Saturday, July 16, 2011

Blessing or curse?

From Climate Prediction Center
It's raining again. I woke to light rain and wondered about the wisdom of going on my usual Saturday morning excursion with the Fairhaven Walkers. Since I was afraid it might stop and I'd be kicking myself, I went anyway and enjoyed a nice damp walk with seven other ladies. But when I looked at the weather prediction for the next week, I wondered if I would rather be in Michigan or Illinois. Nope, I'm happy to be here, where it might be cold and rainy, but I can put on more waterproof clothes. It will not be so easy to go outside and get comfortable in New York City.
After the walk I headed over to the Farmers' Market and saw that finally the raspberries are showing up, a little late but this weather is pretty good for them. The county provides about two-thirds of all the raspberries in the nation, so there are a lot of happy farmers right now. I understand you can go out and pick them yourself at some of the farms, but I haven't done that yet. One day.
Inside the large covered portion of the market, this cheese market caught my eye. It's amazing to me how many kinds of cheese they offer, and to entice you to buy, they offer free samples. I learned my lesson last week; I stayed away but took a picture instead. Yum! You can see that, even though there was a light rain, few customers stayed away from the market, since it only exists for one day a week.
After heading over to the Y to get in my usual half-mile swim, I came home and took a picture of the new flowers I bought last week for the flower pot on my deck railing. I made sure that all the flowers are irresistible to hummingbirds, and now I am waiting impatiently for them to show up. They were here when the penstemons were blooming, but they disappeared after the flowers were gone. I am keeping my camera close by, just in case.

If the weather cooperates, I'll head to Snohomish tomorrow to jump out of perfectly good airplanes with my friends. Otherwise, I'll have to find something else to do. This afternoon my friend Judy and I will go to see "Beginners" with Christopher Plummer playing a 75-year-old dad who comes out as being gay after his wife passes away. It's gotten good reviews. So, life is good, even if it's a bit on the wet side right now.
:-)

20 comments:

  1. Send some of that rain my way...we could sure use it! Seems a blessing with all the abundance at your market.
    Hope you get some good jumps in...weather permitting. Have a fun weekend. xo

    ReplyDelete
  2. nice...respberries...i would take fruit over chocolate any day as dessert...esp berries...its actually rather mild today in the upper 70s...its been beastly hot though...

    ReplyDelete
  3. It is so expensive in New York, most of us retirees stay away from that place.

    Nice shots of the Farmers Market. The raspberries look delicious. I like them on Kashi cereal.

    ReplyDelete
  4. I'd much rather have your weather. We've even got 90s, terribly humid, and raining off and on here in Fargo.

    Your flowers look happy and the raspberries look great! I'd be too tempted by the cheeses. I don't think I make it past the samples. ;)

    If you jump, I hope you get pictures. I have that movie saved on Netflix. Looked like it might be good. You'll have to let us know. :)

    ReplyDelete
  5. I love farmer's markets and that movie sounds good. I'm a big Christopher Plummer fan.

    ReplyDelete
  6. It's been really humid over this way today, we have thunderstorms in the vicinity. Your cooler, damp weather would make for a much more pleasant walk.

    My raspberries are just beginning to turn, hopefully I can pick a few before the birds get them all.

    Hope you get to jump tomorrow.

    ReplyDelete
  7. Nice pics, DJan! Can't say I like raspberries (dislike seeds), but I do like cheese and would have had a hard time not sampling them. As the location is inconvenient, I still have not visited the farmers market here in Honolulu. As you said: One day.

    ReplyDelete
  8. Love raspberries, love cheese, love rain. It all sounds good to me. Except the jumping caper. I think you are v brave. I don't like planes (particularly little ones) much at all. Have a great weekend.

    ReplyDelete
  9. I'm back in the blogging world. I enjoyed the break but began to miss my blogging friends.

    Like you, I stll love living in the Pacific Northwest. I much prefer cool and damp to hot and dry.

    I'm currently listening to "SEAL Team Six" by Howard Wasden. I thought of you when he was recounting some of his skydiving experiences.

    ReplyDelete
  10. I'll take some raspberries please. They look luscious. I'm sure they must taste so good because of all the rain. Raspberries love water, so I guess you could say that the rain in blessing.

    I'd have a hard time with it all though. I must admit I could not live where there is all that rain.

    ReplyDelete
  11. Holy smokes! You are a very active lady-- Hiking, swimming and jumping out of a plane! Yikes.

    I had no idea the raspberries come from your part of the country-- They're a favorite fruit in our house and I'm ready to make a raspberry crisp :-)

    Enjoy the rest of the weekend. Happy jumping.

    jj

    ReplyDelete
  12. Our reapberries are ripe too. I picked four quarts today!
    That rain stopped just in tme for our soccer game this afternoon. another sounder victory!
    The cheese in the farmer's markets is really for for tom and me to resist. But with the calorie count, we're finding it easier to sample them "with our eyes".

    ReplyDelete
  13. Love these market photos. It all looks delicious!

    ReplyDelete
  14. We could sure use some rain here,...we're in the middle of that hot mess going on.

    That farmers market looks wonderful. We have quite a few around here, but it's hard sometimes for me to get to them. Besides, they're not as nice as yours, and I have my own personal farmers market in the backyard. lol

    Great pics...we have a lot of hummers this year, and I always put out feeders. They are all over the flowers too and so we get a rush of juveniles at about the end of July, first of August. They are cool!!! It's nothing to see 25 or 30 hummers at a time around my porch...

    ReplyDelete
  15. Hi DJan! As a fellow lover of our beautiful Pacific Northwest, and also of your wonderful Bellingham, I thoroughly enjoy your posts!
    The raspberries are late, but good. We've been picking for a couple weeks at our house, but only the past few days have enough to "do something with"!
    I love reading about your adventures!

    ReplyDelete
  16. I would take cold and damp over hot and dry every single time

    the market looks wonderful

    ReplyDelete
  17. D-Jan,it's been a long time since I came by here,it's nice to be reading your posts again.You really embrace life.Wow! what fun to be up and about.

    That market looks wonderful.I love cheese sampling.Have a great week ahead.

    ReplyDelete
  18. Want to pick some raspberries? Let me know. Maybe we can find a farm midway between Brier and Bellingham, pick berries and have lunch.

    ReplyDelete
  19. Your life is one round of pleasant events. I like it when people use their time wisely, we'll all be a long time dead.

    But not for a long time yet, unless you fall out of a plane. Oh, I forgot, you actually do that on purpose!

    ReplyDelete
  20. Oooh I love raspberries, can't get enough of them. We've had a glut of raspberries over here in England, due to the weather in the spring and summer. I think they are the most wonderful fruit. Your market is delicious looking as ever. We have those markets over here and like you, the weather, whatever it's doing, never stops us doing the rounds.
    Good luck with the humming birds. We don't have them in England and I've yet to see them on the porch in Tennessee either! I know they are there, I just haven't seen them.

    ReplyDelete

I really appreciate your comments! If you see a word verification box here, just ignore it. I don't use the darn thing and Blogger is trying to get us to use it, I guess. Ignore it and your comment will still appear.