Tourist in My Own City

https://visitseattle.org/

Early this month my niece visited Seattle from the other Washington for the first time. Though she only had two full days in Seattle, my husband and I gave her a whirlwind tour of the popular sights in Seattle—some that I had never seen despite living here for 48 years.

Red Hall Link

The first day she was here gave us just a few hours to see the “red hall” at the downtown Seattle Public Library. I’d never heard of this floor of the library. A librarian told us it contained no books but housed library meeting rooms. Despite FIFA, we were able to get a dinner table right away, then it was time for her to get some rest before her first full day here.

 

 

 

Friday morning we had breakfast crumpets at the Crumpet Shop and then explored Seattle’s famous Pike Place Market. My husband and I make an annual trip here to shop for treats and Christmas gifts.
 

 

 

After an hour or so at the market, we headed to the Nordic Museum, which was the first time I’ve been there. Seattle has a significant Nordic population in the part of Seattle known as Ballard, named for Captain William Rankin Ballard.

Following that, we toured the Ballard Locks and fish ladder. The locks raise and lower water levels between Puget Sound and Lake Union and Lake Washington to allow ships and boats access each way.

The Falls

The final day of her visit was July 4th and we started off with a trip to Snoqualmie Falls and a stop in the historic town of Snoqualmie. Arriving back in Seattle, we then took an underground tour with Beneath the Streets. Seattle was originally built on tide flats, but following an historic fire that destroyed the entire town, it was rebuilt above the original stores and sidewalks. Many blocks of the old city still exist underground.



 

It was a busy two days of sightseeing that found aunt and uncle happy to skip fireworks and fall asleep on the couch shortly after 9pm. 😀

Romance Reader Event

 

 

For the past three years, a writing group I belong to has organized an event for romance readers and writers. Every year I’ve volunteered as a table runner, making sure authors have what they need at their tables.

The creativity that goes into not only the authors’ writing but also their tables is amazing. I love wandering through the event hall admiring the tables and swag as much as getting signed copies of books and talking with the authors.

Leah's table

Romance books I look for are known as sweet romances—nothing beyond hand-holding and kissing. I also enjoy cozy mysteries, stories that feature amateur sleuths, and I even picked up a cozy paranormal. It’s not just romance at this fair, though this author, Leah R Cutter, writes romance and many other genres. 
 

 

Lynne's table

I was able to pick up a sweet romance from a local author I know, Lynne Hancock Pearson. Like most of Lynne’s books, Grand Gestures takes place in the Pacific Northwest.

 

 

Image from FB

Among the 57 vendors were authors and other creatives selling jewelry, candles, bookmarks, stickers, and even a tattoo shop at the reader event. To my surprise, Sailor Moon Tattoo was completely booked for the day. Maybe it shouldn’t have been such a surprise since they were featuring book-related designs.

 

The event was a huge success this year with all 250 tickets sold out. I'm enjoying my new books and looking forward to next year!

 

It's HIP!

  

I often walk around my neighborhood admiring flowers and fruiting plants as I get some exercise and fresh air. One recent Friday a delicious aroma coming from a church along my path had me very interested in what they were doing. In their parking lot I saw two vans for HIP, Hunger Intervention Program. 

A shelter meal packed for delivery

Once home, I searched for the HIP website and learned they have many volunteer opportunities from cooking meals for shelters and seniors to serving and delivering meals. I filled out a volunteer interest form right away. 

 

The next week I was volunteering as a dish washing assistant. Hey, it’s a necessary part of making meals! Two days later I was preparing meals for delivery and serving at HIP’s free lunch for seniors.

Senior meal

The food is indeed as good as it smells and the next week I was helping to prepare the seniors’ lunch by slicing green peppers, cilantro,and red onions. The latter was a tear-filled experience. 😂 All meals include a main dish such as orzo with sausage and vegetables, a fresh salad, fruit, and often a freshly baked cookie for dessert.

With the daily volunteer opportunities available and being less than a mile from my home, I’m ready, willing, and able to help several days a week! 

