Our walk on January 1, 2019

Last year in April, we had a significant windstorm that knocked down a number of very large trees in the park to which we're walking today. One of the resulting gaps now allows us to see the pedestrian bridge across the Opanuku Stream that lies at the far end of the park. 

 It's a steep drop to this bridge, one of three in the park.

Some big old wood survived the storm thank Goodness. 

 I don't think the Frisbee course gets much use. 

 The park is relatively quiet this morning. Many people spent the night celebrating and may be sleeping in. 

 Let's walk part of the perimeter.

I have walked this path before but hadn't noticed what Jeanne pointed out to me today. There are lots of very large English Oaks along here. I like that. 

Although I don't believe we'll ever really need to harvest mass quantities of acorns, there is a part of me that has always felt a measure of pleasure, and comfort, in virtual planning for post-catastrophic times.  As part of that I have a mental list of all the English oak and pin oak trees in our area. This discovery today has increased our available sources of acorns significantly. 

 Making our way home through a short cut between neighborhoods.

 Jeanne tells me these are wild morning glory vines Kathie. We thought of you. 

 Yesterday, Lee and Kathleen's Christmas package was delivered to us and I discovered it contained a gift of Jiff peanut butter and thimbleberry jam. I told Lee in a thank-you email that I immediately popped the jam open and tasted some with a small spoon. It occurred to me as I did, that I was treating it as I would a jar of top-shelf caviar. It was sweet, not salty, and crunched rather than popped as I savored it, but the comparison to caviar holds nonetheless. I told him it was my intention to serve the family some hors d'oeuvres before dinner, highlighting this delicacy. 

So, here they are. Thimble caviar, not Beluga, adorns the top of the Ritz and peanut butter.

And this was our main for our first dinner of 2019.  Jeanne also made some cheesy tortilla wedges. Those are fresh from her garden cukes and zucchini slices. On New Year's Day. Can't yet get my mind around that. The avocado pieces are not ours, they were purchased,  but look at how nicely Amiri's avocado tree is doing. 

Amiri saved the seed from an avocado and planted it, with this result. We may have our own before long. 

And since I was in the back yard taking the previous picture, I just had to snap a couple of my pride and joy; my fig tree. Taken on January 7th, 2019. 

I used to make a seafood chowder for New Year's Day dinner, and would have probably continued the tradition this year, if the weather had been different. It was overcast as you saw from the photos, but the temperature was 24 C, or about 75 F. Just a bit too warm for a steaming bowl of chowder. (I'll make it as soon in the new year as I can.)  -djf