I absolutely love summer!

This is what happens when you wait 8 weeks between posts: 
A.  4th of July parade - No Coal!
B.  Jury Duty in Seattle
C.  Harry visits from Colorado
D.  Leif's memorial in Federal Way/family gathering
E.  Encampment/Dan Hicks
F.  Ken and Lisa visit after 25 years
G.  Weaving Weekend/Darby and Jennifer
H.  Granddaughter Lenora comes for a week
I.  County Fair/gang visits

Throw in a terrible cold and sewing up two quilts for the twins and is it any wonder I haven't had time to post anything?

So people not into reading blogs can stop here.  My Table of Contents lists it all.  Maybe a few photos:
A.
Fourth of July--No More Coal - click on this link to see Roger and I parade down Spring Street with 80 of our closest friends to protest the possibility of Coal shipments through our pristine Salish Sea.

C.  Roger's cousin Harry is a retired elementary school principal from Grand Junction, Colorado.  He travels on his bike around the country each summer and is something of a troubadour.   Roger's dad Al invited him to play at the Retirement Home and he put on a nice concert.

D.  Celebration of Life for Roger's brother Leif who passed away last month.  Spent the weekend with family and had two nice get-togethers at Lil's and at Guy and Brenda's.

Lenora, Ethel, Corbin, Audrey, Bjorn, Iliana
 

E.  Dan Hicks and His Hot Licks played town the same weekend as Encampment.  We went to both.  I Scare Myself
F.  Ken and Lisa visit Thornbush for first time.  Good friends in college, have not seen Ken since Roger and my wedding twenty-five years ago.  Great visit, long overdue.  Here's a pix at the Lavender Farm.

G.  Weaving Weekend was the first weekend in August.  Roger and I did our usual shtick with sticks.  I was already feeling poorly then, but managed to get through it and join Peggy Sue at a lovely dinner with our sailing friends Gene and Jennifer as well.

Note cedar hat that won a blue ribbon at the Fair a month later

H.  I Absolutely Loved the week I spent with my granddaughter, Lenora.  I think she had a pretty good time, too, reading, coloring, watching movies, and play dates with other seven-year olds.  It's your turn next year, Iliana!

Lenora in the corn with the sun in her eyes
 

Also, I gave the twins their birthday presents four months late.  The quilts and a major cold were two of several reasons I didn't get my Fair Challenge "Sheep Happens" finished in time.

 

 

 

I.  Everyone loves the County Fair and the gang participates in the Zucchini 500 races.  At first I was going to enter one of my cardoons.  They are pretty impressive this year.  But then I thought, been there, done that.

Barry measures Cardoon height
 

Another highlight was when Diane won the Throne of Games at the art raffle.

 

 

But the biggest thrill came at the end of the Zucchini 500 when The Romney Bus and Flower Power joined in a mass suicide on the Ramp of Death:

  You are probably used to me adding a bit of sad news at the end of my posts.  Unfortunately, this post is no exception.  Last Saturday, the Downrigger restaurant burned down.  At least no one was hurt.  We all have memories of the Downrigger and before that "The Mariner".  No telling at this point if it will be rebuilt or not.

The end

I'm Living in a Postcard!

The Garden in July

Fourth of July Parade


Community Marching Band

All the Ellisons took part this year.  Roger and Eric marched with the National Park and their dad rode in a shiny red convertible. 

Riding the Train Great Western Island Railroad



Find out more about it at:  Riding the Train Great Western Island Railroad  Roger's is not the only railroad on San Juan Island.  We took a ride on Wayne and Barbara Zimmerman's 7 1/2" guage train and visited the model village.

Encampment

Practicing for the Candlelight Ball at English Camp

Yes, once again we dressed in the period garb of 1859 and visited with similarly dressed folks camping down on the parade ground at English Camp.  San Juan Island National Park

Weaving Weekend

Roger makes a Trellis

We planted ourselves under a huge maple tree at English Camp on the hottest weekend of the year.  Probably the best place on the island as the breeze was wafting from Garrison Bay.  We'd spent the week cutting a pick-up truck full of willow withees, alder and ocean spray sticks to use in making wattle fences, plant teepees and trellises.  We were part of a much bigger group of basketmakers, spinners, weavers and other crafting people creating some living history for the National Park each summer.

Art Project - concrete and pebble mosaic addition to the Fountain

I spent a week making this pebble mosaic bowl and building a tiled tower for the water feature in
our courtyard.  I'm quite proud of it and it didn't occur to me until I started writing this blog that it looks a little like a toilet bowl.  Even has a nice tinkling sound.

Blogs are good because one can take a step back, review the recent past, and come to the conclusion that something was accomplished as the summer whizzed by.  Next winter I'll look back at this post and maybe appreciate these events even more.  Because when they were happening, I was always feeling rushed and anxious about the next event around the corner.  Even now as I type this, I am worried about all I have to do to get ready for the Fair this coming week.

Every once in awhile though, I do pause, look around, and wonder how I  lucked out to live in such a fabulous place.

July 2011



The out of town guests begin arriving:



Tom and Roger play croquette on July 4th



Dad and Rosalie at The Downrigger

My Dad, at age 89, took a bus to downtown Seattle, got off at the Convention Center, found his way to the BelAire Shuttle bus stop, rode the bus to Anacortes Ferry Terminal, waited for two hours for the ferry and walked on for me to pick him up in Friday Harbor to visit with my sister and myself for five days over the Fourth of July holiday.  I was so proud of him!

The date has been set and the invitations have been sent for my Dad's 90th birthday party here on San Juan Island.  June 9 & 10, 2012.  This will be a Barreca family reunion as well.  That means the countdown has begun.  I have 11 months to get this place in shape.  I started last Sunday by sending Roger up a ladder with a chainsaw.  He limbed up or cut half a dozen trees.  Amazing how much more light comes through!

preparing for Soroptimist entry in Fourth of July parade

I participated in the Fourth of July parade as a clown.  The theme was: Life Is a Laugh in a Costume.



My brother Joe's blog  always has something relevant in it.  This time he talks about (among other things) the 50th reunion of his 8th grade class.  This Fall we are celebrating the 40th reunion of my high school class and I have been helping my best friend from High School who has volunteered to host a barbecue in September.  We have been trying to use Facebook and Classmates.com and other websites to find and invite our former classmates.  Roger heard a news story about Facebook making reunions irrelevant--no need to meet in person when you can catch up with each other's lives in the cloud.  

It is amazing the memories that one can resurrect just by leafing through the yearbook.  We had a relatively small graduation class and add to that the fact that I was the editor of the yearbook . . .  I'm feeling a lot more connected than I thought I would be to these OLD classmates.  More on this subject after the reunion in September.



We hosted a potluck at our house last Friday.   It's good to get the social obligations out of the way early in the summer.  That way, the place is looking good (the lawn is mowed, the fire pit carved out from the overgrown brush) much earlier than it otherwise would have been.  Along with weekly potlucks, July brings Shakespeare on the lawn, the arrival of 100 tribal canoes, an arts festival, the Lavender Festival, among other events.  Summer is in Full Swing!