Cheap treasure

 

This house doesn't need another fancy plate or basket, but my favorite thrift shop, The Discover Store, had a 50% off everything sale this weekend and these items were too unique to pass up. 

The plate has an "Abigail" stamp, which according to Google, is an old southern family business selling high quality pottery. I don't know anything about ceramics, but reduced down to ten bucks, hard to resist. 

I've always wanted to learn pine needle basket making, but the class I signed up for was cancelled. That coil basket has thousands of individual needles-- imagine the work! I wonder who made it, and then who gave it away to the charity shop. If only things could talk. 

Speaking of treasures, how nice to step outside and pick all-you-can eat tomatoes for a few weeks. 

At the West Seattle Sunday Market, the person in front of me paid a shocking $7 for a single heirloom tomato. He didn't even blink. (Same price as the pine needle basket.) 

And the ultimate bargain: free. The house across the street put this perfectly good chair out on the sidewalk and I grabbed it.

 Seattle can be a strange place. 

 

Silver Maple

 

 

Beautiful in every season, the Silver Maple across the street has been a part of our landscape ecology since 1980. In the summer, that huge biomass of leaves filters the hot afternoon sun, keeping our house cooler. I've raked tons of leaves over the years to mulch the garden beds. 

The tree has been struggling for years through a combination of neglect and climate change. Each year, more dead branches in the canopy and more wood falling on the ground. I've been dreading the day they decide it's a hazard and cut it down. 

 

 

But early this morning, a truck showed up, and they appear to be cutting out the dead wood high above. Dangerous work! And hopefully, it means they haven't given up on the old treasure yet. 

 

A pie sort of morning

 

 

The dark clouds are gathering in advance of the atmospheric river moving in tonight. Hopefully the rain extinguishes the stubborn fires burning out on the Olympic Peninsula. 

John is outside now checking the gutters-- the crows use them for a private picnic trough. If they clog up and it rains hard, the basement stairwell is prone to flood. 

I made an apple pie this morning to get us through this "preview of fall" weekend. The temperature has dropped almost 30 degrees in 3 days. Hoodies and jeans today for ukulele group. 

 

 

 

Good grain

 

I've written about Bluebird Grains before on the blog. The company is another Methow Valley business success story, like epqd gear and Blue Star Coffee Roasters, built up from scratch with hard work and good marketing. And it always helps that the locals are supportive and loyal to their home-grown businesses. 

When we first started going to the Valley almost 20 years ago, Bluebird was just a little boutique farm, selling bags of Emmer Farro (a hybrid species of wheat) at Hanks and the Saturday market. They've recently built a large processing facility with a retail store just outside of Winthrop, and greatly expanded their "ancient grain" product line. 

Amanda gave me a bag of Einkorn to try, and now it's my favorite. Einkorn is the oldest wheat known to scientists with a unique high protein low starch nutritional profile. 

 

It cooks up fairly soft so makes a good rice substitute.  But salad is the way to go with the leftovers. 

I added a can of white beans, onion and cherry tomatoes from the garden, with a lemon vinaigrette. Could have stopped right there for healthy vegetarian dinner, but the salad was sure yummy alongside grilled chicken and Hatch peppers. 

By gosh, it's been hot here for the last two days! The house was 85 degrees inside when we went to bed last night. Now a big cool down on the way, with heavy rain by the end of the week. 

  

Cloud nine

 

Looking at photos this morning, and still basking in the afterglow of that perfect Victoria trip.

Here's a photo of the family together last night in Pt. Townsend, dining on Thai food. They are on the long road back to Twisp now, but soon take off on the next big adventure-- a four day wilderness backpack in the North Cascades. 

 

No, Nana won't be trailing along, unless I can get one of those dashing ex-bush pilots to fly me in! Haha. Joe (above) flew the Otter to Victoria and was featured in the flight magazine. 

John got home yesterday and it's nice having him back, puttering around in his (now sparkling clean) basement lair. I love his family and was sorry to miss them this trip, but it was a special time for the sisters and brothers-- so happy they took advantage of that rare opportunity. 

 

Happy birthdays

 

A pretty smile on Nova's 16th birthday, and perfect weather yesterday for Buchart Gardens. 

And happy birthday today to our lovely Amanda. The family is in Pt. Townsend tonight before heading back to the Methow Valley. 

Sisters, sisters. Where did the time go?

Well, John is on the plane from Cincinnati and I'll pick him up in a few hours. 

The next two days are quite hot, getting up to 90, so naturally there are extreme heat warnings all over the local news. 

When I water, the thirsty birds start chattering at the first sound, especially the chickadees. A  pretty good place to be a birdie, in this hot crowded city.