First day of fall

 

 

Today is the first full day of fall. By tomorrow, it will sure feel like it with rain storms headed our way. The Napa Valley looks beautiful next week (we leave Tuesday) so that will be the final taste of summer before the October curtain comes down and we start the dark season in the Northwest.

While I was in Twisp, the man next door in Seattle (I hesitate to say neighbor because we almost never communicate) came over complaining about "hornets" in our black pussy willow along the shared fence line. 

Well, they're a species of Parasitoid Wasp, a beneficial insect feeding on an aphid infestation in the tree. They are non-stinging, harmless to humans and actually a form of natural pest control. 

I enjoy listening to their loud buzzing which to him, sounds like a dangerous swarm. I suppose they could be annoying and scary if you don't know what's going on.

 

Our yard is teeming with insects and obviously not everyone views bugs through the same benign lens. The wasps will soon disappear for the winter, but I'll spray, mostly to control the aphids, and hopefully the wasps won't return next year. He wants me to use an exterminator, but I don't think this warrants calling out the big guns and having the yard drenched with pesticide.

Big dog, little dog

 

 

Never underestimate a Chihuahua. Those tiny dogs are descended directly from wolves.

Scrappy Yoko follows right behind Nica when Amanda takes them on long hikes in the Golden Doe wilderness adjacent to their farm. 

Yes, there are many potential dangers lying in wait for a five pound puppy (birds, snakes, coyotes, to name a few) but my money is on feisty Yoko. 

And she loves to snuggle, a bonus. Dogs are natural opportunists. 

A few snapshots of farm life. I've sure enjoyed spending time in Carlton on these spectacular early fall days. 

 

Only seven miles, but Carlton is a world away from the construction chaos still going on in downtown Twisp. The town is saying now the elaborate paving projects will last until November, if the snow doesn't fly before then. It all seems like a bit much to the locals, but I suppose the town will eventually grow into this new grandness. 

 

Anyway, out on the farm, simple pleasures. This afternoon Amanda and I strung lights on the old pear storage barn in the back yard. That will look so charming on the dark nights ahead. 

Back to Seattle tomorrow. 
 

Seize the moment

 

 

We're having a perfect stretch of late summer weather-- chilly overnight but then warming up to the 80's by afternoon. 

That's Dave, along the river in front of the house, playing around with his fly rod yesterday. The water is low and clear so you can sometimes see the trout hanging out along this smooth stretch. 

We're at the end of the Methow River catch-and-release trout fishing season, and the smart ones can probably see the fishermen as well as we see them.

Dave and Amanda at the Twisp Community Market yesterday morning.

Everyone came over for taco bar night. A simple meal but I always enjoy cooking for a hungry gang. 

Maya is having a terrific season on the middle school soccer team, and she made a goal and several saves this week. Impressive! 

She got her mom and dad up and out for a scrimmage on the lawn after dinner.

 

Some cutthroat action there...no rest for the weary parents. 

 

 

And this morning?  I'm just hanging out, enjoying the magic moment with my local deer friends. Dave left, but I'm staying on for a couple days and getting the house transitioned for cooler weather, just around the corner.

All quiet on western front

 

 

I had a nice drive today with beautiful weather all the way and light traffic, once out of west Seattle. 

I stopped at the usual places-- McDonald's in Cle Elum for coffee (I know, but it's easy)  and then about 100 miles on to Lone Pine. I had their pea soup outside with my sandwich and bought apples and a giant pumpkin. 

Always such a pleasure returning to the peaceful riverbank and finding the house just as we left it. No construction next door yet! The good thing about Twisp is everything takes forever and nothing ever happens in the winter. 

The lawn is green as a golf course, which is a bit excessive considering the cost of town water, but what the heck. The robins and deer are happy. 

 

The beavers are gnawing away at the giant cottonwood they downed a month ago-- this is the one that crushed my beach chair flat.  I guess it's too much to hope that tree will keep them busy through the winter.

