Stellar's Jays and Apple Pie

All I wanted to do was photograph my pie, laying on the ground. Nestled in the leaves. I put the pie there, and went inside to get my camera. Suddenly, I heard all these cries - Stellar's Jays. They had found my pie! They were just jumping down to get a closer look, when I clapped my hands and shooed them away. Bold as 'camp robbers', pesky birds, and clearly uninvited.

http://www.naturepark.com/stellars.htm

Nisqually Wildlife Refuge & Capitol Lake

We spent the day yesterday down by Olympia, canoeing by Tumwater Falls in Capitol Lake.

It was an overcast day, with spots of sunlight. Not a good filming day, because the sound of the freeway was too close to the water. Nor was it great for still photos, because all the good shots were directly into the sun.

But, Here are a few photos to give a glimpse of our paddle. Beginning kayakers were getting lessons here, and their gear looked brand new - unlike our canoe, which looks pretty used by now.

The old Tumwater Brewing Buildings provide a backdrop to the little lake. They are no longer in use, and have ivy growing up the sides and old trees sprouting from inside. I love the old brickwork and architecture.

We saw lots of wildlife - the Canadian Geese use the Nisqually Wildlife Refuge nearby, and many birds were flocking up. We hiked a couple miles through the willow thickets, where there was a boardwalk along the delta. There is a nature trail, and a couple of old barns out in a meadow.

This property was a successful farm long ago, but the owner lost his investments during the First World War, and lost his financing to keep the property running. It has since been cared for as a National Wildlife Refuge.

The Nisqually River Delta is a biologically rich and diverse area, with the freshwater of the Nisqually River combining with the saltwater of Puget Sound. It forms a nutrient rich estuary that supports abundant wildlife. We like the sandpipers, blue heron, ducks and geese.

In the spring you can hear many songbirds - goldfinches, warblers, and swallows. The dense underbrush provides cover for small mammals. There is a mixed conifer forest on the bluffs above the delta that is perfect for eagles and osprey. One time we were canoeing and decided to drag the canoe across the delta, and we came across 7 bald eagles, sunning themselves on the mud-flats. It's not every day you can come across something like that.

All in all it was a good day, with a good hike and a gentle paddle. Not too many more days are ahead with weather this accommodating. We'll be putting the canoe away for the winter, and put our hiking boots on.

Tacoma Boy's Market

This is the market where we do our shopping. Tacoma Boys is open 24 hours a day, and features mostly in-season fruits and vegetables.

It has an open air market feeling, because one portion of it is not closed-in. The market is on George's way home from work, so it is close to home.

I buy most of my house plants here in the summertime, and it is great for fresh fish and seafood, meats and deli items.

The other day I brought my camera, and had so many nice photos I had difficulty finding just a few for posting. But, rather than post photos, I'd like to scroll down to the winter squash, and just let the list of varieties do the talking....

Winter Squash Shipment at Tacoma Boys

I've grown a lot of squash over the years - the Hubbard, Acorn, Spaghetti, Turban's Cap (which is my favorite), Butternut, and the white Bush scallop squash. They take up a lot of room in the garden, but are worth the work. Some of the summer squashes and gourds can be trained over a trellis, and some of the squashes also. This is when they become a lovely accent to a garden.

Perhaps you'd like to run through a few names...just a glance shows you that abundance is the gift of a well tended garden. These varieties came from a seed catalog from Kathy's Pumpkin Patch: http://www.kathyspumpkinpatch.com/varieties.html

Blue Hubbard -extra large, attractive blue-gray color-good flavor and texture
Buttercup/Ambercup- one of the tastiest winter squash, bakes up sweet and dry, excellent keeper
Butternut- gourmet baker with creamy skin, rich orange flesh and outstanding flavor
Green Striped Cushaw -good for baking and freezing
Hasta La Pasta -spaghetti squash with extra beta carotene
Lakota Squash -heirloom variety tracing its ancestry back to a Lakota Sioux tribe
Muscade -mottled orange rind with nutty orange flesh—compare to Long Island Cheese
Red Warty Thing -hard, thick rind-Hubbard type flesh
Spaghetti Squash- less starch than real pasta and less calories-great topped with cheese or spaghetti sauce
Tanda Padana -small round Italian heirloom squash
Turk’s Turban/Mini-Red Turban- colorful, decorative squash
White Bush Scallop Squash- unique shape, nutty flavor

Ghost Pumpkins for Carving

Got yours carved yet?

