University Farmers Market

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Tomatoes

I love the produce at this time of the year. We are just starting to hit the peak. Seattle has a bounty of markets. There seems to be one every day in a different neighborhood. We have one locally but I love the market in the University neighborhood. I picked up dinner – mussels just harvested yesterday smelling fresh of the sound, a warm ripe tomato that I served with the last ball of buffalo mozzarella, loaf of sourdough and sweet apricots. I also picked up some green beans, squash and lettuce for the coming week. Here are pictures of the market.

University Farmers Market

Radishes

farmer5

Bounty of Peppers

First peaches of summer

University Farmers Market

Rudbeckia

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Rudbeckia My rudbeckias are just starting to bloom. They are one of my favorite summer flowers. I have them in a pot with blue salvias. They also make great bouquets. I’m looking forward to cutting some soon.

Bandera Mountain

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Bandera

I haven’t been motivated to get on the trail much this year. I need to get out more. G is making a point of getting me on the trail in preparation for France. Two weeks ago we went up Rattlesnake which was pretty nice but busy. Today we went up Bandera.

The original plan was to go to Mason Lake. The trail is in great shape all the way. We picked up our friend around 9am and headed to the trailhead. It is just off I-90 about 45 miles east of Seattle. Very easy and very popular.

The road to the trailhead had been washed out by the major storm we had in December. They fixed it in April but it is quite amazing to see the slope of destruction and realize the power of water. There are trees stacked upon trees and boulders up the slope.

Once at the trailhead, we tried to sign-in but they were out of permits. So much for keeping track of who is on the trail. The first mile is a nice shaded walk passing two streams. The incline is mild. The trail then branches off to the left and starts some serious climbing. This is the new Ira Spring Trail and it is in great shape. We did this trail in 2003 before they new trail opened and it was brutal climb.

The trail climbs steadily and crosses several openings where you can see I-90.Along the way, you can see penstemon, Indian paintbrush, ocean spray, lupine and charming dogwood. The clouds had burned off and it was getting warm. After a couple of large switchbacks, we got to the junction of the trail, if you can call it that, to the top of Bandera.

I wasn’t that interested in going on the additional mile to the lake. It would just be swampy and full of bugs. So we decide to climb part of the way up to Bandera for the vistas. This final mile is a killer. The incline is about 45 degrees and it is a narrow little path of boulders. We were a week late for the wildflowers. Last week, the bear grass was stunning. But the over 90 degree days had taken a toll on the flowers and they were fried.

We went about 1/2 way up and pull off the trail onto some boulders. Here we sat among the heather, knickaknick, paintbrush and bear grass admiring the vistas while eating our lunch. Going down was actually worse than going up. It is a slippery ankle buster. We carefully went back down and joined the new trail.

The rest of the way back to the car was muggy and overcast. The patches of shade provided cool relief. Overall – 6 hours, 2000ft elevation gain, 4 miles RT.

Here are a few pictures:

Dogwood

On the Bandera Trail

I-90 from Bandera Mountain Trail

French Lessons

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I finished my first week of semi-intensive French at Alliance Francais here in Seattle. I have been studying grammar on my own and listening to podcasts. My favorite so far is Ma France video podcasts at the BBC Language. I also really enjoyed the French podcasts from the Australian site -World Languages Podcast.

But I also needed something that would force me to speak French before my class in Villefranche sur Mer. So I signed up for beginning French at Alliance Francais. I took two session back in 2000 before I went hiking in the Alpes Maritime. They were very good. Unfortunately, they only have Beginning, Intermediate and Advanced so I’m back at the very beginning.

The instructor is a young woman from Paris. She is very enthusiastic. The class has a mix of different level students. There are a couple of high school students who are doing additional study in summer. Everyone is there for fun. And I’m attempting to speak. My accent is terrible but this is good. I might be able to start a little bit beyond beginner when I get to France.

So far this week, we have learned to introduce ourselves, learned about feminine and masculine nouns, learned professions and a little bit of etiquette when meeting someone to understand when to use vous or tu.

The class is three days a week for two hours. It is disrupting our schedule but G is very supportive. I leave for work around 7:30, work until about 5:30, go to class and then getting home around 8:30 in time for a late dinner. My computer time is getting seriously impacted. But change is good.

A scorcher of a day

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The beauty of living in the Pacific Northwest is we have mild summers and winters. It is rare that it snows and rare that it gets above 90 degrees. And when it does, we melt.

Well, today was one of those over-90 degree days. The weather folks had been predicting so everyone prepared. One the way to work, I saw a man walking to work in shorts carrying a briefcase. It probably would have been fine except had was wearing black socks pulled up to the mid-calves. Everyone at work was in shorts and sleeveless tops. It was nice to be in an air-conditioned building.

After work, I went to my French class. The building was sans climatisation et trop chaud. I could barely concentrate and exhausted at the end of two hours.

And now it is 10pm, it is 75. No sleep for me tonight.

