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Hula Returns to Sequim

Honored Elder & Dance Teacher, Mokihana Melendez on the right OMG! So excited that like last year, a Hawaiian group graced Sequim with i...

Friday, November 26, 2010

Got Tamale?

Hurrah! Today, my friends, the Terrys held a tamale making party. There was quite a crowd when I arrived late. Bugger! Though I recieved their invite I had immediately lost it - electronically! Yes - I am now clever enough to misplace things in 2 different mediums.

'Little Terry' was heading up the tamale making when I arrived

All were already busy getting the masa meal on to the corn husks. Some used dinner knives, but many used a new implement of destruction! Genuine, 'Texas Rolling Pins'. I actually saw the things and assumed at first that the Terrys found a new use for spackling tools. Nope, they were just using the latest development in the long history of tamale making.

Using a handy dandy "Texas Rolling Pin" to spread the corn masa

There were so many of us there were 3 work stations

Big Terry was the lead tamale maker. She also set the theme for the party by buying and designing the 'Got Tamale?' aprons we wore. She designed the logo on her computer, then the patches on our aprons. All the Terrys guests got one of the cool & official cook's aprons. I told her I can't wait to steal her ideas for some future hen party.

Soon enough there were piles and piles of masa spread corn husks covering all available surfaces - it was time for some stuffing! Pre-party, the Terrys prepared tray after tray of pork in a lucious green 'verde' sauce. The next step was spooning the pork and sauce onto the husks and folding them. Big Terry gave us all a demo of the method. I learned to roll tamales by a different method at a Nancy & Rick tamale party last January. So it was remedial tamale training for me to get used to not rolling and securing the tamales using a strip of husk to tie the tamales shut. Happily I got over that and was soon stuffin', foldin' and pilin' with the best of them.


The tamales piled up pretty quickly

Before long there were humongous piles of Texas roll 'em and hold 'em tamales, all ready for the next step. Terry put HUGE steamer pots on the stove. She put pennies in the bottom of the steamers so she could hear the pennies bopping around and know there was still water in the steamer bottoms - another clever idea for me to remember. The pork tamales needed to steam for up to two hours.

Loading tamales into the steamers

OH NO! A Problem - sort of... we were out of the green chile verde pork meat but we still had loads of masa spackled corn husks. What to do? I think it was little Terry's idea, or someone's to make dessert tamales. Soon, Little Terry was thawing large bags of frozen blueberries and Big T was making a nice cinnamon and quesso cheese mix for mixing the berries in.


Lots of hands make light loads - or some such - soon the blueberry/queso dessert tamales were complete.

We all realized that if we waited for all the tamales we made to get steamed, we were going to be camping out at the Terry's home until the wee hours. So! It was time to bag up pork and desert tamales for everyone to take home. We could all take our tamales home and steam them for ourselves. Shucks! I had to get home before dark to lock my hens in their run so the local wild raccoons wouldn't also have a tasty treat to look forward to.

Bagging up the tamales at the end of the day

Before I knew it I was on my way home with a tamales my precious bag o' tamales. That was such a nice way to spend the day-after-thanksgiving. Really, from the shared stories of the participants, it was easy to tell we all really needed something fun to get our minds of the economy and onto more pleasant things like spending time with new and old buddies.

P.S. Just tried my first chili verde pork and blueberry queso tamales: YUM! Honestly, they are savory and succulent. Tamales are well on their way to being one of my favorite foods.

Tuesday, November 16, 2010

Hen Party!


Still life of Ps - Pomegranates, Persimmons and Peppers

A decision was made some months ago, by those other-than-myself, that a hen party was long overdue. Further, it was decided one such hen party needed to take place - at my house. *gulp*

Wasn't quite ready for it but was glad to host, as nothing gets some spring cleaning done in November like the threat - uh... the expectation, of company.

T'was a v. short Hen Party as most of the time it was just myself and Barbara. Barb, drove up Friday afternoon. The arrival of other hens happened late Saturday afternoon.

Robbie showed up as the bearer of yummy chocolate Chip cookies as well as amazing Berkeley bread of the sort that just doesn't happen in Sacramento.


