When the travails of traveling on a motorcyle throughout the Pacific Northwest get you down, there is no better respite than a stop at a magical place called Pondside. Situated between two limpid ponds with an American ( in our honor ) flag drapped entrance gate, we immediately felt welcomed by my blogging friend Pondside and her husband The Great Dane. Reading her blog I have always been entranced by her gentle style and great wisdom. We bloggers sometimes “know” each other without ever being formally introduced.
When I blogged about our trip to Alaska and trip south through Vancouver, Pondside graciously invited us to lunch. Who could resist? What a treat it was. I was hesitant to show up with a camera around my neck and the typical blogger mentality of snapping pictures of everything in sight, so I missed photographing her lovely pasta salad with smoked salmon and asparagus that she credits to Cathy of Wives With Knives, another great blogger. It was delicious and will go in my file of favorite recipes. Thank you Cathy. David especially enjoyed it because he has had a hard time finding salmon on this trip in spite of the fact that the salmon are running and we saw thousands of them in a river in Alaska. Here is Cathy’s picture.
Pondside made a dessert of Eton Mess that was just perfect to round out our meal. I don’t have her specific recipe but it was a mixture of broken up meringues, whipped cream and Cointreau marinated strawberries. You can check out Ina’s recipe here. We chatted over dessert and coffee and found so much in common. I never thought I would find another fabric junkie like me. We are even reading the same paperback author right now.
The day turned drizzly for a brief time and we walked around the property to see the ponds and the chickens and ducks.
My visit with Pondside was a delight.
And I love her umbrellas too! Thank you H and GD for opening your world to us. We are so much the better for it.
I have been without internet access for the past week or so and am just catching up on my blogs about our trip. I am home now, but have at least two more posts that I want to share with you. Also I need to catch up with all of your posts. Again thank you Pondside for a delightful interlude in our trip.
Get home and get settled. I miss you and loved this post. Pondside is perfect.
You’re home. Pondside sounds lovely, absolutely!
It was such a treat to meet you both – we were really quite honoured that you would come out here to visit. I hope we meet again!
How fun Penny. Very nice to meet Pondside. Love the photo with the umbrellas.
Sam
I wish I was there with both of you! Welcome home….give me a shout out when you are settled….
xoxoxo
Penny
Welcome home! Can’t wait to read more about your trip. What an adventure. I totally agree with Sam – I love the umbrellas! I hope you have a very relaxing holiday weekend. – Lara
Hi Penny, It is wonderful to meet you and read about your visit with Pondside and The Great Dane. Meeting fellow bloggers is one of the best things about blogging. I’m very happy you enjoyed the salmon pasta salad and appreciate the link back to my blog.
I used to ride a motorcycle too (a Honda Shadow that you can see if you click on the “About” button on my blog) and can imagine how much fun it was to see the Pacific NW that way. I’m looking forward to reading more about your trip.
Hey Penny… your trip sounded wonderful, thanks for all those posts. Enjoy the holiday
A wonderful Adventure, lovely memories, and it’s always SO good to get Home!!
Looks like a very good place to stop for lunch and meet a fellow blogger.
You write so nicely, Penny! Your visit sounds just lovely – how nice to meet up with Pondside.
What a lovely post! It must be so nice to meet another blogger. What an adventure you are living!Enjoy!
Rita
What fun meeting another blogger~and what a great lunch you had! The dessert looked delic! Were you all the way up there on your bike? Good for you! I rode by bike out to Yellowstone last summer~cold as heck and snowed-in June! I would have loved to found such a great spot for lunch!