Beauties and the Beasties

Anni and Ari picking pumpkins at South 47 Farm.

Anni being a sunflower.

Another sunflower (not as cute as Anni)

Male red wing blackbird on top of dying sunflowers.

His mate a few flowers over.

A very friendly little Nubian goat.

And we all loved this little chocolate alpaca.

We took a walk along the Sammamish River trail last week before the sun disappeared. We saw this extra large turtle soaking up the rays on the embankment.

The Canada geese were also out in force.

The foliage is beginning to turn and the berries brighten. All was beautiful until....

Someone let the rain fall AND the beasties out, the scary beasties, the ZOMBIES!

Saturday was Thrill the World when groups around the globe combine to try to break the world record for dancing Thriller for charity. Can you spot me?

Here's another chance. Our group was raising money for the 2nd Story Rep children's theatre education program.

EEK! Ari is about to get her brain eaten.

A Celebration of Light.

Today is Beltane, the Celtic festival of fire and light, signaling the end of cold and beginning of warm. Among other traditions, it is a celebration of nature. The flowering of our backyard Dogwood is one of our favorite signals of warm weather to come.

And the annual arrival of all our gardening starts is another. These came from yesterday's garden sale at Lake Washington Technical College where the horticulture students sell terrific plants to home gardeners for terrific prices!

And here are bucketfuls of future cherry tomatoes waiting to be repotted and planted out near the end of May (this is the Pacific NW!). These are from the Seattle Tilth Edible Plant sale today. This venue take place at the Good Shepard Center (a former convent) in a beautiful park like setting. Every type of future veggie and herb imaginable are available to tempt home farmers. We found an herb that smell just like 7-up! We also found eggplant, squash (not zucchini!), and chocolate mint starts.

A bevy of flowering plants to go in the center bed of our garden to attract bees, butterflies, and hummingbirds.

After the plant sale, we went to the opening day of the Redmond Farmer's market. Hmm, what's Anni turning to look at?

Alpacas in brown...

and white. Check out the teeth on that fellow in the back.

Our market finds today included oatmeal bread, St Jude's local sustainable tuna, Docco's tangy BBQ dipping sauce (awesome on grilled veggies and bbqed oysters), apple chipotle mustard and cranberry apple butter from Aldrich Farms, and a bag of beautifully fresh shallots. It was really fun to see all the farmers and craft folks again. We've been marketing with some of them for over 5 years!

Today for dinner we made that veggie lasagna with the tofu. It was divine! Here's the recipe:

Veggie Lasagna

One package of no boil lasagna noodles (we like the whole wheat ones)

One jar of organic mushroom pasta sauce (or your fav. sauce)

One medium sized zucchini, peeled and sliced very thin

One small onion, diced

1/4 cup red bell pepper, diced (this is optional, but trust us, put it in)

1 cup of sliced mushrooms

4 oz of firm tofu, drained and crumbled (we like the garlic herb flavored variety)

1-2 cups of grated mozzarella cheese (depending on how cheesy you like it.)

Parmesan cheese

Italian herbs (dried or fresh)

Black Pepper (we like coarse ground).

How to:

1) Preheat oven to 375

2) Pour 1/2 cup of pasta sauce in bottom of rectangular baking dish (nonmetal). Spread across with spatula.

3) Add one layer of lasagna noodles.

4) Add another 1/2 cup of pasta sauce and spread.

5) Add a layer of zucchini.

6) Add a layer of crumbled tofu

7) Add a light layer of mixed mushroom, onion, and red pepper.

8) Sprinkle lightly with mozzarella.

9) Repeat steps 3) through 8) once more.

10) Top with a layer of noodles. Pour remaining sauce over these noodles. Add remaining mozzarella cheese. Sprinkle generously with Parmesan cheese. Sprinkle with Italien herbs and black pepper.

11) Bake at 375 for 50-55 minutes

12) Serve with lightly garlicked toast (for sopping up the delicious sauce), a green salad, and Italian wine. Enjoy!

