Green, green, GREEN

Here's that happy little photo of my flower again.

It seem appropriate for the weekend of Green Fest.

Ari, Alex, and I spent the weekend listening to the leaders in the green movement.

We heard Bryan Welch, the publisher of Utne and Mother Earth New speak about the importance of population control, David Korton speak on the agenda for a new economy, and Victoria Kreha speak about the consumption conundrum on Saturday. We also saw a world premire movie by John De Graaf (of Affluenza fame) called What's the Economy for, Anyway? It was terrific.

Today, we listened to award winning journalist Amy Goodman speak on Standing Up to the Madness, John Perkins on Transforming Turmoil into a New Economy, John de Graaf on Time and Sustainability, and Vicki Robin on the importance of communities. We also had some great vegetarian food and bought a few useful green items (stainless water bottles, a lunch kit, and some dogfood for Barkley).

The weather temps decided to dive over last night and are predicted to again tonight. So, we're covering the garden veggies overnight, and bringing the potted lettuces inside. We need everyone to think spring for us. It's been a long, cold winter!

Cookies and a Win:Win!

These are the cookies Anni and I baked this afternoon

because when you feeling icky,

you NEED chocolate chip cookies,

made with local WA walnuts and

organic, fair-trade dark chocolate chips.

Can you say "YUMMY!!!!?"

David mentioned that a couple of folks he knows are interested in the Full Circle Farm CSA program. To learn how wonderful it is, please check the link in the right border. If you reference us when you sign up, we get a free box (many thanks).

When is a bargain truly a bargain?

When it's necessary, fun or beautiful,

doesn't cost a bundle, and does some good besides.

We call these win:wins. And here's our latest:

While returning library books this afternoon, we scanned the Friends of the Library bookshelf.

Here, you can purchase fiction and nonfiction books, for kids and adults, magazines,

and sometimes even movies and music for as little as a quarter per item.

We 5 recently published books and 5 nearly current popular magazines.

The cover prices on these 10 readables was $105.

We paid $4.25 in total!

We got great reads at a terrific price,

and the Friends of the Library got money to help run their programs,

truly a Win:Win!

And best of all when were done with the items,

they can go back to the Friends of the Libary for another go round!

Playin' in the dirt

Anni is feeling much better now that the antibiotic is kicking in.

My flu lingers, but the call of the dirt, on a non-rainy day,

made staying indoors completely impossible.

So, my tissues and I ventured out...

Planted the garlic.
Planted the leeks,
the Russian Kale, and the rainbow chard.
Planted the butter, heirloom french, and spreckled red-leaf lettuces.
And finally, I planted the garden peas.

And then there was the diggin' up...

The two front garden rosemary bushes met their maker during all our snow.

And then their was emergency surgery..

(No, not me using the pruning saw, but)

the evening star jasmine was looking extremely grim.

In an effort to save it, aggressive pruning was attempted.

Stay tuned to see if the patient recovers.

Is spring finally on it's way?

Today, the guys tackled garden fence repair.

We've patched this fence so many times,

it's more patch than fence!

(Note: the sunshine!!!)

Our next project is to plant the onion and pea patch.

Then comes the real work, rototillering the garden patch,

adding all the soil amendments,

and building additional raised beds.

Here is my very happy runniculus.

It got a new pot and lots of fresh soil today.

Now, it can stretch its cramped roots and make more pretty flowers.

Our next indoor planting is a gazillion seeds to set in seed trays.

The organic CSA farm box came today.

It was another big one, with

yellow onions, cippolini onions, shallots,

carrots, red peppers, zucchini, mushrooms,

tomatoes, red chard, romaine lettuce, dill,

fuji apples, grapefruit, mangos, avocados, tangelos,

strawberries, lemons, meyer lemons, and clementines.

We are busy looking up lemon recipes!

My favorite is lemon poppyseed bread!

For dinner today, we used the last of our last CSA box.

We made a flax penne pasta tossed with kale, roasted red peppers

and onions, sun-dried tomatoes, and parmesean cheese.

We served it up with a green salad, garlic bread, and tangerines. Delicious!

In other news, Anni seems a bit more chipper today.

Her flu morphed into pneumonia, so she's on some strong antibiotics.

Alex had his theatre group today. The group decided to do 2 plays this time.

Ariana is enjoying her spring break. She got a haircut today.

Icky, how about you?

Achoo, Achoo, Achoo
Sniff, Sniff, Sniff, Achoo!
Sniff, Achoo, Groan
Groan, Shiver, Sweat, Achoo!
Guess who has the flu?

Veggies and more

Alex and Anni at Pier 66, Seattle

Yesterday was one of the days of Veg Fest! My friend Lisa and I volunteered for the event and had some time to explore. I love to browse the veggie cookbook area. I also caught an Indian cooking demo. Even with my cold, it was fun!

