Wings and things

How do old married couples celebrate their anniversary? They go to Wild Buffalo Wings for lunch and watch each other eat messy wings.  Just like the food scene in the Tom Jones movie. Ha!

But on Sunday, some high brow entertainment.  We went to the opera to see Mary Stuart by Donizetti.   The story is about the historical clash between Queen Elizabeth I and Mary Queen of Scots, her cousin.  Mary becomes a rival for the throne, and Elizabeth has her imprisoned and eventually executed.  The production was good, in particular the period costumes.

Aidan Lang became Seattle Opera's General Director in 2014. He replaced Spaight Jenkins,  who was with the opera since 1983, as long as most of us regular-goers can remember.  So it's been interesting to watch the changes as Lang makes his own mark on the opera.  One example is a decidedly zipped up branding image, like in this short promotional preview for Mary Stuart.

Two icons of British royalty, Queen Elizabeth I and Mary, Queen of Scots, clash in a powerful story of jealousy, pity, doubt, menace, exaltation, and remorse. Extravagant - See more at: http://www.seattleopera.org/on-stage/mary-stuart/#sthash.zFbII3DA.dpuf

Two icons of British royalty, Queen Elizabeth I and Mary, Queen of Scots, clash in a powerful story of jealousy, pity, doubt, menace, exaltation, and remorse. Extravagant - See more at: http://www.seattleopera.org/on-stage/mary-stuart/#sthash.zFbII3DA.dpuf

Kudos to the young folks

A big shout out to our nephew Sam, who became an Eagle scout this week. He's with Brian, his proud dad at the award ceremony. This is an impressive accomplishment for a young man. To earn Eagle rank, a Boy Scout must:

• Progress through the ranks in the following order:
  
  • Tenderfoot
    
  • Second Class
    
  • First Class
    
  • Star
    
  • Life
    
  • Eagle
    
• Earn 21 merit badges, including:
  
  • First Aid
    
  • Citizenship in the Community
    
  • Citizenship in the Nation
    
  • Citizenship in the World
    
  • Communications
    
  • Environmental Science
    
  • Personal Fitness
    
  • Camping
    
  • Family Life
    
  • Personal Management
    
  • Emergency Preparedness or Lifesaving
    
  • Cycling, Hiking, or Swimming
    
• Serve six months in a troop leadership position.
  
• Plan, develop, and give leadership to a service project for any religious organization or any school or community.
  
• Take part in a Scoutmaster conference.
  
• Successfully complete an Eagle Scout board of review.

 And here's Nova (fourth from the right) performing at Reader's Theater at school this week.  She's been working hard on her reading and learning her part in the story.  Way to go kids!

National Pistachio Day

Yesterday was National Pistachio Day. Do you remember pistachios were once dyed finger-staining red?  They were also kind of hard and stale.  I don't think I ate a pistachio until I was grown up and had pistachio ice cream for the first time.

Oh, gosh, Costco sells the most delicious pistachios in $20 bags.  Yes, that's expensive, but 4 pounds is a lot of pistachios. If I put them in a glass jar on the counter, it's amazing how fast they disappear around here.

We bought some pistachios once at the Olive Pit in Corning, California, and they were the best we ever had.  Freshness is everything with nuts, and pistachios ripen in August or September.

Archaeology digs find discarded pistachio shells, so they were a common food as early as 7000 BC. The pistachio is a small tree, related to the cashew, that originated in central Asia. They need long, hot summers and take ten years to produce a crop.

Pistachio nuts have many health benefits, including reducing the risk of diabetes. They are full of vitamins and all sorts of other healthy stuff.  Unfortunately, one cup has 691 calories (according to Wiki.)

What a beautiful week we had in Seattle.  I took advantage of every minute working  outside.  The trees are planted, so now it's up to them to take hold.  I seldom have plants up and die on me, but I'm a little nervous about these because of the big investment of work and money.

Rain is back in the forecast which will be good for the trees and all the grass seed I've thrown down.  We're looking forward to the opera on Sunday.  It's one we've never seen before called "Mary Stuart" by Donizetti, about the clash between Queen Elizabeth and Mary Queen of Scotland.

