Blake Island Adventure

On September 14, 2008 the entire Orchard Clan left The Compound for a trip across the Sound to Blake Island. It was Jennifer's birthday and she'd never been, so off we went.

When Jesse was young, we used to do a lot of boating and camped over there quite a few times. We hadn't been in many years and, since we don't have a boat these days, we used the tour service out of downtown Seattle which includes lunch at Tillicum Village. We were pleasantly surprised to see nothing had changed. It was just as we remembered it. Well, the nightly camping fee is now $19. Last time we were there I think it was $5. But other than that the place was still beautiful. It sits just off West Seattle so the skyline is right there, but since you can only get there by boat it seems miles away. Our other Blake Island Adventure pics are here.

The weather was great. The kids had never been on a rocky beach like that but took to it as though they'd been going for years. Why is a little boy gets on the beach and immediately starts throwing rocks into the water? He'd never done it before but he instinctively knew it was something he should do. But not Kira. A male genetic thing? WHo knows.

It was a great day and it's the final installment in our Summer 2008 set on Flickr. Fall has arrived and now it's time for cooler weather happenings. Summer wasn't the best weather-wise but it was good, all in all.

Danger Shot

While my iMac was doing a software update early this morning I strolled out with a cup of coffee under the arches at Pacific Science Center. Just had my iPhone with me, so this shot may be hard to see. But all of a sudden, it was as though I was in an old Hitchcock movie!

The air was suddenly filled with the shrill sounds of hundreds of birds. Along with the usual cacophony from the many gulls that hang out, there were these starlings swooping into the arches. There were hundreds perched on top of the arches. I took my iPhone and snapped this shot quickly before any of them managed to bomb me.

Adding to the bizarre scene was the fact the air was filled with the delicious scent of doughnuts from a nearby bakery.

Kinda freaky.

Forking Over A New Generation

Today we traveled to Olympia for a birthday lunch for my mother. She turned 85 this month and our family and my sister and her husband Jim gathered at the Olympia Oyster House for some excellent food and a few memories. It was a beautiful day.

While we were all at the table I spotted our 1-year-old granddaughter Kira using her fork. The short video is below.

Seems like just yesterday her brother Kelton was doing the same. His short video is below.

We had four generations of Orchards there today. It's a wondrous thing. Hope it lasts many more years.

Salsa Time 2008

Every summer, my wife Joyce and our daughter-in-law Jennifer can salsa. This was the weekend for it in 2008. They put up a total of 30 pints and about a half dozen quarts of tomatoes.

I just LOVE this stuff. It's not really like the salsa you get at the store or at a restaurant. It's chunkier, for one thing. It's more like a relish or chutney. I love it on just about everything, including frittata.

One sad note from this year's annual Salsa Symposium: we normally drive over to the Selah area and get our produce at one of the little stands out in the fields. It's a great trip. WAY more peppers and other things than you normally see over here. But with gas prices as they are, and with a tight schedule, Joyce just went to the local roadside stand in Maple Valley. The produce was good but I miss driving over the mountains.

But I will still enjoy cracking open a jar of this stuff in December or January when the kitchen is filled with the aroma of eggs, cheese, etc. A little bit of summer all winter long.

Procrastination Unearths Surprise

I was going to write this sometime ago, but you know how procrastinators are. We tend to put things off. We also tend toward redundancy. I seem to repeat myself a lot. But that's another story.

This is the story about a bunch of split firewood that has been laying outside our woodshed for several years. A mixture of maple, cedar and a little alder, we have been putting off getting under cover. We finally did it this weekend and we found an interesting little surprise in there.

My son, grandson and I were picking up the pieces and throwing them in the pickup when we spotted some strange looking mushrooms growing in the dark of the pile on the maple. Knowing that if we stopped for very long we'd just slip into procrastinator mode again, I just grabbed the Nikon D40 and snapped this one shot before getting back to work.

We're not big on mushrooms, so I have no idea what kind these are. Clearly they prefer maple as a host. Anyone know?