Halloween weekend

 

I like walking around the neighborhood checking out the decorations. Some families really go all out for Halloween, and skeletons are big this year.

These people covered their entire front yard with funny little skeletons. Cute!

 

And John spotted this West Seattle insider humor. Get it?

I have a Costco size bag of gummy bears, hopefully enough. There's a Buckeye game on Saturday night, so I'll probably be the one upstairs handing out candy. I'm always surprised how many kids show up at the door, almost all with their watchful parents waiting on the sidewalk. We used to let Amanda and her friends loose in the neighborhood, but those were different times in West Seattle. 

Halloween in small town Twisp is much more relaxed and young and old get into it, with a dedicated trick-or-treat zone for kids on Burgar Street, a traditional costume party for adults at the Twisp River Tap House, and a haunted house at the Community Center, among other things. I know Maya and her gang of girlfriends will be haunting the haunted house. Nova probably has more grown up plans with her senior friends. 

Enjoy your weekend. Remember we have that nonsense clock changing thing again on Sunday. This is a rough one for those of us who tend to wake up too early and get hungry for dinner at 5 pm. 

 

Way back when

 

 Our new television...

Exactly 20 years ago, October 2006, we bought what was then a state-of-the art Samsung digital TV. It was new technology at the time and a big iffy purchase, but that TV eventually exceeded our expectations. We got our money's worth. 

Since then, we've worn out and replaced most of the appliances in this house, some two or three times, but that good old TV just kept humming along. Well, until recently, when it finally started showing signs of old age.

Costco online delivery to the rescue. A strong young fellow carried a 55 inch TV box right down to the basement yesterday. This saved us from pushing a giant carton through the warehouse and across a rainy parking lot, then trying to wedge it in the Honda. Not mention, coming home and probably finding no parking spot on the street in front of the house. 

We got it safely out of the box together then John spent the entire afternoon hooking everything up to his liking. He's very good at keeping our little raft of technology afloat, thank goodness, otherwise I'd be dead in the water here.

We are of the generation who remembers fuzzy black and white pictures with rabbit ear antennas sitting on top of the TV. Interesting, that we still watch the network channels though antenna, but the apparatus lives up in the attic crawl space. (We watch our movies etc. with an AppleTV streaming device, so don't bother with a cable service.) 

You know how you walk in Costco, and see that display of blindingly bright new televisions? The picture on the old TV was good, but this new dynamic is an eye-popping improvement. The screen is also slightly larger and we sat there last night, marveling at the incredibly fine details of the world series, broadcast LIVE all the way from Florida. Ten times better than the most expensive seats there. It is a marvelous world in so many ways.

We don't really follow baseball through the regular season, but always enjoy the World Series. The ultimate escapist TV, and we could all use some of that these days. 

  

The fig eaters

 

The starlings and squirrels aren't the only ones who like a fig treat in the fall. This mama racoon and her baby came through this weekend and helped themselves to the fallen bounty. She looked at me like I was trespassing on their picnic. And in many ways, I was. 

"Let us live out our days with grace and humility, then let the wild things inherit the earth." 

 From "The High House," by Jessie Greengrass. 

 

Aw. Check out at these not-so-wild best friends. Animals possess this wonderful quality of always being in the present moment, and they help us spent time there.

Fall finally decided to show up here, with daily rain in the forecast for the foreseeable future. 

The final mow

 

We've been busy around the old homestead. John did the last mow of the year, and doesn't that look neat and tidy. Frankly, I'm ready to batten down the hatches and head indoors.

 Have a good weekend. 

 

 

A hack job

 

 

This amazing stretch of October weather goes on. It really feels more like September. 

 

I went nuclear option on that flower bed yesterday, using the weed eater to whack off the tops of invasive violets and Creeping jenny. I haven't kept up on the weeding lately, so that was a visually satisfying quick fix. Of course the roots grow back, but that's a problem for another season.  

