Farmer's Market in Seattle

In an attempt to remain employed, I will not go into how much I like/dislike my job on a public forum. I mean, you get the idea right? Wouldn't spend my weekend there if I could...

 

 

Each summer... starting in June... a silverlining.

 

The Pike Place Farmer's Market!

 

Oh how I have missed thee. Okay, let me try to paint this picture.

 

Each Tuesday between June and October(ish), amongst the squalor of Pioneer Square there lies a beacon of hope. The sweet pea flowers waft a delicious sunshiny scent that, for an instant, transports you to a field of pink and purple waist high plants. (Don't worry, a bum will ask you for a dollar and will snap you right back out of it.)

 

 

 

Anyway, up in the courtyard, several vendors line their carts up and away they go. Beets, lettuce, tomatoes, carrots, squash, asparagus (pictured above), cherries, peaches, apricots.. honey, cheese, spices.. the list goes on. But the flowers... OH the flowers. Bouquets of peonies and sweet peas ($10, come on..) fill the corners of the courtyard.

 

Unfortunately, I would have been caught up in a stampede of government workers had I attempted a picture of the flowers... Here are some beets instead.

 

 

 

And cherries!

 

 

Can I just hide under my desk and stick my face in a bouquet of sweet peas for the rest of the day?



A Day of Rain and Sun

 

A rare day off from training this Father's Day. Before brunch, I ran out to the yard to do some much needed clean up and barely beat the rain. (Yay rain! It's been too long!) 

 

I found this cute-as-a-button raindrop sitting pretty in the center of a nasturtium seedling.
 

 



Here are some other fun finds from the morning.

 

I love this guy's wings. He seemed so content to just sit under the flower bud as the rain started. Below, one of three lemons starting on our tree. Nicknamed Mr. Bates (from Downton Abbey), our little tree has been looking shocky since its transport outside for the summer. This is a hopeful and most welcome sign that he's doing okay. 

 

Here's my ever constant shadow, Jack. We had moved three or four wagon loads of firewood from the back of the yard to under the porch cover. It's really quite sweet - he'll grab a piece of wood if it falls from the wagon and trail along behind me. Trouble is, he'll stake a claim on it. I think he's about to drop it on a tomato plant here...

 

Disclaimer: No tomato plants were harmed in the making of this blog post.

 

Finally a tomato!!!

 

The very first fruit of the season. I'm not sure which variety this is... I should have looked, but now it's nearly 11:00 at night and I'm in no mood to run into Ichabod, our resident possum in the backyard. If Jess is wrong, and this isn't the Year of the Cursed Tomato Crop, we will have many more pictures to come, descriptions and all. 

 

 

As I was cleaning up the yard (mainly stuffing from some ill-fated stuffed animal... I can't really talk about it... it was a massacre) the sun came out. I snapped a few shots of the pumpkins with the sun beaming down on the leaves. See the strings in the background? We took the siding (the icky torn siding) out of an old green house and will attempt to trellis the tomatoes and mini pumpkins up and over the top.   

 

 

Notice the tiny apples in this pot? Our next task is to massively overhaul the apple trees. Not only is one of them completely touching the cable wires (I'm hoping they are cable wires and not electricity) but they are also way too big and not producing fruit to fruition. The apples stay tiny and bitter and just fall to the ground, either half eaten by birds and squirrels, or too out of reach for even Jess and I.

 

I'm researching how to go about this. That is on my radar for an up and coming post.

 

Jack has finally stopped bouncing around the house and is nicely snuggled in bed. That's good a sign as any. Time to sign off for the night.

 

The week awaits.

 

 

 



Just... pretties.

One day I will arrange posts into a logical order. With links and nice formatting. For now, here are pictures of our first flowers.





Oh my gosh, captions. Yes! See? I'm learning. One of my favorite tulips.





I love these guys and their cute whiskers.



A great friend and possible future guest appearance-maker on this blog used these billy balls in her wedding. I think about helping to sew those darn boutaineers the night before the event every time I pass these in the garden.



A Taste of Spring

I am getting a late start on this blog, but we will recap our Spring, bit by bit. First, the tomatoes.

 

Tomato Row

 

Both of us have a love affair with tomatos. Last year we had 19 different plants. This year, due to a tragic soil virus, we lost all of our tomato plants that we had started from seed and grow lights. 30 plants withered and dried out before our eyes.

We mourned our beloved tomatos and began again!

We dug out the grass, added compost and potting soil, painstakingly constructed a makeshift fence (only moderately dog-proof) and planted our new friends!

I tell you, it won't be the same as starting them from seed, but at least we aren't totally out for the season. We also have a ton of volunteer plants coming up in between our other veggies. We'll see if we can salvage any of those.

 

Here's a great link to view tons of tomato varieties: http://njaes.rutgers.edu/tomato-varieties/

 

And our personal favorites:

Chocolate Cherry

Yellow Pear

Sun Gold

Our Orchard House Farm

 

Well, here it goes. First blog post. Welcome to our "farm." Quotations used because who could have a farm in the city of Seattle? Here: Definition of "Farm." http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/farm. See? We grow stuff. It's a farm.

 

 

Here are the characters:

Jess. Bike riding, plant loving, chicken hating, Jess. She's the queen of all things green. You'll see in posts to come.

Here's her girl, Daisy. She hates chickens too.

I am Courtney. I love bikes and plants too, but not as much as Jess. Mostly I love animals. Like chickens and dogs and goats and cats and horses... you get the idea.

Here's my buddy, Jack. Jack likes playing ball. And playing tug. And barking. And squirming out of snuggle attempts. But he likes chickens, so he's aces.

Here's the resident attack cat, Nora. No mouse, bird, squirrel, or possum (or human stumbling to a coffee pot in early morning hours) is safe. 

 

There are no pictures of the people characters. Come on, people. The internet is a scary place. There might be an obscure one here or there, but... it's not about pictures of the people.

This blog will be Jess and my journey into summer. New jobs, adventures biking to the office, recipes, life with pets, a mention or two of K9 search and rescue, our farm undertakings, and the potential addition of a chicken coop - more details on all of this later. Thanks for checking us out, and welcome!