Odds and ends

We had a refreshing rain last night to wet things down, and this morning feels downright fall-like. But the heavenly weather continues on this week, once the clouds clear out today.

I took the time this summer to thin the Sparta apples, so we have fewer, slightly larger ones on the tree.  Maybe I'll do something with them for a change.

Being Seattle, they are, of course, moderately wormy.  I don't know anyone this side of the mountains who grows perfect backyard apples, and if they did, you wouldn't want to eat them with the all the chemicals that requires.

As expected, not a single plum on our tree this summer. I'm just happy it's still alive. Remember last fall we amputated to the point of death to get rid of the aphids?  That worked, and the top grew right back. If the new branches bloom next spring, we should be in the plum business again.

It was a busy weekend on the domestic front. Our neighbor brought over a huge shopping bag full of nice Italian plums from their tree and that started a canning marathon, with John in charge of chopping.

I was grateful for the help, because my poor old fingers can't handle long hours of fine chopping. Chutney is a snap to make once that chore is done, because everything goes into the pot at once and cooks down to a delicious concoction so good on meat, curry, cheese, etc.

We also made 5 jars of date chutney with a random recipe I found on the Internet. Got lucky and it turned out delicious.  We sampled a bit on a cracker with some special goat cheese from the Methow Valley.  Oh. My. Goodness.  And how tasty it will be on a slice of rich roast pork.

BTW, King County has been stuck at "Phase Two" reopening since June 19th, with no indication things are going to change soon. I see many winter home dinners ahead.

If you shop at Trader Joes, check out this rather weird "Harvest Grain" mix.  It makes an OK hot side dish, but a much better salad, with olives, peppers and sun-dried tomatoes, also sold there in a cheap packet. We should have stopped with that for a satisfying healthy dinner, but we also split a grilled Cornish hen. No photo, I'm sure you're tired of my dirty grill pictures.

But I never get tired of these chicken pictures, and the hens continue to bring local and long-distance pleasure.  They started laying all in a single pile on the straw, but it looks like they've figured out the private nest boxes.  Amanda said there is a huge amount of clucking and squawking to announce the eggs, then they quietly settle down to business.

This has been a wonderful 4-H project for the girls even without the 4-H. Maybe next summer. These healthy big chickens would surely win first prize at the fair.

And last but not least, a pretty smiling face to start the week.  Nova finished the puzzle we gave her for her birthday.

On the banks of the Duwamish

 Duwamish Waterway Park

These past months we've explored more gardens and parks relatively close to home, and discovered some places we never bothered to go before. It's been nice.

This large park is practically in our backyard, a few minutes from the house. Living in West Seattle, we drive over and along the Duwamish River and passed by the park thousands of times.

Yesterday I stopped at Safeway for some chicken wings, and we took a picnic down to check it out.

The river has an interesting and complex history. Seattle is a young city, and 200 years ago the Duwamish wetlands were enormous, a complex of waterways draining major area rivers (White, Cedar, Green, etc.) into Puget Sound.

The wet delta consisted of thousands of acres of habitat, bursting with wildlife and fish. Before the white settlers arrived in 1850 and claimed the land, this was the home of the Duwamish people.

Seattle grew quickly. In 1900, the city dredged a deep trench to straighten the river bed and create an artificial shipping canal.

Square miles of "useless swamps" were filled in and soon covered with houses and farms. The new, narrow Duwamish channel lined with polluting industries for the next century.

The lower Duwamish was proclaimed a Superfund Site by the EPA in 2001, and the long, complicated process of cleaning up the river began, aided by a robust volunteer program.

Kellogg Island, along with this bit of natural shoreline, is all that remains of the natural upper Duwamish River.

However, the evolution of the Duwamish is well-documented with historical images.

We found an extensive network of clean hiking trails in the park, and surprisingly little evidence of homeless camping.

Many interesting views of the Seattle skyline, shipping and industrialization.

As you can see, it was a beautiful day, and very few people around.

The bottom fish and shellfish are seriously polluted with PCB's and heavy metals, and should not be consumed by humans.  And this guy didn't read the warning signs.

Nevertheless, we've seen people fishing in the river for years. Way back when, people would fish off the old lower drawbridge to West Seattle. 

Anyway, we had an enjoyable walk after lunch.  Interesting birds everywhere, including a large, noisy flock of Caspian Terns feeding on a sandbar.

Friday again

And another beautiful Seattle weekend with nowhere in particular to go.  Such a strange summer and now suddenly drawing to a close. August is the month of fairs, and even the beloved Seattle institution Seafair, featuring the hydro races on Lake Washington and the Blue Angels air show, is cancelled for the first time.

