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. 

 

Shoulder season perk

 

It was quite chilly but sunny yesterday, so we took a short hike on the Rex Derr Trail at Pearrygin State Park. 

This is a really popular place in the summer, swarming with campers, but peaceful in the late fall and early spring. Only one other car in the huge parking lot, and we had the trail to ourselves. 

It was my birthday, and what a memorable one.  Our neighbors invited us over for dinner and we always enjoy their warm company. 

Oh yes, John gave me thoughtful and useful presents as he always does, including a nifty cherry pitter that does several at once. Stay tuned. 

Hum. Might he be thinking of pie? 

And from Amanda, this cozy and stylish fleece coat. A step up from my worn out Costco puffy jackets.

Well, John is heading to Seattle now, but I have no reason to rush back into city life, so will stay until Thursday. The fickle spring weather is changing again, with rain and snow tomorrow. 

Cock of the roost

 

All of us get such a kick out of the chicken flock, always doing something funny or amusing. They have the run of the orchard, happily eating bugs and "helping" with the pruning. Tom is constructing a new large enclosure. Soon more chicks and ducklings arrive from the feed store. 

 

Not so amusing is this secret egg nest discovered in the undergrowth. 

 

Maybe they are reverting back to their jungle fowl ways. Amanda was wondering why the egg production was down lately...

In other farm news, Nica had a close encounter with a skunk behind one of the outbuildings. Fortunately, not a direct hit, and nothing an early morning Dawn bath can't handle. Tom got the honor of the job.
 

 

The weather has been grey and cold the last few days, but today a beautiful sunny morning. We might go up to Pearrygin Lake for a walk this afternoon, then dinner with our neighbors.

Last night, a lovely early Easter and birthday celebration at the farmhouse. We are truly blessed. 

 

 

Changes

 

 

We've been coming to Twisp for about 18 years, and it seemed like nothing much changed for the first 10 years or so. The TwispWorks Campus was acquired in 2008, and it eventually became a big catalyst for change in town. The once unsightly former forest service site is now an inviting local hub for arts, education and business. 

Did you know, Twisp is also a member of the Washington State Creative Arts District program, making it eligible for grants and other arts support. 

In fact, Twisp is generally successful in acquiring funding for various public works projects, and recently won the largest ever Complete Streets Grant from the state. 

Glover Street is about to get started on a 3 million dollar makeover, with new sidewalks, awnings, pavement and underground utility lines. That will make for a chaotic and noisy summer that no one is looking forward to, especially the businesses on Glover Street.

Small business come and go, especially restaurants. Failure is assured if the locals don't embrace your business, and the locals here can be fickle. The restaurants that survive are the ones that keep consistent hours and give good value. The nearest fast food outlet is still 40 miles away, but a gourmet hamburger place just opened that seems to be immensely popular, judging by the cars in front.

New houses are popping up all over town, and a large apartment complex is going up behind the grocery store, in what was once an old orchard. Down by the city park, a retirement/nursing home facility called Jamie's Place is under construction, along with a co-housing project. 

Down here in our little backwater neighborhood, I'm happy for the lack of "revitalization." The sun still comes up behind Mill Hill, and we look across the the river at a view so far devoid of construction. 

You would never know there is a town outside the back door. All we can do is enjoy what we have, while we have it. 

  

Look up

 

 

Oncoming Storm, by Eric Sloane

Eric Sloane (1905-1985) was an American painter known for his landscapes and beautiful depictions of sky and clouds. Art for the window seat lovers. 

 Bright as Day at 10,000 Feet

He was fascinated by weather and aviation, and during WWII concentrated on illustrating military aircraft. 

 Clipper Ship at 7,500

The United States Army took notice, and Sloane contributed to aviation training manuals.

 

 

His teaching style tended toward the comic and graphic, perfect for the new pilot recruits, many just out of high school.

Speaking of young fliers. Oh, what a heartbreaking accident that took the lives of two Canadian pilots. And the list of airport nightmare stories this week! It is a terrible time to fly. 

It's also a terrible time to fill your tank (gas over $5 around here.) Never mind that, I'm heading over to Twisp tomorrow for a short reset. 

Recipes

 

 

I get the NYT cooking newsletter delivered to my inbox every morning, mostly for inspiration. Unless the recipe says "quick and easy" or "simple ingredients" I rarely try them. 

Those NYT food editors like to turn ordinary dishes into complicated projects with unusual ingredients no one keeps on hand, like curry powder made from scratch. 

Having said that, I've run across some keepers in the NYT cooking section, like a pizza dough I make over and over, and that honey garlic shrimp (above.) 

 

It's impressive, for being so quick and easy. The raw shrimp is marinated in soy sauce, honey, garlic and ginger, then patted dry and seared in a hot skillet.

The remaining marinade gets thickened slightly with corn starch, making a quick sauce.

