June in the Garden

My favourite climbing rose.

Yes, I know it is now July. I wanted to share some photos of various flowers at their peak but I didn't get to it in June.

Delphiniums are a favourite of mine. They don't last very long unfortunately.

A new flower in my garden is astilbe. They like the shade. This is the best one I have. I love the delicate pink colour.

The hanging baskets are doing well. The best and largest one was found at Costco. I "cheated" and took this photo today.

Here's the smaller one.

Salvia provides great colour for the hot, dry days.

The hollyhocks by the driveway started blooming in June. This dark one is my favourite.

Lavatera is another sun lover.

This pestemon is a new addition.

Not to be forgotten are the hydrangeas. I have been slowly adding to my collection. I now have 13 of them! Some are "babies" and aren't blooming much.

This is one of the "baby" hydrangeas.

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A Brief Visit to Bellingham

We went for a mini vacation this week. Why? I wanted to escape the war zone that is our neighbourhood before and during Fourth of July. I also wanted to experience July 4th in a different location. We travelled 2 hours north to Bellingham. We left on Sunday afternoon. We took Chuckanut Drive for the scenery.

Chuckanut Drive

On my friend Bethany's recommendation we had dinner at the Copper Hog in downtown Bellingham. It was nice to be able to eat outside in the sunshine. I appreciated the substantial portion in the fish and chips. The chips were pretty good, too. In the evening, we drove to Larrabee State park and were able to catch the sunset view.

The boys found a place to do a little rock climbing.

We stayed at the Sheraton which we were able to get through Priceline for $65 a night. The boys enoyed the indoor pool. On July 4th we drove up to Blaine for their parade since that was the only local one. They had a large street fair as well. J liked being able to get a real hot dog. It was funny to be so close to Canada on July 4th.

This man barbequeing oysters on the sidewalk caught my eye. No, I didn't have any.

The parade was good and we were in the front row. The banners with photos of fallen soldiers in Afganistan and Iraq was very sobering. I only took one photo during the parade - of this fun police car.

It seemed straight out of an old movie. We got a Trump sticker from the Republican entry in the parade.

After the parade we returned to the hotel for some pool time and then went to Whatcom Falls park. What a great park! Apparently we only saw a portion of it since there are 4 falls and we only saw 2.

The boys and J loved climbing the rocks.

I loved the moss-covered stone bridge.

These man-made falls looked like they would be fun to slide down.

Later we went to Boulevard Park and to Woods Coffee.

I found this cute creature along the pathway.

The view is fantastic here.

After supper we returned to Boulevard Park to view the fireworks which were at Zuanich Park which is across the water from where we were. We had a great view. It was pretty chilly, though. The show started at 10:30 pm. I think this was the first time that our boys have seen a fireworks show in person. We managed to beat most of the traffic getting back to our car.

On Tuesday, we stopped in Mount Vernon on the way back so I could do a little antique shopping. We also stopped at Cabela's and purchased a folding cot for C to use at his upcoming camp. It was good to get away for a bit. I appreciated all the time we were able to spend outside as a family.


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