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Major Catching Up To Do!

Posted in family & friends, Methow Valley, pets, weaving, woodworking on August 6, 2012| Leave a Comment »

I can’t believe it has been a month since my last blog post.  We have had a lot of things going on, but none seemed particularly blog-worthy or picture-worthy at the time.  But anyway, here’s the news from Wolf Creek.

In early July, we went over to Seattle for family birthdays (Rick’s on July 6, his sister’s on July 10).  Rick’s daughter and son-in-law came up from Medford, so we had a nice long visit with them and Rick’s mom and sister.  Here’s a shot from dinner at his mom’s retirement home:

Towards the end of July we were guests at a paella dinner by the Twisp River.  Our friends had bid on the dinner at a charity auction last winter.  It was a beautiful evening which was actually a lull between thunder and lightning storms (complete with downpours and even hail), so we lucked out:

On July 23rd, the featured-artist exhibit at the Winthrop Gallery came down and I spent a fair amount of time moving things around, rearranging the gift shop area, and bringing some of my work down to the Confluence Gallery.

Meanwhile I have kept moving new weaving projects forward.  I finished off the plaited twill scarves down at the weaving guild room and finally removed that warp setup from the loom.  One of the other women in the guild is going to use my loom for a 12-harness project, then I will figure out what to do on it next.  At home, I set up another warp for the polychrome summer & winter series, this time in shades of blue:

On Kingston, I set up another warp for three of the collapse-weave scarves, which I just finished weaving yesterday, but they still need to be washed and finished.

The past week and a half has been taken up with the 17th annual Methow Valley Chamber Music Festival.  There were 5 main concerts between July 27 and August 4, and my Dad came over from Anacortes for the whole festival.  He “camped” in our front yard in his RV:

Last Thursday, my brother and sister-in-law came over from Camano Island for the last 2 concerts.  We had a great 3 days together:

family dinner at Twisp River Pub

Dad & Andy hanging out on the porch

At the Thursday concert, we re-connected with old friends from Seattle (they were actually one of Rick’s very earliest woodworking clients, so we are talking 30 years ago or so).  They have a cabin up Cub Creek in the Rendezvous.  Well, it turns out they also know my sister-in-law Patti from a long time ago (Harriet taught and mentored one of Patti’s daughters), and Harriet was the officiant at Andy & Patti’s wedding (she was a Superior Court judge in Seattle, now retired).  So on Saturday before the concert we had a wonderful picnic dinner together:

We will definitely all be doing this again next year!

Early August now.  We have diggers and plumbers coming to complete the hookup of the water and sewer lines to the shop building.  The water and sewer had been run over to that building at the time the house was built, but not connected. We also had them move one of the frost-free hydrants from under the breezeway to a spot behind the shop building, and dug a long trench so we can get another frost-free line out to where we plan to put the vegetable garden.  This made it an interesting experience to get in and out of my studio for a few days (I had to walk a plank).

long trench to the garden area

where it all comes together

Also on the home front, Rick finished up the new vanity for our main floor bathroom.  He used straight-grain fir and we are both pleased both with the new look, and the much improved storage space:

He is feeling great and back to work in the shop.  First up were 3 sets of bedside tables, two of them in cherry with ebony handles (one was an order, the other he did on “spec” to put out in the galleries) – the third set he did in afromosia for us!  They are gorgeous:

This is the same wood he used to make the beautiful front door for our house in Seattle (no longer our house, we sold it in 2006 to move here to the Methow Valley).

And finally, the kitties have been doing great and really seem to enjoy having company as much as we do!  Juno is into everything, including this basket:

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Busy Week

Posted in family & friends on March 26, 2012| 3 Comments »

It’s been a bit of a mad whirlwind the last week or so.  The weekend before this last one, we went over to the coast for 3 nights for mostly social reasons.  First up was my “little” brother’s 60th birthday, which he didn’t want a big deal made of.  His wife had a nice dinner party at their home on Camano Island,  and we went down with my dad, then spent the night up at dad’s house in Anacortes.  There were only about 10 of us – the food was fabulous and it was a nice laid-back evening.

