Glendi - Greek for celebration

today we went to a Greek festival at the St. John Orthodox Greek Church in Beaverton and took the grandkids.  ate some authentic Greek food, watched the dancing, took a tour of the church and listened to the choir do a short concert (beautiful!), kids spent an hour watching the "reptileman" do his show... and loved it so much that Zylie wanted to go back to his next show.

kids had a baklava sundae... ice cream, crumbled baklava over it, then whipped cream, drizzled carmel and topped with a cherry.  didn't take them long to finish that off!

these were kids from Agia Sophia school who gave a dance demonstration... very good.

and Zylie got her face painted!





it was a good day and i enjoyed it.  gotta say that i sure don't have the energy, stamina and patience that i used to have.

no words needed.....

(from MSNBC photo blog)

things i KNOW

i know i will never ever ever ever plant lemon balm again.  it is evil and is trying to take over my queendom... not only does it multiply itself with strong, deep, far-reaching runners, it also seems to re-seed itself in far corners of the farm.  same with oregano, which is a wonderful seasoning for many dishes, but it is also out to take over the world.

i now know that the yellow sap/juice/liquid in the stems of poppies is a washfast and seemingly permanent dye.  it started out as a yellowish spot on my favorite lime BSG teeshirt, has turned a brownish rust color and shows no signs of leaving even after serious pre-wash treatment and several washes.  it's also showing up on other clothes i wear in the garden... mostly old stuff that i don't care about.

and another thing - deer do like geranium and pansy blossoms, after they've finished off those beautiful fuchsia blooms.  i've noticed they only eat the flowers, probably leaving the stems and leaves so that there will be more of their favorite flowers for their browsing pleasure!  the eau de rotten egg potion hasn't turned out as i expected...  it smells overwhelmingly garlicky with very little rotten egg.  i'm wondering if i ruined it by  adding the last of a carton of fake eggs that was in the refrig.  i'm thinking that the preservatives in the fake eggs may have stopped the natural rotting of eggs left out in the sun and heat.  one thing for sure... no more of those preservative-filled fake eggs are going in my refrig.  i only ever used them because of Jim's low fat/low cholesterol diet, but i'm going back to farm fresh eggs from neighbors or the farmer's market! (the recipe for the eau de rotten egg as a deer repellent is in a previous post)

and i know it's late and i'm going to bed!

summer?? HA!

lifted from OPB on Facebook

Oregon Public Broadcasting- OPB
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last weekend

Skein - just waiting for pets and skritches

 and the perfect finish to Linda's and my adventure last weekend was spending Saturday evening and overnight with friends in Sisters... Jane and her mom, Blanche... and of course, Skein the Aussie as the welcomer, entertainer and all-around wannabe lap dog!  Jane prepared a fabulous meal, and i of course took photos of the main dish, the dessert and the wine.  (i wonder if it's weird that i love taking pictures of food??!)  We spent hours telling our stories, laughing a lot, drinking wine, playing with Skein, getting fluffy bunny love from Jane's angora rabbits... and having a wonderful evening.  i'm sorry i didn't take pics of breakfast the next morning... fresh fruit, yogurt, and brioche that Blanche had made.

this beautiful dish is Chicken Marbella and was absolutely as delicious as it looks!

plum crisp (looks like rhubarb and thankfully NOT)

perfect combo!  we found this excellent Moscato from the Greek island of Samos while we were in SunRiver and had to get it.... because i LOVE moscato wine and Linda and i were in Samos last spring.  perfect reason and perfect wine?? yup, you betcha!

Skein knows he was born to be a lap dog and Linda cooperated and enabled him!

produce from the garden??

guess i'll need to rethink that one and dig out the green tomato recipes.  it's raining and 60s, and the forecast looks like nothing but wet  and no warmer than mostly low 70s for the next 7 days... with possibility of partly sunny next weekend.  and the deer will prob. eat all my flowers cause the foul-smelling formula will be washed off.  gloom...   guess i'll go back to bed and look at the sunny, warm pics from Sunriver and Sisters last weekend.  then take a nap.  naps are good.  i love naps.

and in other news... Meika went for grooming and intensive brushing and came back about 20 pounds lighter and with a very uppity attitude!  Tasha had missed her mightily and cried for the 3 hrs. Meika was gone.... and Meika would have nothing to do with her when she came home!!  don't know if her attitude was uppity because she looked spiffy and smelled all girly... or she was pissed because Tasha got to stay home while she went to be tortured.  whatever... she does look and smell beautiful!

Sisters, OR quilt show

this was my favorite quilt!

i wish i could have seen all the quilts, but after 4 hours we gave in to the fatigue and heat and went to our friend, Jane's for the evening and overnight.

quilt show - Sisters, OR

for this yearly one-day outdoor huge quilt show, the main streets of Sisters are closed and quilts are displayed on buildings, in buildings, in big tents, in the park.... and this town of ~2500 is transformed by thousands of people wandering around examining these works of art.  it must be a gigantic undertaking to stage this event and there were lots of people there to appreciate it all.  while i do know that it takes a lot of work to make a traditional quilt and i can appreciate their beauty, i much prefer the more original approach.... and really love the ones with applique and embellishments, so of course those are the ones i took photos of!!

this quilt was really inspiring to me.   the fabric was hand dyed, then cut in half vertically... one half used for the base fabric, the other used to cut the leaves from.  it was really a work of art!

i loved this one because of the appliqued butterflies... sweet!!  and the subtle earthy colors.

road trip

   

Linda and i took a road trip/adventure to central Oregon last week.  stayed thursday and friday nights at Sunriver, south of Bend, where we used our time-share and had a great studio apt. with an actual "murphy bed".  the place was lots roomier than i'd thought it would be.  was right next to the golf course... which would have been really great if we were golfers.  the weather was fantastic.. sunny and warm.  we rode bikes, walked, set up spinning wheels on the porch and watched golfers.  in other words, we had a slow and relaxing time!  i hadn't ridden a bike for probably 20 years.  when i told that to the guy checking out the bikes, he told me not to say that out loud... there'd been 3 or 4 recent crashes by people who'd said that... and injuries that involved hospitals.  must admit i was a bit wobbly at first, but did ok.


Saturday morning we went to Sisters for the annual outdoor quilt show.  when we were about 5 miles away the traffic slowed to a crawl... lots of people going to the quilt show and many trying to get past  Sisters on their way to portland and other places to the west.  the thru traffic was detoured thru the side streets, as the main street was closed for the day to accommodate the quilt show.

Santiam Pass, OR

very dramatic scenery yesterday driving across Santiam Pass from Sisters, thru a former wildfire burn area.  sky was brilliant cloudless blue with the silvered remains of burned out trees  silhouetted against the blue.
(taken from a moving car with my old olympus digital camera)