Brave

 

What a nice crop of hot peppers. We picked all the red ones yesterday and I made a jar of refrigerator pickled peppers-- wonder if anyone is brave enough to try them!  

We're making pork chili with white beans today, which sounds like a good thing on a stormy, wet weekend.  Maybe diced on top with cheese. 

After a scorching summer, starting to think about fall cooking. Last night roast chicken slathered with garlic butter. John said it was the best he ever had. I bought some locally grown garlic in Central Washington, and wow, what a difference. Sweet and juicy and tastes nothing like the stale Chinese garlic from the grocery store. Yes, China produces over 75% of the world's garlic. 

Other than the weather, not much news up here in the left hand corner of the country. Despite our relatively high vaccination rates (at least in western Washington) we have not escaped the Covid hospital crisis. If you're unfortunate to have an accident or heart attack, good luck. Between the millions of people who already had Covid and the millions who have been vaccinated, it seems impossible there are still so many people left to infect. Will it ever end? 

Waiting

 

Everything seems to be holding its breath, waiting for a drink. The rain show starts tomorrow, although the yard is baked so hard it will take several good soakings to penetrate. John cleaned the gutters yesterday. The crows eat bread and peanuts up there and leave the shells. I stopped feeding them long ago, but they still come here with their stash.

What to do with that giant stag horn fern? It would take up the entire greenhouse window. As far as plants go, it's more weird-looking than attractive. And then the jade plants on the front porch come inside at some point...

The usual fall garden chores. Not close to freezing here yet, but I see Twisp has a frost warning this morning. It was so dark early this morning, I was sure it was cloudy. But no, one more nice bright morning before the storm.

 

Famine or feast

 

 

Since early June, Seattle has measured only 0.13 inches of rain.  Certainly, the driest summer I can remember. That's about to change, with the first real storm of the season headed our way, a weekend deluge expected to bring several inches of rain. In the high mountains above 6,000 feet, the first snow. The moisture and colder temperatures mark the end of the fire season in Washington. Yea.

I asked my son-in-law to run down to the house and turn off the irrigation, which has been merrily spraying our small lawn with expensive municipal water all summer. There's no sadder sight in this (mostly) parched world than a sprinkler running in the pouring rain.  

Our neighbor owns an air compressor, and generously offered to blow out our irrigation system when the temperature drops. That's an essential step to protect the underground lines from freezing. One by one, checking off the tasks.  

October is a super busy month, with two big trips and hopefully squeeze in a few days in Twisp. Last spring, in a moment of optimism, I reserved our favorite place in Palm Springs for the first week of October.  With vaccinations off to a roaring start, I thought the pandemic would be a distant memory by fall. As John likes to say, "that's what you get for thinking." Then around Halloween, I'm looking forward to seeing my dad and sister in Las Vegas. More than ever, we need to treasure the time we have together.

Does it spark joy?

 

 

I took a picture of the closet in Twisp before I left. I forget what I've got over there, and then bring the wrong things back. Anyway, time to stock the winter closet with old sweaters and woolly socks.

We bought some furniture from the former owner, but it's been interesting decorating a new house almost from scratch. I mean, actually putting some thought into it, instead of random accumulation. That famous PBS home tidier, Marie Kondo, says if you pick something up and it doesn't "spark joy" then out it goes.

Our home here is stuffed with 40+ years of living. It's a old charming place, with the emphasis on old. When I get home, the first thing that strikes me is how much we have, even though I took some of the "sparky" things over to Twisp, along with the extras. You really don't need 10 tablecloths in one place.

The drive back was nice yesterday on an early fall morning. John had my back the whole way in the new Honda. I hate using cruise control, so I'm not much fun to follow as I dilly dally along in the right hand lane.

I especially like the first 100 miles going down the Methow Valley and then along the Columbia River (what's left of it) to Wenatchee. The terrain is so beautiful and perplexing, I always wish I had a geologist in the car.  As I've said before, it puts us puny humans into perspective.

They were just starting to pick apples around Wenatchee. The pear crop was good, but don't know how well the apples did in such a scorching summer.  The Walla Walla famers said their sweet onions actually baked in the ground. 

Well, back to other home chores today. It's a sunny day in Seattle, but a fairly potent rainstorm coming just in time for the weekend.

On the town

 

Maya is almost old enough to ride her bike down the hill to our house alone. I said maybe next year. 

Having grown up here, Twisp really is these girl's oyster. During the Saturday market, Nova and her friend walked around and went to the bakery and thrift shop by themselves. That was a first and pretty exciting for the young ladies. You can't imagine 12-year olds doing that in Seattle. Twisp is a small town and everyone knows everyone, which of course has it's advantages and disadvantages.

As the seasons change, so does the wildlife. I watched a pair of Belted Kingfishers fighting over the river, one of the noisiest birds in existence, putting the jays to shame. They are solitary hunters and compete over fishing territory. 

Mergansers float by on the river, a lovely waterfowl with bright red crested heads. The turkeys are always hanging around, practically domestic. They look at us, like what are you doing in OUR yard? They sit on the neighbor's picnic table preening in the morning sun. I think of Thanksgiving dinner, but probably nothing like a Butterball.

What else? Haven't had many deer lately. They ate my trees and left. It will be interesting to see if more hang out in town during hunting season. 

The week flew by, back to Seattle tomorrow. This will be a different view in a couple of weeks, with the river cottonwoods turning yellow and losing their leaves. By the end of the month, the nighttime temperatures down in the 30's. We'll turn off the irrigation for the season and wrap up our winterizing chores.  Snow in October is not unusual in the valley.

River Witch

 

That's the sign the former owner posted on the trail that crosses our property to the river. I think the rules are quite reasonable, considering folks are basically trespassing. 

We joke about the "community beach" but that's what it was, until this house was built in 2017. That put an end to the drunk parties, bon fires, commercial boat launching, etc. but nothing is harder to change than precedence, once established. 

So the locals still come down, especially on hot afternoons. And we've met some nice neighbors. It's a big river, so why here? Well, the Methow running through town is mostly rocky high bank or private property owned by people less generous. There's only a few places to easily access the water or haul in and out.

From our master bathroom, we have a view of the river through the glass shower door. Pretty sweet, because there's rarely anyone out there in the morning. 

But yesterday when I got out of the shower, there was woman in front of the house yakking on her cell phone (really?) while a dog ran everywhere. Loose dogs scare the wildlife and poop. Sometimes they bite.

That was the trigger to bring the old witch out of her river house. I put my wet hair in a pony tail and went out to say hello. The dog of course ran up and jumped all over me. She said her dog "loved our beach" I suppose thinking I would take pleasure in that.  I just smiled and said politely we prefer that dogs stay on a leash on our property. She looked sorry and soon left. I was not sorry.

So, John thinks I should have a flag to raise on the house to warn people when the River Witch is in residence. Like the Queen at Windsor Castle. Ha.

Well, I'm off to take Maya to the library. Nova is with her best friend this morning and Amanda working at home. No school today, another service day for the teachers and headache for the parents.