Ducks and Goslings: New Arrivals...

Vernonia Lake has some new arrivals for all who walk, bike and jog around the lake to see. There's a Mallard duck couple with 7 ducklings. They were eating the cracked corn someone put down for them a few mornings ago. There are also 5 goslings with their proud parents, being watched over, and learning the ropes of a new world, post-egg.

This morning I read about the Gulf of Mexico oil gusher, damaging countless animals and wildlife, bats dying with some kind of white nose (fungal) problem, and honeybees that keep disappearing. We are the stewards of our environment. What we don't watch over, will surely impact us for years, and may lead to our civilization's demise. Monsanto for instance, has ensured population control with their GMO foods, and the control of much of the seed bank. Check out this link to learn ten things you  may not know about MONSANTO .

When we look on store shelves, and find processed products made of corn and soy, we are looking at 90% GMO products. Check out Dr. Mercola's ARTICLE ON GMO CONSEQUENCES.
You will want to know this information.
I bought the bumper sticker once that said: If you think education is expensive, try ignorance. I saw it in my things the other day...

Summer Lake Commentary. Recipes.

Instead of my weekly blog, I'm averaging once a month. This summer is very full of 'to do's'. I bottled some pie cherries with one of my sweet daughters who loves my cherry pie. I'll post a pic. I'm also posting the picture of my raised bed gardens and pea trellis that overlook the lake.

The lake looks kind of sad and green. It needs a major overhaul, with a water inlet and outlet and a draining and dredging. The logs left in have natural turpentine I heard, which doesn't make for a healthy environment. The leaking into the Nehalem also needs to be fixed at some point, in my opinion. The cattails have come back from the heavy winter snows, though we lost chunks of them when the city cleaned them out one year in preparation for the KUPL Fishing Derby, during red-winged blackbird nesting season. In the heat, less people use the trail, but in the evenings and early mornings, the die-hards and committed, still exercise.

I have noticed spraying of herbicide near the lake, even during nesting season, and with the rains we got, I can guess what went into the water. It also concerns me that people fish there, and many probably eat them. The locals have debated on whether or not the planted fish have time to absorb the particular impurities. I've heard fishermen comment about a bad taste. The water is too warm, say some experienced fishermen, and if people are not supposed to swim, where is the sign to say why not? I wrote a newspaper letter to the Independent last year or so, about better lake management. I would like the Parks Dept. or some such tax-supported agency to test the water, and post the results, for user information.

It seems we had a bumper crop of red-winged blackbirds. They have been coming to my bird feeders, along with scrub jays, sparrows, gold finches, etc. I put out fresh water in the bird bath each day, and love to watch busy parents drinking and splashing. A woodpecker has been visiting my poor old plum trees, seeking insects, I suppose. Deer are visiting my yard, and have been stripping the cherry tree leaves and nibbling on blueberry bushes. Today I'm covering some of the trees with netting. I've heard a debate on how high a fence would have to be to keep the jumpers out. The velvet-horned buck was really beautiful, and the two babies were cute, but gardens are a lot of work to supply nature, when they have fields to eat from.

Here are a couple of recipes, and a link to recipes for using greens from your gardens. I planted spinach, red chard, kale and spinach mustard, which did really well. I made some greens tacos this week that were fantastic! I've also created a new pie that I call my 4th of July Jubilee Pie. Some say it's the best pie they have ever....eaten. I enjoy cooking and eating!

http://www.mariquita.com/recipes/cookinggreens.html

Here's a Guacamole recipe:
Mash 2 ripe avocados. Add 1/4 c. finely chopped onions, 1 T. diced tomato, 2T. snipped cilantro, 2t. jalapeno without seeds, 1/2 t. salt, 1T. lime juice. Serve w/ tortilla chips, or as a garnish for enchiladas, etc.

Fresh Salsa: I can't find my old recipe. This one is pretty well the same. I would change the peppers to less and seed them, and the lime juice to taste. I don't peel or seed my tomatoes, either. You can use Walla Walla sweet onions instead of the hot ones, if you want. I don't pour the boiling water over the garlic and onion, either. You can try it both ways. I think the lime juice cooks and marinates well enough.
A delicious salsa recipe made with fresh ingredients.
Ingredients:

3 tablespoons finely chopped onion
2 small cloves garlic, minced
3 large ripe tomatoes, peeled and seeds removed, chopped
2 hot chile peppers, Serrano or Jalapeno, finely chopped
2 to 3 tablespoons minced cilantro
1 1/2 to 2 tablespoons lime juice
salt and pepper
Preparation:

Put chopped onion and garlic in a strainer; pour 2 cups boiling water over them then let drain throughly. Discard water. Cool.
Combine onions and garlic with chopped tomatoes, peppers, cilantro, lime juice, salt, and pepper. Refrigerate for 2 to 4 hours to blend flavors.
Makes about 2 cups of salsa.

