Hi, from the sunny side

Nova

A happening place

May

Just in case you've lost sleep wondering, things have been happening lately out in the miniature garden  :-)

April

Going, going, gone

3 weeks ago

1 week ago

Yesterday

It's a green jungle out there.   We had showers all week (record rainfall on Monday) and this morning "dawned" cold and gray again.  But things are looking up for the weekend in more ways than one.  Friday and Saturday should dry out and the jet stream moves this wet blanket south to California, where they really need the moisture.

You've probably noticed a sad lack of little Nova pictures lately on the blog. Stay tuned...soon we'll have some new ones from the dry side of the state.

T.J.

Fresh mozzarella pizza

I can't really explain Trader Joe's cult-like following. Grocery shopping can be boring, so part of the attraction is the unusual (OK, weird) products they sometimes promote in their advertisement called the Fearless Flyer.  It isn't like the store has a huge selection, but you never know what you're going to find (or decide you want). And there's daily samples and those free mini cups of coffee. Trader Joe's is all about impulse shopping. Of course, your favorites can suddenly disappear from the shelves with no explanation.

For example, John considers himself a connoisseur of chutney, having been spoiled on my homemade varieties. He does not like store-bought chutney, but he still talks longingly about a particular Indian chutney we got at T.J. in the 1990's. I should have bought two cases before it went away forever.  The T.J. merchandising gimmick is to repackage food from all over the world under their own clever label. Other than country of origin, you don't know the product source. Short of going to India and tasting every chutney condiment, there's no hope of finding that particular one again.

Anyway! Here I am writing about another good thing I found in the store last week:  sliced fresh mozzarella cheese in a shrink-wrapped package.  If you've ever tried to cut up a gummy piece of soft cheese into even slices you'll appreciate this.  I make a no-guilt vegetarian pizza about once a month, and we like fresh mozzarella instead of the cheap, packaged, shredded kind. (Sorry, Kroger.)

This was the first pizza from my new oven and it turned out fine-- 375 convection bake for about 30 minutes. Letting it cool off on a rack seems to keep the bottom from getting soggy.

And the left-over sliced mozzarella made a nice tomato salad with Mexican-grown basil leaves from (you guessed it) Trader Joe's.

Green Land

Last week's nice weather was just a summer tease because it's turned wet and cold again in Seattle. The lilacs are so drenched they look ready to snap off.  June is just around the corner, and the weather gurus at NOAA are saying the early summer forecast shows "an above average change of cooler than normal temperatures." To be exact, just a 17 percent chance of a warmer than normal June.

So our sunny mid-May wasn't a sign of things to come, although the taste of nice weather spoiled us. But oh, everything is lush and green.  The big iris are ready to bloom on 3 foot stalks-- that is, when they finally get a little sun. And if the rain doesn't knock them down first.

The air is chilly with ocean breeze this morning and there's a monsoon feel about the drenching rain showers. This spring weather pattern is actually called the Pacific Coast Monsoon, and places like San Francisco and Seattle are notorious for the persistent June gloom.  Sometimes the clouds burn off by afternoon, but often not, and we walk around all day under a gray mist.

This makes the hosta plants very happy.

Photo - Puget Sound Clean Air Agency

Dream Land

Dream Love
A Rossetti poem illustration
by Emma Harrison, 1910

Very little is known about the artist Emma Harrison, including the exact dates of her birth and death. There are no portraits of her. She worked from about 1877-1925 and is remembered mostly as an illustrator of books of poems by Christina Rossetti, Tennyson and William Morris.  Her work has that highly collectible (and valuable) Pre-Raphaelite style.

Dream Land
by Christina Georgina Rossetti
 

Where sunless rivers weep
Their waves into the deep,
She sleeps a charmèd sleep:
Awake her not.
 
Led by a single star,
She came from very far
To seek where shadows are
Her pleasant lot.

She left the rosy morn,
She left the fields of corn,
For twilight cold and lorn
And water springs.

Through sleep, as through a veil,
She sees the sky look pale,
And hears the nightingale
That sadly sings.

Rest, rest, a perfect rest
Shed over brow and breast;
Her face is toward the west,
The purple land...

Rest, rest at the heart’s core
Till time shall cease:
Sleep that no pain shall wake;
Night that no morn shall break
Till joy shall overtake
Her perfect peace.

Dream Land

Poem illustration by Emma Harrison, 1910

Hot junk

If you like poking around antique and second-hand stores, then you know weathered "junk" is really in now.  The other day I saw a perfectly rusted tricycle that had been sitting outside for about 50 years and they wanted $90 for it.  It really had no function except to sit in another person's yard and artistically rust for 50 more years.  And rickety old wood furniture that once would have been chopped up for firewood is designer stuff.