And tomorrow we have our anniversary to celebrate.  Let's see-- we got married in 1993, so that would be 23 years?  Wow.

Queen Elizabeth I and Mary, Queen of Scots,

Happy Birthday, Mom

Our parents on their wedding day

Your 91 years of living have been 
A great blessing to family, and friends too, 
And our lives are all enriched 
Because we know and love you both. 

I hope you and Dad spend a wonderful day together.

How things cook

I found these funny cook book illustrations on the Old Books and Things blog. It doesn't look very wholesome, but obviously this was before microwaves and the atom bomb were invented.

Radiation cooking doesn't require physical contact between the heat source and the food.  With microwaves, energy is transferred by waves of light hitting the food. But infrared cooking has been around for a long time.  Basically, an electric or ceramic element is heated to such a high temperature it gives off waves of radiant heat that cooks the food.

This is the English AGA heat storage stove and cooker.  The heavy cast iron frame absorbs heat from a low-intensity but continuously-burning source that is used when needed for cooking.  

AGA's are heavy and slow, and can be tricky to maintain and use.  This technology has been used in Europe for thousands of years as a way to overcome the shortage of firewood.  You can still buy a AGA stove in England. They went out of style for a long time, but are considered shabby chic now. A new one costs as much as $20,000. 

Our contemporary furnaces warm a house by means of convection: they heat up the air.  Amanda and Tom's efficient new wood stove can easily raise the temperature of their living room to 90 degrees on a freezing day.  Whew! The kids can run around in summer clothes.

An oven stove warms by means of radiant heat, comparable to the heat of the sun. In a room that is heated by an oven stove, a thermometer can hardly measure anything.  That's why an AGA stove is never "off" and can comfortably radiate year round. 

The effect is like a Colorado skier sunbathing in spite of freezing temperature.  Radiant heat does not so much warm up the air as the body of the skier directly.  An oven stove acts in the same way as the sun: it heats the floor, the walls, the furniture and the people in the room. And the food.

Speaking of direct heat cooking, it's so warm out today I'll scrape the winter mold off the gas grill.  I just took a big steak out of the freezer.

Snow moon

Fly me to the moon

and let me play among the stars,

Let me see what spring is like,

On Jupiter or Mars...

It's going to be a gorgeous day in Seattle.  The full February "snow moon" is just setting to the west behind the Olympic Mountains, while the sun is coming up in a perfectly clear sky to the east.

I got two of the Leyland Cypress trees planted yesterday, but it was quite a job. Remember when we brought in 4 yards of compressed topsoil as a base for the fence?  That thumping machine, plus all the winter rain, packed the ground down like cement. 

As a rule of thumb, a planting hole should be twice the size of the container, so I'm glad these are only five gallon size trees. I'm cheating on the hole width, but I have a feeling they will do fine.  They look spindly, but the tag said they grow 15-20 feet wide.  And once established, they can put on 3 feet of height a year.  It will a long time before they block the view like the bamboo once did, but it's nice seeing something growing back there again.  Even small plants distract the eye from what's on the other side.  I'm liking our yard again.

I was complaining to John last night about the work, and he pulled something out of the basement I didn't even know we owned. It looks like a giant Viking battle ax to hack up the ground. The only instructions were "don't chop your foot with this."  Isn't he a helpful person?

Another pretty sight this morning-- the clematis blooming outside the kitchen door.

Winter to Spring

 Confluence of the Twisp and Methow Rivers

Here's a few photo highlights from the weekend. We had a nice time and an easy drive home yesterday.  The sun came out on Saturday and burned off the clouds, so we went on a little local outing. It was a spectacular winter day in the Methow Valley.

Twisp City Park

The view from Sun Mountain Lodge

Snow play

Family portrait

A stop at the Winthrop Flea market

Maya found some stomping puddles.  Spring is just around the corner...

And Spring has definitely arrived in Seattle. The Nursery delivered my five Leyland Cypress trees while we were gone. Time to get digging.   

