Boogie Woogie

IMG_2436
Originally uploaded by mtnester.

Lilies are my favorite flower. I love their scent, and their commanding presence. White lilies are just exceptionally elegant. This is one of two tree lilies that my friend Christine gave to me for Christmas. Yes, they call them tree lilies (Garden Rant) and can get up to seven feet tall. Mine are in pots and are only about 2 feet tall this year. Each year is supposed to be more magnificent and flower more abundantly than the last. This one's color is called Boogie Woogie. Now I am about to boogie woogie on outta here for a little R&R with family and friends in WI. See you in a couple...

But before I do I want to share that rice salad recipe. I put it below the photo of the salad in my July 13th post. Hey Anne, I found the black rice at Heng Heng market in White Center and the guy behind the counter asked me if I was going to make rice wine.
I guess that's why there were only two bags left on the shelf!

Camping on The Olympic Peninsula

I still have SO much to learn about putting pictures and slide shows on my blog. I had comments that went with each photo but they did not show up on the slide show. It's a long slide show and that is why I did not use Flickr or PhotoBucket. It would have used up too much bandwidth and I refuse to cough up money and go Pro because most months I am well within the 100MB us free loaders are given. Anyway, if you scroll to about 3:42 on the slide show you will see my husband looking into his camera on the edge of the Quilcene River. We are on Falls View Canyon Trail #868. And where am I? To the left of the husband on my back in the rocky bed of a rivulet that feeds into the river. Me, who always tells my students "STAY on the path to the playground!" I went off the path, to get a better picture of course, and I fell, HARD on a slippery rock. I had the presence of mind to curl my head (Pilates comes in handy!)and raise my camera. I narrowly missed hitting my tail bone. But my oh my, do I have the bruise! (No I will NOT take a picture of it!) I managed the next hour of the hike with much more caution. I don't usually complain much about sleeping on the ground but that night I don't think I slept a wink. Ice and Ibuprofen seem to be doing the trick. Going home and sleeping in my own bed was a welcome relief!

On the Wild Side

We just got back from 4 days of camping on the Olympic Peninsula. Spent one night near Dungeness Spit but that was all once we realized it was also the Lavender Festival in nearby Sequim and the campground was fully reserved for Friday and Saturday nights. Imagine mobs of mostly middle aged ladies wearing lots of purple and straw gardening hats strolling up and down the aisles of a street fair where the air is infused with lavender; lavender sachet, lotions, soaps, sprays, jellies,lavender plants, lavender tied up in bundles, artwork featuring lavender. Watch out Provance, Sequim is nosing in on the cachet of lavender! Can you believe it; my husband accommodated my curiosity, stopped the car and we actually did a quick 'browse and buy' at the stalls? It did help that: #1 It was early, barely 9:30 and the serious crowds had not yet accumulated. #2 We both needed a good coffee fix. On from from there we went to Seal Rock campground near Brinnon. The Turk's Cap Lily in these photos was taken at the viewpoint for Mt. Walker.

Invasive?

I am trying to figure out if this is the invasive weed called Policeman's Helmet. I am quite certain it is a type of Impatiens. The seeds fly at the slightest brush in the fall. Then in spring the new plants are everywhere in my shade/woodland garden. They grow to about 3 feet tall in my garden. I rather like them and find that they are easy to control by just pulling them out before they all go to seed.

A Visit to Havercroft

This is the Black Rice Salad that I took to the Open Garden at Havercroft, home of our friend, Roger. It is the last time this summer I may be able to make this salad as finding black rice is as hard as finding hen's teeth. I suppose I could use wild rice but it just wouldn't be the same. So you want to see Havercroft? I bloomin' betcha you do! Take a click on the slideshow button for a tour.



As requested, here's the recipe:
Chinese Black Rice, Orange and Avocado Salad


2 Cups cooked black rice
(Wehini or wild rice can be substituted)
2 cups dice peeled oranges
¼ cup freshly squeezed orange juice
¼ cup raw, unsalted pumpkin seeds, toasted
1 1/2 teaspoons grated orange zest
¼ teaspoon of salt or to taste
¼ teaspoon ground chipotle
1 ripe avocado, peeled, pitted and diced into half inch cubes
4 Lettuce leaves for arranging the salad and peeled orange wedges for garnish

In a bowl combine the cooked rice, orange juice, toasted pumpkin seeds, orange zest, salt and chipotle. I squeeze a lemon or lime over the avocado pieces (to keep them green longer ) before I gently mix them into the rice mixture.

