Mixed bag

 

Kind of a yucky mix of rain and wet snow yesterday. Pretty at times, but it made a mess of the roads. Doesn't take much to throw everything into chaos here. And more snow on the way this week.

I fiddled the day away inside with a new toy, an Apple watch I got "free" with a bunch of those saved credit card reward points. I had a Fitbit, but it didn't get along with my iPhone. Fitbits are big on measuring steps, 10,000 a day being the arbitrary gold standard. 

No surprise, the Apple watch is more sophisticated. Among many other snoopy personal things, it tracks your daily activity, exercise and standing. Standing? I blew through the activity goal by noon (hey, I'm a busy person) but at the end of the day still behind on just standing around. One of my least favorite things to so.

Oh well. I refuse to set that buzzy alert to move every 45 minutes. At my age, don't you think a person should be allowed to sit down with a book or take a little afternoon nap without being goaded by a watch? Ha!

Anyway, like so much technology, what a time-waster. Here we are the end of November and I haven't even written the Christmas card letter, bought a tree, much less decorated the house. John is already badgering me about what Christmas cookies to make. He's crazy about dates, and his mother made a date nut ball cookie. It's a diabolical recipe, because you have to roll the scalding hot dough into little balls. I don't make them very often. Along with that, the standard decorated sugar cookies, coconut dream bars, shortbread, Russian teacakes, etc etc.

OK, then

 

Snow in the forecast which gets everyone pretty excited in Seattle. How about that cheerful bunch of red tulips-- an impulse purchase from Safeway. What the heck, the grocery bill is ridiculous anyway. Not that long ago, it took forever to put away $100 worth of food. Now it fits in a couple of bags.  

I went to The Ukes group yesterday. Things are improving with 15 players now and quite a few new faces. Nice. Both sides of the room even manage to play together most of the time. Although one of the ladies likes to sing loudly and sometimes goes off on her own. It's all fun at our warm and friendly Senior Center. It's too easy to let yourself get lonely here in the winter and I need to go more often-- perhaps even volunteer there again.

Oh yes, that other hardy West Seattle ukulele group still meets outdoors. They haven't found a free indoor venue where everyone feels safe. This Thursday, on the patio outside the brewery again. Possibly in the snow, perfect for starting in on the Christmas music.

Oh Christmas tree

 

Now that's the way to do it. All you need is a $5 permit to cut a tree in the Okanagan-Wenatchee National Forest. And with 3.8-million acres of public lands, you're sure to find the perfect one. Back in Seattle, we'll drive to McLendon's Hardware in lovely White Center and buy a small farm-raised tree.  Not quite the same somehow.

After that strangely dry November, the weather in the Northwest suddenly took a turn for the worse. Snow is piling up like crazy in the mountains, and we'll even get some lowland snow this week in Seattle. Thank you, La Nina. Luckily, on Saturday we had a short window between the storms and drove home under mostly sunny skies.

The first 35 miles were beautiful with the sun shining on the snowy hills and the road all to ourselves at that early hour. When we got to the Columbia River, a cold mist was rising off the water for an eerie, awesome sight. The wild and ancient geology through that area certainly puts our petty problems and human lifespan into perspective. 

Speaking of that, it's shaping up to be a snowy winter in Twisp and my nice elderly snow plowing neighbor has just gone out of business. Darn. I liked and trusted him, and now have to find another local to plow the driveway all winter. It will work out, just a bit of a hassle.

Black Friday

What a feast. Here's a photo of everyone (except the cook) ready to tuck in.

Easy leftover turkey and stuffing casserole tonight. Looking forward to a quiet day to get the house cleaned up and ready to leave tomorrow. My brother heads back to Enumclaw this morning, 

The time, as always, went too fast, at least for me. But we have a decent weather window for driving today and tomorrow before a major snow storm hits the Cascades Mountains on Saturday night. Poor folks who have to drive on Sunday.

Enjoy the Black Friday shopping and turkey sandwich, if that's your thing.

Happy Thanksgiving

 It looks more like Christmas than Thanksgiving this year. Very pretty and quiet.  A good day for cooking. And cooking. And cooking. Fortunately, practice makes perfect and I know the routine well.