 

 

It's been warm and still, so lots of stuff needs to fall down and make a mess, including the pecked figs left from the starling feeding frenzy. The squirrels are busy, busy, busy in the yard. Our resident window spider, Charlotte, gets fatter and fatter. They know something is up. This weather can’t last forever. 

 

Today is National Nut Day. BTW, walnuts are the oldest cultivated tree food, dating back to around 10,000 BC. 

 

Our grandmother made a good, heavy black walnut cake, a Pennsylvania Dutch specialty. I should try this recipe, something you can't make from a box, so Maya approved. Walnuts have a complex and memorable flavor profile. 

 

John had a wonderful slice of walnut cake once at the Tate Museum Cafe, and you can bet he never forgot  it. That may have been the highlight of our London trip for him, certainly in regard to food, most of which was memorable in another way. 

Cool or creepy?

 

John got an iPhone 18 Pro for his birthday, and he likes to show off the new features, compared to my old 17 model.

The reader mode which he uses for articles now has a new summarize feature. This is powered by Apple intelligence and it condenses large amount of text data, giving you an instant summary. Kind of like an automatic Cliff Notes. 

It also works on my individual blog posts, and yesterday it came up with the summary below. Since I never actually wrote "time and age has mellowed me" (which may or may not be true) I found it somewhat creepy how it made that conjecture from a narrative of sitting outside looking at the garden. 

Summary

Time and age mellowed the narrator, who now accepts a decaying garden in Seattle’s warm October. A spice cake with walnuts prompted laughter about Maya’s baking standards; John eats it. Past energy on the land contrasts with present quietude.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Time changes all

 

 

Including us...

 

I was sitting on this bench yesterday afternoon and thinking about how I can't remember ever doing that in mid-October. By now, the dark wet curtain has usually slammed down in Seattle. 

 

It's been a warm and dry October. Who knows what winter brings our way, with that giant Pacific El Nino lurking offshore. 

 

 

 

 

I also thought about how 20 years ago, I could have never sat there on a fall afternoon, enjoying the slanting light and languidly looking out at that mess of a fall garden. 

 

For years, I would cut everything to the ground then covered the beds with layers of leaves all carted over from across the street. Many carts. Oh, the energy I've put into that postage stamp of land. 

Now I can appreciate the sight of a gently decaying garden, sad but beautiful at the same time. And wintering birds and insects love it. Time and age mellows us and hopefully, we finally let go of unimportant things. Or maybe we just get lazy. 

 

I did cut off the flopping dahlia and pulled out the straggly tomatoes pots-- too depressing a job come February. Speaking of February, those first false spring days are my favorite time to putter around outside, cleaning up the mess. Hopefully I'll be doing it again in a few months. I take nothing for granted these days.

 

 

 

It was a quiet weekend. We are getting to be such homebodies. I made a spice cake gussied up with toasted walnuts on top. We laughed about Maya, who puts her nose up at cakes from a box. Our granddaughter is the master baker in the family and a bit of a cake snob, for good reason. 

 

But John will eat it, and it's better than anything from Safeway. Those of us who grew up in the 50’s and 60’s had moms who took full advantage of convenience food and hungry kids gobbled it down without complaint. 

Speaking of baking mixes, I wrote a blog once about the history of our local Krustez brand. Wish I could still buy that flatbread pizza mix. 

Keep playing

 

That's a screenshot from a Seattle Times article featuring our West Seattle Ukulele group. Unfortunately I haven't gone much this summer, between travel and health issues, so it was nice being there yesterday, although chilly sitting outside on the patio at C&P Coffeehouse. A hardy group-- coffee and beer helps. 

WSUP started four years ago with a handful of people looking for a safe outdoor place to play during the pandemic. 

It was informal and we airdropped the music to each other, calling out song requests. Now the group uses a slick app called "SongPro" with playlists put together in advance by our leader. He's partial to 80's pop songs, some of which sound better than others arranged for the uke. But all in good fun. My playing ability has neither improved nor declined-- these days, I'm happy with stable anything. 

