Sunset Hill

We've been trying to take more evening wallks up to the park where we can see the sunset. Summer means we can have dinner and a couple of glasses of wine, and still lazily decide to walk up there. I like to stay until we can actually see the ball of the sun slip below the mountains.

Sleepy

The old man kitty has taken to sleeping all day on the couch in this spot on the end, and all night sleeping in our bed. Is it a sign that he's getting a bit older and slowing down? Or is it normal cat sleepiness? He makes himself very comfortable.

Ansco

A few weeks ago as we walked to the farmer's market, I stopped at a tiny yardsale and bought another vintage camera for a new look at TTV. It was an Ansco and it cost $4. Today I tried it out and from this first look I think I'm smitten! I love the shape of the glass, the grit, the frame, and how lovely it looks. Here's the front yard rose bush that I pruned a few days ago.

Selfie II

Tonight I had to go to a cocktail party that I've been dreading for weeks. When I found out J was going to be away and would therefore not accompany me, I began to dread it even more. But, I pulled myself together, borrowed a cocktail dress from a friend (the absolute best thing to do because you a) don't spend any money b) don't have to store it in your house c) get a whole closet of dresses to choose from and d) get to wear something you wouldn't necessarily pick out for yourself), flat ironed my hair and got all dressed up. I wish you could see my shoes because they were perfect and they made me feel smokin' hot. Tonight was also pretty much the public debut of my tattoo since the combination of cold weather and conservative situations means it hasn't been on display much. I went to the party and actually had a lovely time.

p.s. Check out my lazy cats on the couch!
p.p.s. Constrast to yesterday.

Selfie

So here I am in my housewife costume - no makeup (hardly ever) and a headscarf because I gave my hair a homemade hot oil treatment. I went out and pruned the rose bushes aggressively today which gave me an immense amount of pleasure. If I could get a job just pruning things I think I would be very content. Also today, I found a new use for two old milk bottles from the farm; they are now storing oils in the pantry. It also makes me very happy to have simple little triumphs like that during the day.

Tomatoes!

We have tomatoes! This is so exciting.

Dinner for One

J left town last night. For 6 nights I will be alone and I don't really like it. I like the first night, a little bit, and I like that things stay uber clean. But I miss him and 6 nights is far too many.

Strawberry Harvest

Our first! (Well, a critter got our first and maybe our second.) I was very excited to pick it even though it was so tiny. It was not very tasty though so apparently our strawberry plants will be just for looks, not for food. I do love getting my hands dirty though.

Scouting

I had to go out scouting around Seattle today. I am always on the lookout for new places I can shoot. Unfortunately I didn't find any today. But I learned about two new areas and a museum I didn't know about before.

Garden Inspiration

I went to a colleague's house today and her yard/garden are totally inspiring. I took photos just so someday I can reference them when I finally get to make my own garden. First, it's filled with bird feeders and nesting boxes of all kinds. And they look nice, not junky like mine. Then, they've used most of their available space to put in gorgeous, neat, organized raised beds for vegetables. You can see them here, planted, though nothing is coming up yet. One has a trellis for climbers. On the side of the house (not photographed for some reason!?!) they are growing huge crops of potatoes in galvanized garbage cans. Awesome! They are even keeping bees in the backyard for honey. (See bottom photograph) I will trade the bees for chickens when I get my own yard but I love their raised beds. I will need to find someone to build them for me.

Pea Vines

This is my first time growing peas and was my first time building a trellis. I came home very pleased to see that the first flower is on this plant. It is climbing like crazy and I am amazed at how the little tendrils grab onto the twine so vigorously. It's a fascinating little plant! Only 2 shoots out of 6 grew so I don't expect much in the way of a harvest but we'll see.

On the Ferry Home

Three nights of camping and outdoor living, and he is still willing to let me take his portrait. Very nice of him. I take so many portraits of him that in some ways this is really more a journal of him than me. He didn't have a good time this weekend while we were camping.

Pizza FAIL

I had a brilliant idea that we should attempt to cook pizza on this camping trip. We are really good at cooking it at home and the simple ingredients lend themselves to easy camping packing. Unfortunately, camping pizza was an epic FAIL. The cheese on top refused to melt despite sitting on a hot fire. I even tried to melt it by waving a large hot coal over top of it. I suggested we just let it sit there until it decided to melt (because it seemed inevitable) but J thought the bottom was burning and we should take it off. As you can see, it didn't work. Michelle and J sampled some of the pizza carnage but no one really had pizza for dinner. Instead, I had three smores for dinner.

It was a good idea in theory, but we didn't have some essential skill needed to make it work. I am not sure if we will try this again or not. But I enjoyed shouting out "Pizza FAIL" while we tried to cook it.

Earlier in the day, I went on a very lovely long bike ride and then on a very nice long walk with J.

