Psacalium

 

Psacalium is a genus of flowering plant in the  sunflower family. There are dozens of species of Psacalium, and even with the help of my clever plant app, I haven't been able to identify this particular one. 

We bought it during the pandemic at a public garden, when that was one of the few safe outings-- it was an innocent looking thing with pretty leaves in a gallon container.

Anyway, needless to say, it likes the rich flower beds and grows 8 feet tall, sending out roots in every direction. 

John gave me this lovely but poignant book for my birthday. Renkl writes an ecology editorial for the New York Times, and her column usually centers around the plants and animals in her Nashville backyard. 

Her neighborhood sounds like ours, with massive box houses and sterile landscaping replacing the modest bungalows and established yards. To the chagrin of some neighbors, she's left her property to nature, covered with native trees, shrubs, weeds and flowers and teeming with all types of insects, nesting birds, animals and amphibians. Even a 6 foot rat snake makes a home in her yard. 

I recently realized, I just don't have the strength or sheer willpower anymore to keep Mother Nature under my heel with chemicals and backbreaking work. 

Maybe our yard will evolve into something like hers, without the snake! Becoming the old people on the corner who have "let things go" on their big wasted lot that could hold a row of townhouses. This is considered rather selfish and elitist behavior in our silly Seattle. So be it. I'm listening to the robin, house sparrows and finches chattering away outside.

Sinfonia Antartica

 

English composer Ralph Vaughan Williams is most famous for "The Lark Ascending" but he also wrote nine symphonies, operas and film scores, including the 1948 movie "Scott of the Antarctic." 

Yesterday we saw an interesting, multi-media program at the Symphony. They played the haunting movie score while projecting original photos from the doomed expedition on a large screen, and a narrator read excerpts from Scott's diary. 

All five of Scott's party died of cold and hunger, only 11 miles from base camp on their 800 mile journey back. A tragic tale of hubris, although they are remembered as heroes who left a legacy of information and scientific knowledge about the South Pole.

Speaking of cold weather. April showers bring May flowers, and it's been a chilly, rainy end to the month in Seattle. A wet spring is a good thing, and means beautiful roses when the sun finally warms up in May. I haven't cleared out the bulb foliage yet, so it's a big green mess out there. At least the invasive bluebells are pretty.

Busy days, all good

 

 

 

We all went to a home track meet at Liberty Bell High School on Tuesday afternoon. The school is on the outskirts of Winthrop, about 6 miles from Twisp in a beautiful setting surrounded by miles of biking and ski trails. 

 

Of course the kids, having grown up here, take all this for granted. Many of the teenagers (although certainly not all) can't wait to "get away" from the rural lifestyle and make a life in the big city. This is a story as old as time.

 

Nova is a natural athlete and competed in a couple of events, although frankly she doesn't care much for track and would rather be working at the riding academy. Or practicing with the wresting team. But it was fun watching that young energy race by the stadium, although the bleacher seats got pretty hard after a couple hours. 

 

The dream machines came on Wednesday, delivered by a couple of nice kids (a boy and a girl) from Home Depot. They schlepped them all the way down the driveway without a complaint, using those brutal body slings. The power lines were too low for the truck to pass under.

 

I think I died and went to heaven. No more carrying bags of dirty laundry back and forth from Seattle. They work beautifully and best of all, they sound quiet in this small house.

Last but not least, I took Nova up to the ranch last night do chores and ride Ginger. She is riding in her first horse show next weekend. More on that later.

This morning, back to the big city. A rainy drive ahead.

Fiery sunrise

 

Not the typical peaceful view this morning. The empty land across the river from our house is privately owned and the site of an old lumber mill. 

The property isn't posted, so locals are accustomed to using it for dog walking, biking and such. In recent years, there's been occasional illegal camping and other questionable stuff going on over there, like drug dealing and car racing. Yes, even in this small town.

For the last few days, they've been bull-dozing all the scrubby trees and vegetation off the property. This morning, they're burning the big piles of brush. Something about fire, intentional or not, gets your attention fast at 6 am.

That land is in Twisp city limits, so it's quite valuable for development purposes. It looks like a project might finally be in works. There's a lack of housing in the valley, so this is inevitable and not a bad thing, but from my selfish point of view, it will be a big adjustment looking across the river at lights and houses instead of open land.

A busy day shaping up-- time to close the laptop and get cracking. 

Then and now

 

That's the confluence of the Methow and Twisp Rivers at the City Park yesterday. The Methow River is running at about 2,000 CFS now, which is about 60% of normal for April.

