Ya' gotta love Seattle

The menu board at the cafe in the West Seattle Health Club lobby. The other morning, I noticed that along with smoothies and coffee, you can also order beer and wine now. Yea!

Reward yourself for that good workout. Although (fortunately) not what I'm hankering for at 9 am. At that early hour, the people I see at the gym are either 1) headed off to work, or 2) retired and incapable of sleeping late so they might as well go exercise.  I'm sure it's a different vibe at 8 pm, when I'm tucked up at home.

Here's another thing I'm grateful for: FOX News is not playing on a single one of the dozens of TV screens in that building.

OK, "thirty days hath November." Where did it go?  The first half of the month was abnormally dry, the other half drenching wet. It was a warm month, too, but now it looks like we'll finally have freezing temperatures and snow building up in the mountains.  The North Cascades Highways closed for the season this week.

 Have a good weekend, dear friends and family.

Little Women

 PBS Masterpiece Theater

I noticed on the Writer's Almanac that today is the birthday of Louisa May Alcott, born in 1832 in Germantown, Pennsylvania.  She had an unconventional childhood, and was tutored by free-thinkers like Hawthorn, Thoreau and Emerson.

Her father was a social idealist and ran experimental schools, including a vegan commune where no one owed personal property, used animal labor or wore cotton (because of slavery.)  A recipe for failure, like most of his social projects. Anyway, the family was always poor and she worked as a seamstress and later a nurse during the Civil War.

Of course she is forever associated with her novel "Little Women," but she started out writing what she called "blood and thunder" stories: lurid potboilers featuring opium addiction, sex and revenge. They had titles like "Pauline's Passion and Punishment" and "A Long Fatal Love Chase," which sounds like a far cry from "Little Women."

The book has been made into countless movies, and each generation has its own adaptation. A few months ago we watched the PBS Masterpiece Theater "Little Women," yet another updated version of the classic.  The sisters act more like high school kids today, running around barefoot with loose hair flying, flirting with boys. Maybe not realistic 19th century social behavior, but the pretty girls were fun to watch. The actress Maya Hawke plays "Jo." She was great, no surprise, as she's Uma Thurman's daughter. 

You might still be able to find it as a rerun on PBS:

Black bears

I like black bears. They are relatively common around
here, and they are usually not aggressive. Actually,
they are generally affable, loners mostly, but not
opposed to hanging out with humans now and then.
In fact, I’ve found that in many ways they are a lot
like us.

My friend, Richard, an older male, drops by now and
then and we hang out down on the shore, have a
couple of beers, but mostly we just sit and look out
at the water. We don’t have a lot to say. We aren’t
friends exactly, but we enjoy the company. Richard
says, at our age we don’t have friends. We have
associates.

By Louis Jenkins

Light in the window

We have this sweet candle that I put up each Christmas. It has a built-in light sensor, and glowed all day yesterday, it was so wet, so chilly, so DARK, so typical Seattle in November.  We got spoiled this month with many sunny days.  Now our short winter in the lowlands begins, and snow starts to pile up in the Cascade and Olympic Mountains. We have 8 hours of daylight in Seattle. Sorta.

Today is "Giving Tuesday," a type of penance, I suppose, after the orgy of Black Friday and Cyber Monday shopping.  I got a bit carried away myself.  I didn't buy anything big, or even spend that much money (I think) but there were all sorts of little temptations at Macy's and elsewhere dangling that free shipping carrot. Click, click, click.  Soon the UPS guys will beat a path to the door.

Speaking of giving, the Big Bird that keeps on giving transforms magically into turkey enchiladas tonight.  Sorta.

On we go

This is where I would wake up, in the kitchen of my dreams.  Oh well. I make do with 2 square feet of counter space, and no one has ever gone hungry around here.  On we go in the kitchen. Up next, about a thousand Christmas cookies to bake. 

The kids left Sunday morning and we were relieved when they got home safely. Good timing, because the weather turned nasty in the mountains and elsewhere. It was still sunny yesterday, and I did laundry and housework. John spent the morning replacing boards on the front fence that were kicked out again, probably by senseless teenagers with nothing better to do with themselves. This is the second time it's happened in a year. Getting old.