Fall Fun and Buns of Aluminum

This weekend the funny farmers had lots of fun. On Saturday, we went to Full Circle Farm's annual Hog and Grog celebration at the farm. It was terrific, a potluck to beat all potlucks, with the farm folks providing BBQ pork and the brews. There were hayrides, live music, and plenty of muddy fields to explore! The weather this year was beautiful (unlike last year when it poured bucket loads!). Full Circle is the provider of our beautiful CSA boxes.

We also went to the Saturday farmer's market. We saw a huge and lovely pumpkin for only $4. "I'll take it," I said, not thinking of how I was going to get it all the way back to my prius in the parking garage. It weighed a bleepin' ton! I think my arms are both 6 inches longer now.

Also at the market, we found local tuna, peach syrup (perfect for wholewheat pancakes), apples, Asian pears, onions, delicata squash, a beautiful orange squash that looks like a little turban (but I don't know the name), ground cherries, cucumber, potatoes, and a huge bouquet of fall flowers in a real pumpkin vase.

On Sunday, Ari and I went to a writing session at the library with many of our fellow writers. It great to just sit and write. I added to three of my stories! Woohoo! We also weeded the garden and planted all the spinach seedlings to the garden.

I decided it was time for this funny farmer to start working out again. After all, the holiday baking season is nearly apon us. I made it to the gym yesterday and today. So far, I have 5 miles running, 6 miles on the ellipse, 3 miles on the cardiobike, and 15,000 lbs lifted on the weight machines. I hope I can move tomorrow.

More goings on down on the funny farm!

Cluck! Get that camera out of my beak!

Have you got a worm?
More blooming fuscias.
Today was a planting day for the garden.
We seeded more Lacinato kale, lettuce, pumpkins, and ...
Marigolds!
Marigolds are one of our favorite companion plants.
Did you know they help deter the little worms
that munch through radishes and carrots?
Our first snapdragon finally bloomed!

Our neighbors behind us gave us a basketful of colorful eggs this afternoon.

We responded with a harvest basket of herbs, veggies, and a mint plant.

I love community farming!

And the end of this feathery tail.

Back to school in the rain.

The weather is wild and woolly around here again. This time it's wind and rain, lots of rain! We've been pulling out the rubber boots and waterproof coats. After all our crazy snow, I thought the garden would be toast until replanting in the spring, but it looks like the carrots not only survived but thrived under their snowy blanket!

All the future farmers are back to school after the holiday break. Alex is enjoying his history. Anni had a blast working on her magnet game, and Ari was busy working online for her math class this evening.

The book choice for this month is The Audacity of Hope by Barack Obama. The future prez is a good writer as well as speaker. The book is the discussion book for the Tuesday Group. This evening the group helped out with dinner for Tent City IV which being hosted at a church in our neighborhood.

Opps, the power is flickering (probably the high winds) so more tomorrow.

Lights, flowers, and Christmas Greetings

Sunday evening was the Redmond Christmas Lights Celebration

along the Sammamish River trail. It was cool, beautiful, and full of goodies.
The weather has been so mild lately. Our floweres are still blooming!

Tonight, we had a Christmas card making gathering with our friend Lisa.

It was lots of fun.

We had a great Italian dinner first with fried zucchini, pesto pasta,

mushroom mini pizzas, crostini, a green salad, and pannatoni.

Then the crafts proceeded.

Can you guess which one is yours?

Friday, Saturday, Sunday

This picture is brought to you by the Alex and Ari, who vetoed the photo I took of Lisa and them at the annual Figgy Pudding Caroling Contest in Seattle on Friday. There were 38 teams competing this year and the weather was gorgeous! We had fun and then my gruesome twosome and I had a late dinner at the Elephant & Castle (British pub grub!).
Saturday night was St. Nickolaus Night. We put our boots and shoes out and in the morning they were filled with goodies; chocolate biscuits, hot cocoa mix, and chocolate ornaments.
(Notice a distinct chocolate theme here?)