Twisp in winter

As you see, there's quite a bit of snow left on the streets here. We had a fairly easy drive yesterday, and Amanda made us a great steak dinner on the grill! A climb over a little snowy pass to get there, but no problem.


 It rained yesterday but the sun is working on coming out this morning.  

Cuddled up in our matching cheetah outfits...

The wrinkles of the road

Snow

by Emily Dickinson

It sifts from Leaden Sieves —

It powders all the Wood.

It fills with Alabaster Wool

The Wrinkles of the Road —

It makes an Even Face

Of Mountain, and of Plain —

Unbroken Forehead from the East

Unto the East again —

It reaches to the Fence —

It wraps it Rail by Rail

Till it is lost in Fleeces —

It deals Celestial Vail

To Stump, and Stack - and Stem —

A Summer’s empty Room —

Acres of Joints, where Harvests were,

Recordless, but for them —

Well, Emily wasn't driving over Snoqualmie Pass when she wrote that pretty poem.  Tomorrow we're headed to the Methow Valley. We haven't seen the family since Christmas-- too long. 

The weather looks like a "wintry mix" in the Valley, with wet snow on the passes tomorrow.  So we're taking bouncy Little Beep the Honda, because Mr. Avalon (my car) is not allowed out in the snow.  I hope to have some new pictures to post this weekend.   Those girls are really growing fast.  Nova started piano lessons, and Amanda said she is preparing a recital for Nana and Grandpa.  Fun times ahead.

Oceans of rain

The Kiss of Oceans

1923 postcard

Powerful El Nino years tend to be drier in the Pacific Northwest, but not this time.  February is the fifth month in a row with above normal rainfall, and we're on pace to set a record for the wettest winter ever.  Can you believe it, after the long drought last year?

We average about 37 inches of rain a year in Seattle, and we're already up to 22.  The yard is so saturated the water actually puddles in spots-- I've never seen that happen on this sandy postage stamp we call home.  The dahlias may have rotted in the ground.  I won't know until May.

This week I ordered five small Leyland Cypress trees from the West Seattle nursery to plant along the alley fence.  The plan is to block our backyard view of the condos and apartments springing up behind us. Leyland Cypress is one of the fastest growing evergreens. They grow so vigorously they are often trimmed into hedges to control the size. 

Oh, fiddlesticks. Fast growing plants don't scare me. (Famous last words.)

Researching the care and feeding, I ran across the occasional horror story of trees that got as big as giant Sequoias, caused divorces and forced people to move.  It was a like looking up a medical symptom on the Internet.  You can always find the worst case scenario if you dig around enough.

Fools rush in. Besides, we're talking about DECADES to reach full height.  So unless the actuary tables are lying, we won't be around to worry about it. Our gift to the Urban Village.

Chance seedlings

 Lady Alice

Ambrosia

Move over, Honeycrisp.  There's some new kids on the block.  When Honeycrisp was introduced in 1991 by the University of Minnesota, it became immensely popular and set a new apple standard for crispness and juiciness, not to mention high price.  But you've probably noticed the flavor and quality can be really inconsistent.  Nothing like a $2 bad apple to make a person feel ripped off. Plus they turn mushy in the fridge after just a few days, becoming an expensive treat for Spanky and Belle. 

In the search for the perfect apple, Washington State University recently created the Cosmic Crisp, a cross between Honeycrisp and Enterprise.  It is firmer but not too hard to bite, high in sugar and acidity, so it holds flavor and crispness all year, even after weeks in a kitchen. 444 Washington growers entered a lottery,  and the University selected 24 lucky winners to plant Cosmic Crisp.

While we wait, there are other varieties to try, like Ambrosia and Lady Alice, that were not created in a agricultural lab. These are called "chance seedlings," the product of unintentional breeding. In other words, an apple dropped on the ground and a tree grew from one of its seeds.  What an original concept  :-) The real miracle is that someone in the orchard noticed and let it grow, just to see what would happen.

The Ambrosia was discovered on the Mennell family orchard in British Columbia.  The exact parentage is unknown, but it might be a cross between Starking Delicious and Golden Delicious.  The Mennell website says the original Ambrosia mother tree still stands. The thousands of Ambrosia trees growing around the world grew from branch clippings of a single tree.