Family photo-op at the birthday dinner

The next day (Sunday) we headed down to Seattle to attend the wedding of a lovely young woman who worked on several of the research projects I was involved in at the UW, back when I was gainfully employed as a computer programmer/data analyst.  These were marriage and family studies in the Psychology Dept and later Family & Child Nursing.  It was an honor to be invited and also a wonderful opportunity to re-connect with some of my friends and colleagues whom I hadn’t seen in 6 years.

Stephanie & Braulio

My buddies from the old days!

CB with the happy couple

The next day, our friend Stan drove up from Portland to meet us and bring us the rest of the display cases that we hadn’t been able to fit into the truck and U-Haul on the trip to Portland.  It was really nice of him to do that, as he had been hoping to pick up furniture and other things from Seattle people who show at The Real Mother Goose, and it turned out no-one had things for him to pick up, or they were out of town.  After meeting up in Ballard and transferring the goods from his van to our truck, we had lunch at Ray’s Boathouse with Rick’s mom and sister, then headed home to the Methow, arriving about 8 pm.

In the intervening week, we have been trying to get work done (in the shop, for Rick) and also get ready for our annual meeting with our accountant.  So I have been putting in long hours at the computer, entering things into Quickbooks and pulling together other information.

On Friday, I headed up a painting project at the Winthrop Gallery to renew the gift shop area.  I had some helpers, of course, but it was a long day on Friday pulling everything off the shelves, moving out the old display cases, putting 2 coats of paint on the walls, cleaning, then moving in the new display cases.  On Saturday I went back in and spent about 4 hours putting all the stock back on the shelves and arranging the displays.  It looks so much better!  But I failed to take a single picture.

Friday night, despite being really tired from the long day, we decided to go back into Winthrop to the Old Schoolhouse Brewery – because Terry Lee Hardesty was playing with the band that night.  Terry Lee lives in Twisp now, but he has had a long and varied music career, including playing and recording with Merle Haggard.  He is a fabulous guitar player, and has a deep mellow voice.  You have to like country music to like Terry Lee – but he can also rock it, trust me.

Terry Lee and Rick

Well, that’s life in the Methow – always something new and different!

 

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We-Haul

Posted in family & friends, home life on March 13, 2012| 1 Comment »

We made a quick trip to Portland, Oregon this past weekend.  One reason was to pick up a load of oak display cases from our friends who own The Real Mother Goose Gallery in Portland.  These are cases that Rick built for the stores probably 25-30 years ago (there were three stores at the time, now down to two – one downtown and one at the Portland Airport).  Stan has been warehousing them for quite a while and was motivated both to get rid of them, and to help out some of the galleries here in the valley.  They are destined for the Confluence Gallery in Twisp, Winthrop Gallery in Winthrop, and the new Methow Valley Interpretive Center that is opening on the TwispWorks campus.

We wound up with more cases ordered than would fit in our truck and cargo trailer, so rented a 12-foot U-Haul down there – and still didn’t quite get everything in.

We stayed with our friends who own the store, and bless their hearts, they also opened their home to some of our family who came up from Medford/Ashland to see us while we were there.  Rick’s daughter and her husband were there, along with her oldest son (our grandson) and his wife and 2 little ones.  So yes – we are in our early 60’s and we have two great-grandchildren!  It’s a long story which I won’t relate here, with a happy ending.  We were all together on Friday and Saturday nights, and had a wonderful long visit.

On Saturday, while Rick and Stan were loading the U-Haul, Judy and I took the two little ones (one 4 and the other almost-6) to the Children’s Museum near the Portland Zoo.  We took the Max train from downtown, which was a fun adventure for the kids in itself.  The museum has many different interactive rooms and they were able to play for hours.  Judy is an experienced mom and ex-teacher of early grades, so I was glad to have her along (and besides, it gave us some time together just for ourselves).  Unfortunately, I was totally lame and forgot to bring my camera!

