Rainy Nature Walk/Katherine's Ninth Birthday

 It started out as a walk to the mailbox, but just overnight the rhododendrons have burst into bloom and are breathtaking.  A little sunshine would make them even prettier, or maybe the gloomy skies make them stand out more.  

I took this photo last week when it was the only one on the bush.  These bushes are  right outside my dining room window and such a beautiful view.  I wanted to hang bird feeders out there, but now I'm having second thoughts because of the danger of bears coming up and raiding the bird feeders.  I don't think any have ever been seen right around here, but I would not want to run into one.  

This is a bigger version across the little path that's taller than I am, and the buds are huge.  I need to figure out what kind they are. 

When I first saw this last week, I thought it was bird droppings on my newly washed car and was thinking I probably needed to ask my upstairs neighbors to put their bird feeder on the side.  It happened to me when I lived on the second floor.  No one mentioned it, but I noticed that my seed was falling on the car below me and moved it to the side.  

A closer look showed it was wet cottonwood blossoms.

This is Washington's version of pollen.  t's a little bit less obnoxious than pollen but not much.  It falls like snow and piles up like ice crystals, so it doesn't look as bad, but it will get in your nose and mouth if you're not careful.  

After we were warned not to plant anything in the newly 
"landscaped" beds, this old hosta popped up.  Supposedly the apartment people will do their own landscaping, and I'm sure it will be nice enough, but there's no date for it.  I like to be a rule follower when I can 😇, but it's a shame to have to look at dirt when I could plant more hostas and other things.  Who cares if they dig them up.  I'm sure I could find homes for them.  I'll probably just get some pots and bury them if it ever gets warm enough to want to dig around in the beds.

The primroses and pansies are still beautiful - or at least the pansies are although a bit leggy.  I should cut them back, but the blooms are so pretty.  The primroses bloom only once a season, which is such a shame.  I hope I can save them over the winter in a pot for next spring.

This was the prettiest pot at first, but it looks a little bedraggled.  It's the only one off the porch and getting the rain.  Maybe that little bit of sunshine I see will perk it up.  I'm not sure anything bothers the creeping jenny.  It's just happy anywhere you put it and adds so much to pots and baskets.

This piece of Christmas/Thanksgiving cactus fell off inside, so I brought it outside, and it's rewarded me with a new petal, or whatever they are called.

Plain old parsley.  It looks happy.  I'm going to snip some for the spaghetti I'm cooking right now.  

No one but Bowie has been able to enjoy the rockers much in this cool weather.  I got these pillows, but I'm not really happy with them.  The seat cushions have faded so much there's not much that will match them.  I also need a bigger pillow form for the one on the right.  That might or might not be one of my worries this spring.

Yesterday was Katherine's birthday, and she came here after school.  I had her a couple of minor gifts since the Calico Critters Tower didn't come on time, and she was just excited about the card and the glitter pens and the new games.

We pretended to smell the different flavors, but I never smelled anything, and I don't think they did either!  It was glittery though, and that's all that counted.

 She did have the most tragic look on her face when she arrived.  She said, "I didn't get my birthday bag at school."  Poor thing.  All year, the kids have their birthday bag on a cabinet (I guess) or somewhere, and on their birthday, they are given the bag to take home.  Katherine, in her words, is "naturally LAST," but her teacher even forgot to give it to her.  I bet she'll get it today!  I guess no one in her room has summer birthdays either.  

I wasn't sure about the new games. Graysen had played Apples to Apples at a sleepover and told me how much fun it was, so I got that for them both along with this one.

We had so much fun playing and laughed at every round.  It's one game that emphasizes the fun rather than the winning.  Sometimes it was a group discussion about which caption was most appropriate.

There are a couple of the captions that won.