I enjoyed these beautiful tulips along my walk and was inspired to plant bulbs in our yard for blooms next spring.

 

Take a Hike!

 

Photo by Clay Banks on Unsplash

 

Over hill, over dale, we have hit the, ah, muddy trail. The weather on Easter Sunday was very pleasant, and after some yard work, my husband and I went on a short hike in a nearby forested park. Our main purpose was to practice using our new Rattler thermal imaging scope.

My husband bought this for us as a Christmas present after I mentioned I could be a more confident hiker if I were aware of bears or cougars around us on the trail. We were able to practice sighting and photographing birds on our short hike, while also discovering features of the scope that we need to learn more about.

Owl nesting box

Heated objects show up as yellow and orange. In the nesting box here,you can see what is probably a sleeping owl. The photo at the bottom of this page reveals a junco bird on a tree branch.

 

Besides using the scope, I looked around for flora and fungi. These purple flowers are Erythronium revolutum, commonly known as the Pink Fawn Lily, Mahogany Fawn Lily, or Coast Fawn Lily. 

 

 

Witch's butter fungus

On several dead logs I found jelly fungus, commonly known as witch's butter. They aren't toxic, but neither are they considered delectable as the link indicates.

 

 

 

  

I also found some unusual mushrooms nestled among a pile of rocks. 😀

 

We got a lot better at capturing wildlife with the scope. Surely we won't miss a puma or bear...or Bigfoot when we visit the Olympics at the end of May!  😮

Junco sitting on a branch

Community

 

https://northhelpline.org/

 

About a year ago I switched to volunteering at the food bank in the above photo which is just a mile from my home. It’s a pleasant walk (except during an atmospheric river) and it gives me a closer view of my neighbors and community.

Through coworkers at the food bank, I learned of a local community group and was able to join a Zoom presentation on the construction of a new community center. Six stories of the new community center will be for low income housing. The new housing is about a half mile away from the food bank where many low income customers come to pick up food weekly. 

https://www.lovestruckinseattle.com/

I've been discovering other places in my neighborhood, all within 2.5 miles (walking distance in good weather and when I’m up to a big hill challenge). A new romance bookstore, Lovestruck in Seattle, opened a few months ago and they host multiple book clubs monthly. The first book clubs sold out within hours and my hesitation cost me the opportunity to give it a try—next month I’ll jump right on it!

The 8 limbs of yoga

I tried a Hatha yoga studio two miles away and loved it. Though I found the gentle class much more to my liking than the challenging yoga flow class.

 

This month's blanket drop off

In another community Zoom presentation I learned of more opportunities for senior volunteers. The group "Knit It Alls" definitely appealed to me since I already knit so many cat blankets, I'm embarrassed every time I drop off a big armload of blankets. Now I can knit some hats for donations.

Finally, my husband and I tried a bakery 2.5 miles down the street from us and we now make it our Saturday morning breakfast stop. The bakery, Grateful Bread, uses organic local flour and makes wonderful bagels, muffins, soups and sandwiches. Even better, a neighbor just two houses down from us owns and operates the bakery!

 

Chai Time

 

Chai supplies

I love a warm, spicy beverage on cold, wet winter nights, and chai is my favorite. Because I’m sensitive to caffeine, I make my own chai. While Stash has a decaf vanilla chai which is handy when I’m short on time, making my own chai lets me adjust the spices to my preference. I’ll share a couple of recipes and the ingredients I keep on hand.

The first recipe I use is here. I make a double-strength batch so I have enough for a few days. When I want a mug, I add milk or milk and water when re-heating. Cloves, vanilla beans, cinnamon sticks, star anise and the other ingredients also make my spice cabinet smell wonderful.

I'll share two other recipes. One can be made with black tea or rooibos for a decaf version, and the other with carob and coconut. Both linked in this paragraph are from the site GrowForageCookFerment.

Chaga. It's not the prettiest fungus.