The turkey was still a bit frozen this morning. After some cold water intervention, coming along nicely in the oven now. 

 

We'll feast on stuffing, potatoes, gravy, cranberries, yams, brussel sprouts, salad, pecan and pumpkin pie. A gluten free menu. More pictures later...

 Thanksgiving greetings across the snowy miles!

Hi there

 

A steady parade of curious deer yesterday afternoon walking through the yard peering in the windows. The new glass door was installed a couple weeks ago and this is the first we've seen it. Love how it lets light into that previously dark corner of the living room. Why waste a single bit of that river view? I agonized over buying it, but turned out to be a good decision.

Praise be for a safe mountain crossing yesterday, but very glad we left early and only had to contend with freezing rain. We were safely in Twisp by early afternoon, just about the time Snoqualmie became impassable for several hours due to spin out accidents. It started to snow the final 30 miles up the valley, and the reward for a long winter drive was finally opening the door to the warm clean house. Everything exactly as I had left it.

Now the weather clears out with no precipitation for a few days, yea, although it is very cold. My brother drives over today to spend two nights. We're all looking forward to Thanksgiving. I have pies to make, and hope to get help from a certain young baker in town. 

 

This and that

We had a big day on the town Friday. A walk through the galleries then early lunch at the Seattle Art Museum restaurant, followed by the concert at noon. That weekday audience made us feel quite youthful! Although there was also a field trip of high school kids up in the balcony. Always nice seeing young people at the symphony. Our matinee crowd won't be around forever.

Speaking of young. The guest conductor was maestro Aziz Shokhakimov, a musical prodigy who made his conducting debut at age 13. Our own concertmaster played the violin solos in Scheherazade, beautiful to see and hear from the 3rd row. 

The weather was dry and weirdly sunny for November. Since it was a nice day and we had already paid for the expensive parking, we walked over to the Pike Place Market.

It's always crowded in there, but nothing like the summer cruise season when you literally have to elbow your way through. The Market is a must see on every tourist itinerary. Frankly, the locals tend to avoid it unless they have out-of-town visitors. (When you've seen one flying fish, you've seen them all.)

We avoided that fish crowd and gawked at the prices instead. We are certainly out of touch. Wow. Even the lowly snow crab legs with a morsel of meat (once called "spider" crab) are $45 a pound.The King of Crab $70 a pound.

Some cute signs outside an Irish pub on 1st Avenue: 

Soup of the Day-Whiskey
Dogs Welcome- People Tolerated
Free Beer Topless Waitresses- False Advertising

What else is new?  The bluest skies you've ever seen are in Seattle. Not. But other than a few foggy mornings, this has been a spectacular stretch of weather, two weeks and not a drop of rain. Everything changes tomorrow with the first of a series of wet and cold weather systems. Of course that's when we planned to drive over to Twisp. The latest forecast calls for freezing rain in central Washington, a nasty thing. 

That pretty branch is one of the heavy fruit spikes (not edible) trimmed from the top of Windmill Palm. After it flowers in the summer, it turns black and falls off like a big weird spider. The palm looks so neat now, albeit a bit naked.

People are often surprised that some palm varieties grow here. In fact, they're a common sight in Seattle suburban yards, although rarely as tall (or high maintenance) as ours. Native to China, the Windmill Palm can be grown in states like Alaska, Alabama, Delaware, Maryland, Massachusetts, Mississippi, New Jersey, New York, Oklahoma, Tennessee and of course, western Washington.

The yard does have a certain wabi-sabi charm this time of year.

 

The fig tree about to drop all the leaves at once...rain returns today.

 

And finally, taken with my new phone, what we once called "trick photography." The real estate listings all use the wide angle lens to make rooms look larger. Our kitchen looks palatial! Nice seeing counters clear of stuff for one entire day. Ha! The new grout is a big improvement. Other than a few little chips and scratches on the tile, we're happy with Sir Grout. 

Cont alt delete

 

I don't use Microsoft Windows anymore and would be lost on a PC now. John gave me an Apple laptop for Christmas years ago. So I went over to the other side, kicking and screaming at the time. I loved my Viao laptop (until I didn't.) 

