Commute

There are some advantages to living 30 minutes from the dentist. Now if I were living somewhere else, say, in Portland, that wouldn't be a true statement. But here on the coast, anywhere you drive is a beautiful outing.


While I wasn't exactly thrilled to be headed to the dentist (crowns), I did grab my camera on the way out the door - a weather day labeled as "changeable" was bound to provide some Kodak moments. Dr. Gilbert has an office in Wheeler, commuting from his Portland practice several days a week to provide outstanding dental care for north county folks. He was late, snow on the pass. Arrived in a hailstorm. Within 15 minutes it was sunny - for a spell. That's what changeable weather means!


Some views of Nehalem Bay, from the hill where the clinic is located.
That's Neah-Kah-Nie Mountain in the background. Where it drops to the ocean is about a 900' cliff. Highway 101 curves around that cliff, with several big pull-outs for enjoying the incredible view down the coast and out to sea. Prime whale spotting place from late December through March. I saw 14 spouts during one outing there, my personal record!

I'm enthralled with clouds right now, they are so wonderful to play with using watercolors or pencils - my cloud photo reference file is growing, with shots like this one:

Heading home, coming around the curve on the north end of Garibaldi just where the highway breaks over the hill, I almost kept going straight on in amazement as these two eagles seemed to be perched right in the middle of the road. A quick dodge to the small parking pull-out right there, and I had the camera out in a flash and started snapping.

Looks a little grouchy, doesn't he? It's been extremely windy the past 36 hours, I'm sure it didn't help the fishing - for man or bird.

It was nice to come home to a cozy warm house and crackling wood fire in the stove. Changeable weather is fine, as long as you don't have to be out in for long!

The next generation of computers...

Computers are puzzling. The people that make them are puzzling. Even PHONES are now puzzling. Waaaaaay too many options...not to mention I can't turn them on.


I actually did get up close and personal with the innards of a Droid, though. That's a new phone, for those of you who may be as techie challenged as myself. Here's the story:


It's elk hunting season here on the coast. That means the guys are out in the woods at o-dark-thirty, rain or shine. This particular day it was rain. And fog. And more rain. But they perservered, and showed up here at the house about 10 am with the elk that nephew Derek got. Due to the downpour, they decided to skin it out and section it for the meat bags, in the garage on a large piece of plastic. All was going according to plan. Until.


Until Derek's brand new Droid slipped out of his pocket during a delicate maneuver inside the ribcage of the carcass, and went splat into a puddle of blood on the plastic. Which was covering the concrete floor. Not a good landing pad for delicate computerized gizmos. Del, Derek's dad, swooped and scooped, and came up with bloody Droid pieces (dads never stop looking out for their little guys, you know...).


OK, I'm the only one not already elbow deep in meat or hide, so by default I got the Droid handed off to me. NOT the most logical person, having the most knowledge to deal with the situation. Trust me. But I'm always game for a challenge, so after some wiping and evaluating, my handy operating room assistent - Mom - went for some slightly more sophisticated tools. They worked quite well, actually.

If you are squeamish, don't look at the blood and gore on the utensils...
Derek had to tell me how to extract the battery (told you, I'm not up on these things...) while his hands were dripping with bloody water; fortunately I take direction well. The phone was cleaned as well as it could be, barring a trip to the Droid Hospital. I think we accidentally may have produced the next generation in computing - you know, where they become living things - with blood?
Right after the phone made it's fatal plunge I heard this bit of conversation:

Chris: "Derek, did you get a picture of your elk?"

Derek: "Well, I HAD one..."

A short time later, as the Droid was resting comfortably on it's towel, we heard a warbling tone. The patient had survived.

I told Derek not to be surprised if the ring tone changed to an elk bugle, all by itself.

Bacon Onion Upside-down Corn Bread

OH MY. This one you HAVE to try! It's soup and stew weather, officially, and this is the perfect bread to go with your favorite pot of yummyness.

BACON ONION UPSIDE-DOWN CORN BREAD

Oven: 350 degrees. Use 10" cast iron skillet, or other heavy ovenproof pan.

Lay in cold skillet:
2 slices thick sliced bacon
Cook over medium low heat until crisp.
Remove bacon from pan and set aside, then add to pan with bacon drippings:
1 large thinly sliced (or chopped) red or yellow onion
Cook over medium low about 10 minutes, until softened. Meanwhile, mix:
1 c. flour
1 c. cornmeal (NOT polenta)
1 tsp. salt
2 T. sugar
2 tsp. baking powder
Wisk in smaller bowl:
1 c. sour cream (or buttermilk)
1/2 c. milk
2 eggs
Lightly fold wet into dry mix, mixing in crumbled cooked bacon, until barely combined. Spoon gently over cooked onions (OK if pan is hot), smoothing top.
Bake 25 min. Remove to stove top, cool 5 min. Loosen sides with table knife. Put plate or cutting board on top of pan, flip over and turn out cornbread upsidedown. Serve warm wedges.



