In May 2001 Frank, Anne and Fiona drove from Seattle to Southern California, and stopped for a visit at my house. Fiona got the idea of looking under some potted plants on my patio, and catching whatever we found. What we found were bugs and slugs, and we put them into a coffee cup for leisurely examination. I don't remember why we were making faces, but it had nothing to do with the bugs. Besides, I think the face making exercise took place in Seattle. You can tell because Fiona's hair had grown out. The rather stylish looking "do" she was sporting in La Verne was because of a bit of an adventure she and a friend had with scissors.

At Christmas Time I visited Seattle. Fiona likes Christmas, and enjoys not only opening her presents, but distributing and supervising everyone else's presents too. At that time she also had a thing for ballet costumes, and wore them almost all the time, come rain, shine, cold or warm. Every day. This sartorial obsession lasted several years, and her kindergarten teacher was a bit disconcerted.

Three of the four seasons--at a park in the Summer of 2002 and watching fireworks on the 4th (below), at an island in the Sound in the Spring of 2003, and in front of a comforting fire in the Winter of 2004. I try to get to Seattle to celebrate my brother's birthday and the country's also--which works out fairly well as he was born on the Summer Solstice, and the nation two weeks later. Not only does this provide the occasion for two parties in the space of as many weeks, but Seattle is sometimes actually warm enough for me....not always, but sometimes.

Easter, on the other hand, is generally rather chilly. They all love to go to an island in the Sound, where there are bunnies and Easter Egg hunts. Anne's fondness for holiday hats has struck again, and we were all coerced into wearing bunny ears, so we would fit in. The bunnies still ran away though.

I'm always cold at Xmas. The only reason I'm not wearing my heavy leather coat is because I have on four layers of shirts and am sitting directly in front of the fire.