Robbie, bearer of Berkeley Breads


Barbara and Ingrid


Very-nearly-almost Conjoined twins, Robbie and Nancy


Full quorum of Hens


Uh... uninvited hen who showed up anyway

I think everyone enjoyed themselves. As per usual we spent a great deal of time either preparing or eating foods, and of course catching up on each other's lives. There was only one unplanned bit of entertainment.


Seen from the living room -
The Entertainment arrived gobbling bird seed

Normally at Hen Parties we take walks and/or tour the local area, but as the time was short and the local rather ho-hum, only the most stalwart Hens took a hike.

Ingrid, Robbie and Nancy, about to set forth on a Hen Hike
Late Saturday night, was the trickiest bit of the Hen Party - all six of us sleeping at my house. Yet, somehow we managed it - one each in the two bedrooms, 1 in the spare room on an air mattress, and 2 of us in the living room, one on a cot, one in a sleeping bag on the floor and amazingly enough, a couch to spare! Maybe another time I'll try for seven overnight guests.
Sunday morning we all rose, rested and ready for breakfast. I'd talked Barbara into bringing goose eggs from her flock and she managed a couple of them.


The Goose eggs alongside one of my hen's comparatively eensie eggs


Sunday morning each hen made her own
eggy extravaganza for baking

So it was a lovely hen party. Barbara stayed to visit a couple of extra days. That first night I took a MAJOR tumble in my back yard, having tangled my foot in the loose netting that separates the grass from the cement patio. Barb decided instead of a gate, there must be a gate between the two areas. So, after a trip to Orchard Supply, there was some serious construction going on.
The final job was complete - using a folded tomato cage for a door and presto! A quite serviceable gate so I don't take any unnecessary trip while heading out to feed the hens.

Friday, November 12, 2010

A Little Fall Birding

Know what makes me cranky? The bird that got away. Case in point, a beautiful bird, that flew all the way to California from the high arctic where Narwhales blow bubbles under the ice. That bird is an Ivory Gull, that flew into Pismo Beach just last weekend.

Not to whine, but I should have leapt into my car, picked up birder buddy Don and zoomed down to Pismo Beach. We could have seen that high arctic gull that only once before has ever entered California.

But Nooooo - like a jerk, I skipped the opportunity, thinking I would drive down to see the bird on Thursday, Veteran's Day. No dice - the beautiful Ivory Gull skipped off to heaven only knows where, Wednesday. The horror!

Beautiful gull, seen here thumbing its nose bill at
tardy birders, such as me, who did not see it

So, as a birdie boobie prize, yesterday Don and I picked up buddy Teressa and we all headed to Fort Mason in San Francisco. Fort Mason is a pretty spot on the bay, right across from Alcatraz. There were loads of other birders when we got there, who just like us, were looking for a less rare vagrant, a Black-throated Blue Warber, an Eastern species.

A Black-throated Blue Warbler - another no-show for the week

No dice. Skunked by the Black-throated Blue, last seen yesterday, Wednesday afternoon. Still, we all had fun looking at the more cooperative, and easier to see birdies. And I enjoyed photographing the more cooperative birds that bopped cheerily around the trees and shrubs. There were Varied Thrush, several Pygmy Nuthatches and a Northern "Yellow-shafted" Flicker that may have been a bit lost. I managed a few shots of some Pygmy Nuthatches and even shots of the teeny little Brown Creepers that worked at 'de-bugging' the bark of a vine strewn tree.

Brown Creeper, living up to its name - being brown, and creeping

Looking a lot like a bit of Bark

Around midday we drove north to Petaluma in search of Pacific Golden Plovers. I've seen them before but they were still a 'lifer for me, because the place I saw the lovely little Plover below was the Isle of Hawaii - therefore those birdies didn't count as North American seen birdies.

My Pacific Golden Plover that didn't count, yet was still rather a beauty

We saw several beautiful, golden hued Pacific Golden Plovers at Schollenberger Park. I didn't take any photos there, but we saw Mute Swans, Blue-winged teal, Mallards, Black-bellied Plover, and other species as well. Nice stop, and the Golden Plovers did bring my total for lifers in 2010 up to 18 birds.

