Font problems

Sorry for the small font on that last posting. Blogger is usually well-behaved, but occasionally has a little fit on me.

Seen any good movies lately?

It would take a pretty special movie (maybe a new Christopher Guest Mockumentary) to get us out to the theater these days; we watch almost everything on Netflix including most television programs. TiVo would be nice, but we don't have cable and get just a few crummy stations plus local PBS over the air. We aren't big TV watchers anyway, so it works out well for us-- not only is it "free" but we can watch DVD's at our own pace, delivered to the door by Netflix, without commercials or other interruptions like phone calls at critical moments in Masterpiece Theater! The only downside is we're months behind the rest of the country with network shows like Madmen, Deadwood, Weeds etc. until they come out on DVD.

On the other hand, PBS publishes their DVD's immediately, like the new Ken Burns National Parks series we're laboring through right now. I say "laboring" because this one is classic Burns. You know what I mean if you've watched his endless series: mesmerizing in a boring way, with a heavy voice-over and filled with corny sound tracks and still photos like the one below. Great for zoning out on a work night.
As for real movies, this weekend we watched Julie and Julia, starring Meryl Streep playing a wonderful and believable Julia Child. Is there anything this woman can't do? The movie had everything for me: cooking, blogging, writing, period settings, grown-up relationships. I think John liked it too, although it isn't the type of movie a man would admit being crazy about :-)

Amy Adams (below) plays Julie Powell, who cooks all the recipes in Julia Child's first book, and blogs about it nightly.

Baby food

It's been a real education learning from Amanda how different infant care is now, compared to the dark ages when I was a baby. Almost as soon as we came home from the hospital, our Moms' were told to lace our bottles with cereal to help us "sleep longer." Ha! I wonder if it worked? Most of us got our first solid food within a few weeks (no one completely trusted breast feeding) and it always started with cereal and tasty things like sweetened condensed milk, fruit and pudding. Infants were put on a feeding and sleeping schedule, and left to cry it out in-between. Somehow we survived, many of us even thriving on to the brink of old age :-)

But these ideas didn't always make sense. Nature intended babies to feed whenever they were hungry, and there's no particular reason why cereal is a better first food than anything else. In every culture throughout history, babies were weaned onto what their parents ate. John swears he was weaned on pasta fazool. Which could explain a lot!

The older generation might be surprised to hear that avocado and cooked egg yolk are now considered good first foods, along with just about anything else ground up. There's nothing wrong with rice cereal, except as Amanda points out, it has little nutritional value except calories. Her doctor suggested avoiding pureed fruit, because babies love it and can get a picky, sweet tooth if they have it first. But back to the avocado...did Nova like it? Nope, Amanda said she spit that first taste right out!

Winter work

"Winter is the time of promise because there is so little to do - or because you can now and then permit yourself the luxury of thinking so."

Stanley Crawford

Yesterday was a day to give a gardener spring fever-- calm, warm and dry. After 30 years of Seattle gardening, it still takes me by surprise how early our plants start growing. This week the hyacinths, alliums and daffodils are just popping up through the mulch. (To my family and friends in the Midwest and Rockies, above picture is proof.) Depending on the weather, it will still be several weeks before the first flowers, but in the meantime it sure lifts the heart and gets you moving. Here's a line from a poem called "God's Grandeur," by Gerard Manley Hopkins:

For all this, nature is never spent; there lives the dearest freshness deep down things...

So beautiful-- I think about that line every spring when I first go out. But the DARK side of an early spring is you have to stay ahead of the weeds, or all the pretty little things are soon choked out.

I've been on sort of a rip in the yard, sawing down some old, ugly shrubs and cleaning out beds for a fresh start. If you like to buy plants, you have to do this occasionally. But for a gentle person, I'm surprised at my own violent housecleaning! Yesterday I got out a ladder and started "pruning" a big overgrown photinia, then decided it would be easier to just chop the dang thing down. And so I did, and I was glad because I could see all that new light on my favorite flower bed.

New Mom support group...

Methow Valley style! Three good friends out for a sunny winter hike with their babies and dogs. Amanda and Nova are in the middle-- thanks for the great picture.

Museums and birds

We had a pretty sunrise yesterday in Seattle, and it was a wonderful sight after all the murky gloom. It's pouring rain again, but if you use your imagination there is a touch more light everyday.

I still belong to the Society of American Archivists, and yesterday the local chapter organized a tour at the Museum of History and Industry (where John and I went last weekend). I've been thinking about volunteering there, so I really enjoyed seeing their archive and library down in the basement of the building.

What you see in museums is just the tip of an iceberg, and I always think the most interesting part is behind the scenes. MOHAI has an enormous collection of artifacts and photographs covering local history from the earliest days of Seattle. Everything was donated by individuals and organizations, and the storage area is a wonder to behold! I found out the Museum is moving because of the eventual expansion of the 520 bridge, and it's a shame they have to give up their old home. I'm sure the new museum at Lake Union will be wonderful, but it will only have room for the public displays. All the storage and offices will be in another location, yet to be determined.

It was a nice afternoon, and I had a few minutes to walk out on
Foster Island.

The walk is a real contrast between nature on one side, and the roaring 520 freeway on the other. The trail winds along the shore of Lake Washington connecting small "islands" with bridges and paths. There are lots of platforms perfect for bird watchers.

I saw this "fisherman" right off the trail:

A Great Blue Heron!

There were lots of Mallard pairs:

And a lonely Common Goldeneye: