Summer wrap up

 

This is probably the last sit-by-the-river-in-shorts visit until next June. It's still quite hot during the day, but with a wild 24 hour 50 degree temperature swing, and chilly enough for a jacket in the morning. Not fall yet, but the mornings are dark and cool.

The deer and turkeys have been the only visitors in front of the house. It's been peaceful so far at least, considering this is a holiday weekend. 

The river is down to a trickle, and probably not as appealing on a hot day, even for the most fervid river swimmers. I never go in that "hole" myself-- slippery, slimy rocks to twist an ankle on, a rusted culvert and debris on the bottom. Like fishing lures. Ugh.

 

 

I was at the Twisp Saturday Market today, which drew a big crowd. The Methow Valley Senior Center Thrift Store sponsors huge themed sales at regular intervals throughout the year: Spring, Summer, Western, Christmas, Winter, etc. Everyone in the community turns out for these events. There are incredible bargains to be found on high quality used clothing, gear and decor. What fun. Yes I bought some stuff, who can resist. 

That's about all the news, except for Nana bragging. Among other things, Nova is a talented artist. She did this free hand sketch and painting in a few minutes.

 

 

 

 

Little bitty things

 

 

The big flowers like roses, lilies and dahlias are wrapping up their show for the season, so beauty comes in smaller packages now. 

 

The chopped up star jasmine vine produced a hopeful little flower by the deck; ditto the spindly clematis I bought for half price at Safeway. That one needs to go in the ground before winter, the question is where?

 

Regarding the post yesterday, with a nudge from my sister, I filed an online report/complaint with the King County Sheriff Traffic Division about our dangerous intersection. We get discouraged in Seattle with rude, reckless driving and what seems like lack of enforcement, but that's no excuse for giving up:

  

“If you think you're too small to have an impact, try going to bed with a mosquito in the room.”
― Anita Roddick 

Have a good holiday weekend. I'm heading across the Great Divide(s) this morning with a bunch of other people in a much bigger rush than me...

  

 

 

 

 

Really?

 

Our house is on a busy street corner with 4-way stop signs and crosswalks. We hear the traffic roaring past all the time, and yesterday afternoon at rush hour I watched car after car speed through that intersection without even slowing down. 

At least some cars made a rolling stop, but not a single driver came to a complete and legal stop. To make it even worse, parents blast through that intersection on electric bikes with kids on the back, and there's no way a driver could see them in time. Imagine the nightmare of a car/bicycle or car/pedestrian accident in Seattle?

OK, enough of that depressing stuff. Speaking of traffic, I hope to beat some of it with an early start to Twisp tomorrow morning. Just squeezing in one last summery visit before things get busy for us in September. 

 

    

 

 

 

Another golden morning

 

Click the below for a short art history lesson. Not a bad way to start the day.

"Woman Before the Rising Sun," Caspar David Friedrich, c. 1818

 

Mini heat wave

 

I sat outside after dinner last night watching a flock of excited Bushtits take showers in the sprinkler. The dearest little birds, they appear from nowhere at the sound of water, then disappear just as fast.

This will be the third day of near 90 degree temperatures in Seattle. Our neighborhood hasn't been quite that hot, but the house is still well over 80 degrees by evening. 

I'm a light sleeper and usually head to the downstairs bedroom which is cooler, not to mention quieter without a fan and kitchen refrigerator running a few steps from the bed. And a lone mosquito buzzing around the room. Is there anything more irritating at night? Lucky John can sleep anywhere through anything. 

This is perfect weather for ripening tomatoes, and we have an astonishing amount from just two potted plants. 

Thank you, better-living-through-chemistry tomato formula Miracle Gro.

 

 

I'm using them up in every possible way. We'll look back on those luscious sandwiches in January, when store tomatoes are a sad thing. 

 
 

High adventure pictures

 

As promised...and happy to report the families safely returned on Thursday after an incredible backpacking trip in the remote Pasayten Wilderness.