Home Canning - Spaghetti Sauce

We've picked the last of the unripened tomatoes, and they've ripened under newspaper. So, today I made Spaghetti Sauce and Tomato Paste.

I like to cut the tomatoes in half, scoop out all the seeds, then put all of it in a blender, to make a tomato paste. This way, I use the color from the skins to enhance the pale color from newspaper-ripened tomatoes. (When I make sauce from vine-ripened tomatoes, I'll blanch the skins off).

I heard the other day that Tomatoes and Blueberries are excellent food choices, because of their anti-oxident value. So, while the sauce was boiling in the processor-canning kettle, I took some grape juice, added two handfuls of blueberries, and blenderized them into a 'fruit smoothie'. It formed a little mound, like soft sherbut, and was sooooo refreshing. Try it sometime, you'll like it.

Canoeing Videos On Site Now

First the Family Videos, now the Canoeing Videos. Taken in Montana and Washington. You'll see just how peaceful a gentle glide can be, and always there are surprises - in the water! It has a language all its own...go see.

Flitzy Phoebe Canoe Videos!

Wide Portals For My Son at UPS - WA

My son, Taraz, got his training in Digital Media at Bates Technical College about two years ago. Since then, he has worked for a radio station down in Hemingway, South Carolina, as a programmer- disc jockey. That was like an internship. He and his brother, Rahmat, love to edit film and design video-games. They have done that kind of avocation for about eight years, just for fun.

When Taraz was in junior high, instead of hitting academics, he spent time doing interviews - mostly of me. And, we have a lot of family history on tape. He also experimented with sounds of nature and music, and now loves to put montages together.

But, it is not yet paying work. You know that story, of the struggling artist who washes dishes? I've got two of them, busting dishes at 'Gateway to India', and bunking upstairs - one in my studio/guest-room, and one on the floor in George's office...temporary lodging, I keep telling them. But, like some mothers, I wonder if the world is wide enough for them to get a footing.

I'll post a couple more photos of our walk - just a gentle afternoon stroll on campus.

Library Window - University of Puget Sound

Autumn Reflection In Environmental Sciences

Afternoon Walk With My Son at UPS

The University of Puget Sound campus is just a few blocks from our home. I try to go for a walk here everyday, and this is where I usually wind up, standing in front of this exquisitely bound vine along a north wall.

My son, Taraz, went with me today, to teach me about my camera. Even though it is a beginners camera, made about five years ago, I still need to learn more about how it works. So, I'm just practicing...and enjoying time with my son. I'll post more photos tomorrow, when I have a chance to cull through them, to find some of the better ones. Until then, have a good evening...

Port Orchard Marina - Washington

Just a hop, skip and a jump from George's office. It looks pretty calm, but the wind was blowing so bad I could hardly get a photo. Not good canoeing weather. The fleet of aircraft carriers in Bremerton in in the far distance.

My Daughters - October 2005

Woodsmoke and Memories

This is the door to the little nature center that I built in my backyard for my grand-daughter. It is just simple plywood, with an old brass handle on the right, and an old rusty hook-lock.

Ive dusted the shelves, vaccumed the inside, and gotten rid of all the spiderwebs. The loft has books and teddybears, and a multitude of nature specimens in jars in the cupboards. The windows have been covered with plastic to keep the winter wind out. All, the little tendings of putting a cabin to bed for the winter. I keep a nightlight burning in the front window all the time and it sheds a warm glow, alerting the prowling raccoons that someone might be inside.

This is the time of year when mountain cabins are boarded up over in Montana, when the last trails of woodsmoke fill the valleys in the Belt Mountains. I remember Mother cleaning the cabin, turning off the power, cleaning out the refrigerator, and putting heavy shutters over all the windows.

Those summer days out in the country passed so quickly for us, and soon decades rolled by. All that is left are the memories...of sweet, cold well-water that we had to pump up from the ground, of the pop of wood in the potbellied stove, and the scent of woodsmoke coming from cabins up in the canyon. We'd have to say goodbye to the friends we made during the summer, with the hope we'd see them again next year.

Over in Montana, you clear out before the snow comes, because to get to those cabins late in the year would require a snow plow. No one was there to bother with that. Once, we hiked in to the cabin, to see how it looked in winter, and it wore a 2 foot blanket of snow on the roof, with a resolute drift of snow on the front porch...not a welcome sight.

