Hungry Times Two

If you've kept up with us over the years (thanks Moms, for reading) you'll know we moved from Charlotte, North Carolina to Gresham, Oregon in April 2018.  Therefore, deciding to move back to North Carolina this summer definitely raised some eyebrows.  What can I say? When you know, you know. That female intuition is some powerful stuff.  It was harder for Scott to leave the Pacific Northwest. Have you seen that man around tall evergreen trees and all the IPAs one can drink? Yet my insistence that one more winter in dreary, dark rain would end me, coupled with the high cost of living and the diminished shine of his PNW college days, were the reality checks to help make this giant U-turn of life. This was no '90s free-wheeling Oregon. 2019 was all too real.  To quote Marc Maron , we don't know how much time we have left. Rather than harp on what Oregon didn't provide, I'd rather think about what our return to Asheville, North Carolina can. I'm ...

I read A LOT .. so I can't remember now where I first saw this.  Oh yeah, it was on a planning listserv that I follow.  I recall reading a Linus Pauling quote noting, "The best way to get a good idea is to get lots of ideas."  I'm a community gardener and think this is a great idea - for the elderly (or "HonoredCitizens" as Tri-Met aptly notes) and anyone looking to meet new people. Grey fingers: Ageing Singapore uses gardening to fight loneliness http://www.thisisplace.org/i/?id=57e0917e-7682-4585-a77e-78b47072a724 The article has a great video in it as well, and if you're not familiar with the Queen's English (Singapore was part of the British Empire), an "allotment" is simply a garden plot and a "scheme" is simply a program - think of "schematic" (i.e. diagram) rather than "scheming" (up to no good). Simply put, community gardening combats loneliness, depression, and dementia, all of which can...

My preciouses Can you tell what I've been up to in my first summer in Oregon? It turns out if you put 12+ tomato plants in your garden, you best be ready for the tomatoes. Despite a historically hot and dry Summer 2018 here in Multnomah County, our Early Girls, Oregon Springs and San Marzanos thrived. Being "job free" this summer had its perks. After breakfast and feeling fully caffeinated, every other morning I'd take my best garden assistant, Loretta the pup, for a walk to the community garden at Gresham City Hall. I'd tether her to a garden stake under a tree and give her a bucket of water, and she'd turn full Goat, nibbling at the weeds along the border of the nearby garden plots. While Loretta grazed and supervised as my personal Garden Security Guard, I'd water every plant twice, filling up the "dirt collars" Scott built around each plant, which served as nice trenches for water. Then I'd pick off the ripe or nearly ripe...

I think I found my happy place. A spot with miles of green cow pastures, cool coastal winds, tasty seafood, and spectacular hikes along the shoreline. And CHEESE. Man, there's a lot of dairy goodness there. I'd been to Tillamook County once before, but a longer return visit this month - a spur of the moment weekend trip (aren't those the best kind?) - secured the place as one of my top getaways ever. Named after the native tribe who occupied the areas around the Tillamook and Nehalem Bays, Tillamook County's tagline on its website,  " The land of Cheese, Trees and Ocean Breeze ," s ays it all. Located 70 miles west of Portland in northwest Oregon, its 75 miles of coastline, four bays, nine rivers, verdant valleys and Coast Range mountain spurs make for gorgeous views. Plenty of rain during most of the year results in the greenest of grass, which turns out to be tasty eating for all the cows in Tillamook County. Outnumbering the locals, the cows are th...

One of the trickiest but also most rewarding things about moving to a new place is adapting to the food scene and culture. A common response Scott and I heard when we announced our Oregon move to friends and family was " OMG. The beer. The wine. The FOOD. " While we're very excited to try out many of the notable restaurants, plentiful food carts/pods, and the crazy explosion of breweries and wineries, I'm most thrilled about having access to the fresh local produce and seafood of Oregon. Not only do I enjoy home cooking but let's face it -- it's often cheaper to make food than to dine out. Despite the sales tax-free shopping, Oregon food can be expensive, and with one of us (me) being on a brief "job break" at the moment, meal planning and sticking to grocery lists is an important budget focus.