Pruning time

 

 

Spring pruning time arrives at the Carlton pear orchard.

 

Tom is an excellent pruner, but this isn't some little weekend project for folks who also hold down full time jobs.

Fortunately, they found someone (above) experienced with the their orchard to help out, especially with the older, larger trees. Amanda said Fernando is a nice guy and a super hard worker. He showed up on Saturday morning before the sun was even up. 

 

But...it still leaves behind a massive clean up job. The clippings need to be gathered and burned at a safe time. 

Are we having fun yet?

 

Maya, with an old granddaddy of Russian Thistle, a noxious weed for the burn pile. No chemical herbicides and pesticides were used on this organic farm for decades. 

 

Over here in the tropics, we've been busy too. The recycle, trash and yard waste bins are all stuffed, so that tells you something. 

I worked in the garden, cleaned the inside windows and de-cluttered the house. Well, one closet to be exact, but it feels good to consolidate two boxes of life mementos and souvenirs down into one. That was a trip down memory lane. My goodness, the things we keep "forever." 

 

John also did the first mow of the season-- one of my favorite outdoor days because it suddenly looks so nice after winter, even though the "lawn" is mostly moss and weeds. 

Correction: John says $300,000 of car parked on the street, not a half million. Still a bunch of money.

Our new cars

 

Psyche! As Amanda used to say in middle school...

Some brave (hopefully well insured) guy has been parking his yellow Porche on our street for the last few weeks. 

It's hard to believe a person who owns a car like that doesn't have a garage, but car garages are few and far between in this neighborhood. Most are too small and/or crammed with other stuff. The new apartment buildings only have a few tiny parking spots for rent. This is to encourage people to "take transit." It doesn't work. Everyone around here has at least one car, so they get parked on the residential streets at night.

Anyway, if I was still young and cute, I'd ask him to take me for a ride. It makes a wonderful sound when he starts it up-- not so much noise, but power vibrations you feel in your bones. I admit it-- I like nice cars.

As for the Rivian, that guy lives nearby also. John figured about a half million dollars of vehicle sitting out there. I remember when you could buy every house on the street for that.

 

 

Young scientists

 

Maya participated in the Mid-Columbia Science Fair yesterday with a few others who were nominated from her 7th grade class. 

This is the oldest science fair in the state, held in Richland, Washington, about 8 hours round trip on the bus from Twisp. (Yes, everything is far from Twisp.) 

So quite a long day-- good for you, Maya. Her complex project relates to the effect of climate change on plants.

Happy first day of spring! The fire hose from the south Pacific is finally shutting off. I'm looking to cleaning up the front porch. It's finally time to kick the Jade plants outside for the summer. They're tired of the house, and I'm tired of looking at them. 

Have a good weekend. 

 

Photographs and memories

 

 

Digital has taken over so much of our lives, but I have two banker boxes stuffed with old papers, one work related, random stuff saved from my Microsoft career, the other full of letters and personal diaries written over 50 years ago.

There are many letters from our mother, on page after page of plain notebook paper. She was such a prolific and frequent writer, most are just "dated" with the day of the week, no month or year, which is a shame. She wrote dates on the back of every photo, but not her letters. 

Anyway, her kids are probably the only ones left who can decipher her distinctive cursive. It's hard to believe this is how families once shared news. Only the best and worst events merited an expensive long distance call. 

As for my diaries, these should be a place for deep, private reflection, but most entries are in the category of "what happened today" and make no sense now, even to me. I was very young! But they are stuffed with mementoes like ticket stubs, post cards and random funny things that give some idea of what I was doing at the time.

These are rainy day projects. There are also piles of photographs to go through, the redundant and bad ones thrown out. The goal is to get everything consolidated down to the few things that might have some meaning and context to others. 

Speaking of rain. Go away. I'd rather be working in the garden that shuffling through dusty closets. 

A sweet song...

 

 

 

Cosmic pie

 

The Cosmic Crisp apple landed in Seattle in December 2019, along with lots of marketing hoopla. They were about $4 a pound then, and never caught on as the growers hoped. Cosmic Crisp store well in the fridge, but for an eating apple, the skin is tough compared to Honey Crisp.

How times have changed. QFC (Kroger) had Cosmic Crisp this week for 99 cents a pound, probably trying to move last season's surplus. They are good for pie, especially at that price, and cook down sweet and juicy after a long bake.

This one was in the oven for almost two hours. 

 

Yes I know, another yucky corned beef picture (if you don't like it.) 

But John said this was my best ever-- although if you've done something 50 times you should be good at it. After years of boiling, now I braise the meat (after rinsing off the salty brine) with onions and white wine, then add the vegetables later, so nothing gets too mushy. 

Top o' the morning to you

 

The best thing about St. Patrick's Day is the excuse to make corned beef, cabbage and potatoes once a year, even though this classic meal is more American than Irish. Yum, cured meat.