Summer in Seattle

Seattle's weather - it has a reputation. It's a frequent topic of conversation. Now we're hearing that Seattle hasn't had summer. And it certainly hasn't felt like the summers we've known in Ohio. 

This person is tweeting about Seattle Summer Minutes.  As of August 29, there had been 1,620 minutes at or above 80 degrees. (That's 27 hours.) Last week we had five straight days with temperatures in the 80s. 

"Temperatures for August 1 - 29 are running normal with a mean average temperature of 66.2 degrees. The average daily high is running 0.1 degrees below normal at 76.3 degrees compared to the normal 76.4 degrees. As of August 29, there are eight days that have reached a high temperature of 80 degrees or above. The warmest day has been August 21 when the temperature reached a high of 87 degrees; the coolest day has been August 12 when the temperature reached a low of 52 degrees." Click here to see the rest of the statistics for August. 

Technology & Handcraft - Cousin's Perspective

Our cousin Tim Holton is a maker of handcrafted picture frames. In a recent blog posting he reflected on the connection between Steve Jobs and handcraft.


Steve Jobs spoke at Stanford's commencement in 2005. Jobs had admired the beautiful "hand caligraphed" signs on campus.


"I decided to take a calligraphy class.... I learned about serif and san serif typefaces, about varying the amount of space between different letter combinations, about what makes great typography great. It was beautiful, historical, artistically subtle in a way that science can't capture, and I found it fascinating.

None of this had even a hope of any practical application in my life. But ten years later, when we were designing the first Macintosh computer, it all came back to me. And we designed it all into the Mac. It was the first computer with beautiful typography."

Read the whole post here. 

Tim wrote for the Arts and Crafts Homes Magazine, "Real Wealth: The Value of Art and Craft In a Debased Economy"


Tim's website


More about Tim here. Tim has a tribute to his father, Richard Holton, here. Richard is the brother of our father, William Holton.

Entering Into & Considering Our Past

“I don’t, properly speaking, have a past that is available to  me, a past I can enter into and consider; and I grieve for that lack.” *

All our efforts to collect family stories and information are connected to making sure we do have our past so we can enter into it and consider it.  Looking back can be  fun, interesting, instructive, and so much more. Knowing our past can help us as we move into the future. 

*V. S. Naipaul; quoted in “Man Without a Country: V.S. Naipaul and the Artistic Rewards of Statelessness” by Joseph O’Neill; The Atlantic, September 2011; page 101

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Strengthening Families

All parents look back and reflect. We often wish the knowledge and insights we've gained in later years were with us when our family was younger. We like these tips for strengthening families. 

Pray and read the scriptures

Manage time carefully

Eat a healthy diet

Serve others

Check out the article here for a mother's thoughts and experiences. 

Gentleness-Glory-Joy

"But we were gentle among you, even as a nurse cherisheth her children: So being affectionately desirous of you, we were willing to have imparted unto you, not the gospel of God only, but also our own souls, because ye were dear unto us. For ye are our glory and joy." 

(1 Thessalonians 2: 7, 8, 20)

Paul's words to his friends in Thessalonica bring back memories of our feelings for the people we met and taught during our mission in The Bahamas. 

These sentiments also reflect feelings parents have for their children. 

Nature - Observations

  

 Somehow these smooth stones give a peaceful feeling outside the karate-kung fu studio on Kirkland Avenue. 

 Is this a gardenia tree? Blooming in August? 

The "dead" blossom is just as beautiful as the fresh one.

By the end of July, beginning of August, leaves were starting to show fall colors. We are still waiting for summer and now we're seeing fall!

Palm trees in Kirkland

Rhododendron were still blooming in early July

In July there was a lot of snow on the Olympic Mountains. This is the view from our street looking west across Lake Washington - on a VERY clear day. Most days the mountains are not visible. In mid August there's still snow on the mountains although not quite as much as in this picture. 

This tree at Marina Park seems to have a personality. Imagine you're looking at an animal from the side. See the head and outstretched arms (to the right) and even a tail. 

