24 September 2022
Okay, faithful readers, friends, family, and those new to our travel blog - I’m having technical difficulties, and can’t seem to embed the photos into the text, the way I usually do. In my never-ending quest for smaller luggage and smaller technology, I purchased an iPad. It’s pretty amazing for many things. But blogging is not one of them.
So the blog will have text, and then related photos. I can’t make it do what I want, and I would like to get this posted. So please, tolerate the new format for the next two months, and when I’m back on my usual laptop, we’ll go back to the photos embedded in text format. I hope!
Well, here I am on the first of three flights on my way to the art school in Terni, Italy, and I realized I never did write a blog about our little house in Ferndale, WA – our cozy little house for the summer. So, I’ll see what I can do between flying and waiting to fly.
We found another furnished house through furnishedfinder.com – our landlord was a nurse currently working and living on the far eastern side of the state, so he rented out his cute little house. The house was shaped sort of like a square doughnut, if you can imagine that – four sides of a square with an open space in the center. We had a large front living room, complete with fireplace (which we never used, it was a warm summer), a separate dining room, a second living room in the back (also known as the TV room or the family room), and an enclosed courtyard in the center, complete with a hot tub and lounge chairs!
We also had two bedrooms, two bathrooms, and a third bedroom which was used as an office. The two small bedrooms were on one side of the square, and each had a sink and mirror in the closet. Apparently the original owner had two daughters, so this helped with morning grooming or make up rituals, I guess. It did seem odd to open a closet and find a sink, mirror, and vanity!
My favorite room was actually the kitchen. It was HUGE, and had more cupboards and cabinets than we could use! Everything was white with tons of counter space in some black faux stone (though could be real, I wouldn’t know the difference). Giant refrigerator with panels to match the cupboards. The stove top was on the island in the center, very convenient with two stools so we could chat with people as we cooked.
I became the queen of brunches this summer, making a variety of frittatas served with my healthy freshly-baked banana muffins, and a side salad. We had three groups of people for brunch, and it really was the perfect setup. Small groups (as in one friend and myself) could eat at the kitchen counter, while larger groups (two guests and the two of us) could enjoy brunch in the dining room.
These main rooms had tons of windows, so everything was full of light. However, as the weather warmed up, we found that each room only had one window that opened. Rather odd, but, well, northwest Washington doesn’t often have hot weather, so I guess the house was designed with the cool wet weather in mind.
At any rate, we enjoyed our little house. Even our little car Tiki had his own room! The house really wasn’t all that little. It fit four of us comfortably when Richard’s brother and sister-in-law S and J stayed with us for a week, but once they left Richard and I spread out and made ourselves quite comfortable, each with our own room and bathroom. We of course had visitation rights, LOL!!
Our house was situated on a side road that really seemed more like a driveway to the house at the end, and then a house or two were later built along each side of that driveway. It was a bit odd, because this little road just ended in front of a house. Really – no turn around space, no cul de sac, nothing. That’s why my best guess is the former driveway turned tiny road.
But we were between several wooded areas, so the several back yards on our side of the tiny street became the deer highway during the summer. I saw several does with fawns varying in size from teeny tiny with wobbly legs, up to young fawns just beginning to grow their antlers. Each morning, I’d get up to see who was walking by outside. One mama deer left her little fawn munching grass as she tasted the downstairs neighbor’s garden and then left to forage in the forest beside our house. Eventually the fawn was scared off by the children downstairs, but he and mama were reunited – I saw them a few hours later.
We also had resident bunnies who enjoyed the clover in our yard. They were out there nearly every day, and eventually became so used to Richard sitting out there with his cigarette, they’d come within five or six feet of him without showing any fear. We also had squirrels scampering around and up and down the trees.
It really was a Walt Disney yard!
