Noted for posterity

 A tale in two screen shots:

Not quite cold enough to snow (or ice up the roads, fortunately)

Roughly 6.5 miles today puts me over 9,000 miles (recorded)

When the Farmers Market Gives You Beets . . .

At this time of year, there isn't a lot of fresh produce available at the Farmers Market and what there is tends to be sold in larger quantities than we usually buy. It all makes sense, but sometimes we end up with more than we can use in one week and then I start obsessing about how I'm going to use it up before it goes bad. Such was the case with a bag of beets purchased a couple of weeks back. We used some pretty immediately and then the remainder preyed on me. It's this sort of situation that calls for Joshua McFadden's Six Seasons: A New Way with Vegetables.

The options for beets were fairly limited, but I was happy to find a recipe for which I had most of the ingredients on hand, many of them purchased at the Farmers Market; I needed to go to the store for only couscous and cilantro. Oh, and I added a few turnips to supplement the carrots since we'd also purchased a large bag of turnips while having eaten most of our carrots already.

The beets in question were gold which I considered a positive: I didn't have to worry about staining the sink pink while peeling them and I think they looked pretty when mixed with the carrots, turnips, and onion on the tray. (Note: I didn't worry overmuch about quantities and I opted to roast everything together for 20 - 25 minutes rather than starting the beets on their own first; who has the patience for such fussiness after peeling and chopping up all those root vegetables?)

While they roasted I made the couscous, once again opting to go a little simpler and just leaving the smashed garlic in the mix, rather than trying to fish it out after the couscous had cooked (why, Josh, why?) My goal was to have all the components ready simultaneously as I wanted everything to be as warm as possible when it got mixed together.

Unfortunately, I'd forgotten entirely about the cilantro so I had to chop that after everything was out of the oven and off the heat, thus resulting in things being closer to the recipe's "slightly warm" condition. It was still delicious--and pretty to boot!

*Not covered in the above in any way, the citrus vinaigrette for which I subbed red wine vinegar for champagne vinegar. I also shook it in a jar rather than using a blender or food processor. Scott noted that he'd never have considered citrus with roasted vegetables, but that it really worked.

Incidental pretty

 

Wintering over water

The Big Storm hasn't materialized around Seattle, meaning that I've been able to get out on Bessie every day this week. Oh, I think I've been sprinkled on at least some most days, but it's still been, in a word, glorious. Yesterday was windy, but I realized I wanted to see what the clouds were like from the overlook we've been visiting regularly since the early days of the pandemic. It was worth battling some wind.

Today, I was more after mileage so I was happy to discover that the South Park branch of Seattle Public Library had a copy of Better Living Through Birding on its shelves since I'm trying to be a little more frugal about buying books. After picking up the book (and some free COVID tests!), I turned profligate and stopped for a coffee and pastry at The Scene in South Park. It wasn't entirely fiscally responsible, but it was damned fine. (Not to be confused with Real Fine Coffee which is also quite excellent.) Perhaps it was the coffee, though more likely it was a bit of a tailwind, but the ride homeward seemed much easier than the ride out had been. Views along the Duwamish helped:

 Indeed, the riding was so pleasant, I opted to continue along towards Alki, stopping en route to admire the views across the water:

Bessie started to feel like she wasn't getting her share of pixels so I pulled off onto a relatively new bit of pier/promenade to pose her against the skyline.

It was when she was posing by the Alki Statue of Liberty, however, that a passing stranger noted that her basket was reminiscent of an eagle's nest that had been around a while. I opted to take this as a compliment.

 

Bike-by Update

Post-ride recovery: crumpet and hot tea

 I'm still hazy about what I'm doing while not going to work every day. Oh, I still think I'd do well to find someone to pay me for something, but I don't know how likely that is to happen, and I really like not having to get up and get out by any particular time. 

 But, thus far at least, I'm still getting up (eventually) and getting out (most days). The forecast is for tomorrow to be significantly windy, with increasing rain and possibly snow by the end of the week so I thought it'd be a good idea to get Bessie out while I could. I took the scenic route* to fetch some essentials (because one doesn't like to be out of kitty litter) and so picked up some extra miles. It was a fine ride, as it happens, made all the finer by a civilized tea and crumpet after I got home. 

 Some day, perhaps, I'll do some sort of 2023 wrap-up recording books read, miles biked, etc. but, for now, a portrait of Bessie from Saturday's ride, when the rain held off until the final twenty minutes when it seriously poured.

 

 

*"Scenic route" is a bit of a stretch here since it was wet enough that my glasses were covered in rain drops so I was doing well to see the pavement, signage, and other vehicles.