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.

Birthday Time

The last week in September is birthday time for our family. Drew was 31 on the 25th, Hannah was 5 on the 27th and Andy (Drew's father-in-law) is 60-something today - the 30th. All these birthdays in a 5-day period make for a fun family party. We all gathered together on Saturday for one big birthday bash and barbeque. The weather was beautiful and sunny so we got to be outside all day.

We started off the day by going to JJ's soccer game. He was the goal keeper for most of the game and stopped a couple of goals from being made, so he was happy as the crowd cheered his successes.
JJ is in the green facing forward.

The birthday celebrations began right after the soccer game ended. There were 17 family members there and it made for a great time for everyone. Hannah had all her grandparents and great-grandparents there, as well as, all her aunts, uncles and cousins with the one exception of Mark who just could not fly in from Boston for the day.

Among many other gifts, Hannah got a matching nightgown for herself and her doll "Sally".

For those interested in a Penny (the puppy) update...........

She was recovering well until she went down the slide and suffered a setback, but is now once again on the mend.

Saturday Morning

This is the first Saturday for us in quite a while that no one is visiting and we are not traveling somewhere. So we have been able to revert to our usual Saturday morning routine. For us that is going to Starbuck's and splitting a 'non-fat, decaf, no whip, venti mocha' while we peruse the New York Times. Generally some friends stop in and we converse for a while before getting on with our day. Since fall has not yet begun, that means our local Saturday Farmers' Market is still open. It is a sunny, albeit cool day, so we meandered through and picked up some fresh produce to tide us over for the week. Soon it will be time to harvest our own apple crop.

Here are some pictures of our morning......

Sunrise brings atypical sun rays bursting through the trees as seen from our bedroom window.

John reading the NY Times and enjoying our mocha at our favorite local Starbucks.

Our hometown local farmers' market

Penny the Puppy - The Newest Family Member

What an eventful week it has been. Mid-week Drew and his family were at a local park and this cute little puppy with a hurt leg came up to them with a soulful look as if to say "I'm hurt, please help me". She 'appealed' to others at the park, too, but it was our kids who all decided they would take this little dog home and see if they could help her. Before making a final decision on whether to keep her or not, they took her to the vet. Well, it seems her leg was severely fractured and had been that way for about 7-10 days. What's more it, would take some extensive surgery to fix the problem - this would be surgery costing close to $900 to fix a stray they had picked up the park a couple of days earlier. It would need to be done the next day or she'd be put down because of the severity of the fracture.

Our 7-year-old grandson, JJ, decided to get on the phone (unbeknownst to his parents) and call both sets of grandparents telling of their dilemma. They would all sleep on it and make a decision in the morning. Before going to bed, JJ prayed that something would work out and they could keep the puppy. Well, early the next morning, the other grandparents called to say they had not been able to sleep all night. They had decided they wanted to pay the total cost of getting the puppy fixed . It was important to them that the children had this puppy. Every child should have grandparents like that! The surgery took place that morning and the next day (Saturday), Penny was home again. - this time permanently, with her new family.

That afternoon Drew called to tell us that there was a home tour going on in their town and since we are planning a move over that way next year, it would be a great time to go see some of the local homes. Of course, with the exciting news of the new puppy, too, we decided we'd go, so yesterday we drove over (3 hours each way) and spent the day. We saw several houses and met our newest family member - Penny.

Here are some pictures of Penny with her new family and her own special doghouse.

Hannah and Penny

JJ trying out the new doghouse

Last Tastes and Harvests of Summer

Just as we were thinking summer was about gone, we realized our blueberry and apple 'crops' were about ready for harvest and the roses are still blooming. The blueberries are at their peak and the apples are not far behind. We should be harvesting them later this month. We'll need another couple of weeks for the blackberries, though.

Surprisingly, we don't fertilize, spray, or even water these plants, at all. They just thrive being cared for by mother nature. We do have to compete with the birds, deer, and squirrels to get our share, though.