Countdown to Christmas

 

 

 

Simpler times, and by gosh, I'm old enough to remember gifts like that.  There was always a can of pipe tobacco under the tree for Dad. 

On this day in 1843 Charles Dickens published "A Christmas Carol."

The celebration of Christmas in Victorian times was still somewhat controversial. Puritans in England and America argued that Christmas was a holiday left over from the days when pagans celebrated the winter solstice (it was.) Many Christians felt that the extravagance of Christmas was an insult to Christ. 

But "A Christmas Carol" turned out to be a huge best-seller in both England and the United States and set the tone for Christmas as we know it today: a season of generosity, feasting, and merriment. 

There are dozens of "Christmas Carol" movies, but our family favorite is the 1970 "Scrooge" musical starring 34-year old dreamboat Albert Finney. Maybe tonight. 

This weekend is the final countdown before Christmas. On Sunday, the Winter Solstice, we're going downtown and see an exhibit at the Seattle Art Museum, called "Farm to Table: Art, Food and Identity in the Age of Impressionism." It's supposed to be excellent, then out to lunch somewhere and probably a walk through the crowded market. Our annual tradition...

Have a wonderful weekend. 

 

 

 

It worked

 

 

If you complain enough about the weather, it finally takes notice and improves (if only!) 

But whatever, yesterday the sun suddenly appeared and shined down on the soggy world. It has been a long haul of bad weather up here. Seattle largely escaped, but the floods caused a heartbreaking mess for many people. 

Without the Pineapple Express drenching us, it's suddenly much colder and finally snowing up in the mountains. Snow in the Methow Valley, too, so Tom can try out his new snow blower.

 

I put the amaryllis pot on my desk, the brightest window in the house (which isn't saying much) but enough light to pop open. 

Other than that, not much news. Been catching up with old friends this week and just tying to keep myself occupied on long, dreary afternoons without gaining 10 pounds. 

The Winter Solstice is fast approaching. Although it won't be noticeable for weeks, soon we turn the corner. 

"No winter lasts forever; no spring skips its turn."
- Hal Borland 

 

Under seige

 

Enough already with the weather. More rain we don't need, and a windstorm last night with gusts nearly 100 mph in places. Blizzard warnings are up in the mountain passes (the few that are still open) the silver lining being the moisture won't run right off into the rivers. A memorable "start" to winter in the Pacific Northwest. 

Patience

 

 

 

This amaryllis bulb I planted over a month ago is ready to pop open, just in time for Christmas. Stay tuned.

 

We're on final countdown and I've been baking cookies this week, also sampling too many along the way (tis the season.) 

 

Since John retired, I've scaled back somewhat on cookies. He always took them to their shop holiday pot luck. I feel like I've made a cookie for every employee at Boeing Field!

 

Those were the days...

 

 

Speaking of cookies, today is Pizzelle Day, a beloved Italian American wafer, flavored with anise (sometimes vanilla or lemon) and made using a special iron. Thin, crisp and good, especially when they're fresh. 

 

 

Each year, John's mother mailed us a big box of goodies (she loved baking) and it would always include a large oatmeal container filled with pizzelles. Oh, the things we once took for granted. 

 

 

John’s parents made them on a modern electric pizzelle iron, which still takes patience. But somewhere in the basement, we have their heavy old hand-held stove top iron. 

 

That's about all the news, other than:

 

 

Rain returns

 

 

Now that's the sort of thing you can't pass up at Costco. Anyway, like a jar of Spanish sunshine on the counter. I don't have words for this awful weekend of news. 

The rain is back with a vengeance this morning. This latest atmospheric river is the last of the year (or so they promise) because by mid-week the temperature drops and it starts snowing in the mountains-- by the foot. 

That finally turns off the fire hose gushing down into the western rivers. We are lucky in Seattle, but many have lost their homes, even people in communities not especially close to rivers. 

 

My friend Karen sent that picture of Methow River in Twisp near our house, looking like a typical spring flood. It will certainly rise up again today and tomorrow. How strange no snow on the ground in mid-December. But fortunately, that's about to change. 

 

The Methow River at Twisp

 

A dramatic bump in the USGS water flow graph yesterday!

 

 

To put it in perspective, yearly graph shows the flow was even higher than last spring's runoff. Not flood stage, but just remarkable in that it reached that level in a matter of hours instead of over several weeks. Never underestimate the power of a river.

