There Was No Partridge

I spent the morning with the Nisqually Land Trust working on the historic Van Eaton property in Eatonville.  This property borders the Mashel River and consists of the old farm barn and pond along with forest and tiers of land which run down to the river.  The Land Trust donated the historic barn and pond to the town.

Today we had a great turn-out.  A group from Edmonds Community College was with us.  These students were not traveling during the holiday break and had the option to do community service and have experiences related to their school work.  They were staying up the road at Pack Forest and had already done a full days work there.

We have visited this property several times over the last few years focusing on Scots Broom.  My partner and I were assigned the clearing where major work had been done before.  We were to scout for new growth and grab up as many as possible.

It was challenging work as the grass is well grown up and finding the green growth within the tall grass meant we did a lot of slow walking back and forth, scanning for unwanteds

My shoulders ache

As I was prowling along I found this shiny brown object.

At first glance I thought it was a mushroom of some kind but looking closely I tipped up the chewed on side..

It is a pear.  A very large very substantial pear.  Around this area I found more, some were just skins with all the flesh eaten out.

These wonderful trees ringing the opening are the remainders of the original orchard.  Most likely these moss and lichen covered pear trees are at least 100 years old.

If you look very closely at the top of that right arching branch you can see one pear hanging on.  I bet they would make great cider.

After gleaning the meadow we moved on to tackle the blackberry that has invaded the shoreline and backwater areas on the river.

Saw plenty of evidence of deer, Elk and Coyote in the meadow...

but not a single Partridge.

To Market, To Market

At the first of the month I joined the Nisqually Land trust in a Scots (scotch) Broom pull on the Van Eaton property in Eatonville.  We were blessed, yet again, with fair weather for the duration of the three hours duty. 

Most of the short greenery is Scots Broom.  You can see people in and around it.

This property we have visited before and the previous two work parties had largely cleared out the majority of Broom.  The remaining plants on worker referred to as "Old Growth" Scots Broom.  Boy was he right!

The plants were tall and their bases, stout.  It was quickly apparent that we would have to tackle the plants in teams of two and three.  We used root jacks to up-end some of the brush shrubs.  Other plants required saws to pare down the bases so the jacks could get around them.  Many we had to grub into the roots with hands and tackle them below the ground level.

The soil was very soft, a saving grace.  There were several volunteers from the high school and one found this little Salamander during her efforts.

She was careful to place the little one safely out of harms way.  The students were very interested in the conservation work along the river.  Leaders from the Land Trust were very willing to spend extra time answering their questions. 

After the work party I paid a visit to the Olympia Farmers Market.  Along the way I spotted Santa and his hitch of eight RainDeeres

All the usual vendors were busy.  This market has many local food stalls.  The apple vendor had many varieties I have never heard of

The meat looked wonderful, very well marbled and not stuck under plastic

The biggest crowd, understandably, at Wagner's Bakery.

I worked with Mr Wagners sister many years ago.  My first experience with home made sauerkraut was his.  It converted me to always adding caraway seed to my store bought kraut.  For this I thank him.

Last Sunday I went into Seattle early to see the runners for the Jingle Bell Run.  Once again there was a huge crowd

but I was disappointed to not see as many people in really far out costumes this year.  Overall it felt sort of quiet and not quite as jolly.

Pike Place Market was really busy, far more so than it was last year.  The vendors were hard at work and ready to pounce on anyone taking notice.  I found some unique preserved strawberries that I am going to try in my favorite scone recipe. 

The market is such a wonderful, visual place

Who can resist the neon

I could not resist stopping and watching the donut machine

and had to breeze through DeLaurenti http://www.delaurenti.com/

The craft folks were just setting up.  I always find things I would really love to have ( I don't NEED another purse) and little hidden surprises, like this hand painted column,  everywhere.