And it's not often you can say this, but mine looked as good as the dolled-up photo on the Times. Except I pulled the tail shells off because we don't like wrestling with them. 

 

Pruning time

 

 

Spring pruning time arrives at the Carlton pear orchard.

 

Tom is an excellent pruner, but this isn't some little weekend project for folks who also hold down full time jobs.

Fortunately, they found someone (above) experienced with the their orchard to help out, especially with the older, larger trees. Amanda said Fernando is a nice guy and a super hard worker. He showed up on Saturday morning before the sun was even up. 

 

But...it still leaves behind a massive clean up job. The clippings need to be gathered and burned at a safe time. 

Are we having fun yet?

 

Maya, with an old granddaddy of Russian Thistle, a noxious weed for the burn pile. No chemical herbicides and pesticides were used on this organic farm for decades. 

 

Over here in the tropics, we've been busy too. The recycle, trash and yard waste bins are all stuffed, so that tells you something. 

I worked in the garden, cleaned the inside windows and de-cluttered the house. Well, one closet to be exact, but it feels good to consolidate two boxes of life mementos and souvenirs down into one. That was a trip down memory lane. My goodness, the things we keep "forever." 

 

John also did the first mow of the season-- one of my favorite outdoor days because it suddenly looks so nice after winter, even though the "lawn" is mostly moss and weeds. 

Correction: John says $300,000 of car parked on the street, not a half million. Still a bunch of money.

Our new cars

 

Psyche! As Amanda used to say in middle school...

Some brave (hopefully well insured) guy has been parking his yellow Porche on our street for the last few weeks. 

It's hard to believe a person who owns a car like that doesn't have a garage, but car garages are few and far between in this neighborhood. Most are too small and/or crammed with other stuff. The new apartment buildings only have a few tiny parking spots for rent. This is to encourage people to "take transit." It doesn't work. Everyone around here has at least one car, so they get parked on the residential streets at night.

Anyway, if I was still young and cute, I'd ask him to take me for a ride. It makes a wonderful sound when he starts it up-- not so much noise, but power vibrations you feel in your bones. I admit it-- I like nice cars.

As for the Rivian, that guy lives nearby also. John figured about a half million dollars of vehicle sitting out there. I remember when you could buy every house on the street for that.

 

 

Young scientists

 

Maya participated in the Mid-Columbia Science Fair yesterday with a few others who were nominated from her 7th grade class. 

This is the oldest science fair in the state, held in Richland, Washington, about 8 hours round trip on the bus from Twisp. (Yes, everything is far from Twisp.) 

So quite a long day-- good for you, Maya. Her complex project relates to the effect of climate change on plants.

Happy first day of spring! The fire hose from the south Pacific is finally shutting off. I'm looking to cleaning up the front porch. It's finally time to kick the Jade plants outside for the summer. They're tired of the house, and I'm tired of looking at them. 

Have a good weekend. 

 

Photographs and memories

 

 

Digital has taken over so much of our lives, but I have two banker boxes stuffed with old papers, one work related, random stuff saved from my Microsoft career, the other full of letters and personal diaries written over 50 years ago.

There are many letters from our mother, on page after page of plain notebook paper. She was such a prolific and frequent writer, most are just "dated" with the day of the week, no month or year, which is a shame. She wrote dates on the back of every photo, but not her letters. 

Anyway, her kids are probably the only ones left who can decipher her distinctive cursive. It's hard to believe this is how families once shared news. Only the best and worst events merited an expensive long distance call. 

As for my diaries, these should be a place for deep, private reflection, but most entries are in the category of "what happened today" and make no sense now, even to me. I was very young! But they are stuffed with mementoes like ticket stubs, post cards and random funny things that give some idea of what I was doing at the time.

These are rainy day projects. There are also piles of photographs to go through, the redundant and bad ones thrown out. The goal is to get everything consolidated down to the few things that might have some meaning and context to others. 

Speaking of rain. Go away. I'd rather be working in the garden that shuffling through dusty closets. 

A sweet song...

 

 

 

Cosmic pie

 

The Cosmic Crisp apple landed in Seattle in December 2019, along with lots of marketing hoopla. They were about $4 a pound then, and never caught on as the growers hoped. Cosmic Crisp store well in the fridge, but for an eating apple, the skin is tough compared to Honey Crisp.

How times have changed. QFC (Kroger) had Cosmic Crisp this week for 99 cents a pound, probably trying to move last season's surplus. They are good for pie, especially at that price, and cook down sweet and juicy after a long bake.

This one was in the oven for almost two hours. 

 

Yes I know, another yucky corned beef picture (if you don't like it.) 

But John said this was my best ever-- although if you've done something 50 times you should be good at it. After years of boiling, now I braise the meat (after rinsing off the salty brine) with onions and white wine, then add the vegetables later, so nothing gets too mushy. 