 My property management guys have already wrapped the trees close in to the yard. I think they saved the one that was just chewed. The grey wire is hardly noticeable, although when winter comes, I guess the beavers can just stand on top of the snow.

But one season at a time. "Let tomorrow worry about itself." I'm happy to be here and looking forward to the next few days.

Signs of fall

 

 If that doesn't say fall...the basket went on the porch with my giant Costco mum. 

 

I planted the 75 new tulip and hyacinth bulbs this week and did some light tidying up in the yard, taking advantage of the last nice weather. 

In Pennsylvania, we always called it "Indian Summer" which is politically incorrect now. The American Meteorological Society suggests "second summer" instead, which sounds dull. In Europe, they say "St. Martin's Summer." 

At any rate, who doesn't love these lingering days of summer. Life is getting pleasantly busy again, with things look forward to over the next 3 weeks: overdue visits with friends, the first Symphony and a short trip to Calistoga in the Napa Valley (mineral water therapy.) We're curious to see if our old stomping ground changed, other than sticker shock. 

And I'm squeezing in a trip to Twisp tomorrow and will stay through this weekend. My brother is joining me for a couple of nights and it will be fun to have some company. I'll host a dinner on Saturday night. John is staying home to work on a plumbing project. I'm happy to be out of the way for that.

 

 

The chores shift

 

  

 

Other than the arbor, I don't put up holiday lights on the back deck, so this fall tree is a first. It looks pretty from our kitchen window and the sidewalk. John has it set up on clever timers so we don't have to fuss around with switches. 

 

That's a Lemon Cypress tree I bought several years ago at Home Depot. The poor thing got knocked over by the wind, so it's a bit lopsided in the pot. I have it tied now to the deck railing with some flimsy Velcro tape, and will see if it survives the first windstorm. 

 

On Friday, I dug up a bed of iris. What a job. I'm taking the root starts over to Carlton for Amanda's "wild" garden. They call it wild because it is filled with tough pioneer flowers planted decades ago. They discovered the wild garden coming up through the weeds in front of the house. The previous owners put all their efforts into the pear orchard and the landscaping was ignored. 

 

We were into iris for years and collected some special expensive varieties. I'm over it. They outgrew their little patch and I'm converting it to a spring bulb garden. Yes, that means more new tulip and hyacinth bulbs. Maybe I like making work for myself.

 

Or maybe a crisis reminds you of what is important.  

 

I'm getting closer my previous activity level. When I got out of the hospital a month ago, I could barely walk a block from the joint pain, drug overload and fatigue. Of course at my age you wonder and worry if you can ever completely recover from that kind of trauma. But yesterday was a milestone-- I did my old 2 mile loop around the neighborhood. And I'm back to the gym, slow but steady. 

 

Charlotte, our resident kitchen window spider, has also been working hard. I accidentally tore a hole in her web while deadheading geraniums, and we've been watching her rebuild a perfect new web, one miracle strand at a time.  

 

She was never shown or taught how to do this, she just knows. 

 

Quote of the week: 

 

"Stuff your eyes with wonder."  Ray Bradbury

 

 

 

A nice problem

 

Too many tomatoes...I picked at least six bowls from the one potted Roma plant, on top of that, hundreds of cherry tomatoes, most of which were gobbled up in the yard. 

In the old days of Seattle gardening, when summers were much cloudier and cooler,  you were proud to get a handful ripened by September. Everyone had green tomatoes sitting around in the kitchen in the fall. And there were only a few varieties to choose from then, none good for this climate. 

The tomato cross-breeding and hybrid selection over the years has really increased the short season varieties and yields. 

Anyway, a sad day in this house when the tomato bowl runs dry. I've made a delicious fresh sauce a few times-- just a big pile of rough chopped extra ripe tomatoes, generous olive oil, garlic, basil, salt, pepper flakes. And to top it off last night, a grilled hot Italian sausage. How could this not be good for you? 

