Changing Traditions - Suiattle River Road Hike

What Makes these holes in the bark?

Why are these sentences underlined? hmmm?












Our long standing memorial day tradition has been to go to Seattle for the Folk Life Festival. We've enjoyed music and dancing and crafts from around the world - and great street food. Our observation in recent years has been that Folk Life is a great place to be if the weather is a little bad. Too many people come out to the festival if the weather is good. Today was a great weather day for the Northwest - almost hot for a few hours in mid-afternoon. So we didn't go to Folk LIfe. We went hiking instead.




DER found a hike appropriate for our winter conditioning. Along the Suiattle River is a road that is not longer accessible to cars. Because the trail is a former road bed, you don't have to watch where you place your feet, the trail is companionable wide and being near the river there is not much elevation gain.

Inspite of the moss in the pictures, it was not as damp as we would expect for here, but it was nice to be out before the trailside plants get covered with dust. We went about two and half miles up the trail to a campground that is not longer accessible and speculated on what a good beginners backpacking trip this would be with kids. You could even bike in to the campsite with only a few portages. One portage for a cattle guard and one for a large muddy puddle. The river has washed out the road in a few places so parents would want to be sharp eyed and do appropriate shepherding of little ones. The pictures above and below show the first road wash-out and the creek near the campground.
Of course I'm remembering the camping trip with a crawling Nathan near a river. I didn't enjoy it much - too worried that he'd crawl right off the little bluff into the river. And we try to forget the messiness of crawlers in the dusty dirt of your usual campsite. So maybe not a trip for toddlers, but still a possibly good trip for kids.

The rural meadows on the way were yellowed with shining buttercup and the yellow iris that loves wet lands was in bloom. The drive was as good as the hike.

Leading and Following

David has a friend at work who has started ballroom dancing with his wife. They invited us to a "dance party" - another name for a sales pitch, but it included a group lesson on the fox trot and an evening of dancing. We agreed to sign up for the five dollar intro lessons which included one group lesson (swing) and two individual lessons for us as a couple. We asked them to teach us the rumba and give us some tips on leading and following. The teacher was sweet and helpful. The group lesson in contrast to the first group lesson did not have any men with alcoholic courage, so it was better. Group lessons mean you rotate around to all the possible dance partners in the room. It made me appreciate my husband, who smiles sweetly, smells clean (in more ways than one), looks at you instead of the floor, doesn't step on your toes, and recognizes the beat of the music ...... In spite of the unpleasantries of the first group lesson, we did enjoy ourselves and it was good to have someone help us a little bit.

For years, I've been complaining that DER doesn't lead because he expects all dances to be like folk dances with a set pattern of steps that both dancers know. He counter complains that I cuddle up too close for him to effectively lead. The teacher helped us do better. My cuddling prevented the tension necessary and he often forgot to lead or didn't know when to give the cue. I wonder where else in life tension is necessary.

Of course, after the short series of $5 lessons, they try to lead you into signing up for more lessons at the regular price by making it awkward to decline. We declined - hopefully with enough kindness and sensitivity that the teacher didn't feel like it was about her as a teacher. But we might think about doing a short series of lessons some other time. Now if we could just find a place to dance more often so we develop some kinesthetic memory.

Tourism at Home

Mom and Barbara came for a visit. I don't think Mom would have come without Barbara so I am grateful for her willingness to travel to see us and to bring Mom. I had pretty much resigned myself to the idea that my mother would probably never visit us again.

We did lots of fun things. David took the week off. We went whale watching. Gray whales are not as exciting as orca's but it was still a chance to see whales and it was still pretty cool. We saw cormorants, grebes and bald eagles along with the whales. This picture is of cormorants on top of pilings as we pulled into the dock. The whales are too hard to get a picture of, but we did get to smell whale breath. The gray whales feed on the bottom and have kind of a mucky smelling breath.









We went up to Skagit Valley for the daffodils blooming in the fields. That is the picture that is at the top. It would normally be tulips by this time of year, but it has been a cold winter. The peak bloom will be beautiful in a couple of weeks. This is the largest bulb producing region in the world and is pretty impressive when in bloom. These are some early tulips.





















Our outside activities were somewhat limited by the weather, but we did manage a little walk in our nearby woods where the fungus was fascinating and the trillium was in bloom.




We also spent a little time with a stroll in the Arboretum. And I as usual enjoyed the shaggy bark of this tree - whose name I can't recall.










Our Camellia won't be blooming this year because of the cold winter. But there were some beauties in the Arboretum.









We went to Pike's Market where the flower stalls were also beautiful with daffodils. They even air brush some of them an orange color, but the ones in the picture are all natural.

We walked along taking advantage of some of the free tastes along the way. Expensive balsamic vinegar flavored with blackberry could have had us standing around that booth for a long time and then there are the Chukar Cherries (chocolate covered dried cherries), ummmm.



We went to the glass museum in Tacoma. It is pretty cool to watch them blow and shape glass in the hot shop there adn walk across the bridge of glass. I'll have to wait for Barb to send pictures of that one as I didn't bring my camera. Look for Tacoma Museum of Glass on the internet and you can see glass blowing on the internet.

