37/365 butterfly

36/365 guilty?

yes she did catch a bird. she tried to bring it in the house but when i opened the door she went to put it down and thankfully it was able to fly away. hehe i love these quasi guilty shots...

35/365 god damn i'm bored

so here is a slightly fuzzy picture of Mt. Rainier. I have so many pictures of this mountain. I never tire of its presence and go to the park most summers. So I've been to the Henry M. Jackson visitor center, which they just revamped this last year. Replacing the old visitor center that was a bit space-agey,think Guggenheim (it was built in the 60's i think) it used so much diesel fuel, leaked heat, not to mention no longer up to state fire codes. the new center is smaller and is laid out better. "and thats all i have to say about that." (not really i just ran out of steam)

34/365 Little Miss Muffet

Found this fellow in Astoria. I didn't notice while snapping the photo but this guy only has six legs. It was BIG!

33/365 Avocado Cat(s)?

I didn't know that cats liked Avocado

Well at least one does

32/365 found....

As a passenger I get to look closely at the world moving along. We were at a stop light today and looking up we were right next to this amazing tree. So thankfully it was a long light and I was able to snap this.

31/365 mary mary

Mary Mary quite contrary,
How does your garden grow?

With silver bells and cockle shells
And pretty maids all in a row.

30/365 wow a month already?

weird eh? looks like, oh i dunno, something mom wouldn't let you touch as a kid. its actually the drippin's from an apple bake. it was able to peal it right off. i was grossing out my husband with it earlier. fun times....

29/365 Avast Me Harties

Acquired when we went to Astoria. It really gives me a little thrill when I see wavin'

28/365 SUNSHINE!!

I just knew if i complained loud enough i'd get my wish (ya right). but today dawned bright and we had spotty clouds but at least the sun shone through. i am a happy girl.

27/365 fog anyone?

So this is the view from upstairs. on a clear day you should be able to see the other side of the valley and a ridge beyond that. with this fog we couldn't even see a mile. yech.

its been this way for 3 days now. drizzly and foggy. I NEED SOME SUN DAMMIT!!! this is the only reason i hate fall here. winter, hurry up.

26/365 my mommy loves me!

So I get a call from my mom as I'm rolling into town "could you stop and get me some cream cheese and some yeast? Mine finally died" My mother is an amazing baker. she can whip up a delightful red velvet cake from scratch, from memory. and then make a light as you please angel food cake all with out batting an eye. at least it seems this way.

earlier this year, at my incessant urging, she went and had her food allergies tested. turns out she too has a gluten sensitivity and anything with milk, tomatoes (her favorite), yeast or anything that has been processed or even been prepared more than 24hrs before(its starts to ferment IE yeast forms). So with that being out there her baking took a decided down turn. Now with fall/winter at hand she got the bakers itch...

fortunately for me i get the spoils! on the left pumpkin bread(can you ever really have enough) and on the right banana cake with (tofutti)cream cheese frosting. as you can see the banana bread has an end mysteriously missing.... all GF and fabulous. I'm gonna get fat. again.

Bosnian food anyone?

So I've been putting this post off for a bit because I was unsure how to convey everything..

First off I tried to scan into the computer the menu from Drina Daisy that was "borrowed", to give you a proper overview. Alas my machine has gone haywire and it may be seen flying through the air here pretty damn soon... GAH As a note before I get underway the Words in Bold italic are how it appears on the menu and the words in (italic) are the descriptions also on the menu.

So our first night upon arriving at Astoria we went to Drina Daisy. Its located on Commercial Street which is a one way thoroughfare in old downtown. The restaurant occupies two old store fronts. The entrance contains a "bar" or lunch counter where you can sit and eat. Magazines and a few newspapers from Bosnia along with local publications are on the counter by the register. A mix of euro pop that is tinged with a slight Arab note(think belly dancing) is being played overhead. Everything is white and green with a few dark furniture pieces dotted here and there. Orchids on every table and trailing philodendrons placed up high.

We were greeted and seated by a lovely gentleman who turns out to be co-owner/husband to the chef/cook. Very talkative and informative. When we came in there was another couple but they were finished and soon left. So we pretty much had the place to ourselves until we left.