Honestly, I never thought it was for me, but I'm starting to understand why people move to gated senior communities.  Our neighborhood has changed and will continue to do so as thousands of people move into new apartments.  There are limits to the joys of "diversity."

On the bright side, we have fun things to look forward to in December:

The ladies "ornament party" hosted by old friends.
The Ukes Christmas Concert at the Senior Center (John wouldn't miss it for the world ;-)
Our traditional fancy lunch downtown, when I trick John into some brick and mortar shopping.
Tickets to the new musical "Jane Eyre" at ArtsWest, our neighborhood theater.
And best of all, a 5-day trip to Las Vegas right before Christmas to visit my Dad and sister.

The best is yet to come

My kitchen staff

Everyone agreed it was the best turkey dinner ever, and that's saying something, because I think I've cooked at least a thousand. 

That ordinary Jennie-O frozen turkey turned out crispy and juicy after roasting in a slow convection oven for 6 hours. Mashed potatoes, (Nova peeled 5 pounds) yams baked with maple syrup and butter, green beans with bacon and shallots, cornbread dressing with dried cranberries, roasted Brussels sprouts, fresh cranberry sauce, a big green salad, and, because Thanksgiving only comes once a year, packaged sweet white rolls, a big hit with the little girls. Slathered with butter. Pumpkin pie for dessert. With cool whip and ice cream.

Whew. Then the big cleanup begins...and extra leftovers go in the freezer for many other meals, like turkey enchiladas and curry. 

For the tired cook, the reward comes the day after Thanksgiving:

 

 A fine turkey sandwich for me.

Turkey nachos for John.

And the remains of Big Bird, simmering for tortilla soup.

"Throwing away food is like stealing from the table of those who are poor and hungry."

Pope Francis

Amen.

Countdown to dinner

Chief Potato Peeler

 Turkey Baster

 Table Setter

 General Supervisor

The colors of Thanksgiving

Turkey and stuff

Turkey was once the ultimate in luxury meat-- a huge treat only on Thanksgiving.  In 1950, America’s per-capita turkey consumption was just 5.5 pounds. Nowadays, that number is over 16 pounds. Turkeys keep getting bigger and cheaper (I'll spare you the details) but the average weight has gone from 15.1 pounds in 1960 to 31.1 pounds in 2017.

Turkey dinners aren't expensive or particularly complicated, but if you've ever cooked one from scratch, you know they're a lot of work. It helps to like cooking, because the main challenge is getting everything on the table at the same time. Tricky, especially with pan gravy.

Hence the popularity of those pre-cooked dinners you pick up at the grocery store. I suppose the microwave goes on overtime to get everything heated up, which doesn't sound very festive.  I also read once that those meals are cooked in bulk and then refrigerated for many days in advance before you pick them up. Nothing is spoiled (hopefully) but nothing especially fresh, either. No, thanks.

Speaking of spoiled, I bought a bag of organic romaine lettuce hearts yesterday morning, then found out when I got home the CDC says to throw it all out. I'm tempted to take it back to Trader Joes, really, they should have known about that. And I thought I was finally done with the grocery store. Ha!

Well, today is pie day, better get busy.

By the light of the silvery moon

I've been to the grocery store every day for the past week. Finally, except for salad and bread, the house is stuffed and ready for Thanksgiving cooking and then a weekend of company.

I guess most people don't have the time or inclination to shop early. At Safeway yesterday, it looked like they were getting ready for a last minute shopping siege.  You could hardly move, the aisles were so full of pallets and boxes and people frantically stocking shelves. Glad I'm done.

We've been eating a lot of chili, soup and stew lately, nothing wrong with that, but mine eye was caught by a value package of New York steak.  Sunset is 4:20, dark at 5, but I fired up the grill anyway and cooked a summer feast in the chilly dusk while the moon rose.  It was the last day of our beautiful stretch of dry weather.  Thanksgiving will be a soaker.

A surprise for John, who was expecting meatless Monday. Postponed until Tuesday.

