December, aka stormy weather

While our temperatures are mild, December has delivered lots of wind and rain.  The current rain event is forecast to drop up to 10 inches of rain in about 48 hours.

Dec. 10th surf

Dec. 10th surf

Dec. 12th, nicer weather

Today, from the car

 

Today, from the car

Today, from the car (at a fish market)

Ah rain! It's what keeps our population from growing too rapidly.

Happy Thanksgiving!

This morning, a salamander greeted me at the front door as I headed out for the newspaper.  The mild temperature and moist weather is perfect salamander weather.

Later, I went out to gather half the herbs for our parsley, sage, rosemary, and thyme stuffing.  These home-grown herbs will flavor our stuffed sole, topped with wild bolete mushroom sauce.

Here are a couple of fall photos from a month ago, in Napa.

I shop in the woods

Now that the fall rains have begun in earnest, the mushroom season has moved into high gear.  Today I found the first king boletes of the season, in the woods.

I looked every place that I could think of, and came home with about 6 pounds of king boletes, and a handful of chanterelles.

Three in the hand, then three in the box

Today was a calm, warm, sunny day, which is rather unusual for us.

In the morning, I harvested some artichokes for dinner, from our garden box.

Then in the afternoon, we went fishing in the local bay.  We came home with three Chinook salmon in the ice chest.  Two nice big ones, and one small jack.

The first of the season

After  weeks of poor fishing, the harvest moon  has delivered the first Chinook of the season to our house.  So it feels like fall.

 And so tasty!

Hot, hot, hot

We broke the record here today.  Officially, Waldport's high temperature was listed as 92 degrees.  However, our weather station recorded higher.  Weird weather for the Oregon coast!

Triple digits, oh my!

Fruits of fishing, gathering, and growing

Summer is a busy time around here.  Chinook salmon have not been as abundant as in recent years, but coho salmon seem to be everywhere.  The ocean season for coho is now closed, but Bori caught 4 coho in July.  He fileted them before coming home, but he brought me two heads, to make stock.

My wild foraging has yielded a bounty of chanterelle mushrooms (5.5 pounds one day).

And wild huckleberries seem to be really abundant this year, and seem to be ripening earlier than usual.  I've been gathering them every once in a while, to toss into a fruit salad.

My garden boxes are  producing snow peas, lots of kale and arugula, and several artichokes right now.

On our south-facing deck, I am growing a couple of pots of sun gold cherry tomatoes.  They have flowered abundantly for weeks, and have recently started ripening.  Tasty little morsels.

I've been gathering mussels as well.  And when salmon fishing hasn't seemed too productive, Bori has thrown in a couple of crab pots, and been able to bring home dinner.

That's what we've been eating.

A berry blue day

Yesterday was opening day for picking blueberries at Gibson Farms in Siletz.

It's a jungle of blueberries out there.  Most of the bushes are well over 6 feet high.  But berries grow low on the bushes as well.

A tall picker

A short picker in the background

One strategy for easy picking is to bring someone tall to pick the high berries, and someone short to pick the low berries.  We heard several families explaining to little kids to pick only the dark blue berries, not the green ones.  Lots of family groups that were picking near us consisted of three generations: little kids, their mom, and two or three grandparents.  It was great listening to the kids describe the jackpots of blueberries they had found.

Fourth of July

This year, we were home on the July 4th holiday, which enabled us to observe the La De Da parade in Yachats.  If I had to choose one word to describe the parade it would be non-traditional.  It included two umbrella squads (not that Oregonians often use umbrellas); lots of people dressed up in red, white, and blue, or rainbow colors; candy and dog biscuits being thrown along the parade route, an amazing squad from the local anti-invasive species committee, and a woman riding a cart pulled by a miniature horse, among other things.

Here are a few photos of the parade.

The performing umbrella squad

The jellyfish umbrella squad

Happy Independence Day!

Cabin A

We have just returned from our annual trip into the Cascades, staying in Cabin A.

As you can see, Cabin A is an old log cabin.  It was built for the railroad over 100 years ago.   It now has electricity, indoor plumbing, hot and cold running water, and is pretty civilized.  However, this year we felt pretty close to being outside.

This little golden mantle ground squirrel lived under the cabin.

Instead of using a bear box to protect our food, we use a mouse box to keep our dry goods safe from the mice that run through the cabin.

Ice chest, used as a mouse box

I guess "anti-mouse box" would be more accurate

But our newest animal experience in the cabin was a small bat flying just below the peak in the bedroom ceiling. After we located it on the ceiling beam, it moved into a hole at the end of the beam.  We love bats, and appreciate the job that they do controlling insects OUTSIDE, but we didn't really want to share the cabin with the bat.  We plugged up the hole with a piece of newspaper, and hoped that the bat went out the way it appeared to come in.  So that's how we bat-proofed Cabin A.

Bat proofing

And yes we saw lots of mountains, lakes, deer, wildflowers, and a nice selection of birds.

We canoed to within 60 feet of this resting bald eagle

Fresh food

In France, we bought and ate lots of fresh food.  Strawberries and cherries were in season in Provence, and were in season in Oregon upon our return.  I saw some chanterelles in the markets of Provence.  So, I went out foraging for them here.

 Surprise! The season has begun. I came home with almost 2 pounds.

Another surprise: while we were away, my garden box produced massive radishes.

France was grand, the food was good, the people were great. We plan to return, but for now, we are content to eat locally in Oregon.

Versailles

Today we took the train to Versailles and picked up bicycles for our bicycle tour of the grounds of Chateau Versailles.  To begin our tour, we rode our bikes to a local open market, and bought food for a picnic.

Front of Chateau Versailles, with a 3-hour-long wait to get inside, this morning

Back of Chateau

Louis XIV

Versailles was built by Louis XIV, to escape the filth of Paris. The grounds are huge.  Our tour guide was a British man named Stu who had a master's degree in history.  He made the history of the site entertaining and interesting.

Our tour guide

We visited on a fountain day, when the fountains were turned on from 11 to noon, and 2:30 to 4 PM.

We also visited Marie Antoinette's peasant village/farm.

Although most of the group toured the Chateau after turning in their bicycles, we skipped the Chateau, and took the train back to Paris.  It was a nice adventure, and we only encountered a few drops of rain.