Life's a Stitch

The local Hotel Bellwether describes its surroundings:

The Bellingham area has an embarrassment of natural riches, and it’s all about location, location, location. In a single day it’s possible to beachcomb, wander a rainforest, take in a glacier, and still make it to town for fresh-from-the-boat seafood.

After a morning of torrential rain, it cleared enough for us to hike the rain forest, bringing back memories of our North Vancouver trails. We got deep enough into the woods for that luxurious quiet you seldom find near the city. No sounds of vehicles, planes, or even barking dogs, just total silence.

The trees were covered in their mossy coats.

The mushrooms were thriving.

Tiny ones in a stump’s notch looked like a miniature fairyland.  Notice the penny placed for scale.

Damp leaves have their own beauty. I’ve sold both my spider web/leaf paintings and I found leaf models to create new ones.

The chill of the autumn afternoon was perfect for cooking soup.

 Yellow Curry Vegetable Soup

Ingredients:

3 T olive oil

2 potatoes sliced thin
2 peeled tomatoes chopped
2 cloves crushed garlic
1/2 quartered onion
7 carrots
1 or 2 zucchini
1T grated fresh ginger
Curry flavour: 1t hot curry powder or 1 T mild curry powder or equivalent curry paste

2qts chicken broth

1 can coconut milk

Procedure:

Sauté veggies and spices in the olive oil until it just starts to brown.

Add chicken broth and bring to a boil. Reduce heat and cook until veggies are very soft.

Either blend w/ immersion blender or use a regular blender.

Add coconut milk and heat on medium low until hot enough to serve.

Makes about 4 qts.

We usually served it with scoops of cooked ancient grains.