Fall Colors in the Pacific Northwest

View out our front door. This burning bush does appear to be "burning".

Our canoe is stored for the winter under one of our vine maple trees.

This is a rogue tree that only changes color on some of its branches - not all.

These two stands of colorful trees were spotted on our way downtown.

You see, New England isn't the only place with beautiful fall colors. Here in the Pacific Northwest, we get some pretty spectacular color, too. These shots were taken this morning on our property and then some others photographs were taken as we drove from our house to downtown. The sun was out and the trees seemed to sparkle.

A Week-End of Opportunities

This week-end we had three 'opportunities'. The first one was to go to my 40th high school reunion. If any of you from South Brunswick High School class of 1968 are reading this - welcome and sorry I missed seeing you all. I hope you'll post a blog of the reunion or at least some pictures. Wish I could have been there and I hope to hear for some of you.

The second opportunity we had this week-end was to attend Mark's college's 'Family Week-End" event near Boston. We have been for the 3 previous years and decided to pass on it this year, but we'll be sure to go for his graduation in early June.

Opportunity number 3 was the one we took. It was Grandparents' Day at our grandchildren's school. The big event started at 8:30 am and since we wanted to make it a day trip, we had to head out shortly after 5 am for the 3-hour drive - that, of course, allowed time for a stop at Starbuck's.

What a beautiful drive it turned out to be! We had hoped to see the stunning fall colors of the trees in the mountains, but our timing (driving in the dark) nixed that. However, as we crossed over the Cascade Mountains, we left the rain and clouds behind - that's the norm - and the eastern side of the state was so clear that we got to see the most beautiful, colorful sunrise on the eastern horizon as we were driving directly east - right into the sunrise, it seemed. The wide open, cloudless, treeless horizon made for a beautiful sunrise 'event'. It was at this time, we realized we'd left the camera behind. I guess leaving a 5am , we just weren't quite awake enough to remember everything. However, when we arrived, we saw that Hannah (5) had drawn a picture (a "masterpiece" the teacher called it) for us. It is better than any photograph we could have taken. It's posted here at the top of this entry and will hang it up in our house, too.

Grandparents' Day was wonderful - as always. After lunch with the kids at school, we then went over to their house for a visit. Drew came home early from work and we all went out for an early dinner before we headed back home - just barely in time to see the sunset over the mountains. It was a great day - but very tiring, by the time we pulled into our driveway shortly before 9 pm.

We had 3 choices for this week-end and we made the right one - no airplanes, no hotels, and had we made another choice, there would have been no "masterpiece" from Hannah to keep forever.

Picture details as explained by Hannah: Grandma on the left and Grandpa holding a basket brimming with blueberries from our blueberry bush. Look at the heart between us, she said. On the right is her brother JJ. I guess Hannah was 'taking' the picture, so she isn't in it. Needless to say, we love it.

Pumpkin Time

October is always pumpkin time for us - not the big jack-o-lantern pumpkins - but the small sugar pumpkins that make for such great eating. Sugar pumpkins getting ripe on the vine also means our long-time dear friends, Alice and Jerry, fly up to see us from California and we spend an afternoon making our once-a-year pumpkin meal.

Before we got started on that, we ventured out to try and see the salmon run, but missed it by a few days once again. However, we did enjoy the walk to our favorite local salmon spawning creek. The birch trees sparkled against the fall sky overhead as we trekked on the trail to the creek and back out again.
Birch trees along the salmon creek

That afternoon we hollowed out our sugar pumpkins that Drew's father in-law, Andy, had grown and made our tradional pumpkin meal. The recipe is below for anyone who wants to try it. It originally came from Martha Stewart - about 10 years ago, although we've changed it a bit over the years.


Pumpkin meal ready to eat - just lift off the top

The week-end was not over yet, so the next day we were off to Tillicum Village on Blake Island in Puget Sound. It is an island devoted to Native Americans of this region and the life they lived centuries ago. We went to Seattle to get a ferry to the island. We were greeted on the island with hot steamed clams by members of a local tribe and then went in the Longhouse for a traditionally cooked salmon dinner cooked over a traditional alder fire. While dining we were treated to a performance which re-told some of the native history. Afterwards there was time to walk around the island before heading back to Seattle. We had the most beautiful fall day we had had all month , although it was quite cold. It was 36 when we got up that morning, but got into the 50's as the day went on. If you want to know more about Tillicum Village, here is a link: http://www.tillicumvillage.com/

View from Blake Island

Alice, John, and Jan sitting on drift wood on Blake Island

Pumpkin recipe:

Chicken Pot Pie in a Pumpkin
Serves 6
6 two-pound sugar pumpkins

9 ounces potatoes – peeled and cut into ½” pieces
6 tablespoons butter

8 ounces carrots, peeled and cut into ½” pieces
2 teaspoons salt

8 ounces small green peas
1 teaspoon pepper

12 ounces button mushrooms
1 pound pearl onions

2½ cups chicken stock
5 tablespoons flour

4½ cups cooked chicken
1 cup milk

2 teaspoon each of thyme, parsley, sage, and basil
1 teaspoon nutmeg

Heat oven to 375 degrees. Slice tops off pumpkins – set aside. Scoop out the seeds. Using pastry brush, brush insides of pumpkins with 2 tablespoons of melted butter. Season insides of pumpkins with pinch of salt, pepper and nutmeg. Place pumpkins on a baking sheet. Cover with foil. Bake until tender – about 30 minutes.
Bring a medium saucepan of water to boil. Add pearl onions and set simmer for 15 minutes. Drain, rinse under cold water. Peel onions and set aside.
Melt remaining butter in a large, high-sided skillet. Add potatoes and onions and cook until potatoes begin to turn golden. Add mushrooms, carrots and peas - cook 4 – 5 minutes more. Add flour and cook, stirring constantly 2 – 3 minutes. Stir in chicken stock, milk and remaining herbs, salt, pepper, and nutmeg. Remove from heat and divide mixture among reserved pumpkin shells.
Place pumpkin tops back on the pumpkins. Bake about 45 minutes

Revised from original Martha Stewart recipe.