Sunday, March 29, 2009

tea tour 2009 & gay bingo

I had such a great Seattle day yesterday. My friend Ash invited a handful of folks on a tea tour. Seattle has lots of tea places and I've been back in to tea quite a bit lately, so I signed right up. The schedule:

1st stop: Ash's house for bisquits & gravy and/or strawberries
2nd: the Panama Hotel Tea House at 6th & Main in the International District - an incredible place. We started with the lychee black tea - I wasn't sure I'd be in to either - but it was delicious. And the place has some amazing history. I would have been fine staying there for the day, but we had to move on - lots of tea out there to taste!
3rd: World Spice Merchants on Western by the Pike Place Market. This was more a spice joint, but on the lower level they had the bulk teas out - I don't think they normally have people come in for tea, but a guy there made us a pot of white tea (I think), was very nice, and gave us GIANT mugs to drink out of. We hung out there on some old stinky couches and debated whether or not all green tea comes from one plant (turns out, it does - along with oolong, black, white, and pu-erh, which I found out about at a later stop). All in all it was a nice stop (although I did get a semi-dirty cup that I had a hard time getting over. It's obvious they generally brew tea only for themselves and not for customers) - some folks bought spices (which looked amazing and I'll go back for), then we headed into the market.
4th: Vital Leaf Tea - this was an amazing place I've passed SO many times in the south end of the market but never realized what a gem it was. We sat down at a long, low bar and the bartender (teatender?) immediately began serving us various teas in thimble-sized tea cups (quite a switch from the stop before). I couldn't begin to name them, but we drank another lychee tea (a little sweeter this time), many many black teas, and herbal teas. I have no idea the number of thimbles I drank, but it was an incredible experience that I'd recommend to anyone who likes teas. I left with a new teapot (with a cool plunger design), the knowledge that you need to rinse black teas and only steep some of them for a second or so, and an ounce of lychee tea.
5th: Remedy Teas - the pièce de résistance. I had heard about this place in Capitol Hill - it's even better than what I expected from all of the hype. We started out with a white tea, then had a matcha shot (the tea version of the wheat grass shot). But that's just part of it. The wall behind the counter lists at least 140 types of teas you can order in bulk. The menu is ginormous and intimidating, but I am determined to conquer it. I ordered 2 green teas and 2 rooibos (which I learned I had been pronouncing wrong - it's 'roy-bos'). The absolute beauty of this place, besides the scrumptious tea, is the labels. After the crash course in teas all day I was definitely concerned that I would not know what to do with the tea. How long do I steep? How many times can I use the leaves? And then the final kicker, What temperature water do I need to use? Well Remedy Teas is brilliant and put all of that info on the package for you. I happily walked out of there with my teas and instructions.

Next we all went to the Elysian for dinner. I was so hopped up on tea that I was in dire need for food. We had a not-so-great waitress but the food did not disappoint, as usual. I opted out of drinking beer (which is a hard thing to do at the Elysian) because C and I were heading to Gay Bingo to table for Camp Ten Trees. I ran Gay Bingo from 2002-2004 so it's always fun to go see how much it's changed, the vibe, etc. It's changed a lot, and it's no longer how I would ever run it, but it does well, everyone has a blast, and it raises money for a great cause. The funny part is the host was Geisha Star, the very drag queen that used to live directly across from me in Capitol Hill. We both lived on the third floor of mid-century buildings and both had windows down the full length of the apartments. Neither of us ever closed our blinds, and I'd see her getting ready, putting on makeup for shows, and rehearsing numbers with her backup dancers in her living room. I loved it, and I'm sure she knew many of us across the street could see her dancing. It was great press. This was the first time I had actually seen her perform outside of her apartment, and she did not disappoint!

So ends the incredible Saturday adventures of this Seattle girl. I can't wait for the reunion tour.

Thursday, March 26, 2009

kitchenette treasure



I LOVE THIS. There is an antique store by my apartment (Antika) that has an entire room of Kitchenettes and other vintage kitchen treasures. As someone who has always lived in small places with small kitchens, looking at all this compartmentalized storage gets me giddy.

The one in the picture isn't actually the one I would purchase, if I had the money to purchase one. Others in the store have tons more little drawers with labels for sugar, spices, and so many other things. So fun!

Saturday, March 21, 2009

old seeds in coffee filters



I hate the idea of throwing away old seeds, but I also dread planting rows of hopeful vegetables just to find that none of them are going to grow.

