Unawares

John mowed yesterday and how nice it looked.  Not exactly all downhill from here, but this is the prettiest time for the yard, everything so lush and green. Soon the grass starts to turn brown...

Anyway, that first real warm day always seems to catch us unawares, when the temperature outside suddenly gets higher than inside the house. We keep the furnace set at 68 degrees, and the thermostat hit 70 yesterday. My, how nice to open a few windows for the first time.

 

And that called for a steak on the grill. We shred it, then I generously let John gnaw the bone. Ha.

I have a tricky grill master job when we share, as I like steak on the rare side and John more well done. "Pink not red" he always says, which they hate to hear in restaurants. (Red and grey are easy, pink is hard.) Anyway, most of the time I manage to please us both, and if not, marriage is about compromise.

Before we get too complacent, rain and cool weather return tomorrow, just in time to drive to Twisp. At least it won't be snowing. This is a solo trip, and I have some fun things planned. More on that later. 

 

 

Something different

 

 

The famous "Wedding March" from Mendelssohn's "A Midsummer Night's Dream" is instantly recognizable, and the Overture is a wonderful old chestnut in the classical repertoir. 

He wrote that Overture at the tender age of 17, then many years later composed incidental music for a stage production of Shakespeare's favorite comedy. I expected "just the music" yesterday, but we had the full show on stage with actors narrating and the Symphony Chorale in the background. It lasted over an hour and and very entertaining from the 4th row. 

More ducks and daffodils? OK. 

 Their first introduction to water yesterday, and well, they took to it like-- ducks! 

The pear trees just coming into full bloom. A magic time, with the full promise of Spring. 

 

Golden days are here

 

The Carlton pear orchard just coming into bloom...including hundreds of daffodils planted by the previous owner to deter moles. What a beautiful way to do it.

Too cute

 

But ducks are famously messy, far messier than chicks because they love to play in, drink, and splash their water. They also poop about every 10 minutes. Liquid. Oh, well. Most people say they are worth the trouble. 

Amanda says these are very friendly and cuddly, born and bred to be backyard ornaments (pets.)

All of this takes me back to early childhood on our Pennsylvania farm when Dad tried chicken farming. We loved the boxes of chicks and ducklings behind the wood stove in the spring. Of course they weren't pets. And those colored chicks handed out at Easter back then? Something to play with before they showed up on the dinner table. Different times for sure. 

Anyway, I've been busy lately and nothing much fun. I spent 2 hours on hold yesterday morning to resolve a small fraud charge on my credit card. Something that should be a simple fix, but turned into a big hot mess. 

Of course a new credit card was immediately issued, then another fraud charge appeared on that number before it was even mailed! Sounds like an inside job to me. How bizarre. 

So now things are in limbo. My replacement card (in the mail now) is useless when it arrives so I need a replacement for the replacement. There's a good 45 minute wait to get a human being on the fraud line, and no guarantee they are "empowered" to resolve your problem. This does not inspire confidence in the new Alaska Airlines Atmos Rewards Visa. Fancy name, bad service. 

We have a nice weekend of weather coming up, and a symphony tomorrow with one of my favorite works. Felix Mendelssohn was 17 when he composed the famous Overture to A Midsummer Night's Dream. Wonderful music for a warm spring afternoon. I'll get back to the credit card project on Monday. 

Oh, so peaceful

 

I've asked John what he's looking forward to on this mostly German river cruise, and he says "Black Forest Cake." 

Well, as it happens, one of our cruise excursions is a bus ride out to the Black Forest where we will apparently see many cuckoo clock stores and a Black Forest Cake making demonstration.  

At the grocery store yesterday he found one, and they are hard to come by around here. Of course he bought it. He doesn't go to the grocery store often, so impulse buys whatever strikes his fancy. 

Not complaining-- it is quite delicious. Just something about the tart cherries and dark chocolate combo. Mit Schlag. We'll see if the Germans can top Alki Baking Company. 

I'm enjoying the peace and quiet this week as Seattle School District is on spring break. During the school year, we have to time our coming and goings around drop off and pick up time. Not to mention, the street is always parked up with staff cars. It’s la-di-da until Monday morning back to reality traffic. 

 

 

  

Trudging through spring

 

Yesterday was wet, cold and windy, a thoroughly miserable spring day in Seattle. On the bright side, there weren't any tornadoes. Poor battered mid west. 

