Busy days, all good

 

 

 

We all went to a home track meet at Liberty Bell High School on Tuesday afternoon. The school is on the outskirts of Winthrop, about 6 miles from Twisp in a beautiful setting surrounded by miles of biking and ski trails. 

 

Of course the kids, having grown up here, take all this for granted. Many of the teenagers (although certainly not all) can't wait to "get away" from the rural lifestyle and make a life in the big city. This is a story as old as time.

 

Nova is a natural athlete and competed in a couple of events, although frankly she doesn't care much for track and would rather be working at the riding academy. Or practicing with the wresting team. But it was fun watching that young energy race by the stadium, although the bleacher seats got pretty hard after a couple hours. 

 

The dream machines came on Wednesday, delivered by a couple of nice kids (a boy and a girl) from Home Depot. They schlepped them all the way down the driveway without a complaint, using those brutal body slings. The power lines were too low for the truck to pass under.

 

I think I died and went to heaven. No more carrying bags of dirty laundry back and forth from Seattle. They work beautifully and best of all, they sound quiet in this small house.

Last but not least, I took Nova up to the ranch last night do chores and ride Ginger. She is riding in her first horse show next weekend. More on that later.

This morning, back to the big city. A rainy drive ahead.

Fiery sunrise

 

Not the typical peaceful view this morning. The empty land across the river from our house is privately owned and the site of an old lumber mill. 

The property isn't posted, so locals are accustomed to using it for dog walking, biking and such. In recent years, there's been occasional illegal camping and other questionable stuff going on over there, like drug dealing and car racing. Yes, even in this small town.

For the last few days, they've been bull-dozing all the scrubby trees and vegetation off the property. This morning, they're burning the big piles of brush. Something about fire, intentional or not, gets your attention fast at 6 am.

That land is in Twisp city limits, so it's quite valuable for development purposes. It looks like a project might finally be in works. There's a lack of housing in the valley, so this is inevitable and not a bad thing, but from my selfish point of view, it will be a big adjustment looking across the river at lights and houses instead of open land.

A busy day shaping up-- time to close the laptop and get cracking. 

Then and now

 

That's the confluence of the Methow and Twisp Rivers at the City Park yesterday. The Methow River is running at about 2,000 CFS now, which is about 60% of normal for April.

This is the same spot last spring, when the river crested at 18,000 CFS. May 2023 was unseasonably warm, causing a rapid melt off in the mountains. A number of factors must converge for damaging floods in the valley: an exceptionally warm spring, high snow pack, slow moving rain storms. It's happened before and will again, but not this year. (Famous last words.)

Another then and now view in front of the house. It's so peaceful here, especially compared to the constant background din in West Seattle.

I was on my own yesterday, but the rest of the week is busier. I'm having lunch with my friend Karen and there's a track meet at the school tonight. Tomorrow, fingers crossed, a new washer and dryer delivered from the Home Depot store way over in Omak. I ordered it a month ago. No more hauling towels and sheets back and forth from Seattle? Wow.

The finest hour

"The finest hour that I have seen
Is the one that comes between
The edge of night and the break of day
It's when the darkness rolls away."

 

 Kate Wolf, Across the Great Divide

 

 

I had a good drive yesterday. It rained and snowed some on Snoqualmie Pass which always seems slightly offensive this late in April.  Just give it up, will you?

 

Sunday morning is my favorite time to travel east. There are few trucks on the road and most of the traffic is headed back toward the big cites on the west side. 

 

This is when the huge RV's suddenly appear on the roads, and everyone seems in a frantic rush to get from point A to point B. The North Cascade Highway reopened, so tourist season truly begins. I have to hand it to those senior citizens, towing an RV as big as tractor trailer truck. And going 80 miles a hour, at that.

 

The only negative was our favorite pit stop, Lone Pine, is closed on Sundays. I stopped at a convenience store to buy a soda and eat my sandwich at a picnic table in back, where someone decided to half-bury a giant tire in the field. Not the same as sitting by koi pond and fountain at the Lone Pine picnic area. Not to mention, the fruit smoothies.

A busy week is shaping up here, which I'll fill you in on as it progresses. For now I'm going to watch the sun come up from behind Mill Hill. 

Hot chicken lite

 

Chicken thighs aren't exactly health food, so baking them on a rack is a good hack. And you can make an easy Nashville hot chicken with Frank's sauce. Almost as good as fried.

The authentic spice paste they use in restaurants has two ingredients: lard and cayenne pepper, mixed together, three parts pepper to one part lard and heated until they form a thick sauce. That gets slathered on the freshly fried chicken and melts right in. Oh, my goodness.

We had it once down in the Georgetown neighborhood. Just an early lunch for us, but it looked like a powerful hair-of-the-dog brunch for most of the customers. Even our waitress looked like she had just rolled out of bed. What a hoot.

Today will be beautiful in Seattle, not a cloud in the sky close to 70. I have one more rough project (digging out a clump of dying Mondo grass.) I'll take a rest until the tulip leaves die back--then a final clean-up of the spring mess before we tick over to weeding and watering season.

I'm heading over to Twisp this weekend, and I'll see you next from the other side.

 

So innocent looking

 

Bluebells...such a sweet flower, so evocative of England where they carpet the countryside in an enchanting sea of blue. The bluebell there is protected under the Wildlife and Countryside Act, and digging up the plant or bulb is prohibited. 

Keep in mind, that flower is not to be confused with their rough cousin, the Spanish bluebell (above) which is very similar in appearance to the British bluebell.

As they say, a weed is just a flower in the wrong place. 

Spanish bluebells invade lawns and take over flower beds, the heavy leaves choking out everything else coming up. 

A Google search shows all the creative (and violent) ways people have tried to kill them: poison, flamethrower, boiling water, stomping the leaves to mush, cutting the tops off until they "starve" and so on. Oh, the rage.

Persistent as bamboo, none of these methods really work. All you can do is dig up the tiny deep bulbs--backbreaking work and impossible if there are "nice" plants growing in the vicinity.

It looks like a wild hog rooted through this bed. Yesterday I sliced off the bluebell leaves so the lilies and dahlias have some breathing space. But I'm just kicking the can down the road. Soon the flower beds will fill in and bluebells forgotten until next spring. 

When you've lived for 3/4 of a century, you have to pick your battles.

Aw, look at the dear things. All four chicks are thriving. Maya named the Easter Eggers (above) Bonnie and Clyde.