Fire

I love building and tending to fires.  It's one of the only reasons I go camping. Tonight we had a very specific kind of fire that we needed to cook our dinner on...as you'll see in the next post.  Unfortunately though, I don't think the fire really had anything to do with the disastrous results.

Target

The second day of camping and we got some decent weather. Michelle went off on a long bike ride so J and I toured around the campground on our bikes. The campground is built on the site of an old WWI fort that's been long abandoned. This is the site of an old shooting range.

Tarp Thing

Some terrible phone pictures of J's tarp thing...but at least they prove that he did it! Note the artsy/designey stick holding up one corner.

Man Chore

When we arrived at the campground, we realized that M had neglected to bring their special food-table-tent that shelters our food and stuff from the inevitable rain. So J swore to us that he could "rig something up" using a tarp, some rope, a stick, and some nearby trees. I have to confess I thought this plan would go nowhere, other than maybe him hitting himself in the head with the stick and us needing to go to the emergency room. I have to say though, he made a very impressive modern designey tarp to cover our table...thus ensuring a rain-free weekend. I was impressed!

Last Car on the Ferry

By the way, I was the very last car that they let on the ferry, as in 6 feet away from waiting another hour+ for the next ferry while Michelle drove off into the sunset without us (well, that part's probably unlikely). Still, it would have super sucked to have Michelle make the ferry and then for us to miss it by one car. Apparently the lane "assignments" are all totally random and you should always always stick together. As I drove on, the ferry dude was like "Nice job."

Ferry

We are on the ferry headed out camping for the weekend. It's very chilly and we are all wearing our hoodies and looking somewhat miffed about the June weather. I really like the photograph I took of Michelle though. I took J's and then he took me and me and Michelle.

Ladybug

Another one of those days where this is apparently the only thing I shot. I had a surprisingly good checkup at the dentist today. Aside from the dire warnings about needing to wear a night guard immediately or I won't have any teeth left when I am 50. Is there something wrong with me that I just can't believe that I actually grind my teeth at night? I think that dentists just need to have some sort of product they can sell to grownups who've already had their teeth straightened. Out in the parking lot, I saw the first ladybug of the year on my car.

Bunting

The bunting is back! Now in faded, more compact form. Over the winter, my elaborate, very long, three-windowed, scalloped bunting blew up into the gutters to stay there getting soaked and covered with leaves and debris. I finally fished it out of the gutter, cut it by 1/3 and hung it only from the main window using suction cups. Less sophisticated, but should be less likely to end up in the gutters. Hopefully no bird deaths this year! p.s. window status = filthy

Garden Report

I took several shots of the garden today so that I could compare its progress over time. Dill, lemon verbena, and strawberries growing madly, we even have one ripe berry (later eaten by some creature) and one shoot to make a new strawberry plant. Chives and parsley ok. Tomatoes all growing well, though the farmer's market plants are towering over the store bought ones. Two pea vines (out of 6) are climbing the trellis, at the 7th and 1st rungs respectively. I can actually see signs of carrots but that's probably not good since they should be underground!? And I will have no idea when to harvest them?!

Pink

I snapped this shot snapped while walking between the front yard veggie garden and the back yard herb garden. It looks like a starfish to me, like a sea creature.

Selfie

This is probably the least photoshopped selfie I have ever posted but I am kind of ok with it. This afternoon as I was getting ready, I liked how blue my eyes were and I decided spontaneously to go lay on the couch in a sunny spot and take my own photograph. I had the 50mm on and was too lazy to change it.

 Editor's note: much older, wiser?, and with much longer hair than  four years ago today.  This ability to see my life over time is one of the things I love most about the photo a day project.

Bowl

Apparently the strawberries were good.

Golden Gardens

Since it's the nicest day of the year by far, our closest big beach (Golden Gardens) was absolutely packed. I have never seen it this crowded before. The people of Seattle are completely sun starved. After the worst winter and the worst spring so far (in my 4 years here), people are just clamoring for any bit of sunshine. I bet if a little spot the size of a manhole appeared on the pavement, someone would run to get in it.

If you look closely at this photograph you can see at least 5 people on their cell phones, 3 kites, a frisbee, and a volleyball in the air, a boy eating a popsicle, a boy digging a hole, a baby in a backpack, a girl being pushed into the water by her friends, a woman adjusting her bikini, and the most enormous pregnant woman I've ever seen. It's like a Where's Waldo without a Waldo!

Beach Walk

Today, J and I took advantage of the weather and a particularly low tide (-2ft) to do something I have always wanted to do but haven't known how to attempt. Two local beaches are about 10 minutes drive apart but aren't usually linked because the water comes all the way up to the rocks and train tracks. But at super low tides, a wet beach appears and lets you walk from one to the other on what is normally under water. So cool! I have always wanted to do it and it was a great day for it. We took the bus up to Carkeek Park, hiked along the beach, picnicked on the beach, and we went from the least crowded so that after our long walk, we turned a corner and stumbled upon the following scene at Golden Gardens....