Readiness Along With Receiving and Searching

The people "... received the word with all readiness of mind, and searched the scriptures daily, whether those things were so.  (Acts 17:11)

Lots of action in this one verse. The people were looking for truth, for verification of what Paul and Silas were preaching about Jesus Christ. The people received the word, had readiness of mind, and searched scriptures daily. That's the pattern for finding out for ourselves. 

Monkey Puzzle Tree

On my morning walks I passed by this unique tree and was intrigued by it uniqueness. Recently I pointed it out to our grandson John when he was visiting us. "That's a monkey puzzle tree," he said. During his college years at the University of Washington he saw a similar tree on campus and remembered the interesting name.

The monkey puzzle tree is native to southern Chile, western Argentina and southern Brazil.  It often reaches over 100 feet and can live for hundreds of years. The needles are triangular and very sharp. The tree got its name when a man in Britain remarked that it would puzzle a monkey to climb the tree.  It became known as the "money puzzle tree."

There are male and female trees. This female tree has large, ball-like cones. Each cone contains about 200 seeds. 

Click here for a video news report about the monkey puzzle tree

More information and pictures here, here, and here

Pictures of monkey puzzle trees here

Kirkland Named Best Suburb To Live In

"Located on the shores of Lake Washington, Kirkland boasts a vibrant downtown waterfront with several art galleries, boutiques, and restaurants. Come summer, it attracts droves of people eager to play beach volleyball, walk their dogs, and hit happy hour. In the winter, it takes a cozier turn: Those same people tuck into coffee shops instead of bars and business owners bring out the Christmas wreaths and lights. No matter what season it is, Kirkland looks and feels like a charming resort town, but its distance from Seattle allows its residents (who often retire here as well) to escape the pains of tourism and enjoy their perks in peace."

Seattle Weekly Best of Award 2011

Olympic Peninsula Trip

On clear days we can see the snowcapped Olympic Mountains from our street. Friday we set off with family to take a closer look. David was here from Missoula. John and friend Tiffany came from Cambridge/Harvard.

We drove into Seattle and took the ferry to Bainbridge Island. 

Crossing Bainbridge Island, we then drove over Hood Canal and onto the northern edge of the peninsula. We had lunch at Downrigger’s in Port Angeles. The restaurant overlooked the Strait of Juan de Fuca and was next to the dock for the ferry to Victoria.

Rialto Beach was spectacular in a very rugged way. The fog added a sense of mystery. Rocks/islands off the coast were shrouded in mist and then periodically appeared as the mist shifted. Huge tree trunks were washed up on the shore, bleached by the sun, and scoured smooth by the wind and water. The pebbles were tiny down by the water and got progressively larger until some of the smooth oval stones were larger than my hand. The shapes were wonderful and beautiful.

See the birds flying in the mist?

Our route took us through Forks, a very tiny town.  The Twilight series takes place in Forks. Twilight signs and references are everywhere.

Bella's red truck

This gauge (white post in front of bicycles) shows Forks’ rainfall for the year – 6 FEET so far this year. They usually get 10-12 feet a year. (Note: we remind you that Kirkland where we live, gets less rain than Columbus, Ohio. However, it does rain more often in Kirkland/Seattle than in Columbus.)

Ruby Beach was even more stark and spectacular than Rialto Beach. 

There were sea stacks (tall stacks of rock sticking up out of the ocean) and lots of huge driftwood. Some of the stacks had tide pools with anemone and star fish.

Throughout the day we saw beautiful evergreen covered mountains as well as areas that had been logged and replanted. The clearcut, unplanted areas were in stark contrast to the beauty of the rest of the area. And those snow capped Olympic Mountains we can sometimes see from our street? We saw them only a few times. Most of the day they were somehow hidden by the terrain of the 2 million acres of Federal lands on the Olympic Peninsula. 

Our homebound route took us down around the bottom of the Puget Sound. We had dinner at Duffy's in Aberdeen. It was named for the 1940s radio show Duffy's Tavern. John was adventurous and tried the yak burger. Yaks are raised on a nearby farm. 

This was a day full of sunshine in the beautiful Pacific Northwest.