Another chai that I love which is also caffeine free incorporates a medicinal fungus, chaga. Chaga is reported to be a nutrient-dense,
antioxidant-rich, and adaptogenic fungus. This Masala chai blend from Euphoria Botanica is delicious, but does need to simmer for 20 minutes in order to gain the benefits of chaga.

Since Punxsutawney Phil saw his shadow earlier this month, it looks like there will be plenty more time to enjoy some hot chai.

Source: https://www.groundhog.org/

 

 

 

 

What's New?

Photo by Esther Verdú on Unsplash

 I hope 2026 has been good to everyone so far. Instead of making resolutions in January, I set intentions. This year I want to be more internally and externally aware, listening to my inner voice and exploring new topics.

To start this awareness, I first had my chakras balanced. Yes, this may be a little woo-woo for many, but I’d never had this experience and it was very affordable. To my great surprise, I learned that my root (first) chakra needed the most work. This surprised me as I garden a lot, nurturing plants from the root up. That my creative (third) chakra was weak didn't surprise me as my creativity has been dull since late November.

Just before New Year’s Eve, I then had a chakra massage which was divine. The massage therapist used a different oil for each chakra and gave me a mantra to focus on while she worked. The mantras, in order from the first chakra (sacral area) to the crown (top of head) chakra are:

I am.  I am creative. I am powerful. I am loved. I am heard. I am connected. I am divine.

The massage was extremely relaxing and I hope to be able to do this

Photo by Uday Mittal on Unsplash

on each solstice and equinox. How about exploring new topics? Well—and I won’t go far on this one—early this year I read about an experiment scientists did where they measured 37 dimensions! What? How? Curiosity led me to watch a few videos on quantum mechanics. There is so much at least theoretically possible, but our human brains aren’t able to contemplate these dimensions. Thank goodness. 

There’s so much out there we don’t understand, don’t even know how to comprehend or measure. I have plenty to explore and learn this year. Here’s a dimensional brain-twister that I’ll close with: the tesseract. Wild!!

 

 

Another tesseract resource for those wanting to know more:  

https://www.scienceabc.com/pure-sciences/what-exactly-is-a-tesseract-real-life-geometry-4-dimensional.html

 

 

For the Birds

 

Like many people stuck at home during the big lock down in early 2020, we took greater interest in our feathered friends around the yard. We learned their calls and feeding habits—some are ground feeders, others prefer suet, and most enjoy the bird seed.

Our first attempts with seed feeders resulted in many squirrels in addition to birds. Too many squirrels! After an initial attempt to place the seed feeder on a shepherd’s hook, we found that squirrels could even climb the pole to get to the seed.

Yankee Flipper

Then we came upon the Yankee Flipper. It is motorized and weight activated. Birds can sit on it with no trouble, but squirrels go for a nice spin, which is highly entertaining. It has never harmed a squirrel, but I doubt they could pass astronaut training. 😀

 

 

 

Flicker feeder

Juncos, the predominant birds we have, are ground feeders and clean up seed dropped from the Yankee Flipper. In the backyard, we have a Steller’s  jay who regularly comes for a tossed peanut. And flickers love the special suet feeder that lets them rest their tails while they eat. 



 

Recently I discovered Bark Butter from Wild Birds Unlimited (WBU) and purchased the type that is spicy. This variety is supposed to be avoided by squirrels, but I’ve found they like it much more than the birds do.

WBU gave us a small packet of seed (top of page) to toss on our front doorstep at Christmas for good luck in the new year. I’m looking forward to watching as birds and squirrels alike gobble it up.

Transcription

Smithsonian Magazine

No, I haven't taken up medical transcription, though it might be easier to decipher than what I have started working on. With gardening done for the season, except for leaf raking which will go on the rest of this month, I needed something to fill that outdoor time. I’m still knitting kitty blankets for a local cat rescue, volunteering at a nearby food bank, and working on my third book. 

I looked around for another "project" to work on, and recalled an article in Smithsonian magazine about the National Archives needing people who can read cursive to help translate documents. (Article linked at the top of this page.)