After 6 months of relative isolation, fall is time for a change. The problem is, I'm at a loss where to start. I actually envy people who have a job (volunteer or paid) that gets them out of the house. Speaking for myself, there has to be more to life this winter than planning the next fancy meal and drinking wine.

Travel still looks far in the future, and in the meantime, finding meaningful work is so important for mental well-being, not to mention, usefulness.

Here's an old poem about work I've always liked, written by Marge Piercy.  You can also hear her read it on her blog. 


To Be of Use

The people I love the best jump into work head first
without dallying in the shallows
and swim off with sure strokes almost out of sight.
They seem to become natives of that element,
The black sleek heads of seals bouncing like half-submerged balls.

I love people who harness themselves, an ox to a heavy cart,
who pull like water buffalo, with massive patience,
who strain in the mud and the muck to move things forward,
who do what has to be done, again and again.

I want to be with people who submerge in the task
Who go into the fields to harvest,
and work in a row and pass the bags along,
who are not parlor generals and field deserters
But move in a common rhythm
when the food must come in or the fire be put out.

The work of the world is common as mud
Botched, it smears the hands, crumbles to dust.
But the thing worth doing well done
has a shape that satisfies, clean and evident.
Greek amphoras for wine or oil
Hopi vases that held corn – are put in museums
But ya’ know they were made to be used.
The pitcher cries for water to carry
And a person - for work that is real.

Sunny side up

The hens are on a roll now-- eight eggs and counting!
And Maya is eating them.

Sad sight

I haven't worn anything nice from this dusty closet for six months. My daily uniform is t-shirts and jeans or stretchy yoga pants. The black Costco t-shirts I once wore to the gym are all faded and stained from cooking. Ugh.

No one asked my opinion, but John looks just as bad around the house, like a clean hobo, in old sweats and ancient long sleeve-polo. And he hasn't had a haircut since way back when?

As summer turns to fall, we always look forward to the Symphony starting up again. Not this year. They cancelled over half of our season concerts last spring, at least 8 tickets wasted. OK, that's a donation to a hard-hit arts organization. At the time, it seemed inconceivable we wouldn't be going to concerts in the fall.

John purchased our 2020-21 season tickets way back in February. Now that hurts. And the total lack of communication from the Symphony, except for a postcard every few weeks asking for more donations.

I suppose subscribers can call and "demand" their money back, but that's not very classy. It would be nice to know something about their plan for the season ticket holders, but perhaps there isn't one. It's sad thinking about our beautiful Benaroya Hall empty all these months.

All we can do is hope for a better future and try to enjoy the present moment. We're having the most exquisite stretch of weather.  Clear sunny skies, cool mornings, temperatures in the mid-70's. It just doesn't get any nicer in Seattle.

A small miracle

When Amanda went home for lunch yesterday, she worried because Basil "wouldn't come out of the chicken house." The hens always come running and clucking when they see a human, hoping for an interesting snack, like garden greens or bread crust. 

Apparently, Basil was "busy" inside and wanted some privacy. When Amanda checked the nest box, she found THREE beautiful brown eggs.  That means several of the ladies started laying all at once.  (A chicken egg is a small miracle in itself, and a hen can only produce one such miracle a day.)

She left them in the box, so the girls could gather up their first eggs when they got home that evening.  Breakfast!
 

Fruits and vegetables

Doesn't that fruit look delicious?  It's from a roadside stand outside Wentachee, but everything is still green, hard and sour.  Most of it will probably ripen, but in the old days, the best ready-to-eat fruit was sold only at the orchards. Now I think the growers get rid of the leftovers on site, and send the good stuff to big city markets. That's my theory.

But at least the corn was good! And I bought some local garlic. Very small heads and expensive, but the cloves are pungent and juicy. Did you know most supermarket garlic in this country comes from China?

Not that's what I call home grown produce. Tom dug some carrots and beets from their property garden for us. I found a recipe for Mexican hot pickled carrots and peppers. You know, that condiment that's sometimes on the table in authentic Mexican restaurants.

Nobody is neutral about beets, you either like them or not.  (Me yes, John no.)  This is too many for even a beet lover to eat at once, so I roasted them in the oven to freeze for later.

We've sure been busy since we got home. Which makes a nice change from boredom and lethargy.

Ha ha!

That's cutie Maya and pet. As always, it was hard to say good-bye. We're exploring some different ways we can be together more.  The time just goes too fast to waste.