Raking leaves, I stopped to breathe deeply the fragrant air of autumn. Have you noticed, when you crush leaves underfoot, they burst with a dry scent, somewhat musty, of earth and heaven all rolled into one? Let them lay there, in the rain, and in a short while you can turn them over, and all kinds of little red worms have squiggled into the leaf-mold. They'll twitch and thrash, unaccustomed to the light. Best to cover them up - they'll be good in the compost bin.

Feta Greek Salad for Dinner Tonite

Simple spaghetti with meat sauce can be dressed up with a Feta Salad

Lettuce, spinach, oregano leaves and flower buds
Yellow pepper, cucumber, tomato and pre-cooked green beans
Green Onion, Feta cheese, Olives, and Lemon-pepper seasoning

I use a simple Balsamic Vinegar and Oil dressing

Roma Tomatoes for Relish

Tomorrow I'll be finishing up on the Sweet Relish that I make from these little pear-shaped tomatoes. If they stay too late on the vine, this time of year, the blight will get them - patches of dark greenish-blue-brown. (I've actually seen blighted green peppers at a local market, sold cheap, of course. People just didn't realize that the dark black-green patches were early blight).

Running Up That Hill - Kate Bush

And if I only could,
I'd make a deal with God,
And I'd get him to swap our places,
Be running up that road,
Be running up that hill,
With no problems.

Crash Test Dummies - God Shuffled His Feet

After some days He was quite tired,
so God said: "Let there be a day
just for picnics,
with wine and bread."

Music Never Stopped - Grateful Dead

The sun went down in honey,
Moon came up in wine,
Stars were spinnin' dizzy
Lord, the band kept us so busy
We forgot about the time.

Constant Craving - kd lang

Even through the darkest phase
Be it thick or thin
Always someone marches brave
Here beneath my skin ~

Storm Clouds Brewing Today

We weren't sure what the weather was going to do this afternoon, but a couple of the kids and I went down to Point Defiance, to feed the seagulls and enjoy the brisk, cool air. Ah-h-h-h......invigorating

Wish you could see the video that I made - those gulls really made a racket, greedy little buggers, and a harbor seal popped up. I zoomed in with my focus, and got his inquisitive face, whiskers and all. Then he slid down into the water, with just a wave of his tail-fin. Outta here!

Apple Pie with Pecan Topping

Just out of the oven, warm, and I'd be happy to serve you a big slice! ~

Seymour Botanical Conservatory

I've made walking a part of my everyday routine. We live in a residential area of Tacoma, Washington, near the University of Puget Sound. It is in the old part of town, historic, and built up on the hill overlooking Commencement Bay.

One of the benefits of our location is the wonderful quaint shopping areas along 6th Avenue and the proximity to the Seymour Conservatory in Wright Park. I went there yesterday to look at the fall displays.

The Seymour Conservatory is a lovely old 1908 Victorian structure that is home to a large variety of tropical plants. Floral displays change every month, and this month orchids, mums, and ornamental peppers are a feature. There is a lovely waterfall that features Koi and other ornamental fish.

The conservatory sits in the Stadium District, the oldest part of Tacoma, and is a central ornament to Wrights Park. We go to the park often for celebrations, like Ethnic Fest, and the Baha'is had monthly Devotional Meetings there in the community center.

I try to visit the park several times a month, just to do some filming, or to watch the mallards and ducks in the pond. There are other frequent visitors - people who claim benches as home. You'll find them asleep on their bench, with a stainless steel shopping cart nearby, holding all their domestic necessities. No matter the weather, hot or cold, they lay there covered in their winter coat, asleep, and indifferent to the world around them.

Cleaning the Cabin Today

I gotta do the most dreadful work today - clean out my grand-daughter's playhouse. It is actually a little cabin that I built in the backyard, filled with nature collections - elk scat and the like. More a rustic club-house than a dainty little playhouse for a 9 year old grand-daughter.

This little cabin has cobwebs on everything, with BIG spiders lying ready to pounce. The squirrels have dragged acorns into the loft, and rats have nested under a quilt. The tea set is scattered, and the whole place looks suddenly abandoned, as if better things beckoned...and, they did.

