Thomas

Happy Birthday Thomas!
You are the best brother. I love being a part of your life. You are becoming such an incredible young man :)

I can't wait to hear about all the fantastic things your will do with your life.
Have a great birthday!

Beehive Bazaar!

The Beehive Bazaar is a fabulous craft fair in lovely Provo, Utah that happens twice a year: around Mother's Day and Christmastime.
Local crafters get together to show their wares, swap ideas, and...buy awesome Christmas gifts for everyone!
It's open to the public and it's happening this weekend (Dec 3rd, 4th, and 5th)!

I'm also happy to say that 4 Blackwelder girls are sharing a booth, come see our goods and stock up on Christmas gifts for friends and family.

I'll be selling these adorable peace boxes, reversible headbands, knit owl pins, and more!
(My sisters have made some tasty homemade vanilla and almond marshmallows...you've got to try them!)

keeping warm

Sweater vests really DO keep you warm!
I was pleasantly surprised...
:)

mushroom dye

Here is a little something from the Annual PSMS Mushroom Show to get you excited about the coming dye season (rainy winter)!

Each of those colors are from mushrooms!
I can't wait!

6 months!

November 8th, 2009 is our 6 month anniversary!
Adam and I were married May 8th, 2009 in the Newport Beach, California Temple.

What a great day :)

bird nest fungi!

I found a few bird nest fungi this week!

I think these are so amazing.

There are several kinds, but in general: the fungus forms a cup shaped structure with a cap over the top. They are usually variegated brown colors, making them even more bird nest-like. Then mature, the cap peels off revealing small egg-shaped packets filled with spores at the bottom of the nest!

They are very small 1/4 inch to 3/4 inch tall.

What a wonderful world!

mushroom show!

A few weeks ago, Adam and I took our nephews out for a rainy day in Seattle.
We went to the Annual PSMS Mushroom Show!

And then we made pizzas in the outdoor cob oven at the UW Farm Fall Harvest Festival with Slow Food Seattle.


And then we went to the Pet Store!

and saw these funny mice:

And then we went to the game store and got Magic cards!


It was a really fun day. Our nephews are so beautiful and smart, it is delightful to interact with them.
:)

Hazel Jane!

October 29th, 2009 is the day to welcome little Hazel Jane Ingebretsen to the world!

She came quickly early on a rainy Seattle morning.

Congratulations Andra, Robby, George, and Oliver!
Andra, you are amazing!

Sister Fest 2009

I've just returned from Sister Fest 2009, aka Apple Fest 2009.

I spent 6 days visiting my two sisters Briana and Candice in Salt Lake City.
It was great to see Salt Lake again, I really like that city, and I loved seeing their cute new house they are renting together.

The main goal of our weekend was to collect free apples, juice them, dry them, sauce, them, and eat them. I think we did well.

We harvested about 19 bags of apples of different varieties (gala/braeburn type, red delicious, golden delicious...) and we also harvested about 4 bags of walnuts while we were at it.

Salt Lake City and Provo, UT are goldmines of urban harvest. I loved that part of living there, and it makes visits very worthwhile...plus I was with my sisters!

Salt Lake City and Provo, UT are also goldmines of church history, obviously. It's funny to think I lived there for 5 years and never cared much about all the historical buildings, church history museums, family history libraries, and temples. During this trip to Salt Lake City, it worked out to go to the Salt Lake City Temple with my old friend Sara. We both had never been to that temple before.

A little history...
Construction was started in 1853 by the small group of distressed saints that had recently migrated from the East Coast by wagon and hand cart. They had nearly nothing, and the building was slow and difficult. Construction was finished in 1893. It's still the largest of the 130+ LDS temples around the world, and has almost all of the original decorations (hand carved wood railings and baseboards, stained glass, paintings, doorknobs, etc). Its a very historic building; we had a lot of fun exploring around.

Beside spending time with my sisters, it was wonderful to see old friends! You have no idea how much I miss living near good friends, being able to walk to friends' houses, have them over for dinner, babysitting with them...

We planned a Fall pot luck and invited those good friends I have been missing.


On the last day...it snowed!

And then we picked rose hips for rose hip syrup.

It was fun packing to see my sisters. I brought all my cutest things:

:)

matsutake!

I found my first Matsutake today!
I was soaking wet from rain, but I found one!

Tricholoma magnivelare, matsutake, are stocky/squat, white mushrooms with a little brown or grey fibrils on their cap. They have white spores, a cottony veil, and their stipe/stem comes to a pointed at the bottom. Additionally, they have a very unique smell. They smell spicy like radishes, or as David Aurora famously said many years ago: "Red hots and dirty socks."
The best way to eat matsutake is to float paper thin slices on top of piping hot broth soup....

So, I did.

witch shoes!

I got some witch shoes!
Yay!
I'm gathering pieces for my Halloween costume.
I'm going for "traditional witch."

mushroom trip two

I found dozens of little chanterelles(the funnel chanterelle, Craterellus tubaeformis) and Angel Wings (Pleurocybella porrigens).
The chanterelles are good for eating, but the angel wings are not...though they are beautiful.

Oh, and we also found this odd thing!

chestnuts!

One of my favorite Fall/Holiday treats is roasted chestnuts.

I have only known about them for two or three years-which is funny considering the Christmas song.
**I'll have you know...there is a fungus behind the cultural loss of "chestnuts roasting on an open fire." About a hundred years ago, a beautiful tree called the American Chestnut was common on the East Coast both in forests and suburban areas. The trees bountifully produced free, tasty treats for wildlife and people alike. So long as you could extract the fat nuts from their needle-sharp, spiked hulls. Chestnuts were so common-and free-they became a winter food source for many homeless. Hence, the lyric "chestnuts roasting on an open fire" in reference to signs of winter and Christmas.
It became popular to buy imported chestnuts from Asia, and when the Chinese Chestnut arrived, so did a fungus. Cryphonectria parasitica, the fungus associated with the Chinese Chestnut-but not harmful to it-began to infect the vulnerable American Chestnut, and with drastic effects :(
It killed mature American Chestnut trees and prevented seedling growth.

A month ago I discovered a European Chestnut, or Sweet Chestnut, (Castanea sativa) tree right outside Johnson Hall (the building where I work at UW). I hadn't noticed it last year because I didn't use that entrance/exit.
Everyday, on my way to and from work (and for breaks!) I hunt for chestnuts that have fallen from the tree. Their thick, green hulls are so spiky-sharp, but I now have a system of opening them with my feet/shoes. Sometimes the nuts fall right out of their hulls on the tree and are loose in the leaves below.
I get about 20 chestnuts every day.
I am working hard to beat the squirrels to them! They are out there night and day, but I have an advantage over them: shoes and opposable thumbs! ha!

Here is some info on the differences between the edible chestnut (Castanea sativa) and the inedible horse chestnut (Aesculus hippocastanum):

the nut:
Though the two both have circular scars on the bottom, the edible chestnut has a "tuft" from the stigma and styles of the flower, the inedible horse chestnut is smooth on top.

the green hull:
the green hull of the edible chestnut is densely covered with needle-sharp points, the inedible horse chestnut is loosely covered with sloping points.

the leaves:
The leaves of the two trees are very different, though they look superficially similar. They both have dentate (toothed) margins (edges), but the way the leaf attaches to the stem is very different. The inedible horse chestnut (above photo) has a palmate leaf of 5-7 leaflets. The edible chestnut (below) has single leaves attached alternately to the stem.

the flowers:
The flowers of the edible chestnut are in pendulous groups called catkins (above photo) containing tiny, inconspicuous male flowers and small clusters close to the stem of female flowers that will grow into the chestnuts. The inedible horse chestnut has groups of erect, white, sweet smelling showy flowers.

Aside from that, the edible chestnut is less common while the horse chestnut is a common suburban tree.

next frontier

The next frontier: Mushrooms dyes!
Or, extracting colors from mushrooms/fungi to dye natural fibers.

I borrowed a friend's dye book, and have been pouring over the lists and photos of good dying species. It's fun to learn what species to look out for. It's great, too, because some cool mushrooms you can't eat, you can dye with, such as
Cortinarius violaceus

or Suillus ochraceoroseus

or Hydnellum peckii

However, some delicious edibles are also great dye producers like Polyozellus multiplex, the black chanterelle.

Now I have to decide: should I eat it, or dye with it?
What do you think?!

I think I have found my next big hobby...

More posts soon!

hand insurance

I need to insure my hands...I need hand insurance.
Everything I do relies on my hands and my "fine motor skills."
From writing, typing, scraping mildews, micropipetting, and working with small samples at work to sewing, knitting, drawing, gardening, cooking, canning, and blogging for fun.
Both my livelihood and my creative outlet rely on my hands.