Anyway, this chair with a planter built in the seat was a real find for $8 at the yard sale last week.  I think the only reason another sharp-eyed lady didn't snatch it up was the seat was covered with broken glass (that's the white stuff) which was somewhat of a deterrent, although not to me. I grabbed it and of course the people around me looked jealous. Oh, well. The cutthroat world of yard sales is not for the timid.

So I managed to get it in the back of the Honda with all my other loot without spilling the glass everywhere.  I pulled the crud out and lined the chicken wire with fresh sheet moss and potting soil, then squeezed some carpenter's glue in the wobbly joints to snug it up a bit. Planted with impatiens and lobeila for the summer, I think it looks just about perfect.  Maybe ferns and crocus for next spring if it doesn't fall to pieces over the winter?

Don't even try to put a price tag on that heirloom :-)

Peony time

Every year I cut some peonies and put them in the same green glass bowl on the coffee table. The other evening a sunset light hit them at the moment I happened to walk by. It was a photographer's dream light that only lasted about 30 seconds. If I don't say so myself, this is a lovely (and Photoshop untouched) composition. Almost like a painted Renaissance still life.  Or a Hallmark card. But it was just serendipity and a pretty good digital camera.

Peonies are wondrous old flowers, rich in history, legend and myth.  The Latin name Paeonia comes from Paeon, the "physician of the gods" in Greek mythology.  And here he is, doing something nasty to someone.

The peony is an important ingredient for Chinese medicine.  In Europe it was used as a remedy for lunacy, epilepsy and liver problems. In the 19th century, country folk in England made peony root beads for teething babies, and used it ward off evil spirits.  Peonies were one of the first flowers the Europeans brought to America.  Despite being used as medicine for thousands of years, today the peony is thought of as just an old-fashioned, homey, grandma-garden type of flower. 

The pronunciation of "peony"  is often mangled, maybe because of the double vowels. The correct pronunciation is "PEA-onie" but you sometimes hear people trying to say "PAY-onie."   In the old South it is simply called the "Piney," which sounds kind of sweet and simple.

The best grill in the world

Rib steak

Glazed pork loin

Barbecue chicken

Shrimp fajitas

Kielbasa and peppers

I've been giving my new Weber grill a real workout this month.  It was a great Mother's Day present from John, but you think he might have had an ulterior motive?

It isn't every day a person needs a new gas grill, but when you do take a look at this Weber Q version.  I don't consider myself a big expert but this grill is perfect.  It heats up to 500 degrees in just a few minutes and cooks beautifully with the lid down.  It has a tidy little disposable grease catcher that really works. A cast iron grate that doesn't stick. It's powerful enough to sear fast and also has an indirect heat option for roasts and such.  Listen to me!  Weber should hire me to write their product reviews.

Bonsai

The reality

When you think about it, a 500-year-old tree growing in a pot 3 inches deep is pretty amazing. Bonsai are not miniature plants, they're actually big forest trees, strong bushes or immense vines.  They're not "tortured" or "starved" or "stunted," but kept from their true nature by art, artifice, persistence and lots of patience.

Spring is the time of year when they revert back to what they were genetically programmed to be. During the growing season, the bonsai custodian should not turn her back for long. The rest of the year they need very little attention, with the exception of never, ever, being allowed to dry out. This is a real challenge in the hot dry months.  Yes, even in Seattle we get long stretches of dry weather, and by August our green lawns look like baked straw. Then my bonsai appreciate a drink twice a day.

It's inspiring to see the world-class bonsai collection at Weyerhauser. Many of the specimens have been carefully tended for hundreds of years. The plants are displayed at their peak of perfection, like the precious works of art they are. There must be a behind the scenes area where they can let their leaves down, so to speak, and just hang out the rest of the year. 

The ideal

I should say, this is an unobtainable ideal. But the home-grower has to begin somewhere, so yesterday I got out my new mini shears and started summer haircuts.

Loops

If you came this way,
Taking the route you would be likely to take
From the place you would be likely to come from,
If you came this way in may time, you would find the hedges
White again, in May, with voluptuary sweetness.

T.S Eliot, Four Quartets


I've been writing a daily blog entry for nearly 3 years now, which is a loop of 12 seasons. I looked back at May 2010 when we went to the Weyerhauser Garden on Mother's Day, and there's a photo of the same white Viburnum that I took a picture of last Sunday.  I also took a picture of the exact Wisteria bonsai we photographed two years ago.  But on Sunday I felt like I was seeing them for the very first time.  