 

And today, receding back almost as fast as it went up.

 

Unlike the Columbia River, which has numerous dams for flood control and hydropower, the Methow River does not have major flood control dams. Historically, levees were constructed to protect farmland and towns, but these confine the river to a channel and block fish. 

 

 

 

Methow Salmon Recovery is working with landowners (which can be a tough sell) to remove or modify these old levees. This allows the river to access its natural floodplain during high flows, which slows the water and reduces flood damage downstream, while benefiting salmon habitat. Makes sense, but only time will tell. 

 

Anyway, long story short we dodged a bullet. If the warm atmospheric river came in the spring on heavy mountain snow pack, it would be a different situation along the Methow and other eastern Washington rivers.

 

The weekend is here after a week of unrelenting rain and bad news. The Northwest is drying out for a few days and people can start to assess the damage. 

 

Have a good one-- Christmas is closing in fast.  

 

 

 

Thank you, Indonesia

 

The Snoqualmie River

They estimate nearly 5 trillion gallons of water have fallen in the Northwest this week, leading to historic river flooding, especially along the Snoqualmie and Skagit. 

That long fire hose of water traces to other side of the world, where a tropical cyclone in Indonesia supercharged these stubborn atmospheric rivers that have drenched us for days. Small world, indeed.

I went to the gym early yesterday morning and spent the rest of the day at home-- both of us happy we didn't have to go anywhere. 

That said, a long dark rainy day inside can put you in a pretty dreary mood:

"I sat there with Sally. We sat there, we two. And I said, 'How I wish we had something to do!' Too wet to go out and too cold to play ball. So we sat in the house. We did nothing at all."

The Cat and the Hat, Dr. Seuss 

 

And as that saying goes, and Cat in the Hat shows, "idle hands are the devil's playthings." 

With a little help from YouTube videos, I got busy and framed my embroideries that were just stored in a shoe box. 

 

Turned out pretty! Now I need to find a bit of empty wall to hang them. Somewhere. 

 

In food news, pizza night, and this vegetarian beauty made with balls of fresh mozzarella instead of cheese out of the plastic package. With enough wine, that brightened up the evening. 

It's still raining this morning, but supposed to finally taper off by the end of the day. 

 

That is not a water fountain-- it is rain blowing sideways through the athletic track field lights.

The birds are happy

 

 

The human weather misery index is high but the birds are sure happy in this warm and wet weather. The yard seems filled with more than usual, which I attribute the messy garden beds and of course the seed feeder is up for the winter.

The juncos, wrens and white crowned sparrows like foraging through the rotting vegetation. I used to get carried away in the fall, cutting everything back to the ground, but have learned that leaving most clean up til spring is huge for the wintering birds and insects. All the new houses in West Seattle have industrial type landscaping (if any) and these old established gardens are slowly disappearing. 

 And under all the slime, the day lilies already thinking of spring. 

You have probably heard about the river flooding and might wonder about our little house perched along the Methow River. If this type of atmospheric river hit in the spring and stalled on a heavy mountain snow pack, that would be bad news for the rivers on the eastern side of the state.

It's the western Washington rivers that are raging now. Snoqualmie Falls puts on quite a show and becomes a big tourist attraction. 

 

  

More than just heating

 

 An original, old school Russian stove with a cooking oven and sleeping loft on top.

And a fancy "oven beds" as they are sometimes called. 

 

According to AI, masonry heat has a gentle but penetrating warmth that feels like the sun on your skin or a warm rock. Unlike furnaces and wood stoves that heat the air, Russian stoves give a cozy, deep warmth without big temperature swings.

Sold yet?

 

That's not a Russian peasant and his faithful dog Ha! It's our own dear, hardworking Tom, soaking up warmth on the home hearth. 

Amanda says the hearth is soothing to lay on (obviously) and the stove is certainly the center of the home this time of year-- shorts in December. 

From "A Countryman's Autumn Notebook" by Adrian Bell

“And yet, what are the true joys of life? By what does a man in all sincerity measure his standard of living? For myself, I would say that the good life is a small house, a cottage, and in that cottage a hearth that will burn wood, and a lamp or two and a shelf of books.” 

 

Sad tree, happy tree

 

 

The photo isn't sideways. A windstorm on Friday night knocked over the tree on the front porch. 

