Snohomish Bakery--Sunday Morning

Sunday was a beautiful, mid-summer day, and I found myself driving through the country to downtown historic Snohomish.  The river was placid and very blue, having settled lower on its banks after a week of warm weather.  We found our favorite location inside the bakery, which is a little cubbyhole with an old leather couch and a portrait of Teddy Roosevelt in full military regalia behind us on the wall.

The sandwiches on home-made bread were wonderful, and it was fun to relax and watch the people out on a Sunday morning.  It was a great way to celebrate summer weekend hours in this lovely rural area.

Woodinville Farmer's Market

Yesterday, I browsed through the Woodinville Farmer's Market to  look for flowers, corn on the cob, and heirloom tomatoes.  I found all three, and the flowers were varying hues of yellow.  They look beautiful  on the French dining table, and made a lovely backdrop to our grilled salmon dinner last night, complete with grilled corn on the cob.

Oregon Grape--Species Mahonia

Oregon Grape," says Botanist Underhill, "is rather like the prophet—unsung in his own country." Common in this area, it is often overlooked these days, but not so among the Indians and colonists, and it appeared in all the pharmacopoeias until the late 1880’s. The Scottish botanist David Douglas, who roamed around here in the 1830's, identified it very quickly as a fine ornamental shrub.
There are more than 100 species of Mahonia, and since there are some 500 species of Berberis, taxonomists finally decided to move it into its own genus - Mahonias. However, many seed catalogs still classify it under Berberis (Barberry).

It's difficult to mistake this striking evergreen plant. The flowers are small, bright yellow, with six petals, nine sepals, six stamens, in 1-3 inch racemes in dense clusters. Leaves are from 4 to 6 inches long. They are dark green and lustrous in spring and summer, turning to bronze, gold, crimson and purple in fall.

Here's a sample from an early morning walk today in Maltby.

Raspberry Season

The raspberries are large and sweet this year, and so far I've made two batches of raspberry freezer jam, and one batch of raspberry-peach freezer jam.  I've made Raspberry Bars, Raspberry Cake,  and have used raspberries in everything I could think of--pancakes, waffles, on cereal, and just by themselves.  What a summer treat!

Here's my latest batch of jam, sitting on the counter 'setting' until they are moved to the freezer.

July Garden--2012

Here are my four raised beds this year.  I've inserted dahlias into the mix this year, and I hope they do well.  Everything is coming up nicely, and my beer traps for the slugs work beautifully--the slugs don't even go close to the vegetables!

The Garden Shed/Cabin--Year Two

The cabin seems like a permanent fixture this year, and I'm no longer surprised when I look out over the pasture and see it tucked into the corner, filled with my favorite things. During the sunny days of July, I've had many happy hours out there already, including a full 'summer cleaning' last week.  All of my Master Gardener textbooks and research materials are neatly filed on an oak bookshelf, along with books, magazines, and Thoreau's Journal.  My desk and chairs and antiques look like I always imagined they would,  having come together in this lovely structure built in Ohio and shipped out to Washington last year.

Here's the cabin in the late afternoon light, nestled up against the raspberry patch.  Everything seems to live together harmoniously out in the "Back 40".

Vintage Quilts

My favorite vintage quilt is the large one on the bed in  my guest bedroom/home office.  My grandmother finished the quilt top, but never got around to completing the quilt.  Several years ago, I added bunting and the backing, and tied the quilt in the middle of each "flower" from the pattern here called "Grandmother's Flower Garden".  It's one of the most beautiful quilts I've ever seen.  I've added a vintage baby quilt to the bed, and just recently found the little quilted pink and white pillow that my grandmother made for my aunt's dolls in the 1920's.