Backfilling: Butchard post has been updated...

The post 'bout butchard & but'flies has been updated.

Grafitti on a wiki

Shhhhh, one more late night post while Beth is asleep. I have a lot to catch up on and we've been very busy during the day...
I wrote a post on some grafitti I saw. I wrote it on the Wiki because I thought that the format might be a little better, besides I want to trick some of you guys to go and try the wiki site to see why I have always thought that wikis are such a cool tool.
Check it out at Grafitti.
After that you can add a comment to that page
or go to the main page.
Then you can poke around on the other pages
and let me know what you think at the Forum.
Good Luck.

A blurry memory..

Today we saw a car that brought smiles to our faces.
It was a very nice yellow Corvair convertible.

This isn't Beth and Warren's FIRST adventure. After graduation Beth, Chris, & Warren were going to get an apartment together. We were just about to do it when Chris accidentally got married. A new plan was needed. Steve was planning to travel from California to Arizona to stay with Mary (his sister) for a while, and invited Beth to come with him.* So I offered to help Beth get across the country. I had a yellow '65 Corvair convertible in the barn that I had traded a mini-bike for. We cleaned, lubed, and tuned it up, installed a new windshield and hit the road. No supplies, a couple of changes of clothes, $150 in travelers checks, and about $75 in cash.
The car's name was Clarabelle (but we called her Clara). It was hot, slow, and a bit dangerous (you know, Corvair, the subject of the book "unsafe at any speed"). Beth and I got to California to pick up Steve and then the three of us and Steve's car-sick dog Ayeesha went to Tucson. Beth and I worked to save some money so we could rebuild our life savings, but Steve got itchy feet first and headed to Texas or Florida about a month or two before could afford to move on. Mary liked us better anyway. She's easy to live with. Beth and I were lucky enough to stay with her and her husband Tom recently when we were in Bakersfield. She's still easy to live with, even after 33 years. Clara was sold so that I could buy plane tickets. Clara was easy to live with too.
All just blurry memories.

Warren


*Steve was very shy and repeatedly used an odd technique to try to get dates: he would offer girls a place to live. They always moved in but he NEVER got a date. When Beth and I got engaged in 74, Steve and I were sharing a house in Bellingham MA, I think there were 3 or 4 girls living with us at the time, none of them had any plans of ever going on a date with Steve, but he IS one of the best roomates you could ask for.

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bev t said...
Hi guys! Hey, I thought Steve's dog was named Lucille!! But then, these days, my memory is as blurry as the yellow corvair (and also unsafe at any speed!)

love y'all Chemo-sabe (bev t)

July 27, 2007 2:42 PM

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Editors Note: Yes she was. Steve had Ayeesha, that his parents ended up owning, and Marny which Nancy dumped on him. Then there was cute little Lucille.

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Vicky said...
I remember mom talking about planning a trip going cross country with you guys. What do you mean she "accidentally got married"?

Lots of love,Vicky

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Editors Note: Ooooops.

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September 3, 2007 1:39 PM

flowers, butterflies and sunny

Ok, so we are in Sidney, on the Island of Vancouver, BC. We arrived by ferry yesterday late morning. The ferry ride started out in a light fog, but pretty. As we made way, the fog lifted and we were presented with the San Juan Islands. Beautiful! A two hour plus cruise to Sidney went by quickly as we had lots of scenic beauty to enjoy. At Sidney we made our way to our lodging, and were lucky to have a room available for early check in. After a brief tour around our home town for the next 2 nights, we decided to have a quick PBJ lunch and head off to The Butchart Gardens. I plan to have a separate slide show on the gardens in the near future, but for now we are planning on spending every minute enjoying the sights while we are here. I promise the garden pictures will be worth your time. It was indeed worth every penny to view.
After a lovely afternoon visiting the gardens, we then took a tour of a butterfly garden, Warren was totally awed, and spent at least a good hour shooting pictures. Included in the Garden was a few neat ducks, several kinds of birds, two resident flamingos, canaries that sang, and I'm sure several other things that remained hidden watching us. We where ready for some food, so headed back to Sidney along a few back roads to skip the traffic. We decided to have a cold one across the street from our hotel. Then off for a walk up main st. Earlier that day, a couple had told us about one particular Swiss restaurant that was good, so we headed off to eat. When we got there we learned they take reservations and it would be at least an hour wait, so off we went in search of food. We found one place that was Mexican on a side street. They had a unique way of advertising, they chalked arrows with sales pitches on the sidewalk on both sides of the street. I was skeptical that they used this way to advertise, I wondered if they don't get talked about like "word of mouth", it probably would have been good but I just did not feel hungry for Mexican. So we ended up right back where we started from and had something neither one of us had ever had or heard of. You know "something new" a pastrami and sauerkraut pizza. So we ordered the pizza, neither one of us could find the sauerkraut, hmmm, but it was good and filled us up so we where happy.
We enjoyed watching people walking their dogs, lots of dogs. It is lovely where we are staying, we have a nice walkway by the sea, and we can see Mount Baker across the way. Well I am going to sign off, because we are headed to Victoria for a fun day. Remember, look forward to the garden pictures. They will be coming soon.
bye for now,
Beth

--------- Updated on 2007-07-27 (by ww)

Butchart Gardens announced their NEW website yesterday.
Here are some sample images.
I haven't tried it yet, but here is a Virtual Tour.

I have uploaded the pictures that we took.

Our photos of Butchart Gardens or go straight to the flower slideshow.

Our photos of the Butterfly Gardens or go straight to the butterfly slideshow.

Warning!!! These sets are very large. They will consume a huge amount of time if you look at every photo. Go get a cup of tea or coffee before you begin.
Beth is hoping to create her own department just for this kind of stuff, but for now, you can just look at what is there in it's raw state.
ww

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Joe S said...
Hi Guys,I am just catching up after we've been away. We went on the cruise and it was awesome! We were at the cottage last week and it wasn't the same without having you over for dinner. The pictures of the sunken gardens were unbelievable. How long did you spend there? It seemed like a really cool place to visit. We miss you guys and I know you are having a great time - Hope to see you soon!

July 27, 2007 11:39 AM

A dragonfly that popped up

This is a photo of a dragonfly that popped up when I was logging out of flickr so that I could test something as a non-logged in user. Just a nice photo that wasn't expected.

Link: Dragonfly

We were invited to see Kathleen

We met Mike and he wanted us to visit Kathleen. Kathleen is a sprightly 105 years old. Hangs around with a much younger crowd.


Loves to fish. It was joy to meet her.

(Paul C.: check out some more pictures HERE)

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Chris B said...
Hey guys!I wanted to say hi and although I am amazed at your storytelling ability I don't know why I should be. You have shown your creative mind many times over the years and now everyone who knows you and many who don't, can benefit from your talent. Have you ever thought about writing for a living? Of course the story would never end as you would always be adding to or perfecting it, but then again that's not a bad thing. Following your journey is like a reading a good book - You can't put it down. I hope you are bringing as much joy to yourselves as you are to the rest of us.

July 25, 2007 11:37 AM

Out and about in Anacortes

OK, just one more quick photo from Anacortes while I am waiting for the others to upload to Flickr.

Travel Plans

This is a photo I took of a sticker on the side window of an out-of-state van that was in Anacortes, Washington.

Deception Pass