New friends

 It's beginning to look and feel like fall around here. This morning was my favorite kind of weather - lightly misting and sunny, though it turned more windy, cloudy and rainy later in the day.

The garden seems to appreciate this weather too, as my beansprouts are taking off. It's the perfect combination of a sprinkle light enough not to harm the new greens, but sufficient to keep the top of the soil and the little seeds moist.

I've been noticing so many different species of mushrooms everywhere on our property. I think some of them must be delicious, but as it's our first fall here, we have yet to find a trustworthy guide to the fungus world. Unfortunately, little puppies aren't supposed to have mushrooms so it is a constant challenge to watch as Tilly tries to eat our wild mushrooms, grass, dirt, rocks, and deer poop. 

She is beginning to get on board with the idea of walking, and I've found some safe places to let go of the leash and let her trot along behind without stopping every six feet. We've been walking around Honeymoon Lake, keeping an eye out for our friend Nancy's new house - and today we went exploring up another loop off of the lake road to admire gardens and avoid cars. 

On our walks, we made our first new friend of the day - across the street and up the hill from us is a tiny pony about three or four feet tall. When the pony saw me, she started to walk away until Tilly drew attention to herself and I sat down in the grass to calm the gremlin; then the horse came trotting right over. It didn't want anything to do with me but seemed entranced by Tilly. The two stood nose to nose, touching and smelling for several minutes. Anytime I put my hand in range, they would try to bite at me, but the tiny pony didn't see fit to chomp at Tilly, thank goodness.  

After our walk it was time for some unpacking. Tim and I each had a key to our storage box and then... sometime between May and now we both lost them. Though we were delighted to have our things at long last, all our useful tools were locked inside the big orange box. A trip to the hardware store made short work of removing the lock and soon we were in. So far things seem to have made it in good shape, though we only got through the first layer of unpacking before the rain and wind started up and we decided it was more of a time for a movie. The weather picked up so much that Ray's ferry from Port Townsend back to Whidbey was canceled for a few hours. As I write this, lightning is beginning to strike outside the window. I was wondering how Tilly would do in her first storm - both her and Tim seem happily asleep.

While we were unloading our box, we had some surprise visitors stop by. The previous owners of the house came with a card and some old aerial photos of the property and were very kind and friendly as we sat and chatted about life on Whidbey and the beautiful gardens courtesy in part from the Seattle Arboretum. It was amazing to see the photos of how much work those women put into the house!

 The "lawn tractor" came easily out of the back of the truck with supplies from the basement, even with only the two of us to guide it down. Tim fired it up and road up the hill to meet some more visitors: Bill and Julie, friends of Tim's family from when he lived in Seattle.