I saw a bald eagle circling overhead on afternoon. And we also saw two coyotes on our drive back from Bellingham, along one of the back routes. I didn’t even know we had coyotes this far north! I’m sure there were other animals, like raccoons and opossums, but we didn’t see any. It was mostly the deer, friendly rabbits, and squirrels.
In June, we had a big family event, and our gorgeous kitchen featured in our participation. My middle brother and his wife were celebrating their 40th wedding anniversary, and they decided to have a renewal of vows ceremony and big party at the place where they were originally married. That turned out to be an old homestead and farm site that is now a county park, located about 2 miles from our little house in Ferndale!!
All our friends and family know that I love to bake, especially anything chocolate. I was asked to bake something deliciously chocolaty. Of course, I immediately thought of what has become known as Phebe and Richard’s Wedding Cake – really, a basic flourless chocolate torte or chocolate decadence. I thought I’d bake up several in square pans, cut to single bite pieces, put them in little foil or paper candy cups, and decorate with something pretty.
Everything always ends up being more involved than planned, but our kitchen had plenty of room for baking four chocolate decadence tortes. Square, easier to cut into mini bites. Fortunately, my sister came for the event, so she came over and helped me by shaping the little bites into pieces that fit into the cups. We found Sixlets, a little round candy something like a spherical M&M but in pearlized magenta, silver, gold, and white. So each little bite had a pretty jewel-like ball pushed into it. They turned out to really be lovely, and were a perfect little chocolate treat at the party.
We also ended up with a lot of leftovers, despite sending them home with any guest who would take some. Plus I found that three tortes were more than enough, so I quartered the fourth, wrapped each chunk up, and froze them. They turned out to be the perfect dessert at several of those brunches throughout the summer.
We arrived in Washington in mid-May, just in time for the profusion of flowers. Washington’s state flower is the rhododendron, and they were out in full force! Our neighborhood was full of rhodies of every color, though pinks and purples seemed to be most popular. I think my favorite was the giant rhody across from our house, the white with pale pink edges. This “bush” was a good 12 to 15 feet tall (4 to 5 meters) – really, I stood next to it, eyeballed a branch by my head, walked back, and estimated the height. It was HUGE!!! Gorgeous color and just a giant rhododendron!
In walking around our neighborhood, I also found one of those little free library boxes. But this is probably the prettiest little book box I’ve ever seen, with etched glass, and the outside painted to coordinate with the house behind it. I had to share photos of it, it was so pretty!
The other highlight of the summer was my 50th high school reunion. Yes, I really am that old, despite still feeling roughly age 16 inside. I had made arrangements to meet up with my best friend from then, and her husband, and somehow ended up jumping the check in line because of course I had to go give them hugs, and one thing led to another……..I did apologize to the people behind me, who were okay with it.
Our graduating class, the class of 1972, was not the usual sort of class. First, it was 1972 – so while we had the usual cheerleaders and sports jocks and theatre or art people, we also had hippies and war protestors. In fact, two friends and I decided we wanted to go to an anti-bomb rally at Peace Arch Park (on the border with Canada), and received permission from our principal as well as all our teachers to skip school for the day and attend the protest. It was that time in the history of the US, and it was that kind of school.
But our class also had the distinction of having three presidents of the student council. The first, a football hero, was voted in but once he found out his girlfriend was pregnant, he stepped down so they could marry and become a young family. Our second president was either expelled or suspended from school, rumor being he was caught smoking pot outside the school. I don’t know, but yes, he became persona non grata, and he was out of office. Our third president was possibly the top student in the school at that point, went to Harvard, became an attorney, all the things one might expect from the student council president.
All this is to say that we were a very diverse and motley crew, and most of us were either rebels or rabble-rousers of some sort or another. Very few of us were conformists. Which probably was the norm in 1972.
So meeting up with maybe one-third to a half of our graduating class, 50 years later, was interesting. We had our doctors and veterinarians. Teachers and professors. Business owners and attorneys.
