Peaceful on the river

 

I haven't turned the TV on and don't miss it. Funny how the latest news crisis ceases to be a crisis when you don't pay attention to it. Will the U.S. fail to honor its debts through political squabbling, the deadbeat nation of the world?

Anyway, why spoil the early morning river sounds with yakking news heads. An occasional loud gobbling is the only thing to break the peace. A group of tom turkeys likes to strut across the yard, showing off to each other like teenage boys.

I spent yesterday puttering around town and had a nice, quiet afternoon visit with my neighbor Karen on the deck. Today will be busier, as I'm making dinner for everyone here at the house tonight. Vegetable curry and salad rolls, so off to Hank's grocery store this morning to see what I can rustle up in the way of  "exotic" ingredients. The nearest Trader Joe's is 230 miles away in Seattle.

The sweet spot

 

What a difference in the few weeks since we were here last, when the raging river edged right up to the front yard. Floods, wildfires, smoke, blizzards, temperature extremes common stuff here in the Valley, making this week of perfect weather all the sweeter. 

Cool nights and warm, sunny days. It was already getting light at 4:30 when I woke up listening to the river and birds through the open window. So peaceful. No sound of sirens or speeding cars.

The rude cottonwood stumps left by the beavers are already sprouting out in a pretty way. Nature renews itself quickly here. The flood brought a fresh load of sand to our waterfront and trail, now dry where the tributary gushed through.

It was a pleasant drive over yesterday. Few truckers venture out on Memorial Day, and I had the east-bound highways mostly to myself. 

Thousands were headed in the other direction toward the coast, clumped up in tight herds of several hundred tail-gating vehicles. Followed by a gap of empty highway, followed by the next frantic herd. Maybe there's a law of physics to describe that driving behavior-- it was something to see, almost like a nature show on PBS. 

Note to Self: Never drive west on Memorial Day. 

Maya has a fancy new bike and we took a ride around town yesterday. Or I should say, I followed her around town. "Do you want to race, Nana?" (No) 

And this local beauty. How the time flies.

 

Shucking corn

 

Some things are just better done outside. On the farm, the kids would shuck piles of corn out in the yard, and sometimes a big boiled platter was all we had for supper. But no one complained when sweet corn was in season.

The neighborhood was quiet this weekend, our power-tool-loving neighbors away. Going into the morning clouds and afternoon sun weather pattern, not especially warm, but typical of June. The grass is already turning brown. 

I made a big barbecue dinner last night so John has leftovers. He likes his corn cold anyway, without butter or salt. Go figure.  

 Getting an early start to Twisp this morning, and not expecting too much company going east. The big traffic rush will be headed back to the coastal cities later this afternoon.

Sitting on the dock on the bay

 

Quite a spectacular backdrop for our group yesterday and about 15 players showed up. Most people have cute folding wagons to cart all their stuff on these long parking treks.

We often have out-of-town players visit, folks who learn about our group on Facebook. Apparently people travel with their ukes, then check the Internet for local opportunities to play. 

I sat next to a man from Lake Tahoe, here in Seattle visiting family. He was an excellent player and even got up to lead a song. I can't imagine having that much confidence in a group of strangers, even though ukulele players are a friendly bunch.

The first rose bloom is getting started and it's been a perfect weather recipe: early spring rain followed by warm, sunny days. The pink "Brother Cadfael," a David Austin English rose, is our favorite year after year. 

I watch our neighbor across the street endlessly fussing with her roses, spraying and such, but I take a tough love approach. A hard prune in February, slow release fertilizer and they're on their own. Some black spot later in the summer is fine with me. But for now, everything is absolute fresh perfection. Wish there was a way to slow down the clock in June. 

Have a happy and safe weekend.

Goodbye red evnelope

 

We've had the Netflix DVD service almost since it started in the early 2000's. Over 25 years, 5.2 billion CD's were sent through the mail and Netflix was once the biggest business account for the Post Office.

It was my job to organize the DVD queue on my laptop, adding movies and putting them in the priority we wanted to watch. For a long time, Neflix was excellent for old classics and esoteric documentaries, and you could even request DVD's which they would buy and send.

