefly gives a light,
The twinkling stars are candles bright, Sleep, Faeries all, Good Night.
~Elizabeth T. Dillingham, "A Faery Song"

Wordless Wednesday: Thursday Edition

Wordless Wednesday: Wild Blackberry Blossoms

Creative Photography

"Fall From Grace"

It's Berry Season!

It's the beginning of berry season here in the great Pacific Northwest, and if there's one thing we've got a lot of here in Robin's Woods (besides trees), it's berry bushes. Domestic blackberries, wild blackberries, raspberries, salmon berries, thimble berries, huckleberries, and a few others whose identity I am clueless about, I just know they're good. Berry season is Cupcake's favorite time of year, and we love to take a bowl with us on the walk out to the mailbox to gather an afternoon snacks worth. Thimble berries are our hands down favorites, and are named such because of their shape, like a little thimble.

Salmon berries are some of the prettiest berries I've ever seen. Ranging in color from yellow to orange to ruby gold depending on the bush and it's location, they are a favorite with the bears and other critters around here.


The critters like them so much, in fact, that I had a hard time finding any ripe ones to photograph. Frequently, all we see is this:


Next up, blackberries, wild and domestic, the best ones for pies, cobblers, etc. We haven't found any blueberries or gooseberries here in our woods yet; I may just have to raid some friend's bushes for those!

(Almost) Wordless Wednesday: Tuesday Edition

Salal berry blossoms

bookMobile Monday: In the Good Old Summertime

Last week's photo session for "Morning, Noon, and Night" resulted in a lot of time spent in the hammock that day. I can't think of a better way to spend a warm, sunny day than hanging around between two trees in the shade, and thought I'd share a little of that feeling with you that have not had the pleasure. First, the necessary accouterments:



Then, some hammock appropriate reading material:



Or, you can just hang around and entertain yourself as I did, practicing my photography skills and taking pictures of anything that didn't require leaving the hammock...

Camera Critter/Green Thumb Sunday

The chipmunk fun never ends here in Robin's Woods. Alvin and crew have a ball playing all day in the "hotel" Princess Cupcake built for them. They love to splash in their water dish, nibble at fruit and bread scraps, and run in, out, up, down, and around the stack of boxes that makes up their playground.

Cupcake took this picture when the chipmunk named Dale got curious and checked her out!

For Green Thumb Sunday, we have a mystery plant for you. How many of you recognize this?


When you're done looking around here, head on over to Camera Critter or Green Thumb Sunday headquarters to see what everyone else has up for today!

The View From Here: Mount Rainier

Taken from my hammock in our "fairy circle".

Round Robin Photo Challenge: Morning, Noon and Night: The Fairy Circle

"Kinda simple, really ... photograph the same thing at different times of the day. It's an experiment in using natural light."

Here in northern Washington, the days are quite long right now, and to get a big difference between morning and noon, I'd have to be up around 4:30 am, and it stays light until almost 10pm. I kept thinking, "Thank goodness I don't live in Alaska..." As it was, this sleepyhead didn't get started until 9 am with the first shot. I chose my favorite part of our yard to photograph and see what it looked like at different times of the day. This is a circle of trees we call our "fairy circle", and we hang our hammocks in it in the summertime. All pictures can be clicked on to enlarge them.

Here, then, is our fairy circle, morning, (after) noon, and night. The first shot is at 9am, and you can see the sunlight shining on the east side of the trees.


The second is at 2 pm, the light is now coming more from the south, and is quite harsh. That's Princess Cupcake's legs hanging out of the hammock on the left.


And here it is at night, or as close to night as you're going to get me out there. The skeeters (vindictive little fairies?) are wicked out there after 7 or so; this was taken at 7:00 pm. The exposure is longer for this time of day, and the light is not only softer, the colors appear much more saturated as a result.

Midday, despite the harsher light, is actually my favorite time of day to be out in my hammock in the fairy circle. Laying in the shade of the hemlock trees with a breeze blowing gently through them is as close to heaven on earth as I can imagine. I took a few extra choice shots while laying around this afternoon, and I'll share them in another post in a day or so.

In the meantime, please visit the Round Robin Photo Challenge home page and see who else participated!

Sky Watch Friday

This weeks Sky Watch shot was a happy accident of sorts. It is of a field of several acres of foxgloves up the road from us that is just glorious. That sky and clouds were a bonus that I didn't notice until after I was done, I was so involved in capturing the flowers! Click to enlarge and see more detail.


Cupcake asked if she could participate too, so this is her entry for Sky Watch Friday. She says it's all about those two little clouds and the green of the peninsula below.

More Sky Watch at Old Wom Tigley's Place!

The Way It Should Be

Having my granddaughter here in Robin's Woods for the summer is one of the great joys in my life. Cupcake is far from being your average child. She's the polar opposite of a couch potato, eats her vegetables, watches virtually no television, and sleeps soundly 9-10 hours every night with no argument, then wakes up every morning with a smile on her face. The wide open spaces of our beach and yard are perfect for her, a child who loves to spend her days running and jumping, and playing with our friends' animals. That's little Colter at Cupcake's heel doing his best to keep up with his running buddy.


