Springtime in Queen Anne means Cherry blossoms. These trees are everywhere including right outside the house. Making for one beautiful view no matter which way you look! Whats blooming in your neighborhood?

Sometimes cozy things turn up when you least expect them. Like when I was taking one of my many walks around the neighborhood and decided to turn down the alley instead of the usual street. Not only did I get to peek into the backyard of many houses (yup, I’m a bit of snoop!) I met and had a chat with 3 very tall cats, saw lots of newly planted garden beds and then came across this topiary. Just sitting there. On a bench. Waiting to have it’s picture taken. By me. Like something out of Tuscany. Or a dream. Or Cozyland!

Thanks to everyone who helped make my birthday so super cozy, I really had a lovely lovely day (it was perfect!).
After Marc made me delicious scrambled eggs for breakfast and had me open my presents (more about that later) I was finally about to get into the shower (it was already about 11:30!) when the doorbell rang. Great time for a solicitor I thought…but instead of someone asking me to write a check there stood a flower delivery man with the most beautiful arrangement in his hand! Marc had bought me a gorgeous bouquet the night before, hey – 2 bunches within 24 hours? This was a new and fabulous record!

The senders of this bouquet were Marc’s sister Corinne and mother Marianne who live in Zurich, Switzerland. Marianne told me Corinne Googled florists in Seattle, picked up the phone and spent quite some time chatting with the florist to get just the right thing. I’d say she was extremely successful, this bouquet from Juniper Flowers is right up my alley! Aside from the beautiful choice of hydrangea, lilac, tulips and calla lilies. I love the way they wrap the inside of the vase with the leaves.

That night we had dinner at a new restaurant for us called Luc in Madison Valley. We’ve had some not so lucky restaurant experiences here in Seattle where you really drop a dime and leave totally disappointed. This was clearly not the case with Luc! Everything was absolutely delicious in this cozy and obviously very neighboryhoody bistro.

Luc was running around the restaurant (Provencal hat and all) chatting with many of the locals. As our table was not quite ready Marc and I found a seat at the bar and had a glass of wine to accompany our toasted bread with 5 different house crafted sauces, Luc’s aioli, tomato jam, lemon confit, ginger vinaigrette. Wow, this was perfect and I will soon be trying to make Luc’s Harissa ailoi – it was soooo delicious!
We shared probably the best onion soup I’ve ever had and then I was in the mood for a steak and Marc had the pork chop. We switched mid way so we both could enjoy both. A really good bottle of red wine from Gigondas and we shared a creme brulee for dessert (yes, they did put a candle in it but thankfully no singing!).

But the fun wasn’t over yet. Off we were to have one last drink at the Trib with Gavin who we hung out with along with always charming Colleen and bartender Polo. Thanks for the vino Gavin and for staying out on a “school night”. Ugh, we know you had to be up early….

There was still one booth remaining when we left past midnight – what a great day! And we do it again this Friday when we celebrate Marc’s birthday! Our gifts to each other is a long weekend at Orcas Island with pals Elizabeth and Ryan. Marc gave me a great new guidebook from Moon about Orcas which will definitely come in handy and a really terrific book called Essential Wines and Wineries of the Pacific Northwest. You know what that means, wine country here we come! But one thing at a time and right now I just want to enjoy the memories of a really great birthday!

There were just too too many stories to talk about during the week John came to celebrate his birthday along with Vinnie and Lisa so I thought I would just do a final photo montages. Here is the first!
Wooden taxidermy anyone? A new game to play when wandering the shores of Discovery Park – what do you see in the driftwood? In this case I am defnitely seeing the head of a deer or elk!

No one but John is cool enough to bake the famous Aunt Aggie’s Nut (Butt) cake and travel it on the plane from Asheville to Seattle! We have been eating this cake since we were kids, added the “Butt” part to the name because that’s what we did as kids and now continue to bake this baby cuz it is so delicious! We also continue to add the word “butt” to lots of things too. Apparently immature humor runs in the family. Slice anyone? This family recipe is upon demand only!

The boys introduced me to Seward Park which is almost like an island unto itself. Surrounded almost entirely by water it is a beautiful 2.4 mile walk with calm still waters every inch of the way. A must see in Seattle and I would love to go kayaking there, the water is so calm!

