Weekend snaps as fall hits Seattle

Some variation of this art has appeared on this rock in Lincoln Park for several months now.

 
The weather has definitely taken a turn for the cool and wet, but I've promised not to complain about it until at least mid-November. We should be shifting tomatoes in to hang (but where?) to ripen and planting all those bulbs we so optimistically ordered back in August that showed up ten days ago, but that doesn't seem to be happening quite yet. Instead, we went for a ride yesterday and today I'm just a bit out of it. So, some photos:

The 100 VoteForward letters dropped into the outgoing mail slot at the post office on Saturday

We celebrated by breaking our ride at Alki for lunch from Pepperdock. We had some attentive company.

Today was HarvestFest at the West Seattle Junction, as well as the usual farmers market:

Ukelele-playing dog

Shark!!!

 

Fan-girl watching the band

The band (--it felt a lot like a return to the old days of tree-lighting)

Little girl just watching stuff

Heading into the final months of the year, I'm just over a hundred miles short of my goal for the year:

What is that noise and what is this water falling from above?

The view out the kitchen window as fall at last hits West Seattle

 Not a lot of action in either short video, but a welcome soundtrack.

Now we can swim any day in November

Water taxi approaches the West Seattle dock

Well, truth to tell, it's not November yet so I'm not absolutely sure if The Postal Service had that right, but I can say that we can still buy fresh raspberries at the Farmers Market in mid-October and while on the one hand that's a little worrying, it does mean I can work off some impending mid-terms nerves by experimenting with a new raspberry tart recipe. 

 I wasn't entirely happy with my last crust (though we managed to polish that pie off readily enough) so I wasn't eager to make my usual raspberry pie, but it just seemed wrong not get raspberries when Big Brother Farms had boxes of berries for sale this morning. I bought the berries (okay, Scott bought the berries) and figured I'd come up with something. Once we got home I googled a bit and was pretty much sold on this recipe until I realized it called for six eggs which would clean us out of eggs for the week and also, that's just a lot of egg. I nosed around a bit longer and eventually landed on this summer fresh raspberry pie recipe since it seems like it's just never not going to be summer in Seattle again. (Nor, it seems, is it ever going to rain again. I tell myself I'll look back longingly on these dry days come February, but I don't believe it. I know I won't miss the smoke and haze from the Bolt Creek Fire, assuming it does go away eventually.)

I realized that I probably didn't really have enough berries to fill a normal pie pan and, since this pie isn't cooked I didn't think I could supplement the fruit with nectarine without Scott noticing. Instead, I broke out his cute little tart pans, which don't get much use, sadly, and filled them with the pate brisée sucré from Mastering the Art of French Cooking. Let me just me just say that is a dough that is a joy to work. It's one of the few items I've made from Ms Child's classic, but those books are worth having in the house, if only for that recipe. 

The several pages of how to make the dough are in a much earlier section

My blind baking technique needs a lot of work and it wouldn't have hurt if I'd reread the entire recipe a little more closely (oh; I'm supposed to prick the crust before the first nine minutes of baking as well as after I remove the beans that are supposed to stop them from puffing), but I insist they have a certain rustic charm. I also tell myself that the glaze thickened enough and that it will set up properly given some time to chill. Which is what is happening now:

Don't wake me; I plan on sleeping in.

Ruby at West Seattle Farmers Market

(And, I think, Ruby's webpage which seems to be a pile of other links: https://linktr.ee/westseattlebusker?fbclid=IwAR0UiAoNona5uhIX0BJm2VtT-3ERh5cZv247ULeEDAhTtqdhbZeK8Z3dFEo)

Photo Update for Posterity

The Greenman with his new fall hairdo

 

 

Bessie's mileage as of late September (288 miles to go to hit my goal)

 

These are some of my favorite things (in no particular order as I clear off my phone and camera):

Grace in the living room in the late summer morning light

Scott (and Bessie) overlooking Puget Sound in the late summer setting sun

Scone-making in progress (late summer fruit)

What I call "Grace being Grace"

Slice o' Smoky Saturday update

 Seattle has been pretty lucky all summer in not getting hit by the wildfire smoke that has plagued BC, Oregon, and Idaho, but all streaks must come to an end and today was the day for Seattle, though it's still just borderline unhealthy for everyone.

Airnow.gov Seattle graphic as of 12:54 p.m.

Realizing the air and the heat were likely to become issues later in the day, Scott and I uncharacteristically got up early and set out for Fresh Flours at about 9:30 this morning (because, yes, anything before ten on a Saturday morning is early in our world). The graphic then showed the needle at the high end of the green segment, so pretty decent. I was fairly gasping on the first hill, but I'm always gasping there; sadly, it has nothing to do with the air quality. 

We have serious doubts about the accuracy of the elevation gain number, but it looks impressive, doesn't it?

 I don't know if they're new, but we hadn't noticed them before: several of the road signs along the route (in the Riverview/Highland Park neighborhoods, to get ultra-local) had large colorful art on their backs. Naturally, I stopped to photograph a few:

We think the subsequent ones are subsections of this one, which was a lot larger than the others.

West Seattle's Fresh Flours, when we reached it, was hopping, but there was no shortage of pastry and plenty of seating on the patio. I don't know why it is but every time we sit on the Fresh Flours' patio, it feels like we're on vacation. It's magical, I tell you. There were a lot of house sparrows, looking to fill up on empty calories.

As it happens, I had seen that Paper Boat Booksellers was celebrating its three-year anniversary this weekend with 10 percent off pretty much everything, as well as a bit of a sidewalk sale so, since that can be on our route home (if you figure a mile or two out of the way is, in its own way, "on the way"), we stopped by there and did some shopping before finishing our ride in the deepening haze. (Does haze "deepen"? I'm not sure. I do know that I'm feeling a bit lightheaded.)

The day's haul / Local economy boosted / Essential supplies laid in

Another brief post for posterity

Labor Day Weekend Harvest*

 

This (late) morning's activity: a quick harvest.

 This afternoon's activity: figuring out what to do with plums this year when we don't want more plum jam, don't eat that many fresh plums, and can't get to the food bank to make a donation any time soon. I sense some plum torte--maybe enlivened with fresh fennel seeds?--in the near future. 

*Not pictured because not picked: the basil that is likely to figure in tonight's dinner.

 And, a few hours later:

NYT plum torte (with experimental fennel)**

**And with apologies to Julia Child and Paul Hollywood for being too lazy to add their mandatory apricot glaze. Maybe later.