River Otters, Tabouleh and Easter Cooking

A river otter swam with a piece of dried grass in its mouth the other day. It seems they are busy building homes for their young. I caught a picture of one of them, and will post it here.

The cattails were cut down in big swaths a couple of years ago, and with the heavy snows of winter this year, and more filling of the lake, there are not many areas for the nesting of blackbirds. Hopefully as the cattails come up from beneath the lake in green shoots, along with lily pads, etc., there will be a more welcome habitat for nesting in a few weeks. There was a skiff of snow and ice here last night, so spring is still in process.

Someone I know needs to drink water and tea and a protein drink before taking a walk. Business has come before self care again, which is a habit waiting to be broken. I have a fridge full of good leftovers from the Easter weekend. Ham was 99 cents a pound for a Cooks brand butt portion that will add that rich flavor to beans and soups and scrambled eggs in the future. I made a new salad which I will share below. It's from a book on balancing pH, with some changes of my own.

I'll have to also add the Applesauce Oatmeal Cranberry Walnut Muffins were very good, but being out of applesauce, I pureed some canned pears and these really turned out to be delicious. They are sweeter and lighter than the applesauce version. Eating one muffin is like eating 1/2 a bowl of oatmeal. I once left out the 1/2 c. of brown sugar in the recipe, and they were still fine. I like these with butter and real unadulterated blackberry honey. See recipe on my other blog at: www.leangreencafe.blogspot.com

I'll share the greenbean/tomato/garlic/olive salad I love so much, soon.

My blogs will be like me: an eclectic and genuine mixture of the full menu of life.

Tabouleh
2 c. cooked quinoa (Can use couscous if you'd like. Quinoa was great, also. I cooked 1 c. of this grain in 2 c. of boiling water, reduced to lowest heat and covered, for 20 min., like cooking rice.
Use 2 c. of this cooked grain. Cool a bit after cooking
Add: 1 c. chopped tomatoes or halved cherry tomatoes
1 bunch finely chopped parsley
Chopped chives or green onions to your liking for color and flavor
1 can of olives-size of can depends on how much you love them, sliced or whole
1/2 tsp. sea salt
Juice of 1 lime (recipe called for juice of 3 lemons. Too much acidity for me, though lemons turn alkalaine in the body, so they're good to add to the water you drink.)
2 T. extra virgin olive oil
Sprinkle with Cayenne Pepper.
Refrigerate and enjoy! Some recipes use bulgar wheat and mint leaves, w/ dried parsley. *Experiment with wholesome foods that steer away from bleached flour products, white rice and potatoes for lower acid and blood sugar spiking.

Offerings of Vernonia Lake

Today I walked around the path at Vernonia Lake, met one of the past City Council members walking her sweet old Airedale, and walked around with her, a second time. We both commented how different the lake looks each time we come. There is always some new discovery, a different mood or color scheme. The weather and time of day and wildlife offer a new palette many times within the same day. There is something serene in a reflection of sky in water. The old mill cement remnants are caught in some of the photos. I'll try to get them all in with future blog entries.

A flock of slender-necked geese headed skyward from the lake, honking loudly. A little boy was fishing. Two couples sat near some picnic benches talking. One couple came on a Harley, though the air is still chilly, especially when the sun starts going down. The moon was up as I made the last lap, and the reflection in the water reminded me of the many night scenes. Sometimes the bald eagle pair fly with new young. Ospreys share the hunting ground with the eagle. Ducks swim nervously in a huddle when these birds of prey arrive.

Today the black Coots swam in their neighborhood, wild ducks noisily negotiated in another while the larger domestic ducks swam off when I approached the grassy banks, sending familiar ripples outward. I took several pictures, and will include some of them.

Red-winged Blackbirds and Sunny Weather...

Cattails Filling a 3-Yard Tipper During Nesting Season at Vernonia Lake...

So, a walk around Vernonia on a Sunday afternoon with sun that was actually warm, revealed people cleaning up their yards from the winter storms. I shared the trail around the lake with a new friend. A fragile ice coat on the lake cracked and shimmered under the rays. Moles are pushing up dirt all over the grass by the lake. A river otter was so busy moving about a few days ago, I wonder if he even noticed me.

The male red-winged blackbirds are beginning to stake out their territory, preparing for the return of the females. Hopefully the lake will be filled prior to the nesting season, (as it leaks into the Nehalem), so the nests with eggs and young will be safe from drowning. KUPL sponsors a fishing derby each year, and unfortunately, lake filling prior to that event has caused casualties among the nesting blackbirds in past years. The bullrushes and habitat were chopped down in many places during the nesting season also, to make room for fishing fathers and family. When I saw the destruction, I called the Mayor, as it is against Federal Law to violate songbirds' habitat or young.

