My Gardening Obsession

Every few years it seems that I find some new activity to be interested in. Five years ago that was wildflower photography, a few years ago yoga, and last year it was definitely hiking and camping around Portland. This year I have become positively obsessed with vegetable gardening. I might even go as far as to say that I'm addicted to growing vegetables.



I've always had a general interest in growing veggies at home but either never had the space for it, was in a short term rental where I wouldn't see the end of the growing season, and I generally just didn't feel like I knew what I was doing.

So this year I am living in a house where I will still be living all next year and thankfully living with my roommate Reed who has been my gardening mentor. The past few years I've planted a few things from starts that I got at the nursery...lettuce, basil, chard and herbs. This year however, I tried seeding for the first time and had a great time of trying to get things to grow. I'm very happy to say that everything in our garden at the house Reed and I seeded ourselves (with the exception of one cilantro and one thyme plant). We produced so many plants that we've given away multiple plants to 5-6 friends and still have seedlings left over!



It's amazing the difference this has had on me. It's incredibly empowering to grow things from seeds. And its wonderful how connected it makes you feel to the earth, and how much more aware I am about how long it takes to produce food. I've always had an appreciation for farmers, but my appreciation level has gone way way up.

So shall we take a tour of the garden?

We have 3 main areas where we're growing things. First is the deck. On the deck we have in containers tomatoes, lemon cucumbers, a bell pepper and some basil.



I did quite a bit of container gardening as I wasn't sure where I would be living next year. Happily it turns out Matt and I will be living here for another year. My roommate Reed got a prestigious Fulbright scholarship and will be teaching in Mexico for a year. So Matt and I will be staying here to take care of the house and cats. We will be living with the teacher from Mexico that Reed will switch teaching assignments with. Very exciting!



As it turns out my tomatoes in containers are actually doing way better than the tomatoes in the garden. We also have small containers of arugula and mesclun greens.



The second area is a side yard where Reed has put in yellow squash and zucchini. She plants these every year and they always get enormous.



Then in the back of the yard we have two large raised beds. Probably about half of them are filled with tomatoes and the other half has brocolli, beans, snap peas, radishes, lemon cucumbers, spinach, arugula and bell peppers.



The yard in general is looking very beautiful right now. There is an amazingly beautiful bunch of bright orange poppies, roses of all colors and what I think is clematis. Earlier in May we had probably 10 different colors of tulips popping up all over the yard. It really is a treat to be surrounded by so many flowers.









So there is my current obsession in full color. I'll have to update in a month or two and show the progress. It's definitely been a fun project for spring and summer!

Wonderful Wildflowers!

Well its that time of year again. Spring wildflowers are blooming all over and I finally made it out to one of my favorite spots, Tom McCall Preserve/Rowena Dell to check out the lupine and balsamroot displays.

Tom McCall is about an hours drive due east of Portland and is a Nature Conservancy Preserve that looks out over the Columbia River.



As I knew the main purpose of my hike was photography and not hiking I invited my friend Lisa to go with me. She is probably the only person I know other than Matt that is as interested in photography as I am. It was really nice to have a someone to take the trip out with. We started in the lower section that is relatively flat and went crazy taking pictures.









Oregon has finally been experiencing some wonderfully sunny hot weather, and being a California desert girl I am loving it. It has been in the high nineties for a solid 4 days now. It made the hike a little rougher and the photography rather bright, but I can't really complain about getting sunshine! We moved on to the upper portion of the trail where there were yet more flowers.









On our way down I insisted on a few photos of each of us in the flowers.




After a hot morning we stopped in the quaint town of Hood River on the way back for mango sorbet at the local ice-cream shop. It was a great day. Getting out into the Columbia Gorge really reminded me how beautiful everything is right now. I really need to make a greater effort to get out and go hiking more often. I have been reluctant both because of gas prices and because Matt my dependable hiking partner is still in France. But I really have to get out there and appreciate the flowers and waterfalls right now.

Other than work I haven't been up to a whole lot lately. My work schedule changed dramatically recently and I've been training to do the morning bake (4 a.m. mornings two days a week!). So a lot of my energy has gone towards just getting used to my new responsibilities and new work hours. Other than work I've been obsessed with gardening this spring and have been planting like crazy. Hopefully with the weather changing and summer coming on I'll have more exciting travels and experiences to write about soon.
Au revoir mes amis!