The Lady Alice was also a happy accident.  This apple was discovered in 1979 as a chance seedling in Gleed, WA, and is a registered trademark of the Rainier Fruit Company.

Apples, of course, are harvested in the fall and cold-stored for the rest of the year.  I read on the Wiki page that Lady Alice is at her best in March, but there was no explanation why.

Anyway, I bought Lady Alice and Ambrosia at QFC this week for $1.50 a pound, which is as cheap as apples ever get here in the Apple State. Both are delicious, with a fine crisp texture, sweet but not cottony. Since I'm mostly off the ice cream and cookies these days, munching on a good apple makes a satisfying dessert while watching TV.  Especially with a bit of that dark chocolate John gave me for Valentine's Day. Which doesn't really count as "candy" in my book.

Black Forest Glider Port

Just by chance, I ran across this 1972 film called "Soaring Country." It was produced by our Uncle Mark at Black Forest Glider Port.  Mark Wild was a successful businessman and talented amateur photographer. 

The film was "lost" for many years, according to the YouTube note. In 2014, the staff at Soaring Cafe received a VHS copy of the original 16mm movie and they digitized it for historical purposes. The film may have come from the estate of Aunt Ruth, our mom's sister, who passed away about that time. 

In the 1950's, Uncle Mark and Aunt Ruth built a small glider port on their ranch east of Colorado Springs. It became a mecca for soaring enthusiasts from all over the world, who came for the thrilling "waves" generated by Pikes Peak and the front range of the Rocky Mountains. Ruth and Mark both became glider pilots. The film has some impressive aerial footage, long before digital devices and go-cams made it easy.

They eventually sold the Glider Port in 1985.  You can bet there are still some old soaring enthusiasts nostalgic for those good old days. And it was a great lifestyle for the Wild family.

When our family moved to Colorado Springs in 1958, the glider port was just getting started. Our Pennsylvania dairy farm was sold, and we brought just about everything we owned west in a Chevy Suburban, camping along the way.  Mom put a "Pikes Peak or Bust" sign on the back of the truck. It was a big adventure but we were pretty homesick at first.  When we arrived, Aunt Ruth and Uncle Mark's generous hospitality really helped us with that transition.

As kids we loved visiting their ranch and playing with our cousins. In those days, Black Forest seemed like a long drive from Colorado Springs, across prairie dotted with ranches.  And horses!  Coming from a small eastern farm, the mountains and plains were amazing.  We soon fell in love with the West.

The movie runs 28 minutes. There is just a glimpse of Aunt Ruth (cooking barbecue) and Uncle Mark (in a cowboy hat addressing a large room full of people.) I think the smiling girl in the glider at the beginning is our cousin Gail.

On a poignant note, no trace remains of the old glider port on the edge of the Black Forest.  The Wild Ranch was subdivided, and is covered with the urban sprawl that now reaches far east of Colorado Springs.

Happy Valentine's Day

Remember those old school Valentine parties?  The sticky cupcake on a napkin. The cardboard "mailbox" decorated with hearts and stuffed full of valentines. The lucky "mailmen" (always boys) who importantly delivered them around to each desk.

Hope you're having a sweet day!

Perfect egg

 A Quiet Life
  Poem by Baron Wormser


What a person desires in life
    is a properly boiled egg.
This isn’t as easy as it seems.
There must be gas and a stove,
    the gas requires pipelines, mastodon drills,
    banks that dispense the lozenge of capital.

There must be a pot, the product of mines
    and furnaces and factories,
    of dim early mornings and night-owl shifts,
    of women in kerchiefs and men with
    sweat-soaked hair.

Then water, the stuff of clouds and skies
    and God knows what causes it to happen.
There seems always too much or too little
    of it and more pipelines, meters, pumping
    stations, towers, tanks.

And salt-a miracle of the first order,
    the ace in any argument for God.
Only God could have imagined from
    nothingness the pang of salt.

Political peace too. It should be quiet
    when one eats an egg. No political hoodlums
    knocking down doors, no lieutenants who are
    ticked off at their scheming girlfriends and
    take it out on you, no dictators
    posing as tribunes.