There's all sorts of excellent and much cheaper hardware out there, but the advantage of Apple is how effortlessly their sleek gadgetry sets up and goes together. The store looks like a sparkling candy shop. Then you're hooked, their intention all along.

Our TV (basically an old computer) decided to work again, reminding me of all those "warm" and "cold" boots. Back in the 90's, slaving away on Microsoft research, rebooting was the common PC fix. The dang things were always seizing up, so you would crawl under your desk and yank the plug out of the wall. Losing any unsaved work in the process.

That was always the last resort before calling Microsoft internal technical support-- the most insufferable, mansplaining, know-it-alls in corporate history. OK, I'm exaggerating, but they did have a knack for making a lowly librarian feel dumb. The programmers (99% of them male) were the alpha dogs at Microsoft. 

This is not an ordinary Friday! We never go downtown on weekdays, but John bought surprise tickets to a noon symphony performance of Scheherazade, by Rimsky-Korsakov. An old chestnut but I never get tired of daydreaming through that beautiful evocative music. We haven't been inside the Pike Place Market since before the pandemic, so hoping to forage a bowl of clam chowder before the show. 

Have a good weekend. We're enjoying the last cold sunny day for a long time to come. Rain is knocking on the front door again. 

Nice work

 

A before view of the holly tree and palm...

And the after, the holly all tidied up with a much more pleasing shape. I love this prickly tree because the birds love it. But over the years, it became a source of marital disharmony when the lower branches hit John in the face when he was mowing.

And the palm, looking a bit lonely but spiffy enough for Rodeo Drive. 

Naturally, they sent the youngest member of the crew up there. He trimmed off a big pile of dead fronds with a hand saw, as well as the ugly black fruiting spikes and the nubs from the trunk.

The owner, an expert arborist, takes sole charge of the giant bucket truck. Good thing. Tricky stuff to navigate on these narrow streets and alleys. 

Not to mention power lines. Yikes! Anyway, that's done.

Well, I spoke too soon about my checkbook recovering. Our big TV has worked flawlessly since 2006 when it was absolute state of the art. It sorta went on the fritz this morning. I say sorta because after a cold boot it started working again. But a new TV is probably on the shopping list. The good news is they cost a faction of what they did 15 years ago, although I doubt they last nearly as long.

We're going to Costco this morning and can take a look at that overwhelming TV display right inside the front door.

A hefty winter cake

 

I ran across this cream cheese apple cake recipe on the Internet. It made quite a gooey, thick batter, with three large precisely chopped apples (thanks John) 8 oz. of butter AND an entire package of cream cheese. Only a cup and a half of flour and a cup of sugar.

The topping is chopped pecans with a touch of brown sugar and 3 heaping teaspoons of cinnamon. 

The end result was more of a custard than cake-like texture, probably from all those heavy, moist ingredients. Very good actually. I like solid cakes that aren't overly sweet. Let me know if you want the recipe.

What else is new? The arborists come this morning for some heavy yard pruning with the bucket truck. Unless something else breaks down, always a possibility with a 100-year old house, that's the end of the home projects for now, which gives my checkbook a chance to recover before spring. 

We need new fencing and deck, an expensive proposition, and at some point face reality with the seriously leaning alley garage-shed. It's a "non-conforming structure" and can't be simply rebuilt on the existing footprint. We've been dragging our feet for years, because taking it down means an entire redesign of the back yard. 

Royal shenanigans

 

The (not so) merry wives of Windsor

If you have Netflix streaming, you've probably already blown through all 10 episodes of "The Crown" Season 5. We dole it out one episode per night, so we're about halfway through. Whew, lots of relationship melodrama in this one. The 90's was the decade of royal divorces. Poor long suffering Queen. Was there ANYONE in that family who didn't cheat? 

The acting across the board is great, although Philip and Charles are not quite as believable as the women characters-- Margaret, Camila, Diana, and of course the Queen, played by Imelda Staunton. 

 

In other news, the kitchen counters look great. What an improvement. Sir Grout uses epoxy instead of the standard cement grout, which doesn't need to be sealed but does have to cure for a couple of days. The only time the counters will ever be clear of clutter and I'm enjoying the sight. When it gets light I'll take a picture with that wide angle lens, which makes our pokey little kitchen look palatial. Ha!