Have a Bad Day Day

November 19th is "Have a Bad Day Day." It was created to get sales people to stop endlessly repeating "Have a Good Day."  It didn't work.

I hope a certain squirrel is having a very bad day. Believe it or not, this is a true story. A squirrel was messing around on the arbor outside the kitchen door, and I was nice enough to give him a nut yesterday. When we got home from the Symphony and I plugged in our cheerful Christmas lights, two of the strings had gone black. Arrg! We couldn't figure out what happened to new lights, especially on a calm, dry day.

So John got out the ladder and found the place where the squirrel had snipped through the wire. Obviously just for the fun of it. Being a clever electrician, John spliced the ends back together, so I don't have to climb up there and replace the strings. Yet. No more nuts for you, guy.
 
Our coffee this morning has grounds in it; for some reason the filter collapsed. The week can only get better from here.

I've always liked this little song by Canadian pop singer Daniel Powter.

Have a good Monday.

Oh, purple tree

Amanda said the girls scored this great find at the Senior Center Thrift Shop in Twisp...

May peace be with you...

Unicorns

Unicorns are everywhere these days. Little girls (and big girls) are crazy about them, although even Nova and Maya seem to be getting tired of the fad.

I bought this small unicorn pillow at the Musee Cluny gift shop in Paris.  I'm embarrassed to tell you how many euros it cost. Impulse purchase.  On the trip of a lifetime, you tend to throw inhibition to the wind. But when we got home, I wished I'd bought a second one.

We like tapestries, and seeing the original, medieval "Lady and the Unicorn" series was one of the trip highlights. They are incredibly detailed and beautiful. The Lady interacts with the Unicorn, and each tapestry represents an allegory of the five senses, plus desire.

On Ebay (where you can get anything) I found all kinds of unicorn tapestry pillows. I took a chance on a set of Damask covers from China ($20 each, no tax, no shipping, wow.) 

They took about a month to get here, and finally arrived in a weird package that looked like it came off a slow boat from China. Which it did. My expectations were low, but they're really nice for the money.  Only "Touch" is missing from the series, for some reason not available.

"Sight" is my favorite. The vain Unicorn fawns on Lady's lap like a big spoiled dog, admiring his reflection.  Of course, cheap fabric is nothing like the exquisite original tapestry, but the colors are muted and pretty, and they almost look like antiques. 

Confounds the science

Wordless Wednesday

Navajo cowboy

The actor's life for me

"The Secret Garden"

You might remember when Nova played an orphan in the Methow Community Theater production of "Annie" last April.  That musical was a unique opportunity for the local kids, because the cast of "Annie" has so many children.  Many got a taste of the actor's life for the first time. Needless to say, they loved it.

So Nova and her friends were excited when the Missoula Children's Theater visited to their school this month. The MCT is a non-profit organization that brings the performing arts to all 50 states, with an emphasis on small communities with fewer creative resources for kids.

From the Methow Valley Newspaper:

Missoula Chlidren's Theatre returns

The Missoula Children’s Theatre is back in the Methow Valley this year, and local auditions will be held on Nov. 5 for the troupe’s production of “The Secret Garden.”

The auditions will be from 3:30 – 5:30 p.m. at Methow Valley Elementary School, open to students in grades 1 – 12, and no advance preparation is necessary. Not all who audition will be cast in the production. Assistant directors will also be cast. There is a $25 participation fee for those cast in roles or support positions; scholarships are available. Rehearsals will be throughout the week from 3:30 – 8 p.m. each day.

The performances will be on Nov. 10 at the elementary school, at 2 p.m. and 7 p.m. Tickets, available at the door, are $8 for adults, $5 for students 18 and under, and free for ages 5 and under. Free tickets are available to clients of The Cove, Room One and the Methow Valley Senior Center at those locations. Contact Methow Arts at 997-4004 or info@methowartsalliance.org for more information.

10/24

Did you catch that part about rehearsals held from 3:30-8:00 pm?  Nova was at the school for 12 hours each day, and packed both her lunch and supper!  Everyone was pretty tired by the end of the week, especially the stage parents from running back and forth to the elementary school in Winthrop. 