I have a feeling I will be one of those old ladies with very knobby, well-used hands.

Hands, I would be lost without you!

deep fried!

Whew...last night we used peanut oil to DEEP FRY the Hericium abietis, Lion's Mane.
remember:

I had never actually deep fried anything before; it's very fun.

We sliced the Hericium, dipped it in egg/flour/ginger ale batter, breaded with panko flakes, and fried them up in a mushroom pot :)
Then we ate them with a spicy soy/vinegar sauce.
Lemon-Lime loved the panko flakes!

Fun and tasty, but very smelly. I don't think our landlords (their bedroom is above our kitchen) were too happy.
:(

Update on the drying rack:

looking good!

North Cascades Fungi!

I went collecting in the North Cascades with Joe Ammirati, and two friends from our lab.

What a great day! We found tons of fungi, and quite a few edibles :)
Here they are, edibles first:
Lobster Mushroom (Hypomyces lactifluorum-orange-growing on a Russula)

Cortinarius caperatus (Rozites) distinguished by the silvery cap:

ring:

and off-center cap attachement, this mushroom is often called "the gypsy":

Armillaria, the honey fungus:

it grows in clusters and has cinnamon scales:

Dentinum=Hydnum repandum:

Polyozellus multiplex! the Black Chanterelle! It is a beautiful purple/black with white spores:

Boletus mirabilis, the two maroon ones in the middle;
Lactarius deliciousus group, on the left;
and another Cortinarius caperatus (Rozites) on the right.

Clavariadelphus truncatus a sweet-tasting edible:

Hericium abietis, the Lion's Mane! My first one, and it was huge! I found it fallen off the log it grew on in a camping parking lot :)


The inedibles:
A slime mold (immature):

(mature, spores being released):

Hydnellum peckii (from the bottom):

From the top (it releases red liquid drops):

Coltrichia perennis:

a fall-fruiting ascomycete, usually they fruit in the spring:

Pseudohydnum gelatinosum, a clear, jiggly, toothed fungus:

Cortinarius violaceus, rust-brown spores:

We've been slicing drying mushrooms all evening in our dehydrator. We should have a lot of great edibles to last us the winter :)

Ice Lakes Fungi

When Adam and I and our friends Hans and Catherine went to Ice Lakes over Labor Day, we found tons and tons of mushrooms and cool fungi!
I saved them out of the original Ice Lakes post because I felt like there were too many photos and I wanted to show all the cool fungi, so here they are:

Guepiniopsis, an Ascomycete, rehydrated from spring growth.

Lichen...

Hypomyces luteovirens, a fungus parasitizing a Russula mushroom. Hypomyces lactifluorum-an orange colored species-is what Lobster Mushrooms are.

Ramaria, a coral fungus.

Trichaptum biforme.

Monotropa hypophithys, the chlorophyll-lacking plant growing from a fungus, that grows with the roots of a tree.

Some kind of Rhizopogon puffball.

Suillus ochraceoroseus, a pink scaley cap, bright yellow pores underneath. Grows with Larch, and we were in the middle of a huge larch forest! This mushroom even grew up at Ice Lake, with a little snow on it.

Lepraria, a powdery lichen.

An Amanita muscaria button (baby)!

Amanita pantherina?

?

Guepiniopsis, again.

Neolentinus lepidius, growing from a crack in the bark of this log floating in a river!

See!

Albatrellus, a polypore.

Some kind of Jelly Fungus?

Rhizina, growing on pine roots in a burned area.

Cryptoporus vulvatus.

Catathalasma, check out those scales!

Lachnellula, orange-yellow with a white border.

Scutellinia scutellata, the eyelash cup! It's so cute with the black fringe around the border!

Guepiniopsis again!
I was amazed at how many mushrooms and other fungi we found! August/September truely is the peak for high country fungi. Glad we were there for it!

the fair!

We went to The Fair!!

The Puyallup, Washington Fair!

Adam and I bought Dizzy Passes for unlimited rides! It was great, but after just the first ride we were faced with the Grand Realization that we are getting older.

By the end of the night, we went on 12 rides (my favorite is always the gravity spinner Starship 2000); saw goats, horses (and yarn made from the hair of the American Curly Horse!), llamas, camels, alpacas; ate corn dogs, onion burgers, lemonade, scones with jam, and a supreme funnel cake.

...not bad.

Ysolda

As long as we are still talking about knitting websites...another great one I found is ysolda.com
Ysolda Teague is a Scottish girl my age who has already published two knitting books! "Whimsical Little Knits" and "Whimsical Little Knits II." (I put them on my Chirstmas list for this year).

Last week, I checked up on her blog and saw her cute idea of making a single owl from Kate Davies cabled owl sweater pattern (see here, here and here for pictures). This free sweater pattern is so great because it takes a simple technique, the cable, and spaces the repetitions just right to make little owl bodies all in a row. Plus, it is a fitted sweater...very pretty.
I will definitely make one for my me and my little owl some day!
The cabled owl is simple to make - even if you have never knit cables before.
Ysolda's single owl pattern is here:
Cast on 8 sts; k 2rows; p 1row.
Next row: C4B, C4F.
Work 7 rows in st st.
Next row: C4B, C4F.
Work 5 rows in st st.
Next row: C4B, C4F.
Bind off knitwise.
I modified the pattern to make one a little larger (it worked better with the yarn I had):
CO 10 sts; k 2 rows; p 1 row.
C5B (2 sts in back, 3 sts in front), C5F (2 in back, 3 in front).
Work 7 rows in st st.
C5B (2 sts in back, 3 sts in front), C5F (2 in back, 3 in front).
Work 5 rows in st st.
C5B (2 sts in back, 3 sts in front), C5F (2 in back, 3 in front).
Bind off knitwise.
Very important to block (pin flat to a towel and steam with an iron) to keep from curling.

I then sewed on buttons and beads for eyes and stitched them to wool felt as a colorful backing.

Now I have a flock of owls to give to my sisters and girlfriends!

Rósaleppaprjón

Rósaleppaprjón = Icelandic Rose Patterned knitting.
In June I came across a great knitting website, helenemagnusson.com. This creative French woman lived in Iceland for a time and published a book with knitting patterns inspired by the knit Icelandic rose.

She was inspired by colorful, handknit insoles from a time in Icelandic history where the population lived in sod houses, wore shades of brown and grey (undyed wool), and ate dried fish (harđfiskur). Knit insoles were worn inside fish skin shoes to add comfort and warmth. Wealthy Icelanders occasionally wore sheep skin shoes. The beautiful insoles knit with the Icelandic Rose from colorful scraps of wool were worn to church on Sundays. It was a hidden extravagance for those Icelanders and set special occasions apart from their difficult daily life.

I remember seeing these knit insoles when visiting the cultural history museums in and around Reykjavik (in 2005). Their charm and the story behind these insole struck me and I was thrilled-4 years later-to see someone had made a fantastic book celebrating this piece of Icelandic culture and history.
On her website you can buy her book, Icelandic Rose Patterned Knitting, which is full of creative and colorful reinventions of the Icelandic Rose. You can also buy the patterns individually. Helene also gives a free pattern: a vintage style scarf with an Icelandic Rose at each end.
Over Fourth of July, I was at my sister's house and borrowed her yarn to try the pattern out.
front:

back:

Pretty successful, if I might say....despite running out of yarn part way through :(

Here is Helene's blog
*This Rose Pattern knitting book is on my Christmas list; hint, hint*

hahahaha!

Whew! We just went crazy up at Microsoft.
Adam was there playing cards (Magic) when he called me to say there was a huge Marketing party with lots of delicious Indian food. I grabbed a few tupperware containers and hopped on my bike.

...a few hours later...

We were shocked at how much extra food had been ordered. More than twice the amount needed. Legally, they have to throw it away since it had been served and was sitting out.

We found to-go containers in the cafeteria and decided to stock our freezer.
Looking back, we could have come home with a lot more but we wouldn't have had space for it.

Alice

Looks like Tim Burton is remaking Alice in Wonderland!
I just found out, but I am pretty excited. I love that story.
Plus...mushrooms will be everywhere!

I love the character shots in this article!

Check out the trailer
He will also have an exhibition at MoMA starting this Thanksgiving.

leg warmers

Here is a tutorial on backpacking leg warmers!
My legs are generally the coldest part of my body, so before our trip to Ice Lakes I whipped up some light weight backpacking leg warmers to match our light weight backpacking quilt!