While I was vegging, David and the other kids went to the Seattle area. They explored the Seattle waterfront area.

We've been hoping to get our garden going for the past few weeks, but the weather hasn't been cooperating. The starter plants are taking over the kitchen! Today, we decided to get started even if the weather was icky. We turned over compost, planted 4 blueberry bushes, a boysenberry bush, a loganberry bush, and a rhubarb plant. We also readjusted the garden fence line to expand the garden and prepped one of the raised beds for the first round of planting. That was as far as we got today due to the weather forecast for tomorrow, chance of snow-again!

Today was our wedding anniversary, the 29th! We went our to lunch with the family. We've been favoring all our local family owned restaurants, hoping we're helping them stay in business.

Revenge of the Green Dog

Remember when the guys turned Barkley green?
Today, Barkley struck back!

And the color of revenge is green!

The last few days have been less than quiet as we've achooed, coughed, and spluttered.

Alex, Anni, and I all have rotten colds.

Pass the tissue, please!

The weather is still wet and icky.

We are all in need of a good dose of spring!

All kinds of Everything Green!

David and Alex decorated Barkley for St. patrick's Day

Barkley says, "Woof! Arf, Arf, Arf. Grrrr!

Translation: Hey stop that! The other animals are laughing. I'm going to pee in your shoes!

Last night, the mighty wind blew down the garden swing.
The Irish soda bread we baked this afternoon.
The ginger raisin scones.

And I finally made it to the gym!

The garden composting bin is now a couple of feet thick

and ready for the garden if the weather ever improves!

Weather Wacky Sunday!

Eek! It snowed again!
Will I ever get that rhubarb planted?

We awoke to snow, AGAIN!!!! Is spring anywhere on the horizon?

We decided to go for a walk on the river trail.
It was a very short, very cold walk.
Following the am snow, we had heavy rain and wild winds.


My kitchen window and counter are full of veggie starts.
I have lots of seed pack waiting to be started.
Today, we received 4 blueberry, a boysenberry, and logan berry plants.
I'm running out of surfaces on which to set plants!


And the weather forecast is predicting: 3 more days of heavy rain!!!

In other news, we are starting our St. Paddy's day celebrations.

We have lined up our Irish menus for the week (we always celebrate for a week)

and dug out all our favorite celtic music.

Tomorrow, the little people and I are making soda bread.

Birthday Fun!

It was my birthday this week, but it was also a really busy week. So...we decided to celebrate a little bit everyday!

On Tuesday, we all went out to dinner at the Crab Cracker. The local seafood was incredible.
On Wednesday, the little people and I went to lunch at Plaza Garcia, our neighborhood Mexican cafe.
On Thursday, we had an artsy day! We beaded, drew pictures, and wrote stories.
On Friday, the little people and I had chocolate croissants and cafe medici/hot chocolate at our favorite cafe. Later, Ari and I went to our favorite bookstore for a browse and a very large piece of ginger spice cake.
Today, we went to Pike Place Market during the day and then tonight, I went to an Irish fiddle concert, with a modern violinist, Geoffrey Castle.

I think I like having a birthweek celebration! (Tomorrow, I need to go to the gym!)

Veggies and visions of veggies

The joy of our CSA farm box.

This one was a 2-boxer!

This one had green onions, leeks, yellow onions, garlic,

green leaf lettuce, curly kale, broccoli, cauliflower,

eggplant, mushrooms, potatoes,

tomatoes, avocados.

apples, strawberries, pears,

lemons, limes, tangerines, and clementines.

Here's the start of our next garden!

These are the herb and pea starts.

Note the sun peeking through in the backyard,

but the temp was only 34 degrees!

Here are the garlic and green onion starts.
And finally here are the chive starts,
kale plants, and more herbs.
We also found some useful garden tools
and organic potting supplies for our seed starts.
We can hardly wait to get our garden going!

And the snow comes down all around!

It was a hail-filled, snowy, windy, rainy, hail-again, sunny day today.

Winter is holding on the the bitter cold end!

Movie Reviews:

1) The Watchman-David: Graphically violent, and kind of dumb.*

2) Slumdog Millionaire-Alex, Ari and Julie Ann: we all loved it, a movie that shows extreme poverty and the power of the human spirit.****

Out on disc reviews:

1) Castle in the Sky - Alex: I love this Anime adventure****

Mom: The high-pitched soundtrack grates like nails on a chalkboard.*

2) Dan in Real Life- Mom: A fun look at family dynamics***

3) Bella-Mom: A positive look at Latino families and the power of a friend.***

4) Lars and the Real Girl-Mom: My favorite film of the bunch! How a delusional man is treated in a small town.*****

Yesterday, we went to a local mall where about 800 kids were helping to build a gigantic lego R2D2. Alex looked at the crowd and decided to build his own! We also had a nice cruise around our favorite used bookstore.

