The "week" in review

Hood river whiskey stop

You know how you put something off and then you've put it off for so long that you think, why even bother with it it's been so long? Yeah, I was almost there. But I like talking to myself in the cloud(s), and was recently inspired by a friend's photo a day project to at the very least keep allow myself a small view of the present. I spent a bit of time strolling back through some of my jottings from the last decade and was reminded of things I may have otherwise forgotten and of things I wish I could forget.

We got back from Cuba and classes started again. That sort of explains things. But I did more than teach, write, and read these last 6 months (6 months!#@%$)...

We went wine tasting, hiking, took up some space to grow things for the squirrels to eat, some traveling happened, I made soap, backpacking on the AT, we sold a house, we bought a house (...in 30 days), baseball, hung out with friends, and we got to know the first state a little better.

We also spent a lot of time reading (for work and play) and unsuccessfully keeping the cats out/off of things...

subversive fire (not allowed in rental housing)

Birthday seafood outing

clever

flight of whites, flight of reds

Joe holds a bee

Pocket finds comfort

Shoulder kitty, Risa style (read: wobblier)

spring garden

Pallet garden

Whiskey in wine central...

"alcohol receiver"

my favorite place to be in Hood River

Ariana to the beach!

Frisbee at the beach

Reduce Food Waste

This is a really interesting ad campaign that was all over the city. It's for the new city-wide residential composting in the Bay area. I mostly took this picture for my food class, because we talk about different sites of food waste in the larger system--something that has become a big topic of discussion recently.

Again, Pocket finds comfort

We went to a wedding that brought many of our west coast peeps to our neck of the woods--it was rather odd, and I kept having to check myself, realizing we weren't on the west coast. We had some time to wander about ahead of the wedding and so we checked out the capitol, walked the aqueduct, and took in some street art and enjoyed a beer. It was a lovely wedding. We drove home by way of a winery we'd been to a over a decade ago. We really liked the style of the production facility and the gravity feed set-up. Sadly it's become rather commercialized.

pre-wedding shenanigans and west meets east

At the Aqueduct in Richmond

Muddy flood in Charlottesville

 

In Richmond

Pocket makes his own space

I also went to Arizona to meet my new nephew and hang out with my mom. We lounged around with the baby, I got way overexcited shopping for baby items and we generally just had a nice time. We made our way north for a couple days and enjoyed the beautiful landscape.

Also, we made soap, lotion, and chapstick...and I'm pretty sure my life has changed forever. I made my own laundry detergent the other day. I want to go to Greece and make Olive oil soap (I bought Greek travel books and have convinced fellow travelers to go....this is totally happening next summer).

Sedona

Sedona selfie

Mason!

Rose, Calendula, and pumpkin tea soap

Lotion

Seriously Pocket....

  

see how our garden grows...and feeds the local squirrel population

Major League!

post-AT backpacking...car camping relaxation, complete with cooler!

west meets east part 2

Minor Leagues!

"hiking" in the state park

Shadows in the grass

Scary Catch...on the kitchen cupboards

pre·ten·tious

I am a total snob about food, on a number of levels. I know this.

It not only makes up an important part of my work: research + teaching; it makes up an important part of my daily life.

We spend a lot of time trying to make choices about what we purchase, put in our bodies and support with our forks and finances--and sometimes we're just hungry and throw it all to the wayside (sometimes). What that has meant for us is a lot of discussion about how we want to interact with the marketplace and how difficult (or easy) that might be with all the attention now on the actual creation of environmentally sound, healthful and whole food options and the artificial crowd-pleasers.

What this means in practice since we moved has been a lot of research and whining (mostly from me) about options in our immediate area. I keep thinking about how spoiled we were before. We had a butcher we knew by name and who we could talk with about the suppliers in the area and their practices, we had the Valley and its wonders. There was a local, organic, fresh, diverse politics of food that we could immerse ourselves in that did not have us relying on increasingly watered-down standards and ambiguous claims and labels (see for example: "all natural"). In fact, I think I may have gotten too comfortable, so much so that I started to forget to look into practices and sourcing for restaurants, blinded by creative menus and "local/authentic/craft/scalar" claims. Side note: we can talk about local later. I've spent a lot of time thinking/writing/teaching about it.

So we've tried out some new things, done some research and I am happy to say that we found a winter CSA to tide us over while we figure out our new foodshed. And in the interim, we've tried to be a new/different version of ourselves...hmmm...or maybe retooling some of our ideas around region together....or realigning/readjusting...searching for ourselves again.

We found a bit of ourselves yesterday in the orchard, searching among the brambles for berries and then partaking in the farm market.

