Hanford: An Atomic Tour
A quick trip behind the barbed wire to the Country’s most contaminated spot.
Halibut with Paté
An island getaway, eating like kings, reminds me to share the best Halibut recipe you’ll likely find this year.
Myco-Madness: 2009 Wild Mushroom Show
Foraging for mushrooms is high on the list of things I’d like to do confidently, but can’t do safely.
Resting at Quartz Mountain
Quartz Mountain is one of the most unique rentals in the Washington State Park System.
Camping with Wee Ones
Middle Fork is close to Seattle and easy to get to with a car full of children.
How to Lure Folks Away from New Jersey
Here’s ten easy tips on luring folks to the Northwest. It’s not hard.
Butchering a Pig: A Field Style How-To
I never expected that butchering a pig would be a pleasant affair. It’s not. What I was looking for was to understand how much work it would take to process a pig in the event I bought one. As a bit of a foodie, I’m curious to make my own sausage, and try cooking some [...]
Spring in the Skagit Valley
Just before five am, I dropped some friends off at the airport. Caffeinated, I drove north on the nearly empty interstate, waiting for the sun to come up. The Skagit Valley lies about an hour and half out of Seattle, a broad flood plain, and the closest big chunk of agricultural land in the area. [...]
Grayland: Oysters, Clams and Rain
We got a text on the way to Grayland, “Hurry! I am in my tshirt on the beach”, but by the time we got their the sun was setting, the clouds gathering and it was time to put on a hat. We never took off the hats the rest of the weekend. I tell everyone [...]
Black Sun
With the failure of Thursday’s photo shoot I decided to take advantage of the thick fog to walk around Volunteer Park after spin class. At 7:45, the park was already busy with dog walkers, joggers, men cruising, and the gardeners tending garbage pick up. Isamu Noguchi’s sculpture sits on a shelf in front of the [...]
Point of View(s): Photo Safari
Gray and cold, this morning wasn’t the most intriguing weather to go on a photo safari, but that’s what I was doing with Pam of Nerdseyeview. I did not take enough photos, think hard enough about finding things to shoot, and in most ways failed at “photo safari”. However, we did manage to go to [...]
The Miracle of Flight
Just like that, we were beyond the inversion gripping Seattle and looking at the Cascades and the Sierras from the east. And we’re on our way to warm, sunny Mexico!
Tall Boys at the Market
One of Seattle’s best known old time string bands, the Tall Boys, are regularly at the Market. It’s often a mix of the band and I suppose their pals, and they sing sweetly about murder, broken hearts, and God. If you see them at the Market, tap your toes and give them a buck or [...]
Capitol Hill Turkey Transition
With some trepidation, I headed over to Capitol Hill to start the Turkey Transitioning. Admittedly, I felt better about it after our Sunday Co-Op get together where roles were discussed, a plan outlined and a “Wild Turkey” toast was made to the seven turkeys Margot and PS clan were raising. Suffice to say, when you [...]
Turkey Butchering at Ebey Farm
I was starting to get a bit nervous about the upcoming Turkey Slaughter. It’s not that as a band of newbies we couldn’t do it, but I did want it to be done efficiently and with as little distress to New Tiny and all the rest of the birds in Margot’s backyard. It was with [...]
Drive Across Washington
A friend of mine in Pittsburgh has nearly stopped communicating but for small slices of video. As one might expect when making short clips about daily life, some are rather prosaic. As often as not though, there is a large amount of emotion in the simplest activity. What has been inspiring me about them is [...]
October, Vancouver BC
I was definitely a side kick on this trip. Up for the Madonna concert, tickets were so much money, that I opted not to go, but rather bum around town while Vic did what he had to do. Not that it was a bad thing. I recently picked up a new fixed lens for my [...]
Spray Park in HDR (Beginners Edition)
For all my seasonal talk about trying to switch up this blog into a more web-friendly experience, swapping in more bicycling again, or delving deeper into content, it’s the side projects of content management that I find more interesting. I recently started organizing and tagging my pictures in Aperture and am learning some tricks there [...]
Snow Lake in Summer
Our hiking book says that Snow Lake is likely the second most popular hike in the State. That seems about right. I’d never thought we’d end up there, but when we arrived yesterday at the cloudy, drizzling and very cool Snoqualmie Pass it suddenly took on some allure. It’s fairly short and it seemed that [...]
The Pass at Red Mountain
“Oh, watch out…he’s a Mountain Goat!” That’s what everyone says about our Northwest pal, J. His wife warned us the whole time, “You’re crazy if you try to keep up with him.”. As if we could. They both kicked my butt, and if I hadn’t started crying on the way down, would have likely been [...]
Our Canadian Mini-Moon
Harrison Hot Springs is an odd town. It’s hard to find anything about it other than the Spa, which sits at one end of the beach front. There are a however a few hotels, restaurants, plenty of camping spots, and most importantly a public hot spring that is reasonable priced and plenty warm. We visited [...]