Seriously? Coffee Fest?

Does that not look like the most delicious thing you could set your eyes on? That's a true mochiatto, not the caramel mochiatto like you order at a starbucks. Wow, am I a snob or what.


Eric came to visit us in Seattle recently. He hadn't been here in a while so we planned a few activities for the week. One of them was Seattle's coffee festival where several of the major coffee shops, coffee roasters, and bean importers all meet at Seattle Center, charging a modest entry fee in exchange for free samples. It was our first year and I highly recommend it if your a bit of a coffee snob.
This is how we got started. Here's to gorgeous latte art! Cheers!


There were also these guys doing these "chemist brews" which is essentially making coffee like you make tea, just pouring hot water over grinds, swishing it to cool it a bit and then drinking it. I had some and it was the only drip I'd drink black. It was delicious.


Oh yeah, there was also several chocolate vendors. I vote yes.


This photo makes me want a latte right now, and it's 10:20pm


Good times! Thanks for joining us Dad! Now if step backwards in time a couple weeks, you'd find us with Eric once again. Ruth has been wanting to do this one particular bike ride through the kettle valley in Kelowna. Literally, she's been wanting to do this ride as long as I've known her, which is a long time, and it's sad I never took her. I essentially waited for her to plan it herself. But we finally did it this summer, and it was a beautiful ride.


It's essentially a bike route built on the bed of an old railway. The actual railway is gone, but the bridges and tunnels are still there. Several years ago Kelowna suffered a terrible forest fire that burned almost half of the bridges. Thankfully, the province spent the money to rebuild them.


So.. we stopped at a rest area at the half point to the 12 mile station, and literally, the moment I set my bike down I was accosted by chipmunks. Quite a few of them. They came right up to my feet and stuck their nose in the air looking for handouts. And thanks to Ruth, we had them!


Trail mix!
After a good ride we arrived at 'Ruth Station'. Had to make it there purely for that last photo. What I don't have any photos of is how we had sunshine for the entire ride except the last hundred feet, when it hailed so hard the pellets were bouncing off my arms. I've never ridden so fast in my life.

So it was refreshing to finish the days ride with some delicious food at the Grey Monk Winery. The view was stunning. Before dinner I wandered down into the vineyard and sat down in the dirt to watch the sun set behind the mountain. I think I had a deep moment of peace.





Oh yeah, one last photo. While Eric and Ruth and I wandered Queen Anne on Sunday we came across a board game store that had this on the shelf..


That's me as a zombie killer on the front of that box. I don't know if anyone remembers this post
http://roydenandruth.blogspot.com/2010_03_07_archive.html when I talked about a friends board game that I posed for. It was pretty fun, and equally entertaining to see my face on a product in a store.

That's all for now. We've had a busy summer so more posts coming soon.

Spring is coming

It's Easter Sunday tomorrow. It's hard to believe that spring is almost here. It's been a pretty slow transition here in the Seattle area. We're apparently up for more rain in the next week. But we've had a couple sunny days this month. On one of those days, Ruth and I took a walk around the neighborhood after a light rain and we photographed some of the signs of spring.

I love magnolia trees. There's only a handful around Bothell, but I can't think of a more beautiful and fragile tree. It blooms every spring, but if we get a hard rain or wind it rips the pedals off the flowers early. They've already lasted a little longer this year then they did last year.


I also love roses. There is no other plant that best displays the grace of God. It's not picky about how you prune it. Other plants; one bad cut will cause them to give you the flower middle finger of no blooms all summer. Roses; you can hack at it all year long. It's like the plant says "I forgive you. Here's a bud." You can chop it off at the soil, heck you can attempt to rip out the roots like we did with the rose bush in our yard. Eventually it will still shoot up a sprout overnight that says, "I know you didn't mean it. I forgive you. Here's a bud."

And when that bud blooms. I'm sorry I ever thought twice about cutting the plant down.


Our rodies are ready to bloom too. Does being excited over flowers make me.. odd. I think I'm supposed to be excited over the baseball season starting.

Yeah that's what I'm supposed to be excited about. Oooo.. barberry blooms! I love my yellow barberry bush!


This month, our special nephew, Vincent, turned 2 years old! Happy birthday vince-a-man!


It was a long cold winter. I'm ready to put it behind me and have a warm spring. Unfortunately I miss my Dad the most when I'm outside working in the yard. I don't know why. Lawn mowing can be a bit meditative, maybe when my brain is not occupied, it wanders. Bring it on if it comes with sunshine.

Rest

If you know us, you know there's a place we like to go once a year. It's called Halcyon, it's tucked away in the mountains of BC, just a few hours passed our home town. It's a peaceful place to go with our friends or our families. This year we went with our Dad's, Ruth's Mom, and our grandparents. It was a special time in a beautiful place.



It's definitely a place of rest. It's a bit of a journey to get there, but we find that it's worth it. We drive through the blowing snow..




...Apparently with a smirk on our face. We take a ferry over a lake. This year blowing water off the lake froze us shut inside our car.






We did some cooking and eating...




We caught up on a good book..or in Grandpa's case the Good book.




I of course prefer to make as much use out if the free robes as possible. And the main attraction of Halcyon are the Hot Springs! This is Ruth in her flowery swimming bonnet.




It was a special time that is growing more special by the minute as I type this sitting next to my Dad. He probably only has a couple more days of life with us. This week the family all came home to say our goodbyes and keep watch over him in his final hours. I'm sitting here in the dark typing as I listen to the comforting sounds of his snoring.



For the first time I'm typing a blog that he won't read. If you're a friend of Ed's, please pray for our family this weekend.

This new to all of us, and very difficult.





We love you Dad. We will miss you.