I started with a rectangle a few inches taller than I wanted my finished legwarmers to be and about 5-6 inches wider than the circumference of my calf. (The above rectangle is sideways: as tall as calf circumference and as wide as I wanted them tall....)

I layered synthetic down insulation, nylon fabric, a folded 2-inch-wide nylon strip with a button hole (to be a channel for the elastic), and netting in such a way that after sewn and turned right side out...everything would be in the right spot. (you can see the folded 2-inch-wide piece sticking up slightly in the above photo).

After I checked that everything was in the right place, I sewed the opposite side (ankle side) together.
Then, trim everything, turn inside out, and sew quilting lines (I did two) to keep insulation in place.
Then, I threaded elastic through the channel, tacked it down on both ends, pulled a loop of it out through the button hole, and attached a toggle.

Then, I carefully sewed up the side seam using a french seam, or "double" seam (sew each seam twice, first with the seam on the outside of the garment, trim, turn inside out, and then sew the second seam with enough allowance to include your trimmed first seam...does that make sense?). The french seam is great for outdoor wear because it is strong and leaves no unfinished edges.

The top:

The bottom:
***Would have been better with a channel for elastic at the bottom as well, to keep the edge above my shoe, out of the mud.

Add zip-off pants...and, Taaa-Daaa...Insta-Scout!

That is one (funny-looking) warm scout!

Spokane!

After our last weekend of backpacking, we swore we would never leave our house again...
but, this last weekend we drove to Spokane, WA to collect powdery mildews.

It was a work trip for me, so we stayed at the Doubletree Inn and went to the Manito Botanical Gardens, Heritage Garden, Tower Perennial Gardens, and John A. Finch Arboretum.
Some cool plants without powdery mildews:



We also sneaked in a session at the Spokane Temple.

We both agree that the best part about Spokane was eating lunch at Mizuna. We ate the most delicious brie cheese and sirloin hamburger ever.

We also got seared ahi and truffle fries.

Friends

My friend Annalisa came to Seattle!
If you remember, we did a recycled clothing design competition together a year and a half ago...
We met up at UW to explore the gardens and green houses, get caught up, and go to the first PSMS (Puget Sound Mycological Society) meeting for the season. We also found some shaggy parasol mushrooms:

The speaker was for PSMS was Langdon Cook. He lives in Seattle and writes a cool blog called fat-of-the-land about foraging foods and the unique recipes he uses to cook his findings.
Some of my favorites are the dandelion bread, dandelion head tempura, nettle pesto, and devil's club chocolate sauce.
Check out his blog or new book for many many more great ideas!

Ice Lakes

Hello!
We just got back from a backpacking trip with our friends Catherine and Hans Johnson. It was great!
We planned for a 5 day, 35-mile, Labor Day weekend trip, but were caught in incessant rain starting the first evening :(
We, made the most of our trip, though, and had fun getting to know our friends even better. We were soaking wet but stayed warm by running up mountains, and drying ourselves out in front of big campfires at night.
Here are a few photos:

We started at Cottonwood campground about 40 miles from the town of Entiat.

The trail was pleasant, barely an incline, and follows the river for about 15 miles. Oh, and it was lined with huckleberries/wild blueberries!

On our first day, we turned from the river trail after 3 miles to hike past Myrtle Lake.


It was a beautiful, quiet, warm little lake with clear water and grass around the borders. We would totally go back with family or kids for a fun lake camp out.

Then we hiked up to an old volcano shell called Cow Creek Meadow.
There was a natural spring!

We ate our lunch (couscous, salmon, curry cashews)

found an Amanita muscaria button!

and continued hiking up through a Larch forest (larch are deciduous conifers, every fall their needles change colors from green to yellow and orange before they drop for the winter and regrow in the spring).

We camped at Larch Lakes just as it began to rain

and rain

and rain

and rain...



Even though we were cold and wet, Adam and I hiked up to Ice Lakes:




Triumphant:


It started to snow 15 minutes after we made it to Ice Lakes, so we left. When we got back to camp, we talked with Catherine and Hans decided to walk the rest of the way out that night (12 miles). It was horrible, wet, blistery, and dark by the time we made it to our tiny, dry car. After an exhausting 5 hour drive back to Seattle, I don't think any of us have been more happy to be home in our own beds.
But it was still a GREAT trip, don't get me wrong...
:)

Jammin'

I love to make jam!
...or rather "fruit sauce."
If you ask any of my old room mates, sisters, or even husband, they might say that the only downside to living with me is that the fridge gets just too damn packed with jars of every size and shape filled up with fruit sauce of every color. It can't really be called jam since I don't always use pectin and I don't always use sugar.
Come summer I just can't stop making jam. And the fridge suffers, beside the jars, it gets so jam packed with bags of fruit I find, berries, herbs (for herb ice cubes...the best way to preserve herbs over winter). It's a mess. A mess I love, until I spot a fruit fly :(
Then I go crazy.

So far this year we have blackberry, blackberry-anise hyssop, plum, plum-blackberry, plum-rosemary, plum-sage, plum-rhubarb, asian pear, asian pear-cayenne, elderberry, jaltomate, and garden huckleberry (the last two are black Solanaceae berries from the Medicinal Herb Garden at UW). And more join the list every week.

This is what I love to find: an urban forage goldmine!

My picker:


Elderberry

A little Saturday morning Blackberry Jam Waffle beet planting session.

Feets!

Books

I have a few part time jobs. One of them is to water, weed, and prune the Erna Gunther Ethonobotanical Gardens at the UW's Burke Museum of Natural History and Culture.

Also known as the "wild woman of the woods" garden.

I've already learned and memorized the plants. It takes several hours to water the garden and with the heat Seattle's had (over 100*F!) I sometimes water 3 times a week. In those hours I have started reading books again. I haven't actually read books like novels and such for a long time.

I read "Like Water for Chocolate," a humourous book set in Revolution Era Mexico about a girl whose cooking incites supernatural events. There is a movie I hope to see soon.

Then I read "The Botany of Desire." The apple chapter reminded me how much I want my own mini-farm with heirloom (non-hybrid, re-seeding) plants...especially fruit trees. The tulip chapter explained why the Dutch love tulips and some of the mystery behind beauty (at one point, a single tulip bulb would sell for the price of an entire estate. In the marijuana chapter I was reminded their exists a hallucinogenic lichen and that I appreciate having the quality of a sense of wonder. The potato chapter reminded me how amazing and fascinating genetic modification can be, but also how unstable.

My next books will be:
"Guns, Germs, Steel" by Jared Diamond
"Seed Saving"
and I'm going to finally finish the Joseph Smith biography "A Rough Stone Rolling."

Any other recommendations?

*

Mt. Rainier

Adam and I did a three day, 35 mile backpacking trip for our 3 month anniversary!

We did the Northern Loop Trail, part of the Wonderland Trail that circles Mt. Rainier, our local volcano.
Here we are at the start with Mt. Rainier in the background:

And here we are at the end:

It was so great to be out in the forest and on the trail with Adam. We've been working in an office/lab for far too long.

Our home for the night:


Adam is a master lightweight backpacker. He got our pack weight to around 20 pounds each (he carried our sleeping gear, and I carried our food and water). This is our tarp (like a tent), ground cloth, sleeping pads, and our homemade double sleeping bag (more on our homemade bag to come).


We saw meadows brimming with wildflowers, high country lakes and streams, rocky mountain peaks, foggy forests with slime molds and parasitic plants, glaciers, and few mean mosquitoes.


(we bathed in that lake!)
(can you see Adam in this fog?!)


(Orobanchia, a chlorophyll-lacking plant that feeds off a fungus that feeds off a conifer tree)

(a strange lichen)

(a slime mold?)


(I thought those red, fungi-like organisms above were slime molds...but they are collembola, some kind of bug! hahaha!)









(a marmot!!! so cute!)

Shi-Shi Beach

Over Memmorial Day weekend, Adam and I went beach camping with some other couples on the Olympic Penninsula.

We went to Shi-Shi Beach, near the Makah Reservation at the very Northwest corner of the United States.

It was beautiful :)



We primarily sat around talking, playing magic, and cooking food. Since we only hiked 1 mile in to the beach, Adam and I packed a feast every day. we brought eggs, butter, fresh herbs and spices, cheese, lentils, pancake mix, and more.


We saw great tidepools full of sea stars, sea anemones, crabs, and many many types of algae/sea weed.



Happy Birthday Candice! 19 years old, baby! May 24, 1990.

Bike Ride!

