July 2017August 2017 September 2017

08/30 - 1987 Muscadet

For a special treat we raided wine-searcher.com and chose a 1987 Muscadet. This is an old wine of a type not usually associated with aging. Usuallly, we drink young muscadet with raw oysters. Frederick Wildman & Sons is a big importer of Muscadet, so we trusted their judgement. We weren't sure what to expect when we opened the bottle. To be honest, we were ready for disappointment.

To our delight we found a surprisingly well structured white wine that tasted something like a cross between an aged Montrachet and a flinty chablis. It really was something special. We'll be grilling up some freshly caught coho salmon in a bit, so it is unlikely this bottle will last the night, but our memories of it will.


1987 Muscadet Frederick Wildman & Sons Moscato

Keywords: wine, salmon

08/29 - Seattle by Air

We haven't flown into Seattle for a while, but we had to make a quick trip. We booked a Rite Brothers charter flight and combined logistical necessity with a scenic flight.

Some of our local mountains

Mount Baker in the distance

Mount Rainier, also far away



Seattle

The grain elevator

Discovery Park and the view north

The Agate Passage

Keywords: flying, seattle, mount rainier

08/26 - Partial Solar Eclipse

We didn't see the total solar eclipse that passed by a few hundred miles south of here. We did, however, set up a pinhole camera viewer and watched the partial eclipse as projected inside an Amazon shipping box. It wasn't the same thing, but it was Kaleberg science.

Early on

Still partial

Towards the end - ha - the sun's too big for you to swallow!

Keywords: science

08/24 - Extra Spiky Artichokes

We recently bought some extra spiky artichokes from the Johnston Farm at the Port Angeles Farmers' Market. We think that they are violettas. Kudos to Farmer Christy Johnston who loves to experiment with different varietals. They were extra delicious and well worth dealing with the extra spikiness.

Count the spikes

Keywords: farmers' market, johnston farm

08/20 - Hurricane Hill as Summer Passes

The summer is passing. More gold and brown are creeping into the colors of the high country. We hiked the Hurricane Hill Trail again and saw a bit of drama, two young marmots were attacked by a hawk. They were unharmed, but one tends to thing that these things are just staged for nature documentaries. Not true.

We also ran into the team planning to rebuild the trail. The Hurricane Hill Trail is heavily used in season, and it has been showing signs of wear. We're hoping they don't have to close the trail for too long. We've been having a lot of trail and road closures lately.


Summer colors

Still plenty of green

Mountains in late summer

Another view

The view to the north

Clouds add drama.

A silky sky

Late summer flowers

The season

Yet another view

The trail planning team at work

Keywords: flowers, high country, hurricane hill, marmots, summer

08/08 - Bad Air at Hurricane Ridge

In case anyone has been wondering why we Kalebergs haven't been getting out much, we've been cowering indoors with the air filters running to avoid the bad air blowing in from the forest fires up in British Columbia. The air is still terrible and the weather not much better.

From the ridge

Actually, kind of pretty if we didn't have to breath it

More bad air and pretty mountains

The road to the ridge

Another view

Keywords: weather

July 2017August 2017 September 2017