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"moving suz" has moved. Please go here for new posts.

It's been great to document moving and making a new home. I will continue the saga of creating community and learning about my environs on my new blog.

Marauders

It was so convenient to hang seed and suet feeders for the birds off the trellis. But by the second week in April the squirrels woke up from winter and found all those nuts and suet just waiting for them.

S'pose they need food too, but they can empty a feeder in a day or two -- that might last over a week for birds.


So off to the Backyard Bird Shop I went. I got the tallest feeder they had. I still needed to add a little "tent" gizmo to keep them from climbing up the darn pole!


So far so good. The squirrels still hang around the bottom and eat all the "spill". I took the screen off my kitchen window and moved the feeder closer so I can photograph the birds from indoors.

Just so you know, that's a Pine Siskin noshing away.

Tulip Tripping

A few weeks back we had a heat wave of sorts and I drove a friend and my sister off to Woodburn, OR to visit the Wooden Shoe Tulip Farm.

It was a little tricky to shoot in the bright sunshine. But nothing soaks up the sun like yellow ...


Nothing says "yellow" like tulips.


How about these little bowls of sunlight?


Of course, they came in every color and shape. This brilliant cluster was in the display area, where folks could see the names and choose bulbs for order.


They weren't all showy. We fell in love with this blushing beauty.


There were acres and acres of rolling stripes of color. I ran into Craig Tuttle while out roaming the fields.


Of course, what would a tulip field be without the little tulip girl?

After the Party

After the orgasmic burst of blooms, the air is a flutter with drifting petals. The ground assumes the color that once was in the tree.


I've seen sidewalks and gutters that were brilliant pink. Here in my yard it was quite pale.


In these parts the sunniest time of day is frequently late afternoon and evening. Here's my Chinese Elm aglow in the setting sun.


The crows congregate in the day's last rays and make their own special ruckus as they go about it. It's nice knowing we're enjoying these balmy evenings together.

Ode to Winter's Passing

This isn't entirely finished, but I wanted to get this out while it still has some seasonal relevance.


Ode to Winter's Passing

Winter's lean calligraphy
Of leafless limbs
Is slowly blurred
In pale blushes
Of pink and gold,
Rust and red.

Lost are the spare black veins
Etched high against the steely skies,
Their eloquent soliloquy
Increasingly obscured
By diffuse profusions
Of their own concealed
Fecundity.

Tints, at first tentative
And faint
On winter's chilly cusp
Deepen into bolder hues.
I feel giddy and unsteady
To be so newly
Unconstrained from
Winter's quiet dialog.

Slowly I gladden
And let loose a
Drunken joy
That life indeed
Has triumphed
Once again.

Then and Now

It's been one year since I moved to Vancouver. I arrived the afternoon of April 14th, 2008, but wasn't able to sleep in my house until the next day when the furniture arrived.

It's hard to believe there was so much upheaval and chaos. (We quickly forget unpleasant memories!)




Looking back, it seems like a lot was accomplished. Besides moving in, a new heat pump was installed, insulation and lighting amended, trees removed, the house painted, a new front door installed, garage insulated, dry-walled and painted, new garden beds prepared ... and on and on.


I have definitely "landed". I absolutely LOVE my new home and community. I've been surprised how quickly I was able to reestablish community and make new friends from ... Zen Center, gardening, ushering, birding, hiking, Farmers markets, Drinking Liberally, a gym, etc.

I miss my friends in California more a year later, now that the dust has settled. But this new life in a home, with a yard, a neighborhood, SEASONS and having TIME ... well that's pretty sweet too.

Since this blog is about my "moving", I will be replacing it with a new blog in the near future (when I'm not in the garden all day!). It's been a great year.

Sourdough starter ...

This is what gray, wet days are good for --- baking! Michael Pollan made it sound so easy. Hoy! Maybe for him. This was definitely trial by error.

I should explain that I was inspired by a passage in An Omnivore's Dilemma about whipping up sourdough starter on the window sill. I used the Boudin Bakery website to get started -- basically leaving flour and water out to soak up ambient bacteria.


After that, it was a bit dicey. My first batch of bread tasted great but was very flat and dense. I got the starter out again and let it sit for about 10 day (!!!) -- mostly because I just didn't know what to do with it.

But I didn't have the heart to throw it out. I "freshened" it again (with equal parts water and flour), let it sit overnight and le voila! I had live starter. It rose like a dream.

These loaves are going fast!


Just Google "sourdough starter" -- there are oodles of YouTube videos. Just one word of caution, the start up process takes about 4 days minimum. Don't do what I did and start a day before company arrives!

Proof!

This yellow variant House Finch is a permanent resident in my yard. He's got quite the song. He trills from high in the trees as good as any canary. (incorrect grammar aside)

Here's proof at my own feeder!

