This Week in the Garden

Liberty Apples


Nasturtiums


Swiss Chard


Pumpkin


Scarlett Runner Beans

A Trip to the Farmers Market

Even though they said it was going to rain, it looked beautiful out so we enjoyed a nice bike ride to the farmers market. We brought home lots of locally grown organic food:

It was fun to use my new lightweight, reusable produce bags. We have lots of canvas bags that we use all the time, but it's nice to have some bags for carrying smaller amounts of fruit.

All of this delicious fruit is from Tonnemaker Family Orchard.
The peaches are absolutely scrumptious!
I know because I've eaten two of them already!

Fresh from the Kitchen

Mmmm...
Zucchini Bread and Blackberry Pie

Yes, the kitchen smells wonderful!

Quote of the Day

"As you walk and eat and travel,
be where you are.
Otherwise you will miss most of your life."

~ Buddha

Building an Electric Bass

Electric bass guitars are cool. Especially those you build yourself! Don and Ben have spent a good part of the summer building an electric bass guitar together. They rock! They started a while back, planning and scheming and getting the process started, but most of the hands-on work was done this month, just in time for Ben to take it to camp.

Building a bass takes a lot of time. Hours and hours and hours. They worked on a design, made templates, and cut out all the pieces. They sanded and sanded, drilled holes, routed parts to fit together, sanded some more, and applied a beautiful finish. They pieced it together, soldered the electronics in place, and added all the pretty chrome parts. It's an amazing accomplishment. And so beautiful.

Body cut-out with holes drilled for the bridge and neck,
and neck-pocket routed

Fret board glued to the neck and tuner holes drilled

Test-fitting the neck and body

Test-fitting the bridge & tuners
to make sure the tuners line up with the bridge

Routing holes for pick-ups and electronic controls

Oooh...chrome!

Testing the fit for the bridge, pick-ups, and controls

All together now! Isn't it pretty?

After the teak oil finish
Ta daaa!

Quote of the Day

"The beautiful thing about learning
is nobody can take it away from you."

~ B.B. King

Too Much Time on My Hands...

Actually, not really, but it is kinda quiet here with Ben away at camp. So this week, I'm doing all my regular activities plus a lot of decluttering and organizing. Certain areas of the house really needed some extra attention, and it's always fun to make things more efficient and livable.

Of course, I took the photos so I can remind myself of the accomplishment and so my dear readers can share in my organizational joy. Also, I know the men in the house will just smile politely and wonder what was wrong with the way it was before!

Fun with Jars:
for walnuts, almonds, peanuts, and cashews,
two kinds of trail mix,
rice and pasta,
and herbs from the garden

An Organized Entry:
for raincoats and umbrellas,
and cute little baskets to hold
sunglasses, keys, gloves, pruners,
and all the other little stuff

Useful Mudroom Shelves:
for boots and work gloves,
grocery bags and bike panniers,
bike tools, gear, and bungees,
extra towels for rainy day rides,
and a caddy for nails, screws, and miscellaneous hardware


Linen/Sewing/Office Closet:
for seasonal tablecloths,
quilting fabrics,
cloth for making gift bags,
and current boxes of bookkeeping files
for home, office, and farm


Do you have a favorite?

I think the jars are my favorite for their visual appeal, and they'll come in handy for bulk items when the local PCC opens next month. However, practically speaking, I'm thrilled with the mudroom shelves because they'll make our cycling lives easier, especially as we approach the fall and winter months.

Thanks for reading!

Today's Harvest

Plums!!!

Quote of the Day

"It takes a long time to grow young."

~ Pablo Picasso

Not Back To School Camp!

It's the beginning of another season of Not Back To School Camp! We drove to Eugene to meet up with everyone yesterday, and they were all so ecstatic to see each other. From there, they'll ride to camp on three buses overflowing with luggage and happy campers. I tried to take some pictures that capture the energy and excitement of the day.

Small groups of kids and staff mill about,
greeting each other and waiting patiently for the buses to arrive.

All a boy needs - backpack, portable amp, and electric bass guitar

The first bus has arrived! It's already half-packed with luggage, guitars, and other gear, from campers who came into town yesterday. Soon it will be full all the way up to the front seats. The kids will ride on the other two buses.

You can see the masses gradually increasing. Camp staff are wearing this year's official NBTSC t-shirt. Bright pink. By the end of camp, many of the campers will be wearing them, too. Speaking of camp staff, they are absolutely amazing. Each time I meet one of them, I'm delighted by their energy, enthusiasm, and stories about their own lives.

We brought a watermelon to share with everyone while they waited. It was a welcome treat.

There was much laughter, joking around, and many hugs.

So relaxed and happy...

When the third bus finally arrived (after having picked up kids at the airport), all the other campers rushed to greet it. Oh, the excitement!

Then, after hugs and waves goodbye, the rest of them loaded the buses, with the enthusiasm only camp can bring, and they departed for another year of wonderful camp adventures.

A Few More Garden Delights

It's been a week full of new, tiny growth in the garden. Tiny heirloom roses, flowering broccoli, developing scarlet runner beans, pea shoots emerging for a fall crop, and second growth baby broccoli heads.

This Week in the Garden

Mmm...home-grown tomatoes!


A male flower from the pumpkin patch


I don't think Indi likes tomatoes, but he looks a little guilty.


The butterfly bush is going wild this month!


