FaceTime

The other evening we were sitting in our cool basement after dinner when Amanda called my iPhone on FaceTime.  We were in the middle of a violent TV episode of Ray Donovan, so it was nice being instantly transported to their backyard, where Nova and Maya were eating messy watermelon, screaming and running through a sprinkler in the evening heat. How about that? These are the days of miracle and wonder.

Amanda and I don't use FaceTime on every call, but I love it when we can.  It's kind of amazing that those girls won't remember a time when you couldn't see the person you're talking to on the phone.  Amanda tells me when she asks if they want to talk to Nana and Grandpa, they look at the screen first instead of putting the phone to their ear.

Sweet summer feet

It's very hot and dry again in eastern Washington. Even on the jolting around iPhone, we could see the air in Twisp was still smoky. The fire activity increased again this week and temperatures reached 105 degrees in the Methow Valley.  Pockets of unburned vegetation are burning and sending up plumes of smoke within the fire perimeter.

The Carlton Complex fire has burned 251,025 acres and is 67% contained. That is the good news, along with thousands of firefighters still camped in the area if something new pops up. Amanda mentioned they're getting used to the once unheard of sound of helicopters flying overhead.

Amanda is back working at the medical clinic this week and hearing horrific stories about how some people lost everything they owned, or would have, if it hadn't been for firefighters saving their home. Others had to run or drive for their lives, escaping through flames at the last minute.  Disasters pick on people in random ways.

As the fire begins to die down, the short media attention span goes elsewhere, but the Methow Valley will be recovering from this one for years to come.  It's still a serious situation, but a big improvement from this scene on July 19,  when the fire was just a few miles outside Twisp.

I can think of no more stirring symbol of man's humanity to man than a fire engine.  

~Kurt Vonnegut

The Painted Skies

Here's a video of Northwest skies and scenery from my favorite KOMO weather blog.   The creator of the video, Donald Jensen, does beautiful time-lapse photography, but in this one he took the same process used to create nighttime star trails and applied it clouds.  The result looks like sky is being painted with clouds.

Caprese salad

There's nothing better than a caprese salad on a warm summer night, especially made with your first ripe tomatoes and basil picked from a pot on the deck.  It's a perfect and satisfying meal of fresh mozzarella, tomatoes and basil, seasoned with salt and olive oil.  Caprese is also beautiful and was designed to resemble the colors of the Italian flag: red, white, and green.

I told John we should have stopped eating right there, but NO!
Mr. and Mrs. Piggy followed up with a grilled steak.  Not just any steak, but a fattening little bacon-wrapped beef filet from Costco. An impulse purchase. 

Speaking of Costco, that's where I buy these marinated mozzarella balls.  This particular brand is a wonderful fresh product.  It also bakes beautifully on pizza without getting too runny or gummy. I'm sure you can buy it other places too, but probably not in the bargain tub size.  But it's amazing how fast we'll go through one of these in the summer.

Port Gamble

July, she will fly, and give no warning to her flight...

So goes the old nursery rhyme and the 1960's Simon and Garfunkel song.  The last busy weekend of July is over.  On Sunday morning I took the Seattle-Bainbridge ferry to visit my friend Candi in Poulsbo. 

We drove up to Port Gamble for lunch, a logging town with a colorful history and now a popular tourist destination on the Olympic Pennisula.

 Pt. Gamble company housing, 1906

Port Gamble was an old-fashioned company town, built by industrialists Josiah Keller, William Talbot and Andrew Pope.  It was known as "Little Boston" for the style of the architecture and because many of the early employees came from Massachusetts. (Of course there were inhabitants in the area long before a town was established by logger barons, but that's another story.) For 142 years, it was a sawmill and shipping community until the mill finally closed in 1995.

 The work day at the company town went like this: Every morning at 6:20 a.m., the men woke to the mill whistle. At 6:40 the whistle called them to breakfast consisting of "boiled corn beef, potatoes, baked beans, hash, hot griddle cakes, biscuits, and coffee." The men had 20 minutes to eat and report for a 11½-hour day. A good worker earned $30 a month and was paid daily in coins if he chose.

Pt. Gamble Company Store, 1918

I can't remember the last time I was in Pt. Gamble, but it might have been in the early 1980's. Back then it felt more like a real, run-down old town, rather than a Disney attraction. Not that there's anything wrong with Disneyland, but Pt. Gamble was designated as a National Historic Site and a Rural Historic Town, which allowed tourist development in the picturesque location while retaining the character of the buildings.

