New Year's Eve

I know that, statistically speaking, most New Year's resolutions are not kept.  However, as a statistician, I also know that 80 percent of statistics are made up on the spot, and that I only need to be correct 95 percent of the time.  So with that in mind, my resolutions (in no particular order) are:

1.  Figure out how to make seared ahi without blackening it or overcooking it.

2.  Use at least one recipe from every magazine I receive.  I started doing this several months ago with about a 50 percent success rate, so if I just up that by one or two percent, I'll have met my goal.   

3.  Be more organized.  I know, I know, everyone makes this resolution every year, but look I already started!  I downloaded this printable labels from the Better Homes and Gardens website and have been using them all over the house.

 

4.  Laugh more.  I really hope I keep this resolution!

Happy New Year's Everyone! 

The Sixth Day of Christmas

...began with rain on the windows and ended with wind in the trees.  Perfect.  

All the Christmas decorations and the trains are put away.  A clean slate for the new year.

 

The Fourth Day of Christmas

...Felt like a Monday, mainly because I went into work (and got things accomplished!) in the morning.  But I also managed to finally finish some Christmas gifts I've been working on (please, no snide comments, I still have eight days left!).

Flax seed +

Dried lavender +

Fabric =

Lovely Little Yoga Eye Bags!

The Second Day of Christmas

It is the day after Christmas. Sometimes this day seems like a let-down.  There is  nothing left to anticipate, nothing left to prepare, nothing to do, really, except clean up the mess.  However, in this house, and in many others, it is the first day of actual vacation from work, so how should we use the time?

It seems to me that in our modern Western culture, we've forgotten how to celebrate a proper holiday.  In several other cultures, at least one holiday or celebration spans many days.  Christmas, in fact, used to go for twelve days--we even have a song to that effect. But now we just have the "shopping holiday" that runs from Thanksgiving to Christmas (and only that long, if we're lucky).  Christmas has become another manifestation of the busy American culture--spending a lot of money and frantically doing a lot of things, then having one big let down after it's all over.  

So I say we should go back to celebrating all twelve days of Christmas.  In my household, we've decided that one of our Christmas day traditions will be to go sledding (or hiking, it poor snow years).  We did not have a white Christmas at our house yesterday for the first time in years, being stuck in a high pressure system that doesn't seem to end.  But we were able to find snow on Moscow Mountain and a really gnarly sledding run.  It was great!  We also found this pair on the mountain, still dozing when we found them on the quiet Christmas morn.

   
Now to come up with a tradition for today!

'Tis the Season

The Christmas decorations have been up for a couple of weeks now, so I thought I'd get around to showing them off!

The wreath was made by the University of Idaho Forestry Club

Stars in the window!

My mother made this little dove!

I made this ornament over a decade ago.

Wee little teacups dressed in red!

The train comes into Plasticville!

My paperwhite is getting larger!

A little angel made out of thread, also made by my mother.

First Attempts at Root Cellaring

I have been thinking about how I might make a root cellar for some time.  The problem is that our house doesn't have a basement, and I've always been worried the garage might actually freeze.  After deciding that the soda cans stored in the garage only very rarely freeze, I decided to take a chance.  This decision was fueled in part by the overabundance of carrots produced in my garden this year.  I bought a bin and liner from Gardeners.com and lined it with play sand.  The instructions with the bin actually said to use sawdust.  However, I couldn't figure out where I could get sawdust that wouldn't have any treated wood in it, and I had seen another suggestion for "horticultural" sand.  The building supply didn't have any of that, but said play sand would work.  So play sand it was.  If anyone has reason to believe this is not a good idea, please speak now or forever hold your peace (no refusing carrots served in the winter at my house)!

Carrots, layered and buried!

Stored in the garage, against the house.

My husband said I should purchase a second bin to store potatoes if this works out.  Whom am I to argue with that?!?