It should be quiet, so quiet you can hear
    the chicken, a creature usually mocked as a type
    of fool, a cluck chained to the chore of her body.
Listen, she is there, pecking at a bit of grain
    that came from nowhere.

Queen of Hearts

The trash man cometh

It felt like spring in Seattle yesterday.  We broke the record high temperature for February 9th.  The reason was a freakishly high temperature inversion with warm air aloft, so the heat records fell all up and down the West Coast.

Out in Forks, Vampire Land on the chilly Olympic Peninsula, it hit 73 degrees, a typical summer day.  It was cooler where the palm trees grow:  Miami "only" reached 67 degrees Tuesday, while Orlando was 60.

Well, it does seem the country has turned topsy-turvery, in more ways than one.

I've been spring cleaning in a big way.  No pretty picture on the blog today, just this sorry pile of stuff I gathered up from every corner of the home farm.  The Big Haul Junk and Debris Removal Service comes today.  Out with the old...

Fat Tuesday

Did you know Mardi Gras is French for Fat Tuesday? Today is traditionally the last chance to binge on rich, fatty foods before the fasting of the Lenten season.  In Louisiana and other parts of the country, Fat Tuesday is an excuse for a big party.  In sedate Seattle, probably not too many regrets tomorrow morning... 

I might make a poor excuse for chicken creole tonight, with leftover Costco roast chicken and frozen Kroger okra.  Or maybe just curry, depending on where the culinary Muse leads.

We are having a taste of beautiful springlike weather this week.  After the morning fog burns off, sunshine and nearly 60 today!  Yesterday Dolly and I took the first trail ride in what seems like forever.  The signs are pointing to an early spring.

The neighbors are just starting to emerge, blinking around in their gardens at the mess. I've been busy for weeks, cleaning up and planting grass seed on all the ugly bare spots. Hopefully it germinates in this warm weather.  It's the green time of year in Seattle.

Year of the Monkey

When I went to Trader Joe's yesterday, they had these little potted chrysanthemums wrapped in fancy paper for Chinese New Year.  Of course they're right at the entrance, making it hard to resist grabbing one on the way in. Trader Joe's is all about impulse shopping.

Red, yellow and green are considered lucky colors in China.  Yellow is the most beautiful and prestigious color,  and red symbolizes good fortune and joy.  Green is associated with health, prosperity, and harmony.

Today is Chinese New Year, calculated each year by the lunar cycle.  The new year starts on the second full moon after the winter solstice. 2016 marks the 4713th Chinese year.

There are many traditions (some would say superstitions) around the Chinese New Year celebrations.  For example, the house must be cleaned in advance to prevent disease. Many Chinese avoid taking medicine on the New Year or it is thought you'll be sick for the rest of the year.  Washing your hair or cleaning the first three days of the year "washes away the good luck." And so on...

The Western zodiac system is divided into 12 months. The Chinese zodiac is divided into 12 years, each one associated with a different animal: rat, ox, tiger, rabbit, dragon, snake, horse, sheep, monkey, rooster, dog and pig.

In my favorite Buddha legend, he called all the animals of the world to him before he left the earth. I suppose that included the human animal. The only ones who listened were these twelve, so Buddha named a year after each of them in the order that they arrived.

Here's another story.  The Buddha once got frustrated and went into solitary retreat after trying to mediate a dispute between bickering monks at a monastery.  While in the wilderness, a monkey offered him a honeycomb. The Buddha was also offered fruit and attended to by an elephant who was tired of communal life and had left his herd.

Elephants have wonderful qualities, and who wouldn't want to be born in the Year of the Elephant? Unfortunately, there isn't one.  The poor guy must have showed up late to the Buddha's naming party.

Since monkeys are crafty pranksters, their year can bring random surprises. This is the year to take action outside your comfort zone. People born in the Year of the Monkey are lively, quick-witted, curious, innovative and mischievous.

• Strengths: sociable, innovative, enthusiastic, self-assured
• Weaknesses: suspicious, cunning, selfish, arrogant, jealous