This is the same spot last spring, when the river crested at 18,000 CFS. May 2023 was unseasonably warm, causing a rapid melt off in the mountains. A number of factors must converge for damaging floods in the valley: an exceptionally warm spring, high snow pack, slow moving rain storms. It's happened before and will again, but not this year. (Famous last words.)

Another then and now view in front of the house. It's so peaceful here, especially compared to the constant background din in West Seattle.

I was on my own yesterday, but the rest of the week is busier. I'm having lunch with my friend Karen and there's a track meet at the school tonight. Tomorrow, fingers crossed, a new washer and dryer delivered from the Home Depot store way over in Omak. I ordered it a month ago. No more hauling towels and sheets back and forth from Seattle? Wow.

The finest hour

"The finest hour that I have seen
Is the one that comes between
The edge of night and the break of day
It's when the darkness rolls away."

 

 Kate Wolf, Across the Great Divide

 

 

I had a good drive yesterday. It rained and snowed some on Snoqualmie Pass which always seems slightly offensive this late in April.  Just give it up, will you?

 

Sunday morning is my favorite time to travel east. There are few trucks on the road and most of the traffic is headed back toward the big cites on the west side. 

 

This is when the huge RV's suddenly appear on the roads, and everyone seems in a frantic rush to get from point A to point B. The North Cascade Highway reopened, so tourist season truly begins. I have to hand it to those senior citizens, towing an RV as big as tractor trailer truck. And going 80 miles a hour, at that.

 

The only negative was our favorite pit stop, Lone Pine, is closed on Sundays. I stopped at a convenience store to buy a soda and eat my sandwich at a picnic table in back, where someone decided to half-bury a giant tire in the field. Not the same as sitting by koi pond and fountain at the Lone Pine picnic area. Not to mention, the fruit smoothies.

A busy week is shaping up here, which I'll fill you in on as it progresses. For now I'm going to watch the sun come up from behind Mill Hill. 

Hot chicken lite

 

Chicken thighs aren't exactly health food, so baking them on a rack is a good hack. And you can make an easy Nashville hot chicken with Frank's sauce. Almost as good as fried.

The authentic spice paste they use in restaurants has two ingredients: lard and cayenne pepper, mixed together, three parts pepper to one part lard and heated until they form a thick sauce. That gets slathered on the freshly fried chicken and melts right in. Oh, my goodness.

We had it once down in the Georgetown neighborhood. Just an early lunch for us, but it looked like a powerful hair-of-the-dog brunch for most of the customers. Even our waitress looked like she had just rolled out of bed. What a hoot.

Today will be beautiful in Seattle, not a cloud in the sky close to 70. I have one more rough project (digging out a clump of dying Mondo grass.) I'll take a rest until the tulip leaves die back--then a final clean-up of the spring mess before we tick over to weeding and watering season.

I'm heading over to Twisp this weekend, and I'll see you next from the other side.

 

So innocent looking

 

Bluebells...such a sweet flower, so evocative of England where they carpet the countryside in an enchanting sea of blue. The bluebell there is protected under the Wildlife and Countryside Act, and digging up the plant or bulb is prohibited. 

Keep in mind, that flower is not to be confused with their rough cousin, the Spanish bluebell (above) which is very similar in appearance to the British bluebell.

As they say, a weed is just a flower in the wrong place. 

Spanish bluebells invade lawns and take over flower beds, the heavy leaves choking out everything else coming up. 

A Google search shows all the creative (and violent) ways people have tried to kill them: poison, flamethrower, boiling water, stomping the leaves to mush, cutting the tops off until they "starve" and so on. Oh, the rage.

Persistent as bamboo, none of these methods really work. All you can do is dig up the tiny deep bulbs--backbreaking work and impossible if there are "nice" plants growing in the vicinity.

It looks like a wild hog rooted through this bed. Yesterday I sliced off the bluebell leaves so the lilies and dahlias have some breathing space. But I'm just kicking the can down the road. Soon the flower beds will fill in and bluebells forgotten until next spring. 

When you've lived for 3/4 of a century, you have to pick your battles.

Aw, look at the dear things. All four chicks are thriving. Maya named the Easter Eggers (above) Bonnie and Clyde.

Geranium time

 

I bought 12 geraniums at Costco yesterday and look forward to getting them potted up today. Sparkling frost on the cars this morning, but we're headed into a beautiful stretch of warm weather. Seattle is spectacular on these sunny spring days. All the big trees around us are greening up and blooming, and they help block the sight of houses and development. 

