Red Cedar
More apocalypse, less angst
This is my day.
It’s hard to know what to say on one’s own birthday – so I will record this about the 1st day of my 38th year instead:
- I had breakfast in bed.
- There is fresh snow on the mountains and the sun is shining.
- My garlic is starting to emerge from the soil as are my other bulbs.
- I dug compost this morning, glued wood for my top-bar hive, and prodded the garden a little bit with my spade.
- I am brewing tea for a batch of kombucha.
- My porch-box is freshly planted with primulas and crocus.
- Tonight there will be dinner at Les Faux Bourgeois.
- I am still married to the man I am most suited to spend the rest of my life with.
All things considered? Life is perfect. There isn’t anything else I could possibly ask for. And I know enough to enjoy that feeling while it lasts.
I've got yard-itch!
It’s that itchy time of year for yard projects on the wet coast. Warm enough (sortof) to get outside and do some thing, but too wet for most. But if you don’t get your infrastructure done by the end of March, it seems like April is weeds and then everything else just gets away from you. So I’ve got big ambitions for the rest of February and am hoping in the next three weeks I can:
- Lay drip irrigation
- Build my top-bar hive (this is an imperative, the bees are being shipped in the next two weeks)
- Mulch
- Build two arbors.
The last two projects aren’t imperative for February, but it would sure be nice to get them done so I can move on with planting and also plotting out the frontyard. On Saturday, our friend Dave came and twenty boxwood hedges out of the front, and now I’m working with an almost-blank canvas. Time for drawings! Planning! Plotting! Even though we don’t have much money for that project just yet – Brian wants to get a hole dug for a pond and we’ll work on the plantings over time (as money allows).
Tomorrow is supposed to bring some cold-sun, and I’ve taken the day off because its my birthday – so here’s to a few hours between the hardware store and outside to celebrate!
Almost 38.
You know you’re getting old when after a “hard-partying” weekend you’re mostly feeling ill from the effects of refined sugar. While it is true that I drank upwards of a bottle of red wine on Saturday night, I’m pretty sure that this Monday-morning hangover has more to do with the fact I broke my 3-week clean-eating streak on the weekend. Not that I’m feeling down on myself about it – it was in the service of birthday festivities after all! But I sure didn’t think I’d be paying for Saturday night straight through Monday morning!
That aside, my birthday is in fact tomorrow (38!) and between B. and friends, I had a lovely social, food and drink-filled weekend that I am feeling entirely grateful and pleased about. Not only did B. arrange to bring a friend down from Bella Coola for a visit, but he put on a lovely little dinner spread Saturday night with a small collection of cool folks. This is not to mention the Friday night dinner he and M. made for me before taking us out to see True Grit (it was our family birthday celebration of sorts). And on Sunday our friends Jill and Andrew had us over for a fabulous dinner with chocolate-chilli birthday torte and everything!
On top of that, I got to finally cash in a gift certificate to Ming Wo that was given to us for a wedding present (thanks lit bitches!) Saturday afternoon, and when I went in to spend it I discovered that everything in the store was 25% or more off because of Chinese New Year. Suffice to say I got a few nice things and was once again bowled over by the generosity of that gift.
Oh, and then there was the part of the whole getting me out of the house so B. could prepare food, where my friend Sharai arranged a post-workout lunch and art gallery date Saturday afternoon which was a nice diversion, though I kept wondering why she was acting so weird the whole time (apparently this role was causing some stress as her job was to keep me out of the house as long as possible and most of the art gallery exhibitions were closed off on Saturday).
In all? A very fun and funny weekend arranged by my favourite person in the world who I am so blessed to have in my life. Yay Brian!
Tomorrow is my actual day and I’ve taken the day off work to putter in the garden and hopefully put together a top-bar beehive since my bees are scheduled for delivery in the next couple of weeks. I suppose that’s another sign of aging too – I can’t think of anything I would rather do on my birthday than work on the garden irrigation plan and prep for my next home project. Hopefully by then my system will be a bit more back to normal.
A Favourite Wild Rice Recipe for Sunday!