Raspberries

We also drove a bit out of our way to seek the simple pleasure of a seasonal, organic, free range, local, grass-fed, hormone and antibiotic free menu. The place we went for lunch was very very proud of themselves, and I thought "why shouldn't they be?" they are one of a few in this region starting to promote this type of menu. But after awhile it did start to grate on you and Joe remarked that they seemed to be trying much too hard to impress. But it was delicious, and I suppose I am every bit as pretentious...

The first state

We only did one day of unpacking so we could have a day of exploring while my brother was still with us.
Our new state is the first state and the second smallest in the country. The east side is all coastline, 117 miles of it to be exact. So we thought we'd go to the beach. Apparently that's what people do here.

Now you can imagine that our desire to drive any distance was limited, so we thought we'd try for the coastline in our county. Just as a reference there are 3 counties in DE and we are in the northernmost. The most popular sandy beaches are in the southernmost, in fact they are about as far away as you can get from our little town and still be in the state--and that's saying a lot. Go ahead look at a map, and come back.

We found a very nice fishing pier with a small stretch of sand. We also found a crab shack that fully embraced both the art of alliteration and homonyms to create a raunchy yet kid friendly atmosphere. Blech. But they did have some very nice patio seating and seafood, which we took as our consolation prize for not going in the ocean. We did see the Atlantic at least, which was enough for Blake.

I want to emphasize that for this place, this is tame

At the pier

We also stopped at a different seafood shop on the way out of town where I bedazzled the staff with my complete ignorance of soft shell crab--"I'm from the PacNW you see, we eat the dungeness kind there" I explained. Meh. Anyway we brought home some soft shell, which I fried up and was delicious but somewhat eerie to behold:

It still looks like a crab.

We also sampled a new restaurant in town that boasted "craft beer"--I think they're still working on their beer menu. IPA fail.

can you spot the error in the IPA?

Joe and I tried again this past Sunday to see about some beach, we traveled through every county (and seemingly every state road--there are a lot here) in our state and instead of going to the most popular beaches, which we had been to before as younger people, we opted for a less claustrophobic setting. It wasn't really a good swimming beach (okay for me!) and there were many rocky spots, but that kind of made it feel like home a bit. We did wade out a bit, me somewhat less than Joe (surprised?) and in the end decided it would be a good place to go if you didn't want to worry about waves and/or excessive amounts of people.

It's about 2 feet deep for a few hundred feet

Joe waded out to the end of the sandbar/ledge/whathaveyou and bathed on the other side, while I sat on the beach in my eternal mental rocking chair.

sand and breeze

Meanwhile, Joe has begun work, so we're sampling his new wares and I am trying to put my office and my fall semester class together. Occasionally we consider unpacking the few remaining boxes that are scattered about.

Eleven and the Coast

At cape lookout

We'd been wanting to visit this place for awhile and meet with the brewer/owner--and seeing a good couple of days without a work shift or house showings we packed up the car and headed to the coast.

Not a bad way to spend the summer solstice.

 








It had been about 9 years since we'd headed to this spot together and it was funny to recreate a similar scene. We even found the same bottle of wine (different vintage) to enjoy on the beach.


We didn't exactly make a "leaving Oregon" list, but we are definitely picking up on places that we've loved in our time here. Nothing wrong with a little sand in the shoes.

Eleven

A lovely view on our walking food tour

walking food tour - plus cops!

I find that my personal Oregon list-making is centered a lot around places that I want to go eat and drink (and be merry...for example). We did a bit of walking tour of town on the eve of our anniversary (no. 11 for wedding and 15 overall) and then settled in on our anniversary proper for an amazing five-course, wine-paired menu at a place we'd often thought of going to but booking a table was always a 30-45 day in advance experience (we took advantage of the fine weather and popped in at opening for non-reservable patio seating). It was exquisite. Also, one of the menu items is now a strong contender (up there with chili-fried ants) for "most unusual" item I've consumed--cow thymus, or cow throat, interestingly enough in the culinary world called "sweetbreads" (sorry, no pictures). It was chicken-fried, which added to our confusion about what the hell we were eating...fry bread? chicken? I don't eat chicken anymore and considered abstaining from the course entirely, but instead I got to puzzle over it. It reminded me of what the puree of chicken parts that goes into nuggets tastes like. The waiter was almost gleeful when he told us what it actually was--I imagine that the shock value goes a long way toward making the night enjoyable for the wait-staff. Either way, new, interesting and now identifiable.

Sunset in the Old Mill, last stop on our walking food tour

At green lakes

We've made a number of plans to keep being outside and exploring activities and places we'd always wanted to while also revisiting others. The July calendar is starting to look like a 3-4 day cycle of: pack car, travel/camp/hike/eat food/enjoy/travel, unpack car, go to grocery store, pet/feed/water cats, repeat. There's something a bit strange in traveling a bunch before setting out on the cross-country drive, but perhaps we can think of it in a "saddle time" kind of way...