Short Days

The days now are painfully short.  Maybe not Alaska short, but short nevertheless.  Short enough that I want to sleep all the time.  Then I kick myself for any moments slept during the day because it reduced my exposure to daylight by a non-insignificant amount.  Fortunately I live with a toddler that prevents that from happening very often.  So in the meantime, I've been trying to focus my energy on making the house cozy and bright, to the extent that's even possible.  To that effect, I bought paper white bulbs at the Winter Market on Saturday and began to force them using any receptacles I could find.  It's hard to take pictures, even in the middle of the day due to the low light.  Too dark without the flash, too glaring with it.  But I'm looking forward to floral loveliness in a few weeks!

I've also been knitting like there's no tomorrow--winter always puts me in this mood.  Plus, I am trying to make a lot of Christmas gifts this year.  I've been working on the hat below for about a week, and it feels like I've ripped out more stitches than I've put in.  The pattern is just knit two, purl two on an uneven number of stitches, but if I'm not paying attention (or the light is too bad and I can't see), I tend to loose track of what I'm supposed to be doing next and the pattern gets wonky. 

I'm also making yoga eyebags as gifts.  I'll take more pictures when they're done, but here's what the outside will look like.  I'm going to stuff them with flax seed and lavender from my garden.  These little beauts sell for $15 online...hmmm.   

Well, that's all for now.  I think I'm going to go knit.  Or sleep.

A Mindful Thanksgiving

Early in the morning on Thanksgiving Day, hardly a mouse is stirring in downtown Moscow.  Quietly, 24 students of yoga and one yoga instructor arrive at the Moscow Yoga Center, a locally-owned and well established downtown business.  Mat to mat, we all settled in for our practice.


Every holiday should begin this way, especially holidays that, while joyful, are also a time of stress and consumption.  I've practiced yoga for eight years, and ever so slowly, I have noticed that my mind really does settle down while I'm on the mat.  Yoga forces me to think about my body (which I almost never give a second thought otherwise) and by doing so, the daily chatter of life fades into the background.


This holiday season, I am making a concerted effort to focus on the little joys of life--putting my garden to bed, making a birthday cake for my son, knitting by a warm fire.  We have had the excitement and business of a great cyclocross season, now it's time to light a few candles in the darkness of winter and settle in with a good book!

A Snowy Conclusion to Cross Season

The Inland Northwest Cyclocross Series ended yesterday, with much fanfare and camaraderie.  Of course there are still races in Bend, OR and Nationals, but for our family, the season is over for another year.  I admit I am sad we have reached the conclusion, although my husband informed me that he was not sad he didn't need to get on his bike today to train.  

It was a lot of work, this cyclocross season.   It was a lot of work for my husband to train and compete, a lot of work to drive all around Washington and Idaho, a lot of work to figure out how to kill to two hours at the course prior to the race so that my husband could complete his pre-race routine, a lot of work to figure out how to take pictures, wrangle children, and ring cow bells simultaneously.

But it was totally worth it.

Apple orchard rows make good cyclocross courses at the next-to-last race in the series!

Just a light dusting of snow for this race--enough to ensure complete carnage.

Pumpkins line the course at Walter's Fruit Ranch

Four to five inches of new snow awaited us in Coeur d'Alene Sunday.

It's a good thing the tape is blue--all the better to see it in the snow!

Walla Walla Weekend

My husband and I had a date weekend in Walla Walla, Washington for the cyclocross races.  Walla Walla is a fun little town, recently promoted from the status of "sleepy little town" by the growing wine industry in southern Washington.   It is home to Whitman College, which also gives it a nice college town feel, except that instead of bars it is home to many, many vineyards and wineries.  It also has a very nice downtown, complete with an old fashioned Main Street Macy's store, which as far as I can tell, is one of the last Macy's in the Inland Northwest that is still, in fact, in it's original location.