Up one lifer for 'moi', we headed south to visit Don's daugher Rose, at her work place, a veterinarian clinic. I can't believe I was so taken by the critters at the clinic - adorable lizards, loads of exotic birds and so help me, FERRETS! I didn't think to take Rose's picture. Rose promptly brought out a beautiful ferret for me to play with. HEAVEN! I would love a trio of ferrets for pets, but the timing at this point of my life sucks so no ferrets for me. Still it was fun getting to hold a particularly cuddly one.

So we all out for a nice lunch with Rose & her fiance Nate (really sweet guy, Rose knows how to pick 'em). I chatted with Rose who is chock full of pet helpful knowledge and we talked 'critters' all through lunch. It was nice getting in a visit, hadn't seen Rose in ages.

Following lunch, Don, Teressa and I headed back to Fort Mason for another shot at the Black-throated Blue Warbler, but it was no where to be seen. A Townsend's Warbler took pity on me and bounced around in the sunlight, allowing to take some so-so shots of it.


Townsend's Warbler


The Townsends hitting a more classic pose

BONSAI!

Sooo that was that for the day! On the drive back to Don's place, before I took off for home, I spotted the only Barn Owl I've seen this year. It sailed by over my car on the freeway. I took that as a good omen for my drive home and it was.

Monday, November 01, 2010

Halloween at the House that Fear Built


The Winchester Mystery House

Halloween is the night you collect that candy, give out that candy, or go out and get yourself spooked. This year I decided to go with the latter. So Halloween afternoon I drove on down to the Winchester Mystery House in San Jose.


One Big-arse sprawling house

The Winchester house is one of the most haunted houses in the United States, so naturally, lacking any common sense at all, I decided to take the Halloween night flashlight tour of the grounds. I arrived early in the afternoon so I started off the ‘festivities’ with a free, self guided walk about in the Winchester estate gardens. The grounds are lovely and filled with loudspeaker talks that give a good overview of the grounds. I must admit, it being Halloween, it wasn't the lovely flora that I was thinking on, but my upcoming nighttime flashlight tour.


my daytime view of the house

So as dusk fell, ghouls & ghosts of the human Halloween costumed sorts, as well as half the cast of Rocky Horror Picture Show and the odd Show White and Roman soldier gathered for the sold out flashlight tours. When it was my group’s turn, we met our sexy black cat costumed guide - named Claire - for the evening. Claire, a twenty-something year old, told us she has worked at the Mystery house for six months, and has led tours only a couple of months. She promised us plenty of ghost stories - most of which happened either to her or to the hapless guests on her tours. So after warning us no photography was allowed, each of us fiddled around with our souvenir Flashlights. Note, the photos below are lifted off the web and can't begin to capture how delightfully dark and creepy tour was or how astounding the Winchester House is after dark.

The first thing we all learned was in her later years, Sarah Winchester, the owner of the huge mansion, had bad arthritis, and could barely lift her feet more than a few inches. So she had many staircases removed and replaced with low rising steps. So we were led up to the second floor we found the stairwell doubled back on itself over and over, over and over until I felt like I might meet myself coming back the other way. I include a photo below but it doesn’t properly show off how low the 3 inch high stairs are or how the passageway winds back and forth, back and forth.


The low & flat stairs are interesting to navigate in the dark by flashlight

At the top of the stairs, we were in a teensy area, where I first noticed the weirdest thing about the Winchester House - it was chock full of windows, doors, sliding openings, none of which make any sense; windows open into walls, doors go nowhere, there were often what looked to be little atriums - maybe 3 by 3 feet - that didn't contain anything or serve any purpose - they were just there. A window at the end of the room that looked down into the kitchen below - not a sweeping view of the kitchen, but a lopsided peek over a stove ventilator - it served no purpose. There is a spot with a window face down in the floor in the middle of the room! That's the whole point of the house architecture - no point at all. A pure case of what happens when someone has more money than God and spends their cash building with no goal other than to never stop building. Note: Sarah earned a thousand bucks per day back when 1K could have kept a whole family alive and well for a year.

Soon we entered a tiny little 12 x 12 ft room where Sarah held a séance every single day and where loads of bizarre things happened. Next we were gathered round in Sarah's bedroom, where Claire, standing by Sarah’s bed, looked into the doorway behind the rest of us and jumped! She thought she saw a face in the doorway behind us. She was noticeably freaked as she told us about the bedroom and its bizarre occurrences – think floating orbs and transformed spiritualists – freaking is apparently a Winchester House tour guide's occupational hazard, not covered by OSHA.