We've all been to "historic" places like this. The service station is now an artists' co-op and the meat and produce market became an antiques store. And so on. The general store, which has been in continuous operation, still has merchandise and a restaurant.

 Pt. Gamble Company Store today

Instead of a grimy mill town, it's all very clean, pretty and nice with folks lined up on the weekends for $20 breakfasts and salads.

We had a great visit and a fun browsing around the shops without buying a thing.  I'm looking forward to doing it again, but maybe in February. Speaking of lines!  When I headed home to Seattle at 2 pm, the ferry waiting line on the highway shoulder seemed to stretch half-way across Bainbridge Island.  I don't know why the traffic congestion and number of people in the Northwest can still take me by surprise.  Some part of me must be stuck back in the 1980's.

Summer storm

It’s not that we have to quit
this life one day, but it’s how
many things we have to quit
all at once: music, laughter,
the physics of falling leaves,
automobiles, holding hands,
the scent of rain, the concept
of subway trains... if only one
could leave this life slowly!

Roman Payne
Rooftop Soliloquy 

Winter in July

We had an unseasonably strong storm yesterday and record rainfall in Seattle. The grass and the parched plants sure appreciated it, although it turned these daisies into a mess of floppy spaghetti.  You can see this garden bed is looking a bit bedraggled.

I can't believe we're already at that point in summer where the spent annual flowers and perennials need to be cut back.  I love August weather in the Pacific Northwest, but the biggest flower months are already past, except for dahlias and the late lilies.

A well-known side effect of aging: I'm constantly surprised lately at the way the months and years fly by. The summer holiday used to go on forever-- now another favorite season is over in the blink of an eye.

Keys that jingle in your pocket
Words that jangle in your head,
Why did summer go so quickly?
Was it something that you said?

From the beautiful song, "The Windmills of Your Mind"

Well.  Speaking of mind-blowing, how about this photo taken in Winthrop yesterday?  You'd think it was January!   To add insult to injury, the Methow Valley had a violent storm with 50 mph wind, heavy rain and hail.

Last night Amanda said it's nice to be home, even though nothing in town is anywhere near back to normal.  But the good news is the largest fire is over 50% contained this morning. Hot dry weather returns with a vengeance next week, so we hope and pray the brave firefighters continue to make progress.

Oh yes, a correction on the map I posted yesterday.  These red spots are not necessarily structures burned, but hot spots.  Still, the final tally of damage is yet to be made.

Wet

July is usually our driest month, and in fact we've had barely a trace of rain since June.  The lawns around the neighborhood are crispy and yellow as straw, so it was nice to wake up to the unfamiliar sound of rain this morning and the smell of water on dry grass.

Western Washington might have record-breaking precipitation today.  Best of all, the rain is extending across the eastern half of the state. This will help the firefighters and hopefully clear some of the unhealthy air.

Ash and smoke on an central Washington highway...

Every red dot on this map indicates a structure lost in the Carlton Complex fire. You can see the little town of Twisp in the center of the map, thankfully spared from major damage up to this point.  However, the landscape along our familiar drive up the Methow Valley from Pateros will be transformed for many years to come.  This area is known for its beautiful ranch land, and there's been a big loss of livestock and wildlife, along with all the homes and buildings.

Amanda, Tom, and the girls are driving back to Twisp this morning on the North Cascades Highway. It isn't a great day to be out on mountain roads, but they need to get home and back to work this week.  Vaya con Dios.

Fire blog

 Smoke drifting east...

We have a deluge of "news" at our fingertips 24/7, so it's easy to assume the most current information is just a few taps away.  Trying to find the latest, most accurate news on the fire has been a wake-up call for this librarian-- and I have a computer, smartphone, radio and television!

The Methow Valley's power grid is severely damaged, so you can imagine what they're up against over there trying to get information. The rumor mill must be churning.

Then a couple of days ago, the Carlton Complex Fire official information blog appeared out of nowhere:
 
CLICK HERE.

Bless the bloggers of the world.  This should be helpful, at least for folks who still have Internet cell phone service in the Valley.  It will probably be weeks until electricity is completely restored.

There is more optimism today because potentially wet weather is giving firefighters a small window to make real progress.  The Carlton Complex has burned about 379 square miles, making it the largest wildfire in the state since record-keeping started. The concern is lightening strikes starting more new fires. We're starting to see sad footage of destroyed homes and wildlife wandering in the charred wasteland.  Fortunately, no structures have burned in Twisp or Winthrop.

There's a dense, smoky haze everywhere east of the Cascades, and the fire effects are being felt over 1,000 miles away, giving the air in Minneapolis a frosty haze.  In Seattle, just some unusual and spooky light right at sunset.

