Spring Has Sprung

We had a busy, busy weekend. New seeds started:

• Tomato: Grape Jelly Bean Red & Yellow, Lycopersicon lycopersicum (hybrid). I grew these last year and they were delicious.
• Tomato: Cherry Rainbow Mix, Lycopersicon lycopersicum (hybrid). I started three pots of these -- the seeds are dyed so you know which color you're planting. The three colors I started were: Brown Cherry, Super Snow White & Bi-colored Cherry (pink & white striped).

For those of you who have been to our house you know that the gate into our backyard has been broken for, oh, ever since we moved in. Thor put his new circular to work this weekend and put in a new latch!


Perhaps the biggest, most exciting news of the weekend is that Thor's mountain bike came in! It's an Ibis Mojo - built out full XT (except LX cassette and Heyes Stroker brakes). It also has the new Fox Talus 150 fork on it! (I realize that for about 75% of you this information will mean nothing). I'm bummed I still can't get out mtn. biking with my gimpy shouler!


Thor ripped out the back lawn that had been invested by aggressive winter moss. He has three weeks before optimal grass seeding to turn in compost, level, and lay the brick border.

The first daffodils of spring in our yard! (This is ironic given the fact that it was snowing on my bike ride into work on Monday morning).

Spring Seed Starting

I finally got my seeds started tonight. I think I might be a titch late - but at least they're done now!

Here's what I started indoors:

1. Basil: Aroma 1, Ocimum Basilicum. These are 2008 seeds so we'll see how they do. Last year I took them outside too early - so I think I'm going to leave them inside a little longer this year - like maybe until late May or so. I started 12 pots indoors - each one has about 2 or 3 seeds in it.
2. Pole Tomato: Speckled Roman, Lycopersicon lycopersicum. I started about 12 of these speckled Roma tomatoes. They're an heirloom with orange & yellow striped skins that are great for making paste & sauce. I'm hoping that they dry well too as we flew Thor's dehydrator down this fall!
3. Bush Tomato: Super Bush for Containers. 12 plants started. This variety is supposed to be fantastic for containers and gets to be only about 2 feet tall. I'm hoping this makes some good snacking tomatoes for popping into salads!
4. Peppers: Baby Belle. Little peppers perfect for munching or tossing into salads. I'm hoping these do better than my peppers did last year. I wasn't able to harvest a single pepper! These seeds are from Renee's Garden...I am on the fence as to whether or not I like this company...my package only had 12 seeds in it! I hope they all sprout.

'Snowshoeing' in Washington

This post is way overdue -- somehow last week got away from me entirely and I didn't manage to get any of my pictures posted at all! Thor & I went to Tacoma, WA over the holiday weekend to visit my mom and grandma. We had a great weekend! My mom and I spent Valentines Day at the Madrona Fiber Arts Festival -- while Thor got to spend the day poking around Sportsman's Warehouse and Cabelas. Everybody wins!

On Sunday we decided to go for a snowshoe during the day. This turned out to be a bit of a fool's trip as the snow was terrible and we ended up taking our snowshoes off after about 15 minutes of hiking.

Here you can see how much debris was on the trail when we started - it only got worse as we hiked higher.

The point at which we finally felt ridiculous enough 'snowshoeing' in dirt to ditch our snowshoes on the side of the trail!

Myself, mom & Thor. We tried taking this picture about 7 times. One of us always looked completely ridiculous...this is as good as we were able to get.

The view of frozen Snoquera Falls from below once we reached the top of our hike. A huge chunk of ice crashed off the falls while we were up there. It didn't come anywhere close to us -- but gave us all a real jolt of adrenaline none-the-less!

The view across the valley while standing under the falls. It was a very overcast day -- but the forest was beautiful with all the fog.

Nick's Swedish Mittens

I just finished these mittens for little Nick Nardecchia this past weekend. They were so quick to make! I finished one on the plane ride down to Phoenix - and then the other I knit while watching the Grammy's on Sunday night. I might have gone a little too quickly though -- I was converting a child's mitten pattern to an infant size and messed up on the thumbs. They are so small I can barely get my pinky fingers in them. oops. They're more like chewing nubbins now.
The stitch pattern I used is called 'Pattern From Gammelgarn' out of the book The Mitten Book by Ingrid Gottfridsson. (You might notice this is a rather pricey little paperback book...that's because it is out of print!). I used leftover yarn from Thor's Christmas stocking to make Nick's mittens [Rauma 3tr. Strikke-garn in Light Yellow (#120) and Gold (#148)]. The 'string' attaching the two mittens is actually a two-stitch I-cord that I grafted into the cuff ribbing on each mitten so it's pretty solidly attached!

The mittens.

Nick demonstrating how to use the 'chew nubbins.'

*Note adorable hat hand-knit by our friend, Stacy Maiano!*

A Wonderful Life

Thor's grandmother, Tat Guirey, passed away this past week, and we spent this evening at a very fun celebration of life we held at the house that she and her husband built in the 1940's. A ton of people showed up - Tat was born in 1914 and lived her entire life in Phoenix, AZ so she had about a million friends. Here are some pictures of Tat throughout her long life.

Snowshoeing at White River Canyon

The ladies (+ Nick!) went for a little pre-Super Bowl snowshoe yesterday while the guys stayed home and made chili. Jen, Stacy, Katy & I went up to White River Canyon on Mt. Hood for a leisurely afternoon stroll before parking it on the couch for the rest of the evening. We ran into my friend Tashiana out on the trail and she took this great picture of all of us (Laea is, naturally, focused on a stick at Jen's feet).

Katy, myself, Jen & Stacy (Nick's snoozing in Katy's backpack).

Stacy actually took this picture herself! My self-made pictures never turn out this well!

Cold Weather Riding

Last weekend my friends Abby, Margi, Sage & I drove out to The Dalles to pre-ride the first two stages of the Cherry Blossom Classic -- a stage race that will take place later this spring. It was freezing! Literally. It snowed the whole time we were riding, but it was dry enough that the wind blew the flakes off the road. Our original plan was to ride 60 miles - but we cut it off at 45 and went for soup and sandwiches instead. We rode with a bunch of ladies from Sorella Forte as well. Here's the group of us after the ride -- you can see all the snow in the background.