 

After 50+ miles on rugged trails, an icy dip in Ross Lake to wash off the dust, followed by copious pizza in Mazama on the drive home to Twisp. 

Amazing views of the North Cascade peaks from above tree line.

The group included four adults, two teenagers, two tweens and two dogs with piles of gear packed in, not to mention, an impressive amount of food for hungry days on the trail.  Seeing how those kids eat at home, I honestly don't know how they do it-- obviously lots of planning required.  

And everyone now carries a fair share of weight, including the canines packing their dinners. 

Nova taking a reading rest break, while Nica keeps watch along the trail. 

Amanda said that Maya, super fit from soccer and swimming, led the group up the steepest trails carrying her own 35-pound pack. 

I can just hear her: "What TOOK you guys so long?" 

Oh yes. No wildlife sightings other than some harmless deer. The fierce and smart ones gave the party a wide berth. Ha!

If I had a boat

 

 

I'm taking the Seattle water taxi this morning to meet my friend Betsy for a fish and chips lunch at Ivar's. A beautiful day for a boat ride, and we want to check out the new Waterfront Park. It opened a few weeks ago with much hoopla and was dubbed Seattle's "new front porch."

 

 From the July 11 Seattle Times:

"No one will believe it was once all but impossible to stroll from Pike Place Market to the waterfront. Elliott Bay — the actual water of the waterfront — was largely invisible even as you walked beside it? The center of downtown was separated from the waterfront by a double decker highway carrying 90,000 cars a day?"

Well, yes we believe it, having spent countless hours stuck in traffic up on the old Viaduct and walking underneath. There was actually a walkway down to the waterfront from the Market used by tourists and brave locals-- an unpleasant warren of connecting concrete staircases (stinky and graffiti covered) called the Pike Place Market Hill Climb. 

Amanda, Tom and the girls are wrapping up their wilderness backpack today, coming out (I think) on the Pacific Crest Trail near Ross Lake, where they left their cars a week ago. We haven't heard from them since last Saturday and looking forward to some pictures.

This is what happens

When you prune hydrangeas too hard in the fall: few flowers. But a dandy bush now, primed and ready for next summer. 

In the not-so-nice-looking category, this overgrown and dying Photinia. These shrubs (trees when unpruned) are prone to fungal disease and all sorts of other pests, so no great loss here, except it somewhat blocked a view of the gosh awful metal garage? the neighbor built smack up against the property line. 

The garden is still beautiful for August but slowly moving into the clean up phase. The mornings are darker and starlings gathering in the fig tree, which means fall is around the corner. 

We've only had a couple days of measurable rain all summer. As the climate changed our plants have evolved naturally with more shrubs and fewer thirsty flowers. 

There was never a master plan for this yard anyway-- more like plant archaeology, one layer on top of the other, survival of the fittest. Everything must adapt, along with our expectations of what is beautiful. 

"Men argue. Nature acts."  Voltaire 

The last dahlia standing

 

Dahlia season quotes: 

"The dahlia's first duty in life is to flaunt and to swagger and to carry gorgeous blooms well above its leaves, and on no account to hang its head."  Gertrude Jekyll, Wood and Garden, 1899.

"Looking at my dahlias one summer day, a friend whose taste runs to the small and impeccable said sadly, "You do like big conspicuous flowers, don't you?" She meant vulgar, and I am used to that." Eleanor Perenyi, Green Thoughts, 1981.

Well, that white dahlia above is the only survivor out of dozens grown in this yard over the decades. It's a beauty. Those perfectly symmetrical ball varieties look almost artificial. 

It is the very same plant towering over Nova in a long ago forest of flowers. 

The others, immortalized on the blog.

 

Cheap treasure

 

This house doesn't need another fancy plate or basket, but my favorite thrift shop, The Discover Store, had a 50% off everything sale this weekend and these items were too unique to pass up. 

