ruby crowned kinglette

this is why i think i can be a farmer

it is a beautiful day here and tomorrow is supposed to be nice too, but they may be the last beautiful days for a while.  and these? these are what didn't entirely ripen this year because it was such a late spring and cool start to the summer, so in turn, the tomatoes were late too.  i didn't reap nearly this many ripe fruit, but i will put some of the more colorful ones on the window sill to continue to ripen, and i might make some kind of green tomato somethings with the others.  has anyone pickled the tiny little green ones? was it worth it? did they even taste good?  it could all end up compost but that is ok with me.  the fact that three plants grew so well, and finally produced was good enough for me.  and, it has me inspired to plant more next year - and then some...

these little red ones i was quite excited to find... didn't have more than a couple that ripened so i am thrilled to eat these two in the next few minutes.  i can't remember the variety, chocolate something or other... the tag is outside, but i am inside now and doubt that i am going to outside again in the next little while....

this here is the plant matter i cut down today...  three little plants in june.  i am, from here on out, quite in love with tomato farming.

{this is my second post with photos using typepad's new and 'improved' platform.  i have changed the picture size but it is impossible to tell in the preview what that really is... i found that out last post as they were all to be the same size and well... you can see they are not. so, more fussing is probably in my future. hang tight}

{ok, the photos are huge, but i might like that, so will stick with it for a while and see... but, does it mean it takes forever to load on your end?}

dear typepad....

you've changed and i don't feel any love for you right now.  if you don't shape up we are going to have to part ways.  that makes me really mad and frustrated, so i suggest you shape up.

consider yourself on notice.

-s

road trip!!!

when returning from lopez last month i took the back roads home.  i love the back roads. they are so pretty, rural and make me feel so content with the world. especially on a sunny autumn day.  i thought my friend paul would like to get out of town and look for a pumpkin patch so we tentatively decided that if is was sunny on our day off we would go.

it was sunny.

and we went.

for 350 miles.

a whole lot farther than i had intended but it was necessary because we went east over the mountains and then into the agricultural part of the state and then, to get home, we had to head some distance south and come back over the mountains again.

we started out at the maltby cafe for breakfast, and a little walk around the grounds there.... where i saw something that i might have to go back for, something that will take some reconditioning but will make everyone super, duper green with envy and something that i will have in my ever expanding collection of stuff but probably will never use...  we will see.  i can't show you, because i didn't take a picture, because, i am not so much the photojournalist i should be as blog owner - and sometimes poster.

this is what we came to first... snow!  it was beginning to melt in the sun so it was dripping and plopping from the branches and sounded so peaceful - when i got far enough away from the still running car and stopped talking and looked away from the highway and the ski resort right there in the middle of things.  still, it was quite wonderful.

this is the wenatchee river.  the highway follows it as it runs east down from the mountains.  i love the drive because around the turns the river comes into and out of view as you roll along, always with a peek at the running waters.  we had to stop here because i couldn't take it any longer just spying it from the car.

this is for julie.... except for the beer can - that escaped my notice until just now.  this isn't so far off the beaten track that all kinds of garbage wasn't strewn about. 

people.

 
this was real pretty too...  we didn't see any four legged animals on the drive but here it would have been lovely to have a deer walk up and lap at the water's edge.

 
this is paul, humoring me.  i humored myself by not getting in front of the camera.

 
i did have to take some pictures of the rocks and the water.... and i took a rock too. because i always take a rock.

and then, we got back in the car and carried on our way.  and i forgot that i brought a camera along and i stopped documenting the journey.

so, you won't see photos of leavenworth, and the nutcrackers and the pastry shop and the  lederhosen that paul bought to wear for halloween - ok, not really, but he considered the idea.

and you won't see us drive out of leavenworth heading east through the apple orchards and into wenatchee and past the sonic drive-in. the same sonic we had been talking about earlier in the day because two gals from work drove over the week before just to eat there and we thought that a bit far to go....

