198. Green Beans

I know I have mentioned my love for gardening, my back yard, and my flowers. And at times I have gotten very specific about particular things I love in that garden and back yard. Now it’s time to get back to those specifics and remind myself about my love for green beans, the green beans that I grow. To be honest, they aren’t all green. (I grow bush beans, though as I get older I am considering starting to grow pole beans so I don’t have to bend over so much when I pick them). I have yellow wax beans, green beans, and purple beans that turn green when you cook them. My garden space isn’t terribly large so I cram things together. The beans are scrunched in between sweet corn and squash this year. And because it has been such a hot summer I have been overwhelmed by my garden. The beans are good this year.

I like getting out and picking them. It’s a necessity, so I can’t use the “It’s too hot” excuse. I just have to get out there and pick them. Because they are bush I get to test my blood pressure from bending over and picking. If it’s low I get dizzy when I stand back up. I also test my back stamina which is why I am considering pole beans…

I don’t mind the labor associated with green beans because they taste good. I usually fry up some bacon and cook the beans in the fried bacon with a little water. That’s probably the least healthy way to do it, but I’m also game to just boil them with some salt and herbs. They taste good almost anyway they are cooked. It’s also good to just take any excess that we get and blanche them in boiling water for a couple of minutes then throw them in ice water before freezing them in baggies or freezer safe containers. Then I have a few in the freezer to get out and cook any way I like when aren’t in season. I will say this: I very seldom have any in the freezer to bring out in the off season because I, and my family, tend to eat them all in season. I love green beans. 

197. My Back Yard

 

I love my back yard. It’s where I go to get away from things while still being accessible with a shout. It’s where I go in the summer to sit and read or drink coffee in the morning sunshine while I journal or write poetry. We live on a hillside, as do most of the residents of Potlatch, and we have a two-car garage with a patio/car port and it is attached to the house with a little deck and steps down to the grass and my vegetable garden. I’m able to sit here and write, enjoy the company of friends or slip down into the corn and be lost from view to the whole world while I admire squash blossoms and honeybees or carrots and tomatoes.

Yesterday a young friend of mine, a former student, came over to visit and we sat out here on the patio and he told me I had a “chill vibe” about me that he loved. There is no place where I feel that vibe more than here in my back yard. Don’t get me wrong, I love my entire yard and feel very fortunate to live in a fully detached house where I can have a yard to just blend into the outdoors right at home, but the back yard is more welcoming for at home escapes and/or socializing while the front yard is more on display and I feel like I need to be working or preparing to leave.

Out back I can drink a beer and read poetry, shovel snow and build a fire in the fire pit. I can escape the street lights at night and view the constellations and the Milky Way. On the north side it has potted flowers where hummingbirds linger in the summer evenings and the grass is nearly perfect. On the south side the grass is mostly weeds but the vegetables grow like a jungle fringed with sunflowers. The hedge between my neighbor to the south provides a bit of privacy but not so much that I can’t have a chat with the lady next door. This side of the yard is the side where I have projects and plans for further landscaping and it all keeps me satisfyingly busy. I really love my back yard.

196. Seattle Mariners

 

The Seattle Mariners is a team I really appreciate and am thankful for. I am not a big baseball fan and never really have been. I always loved track and field and running just because of the raw emotion and simplicity of individual events. But baseball really is the national past time of America and I really am an American, so going to the Mariners’ stadium, while never a dream of mine, has become pure joy to me.

Of course, I live in the Northwest so Seattle has its pull on me whether I like it or not, and the Mariners, Seahawks, Sounders, Supersonics (alas, no more), and Storm, have been at the front of the sports page and I just followed them because of where I live. The first time I went to a Mariners’ game was in the spring of 2001 just after my youngest son had been admitted to Seattle Children’s Hospital awaiting a diagnosis for what turned out to be a mitochondrial disease. Because he was stable and it was a weekend, someone in the hospital had access to cheap, nosebleed section tickets, so my family, along with my brother-in-law hiked a zillion stairs carrying our sick three-year-old. We were too green to know about the elevators and all able bodied, so we did it. To be honest, we were all too distraught to remember the game except for the climb and the diversion from our fear. Three months later after a harrowing hospital stay that was the crisis of our lives, we again got tickets from pitcher Jamie Moyer to view the game from a suite. Needless to say, my wife and I were in tears in the seventh inning while singing “Take Me Out to the Ball Game” because we were in tact and our boy was going to make it.

Since that time, we have tried to make a yearly trip to a Mariners game. This year we had returned after the COVID drought and we took friends and sat in a great section reserved for handicapped people and their families. The Mariners had a terrible opening and we were geared for disappointment until they hit a grand slam home run. In the end the Mariners beat Houston 11-8. I’m still not a huge baseball fan in general, but I LOVE the Seattle Mariners.

195. Fun Runs

 

I have been a runner since childhood. I started running track as soon as I was able and instead of playing football in the fall I ran long distance even when there was no cross country at my school (which there still isn’t as far as I know). I love the culture of running and I immersed myself into it early on in life. It seems strange to me that I am just now writing about the fun run that has become a staple of American life, but that is something I am really thankful for.

Just this past Saturday I ran the Potlatch Days Fun Run, a run that is just slightly over a 5K. It’s not a run that offers any sort of swag, it’s just a contribution entry fee that goes toward scholarships for graduating Seniors from Potlatch High School. There are all kinds of runs like that across the country, along with more flashy versions from Spokane’s Lilac Bloomsday and the Boston Marathon. These kinds of events get people out of their comfort zone to celebrate community and fitness.

