farmer's market dinner

The Saturday farmer's market is one of the highlights of my week. Getting produce locally, in season, developing a relationship with the people who grow and sell the food. I never think to bring my camera to grab a few pictures of it.

But, here are a few word pictures:

- A Korean lady who doesn't speak English but sells the best spicy garlic that we've ever had. Mike commented the other day that any other garlic seems inadequate. (hopefully the other other heads that we have around won't get a complex.)

- A fish stand called "Tuna Dan" staffed by a young mother and her sleeping babe in a backpack. The lady in front of the me asked for lots of ice to pack around her fish since they were going to be home for 4 hours. Then ensued a discussion about why the small chip ice works better for keeping it cold then the large cubed ice. "Does it have to do with the surface area? But then the bigger ice should work better since it seems it should melt slower. Oh, high school science was too long ago." I stayed out of the discussion. I came away with a pound of halibut to grill for

dinner.

- Our favorite produce stand, Lazy J, which always has fresh produce and new things to try. The stand owner had told me how to use sorrel before but only had it for a week in late spring and I didn't get any. However, she had it again yesterday, and I asked for her recommendations on using it with fish. "Use it cut up like an herb to put on top of any kind of fish, or make a cream sauce with it."

Here is a (not as flattering as I would have liked) picture of our grilled halibut on a creamy sorrel and parsley sauce. The sauce recipe is from here. It was a great dinner.

Running at daybreak

Several times a week, I go for a morning run, usually the same route every day. It's fairly peaceful without much traffic. It offers open views of the Olympics and the Straight of Juan de Fuca with the occasional view of Mt Baker if it isn't cloudy towards Bellingham. We live only 4-5 blocks from the high school, and towards the end of my run I usually do a few laps on the track. The high school is situated on pretty prime real estate with open views of water and mountains. This morning I was out before sunrise in the crisp fall air. The sun was coming up as I was on the track, lighting up the sky in colors from light pink to deep red to brilliant orange. A deer appeared as well, initially alarmed at my movement but then stopped to look at me with ears splayed out fully. Mt Baker was out in all her glory this morning with soft shades of pink setting it off.

I caught a picture of the sky after I got home.

felines

We added two new felines to our home in the past few weeks, sisters named Smudge and Ariel. They used to be Mike's cats until he moved from his previous relationship. Their caretaker is planning to be in Hawaii for the better part of a year and didn't have another place for them to go. So, it has been an interesting adjustment to be a 3 cat household now. Harper knows that he really wants to be friends with them, but his mere presence is often met with hisses, growls and swats, mostly from Smudge.

We were were sitting in the living room the other night. Harper was fascinated by this long-legged spider wandering around and proceeded to "chase" it. Ariel and Smudge thought that looked like an interesting game. Ariel watched it under the love seat for a bit. But, when it got near Smudge, she looked a little scared of it and backed away. We found it pretty amusing.

Harper is a "neglected" cat at times. We have been talking about making him a cat perch/scratching post since we moved to Port Angeles. But that certainly hasn't happened. Mike brought up the perches belonging to Ariel and Smudge. Soon after bringing the perches into the house, Harper jumped onto it. "Hey, this is pretty cool. Why don't I have one??"

I'm not used to aloof cats since both Ari and Harper were/are very affectionate cats who want/ed to be on me all of the time. Smudge, however, is her own cat. She does not come when called or even acknowledge that you are speaking to her. If she wants to be petted she will let you know. She has this black spot on the tip of her nose which prompted her name and makes her look like a little imp.

Ariel is a large cat. She weighs the same as Harper but Harper has a frame for his weight. When she gets scared, her eyes are huge, these big green saucers. And her fur is very soft, feels like a rabbit. She has this plaintive cry when she is hungry and won't stop until she is fed ...