Busy as a bee

Seriously. We saw our first bee of the season in the garden last weekend, and since so few flowers are in bloom right now, it was indeed busy.

The last three weekends have provided enough glimpses of springlike weather (with a strange, glowing orb in the sky and temperatures above bone-chilling) that I pronounce that the 2008 gardening season has officially begun in our small homestead. J and I took a trip to a specialty nursery that stocks more varieties of rhododendrons than most people can imagine. It is a dangerous, dangerous place (it would have been more dangerous if we realized at the time that many, many varieties of Japanese maples were also to be had).

We had planned on buying only a few small rhodies (by small I mean those that max out at about 1’ x 1’ or 2’ x 2’) as evergreen anchor plants in a still-empty bed in the middle of our front yard. Well…we came home with 10. For anyone out there who things rhodies are simply big-leaved foundation shrubs (especially ubiquitous in the Pacific Northwest), the diversity in just those few plants we adopted is astounding. Big leaves, tiny leaves (1” by 1/8”), round paddle-shaped leaves, narrow pointy leaves. Flowers in shades of lemon yellow, sky blue, violet, deep red, cream, white, cotton candy pink and pink fading into white. Lovely. The largest of these will reach 3’ x 3’ over many, many years.

In case you don’t think miracles exist, we arrived home with our plant bounty and immediately put ALL OF THEM into the ground. Unheard of! We also moved three plants to the front yard from their temporary resting places (a Viburnum, a small false cypress (Chamaecyparis pisifera ‘Snow’) and a small variegated-leaved evergreen shrub whose name I can’t recall...)

It’s amazing how a few hours work can transform a landscape. Especially when the rest of our front yard already has young shrubs and trees in place, along with a lovely-even-in-winter herb border, foxgloves that never figured out it was winter, a winter vegetable patch (mostly kale, chard and beets) and masses of emerging spring bulbs.

My ambitiousness extended to planting four bags of bareroot perennials from Costco, including bleeding heart (Dicentra), maidenhair and cinnamon ferns, trillium and about 20 assorted hostas. I plugged a dozen of the hostas around the rhodies, for a nice contrast of leaf size and shape. I’ll add some deep purple columbine later, along with three hellebores I picked up at Costco last night (I also picked up a bag of 12 variegated-leaf hostas [after swearing up, down and sideways to J that I had actual spots for them] and a flowering pear tree that has a narrow enough mature width for our fenced side yard.).

A lovely line of coneflowers (Echinacea purpurea)will flow on the street side of the rhody bed, once we pick them up from a conservation district native plant sale next week.

Indoors, most of my tomato seeds have sprouted (except for holdout Koralik...not sure what it's waiting for) and I hope to see action from my pepper and eggplant seeds any day now. With grow lights glowing from the basement 24-7, I'm sure our neighbors must think we're growing pot. Heh, heh.

(Old-)fashion(ed) obession

Last night J and I watched Sweet Land (excellent, I highly recommend) and this morning I watched the rest of Northanger Abbey off Tivo while I drank my coffee. These two viewings unexpectedly spawned a burning desire to adopt some of the fashions of decades long past.

In Sweet Land, I fell head over heels with young Inge's traveling outfit of circa 1920 deep purple above-ankle-length (wool?) gored skirt and fitted black puff-sleeved jacket. I drooled over her black brimmed hat with the purple and black polka-dotted scarf tied around it. If you want to see the outfit in all its glory, visit the movie's clips page and watch Clip 2. Sigh.

I think the skirt from Folkwear pattern 232 will do nicely. The jacket may be more problematic. But where there's a will, there's a way!

I always yearn for Regency-era fashion a bit whenever I watch a Jane Austen movie, but that familiar pull was especially acute as I watched Northanger Abbey. I particularly fancied the jackets, especially the cute little Spencer jacket in light blue velvet. Fortunately this recreation will be a bit easier, thanks to this pattern from (the aptly named) Sense and Sensibility. For Jane-worthy gowns, I like their "The Lady's Elegant Closet" pattern, as well as Folkwear pattern 215.

An accidental obsession occurred while looking for the Spencer jacket pattern. I stumbled over a little selection of patterns collectively called "Women of the Middle Bustle Era: 1877-1882." I'm especially fond of the elaborately draped skirts that don't actually require a bustle.

Sigh, I think I'm in love.

Tranformation with a capital T

I've become quite enamored with Generation T: 108 Ways to Transform a T-Shirt, which I checked out from the library but now must actually purchase. I ran my first test projects by raiding my stack of "too baggy but maybe still OK for gardening" T-shirts. I also plucked two nearly new Old Navy Perfect Fit Ts for good measure (I bought them last year while losing weight and they fit me properly for about two nanoseconds before failing to be my perfect fit).

My first guinea pig was a turquoise heather ONPF T, which I transformed into the stegosaurus T (number 33 in the book, "tying game"). All it required was cutting off the sleeves, hem and neck, making one vertical cut all the way up center back, then making a series of 3-inch horizontal cuts 1+ inches apart on both sides of the center cut, then tie a bunch of knots and you're in business.