Because I am a "try anything once" kind of girl, I wanted one of everything. But my companions are much more sedate when it comes to trying new things.
I ordered a starter for sharing of Subo Meso which is Smoked Beef (thinly sliced lean dry smoked beef decoratively arranged with various cheeses which may include feta, mozzarella, farm goat & or sheep) and he(waiter/owner/husband) decided to make it more than that so it included
Bosanski Sudzuk which is Bosnian Smoked Beef Sausge (A unique Bosnian sausage with garlic & light spicing, thinly sliced and decoratively arranged with marinated roasted red pepper, tomatoes, etc) on the plate came a serving of
Ajvar which is a spread/condiment (A traditional bright reddish-orange puree of fire roasted re bell pepper and baked eggplant) and some pickled veg one of which I think was whole tomatillos sliced in half but I'm not sure.
Along with Bijeli Hljeb which is their house bread made fresh daily.

The Subo Meso is amazing. It acted like jerky in the mouth but tasted way better. Not as chewy tho. The Bosanski Sudzuk was just as it says lightly seasoned sausage. Very good. The real stand out is the Ajvar. It was sweet and slightly smoky, creamy with a light texture. Perfect complement to the beef bits. I'm not sure what kind of cheese was served I would say it was mozzarella but it was firm so me thinks it was sheep. I would know feta or even a firm goat cheese. Very light not heavy at all. My company all highly praised the bread, it smelled wonderful full of that wheat and yeast smell crunchy on top and soft in the middle. :(

For beverages we ordered a cherry wine. Very sweet and heavy, its a sipper for sure. we were able to bring home the leftovers! Badger ordered a beer that had been fermented in oak casks. It was a light mouth feel semi dark in color and almost like a champagne. So strange yet she ordered 3 of em! not to mention everybody lots of water.

For dinner I wanted to share a whole lamb but nobody wanted to :( so I got Sarma which is Stuffed Cabbage Leaves with Beef (Italian risotto rice & ground organic beef chuck lightly spices with Mediterranean spices & wrapped in cabbage leaves. Cooked in a savory red bell pepper & beef broth. Served with sour cream)
Everybody else ordered Burek which is Beef Pastry (Jufka(filo pastry) folded & baked around ground organic beef chuck. Lightly spiced with Mediterranean spices & a touch of garlic. Served with sour cream) and
Baklava which is Walnut Pastry (Bosnian Style) (Walnuts & sugar "honey" densely layered in Jufka(filo pastry). A special treat. Made on site) for dessert

Let me tell you... the Sarma (avail. as vegetarian also) is AMAZING! It literally explodes with flavor in your mouth. It can be a bit rich so everything is served with a little salad with lemon, some pickled veg, Ajvar and some regular steamed veggies. The cabbage is perfect ie. not mush. and the rice is so subtle you wouldn't even know it was there except for the extra texture. The beef and broth ladled over top was so damn tender it literally melted in my mouth. OOO I want some now! The flavors all melded together without any one thing standing out above the others. Yummy yum yum.



The last time we went they ordered the Burek again, and for a starter share we ordered Sopska which is a Tomato & Cucumber Salad (A traditional & decorative Mediterranean style salad with diced tomato & cucumber. Dressed with a special sour cream dressing) very good it even had bits of that cheese....
as a drink Cockta which is A Yugoslavian soft drink (a dark, non-cola, drink produced in Slovenia. Cockta is flavored with eleven different herbs. Dog-rose berry provides much of its unique flavor. Cockta has no caffeine or corn sweeteners. It also has no phosphoric acid making it smoother than domestic soft drinks). It is super good. I highly recommend it if you can get your hands on it. very different but very good.
For an entree I ordered Bosanski Goulas' which is Beef Stew with Paprika Spice (A meaty stew of beef top sirloin chunks & a few vegetables. Flavored with Mediterranean spices & paprika, a spice considered by some as originating in the Balkans)

The Goulas' was so good. Meaty and filling also served with A mini acidic salad, the pickled and steamed veg. The flavors were perfect. I don't particularly care for paprika but served this way it was phenomenal.

If told that I had to pick one it would be extremely difficult. Hell I need to go back to have the lamb or goat and the Zeljanica Pita (spinach pie) try the vegan option for the Sarma. not to mention their huge European wine list and Turkish coffee and Bosnian style espresso.

In other words I never left Drina Daisy feeling hungry heck I felt like I had ate Thanksgiving, Christmas and Easter Dinner all in one night. ufta. I suggest you go if you can. Now. You won't be regretting it

25/365 Presents!!!!

This poor little fellow is #2 to be laid at my door step today. The girls have been very busy. Kind of a surprise as neither one of them have been much of a mouser before. Must be that country air.

Mouse pie anyone?

