utopia

i wasn't going to go all hard-sell on you guys. i figured i'd throw some pretty beach pictures in an entry from the middle of march, and sprinkle some fun portland facts in here and there, and let y'all figure out for yourselves how perfectly great this place is, because -- as k earnestly told me whilst coming in the front door after walking home from work on friday -- "dude! we moved to utopia!" he was excited about the nice weather and nascent sunset just starting to light up the west hills and reflect off the waters of the river. i was excited about the trees and gardens bursting into bloom everywhere, and the fact that cari had just dropped off a fresh-from-the-oven challah. [sidebar: lisa, you need to come visit and stalk cari for her recipe. this challah kicked the crap out of the very best squishy challahs challot we scrounged out of UFM for shabbat dinners in college.]

on saturday, we took advantage of an incredibly warm sunny day and got the garden beds mostly in. to keep marauding cats out of the vegetable bed, we're going to lay chicken wire over the soil, and we put in a conestoga wagon-style dome of mesh over top. tres oregon trail, no?

we also put in a rectangular bed to house the asparagus patch. this was my job, until i was ousted by the boy for failing to install garden pavers with the precision required by the task. take a close look at the picture there -- by his left hand, on the brick -- do you see the level? clearly that boy missed his calling as an engineer. he puts my type-A virgo perfectionism to shame. because there is no chance i would have broken out the level for one of those pavers, much less all thirty-odd stones. that said, the finished garden bed looks beautiful, and much sturdier than the version i was installing.

all of the neighbors seemed to be outside playing on saturday, including the neighborhood chickens.

i found these ladies going for a stroll along the sidewalk.

sunday brought with it a cold rain, which ultimately killed our plans to go hiking in the columbia river gorge. instead, we took a pretty drive up the gorge, hoping that the rain would break, and, when it didn't, came home to pick up the fixins for an easter feast. we didn't manage to do the damage we inflicted last easter when, aided by thirty or so of our favorite people, we laid waste to a smorgasboard of food and a couple of cases of wine, but we did well by ourselves nonetheless. local lamb with a dijon mustard crust, mashed potatoes, field greens and strawberry salad, lacinato kale sauteed with shallots and balsamic vinegar, and a strawberry rhubarb crumble to make sure that we stuffed ourselves silly. it was delish.

happy spring, all!
xo - h.

Comments

[nipper jenn]

neighborhood. chickens.

I don't think we're in Kansas anymore, Toto.

[cari]

The strawberry rhubarb crumble is pretty wonderful. A nice welcome back to the world of solid foods today. Thanks, lady! (Glad you liked the challah)

[Sara]

Can not believe it took forever to find you ! I linked through Cari -- and saw H&K, and a mention of a dog.

Love the roaming chickens ! Good luck on the neighborly gardens :)

[juno]

grump. I mean, blah, blah, paradise, blah, blah, garden, blah, blah beach. grump.