Yesterday, Adam and I Rode our bikes all over King County.
We started at our house in Redmond, picked up the Sammammish River Trail and rode north through Woodinville around the east side of Lake Washington to Bothell where we visited my Aunt before riding south down the west side of the Lake. The Sammammish River Trail ended and the great Burke Gilman trail began. We rode past my old house, through UW, across Seattle to Ballard, across the Ballard Salmon Locks, and down along the waterfront to Pike's Place Market for dinner!

It was amazing, we saw so much. There is something about biking through a place that makes you feel a part of it. You see much more than in a car and the sense of accomplishment ties you to the location.

It took 5 hours, but we could do it mush faster next time :)

Agaricus augustus

Agaricus augustus - The Prince.
I found my first Agaricus augustus mushrooms yesterday! They are supposed to be common in May and June growing as secondary decomposers on mulch, compost, grass, etc. Beside their characteristic look and habitat, they also have a distinctive smell. They smell sweet like almond flavor, or anise.
Luckily the mushrooms I had found were fresh with few bugs. I thought about drying them for later since we are leaving town tomorrow, but,I cooked them all up.
I was thinking of slicing and drying them, but ended up cooking all three I had found.
First, I made one into scrambled eggs with herbs and served it over broiled polenta. (no picture, we ate it too fast!)
And then! I found this dessert recipe and made Sweet Augustus!

I have never made mushrooms for dessert, but I cooked them up with butter, almonds, dates, and honey and served them over cardamom rice. I though it was quite tasty, but also a little strange because the prince has such a distinct and intense smell/taste I have never experienced before.

I added a little "milk" (cream) and was all set to watch Harry Potter 5 the Order of the Phoenix with Thomas and Adam.

Synsepalum dulcificum

My younger brother, Thomas, is in town and we spent some time exploring the fantastic green houses at UW. I had heard the folks there grew a magic berry that made sour foods taste sweet. We asked them about it and luckily, the berry season was just starting so we got to take home two small, red, magic berries...from Africa.
Synsepalum dulcificum, the "miracle berry" has a protein that binds to your sour receptors making sour foods taste sweet.

We planned our own 'flavor tripping party' for us and Adam. We got all our sour foods out: pickles, limes, soy sauce, etc.


In the end, the effect was not as strong as we thought it would be. But we could still eat limes!

Root Connection

We joined a CSA (Community Supported Agriculture) this season. It is called the Root Connection and it's in Woodinville - just a bikeride away from our home in Redmond.
CSAs are valuable for our communities. They provide fresh, local food and ensure the preservation of farmland in your community.

Adam loves the Mizuna, a spicy mustard green.

Every Wednesday Adam and I pick up our share of vegetables for the week. We have been very happy with the quality and quantity of veggies.
Here is an example of our weekly share:
(2 heads of lettuce, 1 bunch carrots, 1 bunch beets, turnips, rutabagas, zucchini, and U-pick herbs like basil, cilantro, dill, parsley, etc.)

UW Farm

At UW (University of Washington), there is a great group called the UW Farmers.
Based out of the green house and using both UW employee and student power, the group gains access to bits of land on campus to plant edible gardens, or "farms."

It is amazing how much food we have grown on unused areas near the great Burke-Gilman bike trail.

Here are some photos:

We grow spinach, all kinds of lettuce and herbs,


kale, chard, cabbage, nasturtiums, summer squash,

winter squash, cucumbers, corn, potatoes, sunflowers, tomatoes, gooseberries, currants, onions, leeks, garlic, peas, beans, amaranth, quinoa, apples, figs, and even kiwi and passionfruit!

We also have 3 chickens that lay every day. I take care of them Thursday mornings, and there are always beautiful eggs to take home.


Beside garden space and free veggies, another great aspect of being part of the Farmers is the community.
There are weekly meetings with lessons on compost, mulch, worms, weeds, starting community gardens, food preservation, and more. There are monthly potluck pizza making parties using the Farm's cob oven.

Everyone brings pizza toppings and we cook about 100 pizza's using a few armfuls of wood.

Once Wed

Hello!
Here is another website that has posted Rachel Thurston's photos of our wedding!

The site is called Once Wed and they have a section called Real Weddings.

It's fun to see what other people planned for their weddings. So many different ideas, they are all great.

It's funny that it's not until after we got married that I realized there were this many different wedding websites!

Bridal Shower

Well, some friends in my home area planned a wonderful bridal shower for me on March 28th. I know that was a while ago, but I wanted to share some of the photos since it was so nice and they planned some great surprises.

They wanted to plan all the food and gifts to celebrate what they loved about me. It was great! At first I was hesitant to even have a bridal shower, but...I'm glad I got to have one :)

It was really fun to see what they remembered and loved about me and to feel so supported and loved by all the women in my life.

So...

First, they invited all the women in my life
Then, they decorated the house with bark and lichens and moss. (I guess everyone knows I love "woodland")
Then, they made delicious food like mushroom tarts and french madeleines! (I used to love french things and was the french club president in high school!)
Then, they served everything on pretty antique plates with family heirloom silverware and linen napkins. (I love antique items, especially ones from your own family heritage)
Then, they got me the best group gift: a huge Excalibur dehydrator! (Adam and I have already been busy making yogurt, dehydrating mushrooms, herbs, strawberries and more!)
Then, they planned another surprise group gift: they told each lady to bring an antique plate so I could start my own mismatched collection of antique plates from the women I love!

It was so fun to see each plate and hear the story of how they picked it out. "I call this one 'The Three Sisters' and thought of you, Briana, and Candice." "This one has a barn and donkey and I thought of the farm you and Adam want to someday live on." etc.)
There was another beautiful group gift and I truly was showered with gifts, advice, well wishes, and love.
And finally...There was homemade kumquat marmalade. A few years ago, I babysat for a week in the house where they threw the shower. They had a kumquat tree and I made marmalade while they were gone. It was so good. The really funny part is that when I realized I was going to be in California in May for our wedding, I immediately remembered that May was kumquat time and told my mom I was going to ask her if I could pick them again. She said, well, we'll see when you get here if you have time!

Thanks LeAnne, Pam, Chris, Shirley, Nancy, Cathy...and everyone for a great shower!
It was so thoughtful, I loved it!

Morels!

May is morel month, as all good mushroomers know...

Since we got married in May, Adam and I figured we would miss our chance to stock up on morels this year...
But!
We went East into the Cascades a few weekends ago, just to see what we could find.
After 6 hours, we had barely managed to find 1 and 1/2 old dried morels. Then Adam found a perfect fresh one! He was so happy! Probably because he thought we would finally leave!
Right before I took this picture, I believe he said: "I love my morel. I don't ever want to leave it!"

hehehehehheee

Sarcodes sanguinea

This striking flower is a parsitic plant!
Not only that, it is parasitic on fungi.

To explain further....
Sarcodes snguinea is a member of a parasitic group from the Ericaceae (blueberry, cranberry, azalea, heath & heather plant family) and grows underground by parasitically tapping into the nutrient supplies of a single species of Rhizopogon, a mycorrhizal fungus...that is to say a fungus in a symbiotic relationship with a conifer.

Pretty specific plant.
Sarcodes sanguinea is found in the Sierra Nevada region. My Dad and brother were there hiking, found this strange plant, and emailed it to me.

When I showed it to Adam, he said he saw some in Yosemite 3 years ago and showed me pictures, too!


It's common name is the snow plant.

Here and here are links for more info.

Miss B

Check out this great blog by my friend Miss B called the house that Lars built.
She is in Denmark right now studying textile design, both things sound great to me!
If I ever get back into the art/fashion groove (I'm in the science/fungi groove now), I would want to do textile design for sure.

Seeing all the cool photos of Denmark and the Danes reminds me of my trip to Iceland...

She also recently posted about our wedding here. I liked reading her post because it was so personal since we grew up in the same area and our families know each other.

Thanks Miss B!

Oh! I love this! I just saw it on Miss B's blog here.
I love old windows!

For years I have wanted to build a green house out of old windows and doors!
I have two pretty blue windows in my collection so far that have moved from Provo to Salt Lake, to Seattle, and now to Redmond, much to Adam's disbelief.

I am determined to have a window green house in my future...it's only a matter of time...
and storage space...
muahhahhaha!!!

Barn Raising

We wanted our wedding to have a sense of community



Ideally it would have been a barn raising.
Everyone in our community would come help us build a barn for our new life together. And there would be potluck pie and dancing all night long!

In reality we planned a celebration with family style dinner, dancing to a live bluegrass band, and plenty of old-fashioned wedding symbols.
We were inspired by this idea: The ritual of guests sharing a meal together underscores the sense of community a wedding is meant to celebrate.


