NATURE WALKS ~ ROCKS ~ GARDEN UPDATE ~ SUMMER GIRL

NATURE WALKS

We have been trying to take a walk in some sort of natural setting every weekend, since the weather has been nicer lately. Last weekend we took a walk down at the Arboretum. There is a bird blind there and it's always fun to go stand behind it and watch the birds, even though we usually just see sparrows, juncos, and the occasional chickadee. I'm pretty sure this little guy in the picture below is some type of sparrow, but I'm not sure which one. Do any of you know?

Sparrow

 As we walked around we noticed there were a few trees starting to get blossoms on them, most notably a couple of witch hazel trees. The blossoms on this tree were gorgeous so I had to get a picture.

Witch Hazel

This past Saturday we went to the Yakima Greenway again and walked along a different path. The temperature was probably in the mid 40's but the sun was out so it was very nice. We took a short walk down one of the paths that ran alongside the river. After we had walked a little way we came to a wooden bench and decided to take a rest for a few minutes. There was a bit of a nip in the air because there was a slight breeze blowing. But the bench was out in the sun and so we sat there and warmed up a little. The river was flowing along right in front of us with the sun bouncing off it. It was so nice to be outside in nature, enjoying the warm sunshine...especially after the long winter of never-ending snow.

Yakima River

ROCKS

If there is one thing that I really like about the Yakima area it is the fact that there are a lot of rocks everywhere. They are especially abundant along the river. I don't know if these rocks were here naturally or if they were brought in as a barrier against the river rising, but they are everywhere you step. I decided to try to find a heart-shaped rock. I saw quite a few that were almost heart-shaped, but none that met my requirements for a proper heart-shaped rock. However, I did see a couple that caught my eye because of their color, so I picked those two up. I love the red highlights in the first rock, it makes me wonder what caused them. The second rock had a yellowish tinge to it with some mottled black areas. There were many other interesting rocks but I just picked up two because they were both rather heavy.

My intention is to collect rocks from our walks and make a rock area in our back flower bed. I will be in charge of that area this summer, in addition to the vegetable garden. So I've decided I want to do a little decorating to it. Stay tuned for an update on this.

GARDEN UPDATE

Spring has almost arrived in Yakima so that means we will soon begin planting our garden. At least I will begin planting some seeds in containers inside the house to germinate, as it is still too cold at night to plant anything outside in the ground. I received my seed order this week and that has really gotten me in the mood to plant things. I even got outside one day when it was nice and sunny and started pulling up weeds out in the garden area. I didn't get very far because my back started hurting, but at least it was a start. I find that I need to get myself slowly acclimated to doing yard work after spending the long winter cooped up inside. I am hoping that we will have more sunny days soon so I can get out there again and get some more weeds up. There are certainly plenty of weeds to choose from!

Seeds Are Ready to Go!

SUMMER GIRL

My blog would not be complete without an update on Summer Girl...at least, that is what she tells me! She has pretty much completed her transition to part-time indoor kitty and things have been going well. Since she is a Black Ninja kitty, she is hard to keep up with. Linda and I find ourselves searching for her and wondering if she is in or out. If she can sneak into one of the bedrooms she does like to hide under the bed, so we try to keep those doors closed. But it is nice having her come in and sit with us and visit while we are having tea or watching TV. Below is a short video I took of her while she was sitting on my lap. If you are in a quiet room and turn your speakers all the way up, you can hear her purring.

That's about it for this week from the Yakkie City. Check back again next week to see what we've been up to!

MILESTONE ~ ST. PATRICK'S DAY ~ SPRING ~ SEEDS ~ PIZZA

MILESTONE

Last week we celebrated a milestone in our extended family. My sister and her partner celebrated 20 years of being together. I remember when they first met up, and it seems like only yesterday. It has been the perfect match for them with both of them bringing something different to the relationship. I think those kinds of relationships work out the best because then you get the opportunity to develop your compromising skills, LOL! Anyway, I felt like I should give them a shout-out for reaching this milestone, and I hope they have another 20+ years to go.

ST. PATRICK'S DAY

Last Friday was St. Patrick's day, so in honor of that occasion I decided to cook something Irish. Since I had never made it before and I am on a baking kick, I decided to do Irish Soda Bread. It was a pretty straightforward recipe and didn't take a long time (unlike a lot of baking recipes). I used a recipe from King Arthur Flour, and if you'd like to check it out you can find it here. My favorite type of flour to bake with right now is King Arthur White Whole Wheat Flour because it gives you all the benefits of 100% whole wheat flour but also is lighter in texture and taste than regular whole wheat flour. If you have never tried it, I highly recommend it for all your whole wheat baking needs. It is especially good to use this type of flour if you are accustomed to eating soft white bread but now want to eat whole wheat because it's better for you. So, my Irish Soda Bread turned out really nice. It is a crusty, crunchy bread into which I added some raisins. Give it a try, but don't wait until next St. Patrick's Day to bake it!

