Our beautiful white birch tree in the backyard has to come down. A couple of years ago, an arborist told us that an insect, most likely a birch borer, was devastating every white birch tree in Seattle — including ours. We did our best to save it, but it wasn’t enough, so we arranged to have the tree taken down.
We’re sad, because the tree’s been a beautiful centerpiece of the yard for as long as we’ve owned our house. (It’s now much bigger — maybe twice as big? — as it was when we moved in.) It also provides wonderful shade for a hammock in the summer, and a privacy screen from the houses behind ours.
The tree removal was scheduled for today, but the snowfall has given the tree a two-day reprieve. We try to enjoy it while it’s still there.
Snow Day! While the girls’ schools are sometimes closed once a year or so, it’s often for icy conditions rather than real snow. Today’s the first time we’ve had a good snowfall in several years — five? Six, maybe?
The cats are fascinated by the snow, so Bree and Jan let them out into the backyard. Mojo’s freaked out by the cold and quickly retreats the house, but Moxie’s happy to stay outside for a while.
Later Bree, Jan, and Angela go sledding at the small hill by Madison Park Beach.
Happy Chinese New Year!
A while back, Jan and Bree enjoyed a Japanese anime about camping called “Laid-Back Camp”. Although camping was the show’s theme, the show spent a lot of time focusing on the food the campers prepared in camp or ate on their way. One dish that looked particularly appealing was deep-fried eggs.
Apparently there’s a hot spring resort called Hottarakashi in Yamanashi Prefecture that serves this dish. The campers in the anime stop by this hot spring in one episode, and end up trying the eggs.
The eggs look pretty good in the anime, so we’ve wanted to try making them for a while. We find some recipes on YouTube, and it’s not that complicated: a simple bound breading (flour, egg, panko) and then deep frying.
They’re fantastic. We make two for each of us, and they disappear instantly.
Jan’s been going for long training walks on Sunday mornings to stay in shape for hiking season. This morning he walks to Seward Park, through the park, then back. The crusty, icy snow makes the footing a little treacherous, but adds some magic to the urban walk.
There’s a video game called Splatoon that Bree likes — more for the concept than the actual gameplay. She likes the game’s characters enough that she recreates them in Lego. This involves a lot of trial and error, particularly in figuring out which material works best to create custom hairpieces for the Lego characters. She finally is happy with the result. After she creates two of the characters, she builds a diorama for them based on scenes from the game.
It’s snowing AGAIN!
All the snow we’ve had recently has reminded us that we should enjoy our fireplace more often. The low kotatsu chairs turn out to be perfect for sitting in front of the fire.
Our annual Big White Knuckle Drive. We head to Big White, BC, for a week of skiing. The drive, which goes over two mountain passes, is often harrowing. Today’s no exception, although the roads and weather are actually great.
We’re heading up the second pass, called the Coquihalla Pass, and are miles from nowhere when Angela notices that the car is very low on gas. We had plenty of gas for the trip earlier in the day, so either the fuel sensor is unhappy about the slope or the bitter cold temperature, or perhaps the wind resistance of the ski box on top of the car has degraded our fuel economy.
In any event, there’s no gas station for another 32 miles, and the car estimates its range at 28 miles. The range is actually dropping faster than we’re covering ground, so it’s looking more and more likely we’re going to run out of gas on this desolate snowbound highway.
Happily, we’re at least near the summit of the pass. Once we’re on the other side, Angela begins to let the car coast. We coast most of the rest of the way down the other side, and pull into the first gas station on fumes. The station attendant informs us that it’s pretty common for people to pull in with no gas left.
Happy cross-country skier
Liya and Jan join David Camp for a morning of cross-country skiing in Big White’s Happy Valley trail system. It’s very cold (near zero Fahrenheit), but it’s not windy in the valley, and the exercise eventually warms us up to the point where we have to shed some layers.
Liya and Bree join Jan snowboarding. Liya’s now essentially as fast as Jan on a board.
Good night, Big White.
Annual group photo of the families here from Bree’s school
Epic powder day. It’s now pretty much every day this week, and last night brought another heavy snowfall. The temperature is such that the fresh snow is the fluffiest powder we’ve seen.
Bree and Jan make the most of the powder on snowboards, while Angela and Liya ski together. On Bree’s second snowboard run of the day, Jan suggests to her that she try looking over her shoulder more as she’s finishing her heel-to-toe turn. For Bree, that’s the turn from heading right to heading left. She keeps looking uphill as she finishes that turn, which causes her weight to be misplaced, which ultimately causes her to fall. The suggestion to look over her shoulder manages seems to fix her weight balance, and gets her ready to connect to the next turn.
With this tiny change, Bree suddenly becomes a much better and more confident snowboarder — able to link together her turns and keeping her speed up.
We’re back from our ski vacation, but Liya heads back to the snow at Snoqualmie Pass for her work as a ski instructor.
Our friends Megan and Marc join Jan and Angela for an evening out to celebrate Angela’s recent birthday. The evening starts with a visit to the newly refurbished top of the Space Needle, which now has clear glass walls and a better view. We follow that with a nice dinner at Canlis — they give us a great table in the corner window looking out over Lake Union. Afterwards, we decide to drive home south on Aurora so we can drive through the newly-opened highway tunnel deep under downtown Seattle.