• Book: Snow Falling on Cedars

    Book: Snow Falling on Cedars

    Snow Falling on Cedars, by David Guterson Challenge: A book with weather in the title Rating: 4.5/5 Review: David Guterson wrote the foreward for the book I just read – Wintergreen – so it is fortuitous, or something, that this book came in at the library immediately following. I’ve always heard this was a good

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  • Book: Wintergreen

    Book: Wintergreen

    Wintergreen: Rambles in a Ravaged Land, by Robert Michael Pyle Challenge: A book based in your current town or region (Willapa Hills is close enough to Seattle, right?) Rating: 5/5 stars Review: This is a lovely book. I have now purchased a fine hardback copy for myself, and I suggest you do likewise. I feel

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  • Early (ish) Birds

    Early (ish) Birds

    Good morning! It’s a bright, cold day in Seattle, and the birds are loving it. They have already nearly decimated the seed I filled up on Sunday! I decided it was time to snap some real shots of these guys, not iPhone photos through a dingy kitchen window. I set up my camera and tripod

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  • In Defense of Slow

    In Defense of Slow

    I have been ruminating over writing this for a couple of weeks – just one more reason to write it! I have had a slow Christmas day: got up and started some breakfast – a traditional Christmas bubble loaf of doughy, cinnamon cream cheese goodness that my family makes every year, then good coffee. We

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  • New Year, Ready or Not

    Now that we’ve made it over the first end-of-year Holiday hump, my belly a food lump, I’ve decided that some things have to change next year. This year has been a good run – a fun one, not a rat race, of sorts. New city, new jobs, no job, what now? On the chopping block

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  • Portland Monthly Magazine feature

    I wrote a pretty comprehensive guide to eating sustainably across Oregon last year for Portland Monthly Magazine. I was pretty excited, I must say. It’s still relevant! I just recently finished up a roadtrip across the Western half of the US, and it would’ve been really helpful to have such a guide along for the

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  • Approaching Home: Painted Hills & Craters

    Idaho came on fast! We bid the snowy bosoms farewell, going over an impressive mountain pass, then before we knew it we were in Idaho Falls. Bam. This time we learned, and called the Boise/Meridian KOA there first to make sure they were open. Then more of Idaho, until we reached Craters of the Moon

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  • Grand Tetons II: In Which I Might As Well Be Elsa

    We woke up fairly early this morning again – I gotta admit, I’m tired. I have not slept hardly at all on this trip, and I am really looking forward to our real bed again. But anyway, back to reality: it snowed!! The first real, real snow. I was very excited. It was a light,

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  • Le Grand Tetons: Day 1

    Le Grand Tetons: Day 1

    Well, this has got to be the prettiest place we’ve been so far! The mountains are spectacular – stark white and crisp against the dark winter sky. The pass we were going to take over the Rockies was closed, so we took the scenic route – through Steamboat Springs and Rock Springs, where apparently my

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  • Rocky Mountain High

    Rocky Mountain High

    So this weekend, Jim and I stayed at a cabin in the YMCA of the Rockies, of all places. Jim’s old business partner and his family live in Denver, and arranged the whole thing. It was a bit of an odd experience, but fun! I’d never have thought to stay someplace like that, but the

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