An Adventure at Timberline Lodge

This past weekend I was fortunate to have the opportunity to spend the weekend at Timberline Lodge on Mt. Hood. Timberline Lodge is a beautiful and interesting place that was built during the Great Depression entirely by the efforts of the Works Progress Administration. Thus the entire lodge and every piece of furniture, light fixtures, curtains, rugs, and paintings in it were made by Oregon artisans in 1936-38. It may look familiar because the exterior of the Lodge was used in the movie The Shining.



The reason for heading up to Timberline was to go snowshoeing with my friend Robin and her roommate Marcellino. Even though its mid April the mountain is well covered in snow. It has been a very heavy snow year and it will be awhile before the mountain trails are clear of snow.



I had never been snowshoeing before and I really enjoyed it. It is something I have been wanting to try for quite some time. We spent about 3 hours Sunday afternoon snowshoeing around the mountain. It was a beautifully sunny 60 degree day, so we had some great views.





And of course we had fun playing in the snow... a few snowball fights, impromptu snow slushies made from Lemon Lime emergency packets and giant snowballs.







Sunday night we stayed in a room on the second floor and the snow reached all the way up to our window. It provided a nice cooler for our wine, yogurt and other food!



The rooms were really quite beautiful. Everything was handmade and knowing that everything was made in the 1930's made it all the more impressive.



The second day Robin and I went snowshoeing a bit in the morning but the weather was far less attractive for outdoor activities (lots of snow!). So we spent the afternoon inside exploring the artwork and handcrafted objects in the Lodge. The downstairs had some beautiful murals, light fixtures and great curved metal fireplace fixtures.







The front door to the lodge had a great Indian face woodcarving, and all of the stairposts on the 3 floors of the lodge had carvings of animals in them.





The coolest part of the lodge is the central room which has an enormous 5 sided fireplace and is held up with old growth douglas fir beams. It was a great place to just sit by the fire and look out at the snow.







All in all it was a very fun weekend and it was fascinating to get to explore the lodge and Mt. Hood during winter. I've been up many times during the summer, but its just a whole different experience when the mountain is covered in snow.

A Frenetic Oregon Spring

So Oregon is currently having a very frenetic spring. On any given day it might snow, rain, be foggy, be sunny and hail all on the same day. I've begun to take my raincoat everywhere, wear layers and never depend on the forecast.

When I first got back to Oregon it seemed like spring was popping up all over. There were signs of it everywhere. The daffodils were out, the magnolia was blooming beautiful pink petals and tulips were emerging all over the yard.



Indoors my roommate Reeds gerber daisies and geraniums were going crazy with blooms. Reed was already seeding for her garden when I got back to Oregon and she let me use some of her trays and sunlight from the front window to seed tomatoes, arugula, lemon cucumbers and bell peppers. Over the last few years I've been wanting to learn more about gardening and Reed has helped me learn. This is the first year I've attempted to seed indoors before growing season instead of just planting starts that I've gotten at the nursery. About half of my first try came up and it looks like my heirloom tomatoes and cucumbers are starting to emerge.





So it appeared that spring was well on its way, and suddenly the weather got a little crazy and it ended up snowing! That doesn't happen very often at the end of March. It didn't stick for very long, but it was a little bizarre seeing the poor daffodils and magnolia blossoms covered in snow.







Two days after it first snowed I went on a morning hike at a park a mile from my house and snow was in the air again! It was wonderfully foggy and misty but it definitely didn't feel like spring.



I was hiking at Powell Butte, the place I normally go blackberry picking in the summer and saw many leftover berries from last year, frozen in place.



I sincerely hope our weather starts to get a bit more springlike. I'm ready to get out and do more hiking and see some wildflowers. However, as of tomorrow my vacation from work is officially over. I found a great job at a bakery called Baker and Spice Bakery and am very excited to be going back to work. So my hiking and free time will now be limited to Sundays and Mondays.

Yes We Can!

This past Friday I was privileged to have the opportunity to see both Barack Obama and Bill Richardson speak to a crowd of 12,000 people at the Portland Memorial Coliseum. This was the first time that I have had the chance to see a major politician speak and it was a truly amazing experience.



I say I was privileged to see Obama, because many people wanted to go to this event that were not able to. Portland has a large metro area of over 2 million people and with only 12,000 free tickets being given out, I was extremely lucky to have noticed the announcement of the event right when it came out, and claimed a free ticket. Reportedly tickets sold out in 2 hours. I also say I am privileged, because it was an amazingly invigorating experience to see Obama live and feel the collective energy of 12,000 people who all really believed that they are seeing the next President of the United States and believe in the hope for this country that he has come to represent.