Other than the fact they're common, what bad thing can you say about plain red geraniums?  These will bloom right up until November. We once grew amazing fuchsias and other fussy things, but summers have become so hot and dry hanging baskets are impossible to keep watered. 

I still need to plant the tomato and pepper pots we grow on the baking south side of the house. I'll stop at Lone Pine the next time I go to Twisp. They often have a selection of vegetable starts with better quality and price than Home Depot. 

Here's a funny quote!

 “Long experience has taught me that people who do not like geraniums have something morally unsound about them. Sooner or later you will find them out; you will discover that they drink, or steal books, or speak sharply to cats. Never trust a man or a woman who is not passionately devoted to geraniums.”
― Beverley Nichols

Chick time

 

 

The first batch of chicks, 2020

Look at those little girls. What happened?

The Twisp hens are a real success story, and provide the family with fresh eggs almost year round. With simple care, chickens are surprisingly hardy and can acclimate to the harsh winters and hot summers. 

They are basically backyard pets and come running, begging for vegetable scraps, when someone goes out the back door. Their constant "talking" is soothing to the ear, and they have individual personalities.

Chickens live an average of 3-7 years so there's been attrition from natural causes. Only one of the original pandemic flock is still around, plain little black "Leah," who even survived a dog attack. She went weird and broody last year, and hardly left her nest box for months. Maybe a rest cure is the secret to long life?

Anyway, each spring the girls order a few new baby chicks from the feed store in town. It's an exciting day when they arrive and the kids walk down to pick them up.

This year they bought "Easter Eggers" and "Black Sex Link." These are special cross-breeds, valued for their prolific laying, personality and hardiness. The "Easter Eggers" lay a variety of colors: light blue, green to pink. How cute is that?

Beauty is in the eye of the beholder

 

Apple products are basically a closed ecosystem, which is both good and bad. People love or hate them. Users are pretty much expected to use Apple's software, and Apple takes the middle ground on customization and features attempting to please everyone (the Photos app is a good example) which some say results in mediocrity. The strategy works, because Apple has a cult following. 

Here's the biggest advantage: You bring your shiny new toy home and turn it on, it says hello, then sets itself up and works seamlessly with every Apple product you own. Same family, and they all get along just dandy. 

I put off getting a new laptop long as possible. My switch from PC to Mac 10 years ago was pretty bumpy, but we've come a long way since then. Using Migration Assistant, within 3 hours everything was copied from my old MacBook Pro to the new. 

And I mean everything: settings, favorites, bookmarks, saved passwords, etc. When I turned it on, the screen was the same as my old, except better. 

John had to listen to me fretting during the process, but other than that, my personal tech assistant got off easy!

It needs a few tweaks, but what a difference in speed and features. At the same time, everything is familiar enough not to be intimidating. Mission accomplished.

 

Scary excitement

 

My trusty old laptop is literally falling apart at the seams. Did you know they're held together by itty bitty screws? 

See that gap? EEK. And no, it can't just be "screwed back" because the holes are stripped.

This MacBook Pro was the latest and greatest over 10 years ago, a generous Christmas gift from John which took me kicking and screaming from the PC world over to Appleland, never to return.

It's served me well on countless trips, tapping out thousands of blog posts since 2009 and the home of my 17,000 photos, neurotically organized in chronological order by month and year (once a librarian, always a librarian.) 

I placed an online order and will pick up a new MacBook Pro at the Apple Store today. Then the fun part begins, as the new machine copies everything off the old. At least that's how it's supposed to work using Apple's Migration Assistant. I'm thinking positive. In general, Apple makes it easy to upgrade their devices. Which might be one reason they have a market cap of $2.70 TRILLION.

 Have a good weekend. If the computer gods are favorable, I'll be back Monday.

Make yourself useful

 

 

We watched the new Netflix documentary about Arnold Schwarzenegger. The three episodes cover his early life and bodybuilding, the Hollywood years, and finally his California political career. 

I've never been a fan of body-building much less violent movies, but the documentary was interesting. He's a real force of nature, physically and mentally, but also charismatic with a sharp sense of humor. At age 75, he's now seen as an elder statesman.

Arnold was born in Austria right after WWII. He had an old-school, Germanic upbringing. Praise was given sparingly, if at all, and siblings were shamed and compared to each other. Punishment was harsh. This was pretty typical for the time and culture, but Arnold's father was damaged after the war, which  came out in alcoholism and cruel ways. Arnold attributes his drive and success in life to the overwhelming desire to get away from his family.