24/365 one, two, froggys comming for you

23/365 zoom zoom

So I had to go to Hell-Mart today for some fiddly bits. On the way out, almost losing my new garbage bin lid to the wind, a little ford festiva drove by me. With flames. Now a ford festiva is not a particularly sexy/fluid car, in fact its a bit boxy. So to see it coast by with flames painted on it really tickled me pink. I asked the driver if I could take a photo her car, I don't think she fully understood me but I did get a few shots.

22/365 oh that ocian view!

Those were the first words supposedly said by William Clark of Lewis and Clark when upon arriving at the pacific on the Washington side.

This was view from our room that we rented at the Crest Motel in Astoria. The Astoria-Megler Bridge is in the back ground. Always empty container ships out on the Columbia River waiting for their cargo in Portland. There is even a ship that has to dredge the river twice a day or else it would fill up with silt and there would be no way to navigate the serious sandbars.


Astoria is an amazing little city. so many Victorian era homes that are wonderful to look at as a recent (last 10 years) resurgence of town pride has many homeowners fixing up the old painted ladies. The historical society has even acquired a home of a major Astoria player Captian Flavel. I was able to catch a tour through the Capt. George Flavel House Museum on Saturday. It is absolutely stunning and makes you at a loss for words. But only if your into that kind of thing and i am, because i'm a history geek.

My friends visit a lot and had brought back tons of reading material. So I had a general idea of restaurants and shops. They have a little restaurant called Drina Daisy. They specialize in Bosnian food. Oh. My. God. If you ever have the chance to go, you must. I seriously had mouth'gazims. So good we went twice. We ate elsewhere too but Drina daisy was really the only place that stood out. In other words food I couldn't have made myself.

So because Astoria is on the coast we expected rain. Yes we did have a little each day but nothing that was torrential. Until we went home. It rained from the minute we started on HWY 12 until about 5 miles to the "Y" at HWY410. In fact it snowed at the summit. It wasn't sticking but it did snow. YEA!


it was a wonderful time. and i even ran to the ocean half naked on halloween. whooo doggie!

hey ya!

Over the Halloween weekend we went to Astoria, Oregon, pictures soon. so i apologize to Karen aka Fab Grandma, and the Mouche for not getting back to ya.

so for Karen and the pumpkin loaf recipe

4Tmelted butter
1/2 C Sugar
2 large eggs
15 oz canned pumpkin
1/4 t ground cloves
1 1/3C Pamela's mix
1/2 t salt 1t cinnamon
1/2 t ginger


yields one 8x4 loaf
Preheat oven to 350. beat together butter, sugar, egg and pumpkin. Add remaining loaf ingredients and mix completely. pour into a greased 8x4 pan. bake for 50-60 minutes or when toothpick inserted comes out almost clean.

i used fresh baked pumpkin, because thats what i had, and i also "floured" the pan with more Pamela's Baking and Pancake mix. they sell the mix in a HUGE bag (4lb) and i use it for everything! it makes a great base for rues, pie crust, crumble topping etc.

this recipe also had an optional nut topping. 2T melted butter,1/3C packed brown sugar, 1/2C of nuts (almonds, walnuts, pecans) mix nut topping and smooth evenly over batter to the edges of the pan, pat lightly.

also to note it freezes pretty good too.

and to the 'Mouche... Washington, somewhere in the middle ish. and i already voted. thankfully Washington is a blue state.

21/365 Sturdier than it looks

i love this bridge. even though you have to hike a mile and a half with at least 1000 foot elevation increase. we also saw a golden eyed frog on this expedition. he let me hold em.

20/365 View

I've been watching these two trees turn colors for weeks now. every time i look out my living room window they catch my eye and i stare. the yellow one was half green for a coupla days, neat to see.

19/365 moon rise morning

Happy all'hallows!

18/365 Evolution of a Pumpkin

this pumpkin loaf was made with Pamela's baking and pancake mix. and when the recipe calls for 15 oz of canned don't decide that 18oz of fresh is close enough. i still ate it. mmmmmm i love pumpkins. or all winter squash/gourds.

17/365 mableline

16/365 carcass

whats left of a sunflower after the birds found it.

15/365 'shroom dude

14/365 good morning

rarely am i awake to see this. gorgeous.

13/365 last one

12/365 Cosmos

look whats still blooming even after the frost...

11/365 why hello beautiful...

coming to bed? there's room for one more....

this is alex she is resting on my hubby. i always get the best photos of her. her sister is harder to photograph for some reason.