We noticed the service declining in the last year or so, with long waits even for popular new movies. The writing was on the wall, and Netflix announced their DVD mailing service ends in September. We were already down to the "one DVD at a time" level and it was more frustrating than anything, so we won't miss it much. Still, the end of an era.

So that leaves us with the Netflix streaming service, Amazon Prime, PBS Passport and something from PBS called World's Greatest Television, also YouTube, maybe some others I forget. More than enough to keep up with, when only watch an hour or so of TV each night. 

Lately, we've been streaming movies included "free" in my Amazon Prime subscription, like "The Graduate." Some of these classics still pack a real punch. Of course, we could get up off our duffs and get DVD's at the library. But we're lazy, and also have a home collection of favorite movies John bought over the years, many of them Bluray. As I say, no lack of things to watch.

Something is about to happen that rarely does in Seattle. That is, a beautiful stretch of weather for the Memorial Day weekend, which usually turns into a chilly wash-out. The highways across the state will be jammed for the next several days, but I hope to get to Twisp next week after things settle down.

Not a cloud in the sky this morning. My ukulele group is playing this afternoon at the Water Taxi dock on Alki. It's a fun location, but probably the worst area to find parking in West Seattle, especially if you're lugging a chair, music stand, etc. So I made a reservation with my private Uber driver. The ferry pier is just a few minutes from home. Oh, those lucky folks, getting on and off the foot ferry this afternoon. No escaping the entertainment, ha ha! 

Wednesday

 

Headed out this morning to see what's cookin' at The Cafe...

Scary

 

How about this weird picture to start the day? That skeleton came from Trader Joe's on Halloween a few years ago. All I do is dunk his air plant head in water once a week. He's holding two tiny sparrow eggs I found under this nest box.

The House Sparrows (technically Weaver Finch) raise multiple broods over the summer. Maybe their messy nest material finally piled up in the box to the point where "someone" could reach down and grab the goodies. 

When I got back from Las Vegas, there was a mess of material on the ground along with the unbroken eggs. Sparrows aggressively defend their nests from other sparrows, so it was probably a bigger bird like a starling or crow. The mystery is why they didn't eat the eggs.

Anyway, I cleaned out the box and it won't be long until they start over. People consider house sparrows city pests, but I like their constant chirping after the other birds go silent for the summer.

While we’re on the subject of messes, this is what happens when you don't stake your peonies early enough. A big flopping pile of buds on the ground. That was a potent load of compost we spread last fall, because this bed has grown into a jungle thicket. 

Making an apple pie this morning and maybe do some light gardening later. I had one of those comprehensive eye tests yesterday where they point a laser right to the back of your brain. I'm sure that's why I woke up with a headache. Eye exams are very high tech and stressful now. The good news is I don't need to go back for another year.

Who turned out the lights?

 

My flight left Las Vegas an hour late on Saturday, no big deal especially when you don't have a connection to make. But when we finally got to the gate in Seattle, a few people stampeded up the aisle, pushing everyone aside regardless of age, sex or infirmity. 

Well, I know the feeling, but it's more civilized when the flight attendants ask people to please stay seated for a minute to let connecting passengers off first. As I did, to avoid getting bonked by a 50-pound carry on. 

But no complaints and everything went well both directions, including my Uber ride from North Las Vegas to the airport, the first I used the app since before the pandemic. Surprise, surprise, it remembered my credit card.

I enjoyed some very special days with Dad. Best of all, my sister is now home safely after a fabulous vacation with her family in Cancun. Her daughters, their husbands and all four grandsons were there. Along with the mystery destination, that was also a huge surprise for Marji. 

They stayed at a lovely all-inclusive resort and arranged a private cultural tour of some Maya ruins, including a zip line experience and swim in a jungle cenote.  The best of everything. What wonderful memories.

 

Anyway, back to Seattle and unseasonably cool temperatures for the next few days. After the bright desert sun, the mornings are so dark and the furnace is running now instead of the AC.  It's raining today, probably the last rain for a while and good for the dried out garden. Everything looks beautiful and green and blooming, the growth in just a few days almost overwhelming. The word that comes to mind is "rampant."

Sunshine Superman

 

When the weather gets hot, Dad spends 15 minutes a day in the sun soaking up some vitamin D, not to to mention, keeping that healthy desert tan going. 