Spoon the salad onto the ‘lettuce cups’ and garnish with orange slices. Since it was a potluck I just put the salad into the bowl.

Eilen Jewell

Chris and I went downtown today to hear Eilen Jewell and her band play at Occidental Square. It was a toe tapping time that's for sure. Her voice is lovely; sometimes soulful and other times with just a hint of country twang. The lyrics of the tunes she writes are insightful and speak to the experience of down and out people. Take for example:"It's a Rich Man's World". She sang several tunes from her new cd Letters From Sinners and Strangers and of course I bought it. About the only negative I can say about her performance is that while her singing is beautiful she does not have any catchy patter in her introductions or between songs comments. Great music but not a lot of showmanship. But then again the 2 street people in the photo below were putting on a whole show all their own. It was actually hard at times to concentrate on the stage performance because of the scarf waving, warty backed guy in a purple kilt and his lobster skinned, shirtless friend dancing away in front of the stage. My husband says to me, "Did you see the eyes of the guy in the kilt? He's just plain crazy, bat shit crazy!" I do believe he was right. On one hand I felt sorry for them but then hey, they were all smiles and having a whole lot of fun dancing. Eilen and her band were really quite patient with the antics of these two men and one of their lady friends. She even honored two of their requests for Billie Holiday and Loretta Lynn songs.



The scarf dancer was also at the Solstice Parade....aren't you glad I didn't post buck naked photos of him?

Occidental Park

Occidental Park is in the Pioneer Square neighborhood of downtown Seattle. This is the oldest neighborhood in Seattle and it really is not a square although Occidental Park comes close to being a square. It is a great place to just hang; of course all the street people know that too. If you are ever in this neighborhood in Seattle I recommend you buy a sandwich from Bakeman's Restaurant which has been around for a LONG time. It is located between First and Second streets on Cherry. You will not be disappointed. The bread is baked right there and it is the yummiest; maybe second only to my Grandma Caldie's and Great Grandma Cornell's. But be forewarned; if you go there during lunch KNOW WHAT YOU WANT! The people behind the counter can be like the Soup Nazi from Seinfeld and they talk fast too. I had oven roasted turkey, white meat, on whole wheat with mayo and cranberries and the price; a mere $5.60 including a big dill pickle. The cash register guy gave me a bit of grief for not having my bills organized by denomination but I came away relatively unscathed with my yummy sandwich in hand.

Who's Snacking on My Zinnias?

Last week I bought a few zinnias to put a touch of bright color in the rockery border. Well, every day this week I noticed that two of them never could seem to get enough water. Their leaves always looked limp, even in the early morning. Snap dragons had flourished in the same spot earlier in the summer, iris' did just fine in the spring, one zinnia only a foot away looked quite healthy and content in it's spot. This morning I fully intended on moving both of the limp zinnias to new locations. Imagine my surprise to see that some critter had done the job for me. One whole plant was torn out of the ground and ripped into 3 pieces by some seriously annoyed animal. I don't think I am going to get more life out of this plant but I replanted it along with it's sorry looking sibling; but in a new location. It sure enough is a backyard mystery.

On Stacation

So you might ask, "What's it like to have the husband on 'stacation' with you?" Not half bad I must say, downright enjoyable at times. It's all about choices. You can look at a midlife lay off as a crisis or an opportunity. We are doing pretty good at choosing option number two. I have an occasional anxiety attack and reach for the paper bag (NO, not to wrap around a bottle; to breathe into), especially when tuition bills of seven thousand plus come in the mail. But then the sun is up and we get in the groove and it's off to the Y we go or me for a run, him for a skate, time to delve into the invisible, yet real, job jar, or perhaps an hour or of reading, an hour or two of blogging, time for him to get creative, and me to get crafty. See the end table photo? That is one of the two I am trying to spray paint(water based) gloss black. Spray painting is not as easy as I had thought! It will probably take me all summer to finish the 2 end tables and the DH cranks out a new painting every 2 weeks or less; each one better than the last. I guess I should do a dozen or so end tables to improve my spray painting technique.
Here's the song I can't get out of my head today: Mess Around by Eilen Jewell. She's playing at the 'Out To Lunch' concert in Occidental Park this Friday; I'm going!

What's that smell?