I would describe our wedding as having antique and old-fashioned aspects as well as woodland and family tree elements.

Some of my favorite details from our wedding are:

-The family history photos. From both Adam's and my family, going back four generations.


-Everyone pitching in their talents to make our wedding special. Many people donated services as wedding gifts to us!

-Antique wedding dress from late Edwardian Era (1905-1910) with silver locket, old-fashioned brown shoes, and handsome groom.


-Hyacinth flower wreaths as the corsages and boutonnières for our family. A wreath is the perfect wedding symbol. I love how they turned out!



Though Adam and I would actually LOVE to have a barn on a few acres of land...we will have to wait a few more years.

***Photos are from Rachel Thurston, rachelthurston.blogspot.com, our fantastic photographer***

references

Here are my references!
So many people spent time making our wedding awesome, here is a simple list.

I loved everyone who helped out and everyone we hired! I'd recommend these folks to anyone!

Custom Stationary - Brooke Hellewell Reynolds
http://inchmark.squarespace.com/
(former art director for Martha Stewart Living and Martha Stewart Kids)
We worked with Brooke over email. She designed our beautiful wedding announcements using designs from the lace in my antique wedding dress.

Photography - Rachel Thurston
http://rachelthurston.blogspot.com/
I loved having Rachel as our photographer! She is great to work with, fun to spend time with, and takes beautiful photos.
I sent Rachel an email and a few scanned pages from a magazine and she made sure to get the photos I had in mind, despite the limited supplies we had to work with! My family and I had put so much thought and effort into planning a beautiful wedding, we are so pleased Rachel captured our hard work and the first photos of me and Adam as a married couple!

Live Band - Silver Mountain Fiddle Band
http://www.silvermtstringband.com/
This band was the best! They really made the party and were easy to work with, sounded great, and did and amazing cover of Niel Young's "Harvest Moon" for our first dance. My sister said: "This band might be a new tradition for our family!" (We have 4 more weddings to go!)

My bouquet and Adam's corsage -
C M Armstrong Floral Designs
949-916-7171 www.cmarmstrongdesigns.com
She made the perfect woodland/antique bouquet!

Dru Kent - my mother's close friend who made toffee, shortbread, mushroom palmiers, and more for our wedding. She also helped plan and decorate the location, and listen to and support my mom. Thanks!

My mother's close friend who helped plan, decorate, and lend us her beautiful garden for our party.

Wedding Cake- Savoie’s Fare
Laguna Niguel (949-240-6613)
Jacques made the best cake for us: chocolate with passion fruit mousse filling...yum!

Woodland Log Cakes - Blackmarket Bakery
Irvine 949-852-4609
2 flavors: lavender with Lemon cream, and pistachio with cardamom. They are great at making custom orders.

Meringue mushrooms - Davlyn Howland
Our family friend lovingly made these to decorate our cakes as her wedding gift to us!

Blue Diamond Co-op Almonds - My aunt and uncle Carol and John.
My Aunt and Uncle grow almonds for Blue Diamond in Central California, they gave several pounds for our reception as a wedding gift!

Hair and Makeup - Katie Hoffman
http://www.katielark.com/KatieHoffmanSalon/HOME.html
I met with her a few days before our wedding and she came up with some beautiful ideas. I originally wanted finger waves, but she thought they might not last all day. Instead she did lovely pin curls. I loved it and it lasted the whole day!

Family and Friends!
Our wedding was a real community event! Our friends and family did everything from arrange flowers, make food, set up, sew cloth napkins, iron cloth napkins, clean up,

Wedding photos

See these links for more wedding photos!

http://rachelthurston.blogspot.com/2009/05/tesss-bridals.html
http://rachelthurston.blogspot.com/2009/05/pretty-polaroids.html
http://rachelthurston.blogspot.com/2009/05/tess-adam-wedding-breakfast-zovs.html
http://rachelthurston.blogspot.com/2009/05/tess-adam-newport-beach-temple.html
http://rachelthurston.blogspot.com/2009/05/tess-adam-reception-coto-de-caza.html

http://www.casandoideias.com/2009/05/tess.html
http://www.casandoideias.com/2009/05/tess-adam.html
http://wemetinabar.com/2009/05/dress-envy/
http://myunwedding.blogspot.com/2009/05/dreamy.html
http://jordanferney.blogspot.com/2009/05/vintage-wedding-dress.html
http://vintageglamblog.com/2009/05/tesss-bridal-session/

May 8th, 2009

So, Adam and I got married May 8th, 2009.

It was a big to do, and all our family came to celebrate and support our new commitment to each other.



The night before our wedding we had a family picnic at a park by the beach in Laguna Beach. Everyone ordered take-out from La Sirena, a mexican restaurant across the street. It was wonderful to see family and friends that came in from different states.













Our wedding celebration started with a family breakfast hosted by Adam's parents, Ka and Stan Barlow. They shared memories of Adam growing up and gave advice and well-wishes to us as a new couple. Stan even wrote a poem to us! We loved it!





Our wedding ceremony was at the Newport Beach, CA LDS Temple. This was the best and most important part of the day. It was so calm, we will always remember how we felt :)

This is me and Adam in the car right after we were married!



Our wedding celebration ended in a big party with lots of lights, plants, tasty treats, a mushroom cake, friends, and a fantastic live fiddle band!













Since we were intent on going to Mexico for our honeymoon, our family decorated our car accordingly: "Swine Flu or Bust!"

I got married!

Hello all!

Adam and I got married May 8th, 2009!

We are slowly getting back into the real world after all the glorious festivities.

I will post photos soon!

moved out!

I moved out of my city cabin last weekend and now I am a city bum!
Sort of.
I pretty sweet city bum with lots of nice friends to stay with.
Thanks everyone!

Here is Adam and lemon lime getting ready to help me move:

Adam was happy I moved out:

fermentation

Hello all!
Here is a great how-to video from Sandor Ellix Katz, author of Wild Fermentation.

In his book and on his website you can learn about the ancient and modern craft of fermentation.

Delicious examples:
Sauerkraut
Miso
Tempeh
Sourdough
Pickling
Wine, Mead, Beer, etc.

Here's the video, have fun!!

Darwin

Happy 200th Birthday Charles Darwin!
Your ideas and life have contributed to mine.

mini truck

If I had $9000 I would buy this for my sister!!!!

Christmas tree

I just have to post this. I saw it on Arthur's blog, and I love it!

Pilobolus

(my Pilobolus growing on horse dung in a petri dish)

Pilobolus is a very very cool fungus that grows on animal dung. It accumulates water in a large vesicle at the top of the stalk and uses turgur pressure to shoot off a packet of spores (a sporangium). These can travel up to 5 feet, and are shot in the direction of highest light concentration.


Here is a tray of horse dung we used to grow Pilobolus.
You can see the sporangia that have been shot off and stuck to the plastic covering.




"Beneath the black sporangium is a lens-like vesicle, with a light-sensitive `retina.' It controls the growth of the stalk very precisely, aiming it accurately toward any light source (movement in response to light is called phototropic). Osmotically active compounds cause pressure to build to more than 100 pounds per square inch in the stalk and vesicle. This eventually causes the vesicle to explode, hurling the black sporangium up to 2 metres, directly toward the light. The mucilaginous contents of the vesicle go with the sporangium, and glue it on to whatever it lands."

stacked

a
Today I saw these multiple ceilings in the sky.
It was strange to see just the lights from each floor, and to think of all the space created by layering and stacking. A tribute to technology: useful, but strange.
It's probably not as great to see the picture as it was to stumble upon it while walking around.

Tuberia furfuracea

A few weeks ago Luke Bayler, a Phd student in the lab, said he had been seeing a lot of Tuberia furfuracea on campus. I said, "Oh, hmmm, I don't know that one..."

Then, Brandon Methini, A former Phd student from our lab was visiting and said "Oh, that Tuberia furfuracea poster, i remember that!"

Then I found a mushroom in the UW permaculture garden and brough it to Joe Ammirati and he said "Oh, you've got Tuberia furfuracea."

Finally!

That is how I know I will not forget this mushroom.



It is small and orange-brown, turning pink-creme as it dries out (hygrophanous). These dried out about 30 minutes after I picked them.-see below-

The cap is translucent striate, meaning you can see the gills through the cap.-see below-

A very small, thin veil leaves remnant scales and flakes on the cap margin (edge).-see below-

Not all gills are attached to the stipe; there are two short and one medium length gill for every full length one. -see below-

Tuberia furfuracea is actually a species group, I found the cold weather species which comes out all winter as the snow melts.