Anni turns 12! Here she is opening a gift of noisy balloons.

She loves these things.

And here's Anni trying out her Moonshoes.

I wonder which crater she'll land on.

Feeling Inspired

A Field of Trees on a Gray Day

Anni walking down the trail

A snaggly tree with a Medusa-do

Today was a very grey morning, but the sun broke out this afternoon - glorious! We did some holiday decorating around the house. We are incorporating rosemary sprigs from the two bushes out front and a few of the remaining roses from our garden.

A reader asked, "Are you going to have a green holiday?"

We are going to have a greener holiday. We've been saving the newspaper comics and store protective paper to use as wrapping paper. We also have saved some packing material that have arrived on our doorstep. We're skipping the cut trees and opting to get a real tree the last few days of the holidays so we can plant it in the backyard. We are making our own cards this year. We are also buying much less. We've decided to third our holiday fund. One third will purchase a couple of family gifts and one individual gift for each family member. The second third will be used for a donations to our favorite charity and to make a gift for each family member. And the final third will be used to purchase holiday experiences; theatre tickets, festivals, etc.

Alex made a terrific noodle soup for lunch today. He put in seven different veggies! For dinner, we made turkey gravy with some of the left over turkey breast from Thanksgiving and served this over mounds of mashed potatoes (or smashed potatoes as Anni likes to call them), along with caramelized baby carrots, and cranberry sauce. For dessert, it was mini pumpkin bites, yum. So far, one small (3.25) free-range, chemical free turkey breast has provided the basis for 3 meals (Thanksgiving, turkey noodles soup, and tonight's.) We froze enough to have turkey enchiladas, turkey potpie, and turkey noodle casserole at a later date. Not bad for a little bit of bird.

This evening I got to rejoin the Earth Institute group which I'm very happy about. We got to enjoy the most incredible slide show of photographs taken by two members on their 11,000 mile journey all across the US and back. They stayed in a tiny pop-up trailer for much of the trip in the most amazing campgrounds! I'm feel inspired to start thinking about our spring in-state travel itinerary.

Election Day!

A word from Anni: "It's election day! Quick help me get away from all the political stuff! I'll climb up a ladder. Oh no, there's a candidate sign on the roof. I know I'll zip off on my hand car. Oh no, someone wants to hand me a leaflet. Vote already!"

Seriously (though not too seriously) we've had a couple of fun days singing songs about America, flags, and presidents. We've made flags and streamers, and read stories about elections. We've listened to lots of politico factoids on the radio and added humorous taglines to all those attack ads on the telly. Finally, tonight we had an all-American dinner and settled down to watch the election results. It was fun to have the whole family participate in the election process.

Pumpkins, Pizza, and Entertainments

A few photos from our Halloween celebration. A pirate pumpkin carved by Alex and Anni. A sumputuous evening feast with a veggie stew baked in a pumpkin, cucumber-poblano salsa, organic tortilla chips, curry pumpkin soup, crackers, hummus, and veggie pizza (and lots of halloween candy.) Our lunch pumpkin pizza.

Finally, Alex and Anni posing in their daytime costumes, a bewitching witch and enviro-man!






For trick-or-treating, Alex made a very cool samari costume and Anni was a hippy-gypsy. Just going around the neighborhood, they got tons of candy!

Yesterday, during the day, we went to see Little Shop of Horrors at the local theatre company. It was terrific! And in the evening, Ari and I went to see "The Secret Life of Bees". We liked it alot, but we needed lots of tissues.

Apple Chutney and the Bee

10 Jars of Apple Chutney

Lisa, Alex, and Ari striking poses before the start of The Putnam County Spelling Bee this evening. David and I saw this musical on Broadway during our trip to New York a couple of years ago. It was so great, we wanted the older two kids and friends to see it too. It was a total blast! Very funny!