Out of the jaws

Sharkey's at Ocean Shores

The fires are still burning in central Washington.  As of yesterday, the Carlton Complex fire was zero percent contained.  Hopefully that changes soon, but the fire has already scorched about 470 square miles with over 100 homes lost and untold damage to ranch land and wildlife habitat.

Through this entire disaster, accurate information has been hard to come by on both sides of the mountains. Today the weather seems more favorable for firefighting and the winds have died down.  Some rain is even predicted for mid-week, which unfortunately might bring more lightening strikes. But firefighters have shifted their attention from defending structures to suppressing the blaze, which is good news overall.

Since the main power lines were destroyed to the Methow Valley, they will be without electricity for "several weeks."  Inconvenience aside, this will have a big economic impact, with tourists unable to visit or locals get back to work and normal life.

The air quality is very bad, and Amanda said, there "isn't any reason to be here right now." So they packed up and traveled over the North Cascades last night with their tent camper.  They're staying up on Camano Island, where the weather this morning is chilly, grey and damp.  It must feel like waking up in a different world.

Good news, bad news, no news

A plane dumping fire retardant on a hill outside Twisp

Amanda, Tom and the little girlies are camped out with friends and staying in the Valley-- at least for now.  Cell phone calls have been few and far between, but everyone is doing OK.  There haven't been any structures burned in Twisp, which is very good news.  But there's no sugar-coating the bad news:  The Bureau of Land Management says the Carlton Complex - 215,000 acres and zero percent contained - is currently the nation's top priority fire.

It's been hard to get current information, even for Internet news-hounds like us.  The disconcerting truth is, the situation is changing constantly.

Making it even more surreal, we're at Ocean Shores. It's been foggy and raining all day, and in fact we can hardly see the ocean from our room. But last night we took "Little Beep" on a five-mile joy ride down the beach.  How many places left in the country where you can (legally) do something as fun as that?

I've also been eating as much fattening seafood as possible.  Crab Cake Egg Benedict for breakfast  makes me feel happy and optimistic.  

The latest fire news

Phone calls have been difficult today, but I talked to Amanda a few minutes ago and everyone is fine. But the town of Twisp is now under Level 2 evacuation, meaning "be ready." The clinic where Amanda works closed, so they loaded up their camp trailer and were headed to Winthrop to spend the night with friends there. After this fiery eastern Washington sunset, hopefully a cooler day and better news tomorrow.

What will the day bring?

View from Twisp yesterday afternoon

I talked to Amanda this morning and they are OK, but she said the fires are a nerve-wracking sight at night just over the hills and close to town.   The main power lines to the Valley burned yesterday, so they will be without electricity for the foreseeable future.

You can click here for a news story on the current situation in the Methow Valley.  Amanda and Tom aren't planning leave at this point, but of course the situation keeps changing. Today will be windy and hot again. Please keep our little family in your thoughts.  I wish we could send some cool, damp ocean air across the mountains!

Fire!

The Twisp-Carlton Road yesterday

You might have heard about the Eastern Washington wildfires, in particular the large fire burning near the Bavarian tourist-trap town of Leavenworth.  We've been pleasantly warm in Seattle, but the weather across the mountains has been searingly hot, dry and windy.

It hasn't made national news, but wildfires are also affecting life in the Methow Valley. Near the town of Carlton, about 10 miles south of Twisp, a cluster of new fires was started by a lightning storm Monday.  Folks living in the remote valleys around Carlton have been forced to evacuate, some hauling out dozens of farm animals and horses.

As of this morning, the Carlton Complex fire has burned across 7 square miles with zero containment.  No homes have been lost yet, but some of Amanda and Tom's friends had harrowing close calls while escaping last night.  The town of Twisp isn't in any immediate danger, but Amanda says it's smoky, hot and chaotic. To add to the misery, they expect to lose electrical power in the Valley, possibly for as long as 3 days.

Meanwhile, on the extreme other side of the state, the Washington coast is foggy, chilly and rainy. And this happens to be where we're headed for a mini-vacation.  Oh well. Sitting on a balcony in a winter jacket with a glass of wine, peacefully watching shades of grey sounds like a change of pace. At least I won't have to water anything for a few days.

Prudent happiness

Today is the birthday of St. Clare of Assisi, born 1194 into a wealthy family.  Her parents tried to arrange a marriage when she was only 12, but she managed to put them off until she was 18. She liked listening to the radical Francis of Assisi preach the gospel, and one Palm Sunday night she ran away to give her vows.  He cut her hair, dressed her in black and took her to a group of Benedictine nuns. The order became known as the "Poor Ladies." They spent their time in prayer and manual labor, and refused to own any property. The order eventually became known as the "Poor Clares."