Weather has been stormy and unsettled as the massive atmospheric river approaches the Northwest. I'll bet some of those blow-up Santas and reindeer in the neighborhood also went flying. 

Sigh. I got the dirt mess cleaned up and put a Methow River rock on top of the pot to weigh it down until spring. 

 

That's a prettier sight.  

Quite a project when those tubs come down from the attic. A Scroogey thing to admit that I don't enjoy the decorating part very much, but the house looks so pretty when it's done. 

 

 

And hello to the funny old treasures, carefully stored through the decades. 

This plaster nativity set is about 80 years old. It probably came from Woolworths in Quakertown when we were kids. 

The camels, donkey and Wise Men are long gone, and the group winnowed down to the essential trio plus the angel, which is a miracle when you think of all the little hands that have touched it. One of the sheep has a broken leg but he's hanging in there.

And we're hanging in there too, waiting to see what four days of heavy rain will bring.  

The weekend

 

Just a little holiday display to brighten the kitchen window box. We haven't had a hard freeze yet, so the geraniums there were still blooming away. Occasionally they make it through the winter, but they're sad looking puppies by spring so I start over with new ones from Costco. What else blooms for seven months straight?

We have a seven foot Douglas Fir to wrestle inside today-- also haul the tubs and boxes down from the attic crawl space. A wet weekend and good time to make a start on cookies and cards. 

Instead of a Christmas letter, I decided to write personal notes to the few people we're in touch with only once a year. To be honest, most of the family keeps up with us on the blog anyway. We're in good health so no complaints! I just don't have the energy to put a happy spin on 2025. Hopefully next year is better, especially in the vacation department. 

We dug out the Christmas CD collection and the old albums are still the best-- young Doris Day has a voice like an angel, and Mel Torme's snappy version of Good King Wenceslas is my favorite carol, along with with Holly and the Ivy. On the other hand, once a year is enough to suffer through A Little Drummer Boy and The Twelve Days of Christmas. Especially at the grocery store. 

Ukulele players are partial to the most goofy, jokey Christmas songs ever written and we started in on that catalog yesterday.  I Want a Hippopotamus for Christmas is more fun than struggling though five gory stanzas of We Three Kings. But our leader likes the complicated carol arrangements done by classic bands like The Eagles and Beach Boys. Just my opinion, but Little Saint Nick on ukulele is right up there with Drummer Boy. Ha Ha. 

 Have a good weekend. Take care. 

Weird products

 

Sometimes I buy this little box of dehydrated potato pancakes and it's actually pretty good. Mix with eggs and water, then fry blobs a small amount of vegetable oil (not olive.) 

They soak up all the oil like a sponge, so go light. I guess in the evil ultra-processed food category, but real latkes are messy work-- the potatoes finely grated, wrung dry in dish towels, etc. etc.

Karen gave us a jar of her homemade applesauce and it was a delicious topping.

I skipped the sour cream for a change, not being that hungry last night. Why?

Lunch: Orange Chicken, the Panda Express signature dish. Good grief. We were out buying a Christmas tree and running other errands.

Also in the wild and weird category, an impulse bottle of cranberry wine, of all things. What a beautiful jewel red holiday color!  Hopefully it tastes half as good as it looks-- maybe with the Christmas ham.
 

Chili for chilly nights

 

We made a giant pot of chili with ground beef and a bag of heirloom Jacobs Cattle Beans, mail ordered from Rancho Gordo. Why go to all the trouble, when you can just open cans of kidney beans?

Well, these beautiful beans are pretty special. While they look like any other bean after they cook, they hold their shape and have a meaty texture that makes them especially good for chili. 

(Legend has it that Jacobs Cattle beans were a gift from the Passamaquoddy Native Americans to the first non-native child born in Lubec, Maine. Aw. Nice story.)

 

John won't touch sour cream, but I like a fattening dab to mellow out spicy food. 

Speaking of chilly, while the eastern half of the country freezes, we've been warm so far this winter. That's typical of our contrarian weather in the Pacific Northwest. They're starting to fret about the lack of mountain snow pack, but plenty of time to make that up. It will probably dump on the passes around Christmas, when people want to travel. 

Speaking of, we're off to get a tree today at Mclendon's Hardware in White Center. Maybe that will put me in a Christmas mood. Or not.