A healthy diet contributes to a child's well being, and this is a little girl who's never given us any resistance there. Breakfast is usually a bowl of high fiber cereal with milk and fruit, she is happiest sitting down to a chunk of good cheese, some beans, cucumbers and more fresh fruit for lunch, and dinner is frequently soup and salad. Her favorite snack is carrot sticks, frozen fruit chunks, or a slice of homemade bread. (Lest you think that she's too good to be true, let it be known that Princess Cupcake has a passion for hotdogs and ice cream.)


Yes, she loves Nana's homemade treats too, but knows without being told when enough is enough.

Cupcake is a busy girl, rarely bored, without the aid of computer games or expensive toys, unless you count her digital camera. Her and that camera are inseparable this summer and I fear I may have unleashed a monster.


Wouldn't the world be a wonderful place if only more children could grow up like this!


Be sure to scroll down and don't miss the Wordless post of the day!

Wordless Wednesday: Thursday Edition

Wordless Wednesday

Artistic Photo Effects, Better Known As Happy Accidents

Princess Cupcake and I promised everyone some special pictures called "happy accidents" awhile back, and I've finally gotten around to getting some of them together to post here. A "happy accident" in photography is when something unexpected happens, like wind or camera shake, and you get a very pretty "impressionistic" style photo out of it. I love it when this happens,


and it turns out Cupcake is pretty good at cranking them out too. It can be done intentionally by controlling shutter speed and movement, but is such a pleasure when it happens by chance. There was a photographer 5 or 6 years ago whose name escapes me that was featured in a photography magazine for taking these intentionally while driving with a slow shutter speed, and selling them in his gallery as "Dreamscapes". Here are some of Cupcake's she would like to share. (Princess Cupcake has her own watermark!)

Don't miss the Tuesday Edition of Wordless Wednesday in the post directly below this one!

Wordless Wednesday: Tuesday Edition

bookMobile Monday

Princess Cupcake and I have a fun project planned for this summer. We are going to try to build fairy houses in a special place in our back yard here in Robin's Woods. To that end, here are some books you might be interested in checking out if you'd like to join us!

Camera Critter/Green Thumb Sunday

For the sake of simplicity, I am combining Green Thumb Sunday and Camera Critter Sunday into one.

Our tiny chipmunk named Chiplet has finally settled down enough that I have been able to get a few good shots of her. I haven't been able to take her picture next to any of the other chipmunks so you can see how small she is, but hubby informs me that she has a little brother even smaller than her that he saw for the first time today!

This is a little bird that has taken to hanging out in the grass and foraging with the chipmunks. It's not much bigger than a chipmunk itself!

20 miles up the road from us is a clearcut area , which is (in this case) several acres that had the marketable timber felled and taken out about a year ago. It has been a scar in the landscape until all of a sudden, this summer, it burst forth in bloom with thousands upon thousands of foxgloves. It's hard to convey the immensity of this phenomenon in a mere photograph; click on the panorama below to see larger and better detail.

For more Camera Critter and Green Thumb Sunday, just click on the links!

Wordless Wednesday: Saturday Edition

Sky Watch Friday

The view through the tree canopy from the high tide line on our beach the other day.

More SkyWatch at Wiggers World!

Creative Photography Contest

For my first entry in "Creative Photography", I have chosen this Chinese Lantern flower. I just love the color and other-worldly quality of this photograph. I photographed it in a homemade light tent in full sunlight, which enhances the saturation and back lights beautifully while keeping the sunlight soft and diffuse.

The Vendetta

Here about 2 months ago, hubby found evidence of a mouse in my Toyota 4 Runner while getting it cleaned out and ready for a trip to CA. Now, I had thought that there shouldn't be any way for them to get inside my vehicle. In all the time we've lived here, it's never been a problem, but apparently, at least one had finally found a way in and taken up residence. Fortunately, we had a bunch of paper napkins lying around and those were the only thing shredded. Picture this: a grown man chasing a tiny mouse all over the inside of an SUV with a vacuum cleaner, unsuccessfully. This was one tricky rodent. Time was running short, so I told him to give it up, keep the vehicle well stocked with napkins so it didn't eat our owners manual or registration, and go ahead and leave. Maybe it would evacuate somewhere along the way.

One month in CA, no sign of the mouse the entire time. Problem solved? Dream on.

The minute he pulled into our driveway, it was like they had radar. Mouse turds all over the place again. Let me tell you something - don't bother with sticky traps, they get off them every time. We weren't fooling around anymore; this was war. We went to Home Depot and stocked up on the old fashioned kind, plus some new-fangled plastic ones, and put out six traps inside the vehicle. Imagine our surprise when we caught three of the peanut butter loving little trouble makers.

I'll spare you the visuals, but trust me when I say they will never be as cute as this:

Wordless Wednesday

Well, almost wordless. Almost everything about this shot is technically wrong. The wind was blowing, the flower was out of reach, and I had to use a long lens, but something about this pure white foxglove in the evening light just spoke to me. And you know what? I love it! The way the flower glows, the little lip of it almost the only thing that's in focus, the way the whites are almost blown out (they aren't, in fact they measure 250-251) but especially the curves. Oh, the curves. I just love this composition!

(Almost) Wordless Wednesday: Tuesday Edition

Somebody left an empty peanut container outside on a patio table. Alvin found it. I only wish I'd had a video camera. Watching her try to get into that container was nothing short of hilarious!