10/365 shadows

man the days are getting so much shorter. this is at 4:30. in july this whole area was still flooded with sunlight, tanning time. *sigh.

9/365 scenes from a freeway

Mt. Rainier at sunset

8/365 Bienvenue, Willkommen, Come on in

TRICK OR TREAT!!!

I love this time of year. Its such a shame we don't get trick or treaters. Too far out I suppose. But decorating is so much fun especially because I can use these decorations thru Thanksgiving!
I grew the corn this summer it was so tasty and yes that is my everyday broom, its better than any store bought one. Purchased it at a hippie festival about 10 years ago and is hardly showing any wear.

7/365

Rose hips.

When we were little we used to take walks along our road. Growing up in the mountains it made it quite safe to do so. I can't remember if we were coming or going but I do remember the spot where mom pointed out that rose hips are what is leftover from the roses and that they were edibile and filled with vitamin C.

This to my 7 year old brain it meant something else that I could put into my mouth and not get yelled at for. So for years my sister and I couldn't wait until fall and for the rosehips to shine through. we would pick them and eat some as we go then save the rest which usually ended up as dried pruny things by the time we remembered them in the spring. and yes we would eat them too completely ignoring the hairy seeds inside.

Now that I'm a bit older "ahem" I still enjoy them. More often than not they are in my tea but they are still tart and a little acidic and remind me of my childhood.

6/365

pathway home....

5/365 ladybugs, lots &lots of ladybugs

so a little history. the area where i live is considered the fooothills of the cascades. so there are quite a few hills and valleys. the valley that i am in now, evolved with a highway hugging both the north and south "walls" of the valley. in the seventies a 4 lane freeway came through the middle of the valley and the two highways are now rarely used as they are winding with many ups and downs. the north highway is my favorite with amazing views both ways and with enough curves to keep you glued to your seat ;). along this highway there is an adorable old bridge way above the hydroelectric plant. it has a seat on the southside that faces the river with amazing views of the north valley.
I introduced my nephew to this little seat about a month ago. So when i picked him up from school yesterday he requested that we stop at this bridge when i take him home. so we stop and the closer we get i notice that the entire south wall is COVERED in ladybugs. orange, red and black, little spots, big spots and no spots. we were stunned. my nephew at 7 years old called it "extrordinary". i couldn't take enough photos, it was just amazing.

4/365

Look who i found out in the garden today. Not sure what she is but she had no red hour glass. beautiful huh?

So whats the dumbest thing you've done today?

So i've been devouring a pot of coffee today. Now that it is evening ya slow down a bit. So having let my favorite mug filled with once piping hot caffeine nectar gone ice cold, I decide that I should place it on the wood stove to warm up. This is a habit I have done since childhood with cocoa, tea, coffee or any other assorted needing to be warmed beverages. So it was without hesitation I set it on the stove that was still silent with coals. Now something I didn't take into consideration tonite was this mug is glass and I set it in the middle of the top hoping it would warm up faster. Let me say this... BIG MISTAKE!


Needless to say I was watching tv and hear this loud SNAP! followed by violent hissing and the smell of burning international delights spiced rum and coffee. Not the best smell if you ask me. Have you ever tried to clean burning coffee/sugar off a piping hot stove with smoke filling the house and its too cold to open the doors to shoo it out? I suppose thats why they made cozy slippers and jackets!

I really did like that mug tho, damit.

3/365

I did my lifeguard duties today. I saved'ed this huge bumblebee(he's drying in the sun here) and later 2 honeybees. That's the only thing i don't like about having a huge ug pool in the country. and yes we're renting but still... its seems as tho i am either saving insects, spiders, worms, frogs and weird whirly air/water bugs or fishing their sad carcasses out of the 10 ft deep or the filter.

psst.. todays picture was almost a little woodpecker but he was too far away and against the sun to get a good shot. boy was he noisy!

g' morning

so i just slept 18 hours and i'm thinking about going back to bed. my husband kept trying to wake me up but my eyes just didn't want to comply. he even made a pot of coffee. i think i'll have a cup with some cocoa to celebrate "international chocolate week", thanks 'Mouche.

well g'night i suppose....

2/365

this is why i like cold weather. it gives me an excuse to play with fire.

project 365/1

so i read about this project over on Fab Grandma and she in turn found it on another site she reads. so in the spirit of sharing and hopefully posting more often, i am going to give it a go.

what it entails is this. share a photo a day for a year. its that simple. maybe i can stick to this regimen.

here is the first installment.....

if you look closely you can see the birds...