My pink ONPF T got a different treatment (number 19 in the book, "fermez la ruche"). I started by (again) saying "bye-bye" to sleeves, neck and hem. Then, I stitched new side seams 1" from the existing seam. That extra seam allowance became casings for drawstrings made from the few inches of T I cut from the bottom. Cute! A detail photo of the ruching is on my Flickr page.

When I lived in Belltown and had a P-Patch (community garden) plot, I bought a P-Patch T-shirt because I liked the color and graphics. What I didn't like was that it was a man's-style T. Now that it was even baggier than ever, I never wore it. But now, minus mannish sleeves and too-long hem, plus two new side seams to nip it in, I think I will wear it quite a lot (it's number 14, "classic punk"). I gave a similar treatment to a really baggy white V-neck (keeping the original) neck, but felt it was to utilitarian to bother photographing.

Next up: Let's see how many items of clothing I can make from a super-soft thick brushed cotton long-sleeve T of Js in a great color of red that surprisingly has barely faded (J bought it back when he still tended to wear his shirts and sweaters on the big side; now that he wears sleeker clothing , he's purging his closet). I'm aiming for a little skirt, legwarmers, hat and arm warmers.

What I'm reading

One of my must-read sections in the Sunday New York Times is the Sunday Book Review (runner up to Sunday Style, fyi). Each week, I get, if nothing else, a sort of Cliff's Notes version of books that are interesting, but I know I'll never read. Most weeks yield at least a few candidates for my "To Read" list. On a good week, I'll discover one for my "To Read A.S.A.P." list.

Tom Perrotta's "The Abstinence Teacher" swiftly made that list. Of course, with the NY Times practically hitting me over the head with it (great review plus author articles/interviews in two other sections the same week), how could it not?

If you're not familiar with Mr. Perrotta, he wrote the "Little Children: A Novel," as well as the screenplay for the fabulous movie adaptation. He also wrote the novel "Election," from which the hilarious movie was made. I'm about one-third through "Abstinence" and one of the things I'm enjoying immensely (as I did with "Little Children") is how human his characters are. You may not agree with their opinions, or even their actions, but their humanity shines through. No character is perfect; no character is irredeemable. Each has their hopes, dreams and desires and is trying to live life the best way they can, stumbling a little or a lot along the way. And aren't we all?

Also, Perrotta's characters aren't caricatures. Sometimes, you think you're seeing a caricature, but then you're shown another side, and you realize that, as in life, first impressions aren't always accurate impressions. This depth of characterization is especially effective when dealing with topics as polarizing as the those in "Abstinence": Sex ed vs. abstinence ed; evangelical Christianity vs. everyone else.

I just finished reading another find from Book Review, this time from an ad (yes, sometimes it is OK to judge a book by it's cover). "New Moon" is the second book in Stephenie Meyer's Twilight series. Thumbnail series sketch: Teenage girl (Isabella Swan) moves to Forks, Washington to live with her police chief father and falls in love with a teenage vampire (Edward Cullen). Complications ensue. I won't say more about that, because it would involve spoilers.

I'm not an across-the-board fan of the vampire fiction genre. That said, Elizabeth Kostova's "The Historian" was one of the best books I read last year, and I've recommended it to several people who read and loved it as much as I did. What I enjoy so much about the Twilight books is similar to what I enjoy about Harry Potter: vicariously reliving teen angst through the experiences of intelligent fictional characters who are placed in an environment that is on one hand pure fantasy and on the other hand totally normal.

A movie version of the first book, "Twilight," is in the works. Ironically, the actor cast to play the dreamy teen vamp is Robert Pattinson, who played Cedric Diggory in two of the HP movies.

Top 10 tasty bites

J's and my joint devotion to, nay obsession with, "Kitchen Nightmares" naturally leads to conversations about various facets of restaurantdom, including gross hygiene violations, decor and menu. That got me thinking about my favorite places to eat in Seattle.

It was HARD to limit it to 10, people. I decided I had to exclude bakeries from this list, or I would still be whittling. I've been to all but two of the 10 multiple times. Each of the "winners" causes me to develop either acute cravings or a dreamy look on my face when I think of them. Here they are, in alphabetical order:

Baguette Box: I know that the crispy drunken chicken baguette is their big hit, but I luvvvv the roasted pork loin with apricot aioli. And their beet salad with garlic olive oil inspired me to make my own version at home regularly.

Cafe Campagne: I've been here for brunch, lunch and dinner, and it's all good. Croque-monsieur, yum. Lamb burger with pommes frites, yum. Cassoulet, double yum. I already told my coworkers that this is where they are taking me for my birthday lunch next month so that I can order the oeufs en meurette.

Casuelitas: Everything I've sampled here is delish, but I can't bring myself to actually order anything other than the goat curry. With a mojito and some plantains on the side, please.

