Sunday, May 31, 2009

in the tree

Found outside of my neighbors back door:



The tree:

just a regular day

I took these photos mostly on Saturday. I love photos of everyday moments and things.







Monday, May 25, 2009

refuge

Saturday Steve and I took a late afternoon drive to Ridgefield, Washington to go to the Ridgefield National Wildlife Refuge there. There is an auto route and you can take your time on the 4 mile loop and stop whenever there is room to observe more. There is also a little wooden blind that you can stop at. (You do have to stay on the road, though. You can't take off hiking through the woods.)



We saw lots of sweet singing and brightly colored birds. I saw a Crane and he spotted a Nutria.



This bird had the prettiest song and we got to see it sing. There were these beautiful tiny yellow birds, too and lots of swallows which I love to watch.

There were a lot of these trees there that creaked and groaned in the wind in a pretty creepy way. They would be perfect for a scary movie.





It was interesting to see lots of cattails in the wild and this other plant that I don't know the name of, but before Saturday I only ever saw them in dried flower arrangements.



It was a completely satisfying trip. I loved just standing out there and listening to all the sounds of the birds and trees and nothing else. It was just what I needed after a stressful week and what I have been craving for a while.

And just as we were leaving we stopped as a bald eagle flew low and slow right over us. I didn't bother to try and get a picture because I was afraid I would miss it. It was so neat.

I can't recommend it enough. There is an auto trip, where you can get out and walk a bit or not and then also a walking trip, also a wheelchair accessible road, so something for everyone.



I am already looking forward to the next time I will go. Maybe next time I can see some otters, raccoons, foxes, coyotes, hawks and more of the wildlife that lives there. That would be cool, but really the landscape and the sounds were enough for me. It was just glorious.

everything you want


I recently got back in touch with an old DJ friend, Steve Lambert. We were DJ's at KZSU over ten years ago. Steve had seen me in the zine documentary and contacted me. He was about 20 the last time I saw him and since then has been very busy making art and making headlines - literally.

He was a co-creator of the fake NY Times paper that came out around election time last year. You can still see it online here.

His most recent show, Everything You Want, Right Now! is currently in L.A. and you have another couple of weeks to see it. If you are in the area I hope you will go.

It has been nice to reconnect to Steve and so very cool to see all the great stuff he has been up to. Please visit his website to see more, to find out about his show and to learn more about his artwork. I find this kind of art really inspiring. Here are a couple of my favorite images:


A fella's birthday

Last weekend was Steve's birthday. I made a cake very much like the one I made last year, per his request, complete with the same great cake decorations from Bake it Pretty.



I also gave him the most adorable card that you can see here. I think I found it on Etsy, unused. I just love it.

His choice for whatever dinner he wanted was dinner at home of warm German Potato Salad & Tofurky Kielbasa Sausages. We also had brussels sprouts and rolls.

Have you had real warm German Potato Salad? I never had before Steve introduced it to me. Usually it is served with bacon crumbled in it, but since I am a pescatarian, I passed that up. But, I have found this vegetarian Bacon Salt at the local German Store and it is very good. I recommend it. (Wow, I just found out, when looking for that link that this stuff is made in Portland and can be found all over. They have lots of options, too. Neat.)

Anyway, I have tried a few different German Potato Salad recipes for the crock-pot and have made some tweaks to it. Now, I am pretty happy with my recipe. German Potato salad is vegan (if you don't add the bacon, of course) and is basically just potatoes and vinegar. It is much better than it sounds or looks. It is a great thing to make when you have lots of potatoes.

I am sure it can be made without a crock pot, but I have only made it this way.

Here is my version of Crock Pot Warm German Potato Salad:

5 to 6 cups sliced potatoes, about 1.5 to 2 pounds
3/4 cups chopped onions
1/2 cup sliced celery (optional, you could take the onions down a 1/4 cup if you do the celery)
1/2 cup vinegar ( apple cider vinegar is good. I also use a german one with herbs in it, but any would work)
1/4 cup oil
1 teaspoon sugar (use more if you like more sweetness)
Chopped parsely (optional. I seldom have any, so I don't use it)
Slice bacon, cooked and crumbled (optional)

Combine all ingredients except parsley and bacon

Add salt and pepper to taste

Stir and cook on low for 5 - 7 hours in crockpot (sometimes I do it for 3 hours on high)
Garnish with bacon and parsely.

Friday, May 15, 2009

bolting

My kale plant bolted, as they say, a while ago. Although I cannot eat the lovely kale anymore, I can still marvel at how fast it grew - a month ago it was a fifth this size, and I can appreciate the pretty yellow flowers. I am going to cut some off this weekend though, it is so tall it is leaning over the box.


Here is my lettuce. I tried growing lettuce before and it didn't work. This was taken after I had already picked one head of lettuce for my salad Thursday night.

Things have been very busy for me since my vacation last week, actually, my vacation was kind of busy, too. Work has been crazy and I have worked late every night this week. I hear it is going to be sunny in Portland this weekend. I want to do some work in the garden, but mostly I think I will be inside, cleaning and getting caught up.

Hope you all have a wonderful weekend.

Tuesday, May 5, 2009

day trip

Hello all, This week I am on vacation. Tomorrow I am heading to Seattle for a couple days. Yesterday I went on a day trip with a friend. We drove up to the Maryhill Museum in Washington. It was a beautiful drive and I got to see some country I have never seen before.

Here are some highlights of some of the things we saw; some very aggressive squirrels who seemed ready to jump on us if we indicated we were carrying (food), huge wind turbines we got very close to, lush green land, big buttes, vineyards, a replica of Stonehenge (perhaps not to scale, but close), a darling old lady who gave us directions in a very small town we drove through, gorgeous views of the Columbia Gorge and a museum filled with a very strange mix of exhibits. We ended it all with a late lunch at Tad's Chicken and Dumplings on the old Columbia Highway.

Here are a couple images. A few more here. Hope you are all having a good week!










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