Our Great Northwest Highs!

My walking buddies gave an impromptu and very enthusiastic performance of my song last week during our hike on the Cushman Trail.

My latest newspaper column is a take-off on the song "My Favorite Things," the one that starts: "Raindrops on roses and whiskers on kittens ..." For the blog, I present my lyrics along with some of the thousands of photos that I've taken since I moved to the Northwest in 2008. Enjoy!

"Our Great Northwest Highs"

By Sherrie Spanger
Text and photos
Copyright 2010

Rainbows on cedars and moon light on harbors

Pale pink and red roses climbing on arbors

Lavender clouds streaked in tangerine skies

These are a few of our great Northwest highs.

 

Summer sunset in Gig Harbor.



Ferries and fog horns and funky beach houses
Eagles and otters and seagulls surround us

Snow-capped Olympics with clouds sliding by

These are a few of our great Northwest highs.

Julia relaxes on the ferry to Seattle.




"Snow-capped Olympics with clouds sliding by ..."



Rhodies and garden slugs, big fat hydrangeas

Moss-shingled roof tops, wet ferns and bright zinnias

Kayaks and sailboats and birds flying by

These are some more of our great Northwest highs.



"Big fat hydrangeas" from Nancy's garden.




Keith kayaks here two years ago on the winter solstice. It was only late afternoon, but look at how dark it was.



(Refrain 1)

In the dark days

When the rain falls

When the sky's not blue

I slosh into Starbucks, pull out my gold card

And order my favorite brew!



Bridge between Gig Harbor and Tacoma.




This was actually somewhere in Wyoming as I was moving out here from the Midwest. I stopped at every Starbucks that I could see from the highway.



The original Starbucks in Pike's Place in Seattle -- always a crowd.



Our wonderful neighbors named Dick and Rosemary

New friends and warm hugs and fresh Rainier cherries

Apples and blueberries piled into pies

These are a few of our Gig Harbor highs.

"Our wonderful neighbors named Dick ...





... and Rosemary"

Fresh local fruit fills pies all summer and fall.

Street fairs and Halloween down in the harbor

Beatniks at Skansie, but Elvis was wilder

Strolling on Cushman as summer air sighs

These are some more of our Gig Harbor highs.

Beautiful Gig Harbor.



Dungeness crab cakes, grilled salmon, clam chowder
Ice cream at Kelly's as evenings turn milder

Mussels and geoducks down on the beach

These are some delicious Gig Harbor treats.

Salmon rules in the Northwest.

(Refrain 2)

In the dark months

Wrapped in gray skies

When it spits all day

I simply remember our Gig Harbor highs

And then I will be OK!

Walking in the rain at Chambers Bay.

Sea stars, anemones, barnacles, crabs

Kopachuck Beach in the summer is fabs

Rich intertidal life, herons, blue skies

These are a few of our great Northwest highs.

Sea star on a Gig Harbor beach.



"Kopachuck Beach in the summer is fabs ..."





More fun on Kopachuck Beach during a low-tide walk with Harbor WildWatch.

 

Mastering roundabouts -- not always easy

Training for Turkey Trot, getting quite wheezy

Herons hunched over, high-pitched eagle cries

These are a few of our Gig Harbor highs.

I found this scene right below our house.

I don't care for rain but I do like the rainbows

Don't like the gray but I guess that's how it goes

Living out here is a give and a take

When it is wet I get Cutter's Point cake!



"I don't care for rain but I do like the rainbows ..." This one is on Wollochet Bay.



In the dark days

When the rain falls

When the sky's not blue

I slosh into Starbucks, pull out my gold card

And order my favorite brew!

Make that a double -- somewhere in Oregon.

Mt. Rainier viewed from Gig Harbor -- always spectacular.

Have a colorful Northwest day!

Unconventional quilt binding

Detail of one of my unconventionially finished art quilts.

My old article for Quilting Arts Magazine about non-traditional quilt binding techniques just popped up in today's free e-book offer from Quilting Arts. Mine is listed as Project 2, and if you're interested, you can read about it, and 11 other articles on finishing quilts, here:

http://quiltingarts.com/Quilt-Binding-Finishing-Methods/?utm_source=WIR&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=QR101211e

Have a colorful day

The holiday rabbit

Even Bunners is getting into

the spirit of holiday colors.

Here he is snuggled in a sweater

as soft and white as snow,

accented with a lovely berry red scarf.

And here he is dressed all in red.

Bunners loves your comments,

so keep 'em coming!

Have a colorful day!



'Tis the season to be gaudy!

It's beginning to look a lot

like Christmas:

Gaudiness is in the air

... and in my house.

Every year I try to decorate tastefully for the holidays, and every year I end up in a cloud of glitter, fuschia and lime green balls, and a general mess. I always have great visions of creating either a (1) cozy, homespun, green and red Christmas with homemade quilts and ornaments, (2) an elegant shimmery gold and white masterpiece, (3) a contemporary light and bright chartreuse, fuschia and turquoise piece ... and on and on. The problem is, I always end up with a tacky hodge-podge of stuff I got the year before at 90 percent off after the holidays. 