Well, if it makes you crinkle your nose in disgust it could be a Voodoo Lily , in Latin: Dracunculus vulgaris. This one I have deep in my shade garden. It gives off a rotting horse flesh odor to attract flies for pollination. The smell is intense for only one day. The blossom is about 8 inches long; impressive but not the sort of flower you put into a bouquet unless it was for your worst enemy.


Voodoo Lily
Originally uploaded by mtnester.

Licorice Scented Hyssop

I'm a sucker for licorice. I drink licorice tea everyday. You really don't get the benefit of the scent unless you brush the leaves with your fingers.


Licorice Scented Hyssop
Originally uploaded by mtnester.

Tangerine Sage

This one is a hummingbird magnet, or so the plant tag says. It probably will be once it gets a bit more established and the blooms become more prolific. The smell is truly delicious when you rub the leaves between your fingers.


Tangerine Sage
Originally uploaded by mtnester.

Chocolate Flower

This plant is really low to the ground, you need to get down on your knees to smell the flower and the smell is present only in the morning. But it is worth the effort, it smells exactly like dark chocolate! It is a native to the rocky mountain states and it's Latin name is berlandiera lyrata. I got 2 of them for 50 cents each off the clearance table at my neighborhood nursery, Village Green. Whenever was chocolate such a deal?!



Chocolate Flower
Originally uploaded by mtnester.

Birthdays

Today our country celebrates it's birthday and two days ago I celebrated mine. Not with fireworks and hoopla of any sort but it did not go by unnoticed. My friend Christine and I drove up to Woodenville to go to Molbaks 2 for 1 plant sale and then on over to Flower World to take advantage of the 15% off sale. This is a birthday present I look forward to every year. Christine is the best of friends; she does the driving AND buys me lunch. And all along the way we talk, talk, talk about our classrooms (we teach in different schools), our families, our vacations, our health, and our gardens. So what did I buy? The list is long, the bottom line was about $125. and worth every penny. Today I put everything except a couple ground covers into place. I am most satisfied with the plants that I bought to put in front of the weigela (Red Trumpet Flower) along the south fence. The bed is curved and I already have Iron Cross Oxalis and Wax begonias on the edge. The new comers to that area are 4 Limemound Spirea and 3 Day Lilies with orange petals streaked in red, which should look very nice in front of the orange Crocosmia. I'll take a picture soon. Right now you will have to be content with the shot of the little urchin in the above photo: me at age two! I see very little resemblance to the me of today aside from the fact that I had a bad hair day in 1956 and I did this year too. Blame it on humid weather!
Well, I hear snaps, crackles and pops filling the air so within an hour I will go to a park to see what I can see of the fireworks. I'll be sticking close to home. Front row seats to fireworks in Seattle come with a price tag of snarled traffic and a ride home that is three times lengthier than usual; not my idea of fun.

Bee Magnet

About ten years ago I bought these little spike dracaena-like plants as fillers for a container planting. Much to my surprise they survived through the winter. I put them in the containers flanking the stairs along with geraniums. Well, they out grew the geraniums and now they look like palms. They are not unique in Seattle, I see them everywhere. This is the first year for one of ours to bloom. It looks sort of like a 3 foot flocked Christmas tree coming out of the top or the palm at an angle. Looks rather Dr. Seussville to me. The bees are all abuzz around it, especially in the morning.



This time I think I finally put the macro feature on my camera to good use. This tiny orchid-like flower is one of many that waves from thin stems of the ginger groundcover in my woodland garden.




These airy mushrooms stand tall in the cool mornings then they flop as the sun warms the lawn. They look a bit like they are turned inside out.

Sweltering

Getting into the relaxing mode has never been easy for me. I actually DID go into my classroom twice last week to do a bit of organizing of math materials and while I made a dent, I have about 8 hours more to do. There are about a dozen math games to organize and label. I will be satisfied with the end result. It has been challenging to prepare materials for our new math program (Everyday Mathematics) this past year. Next year will be easier in comparison.

I also did a thorough Spring (Oops, it's summer!)cleaning of my kitchen. That includes ceiling, walls, floor, cupboards and counters. The smell of Murphy's Oil tells me it is spic and span. See what I mean about me and relaxing?

O.K. I won't whine too much but 90 degrees is HOT! One more day of high temperatures and then we ease back to the usual 75 degrees. A good breeze kept it bearable today. I even took an hour this afternoon to just lay in the shade, read a book and look up at the trees waving their leafy green against the clear blue sky. That's rare for me. Instead of looking down and digging in the dirt, I was lolling about on the cool green grass and looking up and around and totally enjoying our lovely gardens. Not that I didn't do a bit of gardening; of course I did.