The first race was on Stanger Farm.  In the Halloween weekend tradition, costumes were worn by some riders.  This year, in addition to the haunted barn and double creek crossing, the race featured a triple flyover!  Apparently the TFO took four weeks to complete, and appeared to be held together by tin roofing and rebar.  Stanger Farm is also home to many, many old bicycles and bicycles parts, which makes for the most interesting race venue from a spectator perspective.

The second day of racing was at the reservoir near Walla Walla.  This venue was much less walkable, didn't have any interesting bike memorabilia, but offered a spectacular view of the course and surrounding area from the top of the earthen dam.  I had a good time playing with my camera features while eating my lunch and waiting for the racers to come around again so that I could cheer.  The surrounding hills were really pretty and the sky was spectacular.  It had me thinking about what the area must have looked like long ago when it was still Nez Perce and Umatilla territory.  I took some pictures in black and white and sepia just to try to get an idea, but I'm sure even that is not capturing the wild essence of what it would have been like.

The prizes for the race winners!

The second and top tiers of the TFO, with the Walla Walla countryside in the background.

In the distant background, you can almost see the Blue Mountains.

The TFO!  I tried all day to get a shot of a rider on each level, but it never happened.

The haunted bike barn.

Flagging for the race.

An ivy-covered cruiser.

Rider on the TFO in the late afternoon.

Care for a cruise, anyone?

Riding into the sunset!

I wonder what Walla Walla County looked like 200 years ago.

It was such a beautiful weekend for a bike race!

My husband riding through a field at the reservoir.

My mother would call this a "cloud painting day."

Apple Cider

Another perfect fall weekend!  It rained in the early morning hours but dried out nicely for a morning of cider pressing and apple picking at Bishop's Orchard in Garfield, WA.  The Palouse used to have many orchards, as the climate is particularly well-suited to them, but wheat has long since taken over as the primary crop.  Few orchards are left in this area.  Bishop's is a moderately-sized orchard with five cider presses (available on weekends only) and lots of U-pick apples.  


According to Michael Pollen, in his book "The Botany of Desire," ancient varieties of apples make for poor eating.  However, prior to the 20th century, the primary use of apples was not for eating but for making hard cider.  In fact, the term "cider" used to refer exclusively to hard cider.  Hard cider has a low alcohol content, but was a useful (and tasty) way of making a drink that was safe to drink in the era before pasteurization and refrigeration.  


The cider I am drinking right now has no alcohol, but is still infinitely better than its watered-down cousin, apple juice.  I personally can't stand apple juice, but I can look forward to the shorter days of fall if only because of the promise of warm cider with cinnamon!

Washing the apples before pressing.

Liquid gold!

Half our jugs are filled!

Apples ready for transport!

Happy bees make happy apples (I bought some honey too!)

   

Best. Weekend. Ever.

And for no particular reason.  Well, for a few reasons, but all them are strikingly ordinary.  First of all, we had absolutely glorious fall weather.  The kind you just aren't guaranteed here in the Northwest, and certainly not on back-to-back days on the weekend.  Crisp and clear, with highs around 60--perfect.  We still haven't had a frost yet, which has the gardener in me somewhat...confused.  I am still pulling tomatoes, peppers, and zucchini off the vine and I love it.  This weekend we picked the last of the pears, and started on the plums.  More dehydrating in store for me!  Plums are so much easier to manage than pears, which have to be peeled.

In other news, it was a two-race weekend in the Inland Northwest Cyclocross series.  My husband rode really well (his best showing ever!), and we had a great time.  The home-field advantage helped--familiar courses for my husband and less driving for all of us.  Plus, good BBQ on Saturday and lots of time to visit with friends.

The temperature dropped again today, and it started raining.  At this point in the season, I don't think I'll worry about covering the garden when it does freeze.  It's time to be done with summer veggies, and time to dig up the root crops for storage.   Time to transition to winter.

This picture summarizes the weekend best.  A month or so ago, I tied back the holyhock so that I could open the garden gate.  Now the little sunflowers have bloomed and it looks like a big, lazy bouquet from my kitchen window.  A perfect end to a great gardening season!