Top o' the morning to you

 

The best thing about St. Patrick's Day is the excuse to make corned beef, cabbage and potatoes once a year, even though this classic meal is more American than Irish. Yum, cured meat. 

 

 

 

 

Big yellow bus

 

 

John spotted a Methow Valley School District bus on his neighborhood walk yesterday, just a few blocks from our house. How could you miss it! 

He struck up a conversation with the driver, who was staying with a friend here while waiting out the two day flight delay from Washington DC. Back in the Valley, he drives the Carlton route, so this would be Maya's bus. What a wild coincidence, not to mention, a small world.

Anyway, Nova finally got home in the wee hours of the morning. I don't know what time exactly, but the flight got to Seattle at 8 pm, followed by a long, dark drive over the mountains. Cheers to the bus driver, getting a load of tired and cranky kids home safely. 

The snow is long gone. Now we're about to be drenched by a warm atmospheric river, the same vacation spoiler that just brought heavy rain to Hawaii. It looks like the sun returns about Friday, just in time for the first day of spring. 

 

None the worse

 

The spring flowers are none the worse for the blanket of snow yesterday. In fact, that kind of wet snow is so beneficial. It never got below freezing at ground level. 

However, no one predicted it would snow prettily all day, which it did, causing havoc at the airport, where a couple of snowflakes is enough to stop everything dead in its tracks. We're not prepared for that stuff here.

In other weekend news, Nova's group was scheduled to fly back to Seattle last night. They had a series of departure delays, and eventually the flight was cancelled due to a brief ground stop at the DC airports, just long enough to mess everything up royally. 

Long story short, they were re-booked on the same Delta flight in two days, Sunday night.

What an adventure. On the bight side, they aren't sleeping on the airport floor--they got rooms at the Arlington Hilton, where Nova says the food is "much better" than the tour hotel. Hopefully, travel insurance pays for some of this. Teenagers eat.

Still, everyone is pretty homesick and of course many of them have colds. Hats off to the saintly teachers keeping the kids occupied for another two days. 

The major mountain passes were closed for almost 24 hours, so a blessing in disguise they didn't get back late last night. 

  

 

 

 

 

One more snow picture

 

 

The battle of the seasons...

Irish music (and snow)

 

 

Of all the crazy songs the ukulele group plays (our leader is partial to classic rock!) that little instrument was made for Irish and Hawaiian music. 

I like the meeting right before St. Patrick's Day. Those traditional, corny Irish songs are pretty much about three things: love (as in chasing girls) drinking (whisky) and untimely death. 

That's Cecil at The Bridge yesterday. He just turned 102, and can still whip out a harmonica in the right key to harmonize on just about anything. We are always happy when he shows up, especially now that his granddaughter drives him across town. 

Anyway, it was a good time despite the cold wind blowing through the patio. I sit along the side and avoid the table tops with those gas burners. The fumes make me dizzy. 

The big news this morning is SNOW in Seattle, a strange event for March, and in fact the first lowland snow all winter. 

A soggy, wet and cold garden...

 

Have a good weekend. 
 

 

Believe in yourself

 

 

You know it's a slow day, when you get sucked down the funny cat hole on Instagram. 

The other Washington

 

 

Our granddaughter Nova is in Washington DC this week, on a educational tour with a group of kids from her school. It sounds like there are 11th graders from all over the country, this being a common trip for high school groups now, especially in the spring.

Their agenda was packed with activities and visits to the various monuments and museums. She took this picture at the Supreme Court this morning, and they were getting ready to meet our Senator, Maria Cantwell. 

 

You know me, always obsessed with the weather. Washington DC has been crazy. In the mid-80's all week, but tomorrow the temp drops below freezing with snow in the afternoon. Shorts to parkas. 

The kids fly back to Seattle on Friday, followed by a long school bus ride over the mountains, with luck arriving in the Valley about 1 am. What an experience. 

Trying hard

 

 

 

Spring is trying hard, although we have to get through this cold spell first. Here in the lowlands, we're about to turn the corner. Up in the mountains, a different story, with blizzard warnings and feet of snow piling up this week.

Who doesn't long for spring? The older neighborhoods in Seattle are so beautiful because decades ago, homeowners planted ornamental flowering trees and old fashioned shrubs like forsythia, lilac and viburnum. The new builds are usually low-maintenance landscaping and most don't have space for even a tiny yard. 

We had a mini-spring stretch of weather in February, but I haven't been outside to work since then and it shows. John starts mowing after daylight savings time (his tradition) but that's not going to happen this wet week.  

 

Over in Carlton, a busy weekend. Friends and neighbors helped to move the backyard playhouse from the old house to the farm. Quite a project. Little did Tom know, when he built it for the girls, that it would someday be repurposed as a chicken house. 

In sad news, the game warden killed the Carlton cougar. It is a shame but cougars are rarely relocated. They suffer and struggle to survive in a new territory, or find their way back to their home range. You can't change feline nature. 

Remember that old folk song?