From the comfort of my couch, it can be so easy to forget just how much I'm energized by time spent outdoors. Fall in particular is a challenging but important time for me to overcome my inertia and resist my temptation to spend the shorter, rainy days at home binge watching TV while plugging away at my current knitting project. I need as much time as possible out in the fiery beauty of fall, soaking in every falling leaf and newly emerged fungi before they all vanish for another year. So when two friends suggested in August that the three of us take a random Monday in October off work to go for a hike, I had to say yes. I was even prepared with a suggestion for the trail, Iron Goat to Wellington Ghost Town. I’d hiked the trail once before in October and remembered an easy hike along a spooky abandoned railroad corridor, framed by blazing maples.
Read moreLife: Week 44
This was a week filled with anxiety, frustration, and finally, thankfully, celebration. Andy and I, and much of the rest of this country, have been waiting four years for this particular celebration, and Saturday morning when we woke to the news that the Associated Press had officially called the election for Biden, I immediately climbed out of bed and popped open a bottle of sparkling wine. Not the same bottle from four years ago (bubbles don’t last that long around here) but close enough. And it turns out that celebrating Kamala Harris as our first woman of colors, first daughter of immigrants, first so many other things vice-president felt just as good as I’d expected celebrating a win for Hillary in 2016 to feel. After a year where so little has gone as anyone has expected or wanted, it felt so good, for once, to have something to celebrate.
Read moreLife: Week 43
Like everything this year, Halloween was different. With nowhere to go and nothing to do, I’d still planned to dress up for Halloween just to participate in my office remote costume contest, but when a migraine struck midweek, leaving me feeling achy and tired for the next few days, I no longer had the energy. I’ll just have to save the idea and supplies for another year. By the weekend, I was feeling mostly back to myself, a good thing too since we’d had a mountain of mulch deposited in our driveway courtesy of a free service Andy discovered - ChipDrop. Since I first mentioned my plan to convert a large area under our two apple trees into a new flower bed through the magic of sheet mulching, Andy argued that ChipDrop and their promise of ~20 cubic yards of free woodchips would be the perfect solution, and while I initially had doubts, he of course turned out to be right. Still, it turns out that a pile of wood chips almost as tall as me takes a lot of time and energy to spread around so my mother-in-law’s offer to come help with our project on Saturday was greatly appreciated. With her help, we were able to complete most of the project in just one day. Of course, even covering an area of around 450 square foot in a roughly 6 inch deep layer of wood chips barely made a dent in Mt. Mulch, and even now, many weeks later, we have a least half left. Still, no regrets. We’ll get through the pile eventually, and it’s hard to beat free!
Read moreLife: Week 42
In a year where so much has changed, it was such a relief to have my favorite fall tradition preserved, even in it was in a smaller scale. In a typical year, usually on the second or third weekend in October, Andy's extended family will gather for to pick apples and press cider on Vashon Island. This year, it was just Andy and me along with his dad and stepmom, so we had lots to do. The upside was with only four of us there to make cider, Andy and I went home with more cider than we have in years. Yet another thing to add to our stash of treats in the freezer! Speaking of freezers, with overnight temps for the weekend dropping below freezing, our Saturday night spent sleeping in the pink palace was a frosty one! We really put our sleeping bags to the test, but thankfully with the hood fully cinched on my - 15° rated mummy bag I stayed mostly comfortable. Sunday morning, it took us quite a while to work our way out of bed to restart a fire in the woodstove so we could heat water for breakfast. When we finally ventured outside, we were greeted with a bright but windy day. Along with the main event of cider, Andy and I had hoped to find some chanterelles since we'd found some last fall. Sadly even with the help of some friends who’d joined us for a day of foraging, as a group we only managed to find two chanterelles. The lack of fungi (at least the edible sort) combined with the biting cold put a bit of a damper on our day, but still the loveliness of a sunny fall day among the towering old growth maples surrounding us made it hard to leave. Eventually, as the shadows began to lenthten, it was time to head for home.
Read moreLife: Week 41
With family stopping by Saturday afternoon for what could be one of our last backyard meals of the year (at least the last one that won’t require lots of blankets) I finally had the excuse I'd been waiting for to bake our homegrown apples into a pie. They did not disappoint! After realizing I don’t have a standby apple pie recipe, I went with this one, and while I didn't have tapioca flour or starch, I really didn't think the pie needed it. While I don’t see myself baking another of these pies to eat all on my own, I’m definitely looking forward to adding this recipe to my seasonal pie repertoire! In addition to the pie, we made pizza, including one topped with butternut squash, caramelized onions, goat cheese, and prosciutto - definitely a new favorite! The flurry of social activity on Saturday aside, it was a quiet autumn week, spent mostly indoors keeping cozy as the days shorten and temperatures start to drop. For the moment, I’m really enjoying the feeling of slowing down and bundling up, but I worry that I'll struggle through what is likely to be a long, lonely winter. It may be time to revisit some of my favorite Alpine Trails Book Club reads like The Nature Fix, The Little Book of Hygge, and Forest Bathing to prepare myself!
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