Though the event was at 9:30 I woke up at 5:30 and took public transportation to get there at 6:30 to ensure that I could get a seat. Even though I had a ticket, seating was first come first serve and more tickets were given away then there were seats. Despite the fact that there were thousands of people waiting outside and 10 lines waiting to get in I somehow miraculously managed to find my friend Lisa, who had forgotten her cell phone, and I had no way of contacting. It was great to find her and have someone to attend this event with. All the pictures posted I have borrowed from her... so thanks Lisa for taking great photos!!!



As for the event itself, we first got to hear Bill Richardson officially endorse Obama. I was extremely excited that Bill Richardson happened to chose the day Obama was visiting Portland to do this. I really respect Bill Richardson, and before I was a strong Obama supporter, I supported Bill Richardson. I also happen to think he would make a fantastic Vice Presidential candidate for Obama, and enjoyed seeing the rapport between the two of them. Bill Richardson has great experience in both foreign policy and energy policy and think he would be a great person to have on the Obama ticket should Obama win the nomination.

After some strong crowd chants of "Yes We Can" and "We want Change" and a rousing round of applause, Obama delivered a very solid, inspiring speech. I think I was struck most by his ability to make you feel included in the political process. He really made me feel like the words "yes we can" are all about the "we". That his campaign is not just about him, or his ego, but about the American people and his hope that we as a country can move beyond the past eight years and make positive progress and change.

I was also interested in analyzing his speech for its policy content. There has been a charge that Obama puts too much emphasis on oration and inspiration and not enough on policy. I did not find that to be the case. I thought his speech had a great balance of a message of hope, and specific policies of how to get there. He spoke a great deal about the War in Iraq and really connected how the war has impacted every other facet of American politics over the past five years. The vast impact it has on our budget and economy. I appreciated his feeling that we need to change our role in the world and begin to regain the reputation with our allies that we once had. He also went into his specific policy plans for healthcare, the economic crisis, global warming/the environment, and education. I really liked that he supports a $4,000 tuition credit for college students... but his message was that he expects those students to give back through community service and such programs. What struck me through these comments was that his message is similar to John F. Kennedy's "ask not what your country can do for you... but what you can do for your country". Obama's message was more about what we as a country can do for each other.

I was also struck by the overwhelming positive nature of his speech. There was very little negativity in it. And Obama actually spoke about the type of politics he wants to be involved in. Not the politics of "I'm better than him" but the politics of hope and change and positivity. I really appreciate that and it really does feel like a different kind of political message than any other I've experience recently. His campaign really has an authentic grassroots feel to it. He emphasized again and again the importance of each person, and taking small contributions from "the American people" rather than from lobbyists and corporations. I really believe he has the ability to bring more people into the political process and make more people care about politics. I have seen many friends of mine who previously had no interest in politics, become excited about his candidacy... and for a generation of people that is highly mistrustful and cynical about politics I see this as positive change in and of itself.



Overall I was simply impressed. For the first time in my life I am truly excited about a major political candidate for president. I am filled with a sense of hope for our country. I really hope that my fellow Democrats in the state of Oregon vote for Obama in the May Primary, and that if he has the opportunity to campaign in November that my friends of all parties... Greens, Independents and Republicans included take a serious look at the type of change Obama is offering.

Si se puede! Yes We Can!

Back in the Pacific Northwest

It's hard to believe it but I've been back in Portland for two weeks now, and by the end of the week it will have been a month since I left France. While I doubt I will be updating my blog as much as when I was in France I'd still like to document some of my travels, recipes and experiences. The last few weeks have however been full of primarily dull activities such as unpacking and repacking boxes, sending out resumes, and going to interviews.

This Sunday however, I finally had a chance to get out of the house and go hiking again. Seeing that Sunday was the one day in the next 10 day forecast to be partially sunny, I convinced my friend Jacqui and her friend Brent to go on a hike to the Clackamas River with me.



The Clackamas River trail follows alongside the Clackamas River and is only about an hours drive southeast of Portland. It was a 7 mile hike, with the destination being pup creek falls. I really enjoyed getting out and seeing the product of Portlands rainy weather: verdant green forests with lots of moss and beautiful streams and waterfalls.



There were many waterfalls along the trail that we had to cross over.



The highlight of the trip was reaching our destination of Pup Creek falls. We definitely came at the right time of year. I think spring snowmelt is feeding this waterfall and gave it really nice volume. I've seen pictures of it from other times of the year and it isn't nearly as impressive









On our way back their were more streams and we re-examined an area that had been hit by wildfires a few years back. All in all it was a very nice trip to re-introduce me to the beauty of Oregon.