But here is a family picture taken Sunday morning before we all went our separate ways – 4 generations:

The drive home Sunday was long but scenic and interesting.  It took us about 10 hours.  We went up the Oregon side of the Columbia River Gorge, crossing at Biggs and then heading up east of the Cascades through Goldendale, Yakima and Elllensburg.  There, we cut east and then up to Wenatchee and on to home.  There were dark clouds all around in the mountains, and it was really windy in the southern part of Washington, but we never actually experienced rain.  We saw a huge dust storm down in the valley south of Toppenish, and they were diverting traffic around it.  Turns out there was a big pile-up of cars (we thought the police officer said 20, but when I look online it says 5) so we managed to avoid a bad situation there.

We arrived in Twisp about 8 pm in time to grab dinner at the pub, then home under a starry sky.  But we woke up the next morning to this:

A storm front had moved in overnight, as predicted, and it was snowing and blowing all day.  We had to unload the truck and trailer though, and return the U-Haul to Omak (the Twisp U-Haul place went out of business a year or so ago).  Faithful friends and helpers stepped up to the plate, though, so the unloading went easier than we feared.  It is about a 40-mile drive to Omak, over 4000′ Loup Loup Pass, so that part wasn’t a lot of fun, but we made it.  Today, of course, it is all blue and sunny again!

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Labor Day visitors

Posted in family & friends, Methow Valley on September 6, 2011| Leave a Comment »

Rick’s daughter and son-in-law drove up from Medford last Thursday to visit us and see our new home at Wolf Creek.  It’s a long drive, about 12 hours if done straight, so we really appreciated them making the effort.  We didn’t “do” much, just took it easy and had a nice visit.

But it turns out Duane loves to split wood.  Who are we to argue?  Now all the firewood is split and stacked neatly away for winter!

On Sunday we drove up to Hart’s Pass – actually beyond, to the base of Slate Peak.  From there is it a short walk up to the fire lookout at 7488 feet.  Gorgeous views all around of the North Cascades and Pasayten Wilderness.

on top of Slate Peak, Mt Baker in the background

 

 

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Family and Feast

Posted in family & friends, Methow Valley on August 24, 2011| 1 Comment »

Last week our grand-daughter took a week of her vacation to come up to visit us from Medford, OR.  It was her first long road trip by herself but she seemed to enjoy it, and we had a great time.  The first 3 days we stayed in the valley and just sort of hung out and visited – but she did tell me she wanted to learn to knit, so I also got her started on that and she was making real progress by the end of the week.

The night before we left for Seattle, we had dinner down at Twisp River Pub:

In Seattle we visited with Rick’s sister and mom (April’s great-aunt and great-grandmother!)

and did touristy stuff, like visit the Space Needle and the Seattle Aquarium.  The weather was perfect and it was actually nice to be doing some fun things in Seattle instead of being focused on errands and so forth, like we usually are.

at the Space Needle

We all thought this modified sign in Ballard was pretty funny:

We parted company after 3 days in Seattle, her heading south to Oregon and us heading north to visit my Dad and brother and sister-in-law before coming home over the North Cascades Highway on Sunday morning.

Sunday evening we went to a wonderful outdoor event at Bluebird Grain Farms up in the Rendezvous area.  Called the “Feast of Field and Stream”, it was a dinner showcasing the products of Bluebird Grain Farms, Hard Row to Hoe Vineyards in Chelan, and the Okanogan Producers Marketing Association, all of whom had earned their Salmon-Safe certifications.  All proceeds went to Trout Unlimited and the Salmon Safe program.

The dinner was catered by Cameron Green and Molly Patterson of Glover Street Market in Twisp, and featured huge pans of farro paella cooked over outdoor fires, quite impressive:

that's a pan full of mussels in the background

cheeses from Glover Street Market

A good time was had by all and we hope they do it again next year!