We also have at least one Newberry Award winning author, a friend from my senior year – she’s always interesting to talk to. And another acquaintance had been a Peace Corps volunteer in Honduras – one of her Peace Corps friends was visiting so he came to the reunion as well, and he was from Puerto Rico! My BFF and I sat with them, as did her husband, and we conversed in Spanish, with occasional English in there (because my Spanish really is not that extensive).
Then there’s the friend who started an improv group with other theatre people in the San Francisco area – always good to see her. Caught up with friends I really have not seen in 50 years.
The most amazing thing was that most of the women look much as they did 50 years ago, at least enough to be recognizable. Greyer, thinner or thicker, but recognizable. The men, however – well, many of them looked nothing like they did when they were in high school. And somehow, many of the men looked much older than we women. No idea what it is, men just seem to age differently – some were doing that distinguished aging look, but many just looked older than we women. It was kind of weird. Maybe it has something to do with women having more estrogen – I don’t know if that keeps us looking more youthful for a longer time.
But it was fun to see people, get caught up with what they’re doing, share what we’ve been doing, and be reminded of kind or helpful things we did but have zero memory of doing. Ah well, at least that action meant something to the other person, and that’s the important part, right?
Somewhere in the summer I also had a wonderful time with college friends in La Conner, an artsy seaport. The town has a quilt museum and one of my friends usually has an art quilt in the museum at some point. So we time our visits to see her most recent creations.
I also managed to have a rather bad fall and bruised my ribs, which somehow escalated into a round of pneumonia. What can I say, 40 years of asthma leaves some susceptibility. Yay for antibiotics and smart medical people!
All in all, it was a good summer. After all that fun and excitement, we flew to NJ and spent a week with S and J, and Richard is there now as I go off on my art jaunt.
So now, I’m winging my circuitous way to Rome, where I arrive on Sunday for my first day of art workshops. I’ll try blogging as we go, but I may be too busy to write daily and will need to get caught up after returning.
Ciao ciao, bambini! There will be more later!
Abbracci!!!
Okay, faithful readers, friends, family, and those new to our travel blog - I’m having technical difficulties, and can’t seem to embed the photos into the text, the way I usually do. In my never-ending quest for smaller luggage and smaller technology, I purchased an iPad. It’s pretty amazing for many things. But blogging is not one of them.
So the blog will have text, and then related photos. I can’t make it do what I want, and I would like to get this posted. So please, tolerate the new format for the next two months, and when I’m back on my usual laptop, we’ll go back to the photos embedded in text format. I hope!
Well, here I am on the first of three flights on my way to the art school in Terni, Italy, and I realized I never did write a blog about our little house in Ferndale, WA – our cozy little house for the summer. So, I’ll see what I can do between flying and waiting to fly.
We found another furnished house through furnishedfinder.com – our landlord was a nurse currently working and living on the far eastern side of the state, so he rented out his cute little house. The house was shaped sort of like a square doughnut, if you can imagine that – four sides of a square with an open space in the center. We had a large front living room, complete with fireplace (which we never used, it was a warm summer), a separate dining room, a second living room in the back (also known as the TV room or the family room), and an enclosed courtyard in the center, complete with a hot tub and lounge chairs!
We also had two bedrooms, two bathrooms, and a third bedroom which was used as an office. The two small bedrooms were on one side of the square, and each had a sink and mirror in the closet. Apparently the original owner had two daughters, so this helped with morning grooming or make up rituals, I guess. It did seem odd to open a closet and find a sink, mirror, and vanity!
My favorite room was actually the kitchen. It was HUGE, and had more cupboards and cabinets than we could use! Everything was white with tons of counter space in some black faux stone (though could be real, I wouldn’t know the difference). Giant refrigerator with panels to match the cupboards. The stove top was on the island in the center, very convenient with two stools so we could chat with people as we cooked.