We also took the Boeing tour. Kids - it's much better than it was when you guys were young and we took it on a spring break. It was pretty impressive to see five planes in one building. Again -- no pictures - they will confiscate and not return your camera if you try to take it on the tour.

Lots of fun activities, good food, and a restful round of "Jeeves and Wooster" in the evenings. Almost too much fun for one week.

Conservation

This pretty white sand on the drive way is the stuff that came from the bottom of our water heater when we drained it. We finally did what the plumber recommended several years ago when we replaced the water heater. He said it extends the life of the appliance and conserves energy. We are now convinced as we estimate that there was about an inch of percipate in our water heater. The good news is that it is nice and white - not rusty.

We've made a few other conservation measures this last winter. We replaced a toilet. Again talked with the plumber to find out what low flow toilets work the best and this one is far better than it's predecessor. We changed the aereators in our faucets to one gallon per minute aereators. I don't notice it anywhere but in the kitchen when I'm filling a pot of water for pasta. We also replaced our shower heads. This one I do notice because the spray pattern is not as wide as the old one. The final thing we did was to turn down the heat on the water heater. We figured with only two of us living here we used less water than when the whole family was here. I notice that my shower water is not as hot, but it doesn't seem to make very much difference in the pace at which we do other things. We have enough hot water for the two of us.

Results are a little hard to quantify, because we also went from having young adults with their "late night - lights on" life style to having just two of us pretty much on the same schedule. However, our heating bill went down $14 a month. Some of it had to be our conservation efforts.

Roasted Red Pepper Soup

We had this yummy soup at a restaurant a couple of years ago and were eager to make it at home. We've experimented with good flavors and various ways of making it and have come down to a basic plan that is enhanced with whatever herbs you like with these flavors. This is easy, but not specific. Make it how you like it.

Last week WinnCo had red peppers on sale for 68 cents each. That is a great deal around here when the normal winter price is about 2 dollars apiece. So I loaded a big bag and took them out to the grill to roast them. Turn as the skins blacken and blister to get all sides roasted. When they are blistered all around, put in a paper bag and roll it closed. Let them steam in the bag for a 20-30 minutes or so. Scrap the skin off and remove the stem and as many of the seeds as you want to remove. Blend it to a puree. If you do a bunch at once you can freeze the puree in whatever size portions you want. I now have a bunch of red pepper popsicles in my freezer - almost instant soup.

Alternatives to grilling the peppers include oven roasting, roasting on stove top over a gas burner or in a cast iron pan. I just think that I can do a lot more peppers in less time if I roast them outside on the grill.

For the soup combine red pepper puree with chicken broth and potato flakes (or real mashed potatoes if you want) to get the combination of flavor and density of soup that you like. Add herbs that you like. I kind of like thyme and a very little bit of oregano with snipped chives to garnish it - but that is what I have in the garden.
Salt and Pepper to taste.

Hellebores

The crocus are done but the Hellebores are out. It is the Hellebores natural habit to drop it's head and the petals and the tough sharp edged leaves provide a dry haven for the pollinating insects.











These Hellebores are in the backyard, which is usually a couple of weeks behind the front seasonally because of the shade of the house. The one in the front by the crocus does not flourish.








I am pleased that these plants are reproducing. They seem happy in their home. They were "pound plants" they came from the discount plant rack of distressed plants at the local "we sell everything" store. The moss and the lichen looked beautiful today on the trunk of the Japanese maple.

Lines in the Sand

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I was chatting with my mother a few days ago and this memory came up. She didn't remember, but I did - possibly because of the disappointment. When I was about five years old, we traveled by train to San Diego. The train trip was another vivid memory of my childhood, but is not what I want to remember today. My memories of San Diego include it's wonderful zoo and the giant tortises there. Perhaps the tortise was the most memorable animal of the zoo because we would ofen see box turtles on the road side in Kansas. We would occasionally persuade mom to stop and pick them up and we would bring them home and try to feed them. They didn't adapt well to captivity; if all the children of Kansas did what we did, the box turtle population would have been descimated in that baby boom generation... We went to Disneyland and I found it scary. I've never become a rider of carnival rides possibly because of that early experience. None of this has anything to do with lines in the sand however.

We went to the beach. We walked out on the hot dry sand, none of us in beach clothes, filling our shoes with sand. We reached the point where the waves had darkened and hardened the sand. Dad leaned down and drew a line in the sand and said, we'll go when the waves cross this line. I suppose there were many reasons why Dad might not have wanted to spend very much time at the beach. Perhaps he didn't want his kids returning to his sisters house with clothes full of sand. Perhaps there was a plan for something else later that day and he didn't want to get us all cleaned up again. I suspect it was hot; some of us sunburned easily and Barbara was a baby. Perhaps the biggest reason was that he was a non-swimmer (as were we at the time) and wasn't comfortable with water play. Whatever his reasons, the very next wave crossed his line - and he really was ready to go. We persuaded him to wait for a few more waves, but not many. Drawing lines in the sand can be disappointing, waves wash them away sooner than you think.