So this is what I faced this morning after pulling out just a fraction of my accumulated holiday "decorations." The Starbucks mug was a recent Goodwill find at 59 cents, and I refilled it all morning to keep me going on the "decorating."

This is normally where I paint my fabric (on a plastic-covered pool table), but this week it's been Santa's workshop.

I'm not showing you this stuff because I'm proud. I'm showing you because it's colorful, and that's what the blog is about. If you're looking for tasteful decorating ideas, you're at the wrong place.

First I tackled the easiest area: the stairway landing window that my daughter has to look at every time she goes down to her room. She hates clutter and tackiness, so I kept it simple. Two little trees, no lights or ornaments, and the antlers and rocks that are there all year anyway. I was itching to stick some fake berries and glittered pinecones all over the ledge, but I didn't, because I'm a good mom.

But the kitchen is MINE, so that's where the glittery limey and turquoisey snowman went. (And this one wasn't cheap.)

I filled a glass candle-holder with these "jewelled" fake fruit beauties. I love looking at the sparkle.

The livingroom turned into an unfortunate explosion of fake red and gold items ...

... except for this PEACE candleholder, which would fit into the cozy theme.



Instead of a big tree, I have about nine smaller trees clustered throughout the house. One of these years we'll go back to a big tree so I can hang up ALL my ornaments. (Noooo, my daughter is thinking if she reads this!!!)

Out front, I pulled out the last of the frost-bitten summer plants from the big porch pots and restrained myself from turning them into another explosion. Instead, I just tucked in some REAL moss, REAL evergreen branches and REAL pincecones and shells, all from our yard.

Then I found the pillow covers I made last year from this tasteful red and green fabric and put them on the porch loveseat. But the sleigh was a 90-percent-off bargain from JoAnne's last year.

The only Christmas quilt is this top (above) that I sewed about 15 years ago in the Jewel Box pattern. I still haven't gotten around to quilting and binding it.

Finally, here are the sentimental and homemade stockings that I love. The one on the left was knitted for me by my aunt when I was a little girl; the middle one was knitted by my mother for my daughter for her first Christmas; and the one on the right was quilted for me by my sister Terry. They're all very special and sentimental, and that's what I really like about this time of year. (And the glitter.)

Have a colorfully gaudy day!



'Shroom towns

I just realized that I snubbed mushrooms during this year's Thanksgiving feast, so to to appease the mushroom gods I'm giving them their own blog post today.

I took these photos a few weeks ago, all within a few feet of our mailboxes by the neighbors' cow pasture. Each cluster reminded me of a little mushroom village.

This white one is showy, but notice the purplish ones in the upper right.

The Pacific Northwest is famous for its plethora of mushrooms, thanks to our damp, dark climate. We are loaded with mushroom clubs and individuals who forage for morels, chanterelles and "magic" mushrooms.

(Sorry for the blurriness of these last few.)

I am definitely not an expert on 'shrooms, except for eating them, so if any of you can identify the ones in the photos I'd welcome your comments. Any mycologists out there?

Have a magical day

Thanksgiving color feast

Holidays at our house are

ALL ABOUT THE COLOR!

So I was excited to find these sunflower napkin rings on sale at Pier 1. I knew they'd be a perfect pairing for Thanksgiving with the apple green cotton napkins that I use all year. I combined them with a pumpkin-color tablecloth from India, an over-dyed green runner that I found years ago at a quilt festival, and chunky hand-painted square plates in a cornucopia of colors. 

The centerpiece was a grouping of gold and cranberry beeswax candles, with real cranberries poured into their glass holders. Mini-pumpkins and fall leaves completed it. I resisted the urge to add glitter.



Moving on to the livingroom, the appetizer spread was a thrilling (for me, at least) combo of red and green. Remember, red and green are opposite each other on the color wheel, so putting them next to each other heightens each color. I made the table runner from squares of fruity and leafy cottons sewn onto a nubby rough-woven green cloth. The spinach balls and dates stuffed with goat cheese were a hit.

I made this appetizer mainly for its color, but it turned out to be pretty darn delicious. The pale green endive leaves are filled with herbed goat cheese and strips of roasted red pepper. Those are little heirloom tomatoes in the center.

Next up, above, we have

Julia's butternut squash apple chutney

in progress.

She also made vegan cornbread,

maple sweet potatoes,

vegan chickpea cutlets

and vegan pumpkin pie.  

Here is non-vegan Dave with his 21-pound brined apricot-glazed perfectly browned roast turkey.

 No feast is complete without brownies.

... and no party is complete without BUNNERS! As Sheila says, "Bunners is fun-ners." He's always a hit with the ladies, and he was passed from one to another until we finally settled him on a cushion -- briefly, so he wouldn't pee on it after all the excitement. He is litter trained, but we didn't want to take chances.

Besides slaving over the turkey, Dave produced a complexly-flavored, well-balanced hoppy beer that he started brewing months ago. He calls it

BLACK ROCK CASCADIAN ALE,

and it is his own recipe. By all accounts, it's a prize winner.

I promised our guests that I wouldn't use their faces in the blog, but I do want to recognize them all for their lively and delicious conversation and food.

Cheers!