I became the queen of brunches this summer, making a variety of frittatas served with my healthy freshly-baked banana muffins, and a side salad. We had three groups of people for brunch, and it really was the perfect setup. Small groups (as in one friend and myself) could eat at the kitchen counter, while larger groups (two guests and the two of us) could enjoy brunch in the dining room.
These main rooms had tons of windows, so everything was full of light. However, as the weather warmed up, we found that each room only had one window that opened. Rather odd, but, well, northwest Washington doesn’t often have hot weather, so I guess the house was designed with the cool wet weather in mind.
At any rate, we enjoyed our little house. Even our little car Tiki had his own room! The house really wasn’t all that little. It fit four of us comfortably when Richard’s brother and sister-in-law S and J stayed with us for a week, but once they left Richard and I spread out and made ourselves quite comfortable, each with our own room and bathroom. We of course had visitation rights, LOL!!
Our house was situated on a side road that really seemed more like a driveway to the house at the end, and then a house or two were later built along each side of that driveway. It was a bit odd, because this little road just ended in front of a house. Really – no turn around space, no cul de sac, nothing. That’s why my best guess is the former driveway turned tiny road.
But we were between several wooded areas, so the several back yards on our side of the tiny street became the deer highway during the summer. I saw several does with fawns varying in size from teeny tiny with wobbly legs, up to young fawns just beginning to grow their antlers. Each morning, I’d get up to see who was walking by outside. One mama deer left her little fawn munching grass as she tasted the downstairs neighbor’s garden and then left to forage in the forest beside our house. Eventually the fawn was scared off by the children downstairs, but he and mama were reunited – I saw them a few hours later.
We also had resident bunnies who enjoyed the clover in our yard. They were out there nearly every day, and eventually became so used to Richard sitting out there with his cigarette, they’d come within five or six feet of him without showing any fear. We also had squirrels scampering around and up and down the trees.
It really was a Walt Disney yard!
I saw a bald eagle circling overhead on afternoon. And we also saw two coyotes on our drive back from Bellingham, along one of the back routes. I didn’t even know we had coyotes this far north! I’m sure there were other animals, like raccoons and opossums, but we didn’t see any. It was mostly the deer, friendly rabbits, and squirrels.
In June, we had a big family event, and our gorgeous kitchen featured in our participation. My middle brother and his wife were celebrating their 40th wedding anniversary, and they decided to have a renewal of vows ceremony and big party at the place where they were originally married. That turned out to be an old homestead and farm site that is now a county park, located about 2 miles from our little house in Ferndale!!
All our friends and family know that I love to bake, especially anything chocolate. I was asked to bake something deliciously chocolaty. Of course, I immediately thought of what has become known as Phebe and Richard’s Wedding Cake – really, a basic flourless chocolate torte or chocolate decadence. I thought I’d bake up several in square pans, cut to single bite pieces, put them in little foil or paper candy cups, and decorate with something pretty.
Everything always ends up being more involved than planned, but our kitchen had plenty of room for baking four chocolate decadence tortes. Square, easier to cut into mini bites. Fortunately, my sister came for the event, so she came over and helped me by shaping the little bites into pieces that fit into the cups. We found Sixlets, a little round candy something like a spherical M&M but in pearlized magenta, silver, gold, and white. So each little bite had a pretty jewel-like ball pushed into it. They turned out to really be lovely, and were a perfect little chocolate treat at the party.
We also ended up with a lot of leftovers, despite sending them home with any guest who would take some. Plus I found that three tortes were more than enough, so I quartered the fourth, wrapped each chunk up, and froze them. They turned out to be the perfect dessert at several of those brunches throughout the summer.
We arrived in Washington in mid-May, just in time for the profusion of flowers. Washington’s state flower is the rhododendron, and they were out in full force! Our neighborhood was full of rhodies of every color, though pinks and purples seemed to be most popular. I think my favorite was the giant rhody across from our house, the white with pale pink edges. This “bush” was a good 12 to 15 feet tall (4 to 5 meters) – really, I stood next to it, eyeballed a branch by my head, walked back, and estimated the height. It was HUGE!!! Gorgeous color and just a giant rhododendron!
