So, the symposium was over a few weeks ago. I took a much needed trip to the Riverhouse and have slowly be getting my house and life back in order. I think the symposium was a hit this year. I’ll have more to talk about later. The new space had its problems but as someone put it “it seems more like a space the symposium should be in.” The last 10 years were on a campus of a university that may have given it a stuffy, institution feel. In hindsight, I’m pretty happy with the space and the people we worked with there. We had our post symposium wrap up meeting/reward dinner at Portobello, a fancy vegan restaurant, last night. It was good to talk about things.
We are already scheduling a meeting for next year on September 18th at the IPRC.
Other than that, Portland is starting to feel like autumn, even thought it is pretty warm this week. I haven’t spent enough time in my yard but I did take some photos:
Despite Paul taunting the artichokes with how he is going to eat them, a few of them managed to go to thistle.
We have a small bit of invasive blackberries at the back corner of the yard. We didn't trim it back enough this year so we should have a good harvest. We usually get enought for a black berry pie made with my great-grandmother's crust recipe. This was the first bowl full and I just clean them and throw them into the freezer until there is enough for pie. maybe I'll make jam this year?
We used to have a lot more calendula in the yard. I have planted other things and now they are disappearing. I'll have to fix that.
Paul may have been taunting the artichokes about eating them, but I'm showering the hops with praise and a glimpse at their glorious future in my home brewed beer!
fairy wand peeking through my front fence. I think I'm finally going to transplate some daiy lillies there. They are miserable under the cedar tree, even though they get a lot of sunlight.
veg garden from the porch. It only gets afternoon sun.
Veg garden from another corner
Trailing pumpkin that only has one pumpkin growing.
Sunflowers in the veg garden!
Sunflowers on the porch.
OJ hanging out under the pation table and next to the hops.
He is a silly kitten.
I had some food pictures I was gonna post but I’ll post those tomorrow. I made saffron rice and baked it with herbed squash and tomatoes over it. It was super yummy. I also gathered up my squash flowers and, after giz got all the ants out, stuffed them with cashew cheeze and lightly friend them with a sort of fresh herb tempura batter. They were really good!
Alex Wrekk 