Stropharia ambigua

A common but impressive mushroom I will not forget is Stropharia ambigua. It's a cold weather mushroom (September-November) and I have seen it growing all over Seattle in woodchips and leaves.

The cap is cream-yellow-orange and the stalk is white. The cap is slimy/wet when young and broad/flat when mature. It has a white veil that often leaves remnants hanging from the cap margin.

It can grow very tall and is usually in large groups.

Schizophyllum commune

I am going to post about new mushrooms I learn, ones I have really learned and know I won't forget.
Here is one: Schizophyllum commune

I saw it growing on a small log in a garden bed near the greenhouse here at UW.

At first, I thought it was a lichen (see photo), but when I looked below, i found what looked like gills. I took it to Joe Ammirati, UW mycologist, and he said "if it has split gills, it's Schizophyllum."


(photo from wikipedia)
I looked, and the 'gills' did indeed look split down the center. He said they are actually fertile, spore producing 'troughs' lined up next to each other like canoes, giving the appearance of gills.


(photo from wikipedia)
I looked up Schizophyllum on wikipedia and it is "THE word's most widely distributed mushroom." Very cool.
That is good because wherever you live, you might find this cute fuzzy one.

(hint: It grows on cut logs and sticks from hardwood-not conifer-trees)

Obama

Obama is our new president!

Tree of Life

Take a look at this preliminary tree of life!
(here is a link to a larger version)
It's based on whole genome sequencing, which is time and cost intensive.

What diversity!
Read all the names and you will find the tiny pink section in the upper left to span Giardia, Plasmodium, Oryza (rice), Saccharomyces (yeast), Gallus (wild chicken), Mus (mouse), Homo and Pan (chimpanzee).
If that small section contains organisms apparently so diverse to us...imagine the diversity of form, life history, energy use, protein synthesis, biochemical pathway, etc. represented by the other 85% of life.
What an amazing world...
Humans know very little. There is so much to learn, I love it.

Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas family and friends!

snowed in!

Seattle has a new winter plan: snow.
Snow all the time :)


And no one has any intentions of salting the roads because it will flow into the freshwater lakes.
Bless them.
It is making life really fun!!
I haven't gone to work in a week.

free bread

Yes, free bread. Back in September, I was happy to find a Seattle replacement for my free bread supplier, Carlucci's, of Salt Lake City. God bless that establishment.

My new spot - The Essential Baking Company - is great.
They have everything: pear-fig bread, sweet potato pecan, walnut, olive, orange, cinnamon raisin, rye, focaccia, sourdough, millegrain, etc, etc.


They have it all the time! Three dumpsters to pick from, always full of bread.
They have everything all of the time right next to the bike trail! ...it's too great.
:)

Jesus loves all creatures

Jesus loves all creatures :)

*

goods!

I've got goods!
Holiday goods, Christmas goods, friendship goods, you name it!

I have the ever-comfortable reversible headbands:

I have the ever-hilarious homemade potholders:


I have the ever-reusable canvas tote:


and I have stamped notecards for the ever-corresponding:

Leave a message about what you need or go to treepeople.etsy.com for your gifting needs.
Happy Holidays friends!
It is almost Christmastime and the new 2009 year!

Amanita

I finally found a real, red Amanita muscaria. There were two 6-inch diameter mushrooms growing right next to the road. Candice and I were so excited we missed the bus we were waiting for!
*

Happy Halloween!

life

Biology is amazing, I can't get enough of the endless forms of life.
Here is a link to beautiful pictures of slime molds.

I want to know what they are all about!

*

Big News:

Adam and I are engaged to be wed!

...more details to come :)

*

my lab job

I work in a molecular lab, and this is what i do:


My boss, Dean Glawe-a plant pathologist and mycologist-picks out what powdery mildew samples he wants me to sequence. I am his lab technician.


Remove powdery mildew from plant leaves with a scalpel.


Break open the cells with a lysing matrix of garnet sand and ceramic balls.
Use Qiagen kit for DNA extraction.


PCR (Polymerase Chain Reaction) on extracted DNA with primers that amplify only (hopefully) the segment you are looking for.
Gel electrophoresis of PCR product to visually confirm correct amplification before investing more time in following procedures.





Exosap-IT procedure to clean the sample of non-target DNA.


Prepare samples of amplified DNA to be sent to Sequencing facility.


Three days later, we know the sequence of base pairs (A,T,C or G) and can compare our segment with others whether online or previously extracted in our lab.

Amazing!!! Science is amazing!!!

*

Mushroom Show!

The Puget Sound Mycological Society, PSMS, had their big mushroom show this weekend. It is a community awareness show/fundraiser for the club. I could not get the picture to be horizontal :(


The club members collect all the mushrooms and fungi they can find in the area, sort them by genus, and display them with name tags for the community to see.


Cortinarius violaceus.


Something cool.


There were mushroom books, posters, cooking classes, and on site identification of your own backyard mushrooms.


This really did smell like cherries!


The famous Amanita muscaria


The delicious Boletus edulus


Adam's favorite: Hericium, lion's mane, or bear's head.
It's edible, too!


My favorite: the Coral Fungi, Ramaria and Clavaria, etc.

urban life

I made a new stamp!


Maybe it will give you some ideas to make your own.

broomstick fuel

Why is this so funny?

new game!

My favorite animation company, Amanita Design, has made a new game for kids called Questionaut.


I just played it for two hours!

Carvin'

Stamp carvin' (or "printmaking") is my new interest.



It's really fast to turn drawings and tracings into reusable stamps for ink and paint. Linoleum blocks come in different sizes and the carving tool can be bought at art stores.


Adam made a bike stamp.


Briana made a logo stamp for her friend's midwifery business.

This Marimekko print gave me the jar idea.

I'm going to make more.

Party at the Cabin!

My older sister Briana came to visit me in Seattle for 5 days...and the next day my dad and younger sister Candice came.

Party at the cabin!

To start the two week fest I drove to eastern Washington to get Bri and we stopped at the Ginkgo biloba petrified forest. Amazing to think that Northern America was forested with Ginkgo trees which now only grow natively in China.


Lunch buffet at Flowers!


We went on the Underground Seattle tour and heard crazy stories of the white people who settled the area and some history of the downtown. It used to be called "Duwamps" and was built mostly of wood. After a big fire it was renamed Seattle and was built in stone.


The water pipes were wood and parts of Seattle still used wood pipes in the 1980's!



Brigham Young's brother?


Then my Dad and Candice came and we ate these pastries:


bad idea at 7:30 AM.
Candice is starting as a Freshman at UW, so she is here to stay.



We drove north to Anacortes and happened to be there for Fidalgo Bay Day. Very educational and there were free oysters and clams.



Also, we found the elusive huckleberry! (see previous post)




Ahh, the Pacific Northwest...


Here we are over Deception Pass.

Seattle Critical Mass

Yesterday was the last Friday of the month, meaning five thirty finds me and Adam in downtown Seattle for the Critical Mass bikeride. It was my first Seattle critical mass and it was great, we rode all over downtown and let a lot of people know this is a biking town and they should join in...or at least drive safely around us.



We had a police escort, too, since last month's ride ended in a bad driver-biker mixup. (a driver wouldn't wait for the mass to pass and drove through the "corkers" barricade, running over two bikers, endangering the mass of riders, and causing some of them to react in defense).
See wikipedia for more info on Critical Mass in general and for a short summary of the July 2008 conflict in Seattle.

Bonus finds: two piroshki's and a location for free bread behind a bakery :)

mini frogg

Is this a mini frogg?



I think so!

Ithaca

I went with Adam to visit his family in Ithaca, New York. It was nearly a family reunion with Adam's sister Andra and two kids George and Oliver in town from Seattle as well as Adam's brother and sister-in-law Shay and Tirzah and their daughter Adelaide in town from Beijing, China.

Here is everyone on a boat tour of the Thousand Islands area.



It was great to meet Adam's family better and I really liked Ithaca. We ate delicious, fresh food, went to outdoor concerts and dancing, played with kids, and went kayaking....



...boating, and swimming in Cayuga Lake!



(did you know there is a Cayuga duck that lays black eggs?!).

We also went overnight to Thousand Islands, which was beautiful and I swam in the St. Laurence River.
Here are pictures of some of the other things we did:



We went to the Ithaca farmers market and ate veg food!



We saw the colorful block prints by Silk Oak. I got a vegetable bag and flower shirt.



We saw Addie's "pirate eye"



On the way to 1000 Islands we went to a farm.
The goats were holdin' down the fort.



future goat-herder:



The Barlow Family:



One of the Thousand Islands?

