A More Gentlemanlike Manner: Things I love

Friday, August 19, 2016

Horses and creeks and rocks and sticks and cousins!

This is the stuff Huntsville memories are made of.

Huntsville

I've written about Huntsville before -- this place of childhood and grandparents so dear to the Davis-McKay family heart. I hadn't been here in summer for years, and I took some time after the funeral to wander around the property, exploring the ways it had changed and hadn't changed at all. It's not home, but it is homeland.

The back of the East House (Granny and Grandpa's house) and West House (where I lived when I was in 4th grade).,


The houses sit at the edge of 10 acres of farm-land in the midst of a beautiful mountain valley. The first enclosure is used for alfalfa cultivation.

The central field is used to pasture horses.

Spring Creek runs through. So many memories as a kid playing in this creek, catching
tadpoles and finding shells of freshwater shellfish.

Monday, July 4, 2016

Seattle for the Fourth - Independence Day

The Fourth of July last year was blazing hot. This year? Not so much: Chilly and grey, with patches of rain. Apparently this is how the Pacific Northwest "does summer." But being the good Americans we are, we celebrated our independence -- weather be damned!

We caught a late-morning ferry to Bainbridge Island, where Justin's parents had saved curb-side seats to watch the Bainbridge village parade.

It was a classic small-town parade with old cars, a couple of marching bands, and a smattering of local celebrities.

Every parade needs a good drumlins

I missed the point of this group -- pies on bikes?

Partway through the parade we became famished and took advantage of the sidewalk grilling operation at the pub behind us.

The hearty burger helped me last through the rest of the parade.

Not so intense after all

They left the political marchers to the end. Probably the right call, since not every candidate got a good reception.

Once the parade had ended, we walked around to the parking lots where all the old cars were on display. The dads loved it.

From old cars to tasty food -- no trip to Bainbridge is complete without a stop at Mora's ice cream shop.

"Mora" means blackberry in Spanish

I got a coconut milk shake. Dad got something chocolate, and Greg got the classic mora (blackberry)

Lady and Pam were entrapped by the siren song of Nutella-filled crepes

We got back to the mainland in a shower of rain and headed upstairs to the roof for dinner.

The boats already were gathering on the lake for the fireworks show

Grilling! Pretending it's summer!

Everything was delicious: pork chops, asparagus, salad, local cherries, local potato chips
and a handful of local sodas
(ack, I can't believe I just wrote "local" so many times -- I'm turning into a Seattle-ite!)

Getting darker!

And now the piece de resistance: grilled peaches with honey and ice cream

Few things are better than this

Shortly after finishing our peaches, the fireworks spectacle began: A helicopter swung by trailing an enormous American flag; we heard the national anthem blaring through the speakers at the lakeside park. Then the fireworks . . . .

Happy Fourth of July!

Sunday, May 29, 2016

Kew Gardens

Inspired by my run through Kensington Gardens, I decided to take the train out to Kew Gardens. A UNESCO World Heritage site, the Kew Gardens are considered one of the best gardens in the world. They cover hundreds of acres, and I could have spent all day there -- as it was, I only had time to just scratch the surface. Seeing these gardens makes me want to plan a garden-hopping trip to England to see all the best gardens in the palaces and country houses.

The line was way longer than I expected

The gardens have a series of giant glass houses dedicated to different types of plants.
This was the Palm House.

First thing you see in the palm house? A palm that is older than the US and the French Revolution.
The plant was added to the Kew Gardens in 1775.

Throughout the gardens, I tried to soak up the richness and variety of the plantings.
I really love the plantings en masse with such different textures, colors and shapes.

A waterfall in the Rock Garden.

The Water Lily House was the highlight for me.

Hard to get a sense of scale, but if you're in any doubt, those things are HUGE! Probably a good 3-4 feet diameter.

They're a type of giant water lily from the Brazilian Amazon. Discovered and first brought back
during Victoria's reign. This one is actually a hybrid bred onsite with another lily from
Peru -- otherwise the pads would be so large they'd overwhelm the pool.

The variegation and star-shaped petals made these super interesting.

This was the plant-family section -- each bed had a bunch of varieties of plants all in the same family.

Peonies! The plants themselves aren't interesting without the flowers, but look at the framework
of branches -- the plants grow up through the basket-like supports, which give structure to keep the plants
upright once they get tall and are laden with heavy blooms.