Nancy Conner, ABR - Olympia/Thurston County WA

I am hoping for some good, or at least dry, weather this weekend to make a trip to see the salmon spawning. We are lucky to have two great spots to watch this amazing real live nature show - one is on the McLane Creek Nature Trail and the other is the Kennedy Creek Salmon Trail. It sounds like there are lots of the chum salmon in the creek right now, and with nice clear water, you really can get a good look or photo of the fish.

The McLane Creek trail is open daily and Kennedy Creek is open weekends as well as the day after Thanskgiving. For McLane Creek, go west on Mud Bay Rd, Left on Delphi Rd, and watch for the sign for McLane Nature Trail which will be on your right. Once you turn in, follow signs to the second parking lot.

I will post some photos here as soon as I am out there fish watching!!

We just got back last night from a long weekend getaway to relax at Lake Chelan. When we finished hauling all of our stuff back in (HOW does it take so many things for just a 4 day vacation anyway??) I noticed we had a phone message blinking away. Turns out the message was from a cousin of mine who I haven't seen for so long that I don't even remember when the last time was. She grew up in the town where my grandparents lived (Trenton, MO) and we used to see each other a couple of times a year during those childhood years - but then she moved to the east coast and I moved to the west coast - and like I said, I don't remember when we last saw each other.

She was calling to let me know she is now teaching at Seattle University, and was hoping we can get together sometime over Thanksgiving weekend when her dad will also be coming out here for a visit. I can't wait to talk with her and see if we can cover probably at least 20 years of life to catch up to who we are today! She will also be hosting several students from University of Portland over the holiday - they are from her recent hometown in Nebraska so are a long way from home for the holidays. This adds another connection point as my stepson coaches at University of Portland! But I think we all already know that this is really a very small, interconnected world!

And it will be great fun to keep those connections growing. She already laughed as we talked on the phone and said that I still have my Chicago accent! I have been in Washington now since 1974 and really don't think I even had an accent then....but oh well! She still sounded like Missouri to me...

I am especially glad to be getting together with my cousin because of a phenomenon my sister and I have been discussing. Once we were adults living away from home, we have both stayed in touch with aunts and uncles but not our own generation of cousins. I know originally it was because the aunts and uncles tended to have pretty permanent addresses and us cousins were all still migrating around the country. And the aunts and uncles would keep us posted with tidbits of information on the lives of the cousins. But now, as that aunt/uncle/parent generation is aging, becoming ill or dying, it is pretty clear that if we don't establish our own direct communications with our own generation we will lose a very valuable part of our family history.

So here's to getting reacquainted with long lost cousins and building one more link to keeping family memories alive!

I LOVE to shop at holiday bazaars - so much fun to look at all the creative things that are beyond my abilities to make but that I would much rather give as gifts than mass produced "stuff". I have a list of personal favorites that I try to hit every year if possible. Here are my suggestions if you'd like to go find a treasure for yourself or a loved one:

17th Annual Homemade for the Holidays - Friday 11/7 from 4-8 PM & Saturday 11/8 from 9-4 - at Thurston County Fairgrounds, 3054 Carpenter Rd SE, Lacey.

11th Annual Holiday Showcase of Craft - Saturday, 11/8 from 9-2:30 - at North Thurston High School, 600 Sleater Kinney NE.

Lacey Holiday Bazaar (my very, very favorite one!) - Friday 11/28 from noon -5:00 & Saturday 11/29 from 9-5 - at St Martin's Pavilion, 5300 Pacific Ave SE, Lacey (This is Thanksgiving weekend and you know you will need a break from turkey and football!)

Thurston County Employees Holiday Craft Fair - Friday 12/5 from 9-3:30 at Thurston County Courthouse, Building 1.

I also love the bazaar at Olympia High School and I don't know what date it is this year - if any readers know, please leave me a comment! And this list is just a drop in the bucket of the scheduled ones, so if you have other favorites, also please add a comment.

So happy shopping - or if you are one of those lucky talented people who CAN make beautiful things, these bazaars are still a cool opportunity to get great ideas for your next project!

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We visited Hunter's Pumpkin Patch in Olympia yesterday afternoon & had such a good time! Our group included our exchange student and my little granddaughter so we had to take lots of photos as it was a first for both of them!

Before visiting the actual pumpkin field, we had fun watching some animals entertain us. Several goats got into a head butting contest and then climbed way, way up a ramp to a platform where a bucket of food could be pulleyed up. There was also a llama, some potbellied pigs, more pygmy goats and a huge turkey!

We rode in a tractor-pulled wagon out to where the pumpkins were, and you could see the beautiful Christmas trees growing along the way - so I think we will be back when it is time to hunt for our tree this year!

The pumpkins were a little picked over by now, but we did find some good ones to buy and took more pictures. Last year little granddaughter was much too young to have a clue about Halloween pumpkins and the whole pumpkin carving thing is totally new to our exchange student too. We did find one pumpkin that had a big crease in one side so it looked like the start of an excellent "plumber's butt" display! (We didn't buy that one though).

We purchased our pumpkins and headed out without going through the corn maze - but that looked like it would be lots of fun, too, for a different day. Maybe when the sun is out so we can see Mt Rainier looming up large - that location offers one of the best views in the county when the mountain is indeed "out".

Now this weekend we can get to some serious pumpkin carving, and I think I will plant a few seeds in a corner of the garden for next year!

If you read this soon you will still be in time for one free workshop that is being held tonight (October 22nd) from 6:30 - 8:30 PM at Griffin Fire Hall, 3707 Steamboat Loop Rd. It will include speakers from WSU Extension, South Puget Sound Salmon Enhancement Group, and the Thurston & Mason Conservation districts. The topic is assistance that is available to landowners who want to learn more about controlling erosion, stormwater managment, enhanced fish and wildlife habitat & elimination of invasive weeds.

I have attended classes put on by WSU Extension and they are outstanding resource people to help with a multitude of questions about maintaining waterfront properties, slopes and such. Their office number is 360-427-9670.

The other workshop is tomorrow night from 6:30 - 9:30 PM or Saturday 10-2:00 in Rochester, on the topic of learning to landscape your property with habitat enhancement in mind. (As long as this doesn't include enhancing my habitat to attract more moles I think it would be great!) There will be hands on experience for participants to learn how to revegetate using cuttings and what to do with their slopes and difficult soils. Registration is required - call 360-754-3355 x 7902 & there is also a free van pool that will go from Thurston Co. courthouse.

So cool to have such great resources available to us in the Olympia area!!