The most popular American vegetables are: Potatoes, Corn, Broccoli, Garlic, Carrots, Onions, Green Beans, Tomatoes.  Really, tomatoes #8 on the list? Maybe because supermarket tomatoes are so bland and watery.

In the no-so-good food news category, "Gary" and "Blackie" the two Carlton farm drakes, were killed this week, probably by coyotes. They had a dandy summer, running free in the orchard, without a care in the world, but they got too wild and stubborn to go in the chicken house at night with the hens and roosters. Life is sure fun on a farm, until that day when you become someone’s duck dinner. Well, we all have to eat, but that's an expensive morsel for a coyote. 

Cute memories, although I have a feeling Amanda is out of the duck business next year.

Old Sparky

If Charlotte the Spider knows what's good for her, she will stay outside the kitchen window...

I gave John a battery operated insect zapper racket (Marshall's impulse purchase) for Father's Day. He loves it. We call it Old Sparky. 

The poor fly or spider doesn't just peacefully drop down dead, it gets electrocuted with a loud snapping, sparking noise. The bigger the insect, the bigger the snap. It is quite satisfying and fun, in a gruesome way. Living proof that even the nicest people have a mean streak buried in there.

Speaking of spiders, this is the time of year when the biggest ones start showing up in our basement. Old Sparky might need new batteries soon.

And while we're on this spider creepy binge, a hideous illustration from a hideous Hans Christian Anderson fairy tale about a wicked girl who was so vain, proud and cruel she steps on a loaf to avoid dirtying her shoes. Germans were big on old fairy tales, and this book used to scare us to death when we were kids. 

 "Great, fat, sprawling spiders spun webs of a thousand years,
round and round her feet."
from, The Girl Who Trod on a Loaf

Small and wormy

Which is par for the course with "organic" homegrown apples in western Washington. These are destined for the yard waste pickup bin. That's where Seattleites throw everything from chicken bones to dirty pizza boxes to diseased plants. 

One reason why I don't use municipal compost. The other being, it smells sour and putrid and contains bits of white plastic, sometimes even glass chips. They have a nerve selling that poor quality stuff back to us after we pay to have it hauled away. 

Anyway, the garden has been lush the last few years without winter compost or fertilizers of any kind. I leave most of the cleanup until spring now, partially out of laziness, and also for the sake of the insects and birds. Who knows? Maybe the rotting foliage helps put nutrients back in the soil.

OK. Carlton cute pet alert!

 

Yoko and Nica playing a gentle game of tug while Nova supervises. 

And the weenie one now weighs almost 5 pounds. The furry lump that looks like a discarded floor mop is Millie relaxing on her back. It won't be long until the pet menagerie moves from cool kitchen floor to the Russian stove hearth. 

 

Last bloomers

 

 

I was in the garden yesterday scrounging a few vase flowers and finding slim pickins, but this old L.D. Braithwaite rose decided to bloom late. 

The plant was developed in 1988 by the British rosarian David Austin. He named it after his father-in-law, which was either a sweet or suck up gesture (if you're cynical.)

The poor thing is struggling along now in a dry and shady spot, because trees and shrubs grew up around it over the last 20 years. 

But such a beautiful flower. I've noticed sometimes, when under stress, plants suddenly give their all to the reproduction effort. I should transplant it, but where? And it has especially wicked thorns. 

That's something you don't think much about when just starting out. Then the decades hand out good and bad gardening lessons for free. 

The mornings are suddenly so dark! At 6 am, there was a perfect view in the east of Jupiter hanging off the tip of the crescent moon, just as it was starting to get light. 

Another sure sign of fall-- Charlotte the Spider has set up her web again outside the kitchen window. More on that later. 

Livin' the good life

 

No offense intended to the German people, but this dense Alki Bakery Black Forest cake is better than what we had in Bavaria. 

 At the cuckoo clock tourist trap store back in June. Which seems a lifetime ago now.  

Also on the Seattle menu yesterday, strawberry waffles for breakfast.