So I was living vicariously through other people's travel. Our neighbor Wendy emailed this luscious photo from Sorrento, on the Amalfi Coast. She and her husband are on a 10-day Road Scholar tour of southern Italy. She said the fresh mozzarella was amazing, as was the rest of the lunch, served after visiting a lemon orchard. Sigh. 

You might remember, Road Scholar once had the lumpy name of Elderhostel. It's been around a long time, and reinvented itself as a non-profit travel company with educational tours geared toward older adults. They go just about everywhere, and I look forward to hearing how it went. 

In about 6 weeks we leave on our own big travel adventure, a Rhine River cruise, from Basel to Amsterdam. We also have a 4 day pre-cruise tour of northern Italy and Switzerland before boarding the boat. Hopefully not too jet lagged to enjoy that part.

I'm looking forward to the escorted tour experience, something different for us. There are advantages and disadvantages of doing your own thing, so the jury is out. 

There are a few sour puss YouTube reviews, but I've never met anyone who had a bad time on a European river cruise. 

In the promotional pictures, the sun is always shining on the Rhine maidens. Ha ha. 

Orchard daffodils

 

  

I wandered lonely as a cloud

That floats on high o'er vales and hills,

When all at once I saw a crowd,

A host, of golden daffodils;

Beside the lake, beneath the trees,

Fluttering and dancing in the breeze.

Continuous as the stars that shine

And twinkle on the milky way,

They stretched in never-ending line

Along the margin of a bay:

Ten thousand saw I at a glance,

Tossing their heads in sprightly dance.

The waves beside them danced; but they

Out-did the sparkling waves in glee:

A poet could not but be gay,

In such a jocund company:

I gazed—and gazed—but little thought

What wealth the show to me had brought:

For oft, when on my couch I lie

In vacant or in pensive mood,

They flash upon that inward eye

Which is the bliss of solitude;

And then my heart with pleasure fills,

And dances with the daffodils.

 

William Wordsworth 

 

 

April showers

 

 

And all that...

Well, at least the tulips last longer in this chilly weather. I've planted all sorts of fancy varieties over the years, but hard to beat the sturdy old red and yellow Darwins, sold in big cheap bags at Costco. 

Unlike the frilly ones, these will come back for several years, that is, if they aren't accidentally dug up or lopped off. Bulbs lead a dangerous life in this yard.

 

 

Very pretty, but most of what you're looking at are invasive ground covers and bluebells. Cleaning out the spring weeds and foliage is my biggest weeding chore of the year, then I can conveniently forget about it. Martha Stewart would rip out this mess and start over. But she has a hoard of gardeners to boss around.

  

 

 

It looks like the little chicks have all survived the first tricky 48 hours in the garage. There was one false alarm, but turned out she was just soundly sleeping, as babies do.  

 

 

In other farm news, the small trees at the far end of the orchard are starting to bloom.

 

 

 

Spring peepers

 

Big excitement on the Carlton farm-- a new batch of 12 chicks arrived today. The little ducklings come next week, I think. 

Anyway, Maya was pretty excited and already busy naming and taming. It takes quite a bit of work and care getting chicks up to the size they can run outside with the big girls. For the next month or so they live in the warm garage--- eating, pooping and growing.

I went for a nice walk with a friend this morning at the Washington Park Arboretum. The afternoon has been devoted to setting up my new iphone. Actually, the phone does most of the work. Say what you want about Apple, but device set up is their specialty. The new ones connect themselves seamlessly to all the other Apple paraphernalia you have scattered around the house. Everyone gets along and works together. That's the big advantage of joining the cult. 

It's going to be a rainy weekend, darn. We've had some spectacular sunny days, but it honestly it hasn't been that warm, barely touching 70 once or twice.  Spring is a long, slow process here.

Crane's-bill

 

That's a funny name for plain old geraniums. Costco had beautiful plants yesterday, sold in a six pack. Who can resist? I also lugged home an unwieldy bag of potting soil, specially designed to be impossible to get in and out of a shopping cart. 

But what was I thinking, with that bag of 50 gladiolus bulbs? Costco is made for impulse shopping. Maybe I'll share some with our neighbor, although she has a beautifully curated yard and might not care for garish, flopping flowers like that. 