Today, it was back to the grindstone. We did our school work! Anni also had swimming. She ran from the pool building to the car, it was 30 degrees! Tonight is supposed to be VERY chilly one. Think warm thoughts for us as we want to plant our garden soon!

A Busy Saturday!

Barkley waiting at the backdoor

in our light dusting of morning snow.

Today the weather fairy was flying confused. The sky was white, grey, black, and bright. We had sun, clouds, snow, hail, and even a couple of claps of thunder and lightning. Barkley was not amused!

David had to work today; so the kiddles and I had an suburban adventure in our local area. We met our friend Lisa at the Soul Food bookstore for coffee or hot chocolate. Our next stop was the craft store where we found some unique, handmade ceramic beads and some polished quarry stones . We spent a long time looking and deciding on the perfect ones for us. It looks like I'll be unearthing my beading supplies this evening. The kiddles decided it was time for lunch next; so it was off to Oobas for some excellent fresh Mex. We love all the salsa options, a heat strength for every constitution.

Then we parted ways with our friend, each of us going in opposite directions in search of a certain cross-stitch magazine. I'd searched a couple of shops, and she'd been looking too. We went to a bookshop in Redmond. She headed to Bellevue. We struck out. She found the magazine. Yea Lisa!

Just as the snow was beginning to fall again, we headed to Bothell to visit the Yakima Fruit and Veggie Farm Shop. Organic apples were on sale! We also found organic carrots at a terrific price!

Next, our suburban adventure took us to the Kenmore Library to return books, pick up reserved movies, select new reads, and observe the heron camera. The library backs up onto a heron rookery with over 80 herons. The camera showed a heron nest, proud parents, and a large single egg! We'll have to keep checking in. I can't wait to see it hatch!

And finally, after David arrived home, we went to downtown Kirkland for coffee and cookies at Cafe Ladros, our favorite coffee stop. We had a great day, despite the confused weather fairy.

A walk in the sun!

Today was beautiful and sunny, even slightly warm. We went for a walk around the Blueberry Farm Park. Just as we reached the pond, a large heron flew over our heads. (Yikes! I forgot my camera!) At the dock, where we never usually see a single thing, a very big turtle had hauled itself up on a log, craned out its neck, and was soaking up the sunrays (again, no camera, durnit!)

In other news, Ari signed up for her next quarter at college. Alex finished his research paper, and Anni had a great day working with her OT. She painted a shamrock for the bulletin board!

I realized we had a large bag of organic basil that was begging to be used. So for dinner, we made a humongous bowl of organic wholewheat penne with pesto. It was garlicky delicious!

The weather for the upcoming weekend is predicting...

Yes, you guessed it, SNOW again! So we ran a few errands today and picked up some movies to watch over the weekend. David and Alex went for the action films. Ari liked the anime, and I went for a French romantic comedy. Anni preferred to watch her own Arthur DVDs.

Sun, Teatime and Stitches

What's that shiny orb in the sky? OMG! It's the sun!!! We've had afternoon sun for 3 days in a row! We've had walks, hikes, and romps in the park. I'm sorely tempted to plant something in the garden, but then I checked the weather forecast for the weekend; another chance of lowland snow on the higher hills (that's us!). So, I guess my rhubarb will have to wait another week before it gets to sink it's roots.

Today, I let Anni chose the dinner menu. She wanted a teatime. So, we had smoked salmon spread, a basketful of crackers, ham and cheese slices, cukes and toms, potato chips, and a marizipan cake, and a big pot of tea. Anni loves tea!

This evening I joined my friend Lisa and some other ladies for a stitching session. I hadn't cross-stitched anything for a LONG time, but I didn't forget how. It was fun to sit and chat with the other folks, while trying to see the stitches.

Happy March!

I'm testing out the new little gizmo for the blog today. I was just about to put a picture on when I realized, "heck! I don't have any loaded on this machine yet. They're all on the desktop!" So, no picture today.

We went for a walk along the river trail today. It was a great day for bird spotting. We saw 5 herons, 4 kinds of duck, a red-tail hawk, and a multitude of Canada Geese. The river was really moving today!

Ari went on an outing this evening! Our homebody met some classmates to work on an anthro project for college. She said she had a great time; working, drinking coffee, and laughing about young stuff.

Alex slogged his way through his research paper today. He like using the minimachine for his e-research. Anni had a quiet day as her tummy was bothering her. She seems to be feeling better this evening. I had a clean-athon this afternoon in my room. It's amazing how fast a smile pile of laundry can mushroom into a mountain in a miniscule amount of time!

Tonight's dinner menu was predetermined by a very ripe mango. Therefore, we had chicken in a curry mango sauce, yogurt spiced rice, dal, and cucumber slice. It was delicious! And we used the whole mango!