Birch Bay State Park - Washington

My son and I discovered a wonderful Washington State park called Birch Bay and we had a fabulous time.  It is within a few miles of the Canadian border but seems worlds away from asphalt and border stations.  The temperatures were balmy in the mid 70's versus the 90's and 100's inland.  We were lucky to catch some minus tides so we enjoyed exploring the uncovered marine life.  A wonderful place and I highly recommend it.

Here are some pictures of our adventure.

Corey's Italian Camping Skillet - Yummy with fennel, onion, potatoes and cheese!

 Birch Bay in a minus tide:

Little green crab:

Little brown crab:

Sunset:

Portland Art Collective Summer Picnic

Today was the Portland Art Collective Summer picnic.  A wonderful time in Sellwood park with lots of good food, beautiful quilts and an artist trading card swap.

First the quilts.  Last year we we started a collaborative quilts project.  The one constant was the blocks should be in the wonky log cabin style and quilt tops should be complete by our picnic.  Each participant handed out packets of fabric with some instructions if a certain fabric should be included or if the sewer could include some fabric from their stash.  The results were stunning. Below are the quilts.  To see more of the detail click on each photo.

 

All the quilts:

 

 

Carol's:

Cynthia's:

Debi's:

Jennifer's:

 

Judi's:

 

Lorraine's:

Paula's:

 

Robin's:

Sandy's:

 

Suzanne's:

 

Suzie's:

 

Tory's:

 

Z'anne's:

Next we had an Artist Trading Card swap.  Each participant made 23 ATCs to swap with the other participants. Some amazing cards were created.

And last the amazing food.  Not only are the ladies in this group very talented artists but they are very good cooks also!  The food disappeared so fast I only got a picture of my gluten free chocolate cupcakes with orange frosting.

A wonderful day!

June Camping Road Trip

While camping in June I took a little road trip and discovered a beautiful lavender farm near Mt Shasta.

And last another picture of the McCloud River at Upper Falls.