The chutney was why there was no posting yesterday. I was preserving! The kids say it's become an obsession! But I say necessity, to deal with lots of green tomatoes and apples! The whole house still smells like chutney! Bring on the masala veggie burgers!

More news tomorrow as I'm going to close now and figure out how to use the very special green gift David gave to me. No, not my very own personal leprechaun or a giant boogie. Not even a bag of peapods or a jar of dill pickles. Not an evergreen tree or a 4-leaf clover. It was a green Nikon Coolpix camera that gave a donation to a green cause apon purchase. David got a great deal on the camera and a very big kiss, I got a very cool camera with a zoom lens (yahoo!), and the charity got a donation. I just love triple wins. The instruction manual for the camera is 3X bigger than the camera and twice as thick. I feel a techno-oh-no headache coming on, but for the sake of close-up, I'll chance it. Pass the tylenol.

Down on a different funny farm

Here's our friend Lisa on the banks of the mighty Snoqualmie River (that would be the beautiful river pictured to the right).

Today Lisa and I worked with the Helping Hands group out at the Full Circle Farm's Ames Creek site in Carnation.

What did we do? We worked with WA Conservation Corp guys to plant trees and shrubs (Douglas fir, Red Cedar, Willow, Dogwood, Snowberry. and one tree type I can't remember).

Why? We're replanting the river bank with native species in order to help stop the invasive species and to provide a more optimal environment for the river's salmon run. The fish need shaded, cool water. First we had to dig holes through the matted reed grass and then stop the soil from dropping through the reed grass while we planted the tree or shrub, all to the aroma of a nearby dead and decaying coyote. It sounds grim, but we had a great time! We also harvested some beets (not me!) and red kale (yes, please!). Full circle also gave us some celery and leftover lunch pears and apples.

It was a great win-win-win-win effort. We had fun, got some exercise, and a bit of produce. The farm got some volunteer labor. The local food bank got lots of veggies donated by the farm, and the salmon got a much improved habitat. We also had a great time chatting with the other volunteers, a diverse group including honor students from Newport High School, two former cheese guys from Whole Foods, a writer, and many fine other folks.

In other news, we swung by the Redmond farmer's market on the way home. (Lisa needed hazelnuts.) In a strange cosmic consequence of "It's a Small World Afterall", it turns out that the hazelnut farmer's family is from Colchester, Essex, England. Perhaps his relatives know my aunt and uncle???

Today's dinner selection was inspired by all our local goodness. We made an Italian parsley (CSA) and hazelnut (farmer's market) pesto over organic penne and served it up with the last of our cherry tomatoes (garden). For dessert, Alexander made a delicious applesauce cake with the applesauce I made the other night, yum!

Fun on the Farm

Today was the Hog and Grog farm festival at Full Circle Farm. We had a blast with our friend Lisa and all the hand painting, decorating flower pots, riding in the horse wagon, and loading up on goodies at the pot luck. The kids especially liked all that chocolate; cake, chocolate, & dipped apples and pears!

It was another drizzly day here today. We harvested a few more tomatoes and went to the movies to see Ghosttown. It was very sweet little movie.

Farming for a good cause

Full Circle Farm Red Beets

Farmer Julie Ann & beans

Farmer Lisa

Today, I went to help on a work party at Full Circle Farm with good pal, Lisa, for a good cause. We worked 4 hours on the farm. We learned about organic farming, and the farm donated oodles of fresh produce to Hopelink families. So what did we do? First, we widened a trail through a forest area as part of a salmon stream restoration project on the farm. We tackled prickly blackberry vines and hidden barbed wire. Then, we picked raspberries and blueberries to take home as a treat. After a yummy lunch, we rode in the tractor wagon out to the veggie fields to glean peppermint beets for the foodbank and picked a few beans. We both loved the dogs who were into retriving favorite rocks. (They desparately need a tennis ball!) The weather was terrific for a farm experience, and we learned alot. (I hope I can move tomorrow)