Making Dandelion Honey!

I took my camera out in the backyard today with the intention of remarking on what a exceptionally fine crop of dandelions we seem to be cultivating this spring. Then I spied this industrious young lady and spent several minutes following her from flower to flower trying to catch her in various poses without disturbing her work.
My daughter wondered what in the world I was doing crawling around on the ground with the camera pointed at the dandelions, but she soon got into the spirit of things and enjoyed following the honeybee around the yard as well. (I was glad there is a tall fence around our backyard... otherwise the neighbors may have been as curious as my daughter, but not as willing to get involved by asking!)
If you click on this picture, you can better see the bright yellow pollen dusted all over the honeybee's backside.

I love honeybees!

My dad is a beekeeper, and we always had at least 2 or 3 hives of bees when I was growing up. Dad had been out of the beekeeping business for quite a few years, but recently he has gotten back into it. He had just re-started his hives a couple of years ago when it was such a bad year for bees and so many bees died. He lost them all that winter. He plans to start again this spring, and I'm anxious to see how they do. Mostly because I love having a source of "free" Arkansas wild honey... (My dad is very generous with me and my siblings that way!) ...but also because I'm fascinated with honeybees and I love to hear him talk about them.

I wonder what dandelion honey tastes like?

An uneventful trip

It is with much gratefulness that I report that this past weekend's trip was uneventful. That's not to say it wasn't fun and productive. It was. It just didn't involve the "high drama" that made last year's trip such a disaster! And so, we're glad.

One of my favorite things about going to Seattle in April is that spring arrives on the west coast just a little earlier than it does here in the Inland Northwest. I enjoy watching for that as we go west.

Whoops! We're not quite there yet... We did get a few snow flurries as we drove over the mountains.
Okay, here we are. Yes! This is more like it!
We didn't get to go see the tulip farms this year, but I enjoyed the beautiful flowers that were blooming at the RV park where we stayed. Have you ever seen a black pansy?
We had a lovely spot in the RV park, and it was sunny the day we arrived-- rare for Seattle, you know.
This was the view from our trailer... so serene!
And the homeschool convention went well. I'll post about it on my homeschool blog in a bit.

Over the Cascades

I love the spectacular scenery of the Northwest. We enjoy and appreciate the breathtaking scenery in our own backyard, but I also love to range further afield in all directions.
We live just outside of Spokane, Washington and it's pretty much a straight shot west on I-90 to get to Seattle. Now, eastern Washington is not much to brag about in the way of scenery, but I always enjoy watching for the mountains in the west as we head that direction.
This time of year they are still snow-covered, with the fields below a delicate spring green. This is what I'm doing today... See you on Monday!

More Than You Ever Wanted to Know

Last week I told you about the "new" 5-color printing press they got at the print shop where my husband works. I was confused about the 5 colors. I knew there was cyan, magenta, yellow, black, and a 5th color, but since the primaries and black were covered, I couldn't understand why a 5th color was needed. In an extremely rare break with his customary practice, Lyle actually came out of "lurkdom" to explain:

OK, don't everyone faint...It's actually me leaving a comment on a blog!

Just so everyone understands better, the 5th color is so you can print more a more brilliant color in the same pass through the press than is possible with the 4 primaries, like a fluorescent or metallic ink. Laura [our daughter] thought it was for the gloss coat, but that is actually yet another unit between the 5th color and the delivery unit.

Also, Denise wanted to know if it was very loud when printing. At that time I hadn't heard it but I had been told it was relatively quiet for the size of the machine. Lyle addressed that question also:

Yes, it is actually as quiet as our smaller presses, it is really quiet (<----intentional, isn't that cute?) amazing.

Later he turned it on for me. He was right! It is amazing.

He also mentioned that I didn't show you the control panel for the press. It's against the wall to the left in this picture:
It reminds me of a sound board. Each of the little levers controls ink flow somewhere on the press.
I'm just glad I don't have to learn to run it!

Camping Season Begins

One of the main reasons we bought a travel trailer 3 years ago was to take to the homeschool conventions we attend each spring. The big side benefit, of course, was for regular camping and leisure travel. Our camping season typically runs from April through October, and we had hoped to take the trailer out one weekend before time for my first "away" homeschool convention. Due to health issues and Lyle's job situation, that didn't work out this year... so our first "camping" trip of the season will be this weekend, at an RV park in Seattle!
Staying in an RV park is not our favorite kind of "camping" although it probably is the most convenient, with full hook-ups and often luxurious amenities. The sites are usually pretty close together, though, and it "feels" an awfully lot like staying in a parking lot! For a homeschool convention or something like that, though, it is ideal. We aren't there for the camping experience, and it's nice to be able to take "all the comforts of home" along with us.

The Christian Heritage convention that we'll be attending this weekend does allow folks to park their trailers on the premises for free. We tried that last year, and it didn't work out so well for us, so this year we've decided to just go ahead and stay at an RV park for convenience.

Lyle and the kids have cleaned the trailer, and the beds are made up. Now I just need to stock it with groceries and I think we'll be good to go!

Watch for more camping adventures coming soon! (We hope!)