Spring Jewel

In the four years I've owned my home and the year I've lived in it, I've never seen my cherry tree bloom before. It's taller than my house even. I just love being greeted by this scene when I arrive home.

I'm reminded of popcorn, cotton candy and even bubble bath suds.


The best part of standing under the boughs is the constant hum of bees and the clicking of hummers. Both are having a field day supping from the blooms.

Spring gone wild!

My friend Yvonne and I walked through her Portland neighborhood yesterday afternoon. At 75 degrees, my cotton jacket was tied around my waist.

Rows of flowering plum lined many streets.


I knew about tulip magnolia blooms ...


But I didn't know that so many trees flowered before they leafed out.


Gardeners were out and ready to respond. We talked to at least half a dozen.


It seems that my own cherry tree went from buds to blooms in a single day. I even had to mow the lawn!


Another view -- during a late afternoon siesta. Cotton candy or pink popcorn come to mind.

A Break in the Weather

Last Friday the weather broke up and we got sun!

















A walk along Salmon Creek revealed buds already well developed. Flora and fauna seem to know it's spring.

These hillside thickets have yet to don its spring colors.

The Evanescence of Spring

This has been the soggiest time of year since I moved here almost a year ago. The tulip bloom is a week late already.

This morning, during what proved to be a brief interlude in the rain (note sunny boughs on lower left) I went out doors to check up on my lettuce seedlings. Copious plumes of steam were wafting off of my own roof and those of my neighbors. At first I thought it was chimney smoke.

In just a few minutes it was over. (It's a lot prettier in a forest -- to which the French say, "the wolves are tending their ovens".)

Did You Know?

I've been away on retreat contemplating emptiness and spaciousness. It is amazing a) that our minds are so chaotic and "busy" and 2) that they can calm down to stillness.

Ahhhhh. Or should I say, Om.

In the meantime, I received this YouTube video detailing some jaw-dropping statistics on our changing world.

Bird Highway

The weather may be hard to read, but the birds aren't confused. The jays are building nests. The chickadees are chasing each other with renewed fervor.

I spied a Downy Woodpecker who took great interest in my suet cube. It's not much bigger than a sparrow. (web photo)


I believe that's a Lesser Goldfinch on the bottom.


This beautiful Rufus Hummingbird has started coming by every afternoon around 4PM. He's quite punctual.




And perhaps my most unusual visitor was the yellow variant of the House Finch. (web photo) The best photo can be seen here.

Daffodil Time

Springtime is here and it's "stormy weather". A gray, wet day can break open to sparkling sunshine without much notice. But don't count on it to stay that way.

I grabbed a sunny walk late yesterday afternoon. I chose a new neighborhood that overlooked the Columbia river. I like this view of the dappled shadows on the water.


The cherries are out in full force. Again, clear skies frequently come on the breeze making it hard to look up into a tree that isn't moving!


The yellow of daffodils is off the charts. Like ducks in rain, they thrive in this cool, wet weather.


My front door camellia is coming on strong. The blooms have more color and vigor.

March Madness

This weed is amazing! It's kept me bent double weeding for the past several days. I couldn't find it in any of the local weed indexes, but finally identified it as Little Bittercress (Cardamine Oligosperma).


It's a member of the Brassicaceae family which includes mustards and cruciferous vegetables (your broccoli family). The Genus is Cardamine.

It has a fabulous quantity of roots when in loose soil and seems to flourish in any environment. The poorer the soil, the sooner it sets bloom. When the seeds mature they spray explosively at the lightest touch. They are generally easy to pull up.

I am so ready for spring. My lettuce seedlings need to be transplanted, but the weather is still quite volatile so they're going to have to wait a little longer.


We got rain for the next three days.

Fort Vancouver Walk

Last Thursday was a sunny day, perfect for an afternoon walk. Fort Vancouver affords tranquil alleys with little traffic.


For some reason, I found this row of utility vans intriguing. That's the I-5 bridge in the background.


Mt. Hood is at its best in the late afternoon light. Since Vancouver is west and north of the mountain, it's in shade much of the day.


That's the tip of Mt. Jefferson poking above the distant Cascades with Portland's Mt. Tabor in the foreground.


I love this copse of trees lit up in the afternoon light.


I came across the first cherry blossoms of the season. There was a brisk breeze so I wasn't able to get any detail as everything was swaying and wiggling.


I love this walk. It's a pleasant way to get in 4 miles and discover little neighborhoods tucked away off the beaten path.

I'm not sure if this is Mt. Rainier, but the amount of snow and its alignment make it a strong candidate. It's the smaller mound to the left of Mt. St. Helens.