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Quinault Weekend

Posted in family & friends, knitting, outdoors on July 3, 2011| 1 Comment »

Last week we spent 3 nights out at Lake Quinault at our friends’ cabin resort:  Lochaerie Resort on the north shore, in the Olympic National Park (see link in sidebar).  The occasion was a fund-raising bike ride around the lake (31 miles if you make it all the way) for the Quinault Cancer Fund.  I believe this was the 22nd annual ride!  There were 10 of us plus our hosts:

who moved there last year after retirement and spent the wettest winter in recent memory (which is saying a lot, since this is the rainforest we are talking about) tearing down and rebuilding the main house, while living in one of the cabins.  But it is substantially done and they are moved in now.  It’s a fabulous house:

The bedrooms are on the top floor and Rick and I got to stay in the guest room in the main house.  The view is magnificent out to the lake, and down on the cabins below:

On Friday Rick and I drove out to the ocean (only about 45 minutes from Lochaerie).  We went for a little beach hike at Beach 4, just north of Kalaloch.  It was a beautiful day and we hadn’t been out to the Washington coast for quite a long time.   So nice to see and smell the ocean.

trail to Beach 4

looking north up the beach

Tide was low so we had tidepools!

Saturday was the actual bike ride, and we had a perfect day for it – sunny but not hot.  We made it about 20 miles, over to the Rainforest Resort on the south shore, lunch on the lawn and the “sag wagon” back to Lochaerie.  That’s what we managed last year, as well, and our behinds were just as sore and legs as weary as last year, too.  But it was fun!

Here’s some of the group having wine/beer/appetizers after the ride:

They all like to cook, so our potluck meals were delicious and I came home with 2 new recipes.

While there, I finished the shawl I have been knitting out of handspun wool & silk.  It’s a pattern from the internet called Bell Pattern Shawl.   Just got pictures today:

One of my pet peeves about triangular shawls is that the ends don’t drape nicely but want to head off towards the side.  In an attempt to avoid this, I added two extra repeats of the Bell Pattern just at each end, using short rows, so the first repeat spans 8 “Bells” at each end, and the second repeat only the 4 outer “Bells” at each end.  Kind of hard to describe, but here is a photo:

short row shaping at end of Bell Pattern Shawl

I think it worked, as you can see in the first photo above.  The points hang straight down instead of pointing off to the sides.  I am quite pleased with how this turned out, actually.  The pattern was suitable for this rather rustic yarn with lots of flecks of silk in it – it didn’t show regular lace patterning well at all (I know, I tried…).  It was easy but not boring to knit.  The size is just right for wearing over a shirt in the evening.  And, I only had about 2 feet of my handspun yarn left when done!

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Coming up for air

Posted in family & friends, Methow Valley, weaving on June 22, 2011| Leave a Comment »

Wow, it’s been almost 3 weeks since my last post.  Life has been busy but wonderful!

During our week at home after the trip to Oregon, we had a little time to catch up on home life.  I had applied to join the Winthrop Gallery, an artist cooperative, before we left for Utah, and was accepted.  We are expected to take one day a month to staff the gallery and it was time for me to get some training and put in a first day there.  I “worked” on Sunday, June 12, and things went well except that I only sold one note card during the entire day.  But now I have an outlet for my weaving again in Winthrop and have my rugs, scarves and a couple of small blankets there on consignment.  I am also showing at the Confluence Gallery in Twisp.

An old friend of Rick’s, who lives in North Bend, came over for a couple of nights with his friend Fukiko from Japan.

Dave & Fukiko

She brought a bottle of special sake which is made in her village near Kyoto, and the first night she cooked us a wonderful sukiyaki dinner, including ingredients she had brought from Japan.

Dave originally met Fukiko a couple of years ago when he was on  trip to Japan with some friends.  She has worked as a travel agent, but most recently has developed a home stay program at her family home in Kameoka.  Here is her website:  Japan Reservation Network.  Lovely woman.  We hope we can pull off a visit to Japan in the next couple of years!

