February 2019March 2019 April 2019

03/29 - Cherry Blossoms at UW

Spring is here or at least in Seattle. We made a quick day trip to Seattle to check out the cherry blossoms at the University of Washington. They were in full bloom, and the quad had the air of a festival with hundreds of people out admiring the flowers, taking pictures and celebrating the arrival of spring. We joined in and took lots of pictures.

Cherry blossoms - We're not going to have a lot of captions here.


Califlory - flowers growing out of the tree trunk















A sign of thanks

A magnolia tree joining the fun.

Keywords: flowers, seattle, spring

03/12 - Various March Birds

This hasn't been a good year for hiking, but it has been a good year for bird watching. The eagles are easy to spot from the Dungeness Dike, and we saw a hummingbird in a bush right near the trail. There was a woodpecker on the forested part of the walk to Dungeness Spit, and a big hawk in a tree as we headed west from the Morse Creek parking lot.

A red tail hawk

Just some trees, unless you look closely

They're full of eagles.

A hummingbird at rest

A hummingbird in motion

The sea and sky off Dungeness Spit

A woodpecker at work on the trail

Keywords: birds, dungeness, dungeness spit, eagle, morse creek

03/10 - Pineapple Upside Down Cake

We love pineapple upside down cake, but it has been hard to find a good recipe. Too many of them use whole wheat flower and taste dark and gritty. Others are dry, as if they need to be soaked in pineapple juice to be made edible. We spent years trying to make this classic dessert, then we gave up, for years.

More recently, we decided to make our own version. We use Edna Lewis's caramel cake recipe for the cake and an improvised pineapple topping that starts on the bottom.

Pineapple upside down cake
The cake is simple, if you know how to make cakes from scratch. If you don't, it's worth learning how.

INGREDIENTS FOR THE CAKE BATTER

  • 5 tbsp butter
  • 1 cup sugar
  • 2 eggs
  • 2 cups flour
  • 1/4 tsp salt
  • 4 tsp baking powder
  • 2/3 cup milk
  • 2 tsp vanilla
  • juice of 1/2 lemon
INSTRUCTIONS FOR THE CAKE BATTER
  1. Cream the butter. Smoosh it with a fork. Smoosh it with the flat of your hand. It helps to get leave the butter out of the refrigerator for an hour or so. That makes it easier to smoosh.
  2. Use a fork and smoosh in the sugar until it is dissolved in a gritty mixture.
  3. Stir in the two eggs. This will make it creamier.
  4. Add one cup of the flour, the baking powder and the salt. Start smooshing it into the mix.
  5. When the flour starts to mix in, add 1/3 cup of milk, the vanilla and the lemon.
  6. When this starts turning into a soppy mess, add the other cup of flour.
  7. When the soppy mess has dried a bit, add the final 1/3 cup of milk.
  8. Keep stirring until you have a smooth cake batter.
Now for the assembly. You'll want an 11" x 11" cake pan. You can probably use a 10" x 10" or a 12" x 12", but we haven't tried it. You'll also want some baker's parchment to line the cake pan. INGREDIENTS FOR THE PINEAPPLE TOPPING
  • 4 tbsp butter
  • 1 cup brown sugar
  • 1 can crushed pineapple
  • 1 can crushed pineapple or pineapple rings
  • 1/2 tsp salt
  • Optional: maraschino cherries
INSTRUCTIONS FOR THE PINEAPPLE TOPPING
  1. Preheat the oven to 350F.
  2. Butter the cake pan and line it with parchment. We just fold one sheet to cover the bottom. There's no reason to line the sides.
  3. Melt the butter in the microwave and pour it into the cake pan.
  4. Spread out the brown sugar and sprinkle in the salt.
  5. If you want a pretty topping, you can make a pattern with pineapple rings and maraschino cherries.
  6. Drain and squeeze the crushed pineapple and fill in any gaps or just use 1 1/2-2 cans worth to line the entire cake pan.
  7. Pour in the cake batter.
  8. Bake for about 15 minutes. Ovens vary. It might take 20 minutes.
  9. When you can stick a butter knife into the cake and it comes out with no uncooked batter stuck to it, the cake is done.
  10. Let the cake cool.
  11. Turn the cake pan over. The cake should slide out. The bottom will become the topping.

Keywords: recipe

03/09 - Another March Day in Seattle

We spent a second day in Seattle and walked from the UW subway station to Foster Island and on the Arboretum. We are desperate for signs of spring.

The waterway

A long shadow

To Marsh Island by causeway

Coots - There were lots of coots.

On Marsh Island

A sign of spring!

To Foster Island

Another causeway

Back east these would be pyracantha

Witch hazel in bloom

More witch hazel

Keywords: seattle, spring

03/08 - A March Day in Seattle

Text of entry goes here

Mount Rainier as seen from the Bainbridge ferry

Winter blooms at the Ballard Locks

A big flock of docks at the locks

Hellebores

One of the sea ducks

Winter berries

Early, hardy pansies

Mahonia

Crockett and Tubbs - 1980s Miami VIce retro

An honest accountant

Bateau's frankfurter, but the steaks are better.

Keywords: ducks, seattle, winter, mount rainier

03/02 - Winter on the Elwha

Just about all of the snow has melted in Port Angeles and Sequim, so we were surprised to see how much snow was still on the ground just west of town. We made our way to the parking lot at Madison Falls at the current end of Olympic Hot Springs Road and explored the winter paradise. There was bright sun, black water and white snow. We followed the track made by other hikers and cross country skiers past the mule camp, now with its electric fence removed. We were relieved when we made it to some shade and delighted when we made it past the corner where we had an excellent view of the river.

As noted above, the water was almost black and framed by the brilliant white snow. The trees were gray and bare. We continued along the road, lured by the snow capped mountains beyond. There is almost never this much snow in this area. This has been a very snowy winter. We made it to the first river crossing where the park service usually has a small metal truss bridge except that the bridge was gone. The channel ran dark and deep before us. No fools, we turned around and made our way back to Madison Falls.

While the hiking is rather limited, it was well worth coming out and exploring. There is that back trail around the flooded area, but we've yet to try it. For now, at least, we'll enjoy that part of the river that we can get to.


The Elwha River

Olympic Hot Springs Road near the mule camp

A view of the Elwha

Another view of the Elwha

Ditto

Brilliant sun and black water

The end of the road

Another view ...

... and yet another

Sparkling water

The mountains, still beckoning

Keywords: elwha, winter

February 2019March 2019 April 2019