Along with raccoons, squirrels, 2 feral cats, and a variety of birds, possums sometimes visit our yard.

In fact, this year one particular possum decided to make our lawn his deathbed; during the middle of Wednesday afternoon, WHILE I was gardening. Opossums are nocturnal by nature so we should have known something was up but no, I thought he was just slowly strolling between the lawn chairs and keeling over feigning dead for my entertainment. The hubs gets online and every few minutes he appears at the doorway to the patio to share some new possum tidbit with me.
"They really do play possum, and they are marsupials not rodents, they have a pouch."

A few minutes later: "They have opposable thumbs like humans, the females have 13 nipples."

"Too much information!" I yell.

And still he shares more; "They actually are very clean, fastidious even."

And furthermore; "they have 55 teeth, more than any other land mammal." Just what I need to hear as one is nosing about under the hydrangea only two yards from me, the weeding gardener.

When we went inside for the night we fully expected the toothy, prehensile tailed critter to come to his senses and amble off before morning. I was actually quite sad to see his dead corpse still there, near the lawn chairs. So where is he now you ask? Sometimes having a vacant lot next door is SO convenient.

Summer Solstice Parade

If you are not intimidated by bare butts on bicycles take a look at my slide show from photos taken at the Solstice Parade in Freemont. This is a zany parade that ushers in summer every year in Seattle. Freemont has gone upscale in the past decade with a PCC Peets coffee, Starbucks, a big brew pub and a sushi restaurant. No more DB. Coopers, no more Red Door. But it still manages to attract free thinkers and free spirits. Back in the 1980s the naked cyclists would make a surprise zip through the parade, usually toward the end. Now they are a feature to START the parade. And boy oh boy, once you let these exhibitionists on the road it is tough to get them off. They spin, they strut, they wave and grin ear to ear. Then the 'constable' takes charge. Some guy dressed in a constable costume and a Charlie Chaplin mustache, turns them around at the curve to allow for the rest of the parade to commence. They comply but not until they make 3 or 4 spins past the onlookers. The newspaper said there was an estimated 10,000 people at the parade and I believe it. My guess is that at least 5000 of us had cameras. To see more from other photographers go to Flickr. Oh, and while you do see plenty of skin at this parade you won't see any motorized vehicles or floats and no written words; you are expected to find the symbolism in the costumes and floats. The Spaghetti Monster (in slide show) is a spoof on Intelligent Design.

A Visitor

...From Wisconsin! My niece Terra arrived on my last day of school. What a wonderful way for me to zip right into the vacation mode! If she had not arrived I would've puttered far too long in my classroom, giving the school district dozens more hours of unpaid time. Over the years I have found that it is best for my mental health to have a vacation or other self indulgent experience that very first weekend that school is out. Terra's arrival was perfect. This was a long overdue visit. When she was little she would be visiting us either with my parents or on her own every other year. I do not know where the time went but we figure it had been at least 12 years since her last time in Seattle. We went to Pike Place Market, shopped and lunched downtown. Our library impressed her as it does everyone. (How many cities can boast a library on their 'must see' list?) We exercised together. (It is so wonderful who have a guest who understands my daily requirements for running or lifting weights.) I have NOWHERE near her stamina (After all she IS a competitive mountain bike racer and nearly half my age.) The running, the hike on Rattlesnake Ledge, playing Yahtzee with you and Molly (I thought Yahtzee was a game of chance, boy was I wrong!), cooking and eating together, and going to the zany Solstice Parade in Freemont; it was all great fun!
You come back soon, you hear?

Big 'Shroom

There is plenty of beauty abloomin' in my gardens but for today I chose this amazing mushroom from the front yard under the deodor cedar. I could've chosen from a variety of mushrooms popping up all around our yard; in the gardens, in the lawn, some are dainty and ghostly and others are sturdy and fleshy like this big one.

Two more days of school with kids! I do love teaching but the days are longer and no one seems to be getting enough sleep. Everyone's focus is somewhere else; out the window, out the door, at the beach, anywhere but inside the classroom. We are all ready for a vacation. Now that the weather just might be warming up we might actually have a summer!

Field Day

Our weather was not all that warm today but everyone sure had a fantastic time at field day. Our principal took a dunking in this photo and just look at all the surprise in the faces of these onlookers!