Giving Experiences

I don’t know how Mike and I managed to do it, but we convinced our mothers and my grandma to come out to Seattle for Christmas and New Year’s. In addition to the priceless Christmas morning I know we’ll all have together for gingerbread cake, hot cocoa, and gifts, we decided on giving all of us a 2 day-vacation together at Sleeping Lady in Leavenworth, WA. This is an anomaly, because we haven’t done something like this since I was maybe 14. Now that our Dads aren’t around anymore, we felt it especially important to build a beautiful memory after all the pain.

Cozy cabins at Sleeping Lady

I read a post at Oh Happy Day that listed a number of experiences to give someone you care about instead of some thing, and thought I’d add to that list but to focus on family-friendly experiences involving the outdoors and food. Isn’t that what really makes us humans happy – to work out, break a sweat, see something beautiful, and then taste something delicious?

Here is a list of gifts that last beyond a purchase date.

1) Create a brunch tradition
I love breakfast. It’s a meal where you’re freely given permission to mix salty and sweet, and load up on calories because after all, you need calories to burn throughout the rest of the day right? Try to get in the habit of making a new and different item every weekend; a couple months in you’ll soon develop favorites that may become the source of a memory as poignant as Proust’s madeline. A weekly jaunt to a new and different place to experience a new cinnamon roll or bacon sandwich is perfectly acceptable.

2) Plan and create a garden together
There’s nothing like walking outside your door and grabbing something to eat. Fresh alpine strawberries, lettuce, or basil – it doesn’t have to be something as ambitious as corn or potatoes (or tomatoes here in the Pacific NW!) ;)

If you don’t have land, planning an area to grow herbs in a sunny spot of your home might work. Also heading out to the local farmer’s market on a regular basis will keep you in tune with what’s really in season.

3) Create a hike map for the new year
Every year I try to have the goal of going to a new place to hike each weekend during the summer. While I fall short every one of the two years I’ve been trying to do this, it does open my horizons to exploring new places that are free and lovely. Is there an outdoor activity that someone you loves is really into? Try creating a personalized list of suggestion for them, and pack a lunch!

I also now write on Seattle Urban Gardening topics for the Examiner, here are my first posts!
Holiday Gift Ideas for a Seattle Gardener
Show-Stopping Edible Plants of 2011
The Year Ahead : Seattle Gardening Events

Yum, Boulder!

The Foothills

I remember the foothills were first thing that my friend Jay mentioned when he spoke of Boulder. He moved to Boulder somewhat recently, a place he had dreamed about while he was working in Florida with Mike and me. We’ve tried repeatedly to get Jay to consider moving to Seattle, and while he says he likes it here in Seattle, he always goes back to the sunny Colorado skies.

As the days got darker and darker here, my family got more and more excited about visiting Boulder. We finally took a trip out to that hippie-tech startup-sunny base of the Rockies last week.

Jay told us that he was going to make us French Toast repeatedly. I didn’t think much of it until I had a taste of the bread he made the night before. It was the loaf form of an english muffin. You know how an english muffin is soft and airy, yet it has that certain texture that can’t be described except for it being perfect for soaking up butter and jam. Yeah that’s it.

I’m waiting for the recipe. :)

Of course while in the downtown, we looked for coffee. We were lucky to befriend a nice woman (a transplant originally from Jersey City!), who told us about Boxcar coffee. They roast their coffee on premises, oh my god they do a good job. As another plus, they were cool and friendly, unlike some baristas in other coffee houses we visited.

Finally, we took a visit to Spruce Confections, where I had the loveliest chocolate croissant. I would put it in the top three I’ve ever eaten. Yes, that good! We didn’t stick around to listen to the young man playing the violin for very long, but I loved the sun and violin on the cafe table.

So my vote – Boulder is worth a visit!

Plantings in Paris

Photo by Val Easton

A garden writer I’m very fond of named Valerie Easton recently took a trip to Paris. As usual, her article talks about how her perspective on not just the architecture and vibe of a city, but its plantings. Her article “Paris plays to the eye with plentiful plantings” makes some lovely references to the cream-colored stone buildings that play up green plants wonderfully, as well as the living walls designed by Gilles Clément and Patrick Blanc. I also just loved the photo pictured here, the mix of formal and informal is lovely.

Kauai Coffee Visit

Coffee by the sea

A few weeks ago, I went on my first visit to a coffee farm. While on Kauai with my family we visited Kauai Coffee, which isn’t too far from Poipu (a town on the south of the island known for hot, sunny weather).

Coffee flowers

I bent over to inhale the perfume from these flowers, and trust me, the smell is intoxicating. Very similar to jasmine.

The coffee tickler

There was a fairly in-depth self tour around part of the coffee plantation. A number of the facts were very interesting. For example, the electricity used on the farm is generated from waterfalls elsewhere on the island. I also found out about the “coffee tickler”, a machine that gently flicks little arms past the coffee bushes to take off the riper berries.

There was, of course, a coffee sampling area in the visitor center. I went wild, and tried almost every one of the dark blends. It was followed by the most wonderful caffeine rush.

The gorgeous landscape for growing coffee

Solitude and Getting Away

I came across the article “Where Home Is Really About Getting Away From It All” a few days ago.

Small island near Kīlauea Lighthouse on Kauai

My family just went on a week-long trip to Kauai. The scenery was breathtaking. There’s something so unique about Hawaii. But it was a vacation. A nine day long vacation, which felt long enough to lose track of time and color my dreams. It was relaxing, but there was no delusion about permanently “escaping” the real world.

In fact, even though I was on vacation there were definitely some things that took me by surprise. It’s amazing to me that on an island 3,000 miles from the continental United States I can get baby food and diapers *cheaper* than I can in Seattle. Why is so much of the food shipped in? I read in a travel guide borrowed from someone on our flight that 90% of Kauai’s food comes from somewhere else. There are also problems with where to put all their waste. It’s not like garbage can get dumped 100 miles away – unless it’s into the ocean.

The New York Times article about getting away from it all really seemed to be a collection of men bent on escaping reality by moving where there were no other humans. They could afford to do it, too. Their only problem appears to be loneliness.

I love taking trips, but also have to remember that there is a reason I moved where I am – there is beauty here too.

View from my backyard in Seattle