Mother blackbirds panicked with rising waters, as the lake filled that year, and the previous one. Two park hosts told me in these two separate years that the nesting season was over, when online searches verified otherwise, and blackbirds flew at lake trail-walkers to protect their young. (These birds raise more than one batch of young.) The mayor never called me back. I finally called a string of Wildlife agencies, until one promised to send Vernonia a warning. I was gone last summer, but I will send a copy of this blog to KUPL and hope that they will schedule their Fishing Derby before or after nesting season so as not to disturb the 'nursery'. The mother red-wing blackbirds took a back seat in consideration a city worker explained to me, as they had been busy with construction, etc. The day before I wrote the following poem after a walk at the lake, where I viewed the wildlife from a park bench.

Life in Vernonia…….by Pamela Cohen 5-16-07
Blackbird, Blackbird brown and plain,
Clutching on the bulrush cane.
Sleek and black, and very able
Your mate lands on the picnic table.
Warbling, flashing orange red
Lifting wings and bobbing head
What a saucy pair you make
Residents of Vernonia Lake
Eagle, osprey, darting bat
Northwest forest habitat,
River otters swimming, too
Sharing fish with that canoe
Floating, floating on the waves
Wind and sparkling sun behave
To paint a picture like a Kinkaid print
Waiting for that moonlight hint
Black bird, black bird some domain!
A kingdom viewed from your bulrush cane.
And for the moment, life is good
In Vernonia, ‘the little town that could.’

(Did you know that in some areas, the cattail or bulrush is grown to purify the water? Used for weaving. Bullrush or bulrush or cattail. A papyrus plant.)

Vernonia Treasures

Small towns have a tighter weave of history with a person's business floating around at a faster pace perhaps, but like the normal family in America, or so it seems, assumptions are rampant among the island-building humans, pretending to know each other, in brief encounters. Sometimes the toaster gets more touch in our homes, the media or electronics our committed and precious time.The very reasons small places are chosen bring individualistic curtain calls on privacy, yet no matter how disillusioned, bitter, sordid or soiled our outlook, I believe mankind has an innate yearning to be known and understood, appreciated and cared for, or at least to be acknowledged for our existence in some way. Oh that a neon sign would blink that we have passed this way, contributed to make the world better than when we found it, or left a footprint of caring or kindness despite the valley or desert.

To think that my creative late night self came out, when all I wanted to do was to share the poem I spoke of in the last blog, and comment on one of Vernonia's Treasures. There is an 80+ yr. old retired logger, still in shape, still ruggedly handsome who connects to people everywhere with a smile or a pat on the back, a chocolate cream pie he has made or a wonderful shared dinner. He speaks of his late wife with love and respect, of his perfect love affair for 50 years, how they never quarreled, and he never stepped out on her. She has been gone almost ten years, and when he hears the music and verse of "You were the wind beneath my wings" and he is alone, he cannot help but tear up. Some have said with irritation or jealousy that he is a skirt chaser, (happily, they have their own reputation :-} )or he is a Cock of the Walk, and he can take a different woman to dinner every day of the week, but this confident, white-haired Rooster is nothing short of a treasure. I have had to remind him to behave if he's been drinking, but there is a beauty in the respectful restraint of profound loneliness.

This gentleman just lost his son, and though his impeccably clean and pressed white shirt may allude to assumed roles and settings in this stage called life, beneath his hardy chiseled chest and despite his strong work-veined arms a heart beats moistened by tears. The journey taken in this "Pocket in the Woods" is complete with all the templates: difficult and tentative, courageous, bawdy and friendly.

I must say the pork with fresh onions and celery over a bowl of noodles in broth was very good tonight, and he steamed his broccoli and cauliflower and tossed it with a little diced bacon. For a wonderful flavor, he suggested I sprinkle rice vinegar over it. I couldn't get enough.

On 5-23-91 I wrote the following poem called Homecoming. I lived in Spokane, Washington in first and second grade where sun-spread smells of pine needles during the walk home from school will be savored in my long term memory some day like a guilty pleasure wrapped in a silver box with a red bow...if I make it to the rest home.

Homecoming
Back to the fir trees I walk again
As that little girl did many years ago.
Warm washing rain, soft moss and ferns
Heal and soothe my weary soul.

Peace from turmoil-rest with us
Curtain out the madding crowd,
Tread dark and musty forest floor,
Feel sun and shade and look about.

You'll see a peaceful harmoney
Of bark and needles green and dead,
New life and old-reminding that
Your world will change. Time moves ahead.

A woman now, with traveled feet
Finds her way back, and in respect
Remembers the young one years ago
Looking for solace-on her forest trek.

