One of these things is not like the other!

I guess I've been buying some random things at the markets lately ... here's a look at my latest finds:

Purple potatoes!

Local chanterelle mushrooms and Romanesco broccoli. These mushrooms are usually so expensive, but they were cheap at the farmer's market - I guess that's the benefit of living in a cold, damp place ... mushrooms grow really well!

Tried my first dragonfruit the other night ... basically tastes like a bland kiwi (similar in texture). I'm sure, however, if you eat these locally where they are from they are delicious.

In other news, I bought some castanets to begin practicing for our orchestra piece La Vida Breve by De Falla. I jokingly sent out the video to the orchestra and our director mentioned that if I could get it to be good enough, we could include the castanets. So, for the next month alongside violin, I will be learning to play this piece:

Maybe on November 20th at 7:30pm (@ Seattle Town Hall) I will make my debut as a castanet soloist! haha

As far as the balcony garden goes .. EXCITING NEWS!

My golden tomato plant has ripened our first golden tomato! I had used one of the tomatoes from the red tomato plant as a green tomato a couple weeks ago (fried green tomatoes .. yum!)

However, the days are getting WAY shorter so I don't know if the other tomatoes will ripen in time. At the very least, I'll have almost 10 green tomatoes to use for various things. To think that I raised these plants from when they were less than 1 foot tall, and now they're almost done for the season - pretty cool :-)

The salad greens I had started about a month ago are starting to grow big now - time to transplant again. I'm curious to know whether or not these guys will survive as it keeps getting colder and light becomes more scarce with the increasingly cloudy/rainy days?

For the winter season, my seeds are ready for planting. I'm going to start these guys inside and harden them off to the cooler weather outside, but Kale and Collard Greens especially should do well in the cold winter weather. Who said you can't grow stuff in the winter? On the left you also see some seeds from Japan ... dandelion greens, autumn spinach, and green onions. Once the tomatoes die off due to the cold, I'll be transplanting the greens (especially the collard greens and kale) into what were previously the two tomato planters.

I've been posting these views of the tree outside the living room window for a while now, but the differences have been difficult to tell. Now, however, there's no question that the leaves are really turning red! How exciting - my first time living in a place where tree leaves change color! Take that Arizona and Hawaii ...

Rainy rainy view of the balcony from inside with a cuppa' tea! I love how everything looks when its raining :-)

With the temperatures beginning to dip into the upper 50s and lows in the 40s (you can see current weather in the top right of this blog), it's getting quite crisp in the evenings and mornings. Can't leave home without the sweater (and occasionally even my scarf) anymore.

Couple more midterms to go ... halfway done with my second-to-last semester of college ... almost there ...

Seattle, mon amour...

So Ian reminded me today that it's been a while since my last blog post and I was in need of an update, so...

I was clicking through some old pictures and given that some old high school friends may very well be moving up here to the beautiful Emerald City / Jet City / Rain City soon (here's to you Meagan & hopefully Katherine!), why not put together a bunch of my very own photos in a "Seattle life" photo essay of sorts. Some of these you may have already seen before, but don't worry - you'll survive. Everybody always does "top 10" so why not mix it up and fall one shy .. here's a "top 9"...

#1 - As strange as it sounds, SeaTac Airport. As if the forests and rivers lining your aerial approach into the city weren't enough, seeing snow-covered Mt. Hood, Mt. St. Helens, and (upon landing) majestic Mt. Rainier is pretty cool.

#2 - The gorgeous cityscape (everybody who has visited so far has independently commented on how clean Seattle is, so I guess that's bonus points too? haha)

Did I mention, good public transit?

A little old right next to the new

#3 - Books, books, books (and libraries!) Seattle has been ranked "most literate city" consistently ... regardless of that, I just think the central library is pretty badass - 10 floors of funky shaped glass:

University of Washington's Suzzallo Library can't escape the theme of "great libraries" in this city either

#4 - This one is a given ... forget Starbucks, Tully's, and Seattle's Best (although all three giants are from here). This city is home to some hardcore, amazing, independent java:

My favorite coffeeshop ... Caffè Umbria in old town Seattle's Pioneer Square district

#5 - The wonderful, natural bounty that is the state of Washington and its farmer's markets. According to fabulous wikipedia, "In 2004, Washington ranked first in the nation in production of red raspberries (90% of total U.S. production), wrinkled seed peas, hops, spearmint oil, apples, sweet cherries, pears, peppermint oil, Concord grapes, carrots for processing, and Niagra grapes. Washington also ranked second in the nation in production of lentils, fall potatoes, dry edible peas, apricots, grapes (all varieties taken together), asparagus (over 1/3 of national production), sweet corn for processing, and green peas for processing; third in tart cherries, prunes and plums, and dry summer onions" PHEW!

Don't forget about all the seafood here as well !

