WA Exploration, Art, Dogs, House

 It's been a few weeks!  Seattle life has been unexpected in a bunch of ways, and mostly they are good ones.  First, I am loving having an electric car and exploring the city and the PNW.  I did have to get the expensive (even with a cash boost from Chevy) upgrade to my car charger in order to get my car re-charged after driving around.  The household outlet solution was charging at a rate of 4 miles/hour, so the first time I was out for a not-that-long drive to go to fruit orchards, I got back to a message that it would take 48 hours to recharge my car battery.  The new amp-ed up "level 2" charger is 5x faster -- phew!  

Nisqually Wildlife Refuge




I've been slowly widening the circles around where I live, so I've been north to Skagit (pronounced with a soft g), east to Redmond and south to Nisqually.  I am learning that people who know how to pronounce the names of places are happy to correct me and I need the correction often.  I went to an architectural salvage place in "SoDo" which, in case you need to know, rhymes with Soho and is not So Do (as in "do you?  So do I").  I've been to orchards, garden stores, wildlife refuges, dog parks the shores of Lake Washington and it's all new and all pretty wonderful.  Even though I don't have a view my house,  I am mere blocks away from a view of snow-capped mountains or lakes or forests.  It's lovely.

I've connected with the Plein Air Washington painters group, which organizes meet-ups to go paint outside.  There were 20-25 of us at Nisqually Wildlife Refuge on a cold but beautiful day.  I've also been taking in regular open studio sessions at Gage Academy, an art school pretty close to my house (but up a very steep hill, it's a drive to get there) which has open studio sessions with models.  

Through dog walking, Dr Scott and I have made friends with neighbors, which has led to a couple of dog-friendly happy hours at a nearby restaurant and also to a birthday party for a 15 year old Westie neighbor.  

Dr Scott didn't mind the hat as long as she was getting a piece of the banana peanut butter bacon cake

this is Roscoe, the birthday dog

I am almost done with the first pass at furnishing and organizing my house.  I feel like I will need to live in it for a while to see what else I need, but so far so good.  My guest room has room darkening shades and a bed (hint, hint)!  I have ordered new kitchen countertops, as the "paperstone," an environmentally friendly counter that is in my kitchen now has ripples and bubbles from past use.  I did have people over for dinner and found that it was fun to be in my kitchen for cooking and eating (it's the only space with a dining table) but I wished I could serve wine/drinks in my living room.  I've now got a bar cart set up on my main floor and will be working on what to put on it next.  

My front yard, it turns out, is home to a noxious weed (Italian arum) and everything I've read suggests it's going to be nearly impossible to eradicate it.  I am going to explore putting in a patio so that will reduce its impact.  I hope.

Spring is coming here!  Our Washington state cherry trees are starting to bloom, as are magnolias and dogwoods (the earliest varieties).  It's made me a little less homesick for the beautiful Washington DC springtime.



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