Declaration

A long time ago, some funny people made a funny ad that represented my life, in a way.



I thought about this picture a lot this summer as I was packing and sorting through things in Utah and taking my last BYU class ever, American Heritage.



I did my best, but looking back probably could have done better.



Here's my bro Ian and me moving to Seattle!! Thanks Ian :)






Everyone should move on a full moon.

Seattle!

Hello! I live in Seattle! I've been here for a while but I am just getting around to posting about it.



First off, it's great here. I love it. It rains and storms but since it is summer there are also a lot of hot sunny days. I live in a little wooden attic like a cabin in the city--just where a mushroom girl should be.



I get nearly everywhere by an appletree-and-blackberry-lined bike trail. I work three days a week in a mycology lab :) and the other days I explore the town, buy food, and hang out with Adam.


There is every kind of food you could want here. I loved the Eritrean food served on a 16'' diameter sourdough pancake/plate.



When you live in Seattle, you get more visitors. I have lived in my house for 3 weeks and I've had 4 sets of visitors. You are all welcome to stay! I have 4-day weekends, we can hang out!

(above) Eli visiting and cooking with me and Adam.
(below) Matt and Joe, my friends from high school!!! It was so so fun to hang out with you guys, thanks!


Plus, there are tons of cool outdoor places to go camping, climbing, swimming in lakes, sailing, etc.


Here is me and Adam playing 'our favorite game' at Lake Wenatchee.

write me if you want to visit!!!

regrets...

dang, I wish I had named my blog "like a bat out of hell."  

Isn't that the best phrase?

I moved

hello, I moved from my provo house on the fourth of July 2008.

I am now at my sister's house in Salt Lake until next week when my brother and I rent a 10 foot moving truck and drive to Seattle.  I'm sewing and making books, does anyone want to hang out and visit before I move?  contact me :)

carnage

carnage at the homestead :(

Martin and Ferdinand have been killed by an animal.

Martin, may you rest in peace and may your body nourish the soil and bring new life.

Ferdinand, may you rest in peace and may your body nourish the raccoon that killed and ate you.

futuristic

I hope the powers that be see this in my future.

First Day of Summer 2008!

For the first day of summer 2008 I swam across Payson Lake with friends!



Joe, Briana, Georgiana, Hannah, Sophie, Jason, Adam, and Tess were there.



we ate Chinese candies!



And Joe brought camping supplies!


Summertess 2008!



Sophie and Jason/



A different kind of s'more: roasted pineapple.



other kinds of s'mores:




Vanessa, mallo baby! and Eli.



This is how much fun everyone had!!!



mint!


The Orange Peel Fungus (Aleuria)



Happy Summer Solstice :)

unfounded fear

I have this bizarre, unfounded fear that when walking into a public bathroom I will see a dead person in one of the stalls :(
That actually could definitely happen, but not the way I imagine it. In this case, a dead person is very dead and mummified with part of the skeleton showing as if they were just dug up.
I have had this fear since I was very young and I remember thinking about it at Disneyland, Sea World, Knott's Berry Farm, and the airport.

duck poster

I recommend making a duck poster for your room with this photo:

Shiitake

Guess what I found in my closet?!
My shiitake (Lentinula edodes) mushroom bag from Fungi Perfecti!
I went to Paul Stamets' Gourmet and Medicinal Mushroom Cultivation Seminar back in November and had forgoten/ignored my shiitakes growing on woodchips since then.



looks like there is something inside....



A few good mushrooms!
So perfectly grown and with no bugs :)



The woodchips are quite decomposed.



Fungi are beautiful:

I ate the fresh ones and they were delicious.
I've been meaning to get going on my mushroom cultivation skills...When I am finally and completely graduated (two more weeks) I will.

Shape and color

I love the shape and color of this design!

My work

I work at an herbarium.
This is the kind of thing I do:

Herbaria are a mix of library, museum, and research archive. We keep dried, pressed, mounted plants in vaults for future scientific use.
My herbarium is at the Bean Life Science Museum at BYU.

I love it!

Briana

My sister Briana is the strongest and funniest person I know. Even if she is very small.

Here are just a few of the funny things I catch her doing.















:)

road trip!

Provo was greening up (and so beautiful),


but we felt like going to California. Allan needed help moving some art work from Claremont (where he went to Graduate school) to Provo. J.P.Haynie and I came along!


We stopped at the weird mad Greek in Baker.



Here is the "Verbal Building" in the downtown village of Claremont.


we wandered around the graduate studios at the school and found some beautiful art. Here are a few of my favorites. Unfortunately, I don't know who made them, sorry artists.

This one is my favorite!


I do know who made these: Chelsea, our friend, who is very nice.


thumbprints


green take over. there is a hidden tomato plant.


bringing out the baggage in everyone's attic.


so pretty:


we walked around the 8 "Claremont Colleges" campus and saw a fun vegetable garden as well as other great plants.


We went all over L.A. and saw Korea town, China town, Amoeba Records, and even saw the new Indiana Jones (magnetic) crystal (alien) skull.

On Sunday we drove south down the coast to stay at my parents' house. It was part surprise.

We went to the beach!


And found that Candice shrank one inch this last year.


My brother grew a sunflower tree.


we hung out at the harbor with some old friends. A stranger took this picture.


Jordan, Ian, and Allan.


Allan's mom went to the same high school as my dad! we looked through the year books and found both of them. Here is my dad, Brent, at 16.


Thanks, family, for having us and for all the good food :)
I miss you!



On the way home we visited friends in Cedar City. We ate pizza with Jefferson, Abigail, Ellen, and Jared.


(kind of a lot of pictures, but that is how road trips go)

Blaine Furniss

I graduated in Integrative Biology, but took botany classes as opposed to zoology. My first plant class at BYU was Plant Diversity, taught by Blaine Furniss. He was such an enthusiastic teacher who brought me to see the wonder of the photosynthetic world. I took every class he taught and owe my knowledge and love of plants and fungi to him. Thank you so much Mr. Furniss, you mean a lot to your students.

tree skirt

Look what I found hanging out at Gallery 110 in Provo!

shaggy manes

Shaggy Mane mushrooms (Coprinus comatus) and blooming lilacs (Syringa vulgaris) are symbols of spring. However, shaggy manes are also a symbol of fall...

Every spring and every fall I can predictably find edible shaggy mane mushrooms growing in front of the Eyring Science Center at BYU and on the Provo Tabernacle lawn. A week or so after a big rain they can be seen popping up through the bark chips and grass.

Here are some i found and ate just yesterday. (*Forgive me Blaine Furniss, but I have found and eaten these for 2 years)



Shaggy manes are delicious and easy to identify.
They are white and flaky with a tight, cylindric/egg shaped cap that does not open and spread outward. The gills are very delicate and remind me of white fish meat, for some reason.

When I harvest Coprinus comatus for eating, I pull the cap from the stalk and leave it there. The stalks are very tough for structural support so I don't eat them.

See how closed and clean white the gills are?


These mushrooms are also called Inky Caps because when they release spores, the cap disolves into black, spore carrying liquid leaving naked stalks sticking straight up out of the ground.
This is very cool and amazing.
My first experience with Coprinus comatus was 4 years ago when I was just beginning to learn about fungi. I was thrilled to find these huge egg shaped mushrooms at BYU and I took them home to identify. I wanted to make a spore print, so i left them overnight on a piece of paper on my desk. In the morning, I thought my sister had ruined my project because there was "ink" all over the desk and stalks were all that was left of my huge mushrooms. After flipping through mushroom books, it was clear I had the "Inky Cap."

As I said, these are edible mushrooms, but only before they turn pink and then black with mature spores. The specimen below is half-gone already. When i find ones like this, I break off the pink sections and take only white. It's best to find all-white ones.

what i'm keeping (left side) and what i'm leaving (right side).

shaggy mane caps (plus a meadow mushroom sneak) cleaned and ready for cooking.

Note that there are no pink or black (sporulating) sections on these gills.

Shaggy manes must be cooked and eaten almost immediately. You cannot collect these and store them for later because they will turn to ink behind your back.

In addition, they cannot be sauted or baked like other mushrooms because of their high water content; you will have almost nothing left after the water evaporates.

Shaggy manes are best for soups and sauces.

I use Wildman Steve's recipe it has cashews and nutmeg!

Shaggy manes are urban mushrooms and can be found in well watered parks and lawns.
Here are some good links to help you identify them correctly. Once you are familiar with them, they are easy to spot.
mushroomexpert.com

mycoweb.com

Tom Volk's site

Ducks!