Laundry Day

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I grew up in the hot central valley of California. We never had a dryer. Instead we had a clothes line. One of my chores was to hang out the clothes. It was in the sunny part of the back yard. We had planted two fruitless mulberries for shade but made certain the back corner was still sunny for the clothesline. We also grew our tomatoes in a nearby corner.

I would lug the heavy laundry basket down the stairs and out the screen door. It would always slam after me since my hands would be full. My bare feet skipped across the sidewalk path and through the hot grass. I always liked the sheets because they would be fast and easy to hang. I hated socks and underwear. They took forever to hang each individual piece.

And now 30 years later, I have a clothes line again. We decided to put the greenhouse to even more use and strung a clothes line among the tomatoes. It is great. It is warm and the fans produce a gentle breeze. The clothes are dry in no time. Plus they smell sun kissed fresh. A little stiff but very fresh.

Laundry Day

Old City Cemetery – Sacramento

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We didn’t get a chance to get down to California at Mother’s Day this year. I had a business commitment which took me out of town. We missed the salvia sale at Cabrillo College. G was disappointed but it was probably good to miss it and have a break from salvias.

We decided to go Father’s Day instead. It also gave us a chance to celebrate my in-law’s 55th wedding anniversary. I thought it would be nice to explore the gardens and nurseries of Sacramento. I checked with Chris for recommended nurseries. She recommended Busnell’s Nursery near Roseville. It had Annie’s Annuals so G was interested.

I also checked the Sacramento Bee before we left and came across a wonderful article on the Old City Cemetery. The Hamilton Square area is a planted with many plants from the Mediterranean area. Perfect!

Bushnells was wonderful. It has a great collection of daylilies. G had to pick up two plants of course. We were running late when we finished but still had time to stop by the cemetery.

The afternoon was hot – 105 degrees. The valley was having their first over 100 heat wave. So here were two North westerners out in the mid-day sun. Mad-Dogs and Seattlites! But we loved it. G was in plant heaven. There were many salvias in full bloom. One plant stumped G. He finally identified it yesterday as a dianella.

For more information on the cemetery, check the link above or read this article from SF Gate.

Here are a few photos of the day:


Created with flickr slideshow.

Enjoy!

Menton and Luberon

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I finally made some progress on our plans for the two weeks after the class. We definitely want to tour the gardens on the Riviera. I came across several garden tours the first week of October. It sounds unusual to tour the gardens in the fall but it is actually a good time. There are summer rains which will rejuvenate the gardens and there is a second bloom early in October. It is perfect timing for us since my classes are over at the end of September.

I have been looking for places to stay on the Riviera, either in France or Italy. I have had a bit of difficulty finding a place. Menton is my first choice. I didn’t have any luck at first along the coast so I have been looking a bit inland at places such as Vence and Grasse. So many of the places are large villas that will not work for us.

I finally go a chance to focus on getting our accomodations this weekend and I found a place in Menton that looks like it will work for us. It is along the harbor but it does not look like it will be too difficult to get in and out and there is public parking near by. I’ll post more information as soon as I confirm that we have the rental.

I also sent off the deposit today on a rental in the Luberon for the second week. Paolo has a great site for information on the Luberon area. We are renting La Madeleine . We want to hike and get a chance to get out into the country. I’m excited.

No longer a cell-phone virgin

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We have been avoiding getting a cell-phone for ages. We just haven’t really seen the need. We don’t normally talk to a lot of people on the phone. My job involves a lot of phone work so I prefer to not be connected once I leave work. Of course, there have been times when it would be handy. Our cat sitter would have liked to have had a phone number to reach us several times. It would be handy rendez-vous with friends or calling when you are late. And of course, it could help in an auto emergency. But we’ve been able to hold out this long.

But I’m going to need a phone when I am at school in France. I will just feel more comfortable with one plus a lot of rentals no longer have a land phone.

A co-worker said he had a spare quad-band phone that he wasn’t using and it was unlocked. This sounded perfect. But I thought I should probably become familiar with it before I leave. So today I went to T-Mobile and picked up a SIM. I talked with a rep on Saturday and he was very helpful. I explained I wanted the cheapest way to get into a phone and that I already had a phone. It turns out to be more expensive to purchase a SIM than it is to get the low end phone to go. Or I think?

The SIM was $50 but came with 100 minutes. The Nokia was $30 with $10 of phone time. I’m still not certain what was best but I got the Nokia (which I won’t use). I’m going to use my friend’s phone which is a nice Samsung camera phone with a lot of options. It even came with an international plug adapter.

But since it was also T-Mobile, I’m not certain if it is unlocked. I’ve installed the SIM and it is charging. I’ll call customer service tomorrow to see if it is unlocked. I’m keeping my fingers crossed. If not, I’ll send it to a place locally to get it unlocked. Unfortunately, that will be another $25. It is now getting to the point where it might have been just cheaper to purchase a phone in France. Or to try a different US carrier.

But I’m learning.