Not enough time for me to work on a tan, so I'll go home tomorrow with the same egg-shell white legs I came with. That would make my dermatologist happy, but sorry, there is something attractive about sun-kissed skin.

It's nice here this time of year, especially in the morning, with the colors vivid in the clear air. These are some of the neighborhood's politically incorrect roses.

Scallops in butter wine sauce for dinner-- yes, you can get anything in Las Vegas.

Desert routines

There's just a short window for outdoor exercise when it's this hot. They aren't kidding about that. I walked for 30 minutes around the subdivision early this morning, and by the time I got back, it was almost too much in the blinding early light. I had to rest my eyes in a dim room for a while.

Green landscaping is "out" and the new construction doesn't even allow for real lawns. But many houses in these older developments have sweet established yards with non-natives, like leafy trees and roses. It was an unusual wet spring, so it's quite pretty walking around. 

We have interesting skies this week, even though the weathermen say it's too early for monsoon season. That's about all the news from the desert. 

Doodles spent yesterday sulking for Marji, but he perked up this morning.

 

A dog's life

 

No retirement for Doodles, still taking his therapy dog job pretty seriously at age 14. Like most seniors, he gets a handful of pills morning and night for everything from high blood pressure to arthritis. Hey, whatever works. 

Anyway, who wants to retire from the career of getting petted all day? He attached like a leech when I arrived, giving Marji baleful looks from my lap. 

Doodles knows the routine when he sees her suitcase come out and I show up. It's just his way of telling her, "I really don't care if you leave me, I like Aunt Sue better."  Of course he does care, but after all these years of solo visits we get along fine, despite a bit of sulkiness.

Yesterday was unseasonably hot plus stormy and windy in the Las Vegas basin, an unpleasant combination. After taking Marji to the airport for her surprise family vacation (Cancun!) we picked up lunch at In-N-Out and laid low in the afternoon. I was frankly exhausted from the heat and travel so didn't feel like cooking. Needs must, so I just made a macaroni salad for dinner.

Yes, folks, yours truly the food snob is perfectly capable of eating a slice of salty fried Spam (every ten years or so.) I grew up on the stuff. This looked like one of those Hawaiian plate lunches tourists pay good money for. Vowing here and now to eat better today.

The bluest skies you've ever seen

 

Heat wave aside, it sure feels good, stepping outside without a jacket for the first time since when? Last September? Seattle looks beautiful right now. If not for the din of emergency sirens all weekend, you'd think you were in a garden paradise.

This summer-like heat spell is right on the heels of heavy rain, so the flowers are going bonkers. Some of the rose bushes are taller than me. Spring is typical a long season, starting in February with a gradual warm-up. There were summers when it never got this hot at all, and here we are, only in May.

This heat wave stretches all across the Northwest and western Canada. The mid-level snow is already melted in the Cascade Mountains, but there's still plenty of high elevation snow pack so they expect the rivers to rise again, although fingers crossed, not reaching the level we saw.

The Methow Valley News ran a front page article about the minor flooding in the Valley last week. While it wasn't a record crest, it was up there with a handful of others in recent years. 

The river has settled down for the time being, leaving our little stretch none the worse for wear. Amanda took the photos this weekend.

Off to a different kind of heat today.  I have a flight to Las Vegas at 10 am, and looking forward to spending the week with Dad and Doodles while my sister takes a long-overdue vacation.

Little things, old things

There's something mysterious about old books. Riding my bike last week, I stopped at a little lending library in Twisp. It was tucked in with all the tattered paperbacks in the old phone booth on Glover Street.

The book was published the year I was 10 years old, a long time to knock around staying in perfect condition! It's just a collection of sayings, essays, poems and inspirational stories.

Long before anyone used words like "meditation," "mindfulness," "zen," and "daily practice," there was this:

One of the striking things about successful persons is their facility of determining the relative importance of different things. Life is so short and time so fleeting that much which one would do must be omitted. He is fortunate who perceives this at a glance. Reflect every morning what is important and leave everything else undone. There is no rule more indispensable to success.