I think the very existence of fun runs, marathons, triathlons and all of those many events not only celebrate their communities, they also celebrate the individuals and encourage people to get fit or continue their fitness journey. They inspire people to set goals for themselves and they give cause to get out of their comfort zones all while having a good time.  I doubt that I would ever have traveled to St. George, Utah or Boston, Massachusetts if it weren’t for that most famous of marathons: Boston. I wanted a fast marathon to qualify for Boston and I found it in St. George, so I ended up traveling all the way to Boston where I not only ran the marathon, I got to see a beautiful city where so much of the American story began, including my own.

To me, those simple little fun runs in these simple little towns have a way of simply making people shine, making us great. I love the fun runs all across this country and I am so grateful for them.

194. Sunflowers

 

I know everything I write about and put in this blog isn’t distinctly American or even North American though they are all things I appreciate here at home, but when I started this gratitude journal of mine it was inspired by Time magazine’s list of 240 great things about America in politically turbulent times. The politics in our country are still crazy, but there is still beauty, joy and redemption here in America and there always will be. That’s the focus so that I, a somewhat political person, don’t fall into the pit of despair.

Sometimes it’s just very little things that truly bring joy. These are the things we must cherish and protect. For me and thousands of others the sunflower is one of those overlooked bits of joy. I don’t need to plant them every year, but I do because they blend and new varieties and colors volunteer in my garden every year. I have so many that I have to pull them up and leave a few to remain in strategic places along with the few new seeds that I do plant. They also end up in other places because their seeds get spread by the birds and through my compost.

Some of the sunflowers I grow are the big-headed mammoths that are typically grown for their seeds. I don’t use the seeds for much, if anything, but I still love those towering flowers that can be upwards of eight feet tall as they bow down low when they open up. I also get plenty of little sunflowers that will shine lemon yellow petals or crimson against gold. Most of them are the ordinary yellow flowers that turn their faces to the sun, but all are beautiful in their bright colors. When they finish blooming the heads are full of seeds and I just leave the stocks standing into the late fall because they make the most natural bird feeders. And I love watching the birds flit around in my now almost barren garden. Of course, there are a zillion other things that sunflowers bring such as their seeds for food or oil, but I’m just partial to their cheery demeanor and the sustenance they bring all the migratory birds. Sunflowers are a spot of joy in my life.                                                                                                                           

                 

193. Bend Distillery

Some of the best things in life should not be indulged too much and I’ve always felt that way about alcohol. I enjoy a drink now and then but my feeling is that when I buy a bottle of alcohol it should last me a few months and I should enjoy the flavors, not a buzz. That being said, it’s pretty obvious by my entries in this blog that I enjoy wine and beer and I typically have a glass with my dinner. Every now and then during the summer or holidays I’ll have a cocktail. I wouldn’t know a thing about making cocktails without some experimentation and a little tasting of some booze.

A great distillery in Central Oregon is the Bend Distillery in Bend. I got to know about this place by trying some Crater Lake Gin a few years back. Then, when we went to the Deschutes Brewery a few times there in downtown Bend, we noticed the Bend distillery was right next door. We decided to go in and buy a bottle of gin and they convinced us to try a few distillations they had. I’m pretty sure that if it cost more than the cheap $5 I would have passed, but I’m glad I tried them because some of them were quite pleasant, and a few not so pleasant. I’m not one to drink whiskey, so I wasn’t too excited about their Rye Whiskey. Very seldom can I tell one vodka from another unless it is flavored, but I did enjoy their Northwest Berry Vodka and their Hazelnut Espresso, which was more of a sweet liquor. My favorite is still the gin, but they have a Private Reserve Crater Lake Gin that I decided is the best. It’s spendy, but we bought a 750ml bottle along with a regular larger bottle of the regular Crater Lake. I think the thing I like about it is not only that it’s local, but that it uses the juniper berries of the Central Oregon juniper forests. It’s a nice touch of Americana that adds a great flavor to a local gin. There’s nothing better than an icy gin and tonic on a hot summer’s day. But if you prefer a cold screwdriver or a greyhound you can also find a nice vodka at the Bend Distillery. 

192. Foundry Vineyards

 

Walla Walla, Washington is becoming a well-known area for its variety of wineries and wine tasting venues. It’s in southeast Washington right on the Oregon border at the base of the Blue Mountains and it has great historical significance for the Pacific Northwest because of the Whitman mission to the Native tribes (and, of course, that has some darkness as well). The area is beautiful because it is a valley at the base of mountains so it has an almost desert climate but it also has the rolling Palouse type hills. There is a combination of dry land and irrigated farming and that has allowed for a great, relatively recent addition of vineyards.

One of the newer wineries is right in town—at least the tasting venue. It’s called Foundry Vineyards and it has some really good wine. If given the option of tasting in a beautiful vineyard or a city building is the choice, I’ll typically pick the vineyard just for the ambiance. But Foundry has done quite well with their artsy tasting rooms in town.

Because it was a nice day and not too hot, we sat outside. There were wine barrels made into tables for the wine and comfortable tables and chairs for the guests. There was an abundance of flowers and a variety of art sculpture like a mini sculpture garden. It has a privacy fence on which hop vines grow so that it has a calming green affect. To get to the gardens you have to walk through the tasting gallery where a variety of art works are on display. It very much has the sense of an art gallery which is the theme of the winery itself: wine is art. I think anything to do with food and drink is art, so I very much appreciated this theme and the setting of our tasting. But more importantly were the wines themselves. They were good, whites and reds. We ended up taking home a bottle of White on White which was a blend that was almost effervescent. A great chilled wine for a hot summer day.