When another gardener gave me several pumpkins, I knew I'd not be carving them for Halloween. I wanted to try Pumpkin Soup!
I researched several recipes, some of which included the juice from a sweet orange or lime, nutmeg and cinnamon. I steamed cubes of fresh pumpkin with one of my huge zucchinis, then sauteed celery, carrot, onion and garlic together. Then I added a cube of Vietnamese Chicken Bouillon, tumeric, cinnamon and fresh ground nutmeg. Since I had a bit of organic carrot soup left in the fridge, I added just a bit of that to add richness and sweetness. The result was light, not too sweet, with a pleasant aftertaste of cinnamon. I served it for dinner last night, with a hearty stirfry of mixed greens - mustard, arugula, chard, cauliflower and broccoli seasoned with an east-Indian mild curry. The flavors and aromas blended quite nicely. I save all of my squash and pumpkin seeds. Some will go for next year's garden; the rest are roasted and ground up for toppings and breads.I've made my last visit over to my garden at Franklin Park, and came home with things the other gardeners threw away. 
I brought home celery root (excellent for soup), chard, borage, tomatoes, and some of my lettuce and greens.
It amazes me how much is thrown away or left to rot. I noticed cabbages, beets, cucumbers and squash, beans....just so much good stuff that could have been used. Steve, another gardener, had quite a few tomatoes lying on the ground that he encouraged me to take home. I proceeded to pick several up, saying they'd make good salsa; his lettuce and celery could have made a good soup, but they were damaged and woody.
He dug up several of his celery roots, chopping off the fine strands, and handed me a few. 
He didn't even realize that once these are washed and clean early in the summer that they add a fantastic aroma to a good soup. (I grew celery primarily for the roots.) I gave him the recipe for root soup, which uses parsnips, turnips, potatoes and leeks.
We've had fantastic weather the past week, and I've resumed a 3 day a week jog, just a few miles over on the hills at Old Town. During the summer I had to cut back on this because with my gardening it was just too much physical work. I had to make a choice, jog or garden. I can sure tell the difference when I do not do this workout.
My daughter, Ruhiyyih, is going to run in the New York City Marathon this weekend. 
She has been in training for this ever since she was accepted, and has slowly built up to a 20 mile run and beyond. The Marathon is 26 miles, the largest in the world, with over 37,000 participants. Ruhiyyih starts at 10:10 on Sunday, and registered my e-mail so I can get an update every several hours as she runs the course. The transmission of her progress is due to a little microchip in her shoe! GO! 52514! How I wish I could run the last mile with her! (Flickr photo: Paula Radcliffe, on her way to victory last year.)
This little guy was struggling to swim across the Hoquiam River when we noticed him mid- stream. He was just barely able to stay afloat.
He'd over-estimated his abilities, and just wasn't making any progress, so I slid my paddle under his belly and lifted him up out of the water. He seemed to be so worn out that he just clung to my finger, blinked his eyes, and tried to catch his breath.
We paddled over to the shoreline, where we could put him down on a nearby log. Aside from his golden belly and quivering adam's apple, he had the most luminous eyes, brilliant aquamarine and silver. While he clung to my finger he slowly closed his eyes, then opened them again as if he were making a wish: On the count of three... 'one, two.....and then the feel of warm sunshine on my tummy'.
When we finished our paddle an hour or so later, he was gone.
Well, guess who couldn't stay away from the family reunion? She kept it a secret from me for almost two months! In popped Ruhiyyih from Washington D.C., and her boyfriend Matt from the tri-city area over in eastern Washington!
What a fantastic surprise - I'd just been telling Taraz earlier in the day that parties just don't sizzle unless Ruhiyyih is there to provide the energy. The two of them ignite an intensity that is so characteristic of our family. Then, here comes Ruhiyyih rushing out into the room, surprising all of us with hugs and screams, hoots and hollers.
We all gathered Saturday at my oldest daughter Laurel's for an early dinner and a pink elephant exchange.
I brought a corn-hominy-polenta chowder with chorizo saussage; home-made tomato salsa and chips; a tossed salad with huckleberry dressing; apple-cranberry coffee cake; and pineapple-rum muffins. 
The muffins had a sprinkling of shredded calendula petals on top.
We had lunch at Rue and Annie's (and Daisy) the following day, with her mom, dad, grandmother and brother.
I won't dwell too long on the delights of this past weekend, as I feel it is Ruhiyyih's story to tell. We all had a blast, and we wish her visit could have been much longer. George and I have plans to visit her in D.C. over Thanksgiving ... just a month away. So, we are all looking forward to that. (more photos in our Flickr account.)
It was too windy on the weekend for a canoe paddle on Woodard Bay, so we took a stroll through the forest. Second-growth forests of cedar, big leaf maple and Douglas fir; mossy boardwalks; and well-maintained walking trails. It drizzled a little, but the tree cover absorbed all the moisture.
Until 1984, the Weyerhaeuser Timber Co. was bringing up to 1 million board feet of timber by rail from all over Thurston and Lewis counties. The logs were dumped in the water at Woodard Bay, gathered into rafts and floated up to mills in Everett. It was quite an operation.
