The Covid Times have been weird and not just for me, I know. In truth, I don't know how much it's Covid and things being weird and isolated and shutdown and how much it's just the state of the nation and state of the world. I've been so absent from blahdeblahblah, but it's certainly not like I've been traveling or socializing elsewhere and I'm also lagging horribly on book bingo; there will be no black-out bingo card for me this year though you'd think I'd have more time for reading.
So where has the time gone? What have I been doing other than discovering just how challenging, but also pleasant, "working from home" full-time can be? This afternoon, after a week of furlough, I decided to download the photos from my camera for the first time in months and also breeze through the images on the iPad to see what I'd recorded of the last several months. Food, it seems, and bicycle outings, and the sights of West Seattle. Sadly, Photoshop is on the list of things I've lost this year so the photos that follow are all pretty raw, minimal cropping and essentially no adjustments. C'est la vie/guerre/covid/temps.
Cookery! Baking has been a popular pastime for many a housebound Covidite this year and we have been no exception--though I eschewed sourdough, having gone through that back in 1970s. My rule is that you don't have to repeat a fad if you don't want to. Instead, I've spent some quality time with Julia Child, attempting to improve my tart baking. I admit that the simple plum torte, using a recipe I found online, has been just about as rewarding and a lot less stressful. Most of my kitchen activities have been related to using up produce.
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Basic English muffin bread
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Birthday cake! (Scott made it using his favorite Fannie Farmer recipe. It was delicious.)
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Apricot (and blueberry) tart from Mastering the Art of French Cooking, ready for the oven
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I don't swear this is the same tart, but it's based on the same recipe
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We got a *lot* of peas this year, and more beets than we could readily use so I learned to make spreads from them. (The recipe calls it "pea hummus" but commenters insist that only garbanzo beans make hummus, so I call them "spreads.")
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| Say, here's the pea stuff in the mini-chopper. Easy-peasy, aside from the time-consuming business of shelling the peas. |
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Biking! Since I wasn't getting any miles traveling to and from work, Scott and I got into the habit of taking a bike ride most evenings and weekend days. I've driven him mad asking him to take photos with his cellphone for me. I'm finally sharing them here.
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Rainier, looking far less impressive than it does in real life
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The one day that really felt like summer; the afternoon I took an impromptu swim at Lincoln Park during a bike ride. I dried off on the ride home.
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We rode by this a number of times before I finally insisted upon a photo. West Seattle, I love you!
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You would not believe the number of photos we have of Jeb, the West Seattle pony. Did I already say I love West Seattle? Well, Jeb is another reason why.
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Not too far from Jeb is a yard with two "rescue bunnies," whose names, sadly, I can't now remember. Buttercup, maybe?
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There are a ton of gobsmacking views to be had in West Seattle though this untweaked photo really doesn't do this one justice.
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We have stayed almost exclusively in West Seattle for months, but we went farther afield just this last weekend to visit the Whistling Train Farm (aka WTF) in Kent. Partially, it was to boost my bike miles for the year, but we also wanted an adventure.
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Not yet at WTF, this charming trompe l'oeil signage is at an as-yet unnamed park not far from South Park.
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The U-Pick sunflower field at WTF
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I didn't know there'd be donkeys!!!
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This should be the first photo in this section, but Blogger has changed enough since I used it last that I don't trust myself to try to move it.
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Garden! We've hung around home, pretty much, allowing lots of time for gardening--and yet, if I'm to be honest (and what else is blahdeblah for?), the yard kind of looks like hell now. But earlier in the year, my old photos suggest, it was quite lovely.
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The apricot produced this year and some of the fruit survived long enough to be picked. (Scott built a clever device to allow us to reach the higher fruit, but I didn't copy that image over so it's not shown here.)
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The Harvest (don't scoff!)
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Bleeding hearts etc., from earlier in the year
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Flowers, broccoli, peas!
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It was a good year for the lavender.
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More Harvest. (The purple peas were pretty on the vine, but the pods aren't so edible so, really, green is the way to go.)
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The purple peas were also more regimented and a bit less round.
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Some years the plum tree produces, some years it doesn't; this is a productive year. We've been making jam.
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I wish I could remember what this flower is called--maybe it's a sort of fuschia?
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Early days for the new veg garden; here we had to add little umbrellas for the tomato starts because I failed to harden them off properly. They are now gigantic but the fruit is still all green. Sigh.
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This is a spot we've been eating at. Frequently.
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It's been The Year of the Jay; shown here and below are Steller's jays though we've also had scrub jays.
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That's some bad hat, Harry.
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| Gradka rests atop the back step |
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And generally encapsulates the ennui of existence.
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Goat Circus! Jennie Grant brought her new goats to West Seattle for my birthday:
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Charlotte in the blackberry patch
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Chloe in her fancy harness
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Chloe, looking shy
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If it works, this should be a video of a young goat doing a stunt!
Demonstrations and other life-changing events!
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Visiting the Farmers Market now means waiting in line and marveling at the density of one's fellow shoppers.
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We ventured to Beacon Hill for the silent and masked George Floyd demonstration one cold wet day.
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And we stayed home for the "shelter in place" protest
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Why limit yourself to "something old" when you can have it be "something wacky" as well?
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Scott and I dressed up for an event featuring an officiant and two witnesses in our backyard.
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How often does a jacket like this get a chance to go out?
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Just about the most charming card ever.
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I cannot explain the absence of cocktails shown in this post.