Over 50 players often show up for the Thursday jam, and the group performs several times a month at different venues and events. There is no lack of opportunity to hear (or play) ukulele music in West Seattle. 

 

It is apple pie season for sure, and I made one yesterday with a recipe from the NYT that called for cooking the filling first, instead of piling crunchy raw apples into the crust. It was good, although like many recipes from the NYT, involves some extra fuss and bother. 

Have a good weekend. 

The owl and the pussycat

 

 

Amanda says this Great Horned Owl visits the farm each day at dusk. They are year-round residents in the Methow Valley, and use a "sit-and-wait" perch strategy to hunt small mammals, rodents, and birds. 

Yes, that includes Chihuahuas, chickens and cats, although Georgia is a rather hefty mammal for a three pound owl to haul off. Cats also fight back, so they're not the first menu choice for owls. Still, life on the farm has its risks for the plump and complacent residents. 

We had an easy drive yesterday and the fall colors were beautiful on the mountain passes.

Fleeting moments

 

My last peaceful river sit until next year? 

The Methow Valley is true perfection on a warm sunny day in October and we're enjoying the wildlife parade outside the front window. Who needs TV?

Tomorrow we say goodbye to our "wild" friends and head back to big city life.

"How blessed is he, who leads a country life, unvex'd with anxious cares, and void of strife!" 

John Dryden, 1631-1700 

A nip in the air

 

A moody and chilly sunrise this morning-- down to 28 degrees tonight.

 

And muted colors on the farm as winter closes in fast.

The pear harvest (that no one seems sad about ha ha.)

And Yoko, ready for Halloween in her new costume. 

And speaking of cute, Maya and her delightful friends at a cake decorating birthday party this afternoon.

 

 Crazy girls on the loose in the orchard! Fun times on the farm.

 

Unfamiliar sight

 

Hello to our old friend rain...and the official end of a dry summer.  

We're headed over to Twisp tomorrow for a short visit. Wintry mix on Snoqualmie Pass tomorrow morning here we go. 

And there's some celebrating to do-- Maya turned 14 this week!

 

 

Sticker shock

 

 

Our cherry tomato plant is still producing and I'm picking every one. We once joked about the cost of home-grown tomatoes (the plant starts, potting soil, fertilizer, tons of water) because it was cheaper back then to just buy them. 

Now a tiny plastic container of cherry tomatoes is about $6 in the grocery store. Our one plant could have filled 50 of those this summer. 

Fuel and grocery prices are shocking, aren't they? Maybe even more so to the older generation. I won't bore you with stories of 25 cent gallons of gas and loaves of bread. 

A modest package of sirloin steaks was over $70 at Costco yesterday. I couldn't bring myself to spend that so I bought Aidell's chicken sausage, pork tenderloins and a bag of frozen shrimp for less. I'm our mother's daughter, for sure.  

 

My sou chef sliced some pork for stir fry and it was better than a hunk of charred beef. (Or so we told ourselves.)

 

That's about it in the complaint department. I was walking around the neighborhood thinking there is something magical about fall in Seattle. The days are crisp but can still be beautifully sunny in the afternoon. That's about to change with a wet weather system headed our way tomorrow. Goodbye cherry tomatoes. 

   

Muted colors

 

These last little flowers are the sweetest.  

So far our October weather has been perfect- foggy mornings with the sun breaking out by afternoon. The garden is still dry and that dark rain curtain yet to descend on Seattle. It's coming...

 

The hydranges were the stars of the show this summer and fading now to these beautiful muted colors. I have quite a dead-heading project ahead, but they're still too pretty to cut back. 

We are settled into a fall routine, making soup, watching football, cozy covers back on the bed. Give me the simple life. 

Speaking of simple. This is called an "apple buckle," the recipe from the New York Times. An easy and indulgent little treat, it contains an entire stick of butter and a cup of sugar. Oh yes, and then ice cream.

If that doesn’t say fall?