Saturday Morning in Vernonia

This morning I woke up with renewed determination that I was getting outside to walk around the lake fairly early. I thought I would write a quick blog for my www.leangreencafe.blogspot.com site while the bath water ran. When in the photo sharing mood, I tried to add the picture in this blog for my title page. The two colors at the top of the photo gave me trouble in choosing a color for the title and blog description. After saving the colors and re-editing many times, I finally chose the mother Merganser duck with her ducklings for the title page, and am sharing my first choice in this blog. Now that it's eleven o'clock, and I am really hungry for breakfast, I am reminded of my nagging realization that to even open my laptop is counterproductive in getting my exercise in. It is too tempting for me to write or work, or to correspond with family or friiends. I think because I am single, and live in a small town, my need for social life tends to prioritize itself. I can't tell you what a struggle it is to discipline myself against the rationalization of 'I'll just see what is going on in my email and my blogs."

The snow has mainly melted, which after the 2 feet with freezing rain within the layers, is a huge relief. The town of Vernonia and surrounding areas of Birkenfeld and Mist readied themselves for flooding with the warmer temps, melting snow and all the rain received. We have avoided more flooding for the most part, though the pastures and puddles seen from Highway 47 going towards the Scappoose/St. Helens turnoff are reminders how angry the chocolate waters of the Nehalem River can be. Poor Washington already had huge amounts of snowfall, and the rain clouds shifted North to cause flooding and mudslides there. I noticed a very large Rhododendron in my neighbor's yard that became uprooted and fell over with all the saturated ground after the weight of the snow. There is ample cleanup to do after this winter spell.

The lake froze over except for a small middle place where the ducks seemed to congregate, while remaining wary of the hunting bald eagles. It struck me that many unemployed Americans probably feel like this scene, in that life is getting more difficult and fraught with economic edges closing in. (A neighbor of mine said only I could see the political irony in a picture like that.) I saw this scene amid giant snowflakes when I walked around the lake one morning a couple of weeks ago. I laughed aloud, it was so beautiful. I was also reminded of the forest treks I made as a youngster in the Spokane, Washington woods, alone and immersed in the beauty of Nature. I am amazed at how much time I spent alone as a child, being the second of ten children, but life at home was not pleasant. I'll include a poem I wrote about those forest treks very soon. For now, it's about jumping in the tub to warm my bones, drinking an energizing cocoa protein/rice milk drink I shake up in a pint jar, taking my Vivix tonic and walking around the lake.
Best to you,
Pamela

Lady of the Lake. Vernonia Lake

The purpose of moving to Vernonia, Oregon in 2004 was to invest in a property that would offer more retirement income, or stay in a house that was paid for, and to write a book, as I looked over the lake. My 7 children were raised and had flown the nest, some sailing along, others screeching and flailing. My father was no longer living with me as my cancer surgery necessitated caring for myself. My burned out self.... My father was hospice stage, sick and tired of being sick and tired he said, and I readied myself to lose my best friend. My long distance relationship of 4 years was over. Since I raised my children as a single parent after my 1985 divorce, and because of circumstances that made it impossible to ever know what a normal family life would have been like, my 'empty nest' experience was profound.
Having fought endocervical cancer for 8-10 years, I was given no prognosis, and I spent the first year wondering if I would live. The second was spent wondering if I wanted to, or should. I prefer honesty, and that is what you will get here. I reconnected to Shaklee food supplements, fresh fruit and vegetable juicing, and walking and biking around Vernonia lake. I have slowly been recreating myself, though I encounter the lifelong challenges that never seem to leave me.
My book is being written, though too slow for my personal approval, and is called 'When Love is Not Enough'. It will be interspersed with my favorite family recipes, photos and poetry I wrote along the way. The sadness and truth spoken about family, and the human family remind me of the raw accounts in The Painted Bird by Jerzy Kosinski.
I have reporting to do about elder abuse and violations of civil rights that have become common place in America, healing from sexual abuse and the destruction of families and dreams, forgiveness, rebuilding and remodeling my life and this small house. Along the way I've taken a Master Gardener's course, have provided room and board and explored new recipes and healthier ways to cook.
I worked as a Graduate Research Assistant when earning my Masters in Social Work, or MSW, and have researched and joined with a favorite company of mine to help people reduce their toxic load by using green cleaners, air and water purifiers and utilize food supplements for optimal health. I have collected methods and accounts for fighting various cancers, and am an encyclopedia about nutritional treatment for many ailments like Candida, arthritis, chronic fatigue, diabetes, high blood pressure, prostate issues, joint pain, etc. I love hearing success stories like the young 16 yr. old boy who no longer has any signs of autism with the nutrients and detoxing his mother used, not giving up until she found the right products.
I will share more on the Vernonia Lake to create snapshots of ecological issues and realities, along with photos on this blog. Check out my www.leangreencafe.blogspot.com blog for recipes, and health questions and discussions.
Warm regards, Pamela