A pepper harvest!!!!

I had completely given up on my peppers this year, and then on Sunday I wandered out to clear my raised beds and lo-and-behold my two plants were covered in yellow mini-bell peppers! They are delicious and sweet, I immediately picked them all because it's supposed to get cold in Portland this week and I didn't want them to get frost-nipped on the plant. I'll definitely try this variety again next year.

Fall Garden Plantings

Wow - just found this draft post with a list of plants (4/19/2010) that I put in our raised beds fall of '09.

Leek - American Flag - Allium ampeloprasum porrum - botanical interests
Carrot - Merida Hybrid (#CR267) - territorial
Mustard - Kyoto Mizuna (#MU529) - territorial
Spinach - Giant Winter (#SP785) - territorial
Lettuce - Winterwunder (#LT417) - territorial

I am here to say that NONE of these plants developed. First try at winter gardening was a big fat zero. Maybe need to figure out how to cover one of the beds next year!

Oakridge Weekend - 2009

This past weekend Thor & I rolled down to Oakridge, OR with some friends for two days of amazing mountain biking. We did the exact same trip last year, but I don't think we'll ever get tired of riding these trails - they are so well maintained (thank you Disciples of Dirt) and there is such variety as well!

Saturday we woke up to drizzle and fog - the same conditions as last year. Eight of us shuttled up to ride the Alpine Trail and we were all thoroughly soaked about 20 minutes into the ride!

Here I am riding across a field of beargrass about a quarter of the way down the trail - this is right before the really fun downhill section begins!

A shot of me farther on down the field.


Sarah Sturdy & I - at one of our many snack breaks.

Thor and I at the end of the ride. Happy after some epic downhill riding!

Sunday we woke up to blue skies and sun! A smaller group of us rode Moon Point down to the Middle Fork of the Willamette. Here's a shot of us all pre-ride; this was as organized as I could get people. From the left: Sean (almost completely obscurred by the shade), Katy Nardecchia, Sarah Sturdy (way in the back), Mike Schuller, and Thor (with his back to us).

A very complementary shot of myself chewing on fruit snacks at the top of Moon Point. Thank you for this picture, Thor!

The view from Moon Point.

Sturdy, barreling down the trail!

Myself, riding another section of the Moon Point descent.

Packrafting on the White Salmon

This past weekend Thor & I headed out to our friends Becky & Daren's family ranch to celebrate Becky's 30th birthday. On Saturday we went and floated the lower section of the White Salmon River from BZ Corner to Husum Falls. Our friend, Andy, came with us and paddled his kayak. I think it was a fairly fun day for Thor & I in the packrafts, most of the runs are about a class 3 (except for Husum Falls themselves).

Andy & Thor suiting up at the truck.

Thor running the first set of rapids up at the BZ Corner put in.

I just barely caught the tail end of him coming out of the rapids too!

Andy coming through the same rapids - his boat is entirely hidden by the water.

Thor & Andy in this dug out 'cave' we ran into about half way down the run. We were able to paddle in under the bank and hand out in the calm water for a bit. I think we surprised a number of guided raft boats when we just popped out in the middle of their group!

Here's a shot of Husum Falls. I think this is about a 15 foot (?) waterfall. Thor & Andy opted to run it. I volunteered for photography duty.

Thor approaching the falls. He admitted to me later that he might have backed out if there hadn't been a $20 bet on the line with Andy that Thor could make it over the falls without tipping over. (Spoiler alert: Andy won that bet.)

Thor entering the falls. What I don't have is a picture of Thor's boat completely disappearing into the foam. For about 5 seconds. Yikes. But he popped back up eventually!

Andy going over the same falls - he also rolled. I realize the falls look a lot smaller in these pictures - believe me - they were big & rumbly in real life!

Mother's Day Pillow (very late post!)

I made this pillow for my mom for Mothers' Day and forgot to take a picture of it before I sent it off! I made this pillow using all sorts of different scraps from my mom's fabric collection - which I thought was fun because then she recognized them from all the various projects she has worked on over the years!

The pattern is made up by my friend, Michelle, and it's not really a pattern at all - more just like an idea that you work with. It was fun, quick, easy & creative! And also nowhere near as complicated as I thought it would be. =)

Fall Jam Making

This past weekend I went to Tacoma to visit my Grammi, and in the evenings my mom & I made us of our free time by cooking up many batches of tasty jam! I went to Hood River with my friend, Michelle, a week ago and we bought some apples & peaches that I needed to process. On Saturday afternoon my mom and I went blackberry picking - so we canned that fruit up as well. All in all we ended up with blackberry jam, peach jam, cardamom peach jam, allspice peach jam and apple sauce. Yummy!

From the left: Blackberry Jam, Cardamom Peach Jam, Allspice Peach Jam, Regular Peach Jam & Gravensteing Apple Sauce.

Mia's Sweater!

Here's a quick update pick on Amy's baby sweater that I finished back in May. Little Mia is adorable and fits the sweater perfectly right now - so cute!