The art of winter

 

 

Richard von Drasche-Wartinberger, In Deep Winter

We haven't been to our house along the river since Thanksgiving, and with the trip to Hawaii coming up, it will be February until we can get over again. That's the longest stretch of being away since we bought it over 5 years ago. 

I don't worry much with Methow Homewatch checking in weekly, but I often think about the place with gratitude-- the river flowing endlessly by the empty house, the quiet rooms with everything left perfectly neat and clean for the next visit. A soothing thought.

Of course, there are always surprises with home ownership. This being winter, the beavers are certainly at work again chewing down the remaining trees along our little stretch of waterfront. 

I got in touch recently with the Methow Beaver Project, perhaps the premier organization in the country dedicated to watershed restoration and "partnering" with beavers. They sometimes relocate "problem" beavers, and I hoped these town dwellers might be good candidates. After all, they aren't building useful dams along the Methow River. Put them where they can do some honest work!

Anyway, someone sent a nice email back, sympathizing for the loss of our young trees, but explaining they rarely relocate beavers along the Methow River, that body of water being their "highway." 

Well, they're not grabbing a quick snack as they pass by, they live right there in the bank next to their own personal McDonald's all winter, as they have for decades, evidenced by many old stumps.

The only suggestion was to put heavy wire around all the trees, which is neither practical or aesthetic. I'm resigned to let nature take it's course. 

“I think having land and not ruining it is the most beautiful art that anybody could ever want.” Andy Warhole

Which simply means, let it be.  

 

 

 

  

Correction

John pointed out that we were actually on the Oregon coast in September 2016. 

OK, still a long time ago.  

 

Countdown

 

Incredible as this sounds, we have not been to any ocean coast since July 2014. (Victoria BC and Puget Sound don't count.)

We went to Ocean Shores at the exact same time the Carleton Complex Fire was raging in the Methow Valley. Amanda, Tom and the girls had evacuated town. I remember how incongruous that seemed, because it rained on us all weekend at the coast.

Anyway, after the pandemic we bought the Twisp house and that became the go-to vacation for a long while. I love the place, but it is more of a working vacation. Our other trips were mostly to the desert, so it's truly been over 10 years since I've walked along a sandy ocean shore. Sigh.

Long story short, we're looking forward to our long-planned trip to Oahu, Hawaii next week. I kept this one easy (no rental car hassle or searching for the perfect Airbnb) just 6 nights at a Waikīkī hotel, the deal  booked through the Costco website. 

We will be unashamed tourists. I found and washed our old Hawaiian shirts. And maybe I'll buy myself a new mumu. John wanted to know if I was bringing my ukulele? 

 

Epiphany

 

 

January 6th is Three Kings Day. Epiphany is a Greek word meaning a sudden comprehension, and it marks the visitation of the Magi. It is the twelfth and final day of Christmas. 

In places where they know how to have a good time, today marks the start of carnival season which lasts right through Mardi Gras Day. In New Orleans, friends gather for weekly King Cake parties. 

 

A wonderfully gaudy looking thing you won't find in Seattle. 

Those ponies are stinking cute, but above a dead serious, 6th century Ravenna mosaic. Such forward urgency and yearning expressed with tiny bits of stone. What a masterpiece! 

It is considered bad luck to leave Christmas decorations up past Twelfth Night, and if you do, you're supposed to burn them on Shrove Tuesday, February 9th.  So many old pagan superstitions (or more kindly, traditions) wrapped up in the Liturgical Calendar.  

Everything is finally packed away here and hauled back up in the attic, with the exception of the outdoor lights which I take down around Ground Hogs Day.  

 

 

 

Back to business

 

 

Learning watercolor painting can feel pretty intimidating when you dive into the detailed instruction videos on YouTube. So much perfection! But I ran across a PBS show called Pocket Sketching that inspired me more to get started with this set of beautiful Japanese paints I got for Christmas.

The show's instructor, Kath Macaulay, is a hoot, and I like how she works with small scale papers and sketch books. My little dressing table works fine. 

Her excellent motto is, learn enough to play for a lifetime. She laughs off her mistakes. Watercolor is actually pretty forgiving it you don't take it too seriously. And that can be said for many things. 

"Have no fear of perfection. You'll never reach it." Salvador Dali 

Monday is here after the long holiday break, so back to normal on our street with the school traffic roaring by twice a day. How nice to come and go as we pleased for two weeks and have a parking space in front of the house. Sometimes we feel like captives at home, but at least a nice place to be holed up. 

Between the rain and dark, it takes a great deal of effort to leave home. The days of ample and free parking in West Seattle are long gone. On Friday night, we were so tired from taking down the decorations we couldn't face the crowded Junction and walking several blocks to the restaurant. So we postponed the Indian food idea and opted instead for delicious takeout from our Thai restaurant 2 blocks away. A good choice. 

More comforts of home

 

 

That screen is the new weather station I gave John for Christmas. Of course, we could just step outside or look at the thermostat, but we seem to find it endlessly fascinating. Life can be boring this time of year.

Indoors (blue) a comfortable 70 degrees with 38% humidity. Outdoors, a typical winter day: cloudy, 40 degrees with 84% humidify. Which is bone chilling, in the way only Seattle can be. 

When we were downtown, I overheard some tourists on the street talking about the temperature. They thought it was in the low 30's, but it was actually close to 50-- our special dampness makes it feel much colder here. 

 

Anyway, a final photo of Christmas last night before everything finally gets put away today. I had time on my hands yesterday afternoon and made a real pot pie with turkey meat and gravy stashed in the freezer.

 

And not one of those lazy pot pies, were you slap store bought puff pasty on top of a casserole. I've learned a few things baking these complicated things. First, a lower temperature and a long time in the oven works best-- this one was in for about two hours. And most important, it needs to rest for another full hour on the counter before you even think of digging a spoon in there. 

Tonight though, a break from kitchen slavery-- we're going out to eat at Maharaja, an Indian restaurant at the West Seattle Junction. It has been there, in the very same place as long as I've lived here, a very long time, although it's been decades since we went. Amanda and Tom has a nice meal there last week, so we'll give it a try for old times sake.