Sarah's comfy bedroom - featuring her death bed

We moved onto another area with a wall featuring row after row of stained glass web windows - 13 in all - Sarah had a ‘thing’ for the number 13.


Winsome by daylight, creepy as hell by moonlight

Claire said that once, while in the servant's quarter’s area of the Winchester House, and while alone a co-worker left to get something. Claire was changing out some light bulbs. She felt uneasy, and had that creepy feeling she was being watched. She hoped her co-worker would hurry up and return. Then, a voice behind her head shouted her name. She jumped, turned and - no one was there. Since then, Claire never feels good about being in the servant’s quarter’s area. Can you blame her?

That wasn’t her first weird Winchester experience though. You see, when she first began working at the Winchester house, she often heard co-workers swapping creepy tales on their paranormal run-ins at the mansion. Of course, sensibly, Claire did not believe a word any of them said. Then after closing late one night, she was closing out her cash register in the gift shop. As she worked alone in gift shop, she could hear someone going up the stairs to an office, her boss’s. Then she heard steps coming down the stairs, then back up again and down. Obviously her boss had forgotten something and kept climbing up and down the stairs.

Then a voice behind her shouted, “LISTEN!” She turned around to see no one was there. Later on, her boss and some other people came into the shop – they’d been at some other area of the property – no one was in or near the supervisor’s office or the staircase.

That was Claire’s turning point, when she turned from normal skeptical non-believer, to what most of us are – unwilling and living with the knowledge that there is some SPOOKY arse shite going on.

When Claire told us the story of her night at the gift shop and the disembodied voice behind her back, she said after some consideration, she wonders if the voice wasn’t telling her she ought to listen to her co-worker’s ghostly stories and take them serious. Isn’t that creepy?! Really, you must hope you remain untouched by such certainty in the world of the paranormal.

Let's see... what creepy stuff happened during our Halloween night flashlight tour? Well, several people got freaked by cold spots creeping up their sides. One girl noted “of course it’s cold; we’re wearing fishnet stockings and hose!”

Another girl quipped back, “I’m wearing jeans and my leg is just as frozen!”

And it was too!

As for my own experience, as I often do on tours, I was practically glued to my namesake tour guide. Claire. At one point I trotted after her and the two of us alone arrived, in a stairwell area ahead of the others. While we waited for the rest of the group to catch up – there were a dozen LOUD and insistent knocks on a wooden door we stood by. Quickly, Claire swung the door open. No one was there. We both stared down the long, empty and creepy hallway behind the door. Claire swung around to look at me and demanded, almost defensively, "Does that grab you as... weird?"

Uh…. Yes!

No wonder Claire grew increasingly unnerved during the tour. Later, at the highest point of the building, we were in the very room that Sarah Winchester was accidently trapped in during the 1906 earthquake. We were all able to climb out onto a balcony, overlooking the gardens I toured earlier in the day. Later we were back downstairs and in a kitchen - the one that was used prior to the 1906 San Francisco earthquake, and one that was used afterwards. Yes, there was more than one kitchen. In fact, here are the Winchester house's famous over-consumption statistics: 2,000 doors, 1,257 windows, 40 stairwells, 40 bedrooms, 47 fireplaces, 17 chimneys, 13 bathrooms (but only 1 shower) , six kitchens, three elevators, 160 rooms, 47 fireplaces, 2 ballrooms, and more than 450 doorways and a b'jillion turrets. Oh, and the parquet floors are to die for - ok, not literally, but they are majorly awesome!


This organ is famous for playing itself.

Claire also told us that participants on her tour have on two occasions saw ‘the thin man’. Once he walked up some stairs and disappeared right in front of  her tour participants. Another time the 'thin man' stopped to lean on a pole and again, disappeared. Another ghost seen wandering around the halls at Winchester house is handyman in coveralls, who busies himself with various unearthly chores.


One of 40 staircases

The last room of the tour contains loads of beautiful Victorian furniture and a rocking chair that is often seen to begin rocking on its own accord. At the end of the tour I decided someday I must return for another go. Halloween or the 10th of May. The Winchester Mystery house is deliciously spooky. If you want to learn the history of the place, pluck up your courage and click here.