Citizen Archivist 

This article describes the Citizen Archivist program. The dashboard page has several videos to help volunteers get started and I watched those before signing up. I quickly learned that being able to read cursive isn’t enough—one especially needs to be able to read some really bad handwriting and often on faded documents. 

Starting with the shortest, most legible pages I could find, I worked on a situation just after the emancipation in Georgia. Other documents were about deporting Chinese laborers who were in the country illegally in the early 1900s. These latter papers were a sad reminder of the state of affairs today, but also led me to learn more about the history at these times.

Then I discovered typewritten documents that also need transcription in order to help researchers who use these archives. Not only is this work giving me a way to contribute to the National Archives mission, but I’m learning intimate details about history.

This hurts my eyes and brain!

I’m still unable to help with the spidery, faded documents and tagging the photos and drawings is more advanced than I care to do yet. Tagging involves describing what is in a photo, such as names of people, places, and description of an activity depicted. 

I'm happy to contribute a page or two every few days, and delighted that cursive penmanship classes decades ago are proving useful.

Source

 

 

Shhh! Quiet Please

 

Photo from Unsplash

Found the problem

This month certainly started with a splash and a bang. Lots of banging. One Friday morning my husband alerted me that there was no hot water. A quick check of the hot water heater revealed the problem: the pilot light for the water heater was under water. A plumbing company very close to us got us set up with a new water heater amidst a lot of noise. The noise couldn’t be helped, of course, and we were thankful for the quick service. I was especially grateful for the calm and quiet atmosphere once the work was finished.

Unsplash

The following Monday, our furnace was scheduled to be replaced. That destruction/construction started at 7:30 a.m. and went continuously until 4:30 p.m. But wait, there was more noise in store. Tuesday the furnace ducts were cleaned, and those industrial vacuums are noisy!

 

 

Unsplash

As luck would have it, on Wednesday I was scheduled to work a very busy four-hour shift at the food bank to distribute food. Conversation is steady and often involves a lot of pointing and miming for our clients who speak little English.

Unsplash

By Thursday, I was so ready for a quiet day at home, for oleilu: a calm, unhurried state of simply not doing, achieving, or planning, just the quiet act of existing in the moment. This was accompanied by several cups of hot tea and crystal bowl sounds.

 

 

 

 

Quiet and mental calmness help me prepare and enjoy the upcoming busy holiday season in order to fully embrace the blur of celebrations to come. 

Cricut designs

 

Let the Gardening Begin!

 

Dirt, compost, and soil builder

A few days' tomato harvest

Let gardening begin? Isn’t fall the time to harvest? We are still harvesting tomatoes, more tomatoes than I care to see the rest of the year. 😀 But squash was a bust, except for the pattypan squash. This was the first time I’ve tried patty pan, and it’s worth a try again next year. 

Pattypan squash

But to the topic of beginning, fall is the time to get started on next year's garden—from the ground up. I’m adding soil booster, a rich mixture of compost and organic matter that will allow better air to plant roots. Perlite, is an organic volcanic glass that improves aeration and drainage, and the addition of peat moss will enhance water retention.

Once the weather finally cools (we saw 90 degrees twice this week!), I can start transplanting blueberries and raspberries to new garden beds. I’ll have an entire 8x4-foot bed for each.

Rhubarb starts

We love fruit, and it grows well in my “yarden”, but dedicating three
beds to fruit doesn’t mean we won’t have some vegetables. I have six new rhubarb plants for a 3x3 bed, and will try moving asparagus to its own 3x3 bed. The latter may be risky, but the squirrels aren’t giving the asparagus much of a chance where it is now, and the new bed will allow me to cover everything easily, thwarting the squirrels.

After all that, the really big job begins when I pull the strawberries out of their 8x4 bed so I can enrich that soil before putting the plants back in. I have a lot of work ahead of me, but also a lot to look forward to! 

Just as fall starts, rain is predicted on Sunday. At least watering the garden is done for the season. 

Photo by John Noonan on Unsplash