The following week (last week) we had a small family reunion here.  My sister and brother-in-law flew up from San Jose (soon to be from Colorado instead).  My dad came over from Anacortes in his RV.  My brother and sister-in-law came over from Camano Island.  The weather was cool-ish but not raining! and a good time was had by all.

Family dinner at Wolf Creek

The gathered clan

I have managed to fit in a little weaving during the last month or so.  I wound a new scarf warp after returning from Utah/Colorado and got it set up on my loom at the weaving guild room.  It is a mix of reds and I am calling it “Pomegranate” in my head.  So far, with all the comings and goings, I have woven off 3 of the 5 scarves it should allow.  Today finished number 3 in a navy tencel warp:

Navy tencel weft on Pomegranate warp

Tomorrow we head out to Lochaerie Resort on the north shore of Lake Quinault on Washington’s Olympic Peninsula, for the annual fundraiser bike ride around the lake and a get-together with old friends.  But tonight we went down to the Twisp River Pub for dinner, and discovered it was the beginning of summer, with the first Wednesday night jazz music in the beer garden!

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SoCal sojourn

Posted in family & friends, travel on April 20, 2011| 1 Comment »

I couldn’t write about this in advance, for fear of spoiling the surprise – but last week we flew down to southern California for a long weekend and 60th birthday celebration with best friends.   We had air miles to use and figured, why not?  It was planned out in advance with her husband, who picked us up at the airport and dropped us in downtown Redlands where they were going to dinner at a wonderful restaurant, “The Farm” or Farm Artisan Foods.  So we were waiting when they showed up for dinner, and she was really, truly surprised and delighted.

The weather was gorgeous all weekend – low 80’s, sunny, a nice break from the still-chilly Methow Valley.

On Friday we had a lazy morning, then headed out to the beach at Balboa Peninsula.  We walked on the sand along the shore, then took the little ferry across to Balboa Island on the way back:

On Saturday we headed off to Palm Springs for brunch (not a long drive from Redlands), then spent the rest of the day up in Joshua Tree National Park.  It was rather hot there, in the 90’s, but we managed a short hike at the southern entrance at Cottonwood Springs.  There were a number of things in bloom – ocotillo, various cacti, yellow bushes all over the place (sorry, my plant id skills are lacking here).  All sorts of flora and fauna.

fauna - Western Chuckwalla lizard

more fauna

beavertail cactus with blooms

hedgehog cactus with blooms

As we drove north through the park, the day lengthened, and when we came upon this wonderful patch of cholla cactus, the light shone through their fantastic forms in the most striking manner:

We stopped for another short hike and a beer at the fabulous White Tank campground, named for the rock formations there.  What a great place to camp, amongst those rocks.  We hope to go back some time and see more of the park and camp there.

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From Snow Geese to Snow Gone

Posted in family & friends, weaving on February 17, 2011| Leave a Comment »

Last weekend we made a trip to the Coast to pick up materials for one of Rick’s cabinet jobs, and visit with friends and family.  On the way to and from Anacortes, in the Skagit Valley, we saw large flocks of snow geese out in the fields.  They are quite a sight!  Then when we arrived home, it was obvious that rain and/or thaw had set in.  We still have snow on the ground, but it is soggy during the day, becoming icy at night.  Yech!  Navigating our driveway on foot from house to carport is a bit treacherous.  Although now, in the late afternoon, I look outside and it is…. snowing!!

Having dropped the ball entirely on blogging the last couple of weeks, I will attempt a bit of a catch-up.