I just made this for Anne and Matt, they didn't have a skillet but they did have this lovely coated cast iron dutch oven. It worked just fine!

This was a bit too close for good focus, I was anxious to get it my fork into it! This is a bit denser type of corn bread, not crumbly. The flavor has to be experienced - homey and tantilizing. Your kitchen will smell divine! I used the red onion, which adds some nice color.

I also used pancetta instead of smoked bacon. The pancetta was already diced, has great flavor, and was about the same price as good sliced bacon from the butcher counter, not quite so fat. Nice substitute.
I had been shopping at Whole Foods in Beaverton, a real treat for me, which is where I found the pancetta and bulk cornmeal.

This cornbread is soooo good. Moist and full flavored. You could add cubed cheese of choice to the batter, maybe an herb such as rosemary or savory. Sort of gilding the lily.

Even if you aren't a cornbread fan, give this a try, you'll like it! Promise!

Rainy Afternoon

There's some mystical synergy between drizzling misty rain, nostalgic music, and cozy throws in a deep cushy chair. When you put them all together for an afternoon it's like some magic has been sprinkled in the air. An escape to another era, a relaxing of mind and muscle. Throw in a good book and a pot of tea or Scharffenburger cocoa, and you may not want to wiggle a finger for a couple of hours or more. Oh, you have to have warm wooly socks on, no shoes. And a stuffed animal is mandatory.

This is what you find at Goose Alley B&B, better known as Anne and Matt's cozy townhouse. They manage to recreate this atmosphere where ever they live. I'm lucky to live within a short 90 minute drive or two-hour bus ride now, and boy do I take advantage of the opportunities!



This antique radio is a prize - it only plays one station, and it happens to be oldies! Anne and Matt can tell you the story behind it. Be sure Matt gives you the tour of the innards of this old beauty.

Here's another old jewel living at Goose Alley. It works, too! Wind up that handle, and out comes glorious old tunes from the records that Anne and Matt found in the bottom compartment.

There's no volume adjustment, so you get to enjoy mildly scratchy music at a volume that makes you listen and not chatter over it. Enjoy it or else!

The owner of the album was a music lover who had the foresight to write down the composers and titles of the records - what a treat! We listened to the Nutcracker and reminesced about watching the classic ballet at different venues over the years. Anne already has their tickets for this year in Portland, lucky duck.

For anyone who has never seen one of these, it's a vinyl recording. The only thing older would be wax cylinders!

If you happen to stay over night, you might wake up to Bing crooning "White Christmas."

Matt delivers warm buttered toast and steaming tea on request, right to your chair. Ahhh...the life!

I never have complained about Oregon rain - I love it. Because of memories like this.

Bring on the shades of grey drizzle - when we get through with our stroll in the mist, we know where to go~!

The Artists

Having so much talent in one family is challenging. Carrie makes sure the guys have opportunities to explore their talents, whether it is music, art, athletics or whatever.


The homeschooling co-op had a 6-week session with a talented professional artist, Michael, who introduced charcoal, graphite sticks, a variety of drawing pencils, kneaded erasers, value sketching, and gestural drawing. Lee and Collin made good use of their time with the class. I was delighted to be able to sit in on one of the classes. Michael gave me a sheet of paper, drawing board and a piece of vine charcoal, so I could play, too! What fun!

Lee's value study was a good exercise, preparing him for Michael's final assignment: dinosaurs!

Unfortunately I didn't get a photo of Lee's dino, it was fabulous! Michael's specialty is dinosaurs, and he sure passed on the details of how to draw them - very very well! Some guys just never outgrow that dinosaur stage...

Ode to the Mouse

White mice
on ice
are nice
(snake dinner).
However
a cat most clever
prefers
stuffed black mice;

fake are better.


About every two weeks, you have to be careful about cleaning off the top of the fridge at the Wright's. I learned the hard way (more than once, I have to admit) that those little kleenex-wrapped packages are up there for a reason; who knew cleaning a fridge could cause heart attacks?


Arrowmint (corn snake who has grown a LOT over the years) likes his mice thawed, thank you very much.


I should warn you about the sack on the door rack of the refrigerator freezer, too...it can be rather shocking to open it and find little white mice bodies (fuzzies as they are called) which are destined for the snake buffet.


