One reason why I've been so busy lately: school. I'm taking a full courseload of science and math this year, in preparation for my application to the program I'd like to get into next fall. Having attended school at Cornell, balancing coursework and exams for three classes has been a bit of a challenge! Although the benefit of not having to complete a class in 18 days outweighs that greatly! (One of my classes is the first in a sequence of biology classes for majors. I've been taking photos of the slides I have to learn to help me remember them, this one is the antheridia of a moss, Mnium.)

I've also been participating in a program called Citizen Action Training School, or CATS for short. It's a twelve week training program put on through the state agency Puget Sound Partnership, and my local fisheries enhancement group. (There are altogether five such schools planned throughout the state, but ours was one of the first to begin.) The goal is to educate concerned citizens on a wide variety of environmental issues that affect Puget Sound, including watershed pollution and stormwater. Each week we have speakers come in to impart their knowledge upon us about a specific topic. The range of topics is wide: tribal treaties and fishing rights, logging, rain gardens, and marine mammals are just a few topics that have been covered. We've also had a few field trips, although we've had such bad luck with the weather with those! (Saturday I found out about a hole in my boot, thanks to a downpour and some lovely wind.)

(It's been a good experience so far, and not only have we been learning from the speakers that have come in, but with such a wide variety of personal and professional experience, it's been really fun!)

The point of all of this training is to give citizens some tools and knowledge about how to affect change in the community. This school will end in a service project of some kind that is meant to have a lasting effect. Mine will most likely be on water quality, but no details have been hammered out yet... should be interesting!

Learning about the Lummi shellfish farming operation. (Algae is being grown in the bottles.)

CATS class at the south fork of the Nooksack River.

Vancouver, Day 2.

Whoops! I guess my promise to try to post these quickly never happened! Here they are now, the rest of Vancouver!

(I could go into a long paragraph about why I've not been posting as much as I like, but maybe I'll save that for a post later! Things to share!)

This building was on Granville Road, heading towards the bridge. I loved the windows in it, and there was a neat mural painted on the side.

Walking onto Granville Island. I really enjoyed the market and shops there, and I'm so glad it was recommended to me!

Walking over Burard Bridge.

Ducks at the lagoon in Stanley Park.

Creekside Park. Heading to the bus station to go home. What a gorgeous day it was!

Vancouver

I've had every intention of keeping up with my blog, and getting back into writing more often. And then classes started. I'm taking a full course load this quarter, on top of working (okay, I don't work that much, but still) and doing training for a volunteer program through the Puget Sound Partnership and my local RFEG (that would be regional fisheries enhancement group). So keeping very busy.

But I've had these photos from a trip to Vancouver I took in September on my desktop, and I realized I should probably at least try to post them! I went up only for a short trip, got up there on a Friday afternoon and came back Saturday evening. My primary reason for heading up there was to see Neko Case perform. She's one of my favorite musicians, so when I heard she was doing a tour with her new album, of course I had to get a ticket! It was an amazing show, and a great excuse to make a brief visit to a city that is so close to me, and that I never really visit.

So long story short, here are a few photos! These are from Friday, when I didn't take very many. I'm not sure what the first one is about, but I thought it was interesting! The other two are from the Orpheum Theatre. Beautiful building, with a lot of fascinating features.

I will try to make another post soon about Saturday (the day of lots of walking)!

 

Iowa: Prairie Rose State Park

Turkey vultures.

Iowa: Pottawattamie County

Going for a walk near my sister and brother-in-law's house. Bonus: a photo of an elk at Botna Bend!

A curious creature!

Iowa: MacFarland Park

Walking in MacFarland Park, just outside of Ames.

 

My Food Obsession (Not the Donut One)

There are many things I love about living in the Pacific Northwest. The climate, the mountains, the endless trails. There is quite a lot of wonderful food out here too. Fresh local fruits and vegetables, dairy, and seafood to start with.

However, as a born and raised Midwesterner, sometimes I just want a nice pork tenderloin the size of my head and slathered in pickles and other condiments. Mention the words "pork tenderloin" out here, and unless the listener is also a transplant from the Plains states, there is going to be some confusion because it's just not a food item that exists here. I've done some experimenting with making my own, but while the attempts were delicious, they were just not satisfying enough.

So my goal for my visit to Iowa was to eat as many pork tenderloins as I could. I managed three (and three chocolate malts), which for a week's stay was quite enough. My craving is temporarily sated, and my sister has given me a meat tenderizer for when it returns and I am back to my pork tenderloin experimenting.

At the Clay County Fair. This was my second and probably best sandwhich. You can somewhat see the tent behind me, where they cut the meat off the loin, breaded and fried it right there. Fresh tenderloin!

Right before flying out. Smitty's on Army Post Road in Des Moines. Also delicious, but not perhaps my favorite breading. Very malty chocolate malt there, as well!

 

Spudnut

Spudnut, at the Clay County Fair. Made somehow with potatoes.