And rib eye steaks for dinner. Now that's a rare treat around here. 

Well, the occasion was John's birthday, and other than an early trip to Home Depot, we stayed home and let the holiday weekend swirl around without us. 

It was a spectacular football weather day, and most of the city was watching the Apple Cup. The Huskies won, but not very prettily. Disloyal to my UW Alma Mater, I've turned into an eastern Washington Cougar fan. There is talk lately of Nova applying to college there, which would be fantastic. 

After dinner we watched gorgeous Marilyn Monroe and stunning Jane Russell in "Diamonds are a Girl's Best Friend." By the end of the day, the birthday boy looked as satisfied as this fat spoiled cat, lounging in the farmhouse window.  

 

Applesauce

 

 

It's a lot of bother making applesauce from scratch, but it tastes so much better than anything out of a supermarket jar, which tends to be cloying sweet. And since John did the peeling and chopping this morning when I was at the gym, we cooked up six pints by lunchtime. 

 

These are an organic new crop from Lone Pine. It's a bit early for apples and they were on the hard and tart side, which was perfect for applesauce. Honeycrisp (primarily an eating apple) are juicy and sweeter later in the season. 

 

 

They cook down to soft mush quickly, and just need a light mashing for a slightly lumpy consistency.

We like a chunky texture over the baby food smooth applesauce our moms made with these "mid century vintage" food mills. 

Anyway. I used a touch of brown sugar to give it that light caramel color. No cinnamon and light on the white sugar. It's nice to have some good stuff on hand in the winter for pork roast and those fattening fried potato pancakes I make with leftover mashed potatoes.

So Labor Day weekend is here leaving no doubt that we're headed into that bittersweet season of fall transition. After some good rain, the early mornings in Seattle are suddenly so dark. The screen light of laptops and phones is hard on my old eyes, so I've changed my blogging routine with the season. Besides-- why start the day with NYT doom scrolling? 

Enjoy your holiday weekend and take care on the roads if you're heading out somewhere. We will be at home. 

Diamond in the dump

 

Occasionally you'll find a gem buried in the Internet garbage heap.  

The Last Museum is a new online website that brings together 5.8 million art works on one free platform. Not a functioning museum in itself, the website pulls collection records and images from thousands of institutions around the world. Why travel?

The Last Museum is the kind of sophisticated reference tool we didn't even dream of when I was a working librarian. Users can search by themes, moods, colors, subjects, or descriptive phrases without knowing an artwork’s title or artist. In other words, searching through ideas instead of just keywords.

However, this massive BOT scraping of digital content is somewhat controversial in the museum world. Although many artworks have entered the public domain, some institutions still claim rights over their own photographs, scans, or digital reproductions of those works. The debate on that goes on. 

Also interesting-- the creators/developers of The Last Museum remain completely anonymous! 

As far as I'm concerned, a good use for brilliant tech minds that might otherwise cause mischief on the Internet.

Anyway, fun to play around with on a rainy day.  

Smoked out

 

 

The air was OK while in Twisp, but we hit heavy smoke for most of the drive yesterday. It was especially bad along the Columbia River and through the Wenatchee area (above.) Those poor people, living under that fug all summer. My nose is still tickling and sneezing this morning from the irritation. 

Rain relief is on the way, and it can't come soon enough across the state.

This is the first week of school in Seattle, and for the next 9 months, we time our comings and goings with the middle school drop off and pick up hours. That is, unless you want to walk a block in the rain with your groceries. Welcome home. No parking spaces were open in front of our house to unload yesterday. 

But with roads dry and traffic fairly light, it was an easy drive overall. I bought peaches, pears, squash and a bag of organic Honeycrisp apples ($1.29 a pound) at Lone Pine to make applesauce and wrap up the canning for the year. The pears are few and far between in the Carlton orchard, which was somewhat of a relief to Amanda and Tom. 

And the seasons, they go round and round:

"Be aware of the season you are in and give yourself the grace to be there."

Kristen Dalton