The chocolate Bundino on the desert menu at Serious Pie (where they have the most amazing pizza!). Seriously decadent chocolate mousse/pudding comes in a little glass jar – unbelievably delicious! I also know that you can buy a version of these already made at Theo Chocolate in Fremont! They have them in a tiny refridgerator in their chocolate showroom!

Dinner at Mark and Frank’s house was just what Sunday dinner should be – an amazing spread of appetizers with an antipasti including amazing salami from Mario Batali’s father’s Salumi, simmering Osso Bucco on the stove and a bar to end all bars – how elegant is this?!!

That Bundino may have made us 3 siblings very happy but were now on our way for birthday cupcakes courtesy of Wink, champagne and presents – the birthday fun continued for several more days ending with that fabulous helicopter ride. Good news is that John has a new birthday iPad and blog to talk about and remember and recount to us the whole wonderful thing – can’t wait!

We did many fun things with John during his birthday week and for the finale Marc saw this amazing deal on LivingSocial.com from Helicopters Northwest – basically a ride through the skies of Seattle for 50% off! We thought John would love this so knowing you have to jump on these deals before they expire ( and crossing our fingers the unseasonably cold and wet weather would go away) we threw caution to the wind and bought it. We just had this feeling that John would love this (and so would we!).

This is your captain speaking….words you never want to hear coming out of my mouth…

The helicopter fit four people including our very cool pilot and we took off on the most beautiful day imaginable (lucky!) from Boeing Field. I have to say for a relative newcomer to the area the aerial view really help put things into perspective. I know however that I will still continue to get lost, that is for sure.
I don’t know why the helicopter pilot didn’t like it when I kept saying “We got a blackhawk down, we got a blackhawk down”….

We had taken the boys to the Ballard Locks the past Sunday after the Farmer’s Market (this is where they adjust the water level to allow boats to pass from the salt water of Puget Sound to the fresh water of Lake Washington/Lake Union). This was especailly impressive from the sky.

My view from the backseat

Wow, who lives here? Nice boat slip…

We had visited the Columbia Center the previous day – on the 40th floor is the first ever Starbucks (of course we had a coffee!) and the view from the observation deck on the 76th floor is great. Here is the view of the downtown Seattle – the Columbia Center is the the black angular building in the foreground.

Our total ride lasted 30 minutes with a 30 min Q and A session at the end. All in all a totally cool experience which I would highly recommend and I’m pretty sure a perfect finish to a great birthday week for John! Check out more pictures from our week on John’s new blog at JohnPatson.com!

Seriously, can you believe this picture was taken with an iphone-pretty cool huh? Returning home from the Tulip Festival we drove on the not-to-be-missed Chuckanut Drive and had to check out Taylor Shellfish Farms. This is literally a shellfish farm with thousands of oyster shells littering the ground as well as providing the texture for this small tower on the dock.

Do you know I never ate an oyster until I moved here? And my first one was at the Walrus and the Carpenter in Ballard. That place is so cool I think anything would taste good there! But oysters just taste like the sea – salty and fresh and to me it’s incredible! Apparently I am in good company…

Ah yes, a glass of crisp white wine! But which one? Taylor Shellfish takes care of that question for us (check out their website, it’s great!). They are announcing the 2011 winner on May 1st!

This post is making me wish I was at Happy Hour! In Seattle there are many places to go for great oyster happy hours! At Ethan Stowell’s Anchovies and Olives has Oyster Power Hour where oysters are $1 a piece! At Elliot’s Oyster house happy hour they start out at 3pm for 50 cents and increase 25 cents every half hour until they reach their normal price at 6pm.

Well, it’s 6:15 and I don’t have any oysters right now. Only 3 very noisy and very hungry cats. But I do have a bottle of chilled Pinot Grigio and a minute to stop and stare at the sea and dream of tranquil times!

For all of you lovers of The Office I wanted to post this hysterical and touching video of the cast singing their own rendition of Seasons of Love from Rent. Listen to the words, they are too funny and Will Ferrell’s singing at the end, I don’t know how anybody kept a straight face.

What’s going to happen with this show? The rumors are we’ll have additional guest appearances by James Spader, Ray Romano, Catherine Tate and Jim Carey. With that line up it can’t help but stay awkwardly cozy!