All worth it in the end. Wish we could have seen the big performance. Amanda said Nova got many compliments on her fine portrayal of a singing, talking squirrel.  

Nova on the left

Food shopping

Safeway had smoked spiral sliced ham for $1.50 a pound this week. I love food shopping before the holidays, so many good specials and I stock up on all sorts of things.

We like ham and I bought mostly one for the leftovers. John takes a sandwich to work every day, and I get tired of buying that expensive (and not very good) Oscar Meyer lunch meat. I'm sure he gets tired of eating it, too. 

My, what a delicious ham. I threw out that packet of brown sugar powder and made a fresh glaze with spicy mustard and Bonne Maman apricot jam. As we watched the Seahawks lose (again) it smelled scrumptious. An embarrassing amount of food for two, but in honor of the poor factory raised pig, not a scrap will be wasted.

“It was wonderful, of course-- 

ham with mustard is a meal of glory.”

Dodie Smith, from I Capture the Castle. 

Ham sandwiches, bean soup, ham and eggs, split pea soup, minestrone, omelettes, scalloped potatoes, casseroles, etc. etc.  Is there anything you can't do with ham? Hooray for my little freezer.

The weather has been really nice for November, so far.  Quite dry, actually, in what is usually our wettest month.  Morning fog and chilly temperatures, but lots of afternoon sunshine.  I took advantage of it yesterday and put the lights up on the back arbor.

Nice to have that annual chore done, and it brightens up the dark times. With a ham in the oven and a turkey in the freezer, definitely a holiday feeling starting up around here.

Don't the room look purdy?

And my mini-closet clean and tidy.  Well, at least for a while.

This little project really turned our lives upside down for a week.  The walls were in such bad shape, of course it took Casey twice as long to do the repairs, four days instead of two. But we're used to that sort of thing around here.  You never know what you're going to find when you start messing with a 100 year old house.

Last night we shoved all that big furniture from the living room back into the bedroom. Across the floor and then carpet, changing the sliders along the way.  A back-breaking job, especially for the furniture lifter (not me.)  Finally, we poured a couple of big glasses of wine and baked potatoes with chili on top for dinner. Then I spent Saturday morning cleaning floors and vacuuming up gallons of displaced dust.

 Finally. Done. Hooray.

Heartsick

There have been 37,000 gun related deaths and 307 mass murders so far in 2018.

The United States has 4% of the world's population and 82% of all gun deaths.

Americans own 50% of the civilian firearms in the world.

The last time we were in Twisp, Nova asked me, "Nana, did you ever have to hide in a closet for lock down drill at school?"

"No, sweetheart, I never did." 

About things in general

Don't be a Dunce. 

Try to get a little useful information 

about things in general.

Today is "Dunce Day," in honor of medieval scholar Duns Scotus of Scotland (1263-1308.) Duns believed that conical hats stimulated the brain, and knowledge would flow from the point of the "thinking cap" down into the head of the wearer, making that person smarter.

About all that accomplished was to make the person wearing the dunce cap to look like, well...a dunce. And the rest is history.

Other news from our world. The moles are back. The little devils seem to come out of nowhere.

Moles eat worms, so maybe they're attracted by the aroma of fresh compost. We've had some rain this week, and John is probably glad the "earthy" miasma surrounding the house is finally fading.

Actually, I think our yard smells kind of like a good old farm. Dad, remember that sweet and sour smell of cow barn and silage? The aroma of hard work.

I was worried about bits of trash in the compost like the last time. Since it rained, I've seen a few specks of plastic on top, but nothing to get excited about. Some bits are inevitable, I suppose, with municipal brewed compost.  I like looking out at the dark black beds. I hope we have millions of worms in the spring if the moles don't eat them up.

What if...

What if you slept
And what if
In your sleep
You dreamed
And what if
In your dream
You went to heaven
And there plucked a strange and beautiful flower
And what if
When you awoke
You had that flower in your hand
Ah, what then?

By Samuel Taylor Coleridge