Too many varieties of salmon to count ... King, Coho, Yukon, Copper River, Chinook, Steelhead, Chum, Sockeye ....

Just as many varieties of local mushrooms as salmon - if not more!

#6 - Views from my apartment and living IN the city

Mt. Rainier from the bedroom window and front door (looking south)

Panorama of the city from the rooftop here in Capitol Hill

View westward towards the Olympic mountains

#7 - Water, water everywhere (and everything it brings!)

Watching the seaplanes swoop around the Space Needle to land on Lake Union from the apartment balcony (and trying to dodge them when sailing in the lake!)

The largest ferry fleet in the US shuttling everybody between the city and the surrounding islands/towns in Puget Sound

Day trip to Bainbridge Island via ferry

Boats all around

Cool drawbridges and waterways to let all the boats through

#8 -  The ability to trade the bustling city for the breathtaking natural world in an instant

Case in point ... Discovery Park in the Magnolia neighborhood. 12 miles of trails through forests, meadows, and shoreline on 534 acres of nature preserve - all accessible by the city bus, less than 15 minutes from downtown

Or, just east of the city ... the Cascade Mountains

Hidden glacier-fed aquamarine lakes

Wild berries (raspberries pictured) all over Washington -  go ahead and eat up ... there's plenty more 

Huckleberries as well

#9 - Last, but not least, my favorite. I guess this is similar to the previously mentioned #8 in terms of "escape" from the city ... trains!

Amtrak Cascades ... running from Eugene, Oregon through Portland, OR and Seattle, WA up to Vancouver, British Columbia. Unlike airplane travel, traveling by train is relaxing, scenic, and gets you right into the heart of the cities (Portland, Seattle, and Vancouver stations are in their respective downtowns). The Amtrak Coast Starlight also runs from Seattle all the way down to Los Angeles daily.

Bistro car in the train 

Slow down your traveling and soak in the view

Train runs along the coast and Puget Sound the whole way up to Vancouver ... I live for these grey, misty Pacific Northwest skies

Well there's that ... I hope you enjoyed some day-to-day goings-on from the northwest

The low has been starting to dip into the upper 40s and I'm excited. Apparently this winter is supposed to be pretty cold with possible snowstorms given what's going on with the La Nina weather patterns around the equator right now ... apparently the coldest ocean temperatures in the equator since the Eisenhower administration - the most intense La Nina conditions since 1955. Here's the Seattle Times article: http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/localnews/2013042975_forecast01m.html

I've never been in a snowstorm, but I've seen videos of the "snowpocalypse" that blanketed Seattle in 2008, a city that otherwise has pretty mild weather considering how far north we are (a result of all the water we have around us). In the meantime, it's already time to break out the scarf!

More red leaves on the tree outside the window every day 

And, of course, some random stuff ...

So I've never had Concord grapes before (at least, that I can remember), but after casually grazing at the co-op market, I felt like I've been missing out my whole life ... when I popped one in my mouth at the market, I was NOT expecting it to taste SO intensely grape-ey (only way I can describe them?) that they seem fake! You know that welch's grape juice? Yeah .. like that, except WAY better. There's seeds (which is why massive, industrialized, commercial agriculture probably doesn't like to grow a ton of these since the generic population wants seedless) ... but after eating these every day for the past week, I can never go back to "normal" green and red grapes. Concords have ruined grapes for me ... but in an oh so great way!

Also found these kiwi berries from Eugene, Oregon ... like mini, crunchier, fuzz-free kiwis ... but I think I still prefer the fully-grown kind ;-)

Ian making his own custom blend trail mix that we call E-mix (for "Ian" .. "E" ... get it?!) :-p ... I usually hate trail mix (the sulfur used in the commercial dried fruit has a gross taste and they always have a weird ratio of the different components - too much of this, not enough that ...), but using bulk, un-sulfured, wholesome dried fruits in the proportions WE like is a whoooole different story. Not to mention, it's way cheaper.

Oh! I also learned some basics of sailing for the first time last Monday ... Ian and I spent the lovely afternoon on a friend's sailboat in Lake Union. I'll take pics next time, but suffice to say it's quite an amazing feeling to be leaning so close to the water, loosening and tying ropes for the different sails, dodging other boats while all of the sea planes are landing and taking off right above your boat and right next to you! I definitely have to get used to how much the boat leans depending on the turn, direction, and wind ... at two different points, I managed to accidentally lean the boat so hard that things were falling off of tables (and both times, somebody was in the bathroom ... sorry!). What an incredible experience, and all with the downtown skyline in the background while we zipped around the docked houseboats and under the bridges.

Anyhow, that's all I can think of to add in this random update and it's 2:30AM so I should probably head to bed ... getting up to watch Ian play soccer with a mug of freshly brewed tea in hand. Go Stonewall!

à bientôt