 

Irish Soda Bread

SPRING!

Linda and I both hesitate to proclaim "It's Spring!" ever since the first year after we moved to Yakima. We were accustomed to Spring beginning in March back in North Carolina. But Yakima is a whole different story. There have been some years where it snowed here at the end of March. The low temperatures are now just barely getting above freezing, and it is still below freezing some nights. But the first thing we look for to know that Spring is definitely on the way is the crocus flowers. They have been up a week or so, and now a few of our bushes and trees are starting to have leaf buds. After the constant snows of this past winter, we are more than ready for Spring to arrive. There is something so comforting about seeing the little flowers and leaf buds appear. Of course, as soon as Spring arrives, my thoughts turn to...Summer! Below is a lovely picture of a crocus that Linda took.

SEEDS

With the arrival of spring comes the time to start planning the garden for summer. In recent years past I have not done much growing of my garden plants from seeds. I usually get them as small plants from either the Master Gardeners' sale or from our local Farm & Garden Center. But this year I got a seed catalog in the mail and I have been perusing it all winter. I finally decided on what I wanted and put my order in this week. Of course, the one seed I wanted the most to order was not in stock. It was seeds for a habanero pepper that is "not hot," called a Habanada. I love the flavor of the habanero pepper and have planted a couple each year for the past several years. They are an absolutely lovely plant with the most colorful peppers, but those pretty little peppers are so doggone hot! I never know what to do with them so I usually wind up making some kind of jam or BBQ sauce with them. But if they weren't so hot, I could grill them and maybe even Linda would be able to give them a try. Anyway, that's why I was hoping for the Habanada seeds. I have asked them to notify me if they get more of those seeds in stock. In the meantime, I had to order some of their Zavory Habanero seeds. This pepper promises to be "mildly spicy, without all the heat."  We shall see. If you are interested in buying some seeds to plant in your garden (they have plenty of pepper seeds that are not hot at all, in addition to lots of other seeds), you can find the Rare Seeds website here.  Below is a picture of some of my habanero peppers from a couple years ago.

PIZZA

Lately I have been on a search for the perfect pizza dough recipe, and I think I may have finally found it. I made pizzas a couple of weeks ago and although the end result was very good, the dough was extremely hard to roll out. Linda suggested that I check out the recipe for Barbara Kingsolver's Friday Night Pizza on her website (found here). I made it last night and it was absolutely yummy! It made two very large pizzas, so we are having pizza again tomorrow night with enough left over for lunch, too. Once again I used King Arthur White Whole Wheat Flour, but I do believe next time I will put in a bit of white flour just to tone down the whole wheat taste (which can be a little overbearing at times). But this recipe was a dream to roll out, which makes for much less cussin' and fussin' in the kitchen! Check out the pizzas from last night below.

My Mushroom, Cheese & Pepperoni

Linda's Mushroom, Cheese & Onion

Oh no, I'm at the end of the blog and I don't have a picture of Summer Girl posted. I'm sure that I will hear about that! She will be making an appearance again next week just so everybody can keep up with the ongoing adventures of the Summer Girl. See you then!

PRECIOUS BABY ~ SAUERKRAUT ~ RANDALL PARK ~ SPRING ~ SNOW ~ SUMMER

PRECIOUS BABY

 

I think it's finally time. It has been almost 8 months now since our sweet little Precious Baby left us, and I really haven't been able to write about her on the blog because it made me sad. Even now it is still hard to do, but I figured I'd better include her in the blog since I've been going on and on about Summer so much. I certainly don't want to slight her as she was a part of our family from almost the very beginning. We got her from the Humane Society in Lumberton a little over a year after Linda and I got together. She was about 8 months old when we got her, and to be truthful I guess I should say when she got us. Because we didn't pick her out, she picked us...or rather, she picked Linda. We went to the Humane Society one Saturday just to "look" at kittens. We weren't quite ready to get one yet, but we wanted to see what they had. While I was in the "kitten" room looking at all the little tiny ones, Linda was out in the main room checking out the older kitties. There was one big walk-in cage near the front that had a couple of cat trees in it, and one cat...a beautiful calico. Linda asked the attendant to let her in that cage to check out the kitty. As soon as she got in there, the cat jumped on her shoulders and proceeded to make herself at home. The attendant went and found me and said "I think your friend has found your cat." So that's how she picked us. Her name was "Tiger" but that just wouldn't do for her as she definitely was not a tiger. We had already decided that when we did get a kitty, her name would be Precious. And so it was. We had not intended to bring home a cat, so we had no food, no litter, none of that stuff that you need with a cat. So when we got home, Linda struck out for the store and left me with Precious sitting on my shoulders (always her favorite spot). I sat on the bed and kept repeating her new name over and over to her. It didn't take her long to learn it, either.