At our house, the mice are the nice inanimate sort. But they manage to show up in strange places. We keep the toilet seat down now. We think this cat may be part raccoon, at the rate she drowns her mice. This morning Mom found one in her water dish. I discovered it when I went in to brush my teeth. Mom had wrapped the poor little thing in tissue to sop up some of the water.

I wasn't sure what it was at first, but having had several "tissue package encounters" I was very leery about poking around to see what was in there. Sure enough - a mouse.
I was most relieved to see it was BLACK, not white.

We get them at the vet's, 6 at a time, for $3.

The cat has also figured out which cupboard we keep that little sack of mice in, and she haunts the countertop, trying to open that door with her monkey-fingers. At any given time, there are about 4 black mice stashed around the house in her favorite hidey-holes. Very entertaining. And cheap.

Those black mice are worth their weight in gold. They keep this kitty busy and out of other things she shouldn't get into. Mostly.

As you can see, she's all worn out from batting the mouse around and then drowning it...

I wish I could tell you that tummy is from dispatching REAL mice. Nope. Just a fat cat.

Bar Hopping

The entrance from sea into Tillamook Bay is called the bar. Crossing the bar - there's a poem with that title, usually used at funerals. The poem is peaceful. The real bar is not. The Tillamook Bar is quite dangerous - deaths are recorded every year, and the Coast Guard tears out collective hairs trying to keep boaters safe, rescuing the foolhardy and unlucky, and petitioning for funding to keep the north and south jettys, the arms of rock that enclose the bar, built up to withstand the relentless pounding of storm-furious sea.


Bar watching is one of the local entertainments. In the summer, with blue-green sea deceptively tranquil appearing, rich colors of water and sunsets entice lingering tourists to sit for hours with cameras in hand. Winter storms bring out the locals, who also tote cameras, but usually sit in their cars. We're not dumb - it's cold and wet and incredibly windblown out there! But oh, the Kodak moments! It's always worth a venture into the gale.


The north jetty just received an $18-million 200-foot extension and additional 100-foot capping of existing jetty. The stones are big as small houses, being hauled in one at a time on huge flatbed trailers. A towering crane from Manitowoc, Wisconsin (yep, my other home base) was on hand to run on a rail along the top of the jetty, transporting the stone along to the end.
The south jetty, which was completed in 1979, has lost about 900 feet over the years. That is another whole story, the stone had to be brought in and placed by barge.


The south jetty is currently inaccessible by wheels, being at the end of the Bay Ocean spit - a wonderul day hike. There is a road in the works, repairing an old road along the bay side of the spit, which may provide access to rebuild the crucial south jetty structure. The portion of old stone submerged under water and the unsettled current and silt at the mouth of the bar compound with wild weather to make this bar supremely dangerous to cross, in any size craft. As the current and silt stabilize, the projection is for increased depth of water and safer navigation.


In the meantime, bar hopping is great entertainment - as long as you are on dry land.


This particular day was one of those golden coastal moments between fading fall and true winter. The sun was warm, breeze moderate, tourists vacated, and the day after a huge storm that drove in 30-foot waves. That means action on the bar, with monstrous waves breaking at the end of the jetties producing spectacular spray. The only problem is that it is impossible to capture the sound, power, and beauty with a mere camera. But here are a few efforts, to entice you to bar-hop along with the locals:



I'm always amazed when I look at my photos, I never know what might sneak into the lens while I'm not looking - I never saw this gull, being focused on trying to capture breaking waves!
Besides gulls, pelicans, cormorants, seals, and occasional orcas, the little Turnstones love the bar. A flock were working over the barnacles inbetween waves. As the water receded off a rock, they scampered out to pull barnacle innards out of the shells - the barnacles open in the water and expose their feathery parts so a quick bird can snag the little creatures. Tasty, I'm sure. For a Turnstone. I like my seafood in larger bites...

It's fascinating to watch this dance of danger. The birds will seem totally involved with their feasting but their radar is definately on the incoming waves. They will scramble and flutter just out of reach up to the next rock as a wave breaks over the rock they were just on. Then back down they go as the water recedes. What was so intriguing to me was how they could gauge just how high to go to escape the incoming wave - some waves just barely covered the their rock, the next one might crash in over the next three rocks high. The Turnstones were always accurate in their estimate - I spent a lot of time just watching them and marveling at nature's innate safety system.

Look closely - see the two Turnstones in flight, just out of reach of the roiling water and breaking wave? Amazing.

Entertainment is where you find it, eh?

Bar hopping is addictive - just a warning to those who wander out to the north jetty parking lot at Bar View Park.