Molly the Jack Russell Terrier at Christmas

Isn't this the cutest Santa picture? My friend Roger's Jack Russell Molly loves to dress up for the holiday season.

Kaila and Grandma on Thanksgiving

Kai loved her Thanksgiving dinner at Preservation Kitchen. She had fettucine noodles in butter and bites of her Dad's filet mignon. She had fresh squeezed lemonade and French Vanilla ice cream from Snoqualmie Ice Cream Company.

Alex at Molbaks

Alex and I visited Molbak's recently, and I took her Christmas photo in front of the large poinsettia display in the shape of a Christmas tree. We love the holidays, and have already made our lists and scheduled our shopping trips in preparation for the big day!

Dessert for Thanksgiving Dinner

Dessert was Pumpkin Walnut Bread Pudding, topped with Snoqualmie Ice Cream Company French Vanilla ice cream and caramel sauce.

Butternut Squash Soup

Our dinner came with this beautiful and organic butternut squash soup.

Main Course for Thanksgiving Dinner

The main course consisted of Turkey Comfit, on a bed of whipped potatoes and dressing.

First Course of Thanksgiving Dinner

The first course yesterday was a Butternut Squash Ravioli, garnished with raisins, walnuts, goat cheese and fennel.

Three Generations

Yesterday, we had four generations of our family together--my mother, me, my son, and granddaughter. Here are the three generations of women, posing for this shot in The White Room in my home.

From my mother, I got my Norwegian heritage, and my father was German and Irish. My son is Norwegian, German and Irish, and my granddaughter is Norwegian, German, Irish, Filipino, Hawaiian and Chinese.

A Cheery Fire on Thanksgiving Day

We had Thanksgiving Dinner at Preservation Kitchen in Bothell yesterday, and we dined in a lovely room in the old Craftsman Bungalow. Here is the lovely fire in the fireplace next to our table. It lent a wonderful ambience to our spirited and enjoyable meal.

Through the Eyes of a Child

It's always a wonderful experience spending a holiday (or any day!) with my 6-year-old graddaughter Kaila. At this age, all of life is such a great adventure, and we spend hours talking, playing games, and reading. She's turning into a good musician, and her formal piano lessons will begin in a couple of months.

Here is a shot I took yesterday as she was quietly contemplating her art project already in progress.

Thanksgiving Breakfast

Since we go out to dinner on Thanksgiving Day, I get to spend time Thanksgiving morning on a special breakfast. This year, we had guests staying overnight, so breakfast was a special occasion.

We began with miniature pears topped with yogurt and honey, followed by pineapple-mango juice served in tall flutes. We had fresh Starbucks coffee and Tazo tea prior to the main course, which consisted of large, golden waffles with blueberry compote and maple syrup. This was followed by scrambled eggs with Tillamook cheese.

This feast satisfied us until noon, when the appetizers appeared, and the day's festivities were launched.

Sweet Home Wood Stove

In our home, we have a Sweet Home wood stove, a top-of-the-line product for home heating. It came with the custom home, and the previous owner knew the value of an alternate heating source when she had the home built in Maltby.

This stove has gotten us through days without electric power, and it heats the house comfortably as well as providing a surface for keeping water hot and for cooking. We enjoy the heat and the ability to use less electricity as we try to reduce our carbon footprint. It's a great experience to retreat to the living room during this cold time of the year, and relax over a cup of hot tea and good conversation.

Autumn Has Its Colors--Beautyberry Bush

While most of the trees and shrubs are bare by now, there are some lovely and unexpected colors in the yard this time of year. This Beautyberry shrub from Flower World has full, green leaves all summer, and in early Fall, small berries start to form. By Thanksgiving, the berries turn a lovely shade of violet, and I'll have a few days to enjoy them before the birds make a feast of them. It's nice when a living plant can provide both aesthetic value and sustenance for the ecosystem surrounding it.

Beautyberry shrubs (Callicarpa Dichotoma) grow up to four feet tall, with a slightly greater spread. The arching branches bear pinkish to light purple flowers in summer, which mature into their signature light purple berries in autumn.

Getting Ready for the Holidays

Yesterday, Alex and I spent the day having lunch, cruising downtown historic Snohomish, and topping it all off with tea and dessert at the Cabbage Patch Restaurant in old town. With a very long Christmas list, we always start our shopping and planning in early November.

Our list made, we went through all the shops in the old part of town along the Snohomish River, made notes on possible gifts for each person on the list, and estimated our budgetary needs.

The caramel apple cider and Thai Iced Teas helped fuel us through the day, and we'll meet again in two weeks and start shopping in earnest! We love the holidays!