All that potting, I was exhausted by the end of the day. Time for a glass (or two) on the deck while keeping an eye on the grill-- teriyaki pork, pineapple and peppers.  Life is good. Spring is here. 

 

Spring light

 

"A light exists in spring
Not present on the year
At any other period.
When March is scarcely here..."

Emily Dickinson 

A glimpse of tulips through clean basement windows with new mini blinds-- what's not to like? 

Our Seattle winters are long and dark, and there's a disquieting feel to these first glaring sunny days. Mind you, I am not complaining, but the abrupt return of light certainly reveals the landscape (inside and out) with clarity. 

It looks considerably brighter downstairs after sucking up several canisters of dirt and dust. This is not an especially big house, but it's old and difficult to keep clean because of all the dusty nooks and crannies, not to mention stuff we've accumulated over the decades. 

As for the closet cleaning quest, I've always complained about the lack of closets in this house, but there suddenly seems to be a lot of them.  

Busy day

 

 

That plaster Buddha head looks a little green around the gills.  He's been sitting outside behind a bush for the last 20 years or so, and finally lost the awful gold patina he came with.

I like old things better than new, in general, but I have my wabi sabi limits. We've having new white mini blinds installed in the basement today, replacing some cracked and yellowed plastic ones from Home Depot put up in the early 1990's.

Anyway, this involved moving furniture and a bed that hadn't been cleaned under for about 10 years, revealing a spectacular amount of dirt. Oh, the shame. No picture. 

Well, listen to me, throwing out the decades like candy. But how quickly time passes, especially at this stage of the game. 

 

 

To the victor goes the spoils

 

 

 

Nova spent Saturday night at a friend's house, so her sister Maya and Nica had a no competition egg hunt in the orchard on Easter morning. 

 

Aw. The bunny also left something for a (mostly) good dog.

 

In other egg news, look at these beauties laid last week by Amanda's hens. Her eggs have always been good, but these are exceptional. Now the chickens have the run of the orchard with a natural diet of bugs and grass, making those beautiful yolks and nutrient-dense eggs.  

"Researchers found that pasture-raised eggs contain twice as much omega-3 fat, three times more vitamin D, four times more vitamin E and seven times more beta-carotene than eggs from hens raised on traditional feed." 

(Thank you, smarty pants AI.)  

The sun is shining and the weather is sweet. It's a rare treat in Seattle when Easter is a beautiful sunny day from start to finish. We had a quiet but nice holiday. I made roast lamb, which is getting to be another once-a year-treat. But there's plenty left for dinner tonight and then lamb curry later. Not a scrap will go to waste, that's for sure. 

 

 

Blossom time

 

What a difference a week makes. On both sides of the highway near Orando, the orchards were starting to bloom yesterday. 

Folks who live in the Methow Valley dislike that hundred mile drive to Wenatchee. Who can blame them, because it's the nearest city for anything big, like shopping and appointments, so they go often.  

After all these years, I still enjoy the views of the Columbia River and basalt cliffs, which are always changing with the light and seasons-- for a short time in early spring, the desert bluffs are covered in delicate green.

On the eastern slope of Snoqualmie Pass, I drove through a brief blizzard followed by torrential rain coming down the other side. The roads were wet and visibility awful, so I found a sensible truck to follow. I figured he could clear the path. 

By the time I got to Seattle, the sun was shining on a different world of full-on spring. All the ornamental trees on our block are blooming, and the tulips ready to open, just in time for Easter. 

 Have a wonderful weekend. 

  

Winter's last gasp

 

We hope. Snow is falling this morning, starting out like sifted powdered sugar but now coming down pretty good. It won't last long in the valley with rain by afternoon, but piling up in the mountains. 

 

 

My friend Karen has to drive over the Loup Loup Pass to Omak for an appointment today, which is an 80 mile round trip. Amanda makes that drive weekly to work at the clinic there, often coming and going in the dark. And it gets truly dark here. You have to be stalwart (and put lots of miles on your car) to live here.

Tomorrow should be a better day for travel. I'll head back to Seattle then. It's peaceful hanging around the warm house and I'll go over to Carlton later when everyone gets home from work and school. 

 

I've been killing time working on this farm puzzle, which I should be ashamed to show you because it is only 300 pieces, but challenging enough for me.