Peek-a-boo! Spring is just around the corner. Keep an eye out for sunbreaks, rainbows, blossoms, robins, longer days. They really are there. This is the official reminder.
Many thanks to my husband for beautifully capturing these moments of our little guys.
February, while being the shortest month on the calendar, always seems eternal. This past February seemed especially so. This despite the “chocolate holiday” and a birthday. The weather in the Northwest has turned viciously back to a La Nina pattern, making it feel very like December again, with a blanket of gray and rain and occasionally spits of snow. Various illnesses have made their way through the household. Fitness lagged during a bad cold.
Maybe that is why I am more excited than ever about an upcoming potential road trip to southern California in April, which will be new territory for us essentially. I’ve driven hastily through part of it on Interstate 5 when I moved to the northwest years ago, and I visited San Diego as a child. But that was a very brief visit and I was not old enough to know exactly what I was missing out on. This time, I know just where to take the kids (having done a lot of research) and on our way back north we will check out LA and PCH (Pacific Coast Highway) a bit, then hopefully visit some friends and family in the Bay Area before the slog northward.
So to get from the gray dread of February to the southwestern sun of April, one needs to keep occupied. Working in the kitchen has really helped with this. I have been trying many new recipes and using the oven to combat the chill. Here is a success: a pear custard tart.
What are your plans for Spring?
For more Corner Views, please see Francesca’s blog.
Don’t ask me how I first heard about this book. I suspect it came from my trawling the Chronicle Books website for titles to request from the library. I do this about once a month. I go to my favorite publishers’ websites and scroll through titles with nice covers or appealing subject matter (often cookbooks or travel books) and then see if Seattle has them. Sometimes they don’t, particularly if the titles are very region-specific. But this was available so I jumped at it.
Awesome book. The California Surf Project by Eric Soderquist and Chris Burkard chronicles a surf/road trip from the Oregon border to the very southern border of California (i.e. the Mexico border), with the two authors creaking along precarious ocean highways in an old camper van. Surfer/artist Soderquist and photographer buddy “Burky” combine surfing, photography, travel tales, and humor into a tome that takes you on the journey. It’s a purely Californian tale. With stunning photographs. And hilarious anecdotes. Also some not-so-funny moments with the unease of shark threat potential looming at certain points…oh, and the border agents. And the colorful collection of parking tickets that the “bus” accumulates on its clackety journey along one of the most beautiful and diverse coasts on the planet. I was sorry the book ended, as I wanted the misadventures and the scenery to keep going. But that’s what happens when you’re a road trip nut like me. The call is too strong. And it’s time I planned a trip to Big Sur.
For more information check out this website.
Limbo. Yuck. Not liking it one bit! Not knowing which of the two remaining schools will accept me, or if they will. It’s unpleasant because one of them is over 1,200 miles away. And we would need lead time for that one, so hubby can get a job, we can figure out preschools for the kids, look for a new home, etc. Yuckola. “Anytime between now and the end of April,” this school’s adviser tells me when I might hear. I applied to all the schools in November, sooooo…I’m very ready to hear. Nerves. Frustration. Also broke-ness. Clipped travel wings. Lower tax refund than expected. Debt! Super yuckola-mola.
Bah! Time to look at pretty pictures while I figure this post-layoff, pre-possible-school-and/or-relocation, somewhat stressful period of time.
So here’s a photographic retrospective of some favorites of mine over the years. And here’s hoping for news–any news! about where we’ll be in the fall. ‘Cause I need to get planting some goodies in the yard, if we’re to stay!
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Despite my freakish morning-person nature, I am a lover of sunsets. When I was a kid I didn’t have the best view of the horizon to the west at my home, but I could see the sunset, and it became my ritual to watch it most evenings. Especially on the summer solstice. It was a moment of solitude and dreaming. Sometimes I would imagine the shape of a phoenix, gilded and embered in the coral-lit cirrus clouds.
These days I live in the Northwest, and at this time of year, the sunset is quite early up here, but getting later day by day. I was intent on capturing it this week to show you what happens between weather systems. The evening skies did not disappoint. I hope you enjoy sunsets, and they set you dreaming.
For more Corner Views, please see Theresa.
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Thank you for the lovely compliments on my previous post!
It’s really tough to pick one favorite fine artist, and then I really like art that’s not considered “fine” also. But these are some favorites of mine. First off, a wall painting by the ancient Minoans, one of my all-time favorites. Their wall art was so fluid. 
Not unlike a much later artist, Charles M. Russell, famed for his cowboy and Native American depictions. Fluidity of animals throughout. 
Next up, I have to include Vincent van Gogh (and doubly because of the recent Doctor Who episode “Vincent and the Doctor” which was extraordinary and moving). 
But one of the most influential artists in my entire life has to be John R. Neill, the illustrator of 13 of the original 14 L. Frank Baum Oz books, dear to my heart. Neill’s illustrations directly influenced my own illustrations of my own sci-fi/fantasy stories I’ve been working on since I was 13. I love his Art Nouveau style, but also I adore all the characters he brought to life.
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For more Corner Views, please see Theresa.
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Seattle actually looks wintry right at this moment. While the rains have returned, there is snow on the ground from last night, and in the dark everything seems lit up by the white ground. It will be long gone soon, with rain in the forecast for days.
The slideshow shows the North Cascades on a recent road trip, near Index; a stump in our yard; and the view of the Olympic Mountains from Seattle on a clear day. It’s been a lovely winter in the Northwest!