Visiting Skagit County

Broad, flat. Even cultivated
the Skagit is river-made strip malls
creep north along the Interstate and
in fifty years will bury its hearty fields
a dozen cows stand in a corner
of pasturere-chewing old dinners;
the effort to lean downand feed
tiresome and one stomach’s already bloating.
A wide patch of snow geese have settled nearby
with others circling lazily overhead
those on the ground pick at scraps of grain
a late plowing has scattered
among clumps of coal-colored mud
perhaps to lure them.
A fair November day of colored leaves
now mostly grounded, the few left hanging
flutter alone, no longer
low-clattering
against each otherlike shuffled cards.
Tunnels open silently in the landscape
triggered by location sentinels like boulders
left behind by receding glaciers
or like animals long buried in the Burgess Shale
whose distorted remains we ponder
trying to guess their living contours
tunnels of Memory darkened now
but for shards of light
glittering, sharp enough to attract a glance
a rusty fish hook bit reflexively by a passing thought
Intentions are the final mystery
we find ourselves moving before deciding to
as we are constant motion and decision
with or without awareness whose mirrorings
each arising superfluous, contingent, random
until becoming past and therefore necessary.
Did we come to be reminded
of what lies frozen in forms like Stonehenge
a calculator of future eclipses?
the sun mounting, the moon receiving
and for no-time there is nothing,
neither light nor dark
before the universe returns reborn

The Last of the Apples

We finally peeled the last crop of apples from our orchard and made two apple crisps this morning. There's a lot of satisfaction in growing your own fruit and using it for your cooking and freezing over the winter months. It's the first step in sustainable living, and we're making progress each month as we learn more skills to not only eat more healthfully, but to provide more of our own food.

You can still smell the nutmeg and cinnamon in the air this morning as these two apple crisps are cooling on the sideboard.

Comfort Food for Cool Fall Days

I tried out a new recipe today for Bran Muffins with oatmeal, bananas and chocolate chips. It's a great way to get your fiber, and I used soy milk and non-cholesterol margarine. They are very good fresh out of the oven!

Walks in Maltby Park with Juno

Juno loves that her 'dog-dad' is now retired, and he's been spoiling her lately by taking her on a number of walks each day, including three or four trips to Maltby Park during the week. Baseball and soccer are now over, and the park is quiet and deserted. Juno can find 10,000 sniffs in a single trip with her 200 million olfactories! It's a doggie paradise!

We stopped here under the horse chestnut tree to enjoy the lovely leaves and pause for a moment to savor the Slow Life here in Maltby.

Snow Geese in Skagit County

Snow Geese have begun returning to their wintering grounds in the Skagit Valley, mostly near Fir Island, after having completed their summer breeding on the Russian island of Wrangel. Snow Geese are a North American species, with both lesser (western), and Greater (eastern) subspecies, all of which breed in various parts of the Arctic Tundra. They will continue to arrive for a couple of months, and stay until about March.

They are an incredible sight, and estimates put their number at around 70,000. Here's a shot I took today as they made themselves at home in the Skagit farmland.

Lunch at the Calico Cupboard

We ate at the Calico Cupboard in LaConner today--it had been completely remodeled inside, and a fresh, clean new look and new menu greeted us. We started out with Tropical Iced Tea and Ginger Peach Tea, and then ordered a scramble and a turkey pot pie. The pot pie had crisp, perfect crust, and a savory filling. Just the type of spices to get me in the mood for Thanksgiving!

The pies have a long history in America. An early recipe by Mrs. E.A. Howland appears in The New England Economical Housekeeper and Family Receipt Book published in 1845:
"Pot Pie or Soup: Scraps and crumbs of meat make a very good dinner, when made into soup. Put all your crumbs of meat into the dinner-pot. Slice in two onions, a carrot; put in a little salt and pepper, and water enough to cover it; then cover it with a crust, made with cream tartar... Stew it one hour and a half, or two hours. A flour thickening should be put in five minutes before you take it up. You may bake your potatoes, or slice them, and cooke them with the meat."

November Weather in La Conner

Here is a shot of the town of LaConner that truly captures it's flavor--sun interspersed with dark clouds, quaint shops along the banks of the Swinomish Channel, small-town charm, and great shops and restaurants.

A Trip to LaConner, Washington

We took advantage of the sunny November day, and drove to LaConner today with Juno in the back seat. It was a great trip, and this little town of less than 900 inhabitants figures largely in our lives, with many wonderful memories of trips throughout the years.

La Conner was first settled in May 1867 by Alonzo Low, and was then known by its post office name, Swinomish. In 1869, J.S. Conner bought the settlement's trading post, and in 1870 had the name changed to honor his wife, Louisa Ann Conner (the French-appearing "La", representing her first- and middle-initials, stuck, and the town was forever after known as La Conner.

Here is a lovely shot of the Channel Bridge, which goes over to the Swinomish Indian reservation.

A World of Leaves

The leaves didn't turn very red this year, but the yellow color looks wonderful spread out over the front lawn and the gravel road out front. The trees are almost bare, so we will make one more foray outside this weekend to rake the leaves and use them for compost, mulch for the rose beds, and to line the walkways in my garden between the raised beds. Soon, the world will be stripped of adornment, and the bare outlines of trees and plants will remind us that winter, the season of rest and restoration, will soon be here.

Stranger in a Strange Land

Do you ever feel alone in the world, or at least different? My Halloween pumpkin is definitely a non-conformist, but he is not too happy about it now that Halloween is over. I'll go out today and let him know all the great ones in the world started out as completely unique beings, and that he is truly destined for greatness!