and then you won't see us driving even farther east - after a slightly wrong turn toward mission ridge, and then a turn around toward east wenatchee...

and then you won't see me driving and gazing at the river and the apple orchards and the cherry orchards, hoping to see a pumpkin patch since that is really what we were after.  i say me, because at that point paul was taking a nap.

so, he missed (and so will you) the rappellers skittering around the enormous chainmaille being hung and anchored from the cliff face in order to hold back any rocks that wanted to errode onto the highway. but, when i say skittered i don't really mean that, they were being very careful... very, very careful.

and, you won't see us pass the rocky reach dam and journey on toward ephrata.
but, then, take a little turn off at a rest stop - and the rest we took. then the assessment of our location - realizing we were more than half way across the state and our decision to head along the columbia river south toward home.  paul found a nice pod on the ground so that was considered a success in my book.

so, you won't see the farm stand we finally came upon that sold apples, and pears and ripe little yellow tomatoes and butternut squash... and pumpkins.  i bought all those things.  well, one pumpkin, that took much too long to pick given that they really all do look alike.

you won't see all the birds of prey sitting on the fence posts along the fields of alfalpha, grass hay, spearmint, field corn and peppermint.

or the magpies and kestrals along the wires.

and, you won't see us drive through cle elum, and try to have bar-b-que but didn't because they were closed, not because they had john mccain and sarah palin's names on their big sign along the road.  we had mexican food instead. and when we were stuffed we headed west some more...

but you won't see any of the drive over snoqualmie pass, and past another ski resort either. or north bend where we had to stop to use the facilities...

nor the heavy traffic at 6:30 pm as we rolled back into town just moments after i suggested how smart we were to have planned the trip, coming back just after the rush hour and avoiding all the grid lock... moments after.

it was long, and fun and pretty.  exactly what i wanted it to be.

ps.... i don't think we took what could be considered any back roads on this trip, if we did, we could very well still be driving...

i'm at it again

i have been baking more no-knead bread.  i love it, and that's really all that matters.  these last few loaves have been made from durum wheat flour i bought when i went to pacific food importers, or pfi.  i thought the flour would make a heartier, more chewy bread. i think i was right.  the yeast i had been using was a bit old so it wasn't rising quite like i expected. but, the flour was denser too.  this last loaf has 2 cups durum and one cup regular old stone-buhr white... mostly because i ran out of the durum, so it is a bit lighter and holier... you know, full of holes, not so much godly.  although....

i did buy new yeast too... so too many variables switched to know what specifically the difference was, but it doesn't matter - it is good. great really.

i made the marmalade last winter.  it is the last jar in the fridge and is really good too.  it's from the ina garten barefoot contessa at home book.  she, in turn, states that it is anna pump's recipe from her book country weekend entertaining.  it is easy and delicious.  it is also quite quick to burn should you put it on the stove and then walk away to become distracted by the internets.  so don't do that.  it will almost ruin one of your le cruset pans. but, if you do, you can dremel out the burned sugar that seems might be tougher than the enamel, but it isn't... it is just incredibly stubborn.  i, of course, know this first hand.

i didn't churn the butter, i bought it and then slathered it on the warm toast before the marmalade. it is taking all i have not to continue to power through the loaf of bread and a stick of butter.

going to california this weekend for a little golf.  although you haven't seen me much i am in desperate need of getting away.  here's hoping i break one hundred.

the farm out back

this was the plan.  once i decided to turn my patch of unused space into a garden that will grow veggies to feed more than the occasional varmint i couldn't stop thinking about it.
and then, once i measured it out i had more space than i expected... now, it i am sure is going to seem like less once i start planting and things begin to grow, but right now i am pretty pleased.

and sore.

i spent all of last monday and tuesday digging, sifting (until i decided that rocks in the soil are not all that bad) building, composting and covering with cardboard for the winter.  my muscles were hurting something fierce on wednesday, and my left index finger still hurts and seems like it might for some time... but that's it and i am done with prep.  i didn't expect to finish in two days so i was on a little high because of that.  now, all i need to do is hunt some worms during the rainy days and toss them under the cardboard and let them do their business for the next 5 months and i will be set.  that and some mulched up leaves and maybe some coffee grounds too.