Edward Young

Also from the "Success" chapter: 

He has achieved success who has lived well, laughed often, and loved much; who has gained the respect of intelligent men and the love of little children; who has filled his niche and accomplished his task; who has left the world better than he found it, whether by an improved poppy, a perfect poem, who has never lacked appreciation of earth's beauty or failed to express it; who has always looked for the best in others and given the best he had; whose life was an inspiration; whose memory a benediction.  Anon.

Happy Mother's Day weekend. 

Perfection

 

Perfectly poached eggs and perfectly ripe avocado on wheat toast. (John doesn't care for either which is fine--all the more for me.)

A perfect breakfast that would cost big bucks in a restaurant, if you could find one.  In West Seattle, the breakfast options are pretty limited. There are some little cafes scattered around but they don't open early. It sounds weird, but we don't have a single chain restaurant like Appleby's, much less, a 24-hour coffee shop like Waffle House. 

I read in the paper that the downtown clubbers, after a night of drinking, gather in the wee hours at a depressing ancient Denny's in the SoHo District. Unlike most major cities, there isn't a night dining scene in Seattle. Not that we care.

Speaking of perfection, a perfect weather day coming up with sunshine start to finish and temperatures in the mid-70's. Looking forward to gathering on the sunny patio with our ukuleles.

Bluebells

 

Believe it or not, there's a flower bed under there. Most of that spent spring foliage needs to come out. Ugh. With my arthritic hands, the heavy work is starting to "get away from me,” as they say about old people.

Still, it's a pretty mess. The bluebells always remind me of a scene from the sweet 1990's TV series, "The Darling Buds of May," based on the English novels by H.E. Bates. 

The main characters Pop and Ma Larkin beguile Cedric Charlton, a timid and stuffy tax inspector, into abandoning his investigation of their finances by sending him out to view the bluebell field with their daughter Mariette, played by stunningly beautiful young Catherine Zeta-Jones. (He never knew what hit him.)

A gentle and funny series-- the kind they just don't make anymore. Check it out, if you feel like slowing down a bit in front of the TV.

One more day

 

Chilly and rainy this morning with the furnace running. Maybe for the last time until fall? We're entering a stretch of dry, hot weather all across the state. It might reach 90 by the weekend-- which has never happened in mid May. The weather seems to jump from one extreme to the next. Of course this will cause more rapid mountain snow melt. Only so many things you can worry about at once.

In the meantime, nothing new or exciting here on the western home front. I bought some healthy pepper plants ($2 each!) at Lone Pine, and our potted tomatoes are finally taking off along the side of the house. Rampant growth (good and bad) is everywhere from the wet spring. Already time to clear out the spent spring foliage, not my favorite task. 

Who can get mad at a bluebell? But they spread like crazy in a rich, composted flower bed. The lush leaves smother the delicate lilies trying to poke through at the same time. Then the entire plant disappears, and you forget about them until next year. The only time to dig bluebells out is while they're blooming, which always seems kind of harsh.

Wild waters

 

That is the confluence of the Twisp and Methow Rivers at Twisp City Park. Amanda said in 15 years living in town, she's never seen the rivers look quite so "ragey." A good word for it. The Methow crested at about 18,000 cfs on Saturday morning, slightly above the 10 foot flood stage.

The water came up to the edge of the lawn and a side channel ran down the trail like a mini river. The house sits on a slight rise, so good to know it would take a much larger flood than this to submerge the property. That said, it was a nail-biter to witness firsthand, instead of just fretting over the flood warnings from Seattle. 

The water is receding for now, and things look none the worse for wear. Instead of losing waterfront the opposite happened, with a delivery of fresh sand to replenish the beach and trail.

A view of the property from the opposite side of the Methow. 

Enough about the river. We had a fun weekend and the community theater production of Wizard of Oz was delightful.

One of the other highlights was looking down from Amanda and Tom's property, high above Twisp. The land was a garden of blooming Arrowleaf Balsamroot and other wildflowers. I tuned on my bird song identification app, and within 5 minutes it lit up with a list of 12 different species of songbird. Pure magic. 

Back to the city today.

Life on the river

 

Nothing lazy about this river, raging right in front of the yard this morning. The combination of hard rain and melting snow brought it up to 16,000 cfi. It was 12,000 yesterday when we arrived.

Although the view from the sofa is unnerving, so far so good. The flood watch expires later today so hopefully it crests soon. Never a dull moment in the Methow Valley.