My weaving workshop a couple of weeks ago in Seattle, with Margaret Roach Wheeler, was marvelous.  Her website is Mahota Handwovens – the type of weaving we were learning is shown in her clothing line.  She uses the summer-and-winter weave structure to weave decorative bands that emulate Native American beadwork and quillwork.  Here are a few pictures from the 2-day workshop:

Margaret discussing a finished sampler

A shirt with decorative work on collar and facings

A beautiful dress - note subtle colorwork at the very top

Our samplers were worked in 10/2 perle cotton.  She gave color value and contrast guidelines, but every warp was different and the colors chosen for wefts were up to the student.  There is a lot to explore and learn there – what works and what doesn’t!  But I am pleased with my sampler and will use it both as a guide for future work, and as a wall hanging in my studio:

My washed sampler from the Wheeler workshop

Meanwhile, the last few weeks I have written up the pattern for the “Mosaic Mojo Hat” and have taught 2 groups of intrepid knitters the techniques used there – short rows (including hiding the wraps in garter stitch), garter stitch grafting and mosaic knitting.  No-one left crying so it must have been OK.  I taught it as two 2-hour sessions with a week in between to get some knitting done, and will be teaching it again in March down at Uptown Woolery in Chelan.  Inevitably, some errors in the pattern were found and I still need to tweak it a bit.  Eventually I will offer it as a PDF download from my Ravelry page and will put a link here on the blog.

I made a commitment to have some woven pieces for the next show at Confluence Gallery in Twisp – the theme is “Lacuna”, which they said “can be described as a gap, an absence or a void, but the meaning is much more nuanced and evocative”.  It has different meanings depending on the application.  The show opens the first weekend on March so time is running out, especially as I will be gone to spinning camp on Orcas Island all of next week!

So this week I am trying to bring an idea along and I am not sure it is going to work.   The basis will be some woven and felted wall-hangings, which I plan to embellish further.  So here is what I was doing the last couple of days:

Sleying the reed off the loom -first time I have tried this, and I like it.  Much more comfortable.

I discovered the Hans Wegner “Wishbone” chair is perfect for sitting over the sectional warp beam to thread from the back.  [As an aside, we were thrilled to find the set of 4 chairs at a used-furniture store in Ballard a couple of years ago, for a very reasonable price.  Hans Wegner is one of Rick’s heroes, a famous Danish furniture designer.  We had them down at Benson Creek but now they are in my studio along with the smaller oak dining table]

Here is the first piece almost done:

What will this odd-looking blob become?  Stay tuned!

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Downhill all the way

Posted in family & friends, outdoors on January 26, 2011| 1 Comment »

Yesterday morning started with a moose sighting!  Rick was downstairs making coffee and he saw it running right by the house.  By the time I got downstairs, it was heading towards the fields across the road, so we didn’t have a chance to take a picture.  We have heard of moose occasionally being seen on the valley floor, but I think it is still a very unusual occurrence.

Our long-time friends who now live out at Lake Quinault on the Olympic Peninsula were our second set of visitors for the week.  They have owned a small, rustic cabin resort on the lake for 30 years (originally with partners, and more recently as sole owners).  Last year they retired from their jobs in the greater Seattle area (3rd grade teacher and landscape architect), sold the house in Bellevue, and moved to the Peninsula.  They basically tore down the old house and rebuilt it and now that is their home.  So check out Lochaerie Resort – 6 rustic housekeeping cabins, most built in the 1920’s and 1930’s, on the North Shore of Lake Quinault in the Olympic National Park.  It’s like stepping back in time – but very clean and with hot showers!

Yesterday, post-moose-sighting, we put the cross country skis in our truck, drove up to Sun Mountain Lodge, and skiied back down to the house.  It was very foggy in the valley yesterday, so the only sun and views were up at the lodge at the beginning of the coast downhill.  It was a lot of fun and took us about 3 hours (we took the long way around at the end).  On the way down the Winthrop Trail, at a spot where we can look out across the valley to our home, we noticed large cloven hoofprints in the snow along the ski trail.  About the size of horse hooves, but definitely cloven.  So the inescapable conclusion is that this where the moose came up out of the valley after it crossed the fields from our place.  Too cool.

We met a friendly skier along the way, and he took our picture:

On the Winthrop Trail

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