Life is Just a Bowl of Cherries

Hey there! How are ya'? We're back, and I've missed you guys! Did you ever take a vacation, and then, when you come back to work, you wonder why you took a vacation because there's so much work to do? Well, I have, and that's kind of how I'm feeling as I sit here. But the past week was hardly a vacation. Since retirement for both of us, pretty much every day is a vacation...except grocery shopping days. But that's another blog post. Here's the news you've been waiting on tenterhooks to hear: THERE ARE STILL CHERRIES ON THE CHERRY TREE!!!!

Just look at all that mouth-watering gorgeous red. And lest you have no idea why this is so exciting, then just know that in 18 years, today will be only our second cherry harvest. The critters always get to them first. Our first harvest was in 2018, so maybe the critters have decided to leave the even-numbered years to us. 

Okay, but there's so much more to tell you, and I'll have to do it in a few time-traveling posts. But first, I want to thank those of you who have stopped by to leave such nice comments on my giveaway post. If you haven't seen the giveaway, then click right here. You have until midnight tonight (PDT) to respond, and then, the party's over. 

So let's just catch up a little, shall we? We arrived home yesterday afternoon. We found the place looking pretty good. Everything was watered before we left, and much of it is self-watering with hoses and timers. The vegetable garden is looking great, as is everything else. The potted cherry tomato was looking a little worse for wear, and so I gave it a good drink. This morning, it looks all perked up again, and so nothing was lost. But the first thing I did was to run around to the back side of the garage to see if there were still cherries on the tree. I'm only slightly obsessed. Can you tell?

Backing up to last Sunday, we arrived at the campground to find we were in a different spot than we thought we would be. Each year, we reserve the same spot at the far end of the campground, where there is some privacy and a nice view of the lake. We were a little disappointed to find ourselves in the "wrong" spot, but quickly grew to appreciate it. As it turns out, we liked it even better than our usual spot. We had a really lovely view of the lake:

Our plans included a day trip to Mt. Rainier National Park. (I'll tell you about that in a separate post.) We decided to take the camper off the truck, and Mike was able to pull the truck in such a way to give us a little more privacy.

We put up our recently-acquired bird feeders, but no birds visited the feeders the entire trip. Sad.

The first day of the trip is always a bit of a chore, getting everything settled. The campground folks help us to launch our boat, and they also include a slip rental. It's challenging getting it all tied up and settled in for our days on the lake. One year, the waves and wakes from other boats ran our bow up against the dock, causing quite a bit of damage, and so Mike is very careful setting things up with a system of bumpers and ropes to keep everything off the sharp edges of the dock.

We took a little walk around the campground. Of course, I took pictures of every blooming thing.

There were beautiful gardens here some years ago, but the man who tended them passed away. They're kind of overgrown and jungle-like now, but everything still blooms away.

These are wild red huckleberries, and they are edible.

This is the flower of some wild berry...thimbleberries, I think, but they could also be blackberries.

This is a Rose of Sharon. Think of them as hibiscus that will grow in the Pacific Northwest.

The first morning, we got Smitty out for a walk. I was shooting through our window, and so I'm sorry about the reflection. He didn't do much walking, but he did get out of the camper a few times.

When we stopped being lazy, we took off on our first boat outing. As we left the dock, we could see our camper hidden in the trees.

And off we went...the lake was relatively calm and clear of other boaters during this COVID time. The campground was only about half full. In more normal times, it would be full.

Most days, we just went out and bobbed around. The lake is man-made, being formed from Mayfield Dam. It's fed by two rivers: the Cowlitz river, and the Tilton river. We went a ways up the Cowlitz. The rest of the lake water was at around 70°F. Up the river it cooled to 56°F. We talked to some other boaters who had gone farther than we did. They found it at 37°F. Yeah...that's snow melt for you. Swimming is discouraged.

There were wildflowers growing on some snags in the lake, just as if someone had planted them there intentionally.

This next one is fireweed. 

This is considered a rain forest, and so big clumps of moss can be found hanging from the trees in places. This kind of moss is an "epiphyte," which is a plant that grows on another plant without harming it (as opposed to a parasite). Epiphytes get their moisture and nutrients from the air, rain, fog, and debris that accumulates around them.

Show me a body of water, and I'll show you an armada of Canada geese.

Back at the campground, we passed by this sign, which gave us a chuckle.

We had three meals prepared ahead of time, so there wasn't a lot of cooking. Mike barbecued the other two nights. We had chicken and corn on the cob one night. Grilled steak, lobster tails, and baked potatoes on another night.

We had a couple of good desserts, including these Caramel Bread Puddings for Two. On another night, we had a Dutch Apple Pie for two, made with some of my own canned pie filling.

You might remember we bought this larger truck camper so we'd have more comfortable places to sit. You can see how well that's working out for us.

The kitties did really well. Smitty has gotten a little too big for these cubbies, and so Sadie has them mostly to herself. She can enter through the middle door, which is left open all the time. The doors on the right and left are closed to give her some purrivacy...until the pawpawrazzi shows up, that is.

At the end of each day, we were treated to this beautiful view of the lake in the setting sun.

And I have so much more to tell you, but I'm going to need to get organized to do it. I finished two stitcheries while we were there. I'll show them soon. They need some ironing and trimming before they're ready to make their debut. Also, I want to tell you about our day trip to Mt. Rainier National Park, where we found the wildflowers beginning to bloom. It's the best part of Mt. Rainier in the summertime. That will have to wait for another post though. 

There's plenty of unpacking to do, and then getting reorganized. But mostly, there are cherries to pick. And then there will be canning. It's going to be a busy couple of days, so buckle up. I'll announce the winner of the giveaway tomorrow, and I'll be back to show you pictures of the wildflowers we encountered.