 
the alley end of the bed is different than imagined.  so is that lone post up toward the top sticking too far up.... i am going to plant herbs and things in the little outside triangle bits and work up an irrigation plan over the winter so i can have that ready to place when spring and planting comes...  my huge downfall in gardening, both inside and out, is watering.  it bores me.  but, i have found that living things like water.  and i did not bust my ass digging this beauty to have everything go to waste because i end up being too lazy.

hmmm.  a metaphor for my life, possibly?

nevermind.

this is the list so far. of stuff to grow.  squash is out, expect maybe patty pan or one if it's close heirloom cousins.  but they take up a lot of room and i need that room for the list.

and there might be some asparagus up at the top of that little rock wall.  it would be experimental but what the hell... i might as well try.

crop reports to follow from here on out.

i went kayaking again....

not recently... about a month ago. the morning of the second day of lichen gluing. it was so beautiful.  and peaceful. and as you can tell, hardly a ripple in the water.

 
it was the second time this year... i thought it was the third. i think i just wanted it to be the third because i like it so much.  in my mind, i thought sea kayaking was like white water river kayaking and that seemed like more than i could handle.  i can handle sea kayaking a whole lot.

 
it was a gamble taking the camera with me... not because of the rough water - although these photos were taken in fisherman bay on lopez and not the open ocean - but because if i was just a bit careless and dropped the thing in the water it would have ruined my day as well as my blogging career - such that it is.

as it happened, i was quite careful. above is a shallow area i moved over and was so taken with how beautiful the rocks were with reflection of the paddle.  i mean, you can't go wrong with beach rocks in my opinion.  debbie was way off ahead of me when i finally looked up.... i never remember to look up when beach rocks are involved.

 
we paddled right by this guy.  i suspect he is wondering if that wild turkey is still interested in his job as the symbol of america.  i'll bet he has to be a little disappointed right now.

i know... two days in a row.  kind of amazing. 

who else is tired of the popcorn?

first.... although the popcorn is great, it is far past time to post about something else.
second.... yes, i am still a blogger.
third.... i am also still a crafter; a sporadic one at the moment, but still one nonetheless.
fourth.... i am also a farmer. well, i will be next spring.  right now i am just a digger, forker, turner, composter and mulcher.

several weeks ago i went to visit my friend debbie and took my deer head and ears with me.  i bought the form from a taxidermy company in the hopes it would provide me with a model that i could scale down and make deers of fabric.  well, it didn't work so well and everyone went berserk over deer mounts and then tired of them... i felt a bit behind the curve on that so i just let it go... until august.  i was visiting for a couple of days and it was so nice.  we spent the mornings eating a nice breakfast and then went into the neighboring woods to forage. for lichen. lots of lichen.

and then came back to sit in the sun, enjoy the wildlife and the view and the searing, burning joy of a hot glue gun.

so this is my contribution to the deer mount community... where i finally decided i have room to put it is not the most ideal location for photography.  none of the photos are great, but i have to say it is something that really is so much greater in person...  all the different textures of lichen is just spectacular.  and the branches as antlers.... also super great. 

i love it, and as mentioned above? almost couldn't find room for it in my house.  it isn't small. from the bottom of the chest to the top of the head is about 36 inches and then maybe 48 inches from antler to antler.  it didn't look so big when i was making it outside, or testing it on debbie's walls.  but getting it into the car wasn't a breeze, not hard either, but not a breeze.  it was when i got it into my house that i thought... yikes.  but i wasn't going to give up either because he is too wonderful to not have keeping an eye on me.

so then... other crafting later. and the farming?  that too will be a post for another day.  i worked so hard getting the 'land' prepped i can hardly function... so more too come on the farming front as well.

hope you are enjoying the fall season (or spring for you southern hemispherians).  i am, tons.