This is one of our household’s favourite recipes of all time. I usually substitute vegetarian “chicken” while B & M eat the real stuff (I like to keep the meat intake low) – either way it works like amazing and the texture combination is so great in this dish!
Chicken and Wild Rice Salad with Almonds
(Cooking Light Magazine, December 2009 issue)
Yield: 6 servings (serving size: about 1 1/3 cups)
Dressing:
1/4 cup fig vinegar or white wine vinegar
2 teaspoons sugar
1 teaspoon Dijon mustard
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 garlic clove, minced
2 tablespoons canola oil
Remaining ingredients:
2 cups fat-free, less-sodium chicken broth
1 1/2 cups uncooked wild rice
1 tablespoon butter
Cooking spray
1 pound skinless, boneless chicken breast
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/8 teaspoon black pepper
1 cup chopped celery
1/2 cup shredded carrots
1/3 cup dried cranberries
1/4 cup chopped almonds, toasted
2 tablespoons minced red onion
- To prepare dressing, combine first 5 ingredients in a medium bowl. Gradually add oil, stirring with a whisk until well blended. Cover and chill.
- Combine broth, rice, and butter in a medium saucepan; bring to a boil. Cover, reduce heat, and simmer 45 minutes or until rice is tender and liquid is absorbed. Remove rice mixture from heat; cool.
- Heat a grill pan over medium-high heat. Coat pan with cooking spray. Sprinkle chicken with 1/4 teaspoon salt and pepper. Add chicken to pan; cook 8 minutes on each side or until done. Cool; cut into 1/2-inch cubes.
- Combine cooked rice, chicken, celery, carrots, cranberries, almonds, and red onion in a large bowl. Add dressing; toss gently to coat. Cover and chill.
CALORIES 352 ; FAT 10.3g (sat 2g,mono 5g,poly 2.5g); CHOLESTEROL 49mg; CALCIUM 42mg; CARBOHYDRATE 40.6g; SODIUM 357mg; PROTEIN 25g; FIBER 4g; IRON 1.6mg
Some Death Valley RoadTrip Planning
I can not believe it’s been two and a half years since I was last in the desert (other than driving through Osoyoos last summer) and even though our trip is two months away I am in mad planning mode as I map out our trip. For the first time ever I will be driving all the way to California which is somewhat daunting (particularly given our short time frame) but I’ve decided to take the interior route which takes us through the Sierras and around all the big, dodgy I-5 cities.
Here is the route I am looking at (can’t embed Google Maps here or I would) – staying overnight somewhere around Ukiah on the first night, near Battle Mountain on the second night and hoping to make it to the Panamint Springs Resort early evening on the third night. (This is not what most people would call a resort, but it’s the only place worth staying in Death Valley if you want a hot shower and don’t want to pay too much for the privelege).
From there we will have three nights of camping, four days of hiking and then two days to drive home. We’re hoping to do Telescope Peak and also I am thinking I’d like to spend the Sunday night at one of the 4×4-access only hotsprings in the park. I think I’ll dig out my Death Valley travel guide I bought two and a half years ago this weekend and start salivating. Early April also has the potential to be a great wildflower month in the desert (at higher elevations of course).
The only thing I’m not sure about is what driving that part of the interior US will be like in early April? If anyone who reads this blog knows about such things, please let me know if it will be particularly cold and/or snowy in some of the higher elevation areas. I have noticed that almost none of the rec areas are open around eastern Oregon and Nevada until May which means we will probably be rest-stop camping if we can’t find anywhere else to pull into.
Since my first trip to Anza Borego in 2005, I still find myself compulsed to spend time in deserts whenever feasible. Not often enough for my liking, but every couple of years I try to get out there. I’ve had some weird experiences in the desert, taken thousands of photos, had the experience of the world spinning around me under the great constellation of Orion, and once even channeled/hallucinated beyond Carlos Castenada’s wildest imaginings (not under the influence of drugs either). Each time I go, it’s some kind of weird adventure even though I could never imagine living away from my moist rainforest environment. So I’m psyched and a bit nervous as I plan for this trip. Only two months before we hit the road!
Red Cedar 