Of course nature endlessly repeats the cycle but is always fresh and new.  That's one explanation. But it's also a lack of mindfulness, and how we don't pay close attention to details that make up our daily lives.  Although I never run out of things to write about, I'm starting to say different things about the same things.  The blog is starting to remind me of an old married couple who love each other enough to listen to variations of the same stories over and over.

Monday, Monday

Himalayan Blue Poppy

What is the most beautiful flower in the world?  I nominate this rare blue "poppy," native to Tibet where it grows effortlessly out of yak dung in high dank meadows.  It's notoriously hard to cultivate and many gardeners have tried and failed.  Maybe the lack of yak manure?

For some strange reason it thrives and blooms once a year in a special mucky patch at the Botanical Garden in Federal Way.  They are the most astonishing sky blue.  A dreamlike color so perfectly natural it seems almost unnatural.  It brings to mind the fake turquoise-dyed carnations that were once sold in flower shops.  But that's a tacky comparison. The intense color shining in the sun is magical.

We drove down to the Rhododendron Species Botanical Garden garden in Federal Way and got in an early walk to see the famous poppies before the Mother's Day crowds arrived.

Oh, it was lovely in Seattle this weekend.  A long stretch of blue sky, sparkling water and snowy mountain views that make you wonder why anyone would live anywhere else.  On a nice day we forgive and forget the bad weather in the Northwest, which is a good thing considering how wet and dark it is most of the time.

Keep off

After the poppies we rested our eyes on the slimy pond, which looks like a solid green path meandering through the woods.  Little Nova would surely try to run right across it.  

And so people must get a reminder about the dangers of "walking on water." As the sign says, the green stuff is not slime but fern.

Wisteria bonsai

We always take a turn around the magnificent, world-class bonsai display, which is inspiring but disheartening when I think about my ruffian bonsai collection at home.  Well, at least they're still alive, so I must be doing something right.  Where there is life there is hope, and I bought a special little bonsai shear to do some spring pruning. 

I was looking forward to a Mother's Day hot dog lunch, but the stand wasn't up in the parking lot this year. So we stopped at I Luv Teriyaki  in Georgetown on the way home.

In this town there's a teriyaki joint on practically every corner, but I Luv Teriyaki is my favorite. It's actually run by Japanese people, and instead of the usual messy teriyaki heap on Styrofoam, they artfully arrange your cheap lunch on a real plate.  Nice.

And what's a trip to scenic Georgetown without a stop at the new Hat n' Boots park?

Hat n' Boots, 2002

The last time I drove by the Hat n' Boots it looked like this. It was built as a premium gas station in the 1950's on what was once the main highway between Seattle and Tacoma.  The boots were the restrooms and the gas pumps were under the hat.  Urban legend goes that Elvis filled up his Cadillac there on his way to the 1962 World's Fair.  It was the most successful station in the state until Interstate 5 replaced old Highway 99, although it managed to stay open until 1988.  Then it became a sad derelict until the Georgetown Community Council moved the structures in 2002 and restored them in a cool little park.  We'll have to take Nova to see it next time.

Hat n' Boots postcard, 1956

Happy Mother's Day

I brake for yard sales

The Mother of all yard sales is today-- the West Seattle Community Yard Sale event with over 200 separate sales within just a few miles of our house.  Whoa! The only question I have to ask myself is: what am I going to get rid of if I bring this new thing home?  John was looking nervous on the eve of the big event. Wild horses could not drag him around the neighborhood to poke through other people's old stuff.

Of course there isn't anything we need in our crammed little house but there's always an excuse to shop when you have grand kids.  A new baby will need warm clothes next winter. (Not that there's any danger of him/her having to go naked.) But Nana's toy box could always use a few new surprises. And so on.  I'll tell you about the haul next week.  But now the sun is coming up in perfect blue skies so I'm going to make a fortifying waffle breakfast and hit the trail. Give me a call if I should be on the lookout for anything :-)

The month of rain

After a Month of Rain

Everything I thought I wanted

is right here,

particularly when the sun

is making such a comeback,

and the lilac engorged

with purple has recovered

from its severe pruning,

and you will be back soon

to dispel whatever it is

that overtakes me like leaf blight,

even on a day like this. I can still

hear remnants of the rain

in the swollen stream

behind the house, in the faint

dripping under the eaves,

persistent as memory.

And all the things I didn't think

I wanted, cut like the lilac back

to the root, push up again

from underground.

by - Linda Pastan