Sir Grout, etc.

 

 

We remolded the kitchen in the 1990's, which in some ways feels like just the other day. Well, time takes a toll (don't we know!) and after years of hard use the grout looks pretty tired. 

Considering how many thousands of meals I've made on that 2x3 foot space, the tile is still in good shape. So a company called "Sir Grout" is replacing all the grout, including inside the greenhouse window. A big job and the kitchen will be off limits for a day or so. Hope to have some spiffy after pictures to show you tomorrow. 

I took advantage of the nice but strangely dry weather this weekend to put the holiday lights up on the arbor. Now we have lights front and back, thanks to the new porch outlet. Much more cheerful headed into the big dark. 

John had an outstanding bulb order that finally came in the mail, including 2 massive amaryllis, from Israel, of all places. I potted those for inside, although it would take a Christmas miracle to bloom by then. More like Valentines Day. Also a peony root and 5 Oriental lilies, too late to put in the ground so they went in big pots for now. The garden is pretty much bedded down, although there's still lots of soggy raking ahead. 

Amanda walked down to the house and took this pretty view of the river. The snow is here to stay until spring. 

I'm sorry to miss such perfect weather for driving, but we're busy in Seattle this week with home projects. Today Sir Grout comes, then on Wednesday the arborists prune the overgrown holly and and tidy up the palm. Once upon a time, I did that with a step ladder! Now it's huge. Tempus fugit.

A different world entirely over in Twisp, the main reason why I love it. Outdoor projects are done for the year. Winter was in such a hurry to arrive, the trees haven't even lost their fall leaves. 

Chilly jam

 

I finally made it to the outdoor ukulele jam at Good Society Brewery. It was cold yesterday but we had fun and attracted quite a bit of attention on this busy corner of California Avenue. Some of these folks have been performing together for years. Ukulele players can be great hams! The brewery is only 4 blocks from home, so I walked over with my little travel uke and the ipad.

That's my friend Chic in the red coat. By sharing our ipads, binders and loose handouts we found all the songs, but it's tricky switching through different media like that.

Each week someone sends out new song links so you have to keep up on downloading, which I have not.  Most of the material is more challenging the Ukes, where we just use the same old binders with chords on each song.

The Ukes music...pretty lazy stuff.

And an example of a WS Ukulele Players song. Not to mention, reading this is hard on a small screen plus you have to know the chords. Duh. 

So Friday already. The Seahawks play in Munich on Sunday. We get to watch the game starting at 6:30 am, a weird time to hear football going in the house. 

John is helping me make enchiladas this afternoon with leftover Costco rotisserie chicken, probably the best use for it. The only thing better is leftover roast turkey, coming soon.  

As you know, John loves slicing food into mathematically precise pieces while admiring his own knife-sharpening skills. Which I must admit, are impressive. I doubt there is a single chef in Seattle (other than a fanatical sushi chef) with sharper Japanese knives. I've learned the hard way, the big trick is staying out of urgent care. Mindful cutting!

Have a good weekend dear family and friends.

Ah

 

Who says cats aren't smart? That lump of fur is Millie, toasting her tummy in front of the wood stove. Pretty much in position now until spring. 

The temperature is zero in Twisp this morning and it won't get above freezing today. Seattle is also colder than normal. We're headed into a long dry weather pattern all across the state, which often means air pollution near the surface. Just watch, it will probably start raining and snowing again just in time for the Thanksgiving  travel week. But too soon to start fretting about that.

We got our flu shots yesterday at Safeway. I never look,  but John thought she used larger gauge needles this time. Maybe they're cheaper for these "free" shots the government supplies the pharmacies.  I should ask Amanda. Anyway, I have a bruise on my arm but otherwise feel OK so that's good news. Thirty years ago, if someone said we would be going to a grocery store for shots, I would have thought they were nuts. 

By anyway, that's done and Safeway gives us a coupon for 10% off groceries for each immunization. Better than a lolly-pop, especially this time of year when we're stocking up for holiday cooking and baking.