I could relate to some of the cultural stuff, especially when he talks about the importance of doing something, anything, instead of acting like a victim. Maybe we had a "Germanic lite" upbringing, because "go make yourself useful" was frequent advice in our house.

Anyway. Enough of that. The tulips are at their peak this week. The windows are clean and John mowed yesterday. Everything looks beautiful under the soft, grey sky.

 

It's a good day

 

 

The sun is out this morning, and it's a good day to clean the winter grimy windows.

Slow spring

 

Spring is a long, slow process in western Washington, and it seems this April has been chillier than usual. Of course, the contrast of coming back from the warm desert doesn't help. But when the sun does peek out, the blooming trees are beautiful in our neighborhood. It is a lovely (albeit damp) season here.

I'm looking forward to summer food, especially grilling, but for now we're still in full winter meal mode: pasta and meatballs, tacos, hearty soup. We used the pretty Vaquero beans in the soup above, and they made a dark, rich broth. Surprising, because they are black and white, like little pinto horses. And hallelujah, I finally used up the leftover ham in the freezer.

 

The eclipse

 

 

Well, I hear you went up to Saratoga, and your horse naturally won. And you flew your Lear jet to Nova Scotia, to see the total eclipse of the sun… 

 

Carly Simon lyrics, "You're So Vain"

I heard that Carly Simon is flying to Nova Scotia, in honor of her big hit 54 years ago. Good for her.

It's quite the frenzy in some parts of the country. Here in Seattle, basically a non-event, due to clouds and our distance from the narrow umbra. 

 

We're lucky to have experienced the August 2017 eclipse. It was unforgettable, even though not complete.  I was in the North Cascades town of Concrete on the way to Twisp, and some nice folks shared their extra pair of glasses, which were impossible to find. John saw it from the parking lot at Boeing Field with his coworkers. 

 

My, that seems like a long time ago-- like everything that happened before the pandemic. I'll have to make it to 94 with my vision intact to see the next.

The garden is a wonderful mess of tulips, the lush leaves and flowers flopping all over the invasive bluebells. 

Beauty is in the eye of the beholder. Perfection is an illusion. You'll be a happier gardener when you accept those facts.

We have cut spring flowers in every room and they smell lovely.  Three cheers for the tall red and yellow Darwin hybrids, the workhorses of the tulip world and the only dependable repeaters. 

Costco sells the sturdy Darwin bulbs for a song, compared to those Dutch catalogs with all the fancy, frilly ones. The pictures are tempting, but the bulbs are feeble and only last a year or so. 

Until fall rolls around again, yard work is mostly the routine of weeding and cutting back spent flowers and foliage. And very familiar work, after over four decades of grubbing around on this little plot of land.

Every season is the same and different. The holly, the laurel hedge and the fig tree are the only original plants still here from 1980.  So many others, beautiful and not-so, have lived out their lifespans under my watch. 

Wishing you good luck and clear skies if you're in the path of the eclipse today. 

North to Seattle

 

Waiting for our flight yesterday morning at Palm Springs International Airport was still laid-back, although everything is changing.

The pleasant open air atrium was under construction. They took out the seating and Chihuly art to make room for a new bar and grill. They're also opening a clothing store in the outdoor area behind where I was relaxing above. So, a different scene when we go back again.  

We had fun as always, but will find a different place to stay. The new Lucille Inn was OK, but we missed the lush grounds of the magical old Andalusian. With the trees and hedges cut back, the pool area was hot and bright with lots of competition for umbrella shade. Couples staked out their chaises right after breakfast. 

Hopefully, they allow some of greenery to grow back. But as I already mentioned, it was unforgivable to paint the 100-year old flagstone floors ugly black-- and already chipping off.

The original, beautiful stone work still in our shower. The craftsmanship was amazing.

Goodness, it was cold when we got home and it took the furnace forever to warm up the house again. I pulled some chili out of the freezer and went to bed early.

We went to an afternoon Symphony concert this afternoon. Violin "superstar" Ray Chen playing Korngold's Concerto in D Major. A nice end a week of vacation. This weekend, nothing but relaxation and laundry.

Maya and Nova at Canon Beach today. Love the ocean hair, girls! Glad they could also get away for a short spring break.

Homeward bound

We visited the new Agua Caliente Cultural Museum yesterday. If you ever come to Palm Springs, don't miss it. Beautifully designed with fascinating exhibits, I can't remember enjoying a museum as much.

We're stuffing the suitcases with dirty clothes then heading to the airport for our flight back to Seattle this morning. 

As we learned yesterday, the word "goodbye" does not exist in the local native language. 

Instead we say: