Daylight savings time

 

You would think Congress could manage this one little thing for us. It's dark outside and we're just glad we're retired. I'm a morning person and this is still a hard change. When we got home yesterday afternoon, all the clocks in the house were "wrong" reminding me again why I feel out of sorts.

Anyway, another easy drive on dry roads. Shoulder season is too late for winter sports and too early for summer, so there isn't any recreational traffic. No one wants to visit the valley to check out the mud and grey snow. I like this season in Twisp, just because it feels so real and local.

Speaking of snow, our timing was great because the mountains are going to be a driving mess for the next week. Winter isn't over up there. 

Here's a photo of Nova's 10th grade Chinese language class from Liberty Bell High School. She is in the front row in a white sweatshirt. This is the airport at 1 am, and they're ready to board a 14 hour flight to Taiwan. The group will spend 10 days exploring the country and culture, with a lots of interesting activities planned for each day. 

We're tracking their SEA to TPE flight and the red airplane is now about halfway there, in a long line of what looks like tailgaters headed to Asia.  A freeway in the sky!

Melting

The end of our driveway, where the plowed snow is melting like the Wicked Witch of the West. 

We've had a nice visit, and the grownups got out yesterday for a walk along the road near Elbow Coulee outside of Twisp. Soon the recreation areas and trails will open again, but without snowshoes, road walking is the option for hiking.

Spring is a short, muddy season and then suddenly-- it's summer.

The Rainbow Fish musical at the Merc Theater was very delightful and Maya played "clown fish." She didn't like her costume but we thought she was adorable. I got caught up in the show and forgot to take pictures. The one above is from the Methow Valley News. 

We're getting together with local friends tonight then back to Seattle tomorrow.

The waters of March

 

 

It was an uneventful drive yesterday, with light traffic and dry roads. We stopped for peach smoothies (a spring tradition) at Lone Pine. The sun was shining in the Valley and the piles of snow in town rapidly melting in the strong March sun. 

I even sat outside on the deck for the first time this year, listening to that pleasing sound of water dripping off the roof. Our house, like many over here, doesn't have gutters along the sides.

Anyway, what a pleasure to open the door after two months and find everything exactly as we left it in January. 

Maybe the beavers are hibernating. It's too much to hope that they might have gone elsewhere. I was worried they would fell the pretty white cottonwoods along the left side of the lawn, but they haven't gotten around to carrying off the one by the river they chewed down last fall. 

My brother arrives today and we have a nice time planned. We're going out to dinner tonight and afterwards to The Rainbow Fish Musical at the Merc Theater. Tomorrow morning I'll make a family breakfast for everyone as usual before Nova goes to work. And with daylight savings time, it will seem very early indeed.

 Have a good weekend.

National Frozen Food Day

 

 

 

Potpies were a cheap and easy dinner for Mom when we were growing up. We loved getting our own individual portions and not having to divvy up what was on the table. 

 

Funny how I don't remember having anything else with that little potpie, not even a salad. Even our hard-working Dad only got one. But white bread and margarine was always out for filler and dessert was jello, canned fruit or pudding from a box. 

 

In the 1950's and 60's, snacking between meals was discouraged in most families and it was a rare day when you had a soda or candy bar. School lunch was usually a sandwich, piece of fruit and carton of milk. You're old if you remember taking "milk money" to school.

 

No wonder everyone was ravenous by 6 o'clock! Even a frozen potpie was scrumptious!
 

And no wonder people were so much thinner back then.

 

 

Anyway, here's to National Frozen Food Day, which is obviously more popular than ever. My favorite frozen foods? Green peas and those processed shredded hash browns. (I know, lazy.) John is partial to Green Giant corn niblets in butter sauce.

 

 

If you are interested in the subject, we recommend this engaging book.

This and that

 

Somehow this cute little Tete-a-Tete daffodil not only survived, but the bulbs managed to slowly naturalize, despite all my hacking and digging in the garden beds. 

And for all this, nature is never spent;

    There lives the dearest freshness deep down things...

Gerard Manley Hopkins

Today is Ash Wednesday, my friends, and the beginning of six weeks of Lent before Easter. 

Ash Wednesday, by Karl Spitzweg

The morning after Carnival, when the pleasure and excess comes to an abrupt end. You can almost feel his headachy regret, or maybe he is contemplating penitence.  

Many Christians still give up meat (or something they like to do) for Lent. Maybe I will give up complaining. Ha ha.

Speaking of meat, we should all eat less for obvious reasons. 

 

Not to be preachy, but I made this delicious vegetarian pizza last night from scratch-- cherry tomatoes, peppers, onions and salty, sun-cured olives, which taste like pepperoni.

 

I finally found a simple pizza dough recipe in the NYT cooking section, and ditched the awful chemical tasting Trader Joe refrigerated dough that I've bought for years. 

 

This recipe has only 4 ingredients (yeast, flour, salt, oil) which is unusual for the NYT, where they love complicated recipes. Yeast dough is a bit of work, but it makes a double batch, so half goes in the freezer for later. 

 

After some trial and error, I'm getting the hang of my new oven.

 

 

Raining moss

 

That was quite the moss forest growing over our heads. Jeiser worked all morning brushing it off, then treated the roof with Moss-B-Ware and cleaned everything up before he left. Great guy.

Soon it will be raining rain, as a wet system moves in from the coast. It isn't especially cold, but the furnace is acting up this morning. John says he can fix it, and I'm sure he's right. 

Happy Tuesday.