All Hail Bellingham

It is just after midnight and I just about made it with today's (yesterday's) blip. Phew! This is the hail storm that blew through Bellingham this afternoon. It came in from the west, not the usual direction for storms in our area, and dumped hail with blowing wind. Before that the sun had been out and the birds had been enjoying their deck food. After the storm blew over, the sun came out again. But during the storm it was very exciting. Check out the "L" large version to see the lines of hail coming down.

Today was a busy one. We spent the morning cleaning house and preparing for guests for dinner. Our great friends from Vancouver came to celebrate an early Christmas. My brother Steve and his lady Kai came too. I spent the afternoon making a delicious Vegan soup for the guests since they are vegetarians. Their oldest daughter is Vegan. I cooked up some butternut squash, onion and garlic, added some chard greens and squash soup. Then added garbanzo beans and some great Indian lentils and some tempeh. It turned out to be delicious. We had bread and cornbread and salad to complete the meal. The family arrived around six and we all had a wonderful evening together. The kids are 12, 9 and 4 and are our "pseudo grand kids." We love them all. It was a great evening. Arvin is upstairs doing the dishes and I'm down stairs getting my blip photo in as close to the deadline as I can.