Then the Woodard Bay Natural Resource Conservation Area was established in the late 1980s. It became a sanctuary for harbor seals, river otters, bald eagles, a colony of bats, the great blue heron, pigeon guillemots, cormorants ... just a rich habitat for wildlife.
We canoed the waters of Henderson Inlet and Woodard bay about seven years ago, not realizing that it was a protected wildlife sanctuary in the winter-time. We had not seen a warning sign when we put our canoe into the water, and within a short time we heard a helicopter scouting the shoreline. We quickly got out of the area, paddling up a little stream. The current was a bit brisk, even in shallow water, and our canoe capsized. Needless to say, if we ever hear aircraft over water where we are paddling, we figure 'they're after us again'!
We enjoyed the bucolic charm of Thurston County, and I told George how much I would still love to live out in the country and raise much of my own food. 
My goodness, why I hold onto this wistfulness I'll never understand as I'm definitely too old to ever do all the work. It astounds me, just how fast life passes by.
Part of that wistfulness is just knowing that I do not have the kind of physical ability to do the work, and knowing that at one time I DID have it. However, I still have a small garden which provides an opportunity to stock my pantry with home-canned goods. I've managed to make BBQ sauce, pasta sauce, pesto, bruschetta, and a few batches of fresh salsa. 
This last batch of salsa was incredibly good, so fresh and crunchy.
I've kept a bouquet of yellow roses on my coffee table for a week, left over from our IPG. 
I told Arlene (the bestower of this gift) that the blooms have begun to droop, and that there is a poignancy about it. I feel that same kind of slump when the harvest season is over. Partly exhaustion and partly a type of melancholy that my labor out in the garden is over. The rain comes, with grey skies and a begrudging light.
So, it was a comfort to see candles on Saturday at the Olsen's Devotional. 
As I watched them flicker on the little table I listened to the sound of the rain on the windows. I imagined the golden light of autumn sunsets ... perhaps a harvest moon.
Now that the garden is torn down the last plant to be pulled is a wild borage that took over the far end of my tomato berm. I could have pulled it, to give the tomatoes more light, but it had attracted so many honey bees I decided it would serve my garden well. Botanical.com indicates that in the early part of the nineteenth century, the young tops of Borage were sometimes boiled as a pot-herb, and the leaves considered good in salads. Women pressed the beautiful starburst blue flowers...and they were candied as a decoration for pastries. Pliny called it Euphrosinum, because it "maketh a man merry and joyfull". He wrote: "Those of our time do use the flowers in sallads to exhilerate and make the mind glad. There be also many things made of these used everywhere for the comfort of the heart, for the driving away of sorrow and increasing the joy of the minde. The leaves and floures of Borage put into wine make men and women glad and merry and drive away all sadnesse, dulnesse and melancholy, as Dios corides and Pliny affirme. Syrup made of the floures of Borage comforteth the heart, purgeth melancholy and quieteth the phrenticke and lunaticke person. The leaves eaten raw ingender good bloud, especially in those that have been lately sicke.' " (20 spell-check warnings in that last paragraph!)At our last IPG my friend Claire mentioned that her family served the flowers on top of tomatoes, and that they have a sweet, cucumber fragrance. So, I tried them. 
The hairy little plant (well, mine wasn't so little....it grows up to three feet tall, and mine shot up to five feet) always had bee festivals, just ooooozing good will. Even when it blocked the sun, making my tomatoes stunted, I knew it had a reason for being there. Recently I read that the candied flowers can be put into the centers of ice cube trays, and served with sparkling cider in the winter time. The seed packets say it will 'gladden the heart'! How fun!
I made carrot soup this week, using a carrot-ginger soup base by 'Imagine' that was on sale at Bartells. 
These soups which come in a box are organic, and provide an instant soup. All one has to do is add more vegetables. So, I added peas, carrots, zucchini, and lentils, and purried up about 20 small tomatoes and added them to the broth. It was tasty and a tad sweet, perfect with cornbread.
Just a couple of smooth little pumpkins. My neighbor swapped them for a few of my dahlia tubers. Now, to find a recipe...
When another gardener gave me several pumpkins, I knew I'd not be carving them for Halloween. I wanted to try Pumpkin Soup!
I brought home celery root (excellent for soup), chard, borage, tomatoes, and some of my lettuce and greens.
He didn't even realize that once these are washed and clean early in the summer that they add a fantastic aroma to a good soup. (I grew celery primarily for the roots.) I gave him the recipe for root soup, which uses parsnips, turnips, potatoes and leeks.
She has been in training for this ever since she was accepted, and has slowly built up to a 20 mile run and beyond. The Marathon is 26 miles, the largest in the world, with over 37,000 participants. Ruhiyyih starts at 10:10 on Sunday, and registered my e-mail so I can get an update every several hours as she runs the course. The transmission of her progress is due to a little microchip in her shoe! GO! 52514! How I wish I could run the last mile with her! (Flickr photo: Paula Radcliffe, on her way to victory last year.)