St. Clare said:  "There are many who live solely for the idolatry of their senses. There should be compensation. There should be someone who prays and makes sacrifices for those who do not do so. If this spiritual balance is not established, earth would be destroyed by the evil one."

In 1958, Pope Pius XII designated St. Clare as the patron saint of television, because on her death bed she was able to see and hear an image of the Mass on the wall of her room.  Mother Angelica, a Poor Clare nun, founded the Eternal Word Television Network.

Super moon

There was a spectacular full moon on Saturday night-- so bright it looked like a street lamp through  the bedroom window. And why was I awake to notice this?  I don't know. But this was a special Perigee moon, the time of the month when the moon is closest to Earth.  In case you missed it, two more "super moons" are coming up on August 10 and September 9.

My favorite moon poem is by Sylvia Plath, called The Moon and the Yew Tree. 

The story goes she was living in England in a house near an old churchyard when her husband, the poet Ted Hughes, challenged her to write about the full moon rising above the yew tree in the graveyard.  Sylvia obliged by coming up with something typically dark, creepy and wonderful.

Painter's job security

 There are a couple of misconceptions about how often the Golden Gate Bridge is painted. Some say once every seven years, others say from end to end each year. The truth is that the Bridge is painted continuously. Painting the Bridge is an ongoing task and a primary maintenance job. 

 July 2010

Which is to say, exactly like an old wood siding house in Seattle.  Every four years, start again.  Round and round you go...

 July 2010

That's Nova!

But now that we have a professional painter in the family, our house has never looked better.

This weekend Tom tackled all that new wood the roofers installed to replace the rotted boards under the eves. 

Everything on the south side was primed and painted in one day. A real pain-in-the-neck job, if you ask me.

The next day he had time to spray a coat of fresh blue on the front side and touch up some trim.  Looks sharp!

And what were we doing all weekend while he labored away?  Playing.  Trips to the park and the annual West Seattle Street Fair. 

Thanks, Daddy for all your hard work!

Heating up

This is an amazing chart showing the 6-10 day temperature forecast for the country.  Seattle will have highs in the 90's for the next several days.  Not long ago, even one 90 degree day a year was rare, much less a string of them. Where it is usually hot, it is chilly this week.  Maybe "strange" is the new climate normal.

We've been watching the Cosmos television series, which puts our puny human sojourn on Planet Earth into perspective. For example:  If the entire cosmic age of the universe from Big Bang to present day was laid out on a 12-month calendar, all the life on Earth from the very first microbe evolved just a few seconds before midnight on December 31st.  In these "6 seconds" of life on Earth, there have been five major mass extinctions.

Dinosaurs dominated Earth for 185 million years, but we Homo Sapiens have only been around for about 200,000.  And the immediate future doesn't look good for us.

The original Cosmos was written and presented by Carl Sagan and aired on PBS in 1980.  Anyone who was around then remembers his billions and billions of stars... The series had groundbreaking special effects for the time, which allowed Sagan to seemingly walk through environments that were actually models rather than full-sized sets.

The 2014 Cosmos series was produced by Fox and National Geographic, and makes heavy use of computer-generated graphics, animation footage (mini cartoon stories) and other flashy visual stuff tailored for the short attention spans of the current generation. But the subject matter is so fascinating it doesn't really need to be dolled up, especially considering how much has been discovered about the universe in the past 30 years. The series is highly-acclaimed and has been nominated for 12 Emmy awards.

Life is just a bowl of cherries...

Except someone forgot to remove the pits :-)

Dry

What a beautiful forecast for Seattle! I had such a nice day yesterday.  Everyone I came in contact with seemed thoughtful, kind and pleasant.  Is it the weather?

Now the big chore is watering, which has to be done by hand.  And no matter how much I run my cheap sprinklers, the ground stays bone dry as far down as I can dig.  I bought a new perennial called Bee Balm that needs to be planted and it's too dry now.  But flowers probably need less water than I assume because everything is at its July peak of beautifulness. Mercifully, the bamboo has finally stopped growing for the year.  (It needs heat+water, and it won't get one more drop from me.)

I usually drive to my little pocket gym and work out in the early morning, but who wants to trudge on a smelly treadmill when this is the view out the window?  Hummingbirds fighting over the Crocosmia, and birds taking expensive baths in the sprinkler water. 

The first red tomatoes yesterday-- and just in time for Nova and Maya this weekend.