Honored

Yes, I know, two weeks have gone by since my last post. Really, I did try last weekend but Blogspot was down. While my life is pretty steady and rather mundane I now feel my head is full to bursting with things I could write, ideas that could be on the road to somewhere, connecting with someone. I am rather surprised at how I enjoy this blogging medium. The occasional comment from total strangers or from familiar friends and relatives are very motivating. I am honored to have my recent post 'A Cook's Life Story' on the website Member of the Band. If you're a writer disguised as a blogger, (like myself) consider submitting a post to Member of the Band. I will never be particularity artistic at designing a blog nor facile at adding links. But every once in a while I can get into the writing groove and the finished product is worth sharing. Today the essayist in me is not in full gear so I will stick to recording recent events. Yesterday I went for a long walk in Shorewood and was delighted to see so much of Spring already in action. Blooming pink and red camellias, dainty pink flowering cherry blossoms, one or two bright spots of yellow forsythia, purple and golden crocuses, and stiff green leaves of tulips and daffodils; so fresh from the earth that even the slugs have not taken notice. I have been doing pretty good at limiting my time looking at garden catalogs and books. I keep telling myself that since I will be gone for a month this summer there really is no point in buying new plants but boy am I tempted! An Arisaema collection would look so good in my woodland garden. I get lost reading descriptions of Helleborus in my catalog from
Heronswood. If you live in the Pacific
Northwest and you are a gardener there really is no excuse for not having visited their gardens in Kingston on the Kitsap penninsula.
Aside from lusting after plants, much of my 'free' time has been used planning for our trip to Europe. We have our airline tickets to Geneva and we have really unique accommodations in Paris in, of all places, a hospital in the middle of the Seine, facing Notre Dame. And no we are not suffering from any ailments; the hospital just
has 14 rooms on the 6th floor which are rented out to tourists. It came recommended by a friend and the price is reasonable too. Now we are working on finding an economical flight from Paris to Rome. Ryanair or EasyJet seem to be the way to go. Then we need to snag accommodations in Rome. Any hot tips out there? We talked to Anna Rae yesterday and much of the conversation was about how many days we would spend in each place and how can we possibly fit in Florence, Cinque Terre, Siena, Tuscany, and get back to Gap, Lyon, and maybe, just maybe, the Riviera? Venice will have to wait.
Today is the day between semesters and that means no work for me. The big plan is to take the pleated shade from our living room to Alpine Cleaners in Lynnwood. Since I am going so far north I may just head up to Edmonds to visit Rick Steve's travel store, Europe Through the Back Door. But first things first, so I am off to the Y for a little exercise.