Dahlia Lounge/Lola (tie): These are both Tom Douglas restaurants, of course, so I don't feel I'm cheating. I am as devoted to the bread salad at Dahlia (with a lavender Dry Soda) as I am to Lola's kabob plate at lunch (with a pot of Moroccan mint tea).

India Express (510 Broadway E. on Capitol Hill): I've been there for dinner more than once, but J and I drool over the lunch buffet (but not in the buffet...that would be gross). Always delicious, always friendly efficient service.

The Kingfish Cafe: Finally (!) went here with coworkers last summer, for lunch. Was instantly smitten by their buttermilk fried chicken breast over mixed salad greens and HUGE desserts. Did I say HUGE? I'm not kidding.

Le Pichet: J and I first went here on the Fourth of July a few years ago. I think I could eat here three meals a day and be perfectly pleased.

Matt's In The Market: Finally (!) went here a few months ago (again with coworkers). I was torn between the lamb burger and the "honkin' hot" ahi tuna sandwich. Lamb won the first round, but I must go back for that tuna...

Tutta Bella: Their Columbia City location is dangerously close to my neighborhood. I love every single thing about this place. Their salads. Their pizzas. Their desserts. The cute little glasses (smaller versions of their water glasses) they serve (most) wine in.

Typhoon: I go here a lot with coworkers, and I never get tired of the green chicken curry and the lengthy tea menu.

S.L.U.T.s and slices

Nothing says "holiday" like a tasty Christmas lunch of arguably the best pizza in town...especially when your boss is footing the bill.

Yesterday my department of four hoofed it from downtown to the latest outpost of the lovely Tutta Bella. We had intended to ride the S.L.U.T. (South Lake Union Trolley*, for those non-Seattleites scratching their heads and saying "What the huh?"), but after waiting for 15 minutes at its first stop in front of the Westin, we gave up and walked the several blocks (fine with me, because walking is my preferred mode of transportation). Two blocks from our destination, we passed the S.L.U.T., temporarily inoperable, and only three days into official operation. Nice.

But not as nice as lunch. I'd already enjoyed dinner at Tutta Bella's other locations in Columbia City and Wallingford, and although I prefer Columbia City for its atmosphere, the new location is also worthy.

If I could, I would eat the Insalata di Mista (fresh field greens, sweet red onions, white beans, matchstick carrots, kalamata olives, house roasted red peppers, white balsamic viniagrette and optional crumbled gorgonzola) every single day. I love that salad more than words can say. But I have to always share it, because otherwise I would be too full to savor the exquisite Neapolitan-style pizza.

On this occasion, we shared the Pizza Bianca (extra virgin olive oil, roasted garlic, oregano, roasted onions, formaggi della case, goat cheese, Grana Padano and the optional rosemary ham) and the Mediterranea (Pomodoro San Marzano, formaggi della casa, goat cheese, herb mushrooms, eggplant, fresh basil, kalamata olives and Grana Padano). I preferred the Mediterranea, but my heart still belongs to the first pizza I ever had at Tutta Bella, a September special featuring figs and a balsamic reduction. Divine, truly.

Their tiramisu (serves 2!) is out of this world, but I went for the affogato (scoop of gelato served with a double shot of Attibassi espresso). On my last trip, I followed our server's recommendation and poured the espresso over a scoop of cinnamon gelato. That flavor wasn't on the menu at this time (or this location), so I went with chocolate. Good...but the cinnamon was so much better. Mmmmm...Tutta Bella.

*For the record, in case anyone is wondering, although in our hearts the S.L.U.T. will always be, well, you know...that is no longer its official name. As soon as the horror of it's unfortunate acronym (giggle) set in, the name was promptly changed to "South Lake Union Streetcar." The name has since morphed to "Seattle Streetcar." Yawn.

Phoenix rising

On my way home from walking Doofus today, I stopped by my community garden to do a little pre-fall cleanup on my plot.

I pulled out some mildewed calendula, cut back a few sunflowers that had been completely picked over by birds, and pulled out the bush bean plants that were finished producing. Then, as I cut back a tomato vine that was straining to reach beyond the boundaries of my plot, I witnessed a small miracle.

The artichoke plant that had been so rudely broken off at soil level, victim to a random act of vandalism, is growing back. Yes, like a phoenix rising from the ashes, this artichoke plant has mustered enough strength from its young root system, without benefit of any foliage to gather energy from the sun, to push skyward a dense thicket of beautiful, green new leaves.

I am so happy. My small garden has seen justice.

And shortly, I am off with He Who Puts Up With Me to go see "The Aristocrats," a movie all about the raunchiest joke ever told. That makes me happy, too.

What else is making me happy right now? The weather has turned cool enough for my boy cat to become a lap cat again (my girl cat is a lap cat year round, because she's an attention whore). And I have a crockpot full of spicy black beans with chorizo sausages simmering away. Yes, life is good.

See, I'm not always moody!