The plate has an "Abigail" stamp, which according to Google, is an old southern family business selling high quality pottery. I don't know anything about ceramics, but reduced down to ten bucks, hard to resist. 

I've always wanted to learn pine needle basket making, but the class I signed up for was cancelled. That coil basket has thousands of individual needles-- imagine the work! I wonder who made it, and then who gave it away to the charity shop. If only things could talk. 

Speaking of treasures, how nice to step outside and pick all-you-can eat tomatoes for a few weeks. 

At the West Seattle Sunday Market, the person in front of me paid a shocking $7 for a single heirloom tomato. He didn't even blink. (Same price as the pine needle basket.) 

And the ultimate bargain: free. The house across the street put this perfectly good chair out on the sidewalk and I grabbed it.

 Seattle can be a strange place. 

 

Silver Maple

 

 

Beautiful in every season, the Silver Maple across the street has been a part of our landscape ecology since 1980. In the summer, that huge biomass of leaves filters the hot afternoon sun, keeping our house cooler. I've raked tons of leaves over the years to mulch the garden beds. 

The tree has been struggling for years through a combination of neglect and climate change. Each year, more dead branches in the canopy and more wood falling on the ground. I've been dreading the day they decide it's a hazard and cut it down. 

 

 

But early this morning, a truck showed up, and they appear to be cutting out the dead wood high above. Dangerous work! And hopefully, it means they haven't given up on the old treasure yet. 

 

A pie sort of morning

 

 

The dark clouds are gathering in advance of the atmospheric river moving in tonight. Hopefully the rain extinguishes the stubborn fires burning out on the Olympic Peninsula. 

John is outside now checking the gutters-- the crows use them for a private picnic trough. If they clog up and it rains hard, the basement stairwell is prone to flood. 

I made an apple pie this morning to get us through this "preview of fall" weekend. The temperature has dropped almost 30 degrees in 3 days. Hoodies and jeans today for ukulele group. 

 

 

 

Good grain

 

I've written about Bluebird Grains before on the blog. The company is another Methow Valley business success story, like epqd gear and Blue Star Coffee Roasters, built up from scratch with hard work and good marketing. And it always helps that the locals are supportive and loyal to their home-grown businesses. 

When we first started going to the Valley almost 20 years ago, Bluebird was just a little boutique farm, selling bags of Emmer Farro (a hybrid species of wheat) at Hanks and the Saturday market. They've recently built a large processing facility with a retail store just outside of Winthrop, and greatly expanded their "ancient grain" product line. 

Amanda gave me a bag of Einkorn to try, and now it's my favorite. Einkorn is the oldest wheat known to scientists with a unique high protein low starch nutritional profile. 

 

It cooks up fairly soft so makes a good rice substitute.  But salad is the way to go with the leftovers. 

I added a can of white beans, onion and cherry tomatoes from the garden, with a lemon vinaigrette. Could have stopped right there for healthy vegetarian dinner, but the salad was sure yummy alongside grilled chicken and Hatch peppers. 

By gosh, it's been hot here for the last two days! The house was 85 degrees inside when we went to bed last night. Now a big cool down on the way, with heavy rain by the end of the week. 

  

Cloud nine

 

Looking at photos this morning, and still basking in the afterglow of that perfect Victoria trip.

Here's a photo of the family together last night in Pt. Townsend, dining on Thai food. They are on the long road back to Twisp now, but soon take off on the next big adventure-- a four day wilderness backpack in the North Cascades. 

 

No, Nana won't be trailing along, unless I can get one of those dashing ex-bush pilots to fly me in! Haha. Joe (above) flew the Otter to Victoria and was featured in the flight magazine. 

John got home yesterday and it's nice having him back, puttering around in his (now sparkling clean) basement lair. I love his family and was sorry to miss them this trip, but it was a special time for the sisters and brothers-- so happy they took advantage of that rare opportunity.