In walking around our neighborhood, I also found one of those little free library boxes. But this is probably the prettiest little book box I’ve ever seen, with etched glass, and the outside painted to coordinate with the house behind it. I had to share photos of it, it was so pretty!
The other highlight of the summer was my 50th high school reunion. Yes, I really am that old, despite still feeling roughly age 16 inside. I had made arrangements to meet up with my best friend from then, and her husband, and somehow ended up jumping the check in line because of course I had to go give them hugs, and one thing led to another……..I did apologize to the people behind me, who were okay with it.
Our graduating class, the class of 1972, was not the usual sort of class. First, it was 1972 – so while we had the usual cheerleaders and sports jocks and theatre or art people, we also had hippies and war protestors. In fact, two friends and I decided we wanted to go to an anti-bomb rally at Peace Arch Park (on the border with Canada), and received permission from our principal as well as all our teachers to skip school for the day and attend the protest. It was that time in the history of the US, and it was that kind of school.
But our class also had the distinction of having three presidents of the student council. The first, a football hero, was voted in but once he found out his girlfriend was pregnant, he stepped down so they could marry and become a young family. Our second president was either expelled or suspended from school, rumor being he was caught smoking pot outside the school. I don’t know, but yes, he became persona non grata, and he was out of office. Our third president was possibly the top student in the school at that point, went to Harvard, became an attorney, all the things one might expect from the student council president.
All this is to say that we were a very diverse and motley crew, and most of us were either rebels or rabble-rousers of some sort or another. Very few of us were conformists. Which probably was the norm in 1972.
So meeting up with maybe one-third to a half of our graduating class, 50 years later, was interesting. We had our doctors and veterinarians. Teachers and professors. Business owners and attorneys.
We also have at least one Newberry Award winning author, a friend from my senior year – she’s always interesting to talk to. And another acquaintance had been a Peace Corps volunteer in Honduras – one of her Peace Corps friends was visiting so he came to the reunion as well, and he was from Puerto Rico! My BFF and I sat with them, as did her husband, and we conversed in Spanish, with occasional English in there (because my Spanish really is not that extensive).
Then there’s the friend who started an improv group with other theatre people in the San Francisco area – always good to see her. Caught up with friends I really have not seen in 50 years.
The most amazing thing was that most of the women look much as they did 50 years ago, at least enough to be recognizable. Greyer, thinner or thicker, but recognizable. The men, however – well, many of them looked nothing like they did when they were in high school. And somehow, many of the men looked much older than we women. No idea what it is, men just seem to age differently – some were doing that distinguished aging look, but many just looked older than we women. It was kind of weird. Maybe it has something to do with women having more estrogen – I don’t know if that keeps us looking more youthful for a longer time.
But it was fun to see people, get caught up with what they’re doing, share what we’ve been doing, and be reminded of kind or helpful things we did but have zero memory of doing. Ah well, at least that action meant something to the other person, and that’s the important part, right?
Somewhere in the summer I also had a wonderful time with college friends in La Conner, an artsy seaport. The town has a quilt museum and one of my friends usually has an art quilt in the museum at some point. So we time our visits to see her most recent creations.
I also managed to have a rather bad fall and bruised my ribs, which somehow escalated into a round of pneumonia. What can I say, 40 years of asthma leaves some susceptibility. Yay for antibiotics and smart medical people!
All in all, it was a good summer. After all that fun and excitement, we flew to NJ and spent a week with S and J, and Richard is there now as I go off on my art jaunt.
So now, I’m winging my circuitous way to Rome, where I arrive on Sunday for my first day of art workshops. I’ll try blogging as we go, but I may be too busy to write daily and will need to get caught up after returning.
Ciao ciao, bambini! There will be more later!
Abbracci!!!