Peaceful morning

It's a nice morning in Twisp, with the view of the river fron our balcony. The weather cleared up and we had an uneventful drive over. 

We made a stop at the 5B gluten free bakery in the town of Concrete and picked up this rather amazing carrot cake to celebrate the August birthdays--Nova and Amanda.

Candles were lit and blown out "remotely."

No blowing on cakes in these strange and funny days of Covid.  We spent a lovely evening together in the backyard, and enjoyed take-out Mexican food from a local restaurant.

We're off

To see these precious faces up close. True to form, it's raining for the long drive over the mountains. The first wet morning in over a month. Go figure! More from the sunny side of the state later.

"Chickenality"

These photos were taken in April, when the girl's baby chicks arrived by mail at the local feed store just down the street. They ordered five different breeds, just one day old.  

And that was the happy start of the big chicken adventure. Good job, girls. They not only survived but thrived. Who will lay the first egg?

I read an article recently about the sudden popularity of backyard chicken coops, with families stuck at home and looking for interesting and educational projects for their kids. One woman wrote about her hen's individual personalities, like Nova and Maya's chickens, they all have names. She called it "chickenality."

She also said this:

"It is very easy to be sad in the world now, but it is hard to be sad at the exact same moment you are watching chickens."

So true. Amanda talks all the time about about the smiles and laughter the hens bring to their quiet lives this summer.

Here's a little video of Nova yesterday with the beautiful pampered pets:

This too shall pass

"King Solomon once searched for a cure against depression. He assembled his wise men together. They meditated for a long time and gave him the following advice: Make yourself a ring and have thereon engraved the words 'This too will pass.' The King carried out the advice. He had the ring made and wore it constantly. Every time he felt sad and depressed, he looked at the ring, whereon his mood would change and he would feel cheerful."

-Israel Folklore Archive 

Whooee

The thermostat does not lie. Only 33% of homes in Seattle have AC, and we're not one of them.  It got up to 98 outside yesterday afternoon, a record, and by evening the house was cooking. I tossed and turned for a while, then eventually gave up and went down to the much cooler basement bedroom.  Our upstairs floor fan was blowing hot air around like a convention oven.

Exactly 5 months ago, Washington state basically shut down to stop the spread of the virus: schools, restaurants, gyms, libraries, community centers, most stores, pools, parks, sports and entertainment venues. We were one of the first states to close and are among the last to reopen.

Week after week, the new cases, hospitalizations and deaths remain fairly stable in King County.  This is both good news and sadly frustrating, because we're stuck at "stage 2" reopening for the foreseeable future.  If things change for the worse, we may go back to "stage 1" in the fall.

However, you would never know it by the amount of traffic, and people on the streets and in the stores again. But to everyone's credit, I rarely see a maskless face in West Seattle. 

With all the usual places to cool off closed, Alki Beach looked something like this yesterday. No, thanks.

So Sunday was just another long day at home for us. At least the neighborhood was quiet. Too hot for people to work outside or walk their dogs, and many headed off to the water. As a reward for good stay-at-home behavior, I made pepper-jack cheeseburgers on the grill.

Back to more normal weather this morning. It's a pleasant 70 degrees now, and today will be about 15 degrees cooler than yesterday. Yes, another one at home.

The morning project

Seven jars of corn salsa.  Well, actually eight, one is in the refrigerator for immediate consumption.
The sou-chef cut the peppers so it looks almost machine-made compared to my usual rough cut chopping. Needless to say, he is slow but extremely precise.

We're headed into a hot spell, and it could reach the mid-90's tomorrow. Back into the 70's by early next week, and I'd be surprised if we had another 90 degree day in Seattle this year. Who knows?  I hope it stays warm, summer is always too short, and it's been really pleasant since the beginning of July.

Wish the girls were here now to put a dent in the all-you-can-eat cherry tomatoes. Last August about this time they spent a few days with us, and we had a wonderful time. Sadly, that is not to be this summer. Although we'll see them again for another careful visit later next week.

Chili rellenos, 12 easy steps

1. Heat the grill to high.

2. Char the peppers on all sides.

3. Carefully scrape off the skin and and remove seeds.

4. Make slit and fill with a slice of pepper jack cheese.

5. Beat 2 egg whites until stiff.

6. Fold eggs into the fritter batter.

(Thanks, Betty Crocker)

7. Coat the peppers lightly with flour.

8. Dip into the batter (messy!)

9. Fry in hot oil.

10. Turn once.

11. Drain on paper towels.

12.  Make a pot of homemade beans and Mexican red sauce.

And enjoy the very best chili rellanos!