August 29, 2009

in praise of warm water


I love warm water in pools! This pool in McCall is easily (but rarely) 90 degrees. I love it! I love it! It's a rarity to see me with my head in the water, so I had a photo taken for posterity. Today, the outside temp was 64 degrees, but the water was toasty. I spent 2 1/2 hours in the pool!

August 23, 2009

Sunday Dinner

This is today's dinner! Looks good, doesn't it? It's mostly from my garden! Steamed Comstock green beans, Juliet grape tomatoes, bow tie pasta (okay, not from my garden), parmesean chicken (the sauce is from my garden, the chicken and mozzarella cheese are not), and zucchini! It was definitely delectable.

For the sauce, I just started tossing whatever was in my garden in a pot--tomatoes, a couple of onions, a shredded zucchini, a shredded carrot, fresh basil, oregano, chives, and parsley. I let that simmer all day without a lid, to reduce it to a wonderful chunky sauce.

Heavenly!
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August 9, 2009

Hello?




Here's little R talking to "pa" (Grandpa) on the phone...she's finally graduated from just smiling and breathing hard, and actually saying something! Here's the conversation..."Ha (hi) Pa! (grandpa!) Ah uh u! (I love you!) Bah! (bye)"

This picture has absolutely NOTHING to do with phone calls, but those little feet are so adorable!

August Garden

It's August--time for a garden update...The zinnia are amazing!
I love gathering bouquets of these gorgeous flowers.

Walla Walla sweet onions...

Jalepeno peppers...

Green peppers...

Zucchini! We were gone for a week, and when we came back, we gathered several arm-sized zucchinis! Fortunately, we have a friend who really likes the big ones!

Victoria grape tomatoes--there were more ripe ones, but they got picked yesterday.

Candace red grapes are starting to turn...

Beans are interesting right now. I've picked a ton, and pretty much finished my canning for the year. Right now, they're in a regenerating period, so I'll have more soon...I hope!

Amish paste tomatoes. I'm canning tomorrow.

Super-Fantastic tomatoes. They are super fantastic!

Raspberry bramble--you can see where I just picked one that little R promptly ate! More are on the way!
All in all, it's been a great gardening year, and August is always great, since it cools down a little. See you next month for another update!

Huckleberries 2009

HUCKLEBERRIES! Now that we know what we're looking for, and what we've missed all these years, we're hooked on finding and picking these little beauties!There's one now!
Here's L, she is the fastest picker!

Yummmm! Here's K's fabulous peach/huckleberry cobbler!

We just took the lid off...can you just taste it?

Here's how we ate them the first night--just a handful on vanilla ice cream. Add a little homemake granola, and you're officially in heaven!

This little girl loves them!
Here's our first day's picking. All in all, K, L, and I picked three times, getting a little over 2 pounds each time, for a total of about 6 and a half pounds!

July 10, 2009

mid century madness




If you've been following K's blogs, you'll see that she's really loving the mid-century modern pieces. M and L like them, too. Here's a piece J & L just picked up at a garage sale. J & L were at the garage sale, and I met them there, so that L and I could go look at some fabric. J wondered if I thought this would be a good thing. One look at the clean mid-century lines, the hardware (alone, worth more than what they were asking, easily!), and the dovetailed drawers convinced me. "If you don't buy it, I will." said I. The hesitation was the top of the piece--really dried out, with water marks--not a pretty sight. But I knew Grandpa could probably work his magic. We took it right over to him, and in a week, had it back, looking this beautiful. The best part? The asking price was $22 or best offer. J offered them $20 for the dresser and a little school chair that would be perfect with my antique desk. (I'll be working on that soon--pictures to follow.) The next best part? J & L have another year left in a small apartment, so til then, I get to store this beauty in my front hall.

July 7, 2009

Durkee, Oregon

For many, many years, my family would travel to Walla Walla, Washington, where my parents' families were from. We could travel through eastern Oregon, up to near Pendleton, where we would cut off on the Indian reservation to go to Walla Walla. Just before Baker City, we would go past Lime, Oregon, which was a big factory, and this little community of Durkee. I was always charmed by the little church we could see off in the distance. When I was little, it was painted pink, then a little later, in my teenage years, a mustard color. On the trip to Portland, I asked K if we could stop for a closer look. We tried to stop on the way, but missed it--"I thought there were TWO exits...". We stopped on the way back, where the church is now painted a sand color.
I have to honestly say that Durkee looked a lot better from far away. There's hardly any information available for Durkee. Wickipedia says its "an unincorprated community in Oregon. It has a post office..." but doesn't even list population. There were a couple of trailer homes and one bigger home, and the post office, and a restaurant nearby, the Long Redneck Cafe, but we never saw it.
It was little on the sad side.

July 6, 2009

Portland, Oregon

We just returned from Portland, Oregon, home of cool things--excepting the weather this week. According to the news, Portland gets about 14 days of 90+degree weather a year, and we just happened to hit three of those days. It was great to spend three days with JAM, though. This picture above shows a cedar branch in an art park--the photo was taken by J.
Another cool thing in Portland. This happens to be a tile in the bathroom at The Chart House.

I don't love shopping, but if there's a Crate and Barrel anywhere close, I'm there. Honestly, where else can you find a dish brush THAT cool?
Friday morning found us in Boring, Oregon, for berry picking. I had been thinking that raspberries in Oregon were so plentiful, they would just jump off the bushes into your bucket. Not so. We had to do some searching, but they were there if you looked hard. The blueberries were another story. We picked 4 pounds in 15 minutes.
12 pounds of raspberries, 4 pounds of blueberries--all at $1 per pound!


This is a really big raspberry!

And a hugemongous blueberry!

Saturday morning found us downtown, for a bike ride along the river.





Then we hit the farmer's market.
Time for a mini-cookie break!

It's jam making time. M didn't have a potato masher, and we wanted the jam chunky, so we improvised, using a zip lock bag and gently squeezing.



Exact measurements are important!

One of my favorite pictures!
Here we are, at the Chart House for dinner, with a natural looking picture.

The view was spectacular!

After dinner, we visited an art park. There are several installations of "natural" art, none of which we took pictures of, but I do like this picture of K, M, and J.

What are we all looking at?This.
After fireworks, we celebrated with a cool red, white and blue dessert--vanilla bean ice cream topped with fresh raspberries and blueberries--and some granola. A celebration in every bite!We had a great time!