She was with us every moment that we were home. She didn't go outside at all, so she was always there. She was there with us when we lived on 14th Street, and she often went with us down to the beach house, although sometimes we did leave her at home. She was there with us when we moved to 17th Street, and she was there with us when we moved all the way across country to Yakima. I think that is why it was so hard when she wasn't there anymore. When you are used to someone being there with you every moment you are in a certain place for almost 16 years, it is very hard to comprehend when you realize they won't be there anymore. We knew it was coming because she was 16 years old and had gotten impossibly thin, but still we weren't ready. I don't think you can ever get ready for losing someone you love. She will always be in our hearts. We had her cremated and put her ashes in a small milk glass covered dish. It seemed fitting for the sweet little Southern belle kitty that she was. So now you know how we came to get our first kitty. I will write more about her in future blogs as she was a big part of our lives.

Precious Baby, also known as Peeber

SAUERKRAUT UPDATE

 

The sauerkraut came out very good! I only let my two jars sit out on the table for 3 days, then I tasted them both and put them in the fridge. The sauerkraut will still continue to ferment and get more flavorful, just at a much slower rate in the fridge. You can actually start tasting the sauerkraut after 3 days and if it's to your liking, you can eat it then. I couldn't wait any longer than 3 days, I was wanting some sauerkraut! I liked both the plain and the regular, but I combined them both in one jar to save space in the fridge. It was so good that by Monday I had eaten about half of it. I decided to do some more only a bigger batch this time, so Tuesday I made 4 pounds of cabbage into sauerkraut. It's fermenting on the table right now. I'll be able to let it stay out longer this time because I still have half of the first batch. It sure is yummy!

The finished sauerkraut

RANDALL PARK

 

Linda and I have been walking more now that the weather has improved and the snow is all gone. On weekends we like to go to a park or the Greenway for our walk. This past Monday we went to Randall Park, as Linda had that day off. It's a nicer park than the one near our house because it has some big shade trees and a creek running beside it. And it has a duck pond. We always enjoy watching the ducks and geese around the pond. Some of them are quite comical, as the video below demonstrates.

SPRING IS COMING! 

 

While the East Coast was getting hit with winter storm Stella, we were experiencing the melting of all our snow. Linda and I were so happy to see the first signs of spring starting to peek up in these little crocuses.

Spring is on the way!

MELTING SNOW

 

Of course, all that snow melting means that it turned into water, and that water had to go somewhere. So all the rivers, streams and creeks around here are overflowing. I walked a few blocks over from our house this morning to check out the creek that runs nearby. Fortunately for us our house is on a higher elevation and is in no danger of flooding, at least not right now. Some of the roads near our house were under water last night, so it is a bit scary. Here is a short video of the creek, called Wide Hollow Creek. In it you can see where the water had gone farther up into someone's yard.

 

SUMMER GIRL

 

Just so I won't get in trouble this week for not including her, here is a picture of Summer Girl.

The spoiled brat

That's all for now, see you next week!

This Week - 03/08/17 - The Gang - Christmas in March - Toast - Summer Girl

THE GANG 

I stopped by the office where I used to work this morning and saw my old co-workers. Not to say any of them are "old" but you know what I mean. It was good to see everyone and visit the place where I used to spend most of my days. I didn't stay long because they all had work to do...but not me!!

CHRISTMAS IN MARCH

My sister texted me this past week to let me know that we would be getting a package from her and her partner. She wouldn't tell me what it was, so I had to wait two long, agonizing days until the post office delivered it on Saturday. It turned out that she had put away some things she bought us for Christmas last year and had forgotten about them. When she came across them a couple of weeks ago she decided to send them on to us, so Linda and I had Christmas in March! It was great to get a package from her (always is) and especially to see what kind of goodies she came up with. This package certainly did not disappoint! In the package we each got a mug for our afternoon tea, plus two new Christmas ornaments which we immediately put out on display. Also included was a 300W Power Inverter to use when we go on trips. That is a device for charging your cell phone, tablet, etc. I didn't know what it was either so I had to "GTS." Perhaps the most exciting thing to me was a strap to fasten my Fitbit around my ankle so I can get a more accurate count of my steps. It seems to be working because I've gone over my goal for the last four days. And last, but not least, was a package of Shishito Pepper seeds from my sister's garden. I can't wait to get those planted and see what Shishito peppers are like. Below are some pictures of our stash from Christmas in March.

