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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!