Happy Halloween

 

A rather spooky drive ahead this morning (rain and wind) but I'll be home in Seattle before our trick-or-treaters knock. So ends my last solo visit until spring 2023, although John and can look forward to coming together for shorter stays over the winter, weather permitting. The nicest thing about the house is we don't have to make any particular plans, and can go with the flow when we get here. 

Speaking of that, everyone was very busy with Halloween and other activities this weekend. Costumes like this (corpse pirate, make-up by sister Nova) require lots of planning.

Easy to see where the girls get their creativity! The parents off to a big party with their friends on Saturday. I had a quiet night at home watching baseball.

The final Twisp Market for the season is always held on the last Saturday in October. This is shoulder season so the tourists are mostly gone, the donut line is short, and locals stock up on apples, green pears, potatoes, onions and squash. I got a nice bag of shallots for stir-fries, etc.

It's a bittersweet feeling as the valley settles in for the winter. Amanda treated me to a hand-crafted "cardamon pistachio delight," a fitting end for the market season.There is something very Twispian about coffee outside in the strong, slanting (almost blinding) seasonal light.

Then on Saturday afternoon, a dedication ceremony for the new Twisp Civic Building and Community Plaza. Very impressive. Looking back over 14 years, what a lot of changes in Twisp. Nostalgia for the old days aside, it's all good.

And one last walk at the property before the snow flies. 

Bye (for now) to my yard friends who will soon be making their snow beds.

Fall scenes

 

This was the sight to greet me after the long drive yesterday. The cottonwoods are changing along the river and in a few weeks (or days) the leafless view switches over to winter mode. Also nice, but entirely different.

With two short rest stops and good driving conditions, the 230 mile trip takes about 5 hours. But praise be to our wide open West Seattle Bridge. I was 45 miles up I-90, almost to the summit of Snoqualmie Pass, in the time it once took to inch through the 7-mile detour out to the freeway. As they say, free at last!

Detour or not, I'm still tired when I arrive, although the peacefulness of the house and a cup of tea usually usually revives me pretty quickly. So I made a bowl of potato salad with red spuds from Lone Pine, and we went to Nova's volley ball award potluck last night at the high school. The girls were so cute and supportive, each one saying something appreciative about another team member. I just can't say enough good things about this school community, the parents and kind teachers.

I have Friday to myself while everyone is at work or school. Maybe a last bike ride around town? The high temperature should be in the 50's and partially sunny. Amanda said despite the predictions for rain lately, they have not had a drop of moisture in the Valley this fall. But the North Cascades off in the distance already have a light blanket of snow. It's coming down soon. Maybe as early as next week.

Chilly weather

 

Have you ever tried chili made with stew meat instead of hamburger? A good project when you're home all afternoon. My sou chef cut up some scrappy looking beef into (almost) uniform little cubes, then I browned it with peppers, onion and garlic.

Then the canned tomatoes and seasoning go in...this needs to simmer for a long time until those tough bits of meat are completely tender. 

Finally add your cooked or canned beans and simmer some more-- these are kidney beans I made in the pressure cooker. A nice fall dinner and and plenty left over for the freezer. 

We're getting into that dicey season for mountain travel. When will it snow at pass level? Even though we expect it, it still takes drivers by surprise each fall. The daytime temps are above freezing this weekend (rain) so I'm making a short solo trip over to the house.

Go to sleep

 

Always nice to see the garden put to bed for a few months. Jesier unloaded three yards of compost by wheelbarrow, then spread it carefully around on his hands and knees. My new hero who does everything from window cleaning to pressure washing. Of course I gave him a nice tip so he comes back.

The product from Burien Bark looks and smells better than Cedar Grove, which is made with municipal slops and has a sour odor.  The plants should appreciate that generous layer in the spring and it keeps the weeds down in the winter.

Speaking of spring, today is the last evening until March when the sun sets before 6 pm. Yes, we're entering the dark time in the northwest.

And when the weather turns, this is where the smart money goes. Especially if you grew up with it, there's something so comforting about wood stove heat. Just ask Nica.
 

Iconic west

 

An iconic picture of "Nica" above the Methow Valley at Amanda and Tom's property. The mountain slope acreage is just outside of town but feels far from civilization. It's a magical place, especially on a fall afternoon. They were up there this weekend planting garlic and collecting firewood.

"Nica" runs constantly up and down the steep hills chasing out deer. She's a sweet-tempered, ranch-bred mongrel. Like all dogs in instinct mode, common sense gets left by the wayside. A deer actually turned around and chased her down the hill once, but she probably thought it was fun. 

Speaking of common sense. What a relief when the mid-term election is finally over putting an end to these loud, horrible, negative TV ads. Politics aside, the really scary thing is that over-simplification and even downright lies must work, or they wouldn't run them.  I guess who bothers thinking about complex issues when you can just blame the other side.