The ducks are growing so fast. Martin, Platypus, and Babs love their outdoor pen. My dad helped me make it when he was in town for my graduation.

I like to sit outside and let them out of their pen to run around the yard.


Can you see how old Martin is getting?!


They love taking warm baths inside. Smart ducks!



These ducks are always happy and friendly.

Urban ducks are the wave of the future.

Seriously!

Live Green

I really really like Salt Lake City. I am going to miss it. I like the good community of bikers, gardeners, crafters, farmer's marketers, and out-doorists.

On Saturday, Briana and I spent the day at the SLC Live Green festival. I loved it and saw a lot of inspiring things. Plus it was beautiful weather.


well, first things first: I need this. I need to drive it with a little baby in the side car. I could also settle (temporarily) for driving it with ducks in the side car!



Second: these teens! We saw these two cute teens getting signatures for a petition to make urban chickens legal in Salt Lake County. I hope my teens are this awesome! (if you can't tell, they are the two with capris, hats, and crazy hair)



I really like these prayer flag knock-offs. I think they would be nice to commemorate a big event like a birth or wedding, etc. Each guest/friend writes a wish for the celebration and then they hang outside until the threads get blown to heaven by the wind.

Then we ate some delicious food. Thanks One World :)


and then:

on the way home we saw this cute couple. She is driving the scooter and he has a bag around his neck!

And then!

we went to the Beehive Bazaar, a provo crafters fair. It was in a beautiful building and there were a lot of beautiful crafts. I bought the felt flower, bird cards from Ashley Mae, and owl card from Sherisa (see below). Great job crafters.

a nice day :)

Seattle

I went on a road trip to Seattle!  

Adam was moving all his things to start life after college and I got to come, too! 

We stayed with Adam's sister's family and did all kinds of things together.  Andra and Robbie have two kids, George and Oliver.

Here's Adam at Pike's Market with Oliver.

Here's Andra with George.

We went to the Seattle Aquarium!  There was a cool sea anemone that looked like a mushroom :)

This was my favorite fish at the aquarium!

We ate 4 piroshki's and were still hungry.

We went to lunch at a delicious place in Capital Hill.

Seattle: from the Elliott Bay Book Store
.

Adam and I went to Mushroom Maynia at the Burke Museum at the University of Washington.

We saw these mushroom crafts:

and these beautiful colors from mushroom dyes.  We're going to try this soon.

Here is Oliver right before I left for the airport.

Here is me and Adam when i was nervous right before I met with Dr. Ammirati, the Mycologist!

Lunch at Agua Verde, close to where little Candice's new dorm will be!

I had a great vacation to Seattle.  I'm excited to move there this July :)  

Thanks Robbie and Andra for letting me stay with your family!

I have graduated

Please see the following indisputable proofs.



My family came!



Adam graduated and his family came, too!
We all ate at India Garden and then took a picture in the snow.

Unfortunately, I still have two classes to take:

Biochemistry and American Heritage :(

2 sisters + 5 birds = bird hat

My sister briana is back! She is moving to Salt Lake City to open her practice Fern Midwifery. But first she is staying at my house for a week, or so. The trick is: now we've got 5 birds in my tiny attick appartment. This is her beautiful lovebird, Ave (Avocado).

When I said 5 birds, they are: Lemon-lime, Ave, Martin, and two new ducklings!!!

Martin was pretty lonely in his box all day, so I bought him two new sibs from the IFA. They are three weeks younger than Martin, but hopefully their differences will even out with time.
Here is Briana with Platypus and Babs.



All these squeakers eat a lot of greens and poop a lot of poop. The Goose's Mother recommends duck diapers (so funny!) to solve this carpet-destroying problem. Briana, Adam, and I tried it out with varying degrees of success...



But we just can't take Martin seriously anymore!

Here we are thinking about ducks. Omlet has gotten us so into ducks we don't know what to do.

Bird's aren't too bad...welcome to the bird house!

Martin is getting so big. He grows one part of his body each night. His downy feathers are thickening and his real feathers are almost here. Last night he grew one inch to each wing!

Martin loves to see the world! And he travels by technicolor bag.

Here is Martin riding bikes with Adam, Kimball, Sailor Elaine, and Zina.

Martin goes to school!

children of the wild world

You probably come from Canada

the cold winds chased you down

Is that a touch of snow upon your wing

are you headed southward bound?

Move quickly wild bird, the hunter comes from town

He longs to see you on his wall you match his mantlepiece of brown.

Faster wild bird, your sun is sinking down

I'd love to ride your noble wings I would utter not a sound.

There must be some kind of blue sky somewhere

God made especially for you

Children of the wild winds go there now

And take what's left of living for you.

You probably come from Asia

where the seas are deep and clear

When you rise to break the rolling waves

your body glistens like a mirror.

Move faster great blue one it's the fisherman I hear

And there's a pretty price upon your head they're paying well for you this year

Faster great blue one your darkest storm is near

I'd love to ride your great blue tail all your secrets I'd hold dear.

There must be some kind of blue sea somewhere

God made especially for you
Children of the wild seas go there now
And take what's left of living for you.

You probably come from Idaho where the cool air treats you right

Where you roam the Sages Mountains in your savage delight

Move quickly brave one, the builder scales your heights

And your home to him's worth millions now so there's nothing he won't fight.

Faster brave one,

your moon is losing light

I'd love to run the trail with you,

scream your courage through the night.

There must be some kind of mountain somewhere

God made especially for you

Children of the wild lands go there now

And take what's left of living for you.

There must be some kind of new world somewhere

God made especially for you

Children of the wild world go there now

And take what's left of living for you.

Spring City, Utah

Hello, I have been up to much school lately. But also plant field trips, critical mass bike rides, watching Martin grow, and a trip to Spring City, Utah.

My friend, Zina, needed help cleaning up snow-damaged yurts at her ranch for teens.
It was really fun and everyone who came got to swim in a jacuzzi, sleep in a yurt, eat delicious food, and listen to conference outside.

The yurts were ordered straight from the source: Mongolia. If you get a chance to see "Cave of the yellow dog" or "story of the weeping camel," I highly recommend them. Mongolia and Mongolians are beautiful. They have the cutest, smartest kids, too!
The yurts were made in the most amazing way: wood lattice pieced together using leather (sinew?), lining of rainbow-coloured silk, insulation layer of yak felt, outer layer of canvas, everything tied down using horse hair rope and yak hair rope, everything held up with wooden supports and spokes that were lacquered orange and hand painted with intricate designs.

Here is one of the snow-crushed, teen pirate-claimed yurts:


Here is Zina wrapping up some horse hair rope.

I would love this as the door (and door step) of my home!

On our way out of town, Adam and I stopped to drink at the spring that made Spring City famous and also at Zina's dad's ceramic shop. I bought a cup and a bowl!

Martin

I have been waiting for spring for many reasons. One is that i would like to have a duck running round in my garden.
On friday night i had a dream that i had three eggs. The first hatched one normal sized yellow dove and the other two hatched one inch tall yellow chicks.
I woke up Saturday with new purpose and rode my bike straight to the IFA farming store. I rode home a few minutes later with a duck and a chick and a heat lamp.
It has been an adventure figuring out how to take care of a duck and a chick in my attick apartment urban homestead. but it's quite fun!
Unfortunately, the chick died last night :( but the duck is as alive and cute as ever. Its name is Martin. It loves to run fast on its tip-toes, chase your feet around the house, and jump high. It also does not stop squeaking...

but look how cute little Martin is:


Here are some videos of little Martin running round.

Mushroom party

Hello, it is my birthday on March 18th.
I will be 23 years old.
I like to have mushroom parties for my birthday and this year was no exception.

I made hazelnut and pistachio mushroom log cakes filled with coffee and cardamom cream :)
Annalisa made a really great mushroom decorated cake (thank you!)
As you can see, we all ate a lot of delicious food:


My home teacher came!



Zina and Mariana (in mirror) came:


Briana and Cassie came:

My *boyfriend* Adam came:

the cakes all came:

And handsome Ruel came :

Other friends came, too. And we all watched beautiful mushroom slideshows.

I really love mushrooms.

March

I love March :)
for many reasons.
Here are some of the things i have done so far in March:

My sister came to visit:


And we made lots of food:



I checked on my winter garden:


and it is doing pretty well:

I made squash raviolis:

I went to my first rugby game, and i liked it:

I went to girls' night:

I saw the first crocus flower of spring:

I saw a beautiful art exhibit:

I love this!

I hung out with little Elijah. He gets cuter and older everyday.

This is brie in my bed: