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Archive for the ‘Methow Valley’ Category

Conconully

Posted in Methow Valley, spinning, weaving on February 9, 2009| 4 Comments »

In addition to the Methow Valley Spinners & Weavers Guild, I am also a member of a fiber-arts guild over in the Okanogan Valley (Omak – Okanogan, about a 45 minute drive over a low mountain range, the next river valley to the east of the Methow Valley).  They meet every 2 weeks in each others’ homes, and a potluck lunch figures largely in the proceedings.  My friend Diana is also a member, as is a woman named Teresa who moved to Twisp from Tonasket last year.  So last Saturday the three of us made the journey over Loup Loup pass to a guild meeting in Conconully, which is a good half hour northeast of Omak; Conconully is a little frontier town on a lake.  Pronounced:  Con-co-NULL- ly. Our hostess, Eve, lives in the woods several miles outside of Conconully, and this was the first time we had been to her home.

Guild meeting at Eve's

Guild meeting at Eve's

Yes, that is a very large stuffed elk head in the background.  There was also a cougar waiting to pounce up on the stairway landing.

There was a lot of show-and-tell, including Sandra’s poncho that she had woven in a shadow-weave pattern with her handspun yarn:

conconully-3and Ingrid’s beautiful rep weave table runner and placemats that she just finished as part of a “color challenge” project the guild took on last year:conconully-21

Ingrid is a very interesting woman.  She is Swedish, and when she was younger she lived in Hawaii and was a marine mammal trainer.  They moved to Omak from Anacortes several years ago, and now live out on the Colville Indian Reservation in a little valley east of Omak, where she raises cashmere goats, Norwegian Fjord horses, and also has an aviary which I have not yet seen.  We have been to several guild meetings at her home, and she is a beautiful weaver.

Saturday night we went out to dinner at the Twisp River Pub with our neighbors up the road, then Rick and I drove up to Winthrop to see our friend Leah Larson play with Brad Pinkerton and Paul Gitchos.  Leah has a beautiful singing voice (mainly bluegrass) but that evening she was just playing the fiddle with the band.

leahbradpaul

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Grey socks, grey cat

Posted in knitting, Methow Valley, pets on January 26, 2009| 3 Comments »

We had a dusting of snow the night before last, perhaps an inch or two, but it was enough to make the Alfalfa Loop track skiable (it had gotten pretty icy over the last couple of weeks, with no new snow).  We went out for 3 laps yesterday morning and it was good.

I finished a pair of simple grey socks for Rick that were started sometime last fall.  Knit in Koigu Premium Merino (KPM) that I had in stash:

Grey merino socks for Rick

Grey merino socks for Rick

Our favorite restaurant in Twisp, Tappi, has re-opened after months of being on hiatus.   They don’t have a website or I would provide a link.  The food is Sicilian Italian and focused around an authentic wood-fired pizza oven that the owner, John Bonica, had sent over from Italy and assembled in place in the restaurant.  They are only open Friday-Sunday nights with a more limited menu than before, but still, they are open!  Yay!  John says they will start having music soon… we used to love to go there and hear great jazz on the weekends.  We went up for dinner last night and each of us had 2 fabulous lambchops cooked in the woodfired oven in small cast iron frypans, served with a green salad with chevre and balsamic vinaigrette.  John also has a nice selection of Italian wines.

dscf0881

Our older cat, Pushkin, has not been doing well and we had blood work done last week, thinking his kidneys might be getting worse.  It turns out he has bacterial hepatitis, which must have come from something he ate, although that part remains a mystery.  We are giving him antibiotics and subcutaneous fluids, but he still seems pretty “down” although not as distressed as he was last week.  He’s also not eating much at all.  Definitely a worry for us right now.

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Inauguration Day

Posted in Methow Valley, outdoors, Uncategorized on January 21, 2009| 2 Comments »

We started the day yesterday, like many people in our country and around the world,  glued to the TV screen to watch the inauguration of Barack Obama.  What a day!  It certainly feels like this is a turning point in our nation’s history – I so hope this is born out in fact.

But, it being a Tuesday, it was also For Snowshoeing.  Our little group did not convene until 11:00 am, as we all wanted to watch the inauguration ceremonies first.  The freezing fog caused by this seemingly interminable inversion was still with us.  We headed up to the slopes above Pearrygin Lake State Park, in vain hope of getting above the fog layer.  However, this was the first time in months that all nine of us were together for the hike.

The trees and shrubs were heavily coated with ice, thanks to the freezing fog, creating many beautiful sights such as this magnificent pine tree:

pearrygin-snowshoe-1

Here’s an “action shot” of some of the group heading up the trail:

pearrygin-snowshoe-2

And here is my attempt to show Pearrygin Lake the way it appeared through my yellow “snow-glasses”:

pearrygin-in-fog

That evening, Rick and I went up to the Twisp River Pub for the tenth-birthday celebration of the Partnership for a Sustainable Methow, also featuring the release of their new publication “The Local Source”, which is a directory of Methow Valley goods and services intended to help residents and visitors shop locally.  They also showed a short film titled The Story of Stuff, a look at the hidden and not-so-hidden costs and effects of producing all that “stuff” that people seem to think they need to have – and throw away.   It seemed to fit nicely with the themes of the inauguration day.

As we’ve been telling each other around here lately, happiness comes not from having what you want, but from wanting what you have.

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Visitors from The Coast

Posted in Methow Valley, outdoors, tagged on January 19, 2009| 1 Comment »

Friends Chris & Tom came over from The Coast to spend 2 nights with us over this MLK weekend.  The night before they arrived, we had a lovely sunset:

sunset-16jan2009

This was taken from our bedroom window.  This building was already here when we bought the place, although we have added a shop extension, carport and covered walkways to it.   I always think they built it “backwards”, in that the best views out to the mountains are from the two bedrooms.  Apparently he intended to have the upstairs serve as an office, and he wanted the views from his office.  Go figure.

But I digress.  Chris and Tom came over for the weekend.  Saturday night we went up to Local 98856 for dinner, joining some other friends who are, well, local.  “The Local” is mainly a breakfast/lunch/deli type of place, but they have occasional themed dinners and special evening events.  The owner, Tess, is a strong promoter of eating locally grown, fresh organic produce and meats.  This past Saturday was one of her “Farm-to-Table” dinners, with a guest chef.  They set it up as open, family style seating at big tables, and overall it is a very relaxed, convivial atmosphere.  Our dinner stretched out over several hours and a good time was had by all!

Yesterday started out quite foggy – we have had a lot of freezing fog over here lately, which coats the trees with ice in a beautiful way, but is a bit dismal since we are used to having our sunshine over here, after all.  We were planning to snowshoe and selected an area that hopefully would get us above the valley fog.

We drove up north on the Twisp-Winthrop Eastside Road, turning up Bear Creek Road to the Campbell Lake Rd turnoff.  Met some other folks there, so we had a party of eight and started out with the sun trying to break through.  This road allows snowmobiles so was quite packed down – we initially walked and carried our snowshoes. (But fortunately, not a single snowmobile was seen or heard during our hike.)

That’s my friend Chris on the left, we have been buddies since the 7th grade.  On the right, Marlene and Nora.

Gradually the North Cascade mountains to the west emerged into sunshine:

Mt Gardiner from Campbell Lake Rd

Mt Gardiner from Campbell Lake Rd

Eventually we struck out cross-country from the road, and climbed up into the hills to get even better views.  The snow was so condensed and crusty that you could easily walk just about anywhere.  It was a really fun day, which ended with a nice cold beer at the Twisp River Pub before heading home for hot showers and a delicious dinner (Chris cooked, not me, so this isn’t bragging….)

View west from hills near Campbell Lake

View west from hills near Campbell Lake

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It’s pronounced Met-How

Posted in Methow Valley on January 16, 2009| Leave a Comment »

Just a word of clarification – contrary to what it looks like, “Methow” is pronounced Met-How.

Not MET – ow.

Not METH – ow (definitely not!)

Met.How – but said quickly, as in “You and Priscilla met how?”

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New snow!

Posted in Methow Valley on January 5, 2009| Leave a Comment »

We had new snow overnight – perhaps another 6 inches.   But it was clear and sunny when we got up this morning.  Our friend Terry came down from Twisp and plowed out the driveway and parking areas, which saved us a lot of time with the snowblower.

new snow 05Jan2009

For those of you who have not seen our place, this is it!  The woodworking shop is on the main level, and we and the 2 cats live upstairs in a 2-bedroom apartment.  That’s also where I have my loom, books, yarn, spinning wheels, etc.  So it is cozy!

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