I've got to drag out one of George's long extension chords and pull out the old vacumn. Then wash some of the stuff, put up some plastic on the windows to keep out the rain, and sweep off the dead leaves on the porch.

Don't ask why I wear an old yellow shower cap when I'm tacklin' this job. Just think about it.

Post'um

What is the favorite hot drink for bloggers?

A Day at Brighton Creek

This is a little cabin at Brighton Creek Conference Center out at McKenna, Washington. Books are sold here. It's a library.

Little ornate east-Indian bags and incense lined the windowsills, and inspirational goodies were in every nook and cranny - bookmarkers that said "The earth is One country, and mankind it's citizens"; fancy rings and necklaces, ornamental tablecloths and scarves...everything at a price that was gift-wrapped with your name on it.

You can tell this is a home-grown affair, no nonsense. The owners keep this place going by donations and community support, even the labor is voluntary. My sons come here to keep the yard nice, and it looks like Helen, Jan and Mary Jane have all brought some oregano, hens and chicks and purple sage in old garbage cans. Someone donated an old ceramic frog that squats by the front door, holding it open. Someone else jabbed a stained glass butterfly on a long pole into the garden out back...little contributions when cash was tight.

It's a loveable funky place without any pretense. Woods surround it on all sides, with the burble of Brighton Creek to soothe campers along the edge. The next door neighbors raise what sounds like 500 roosters, that squak territorial mating calls all day long.

A little mini-farm borders the garden, and I've spent hours pulling weeds there with three horses standing at the fence. I've filmed them all, in the rain, looking miserable and needful, all with the frightfully bad manners of splattering a pee while I'm trying to capture them at their best. What could they do but just bow their heads in the rain, and give a sideways glance my way, through long wet lashes.

I've pitched a tent here many times, cooked my food on the ground. It is a big place, with teepees, many little cabins, a main dining hall, big meeting building. In the fall they hold a salmon bake, and arts festival. But, I remember coming here after my dad died; I pitched a tent and just layed in it most of one day, just to rest as the buz and livliness of humanity milled around. I felt comforted, as if the place said, 'put your cares down here. We'll wait for you'.

Table Talk at Brighton Creek

This photo is of a rusty propane tank hitched to an old trailer. Long unused, but still valuable, the old trailer has a patina that I enjoyed.

All the little bunk houses were closed up for the summer, and the weather was pretty dismal, so I snapped this photo, then went inside for brunch.

George held a spot for me at a table where the conversation was already lively, but, interestingly, not always easily understandable.

At our table, one young man spoke Khmer, with a smigeon of English, another gentleman spoke English with traces of Tamil, which is a Hindi language from India. (His wife speaks English laced with a French accent.) The man across from me, Farhad, spoke Farsi (Persian)with English interpretations to his Dominican Republic wife, who speaks mainly Spanish, and struggles to speak English...ahhhh, confusing, isn't it! I thought so.

Mainly, I just looked at twinkly eyes and animated hand signals, and left the rest to lip-reading. We'd gotten together to help figure out how to bring positive changes to the world, all of the world. And, it was sure obvious that a common language was a starting point.

Cleaning Up the Kitchen

The conference center is licensed for all kinds of gatherings, and has a regular staff of cooks. Volunteers do the clean-up.

The main dining room has about 20 long tables, with oil-cloth coverings. I suppose every ole lady who has been here has brought her favorite plastic flower arrangement - a personalized assortment of dimestore daffodils, lily of the valley, red tulips, and pink daisys, all with startling neon colors in a teddybear holder rimmed with blue Forget-me-nots. Even from a distance the razor-sharp stamens and pistols inside the Passion Flowers would have injured any probing bee. These were definitely bouquets that were meant to last a long time. A few had faded along the windowsill. The reds had turned to blushes of adolescent pink, the blues had clouded over into the greys of winter snow, and the yellows lagged behind, without perk or notice.

You'll see these floral offerings on oil-cloths in the Senior Center in Augusta, Montana. Even in that little one horse town, Aunt Pearl made sure daffodils were in bloom even if winter temperatures were 20 degrees below zero.

French Toast - Community Style

I video taped lots of the brunch goodies - mac and cheese, broccoli and carrots, hamburger-twist macaroni casserole, and fresh salad and fruit. But, all of it was too steamy for a still photo. This left-over french-toast that was brought out later in the day, to go with coffee, was only luke-warm, so I got my shot.