Lots of pixels

 

I snapped this picture from a dark corner of the living room with sunset glare in the window, the worst possible lighting for photography. No problem for the new iPhone pro 14 camera with "50 mega-pixels." Pretty amazing. It also has a long, incredibly sharp optical zoom lens. Watch out, turkeys and deer, I'm coming for you.

So. I haven't changed my Google profile picture since I started the blog in 2009. In the interest of full disclosure, thought I'd update it with a new up-close selfie. Ack! I dislike taking selfies and this cruel camera shows every line, wrinkle, sag and enlarged pore in awful detail. Of course, I could have edited it, but that seemed a bit dishonest besides I didn't want to stare at the picture. Vanity is just a waste of time. I've moved on.

The big Silver Maple across the street was filled with noisy birds while I was working outside. Nothing says fall like the sound of a flock of starlings, all talking at once.

I brought the jade plants inside for the winter and cleaned up the  porch. Now that we have an outlet, I might put mini lights on that little potted tree for fall and Christmas. Something cheerful for the dog walkers when they peer in the gate.

The entire week ahead looks rainy so good thing I got outside yesterday to work. My garden bed clean up is more slap-dash every year. Honestly, cutting back all that vegetation back and stuffing it in the yard waste bin is getting to be a chore.

There's a new guy coming tomorrow with a load of compost mulch from Burien Bark and Soil. The compost Mr. Nguyen spread last year came from Cedar Grove, Seattle's huge municipal facility. Everything in our yard waste bins goes there, from pizza boxes and dirty paper towels to meat scraps and other stinking garbage. 

People (myself included) are careless with things like those sticky fruit and vegetable labels, so Cedar Grove compost littered with small bits of trash that eventually works up to the surface. Burien Bark is supposedly more particular about what they take in and eventually sell. Time will tell.

Rain and pie

 

Fall finally arrives and life is sweet. And the up-and-coming family baker award goes to Maya, showing off a beautiful (and glutin free!) blueberry muffin she made all by herself yesterday.

National Nachos Day

Nachos were invented in 1943 at a Texas border restaurant. They were just something the owner whipped up for hungry American soldiers after his kitchen had closed for the night. Hard to imagine a time without them, but they didn't become really popular until the late 1970's. 

I remember my first nachos in San Diego-- I was about 25. Old Town was a sweet, quaint place back then and a Mexican dinner seemed almost exotic. Certainly it was a splurge for us. Now we're sophisticated about international food and take it for granted, but some of the magic is gone.

If you don't gobble it up the night before, bits of leftover steak make the very best nacho lunch!

Well, we can breathe again in Seattle. The smoke cleared out and within a few hours we went from purple dots to green. Rain today and the first snow falling in the high mountains. Winter knocking on the door.

Purple Air

 

It's pretty sad when the Purple Air website is the first thing you look at in the morning. The only good thing are those red dots out to the west of Seattle. That means the air quality will gradually improve today as the onshore flow increases in front of the first fall storm. We've had a mere half inch of rain the entire summer. Yes, another record.

Wildfire smoke affects both the body and mind, making people feel anxious, stressed and trapped. I think the sight and smell triggers some primal survival response in animals. Friends who have lived here their entire lives say they've never experienced heavy smoke like this. Seattle was almost invisible yesterday.

Well, this too shall pass. I'm making an apple pie tomorrow to celebrate the return of rain. Cosmic Crisp apples were 79 cents a pound at Safeway! 

Remember that big fuss when Cosmic Crisp were first introduced? This was the most over-hyped apple of all time that could probably never live up to the expectations. 

A reviewer described it as a "beautiful looking apple worthy of a Wes Anderson prop" but the apple itself "screams mediocrity" with below average sweetness and a tough skin people dislike. Stay tuned on the pie potential. I'll set John to work peeling with one of his razor sharp knives.  He's watching a YouTube video now on how to peel apples. Correctly.

Have a good weekend dear family and friends.

Ack!

 

 

Seattle has the worst quality air in the country-- this morning a yucky soup of ground fog and smoke. But only for another day. On Friday, the driest summer on record comes to a grinding halt with the first fall storm.

People go all out for Halloween decorations in our neighborhood. Full size skeletons in lawn chairs are popular this year. Where do they store all this stuff?

And that's our former Seahawk quarterback Wilson cooking in the barbecue-- pretty creative. He hasn't exactly been a bright shiny star for the Broncos, so there. 

Return to reality

 

The clock is fast running out on the golden days of October. A potent fall storm arrives Friday with wind to sweep away the smoke and heavy rain to finally put out wildfires across the state. 