A bird mug and a cat mug

Fitbit ankle strap.Check out the Christmas socks

A little video of the Christmas ornaments in action

TOAST

I think I've already mentioned that one of the most enjoyable things I have done since I retired is baking bread. There is nothing quite like a loaf of home-baked bread, fresh from the oven, slathered with real butter. This week I decided to bake a loaf of breakfast bread. Here is the actual recipe from my favorite baking website, King Arthur Flour, and they call it English Muffin Toasting Bread. This is the BEST bread for making toast because it has all those little nooks and crannies in it, just like English muffins. It's a very easy recipe, and just think...in a little over an hour and a half, you could have a nice warm slice of fresh bread! Here are some of my pictures of the making of this wonderful bread.

Above, before baking.  To the right, after baking. YUM!
Look at that wonderful crumb!	Breakfast is ready

SUMMER GIRL 

 Last week I failed to put in an update on Summer Girl and I heard from her in no uncertain terms! She wanted me to let everyone know she is doing very well with her transition into the house as she is in and out most of the day and evening. She still likes to spend the night in her own little bed in her house on the back porch, though. She also has gotten into romping around the yard again now that most of the snow is gone. But she does love her recliner time with her two mommies! Here she is hogging Linda's spot on the recliner.

Living the life of Riley!

That's all for this week, hope to see you back here again next Wednesday!

THIS WEEK 03/01/17 - Snow Melt - Sauerkraut - Big Deal - Weekend

SNOW MELT

The main topic of discussion for the past week has been the melting of the snow. I know I sound like a broken record on this subject, but for the first 55 years of my life, snow was something that was very insignificant. Nowadays, it is very significant and I find it hard to wrap my head around just how significant it has been this winter. I'm very happy to report that we have had much warmer temperatures the past two weeks and the snow has melted a great deal in most places. Where the sun doesn't hit we still have white stuff piled up, but melting nonetheless. Today (Wed) the high is supposed to be in the 50's, so I expect more of it to go down the drain.

SAUERKRAUT

This week's cooking project was to make some sauerkraut. This is a very easy process and there are quite a few tutorials and recipes out there on the web. I have made this two or three times before, and the last time I put caraway seeds in it. I found out I did not like the taste of caraway seeds and wound up throwing about half a quart jar away. This time, I just made a pint sized jar of regular sauerkraut and a half-pint sized jar of sauerkraut with dill seeds. I like the taste of regular sauerkraut, but I'm always up for something new in the culinary world. Sauerkraut consists of nothing more than regular green cabbage and salt, which is then allowed to ferment. You can add in other things if you wish, but that's all you need to make your basic sauerkraut. I used a recipe from one of my favorite food blogs, the Kitchn.

Here are my pictures of the process of making sauerkraut. As you can see, it's pretty easy.

Finely shred the cabbage and put in a ceramic or glass bowl

Massage in the salt, squeezing the cabbage to release water

Pack cabbage into jars and put a weight on the top. I used smaller jars filled with water for the weight.

That's all you do, then you place it in a cool place for about a week or so and voilá, you have sauerkraut! I usually add a tablespoon or two of vinegar if it doesn't have enough of the vinegar taste for me, or if it tastes a bit too salty. If you like to try new things in the kitchen, I recommend giving this a try.

BIG DEAL FOR THE RETIRED

One thing that I have found to be a big deal for the retired is making a trip to Walmart. Now, you may say that this isn't such a big deal. But let me tell you, when you have been cooped up in the house for basically two weeks because of copious amounts of snow and ice everywhere, it's a big deal when you get to go somewhere there are actually other people! And shopping, there's that as well. Linda and I made a trip to Walmart last weekend and we actually enjoyed it. We got to get out of the house and also got our steps in for the day. I know, sometimes going to Walmart can be an absolute chore, but you have to learn to go at the right time, which is early in the morning. Especially if you are going on the weekend. I have found the noise level to be almost unbearable in the afternoons on the weekend. And that brings me to something else I've discovered about being retired...

 

THE WEEKEND

Now that I am retired, I am constantly recalling one of my favorite lines from the TV series, Downton Abbey. This line was spoken by the Dowager Countess, exquisitely delivered by the incomparable Maggie Smith. When Matthew Crawley is explaining about his new job and how he will still have the weekends free, the Dowager Countess replies, "Wha...what is a weekend?" This was meant to point out the fact that to the idle rich of the day, every day was the same because they did not have to report to a job five days out of the week. Being retired is the same way, and I often find myself having to stop and think about what day it is. Only difference is I'm not part of the idle rich.

This isn't the weekend but it is Wednesday, so it's time for me to say goodbye and get this blog posted! Have a great week...and weekend.