Nostalgia

For the last few days I've been reminiscing about my time in New Zealand (as one does). About this time five years ago, I was taking a short break from Dunedin to travel through the Catlins, and from Invercargill up towards Alexandra before heading east and back south towards Dunedin again. Most of my photos from that year, including those, are not on the computer I use now, but thanks to the internet I've been able to look at a number of them still. I think this feeds into the missing of the place, but I keep doing it anyway.

But then there are days like today, where I spent a few hours with a friend going for a walk at Boulevard Park. We ended up walking as far as the ferry terminal and back, with a stop for coffee before leaving. It was a beautiful day for it with just enough of a breeze to keep the sun from being too warm, and with a number of sailboats out in the bay to look at.

And as much as I loved New Zealand, I remember how much I love living here too.

 

Lake Ann Trail (Mt. Baker-Snoqualmie NF)

Entering the valley heading towards the Shuksan Arm and Lake Ann.

Topping the ridge where Lake Ann is located. (And about the time I finally discovered, after a year of ownership, that my phone does panoramic photos.)

Shuksan, Lower Curtis Glacier, and Lake Ann. Also incoming weather, which we got caught in only a few minutes after arriving at the lake.

Lower Curtis Glacier and the mountain top shrouded in clouds.

Temporary sun in the distance, in between getting rained on.

Mountain Loop Highway/Goat Lake

About a month ago, I had a couple of days off together in the middle of the week. I decided to use the opportunity to go hiking and camping somewhere that was nearby but I hadn't been to before, even if it meant going on my own. So one afternoon I packed up my car, and after running a few errands, drove down Highway 20 and then south to Darrington. I spent the night in the nearly empty campground at Squires Creek just west of town, and the next morning drove down Mountain Loop Highway for a hike to Goat Lake.

Camping at Squires Creek was a little surreal. I was almost completely alone (I only saw one other site taken), but I could hear cars driving down the highway, and the main road through the park led to a residential area so there were plenty of vehicles driving through the park. So I was very much alone, but not at the same time.

The next morning I drove south on the highway into Mt. Baker-Snoqualmie National Forest. About ten miles in, the road turned into gravel and I wondered what I was getting myself (or really my car) into, but I decided that it wasn't worth it to turn around. I'd picked out Goat Lake Trail after an alltrails.com weekly email that included the hike, and I was determined that I would hike that trail.

The trail is just off the highway with the trailhead on a forest service road, and is about 10 miles round trip with an elevation gain of about 1400 feet. Overall doesn't sound difficult, but most of that gain is in the last part of the trail ascending to Goat Lake. It was worth it though! The trail is obviously well hiked, but without being crowded. Beautiful waterfall coming out of the lake on the way in, and some lovely meadow flowers. Arriving at the lake I was able to rest my weary feet and cool them off in the lake, while looking through my binoculars at the snow and waterfalls on the other side. I returned via the lower part of the trail along Swift Creek, and just enjoyed the beautiful weather we were having that day.

After returning to my car, I continued my way down the highway and made a mental note of several more trails I'd like to do one day. The nice thing is that it isn't too far away from either Bellingham or Seattle, so it's easily accesible from either direction.

 
 

 

 
 

Blueberries, cherries, and zucchini! Oh my!

A friend of mine has blueberry bushes on her property, and I recently offered to help her pick some with the ulterior motive of leaving with some. The plan worked, and I ended up with a gallon sized Ziplock bag full. Not wanting to freeze them yet, I decided that I would try this recipe for blueberry syrup. After making a mess all over, I ended up with four jars of some summery smelling syrup to be used on pancakes this winter. (I've already finished off a half jar on french toast--so good!)

The same day I decided to use some cherries that had been languishing in a tart using Sally Schneider's A New Way to Cook. Added on some leftover whipped cream from another baking project, and it was delicious!

I've also made some zucchini bread using a recipe from smitten kitchen. I was wary because I'd never been able to make any I actually liked, but I love this recipe! I will probably be making more to freeze, especially as prolific as my plants have become.

 

Not Quite Green Thumb

This is the first year that I'm trying to grow my own food. Really, it's the first time in a long time I've even had that option. I wasn't sure how it would go, especially with the mixed success I've had with houseplants.

I can definitely see where I could improve my skills in my failures. I planted a few things too late, and I'm not sure if I will get anything from them. My experiences are telling me to keep trying eggplant, but not to expect anything. I'm pretty good with zucchinni and parsley, and the tomatoes need bigger containers.

Still not sure what happened to those radishes, though. I thought I'd done something to skip that middle "edible" step from seed to flowering plant, but my friend had the same problem.

 

Some of my many zucchinni, and baby Brandywine tomatoes.

On the other hand, my geranium has been doing GREAT this summer. Putting up seed pods and everthing! Too bad I didn't have plans to eat that one...

It's somewhere between 84 and 91 degrees today, depending on what source is being consulted. That's unusually toasty for Western Washington, and definitely a bit warm for this person whose internal thermometer is set to "Alaska". So this afternoon I did this for a couple of hours with a friend, sit in the lake, soaking up the sun!

Three weeks of tights

  

H&M, JCPenney, Look From London