Today I'll pick the rest of the tomatoes and cut down the plants before they turn into a soggy mess. 

So the season finally changes, and our attention must turn inward...

 

To food. I had a never-tried recipe in my clippings binder for "Chipotle Glazed Pork Tenderloin with Roasted Grapes."  Wow, what great fall flavors. 

It looks complicated, but the simple glaze is equal parts canned abodo chili and grape jelly, of all things. A cast iron skillet is perfect. After searing and glazing the pork, it just goes in the oven while the grapes roast.

Then a quick white wine reduction with a blob of butter and you have an intensely delicious sauce. A little goes a long way. I made Spätzle, which probably has the old German ancestors spinning in their graves. They were not into spicy "foreign" food, much less weird flavor combinations. 

Anyway, I stumbled on a fine recipe here.

The endless summer, cont.

 

Seattle hit 88 yesterday, another weather record smashed. Although there was something discombobulating about such a hot day with the sun staying (relatively) low in the autumn sky. 

A nasty cover of wildfire smoke kept the temperature down on Saturday. Until we finally get some rain, the fires continue to burn and smoke drifts from one side of the state to the other. 

The air pollution level was high this weekend so we stayed mostly inside with both air purifiers running. Listened to the endless Mariners baseball game on the radio which dragged into the evening with 18 innings. I felt for the 45,000 fans sitting out in the stadium for 7+ hours. After all that? Yup. They lost. 

On the bright side, we still have tomatoes. I pruned the roses lightly for winter and cut these red beauties along with the last white dahlias.

There isn't much fall color in the neighborhood. I think it's just too hot and the plants are parched. Most of the leaves on our pretty Japanese maple turned brown and fell on the ground. Friday is the next chance for rain, and only 60% at that. But it will come, and before long I'll be complaining about the endless rain. 

My drive back to Seattle was fairly easy and oh, what a difference with our bridge open again. I have to pinch myself. Headed over to Twisp, we were already 40 miles down the road in the time it once took to navigate the detour out to the freeway.   

On Friday headed west, the hoards were mostly traveling eastbound on the passes so that was good. I stopped as usual at the Lone Pine Store along the Columbia River, where we often pick up an apple, cherry or blueberry pie. 

This time I scored a pecan. Not even a holiday, so a pretty decadent choice. An exceptional pecan pie is rare-- not overly sweet and with just the right gooey-ness. We had little slices for dessert all week. Pecan is the King of Pies when it comes to calories, but worth it now and then for a really good one. 

So long, farewell, Auf Wiedersehen

 

 

Yesterday felt like a summer afternoon and I sat by the river one last time watching the ducks. It was heavenly. Then I carried the chairs up the garage for the winter, along with the other outdoor furniture. A big fall housecleaning inside, and everything is ship-shape for winter. We'll be back in November and December, but all too soon the weather will have a say on when, and for how long. 

Nothing much to take back to Seattle this morning except laundry and recycling. Looks like nice driving conditions, but I expect lots of company on the roads. Seattle is warm and smoky, as this strange weather goes on and on. A big weekend for sports, with the Mariners (maybe) overlapping with the Seahawks at the downtown stadiums.

The days fly by

 

That's Nova, tacking up "Buttons" for her lesson yesterday afternoon.  Methow Riding Unlimited is a non-profit academy just across the road from the Methow Valley Elementary and High School. It's a great location because the kids can walk over. Annie B, the beloved and highly respected director, has taught therapeutic riding in the Valley for 30 years. No one knows horses (and kids) better than Annie.

 

This is a small outdoor facility, so when the snow arrives the horses get a well-deserved rest. Then the winter activities begin. Not surprisingly, there's an especially good Nordic skiing program coached by several former Olympians. 

The quality of adult coaching, teaching and mentoring is amazing. Isolated from the realities of urban life, life in the Valley for these kids is a bubble, frankly. They have incredible opportunities to participate in sports, drama and the arts that don't exist anywhere else.

Yesterday morning my friend Karen and I hiked to the top of Amanda and Tom's property. It's just a few miles outside of Twisp, but feels like wilderness land. We saw many deer and birds on our slow walk uphill-- the road is steep.

It was yet another perfect fall day ho-hum this is getting old (not!) then in the afternoon I drove Nova to Winthrop for her lesson and met up with Amanda and Tom at the elementary school for an open house with Maya. A huge community turn out for that.

We were back in Twisp before dark (I don't night drive here) everyone hungry and tired but just a typical work and school day. The time goes fast, even days when I don't have much planned. Back to Seattle tomorrow, so I'll get the house cleaned and ready for November. Bring the summer chairs up from the river, and a last bike ride around town before winter. 

Wordless Wednesday

 

October 12th "Old Farmers Day."