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For more Corner Views, please see Theresa.
Just a few snippets from the Christmas photos. The breakfast rolls are based on a basic cinnamon roll recipe, except I use half ground cardamom, half cinnamon instead, and I use dark brown sugar in the filling also. The glaze is orange zest, orange juice, and powdered sugar.
The kids of course had a good time this holiday season. I for one am far more excited now that it’s over, to move forward into what will surely be an interesting year full of travels, food, possibly a move, possibly graduate school, definitely looking more into volunteering and joining community activities more, and getting our emergency supplies up to snuff. I wish all of you a happy year ahead!
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I went nuts. When I had my autumn potluck my good friend brought Her Pecan Pie. She kindly gave me leftovers to keep. I savored slivers of that thing for days. And every time I would take a bite, I was transported back to the South and memories of long ago. Her Pecan Pie was the very best I had ever had. This coming from a person who LOATHED pecan pie when I lived in the South. Isn’t it funny when that sort of thing happens? After you move away, you suddenly want it. And then it comes to pass: YOU CAN’T FIND IT ANYWHERE.
And I TRIED. For a period of weeks I went nuts. Or should I say more specifically, pecans. I heard tell that Whole Foods made a good store pecan pie. Sadly, I discovered they only make it for the holidays, as in right at the holidays and not in between the holidays. Well, crap. They did have a pecan bar with shortbread crust though. I carved off of it for some days, as if expecting to find some magic pecan pie in there, like a statue carved from rough rock. No such luck.
I wandered to chow. I went to a certain pie shop not far from here, one dedicated to pie. Did they have pecan pie? Yes, they did. I bought a slice promptly, sat and looked out the window, took a bite. And nearly wept. It was not Her Pecan Pie. In fact it made me angry. I had just spent nearly $4 on sub-par from what I thought was a great pie shop. How dare they? How dare they not give ME the perfect slice of pecan pie for four of my dwindling supply of dollars? Well, there was only one answer: they had never tasted Her Pecan Pie and I venture to guess had never tasted a Southern pecan pie at all.
Smell and memory are intimately linked. So after I pondered why I wanted that pie and thought about the proxy-travel of taking a bite and being beamed to the South (Scotty), it dawned on me why I was so reminded by something I never used to like. I remembered candy making. When I was a tween, I made candy in the winter. Every candy recipe I could get my hands on that my parents were bravely willing to try. And one “candy” I made was spiced pecans. Old-school, you can find that old not-chestnut anywhere. There it was. THAT was the memory.
I realized finally that Seattle was not going to give me the perfect pecan pie. It’s not meant to. And I would not ask my friend to make it for me since she already had; and those things are expensive to make. So I went hunting online for The Best Pecan Pie Recipe Ever. And then I found this: Perfect Pecan Pie by The Traveler’s Lunchbox (clearly a kindred spirit). And then things got even more intriguing (don’t fall asleep now!). This individual thought to make pecan pie not with Karo Syrup but with the UK’s Lyle’s Golden Syrup instead. Since the blogger gave locations to find this syrup in Seattle, I hopped in my car and went hunting. And I bought it at the first place I looked, although I found it at two other stores. I brought home some bulk pecans, toasted them per the recipe (what a scent!), and set about making the pie.
I enjoyed making the pie. It gave me a certain glee to watch that absolutely gorgeous syrup slowly approach the mixing bowl. The stuff is pure magic! No wonder Harry Potter’s favorite treat is treacle tart. Anyway, the pie baked, and I tried it warm and burnt my tongue, but that’s okay. Then I let it cool and tried it again. It’s great, a very delicious pie, better than anything you can buy in Seattle as far as I can afford.
But it’s not Her Pecan Pie.
Well, when you live in Seattle, maybe you (like I) have no real urge to write about rain since it’s so much a part of your daily life for much of the year. Or, maybe that’s precisely why you would write about it.
[Lately I haven't had much time to write for fun because I have been working on graduate school applications, contacting faculty members at three universities in three different parts of the country, and oh yes, doing all the Thanksgiving cooking for my small immediate family out here. Applications are DONE and now for the long wait!]
Yesterday was a a complete soaker all day, and since we were shut indoors I decided to do some crafting. Inspired by the awesome (and also Seattleite) not martha’s post links: christmas, I explored and found this Cone Advent Calendar Banner on Tuesday To-Do. We wanted an advent calendar for our little guys. So I threw the craft gauntlet down after a long drought.
Now here is a recipe for madness. Try designing all the paper yourself with your kid’s markers! THEN make the cones. THEN watercolor the numbers on little ellipses. THEN cut them out, THEN add glue and GLITTER because you have to add glitter, right? RIGHT???? So my note to anyone who tries this is: BUY PRE-PRINTED PAPER. Avoid becoming a tharn bunny on a very rainy day!
But if you want to know more about the Pacific Northwest’s weather, please go to Professor Cliff Mass’s Weather Blog. He even has a recent post up about what equipment to buy your favorite weather geek (or yourself) to set up your own weather station on various budgets. Dr. Mass, you rawk!
Today I’m going to follow some of his advice and look at the Doppler radar to determine when to go for a walk without getting rained on. Today it won’t be as rainy, so this will be easier to do. Cheers everyone! Stay dry!
****For more Corner Views please see Theresa!
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