A good view of the back yard from the upper waterfall area

Quirky Meme

I've been tagged! Although my online-savvy son told me I don't need to (or shouldn't) respond to being tagged, I decided that since it's from my sweet friend Raechelle, I'll (mostly) play along anyway.
Just. This. Once.

Here are the directions:
Link back to the person who tagged you. Mention the rules on your blog. Mention six unspectacular quirks about yourself. Tag six other bloggers by linking to them. Leave a comment on each of the tagged blogger’s blogs letting them know they’ve been tagged.

Here are my 6 unspectacular quirks:

1. I've only recently learned to think about driving places using north/south-type directions instead of just making left or right turns. It's not that I didn't understand the various directions, I just mainly thought about it all in a linear way. Now I have more of an aerial view of things. I also have a better sense of how different parts of town are connected to each other.

2. I hate speaking in public, for instance, to large audiences, standing at a podium doing a presentation of some sort. But I love to speak with/to small groups of people, even people I don't know, if it's in a small circular format with everyone sitting comfortably next to each other in chairs, or if I'm part of a small panel of people talking about a common topic to a larger audience.

3. I used to carefully choose just one or two books from the library to read within the given borrowing time frame. Then I met Don. (In a library, actually.) He showed me how to go wild at the library, to really use their resources, picking out as many books as might possibly look interesting. Now I pick out or reserve lots and lots of books about whatever topic or author I'm interested in at the time, and then I choose what I really want to read when I get them all home. It works out pretty well, and I read a lot more than I used to.

4. I don't like to go out of town without tidying my house - doing all the dishes, taking the trash and recycling out, and doing all the necessary laundry. I like coming home to a clean house.

5. I bump into or trip over things almost every single day. Walls, door jams, desks, corners of things, stuff left on the floor. I think this is why I love a tidy floor and an orderly home. It's less dangerous that way. I will be a bruised old women.

6. It is imperative that the toilet paper pull from underneath, rather than from over the top. This method is from my mother who taught me that it's neater that way, without any torn edges showing over the top. I would not, however, change someone else's method at their home, unless of course, the roll was empty and a new one was needed. In that case, pretending I hadn't really noticed their method, I would just rely on my default method. Ha! Can't wait to try it at Raechelle's!

**********

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I don't like to tag people on these kinds of chain things, so I won't.
(If you read this post here and it seems fun, feel free to copy it and do it yourself. Tag or not as is your preference. I'd like to know you did so I can read yours, though, so leave a note.)

Today's Harvest

Yellow transparent apples - some to eat fresh and some for pie. Delicious!

These apples are from a friend's small orchard, freshly picked today. A few of them had already fallen from the tree. I tasted one, and it seemed just right, so I gathered them up so they wouldn't go to waste. Hooray for the beginning of apple season!

Camano Island Camping

This week we enjoyed a great camping trip with friends at Camano Island State Park. Ben and I have been camping with this group of friends every year for about ten years, and for the last few years, we've gone someplace different every year. There were five families, seventeen people total, and we stayed in five cabins all clustered together, just up from the beach. We set up one cabin as the central gathering area, with tables, games and snacks inside, and covered picnic tables, cookstove, and firepit outside.

Camano Island has rocky beaches with driftwood scattered all around. We took some time each day to hike down through the woods to enjoy the shoreline.

Ben found the bouncy branches of a fallen tree that invited some exploration.

Anne brought some supplies for doing henna tattoos. Daniel sketched a flame design for Ben's tattoo, and then Anne carefully applied it while Tara looked on.

Hats, umbrellas, and tarps were helpful for the few hours when it was raining. One day was sunnier than the rest, but mostly it was cool and cloudy. We all enjoyed our week filled with talking, playing, laughing, and hanging out together.

Bicycling This Week

I've pedaled all over town for many different purposes this week, at least 50 miles total. Some trips have been short, some much longer. Some days have been sunny, others cloudy. I love the cloudy, breezy days because it's easier to keep cool even when I'm working up a sweat. I love the time I have on my bike to relax and ride, watch the scenery go by, and think about the beauty of the day. Here's a short summary of the week:

Where did I go?
* The farmers market, a bookstore, a bank, and a bakery
* Our CSA farm along the Sammamish River Trail
* Two libraries, the post office, another bank, and an office store
* The grocery store and a take-out restaurant

Who and what did I see?
* Two lakes, a winding river, and woodsy neighborhoods
* Geese, roosters, wildflowers, and a variety of gardens
* Friends, farmers, shoppers, and construction workers
* Families riding bikes and people walking side by side

What did I carry?
* A whole bunch of fruits and vegetables
* Books, bread, mail, printer ink, and paper
* Groceries for camping and dinner for the evening

One of the things I love most about riding my bike is the people I see. Sometimes I have chance meetings with friends when I'm outside a location like the library or the bakery, and they often notice me first because I'm on my bike. The red hair/Xtracycle combination probably helps. Also, when I stop in a store or at the farmers market, if I forget to take off my cycling gloves or I'm carrying my helmet, people strike up a conversation about bike riding. Clerks or other shoppers notice how much I'm carrying and wonder how I can carry it all on my bike. It's fun to tell them. Then of course, when anyone sees me with the bike and everything I'm carrying, they often do a double-take and inquire about it. I like this because it makes shopping and doing errands a friendly, people-centered activity instead of just something to get done. It's a good thing.

This Week in the Garden

We've got a lot of pretty growth in the garden this week. Blueberries are just starting to ripen, the pink lavaterra is blooming, broccoli and rhubarb are ready to harvest, and the oregano is going wild.