My earlier project inspired me to find more seeds to plant, but most if not all of my vegetable seeds are several years old. I don't want to waste anytime in our p-patch, and I don't want to use my limited amount of small growing pots. In a moment of recycling genius (not mine - I read about it here), I remembered we have coffee filters for a machine we no longer own, and plenty of ziplocks.

Each bean (I had six different packets) has it's own filter/baggie, then I taped the packet to each and set them up on top of the fridge. Hopefully we'll get some (and not hundreds) of bean plants. Stay tuned!



We should garden like our life depends on it. Because it does.


Sunday 3/22 update: the filters had seemed to dry out this morning, so we opened up the ziplocks to check. They were still a tiny bit damp, but clearly the beans soaked up a lot of the water. Meaning, the beans are probably still living organisms, meaning we may end up with a TON of bean plants. We sprayed a little more water in each and put them back on top of the fridge.

Thursday 3/26 update: I opened up one of the bean bags and it smelled AWFUL. So, I got rid of that one. The peas aren't doing anything and there may be potential for one on the bean bags to do alright. I am no longer feeling like a genius. At least not for this endeavor.

May update: the beans molded and the basil got aphids. So much for that project!

tiny basils and thyme



Earlier I was transplanting some tiny basils and thyme - I've never been able to get them past the leggy baby stage, so this is always a bit of a trying experience. They seem so fragile and unlikely to reroot. I try every year anyway, never changing my methods but hoping that maybe this year is going to be the one.

For the first time I'm utilizing a grow light, of sorts. I found a tray and put them up on the mantel right next to a arm-hinged lamp - it currently only has a full-spectrum light in it but I'm wondering if that'll work...

Then I planted some old cilantro seeds directly into a chipped glass I was wondering what to do with - I want to see for once how much water is actually getting down to through the soil. Plus it'll be fun to watch the roots grow a little bit.

As I was doing all of this it struck me what a delicate job it is to transplant such a vulnerable plant. I loved every minute of it and fell for each of those plants - I'm really going to be disappointed if they don't grow. I am starting new seeds this afternoon though, so I'll have more opportunities to try...

Later: Just added to the mantel (not pictured) - tiny thyme and parsley seeds.

Monday, March 16, 2009

procrastination station


I got to work this morning and there was an article about a local artist who makes her own clothes (and has a clothesline) out of recycled clothing, which is something I started playing around with a few months ago. That was only the beginning. That led me to etsy.com, where I can get lost for days. I love my job - I do, but my focus lately has so much been on creating clothes, gardening and other crafty things. I wish it was possible for me to spend my days creating things, both indoors and outdoors, then blogging about the resources I find along the way. Wait - don't people do this?

Saturday, March 14, 2009

bike rides and seed bombs


Last night C and I had dinner with two friends we've known forever but never see - we haven't been social much this winter and it was such a nice night. Good food, good friends and conversation - and we got to see their new house, which is this charming 1920s boxcar-like house in West Seattle, which is an area I keep finding myself in lately - I'm definitely intrigued by the neighborhood...

So this morning we slept in then headed to a brunch for a local organization I just found out about called the Nature Consortium. Their mission is "to teach environmental lessons through the creative arts and hands-on conservation projects." They produce a youth art program, an urban forest restoration project and the Arts~in~Nature Festival, and I was so impressed! There was as amazing youth spoken word artist and the projects and classes they do are pretty incredible. It was inspiring.

When we got home we made lunch and started talking about our land. C had all these very specific ideas so we sat down and he drew out what he visualizes when he sees our land. I never knew he had such specific ideas - it was so fun to hear about. I started reading the how-to-layout-your-land section of the book, "Back to Basics," then we got distracted with thinking about our p-patch. We put air in our bike tires and rode the 11 or so blocks in the wind & rain. It felt truly amazing.

So the bikes were fun - and it was just warm enough today to be able to be outside in the garden (with long johns and rain coats, that is). We worked on removing the 6-12" of grass that's grown into the plot along the border, put down some organic fertilizer (on the half of the garden that was ready for it), and planted carrot seeds and pole beans. The seeds were a bit old, so we'll see what happens with that. And I'm pretty sure the soil is too cold. We'll see. Anyway I can't WAIT until the summer when we're able to harvest, although in the meantime it's already been really fun!

We came back just as it was getting dark (7:30!!), made dinner and are about to watch a movie. Not a bad day at all.

The title of this post includes seed bombs, which I did not participate in today. But I am currently scheming ways to use up my older seeds in neglected neighborhood plots, and have been trying to figure out a stealth way to remove the scotch broom tree on the corner house near the park. Stay tuned..