Cool Sightings In and Around the Garden

Posted on July 31, 2025 by Pamela Rentz

This is a public domain image.

From where I sit at my home desk I can look out the window and see the top of a very tall tree of my neighbor’s. I should probably go figure out what it is but I’m going to say it’s a Doug Fir and guess it’s about as tall as a 4 story building.

This morning I looked out just in time to see a bald eagle land in the top of the tree! I ran outside and watched it. Mostly it just perched there looking all around. It made shrieking sounds a couple of times.

I did not take a picture because my camera wasn’t made for that and it just looked like a far off brown bird in a tree. I watched for a long time but finally went in because I had things to do and I missed when it took off. It was a very exciting way to start the day.

Check out the different sizes of my blueberries. I have an early season, mid season, and a late season. The mid season is the small one and the late season is the big one. The late season isn’t especially prolific but it’s always exciting to pick them because they are so giant.

A thing that happened this morning that wasn’t exciting was when I unloaded the camera card from my trail cam and dropped it through the crack between the deck boards. No way of getting that back. I have lots of cards and also lots of clips of raccoons drinking water so it’s not a tragedy but still annoying.

I don’t think I’ve posted any clips since I got the new cam up so I will do one for later this week.

Seen while waiting for bus. Reaction was to gag. Other thoughts? The food industry’s ideas for getting more sugar into people have no end.

I have seen quite a few praying mantises (praying manti?) in my yard lately. Aren’t they good luck or something like that? The one’s I’ve seen were very small. One was white-ish — so maybe a baby? I’m to lazy to do praying mantis research right now. I am happy to have them.

I also have a lot of dragonflies. Aren’t those good luck, too? I like them. Also this morning while I was watching the eagle, a hummingbird perched behind me on one of the above ground wires. It was great.

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Me All Starry Eyed

Posted on July 27, 2025 by Pamela Rentz

Screenshot used w/o permission from artist’s youtube

Asia was a super group in the early 80s made up of people that only old people and the stray youth that likes classic prog rock has heard of from Emerson Lake & Palmer and Yes. I had their debut on cassette and listened to it a million times in my 1972 Karmann Ghia.

The Internet says there was a second album called Alpha that sounds vaguely familiar but I don’t remember following them after that. The Internet also says the band as remained active almost continuously since 1981. I did not know that and honestly haven’t thought about them in years until I heard them in Fred Meyer last week. Kind of like Gray’s Anatomy — this thing is still on?

I was delighted to be reminded of song. As we were leaving Fred Meyer I said to Bob: Do you think you can find Fred Meyer Friday Morning Playlist on Apple Music?” (I don’t have Spotify.)(I have Apple Music and don’t know how it works or how playlists work. I do manage to pull up obscure music from the 80s and Apple Music tries to find things to recommend based on that.)

I said: Did you hear that song by Asia, the supergroup from the 80s?
Bob said: I did. It was terrible. I wanted it to stop.

The song is called Only Time Will Tell. It starts out with a bright synthesizer opening, like a graduation march, that then slows down into a moving heartfelt ballad about an ending relationship. I remember driving around singing this to myself after my senior year boyfriend dumped me right before prom.

I love it.

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RIP OZZY!

Posted on July 22, 2025 by Pamela Rentz

Approximately 1990, Hollywood.

Can’t believe it. What a legend.

EDITED TO ADD:

I restarted my memory and came up with the story to go with this picture. The photo was taken at my job where we rented film cameras. This was for a video for Bill Ward who was the original drummer for Black Sabbath.

Here’s the video. You can see Ozzy wearing the jacket in the video:

I got in trouble because they asked us if they could do camera tests in our facility but really they were filming these inserts for the video and didn’t have to pay for it. I was in my 20s and an assistant. What did I know? Where were my supervisors?

We got to hang out with Ozzy for the day. I was too shy to ask for a photo. A colleague asked and that’s how I have the photo.

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Fated Mates Podcast

Posted on July 16, 2025 by Pamela Rentz

If everything goes as planned I will be on today’s Fated Mates podcast. Actually Pen Name is on the podcast. I talk about my romance books and writing as a Native author.

I really love this podcast and I was so thrilled to be asked. I enjoyed talking to Sarah and Jen. But also I’m paranoid that I’m not very interesting. I did my best!

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Potatoes on the Loose

Posted on July 13, 2025 by Pamela Rentz

I harvested my first figs yesterday. Four more today. And we’ve harvested 2 tomatoes.

Everything is delicious.

What do you think is going on here?

Bob and I went to see the new Wes Anderson movie, The Phoenician Scheme, a week or two ago and afterward had some dinner. This was outside the restaurant.

Potatoes escaping? A potato sack incident? A potato fight?

We’ll never know.

I had grand plans to write an actual post tonight but my administrivia took too long and I had a technical snafu and I need to get off the computer and off to do other things.

I did do a bunch of writing this weekend. More information when I get further in.

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Summer Berry Pie with Chocolate Surprise

Posted on July 7, 2025 by Pamela Rentz

I had so many berries, desperate measures were needed. I made this pie twice over consecutive weekends. Once to experiment and the second time for company.

I am not a recipe developer – I just love pie and make a lot of it. This is the result of reading about 20 recipes plus my experience of things I’ve tried and liked.

I use this crust recipe.

For the filling I mixed raspberries, blueberries, and Marionberries and erred in favor of more blueberries. I have found that too many raspberries makes it too seedy.

I aimed for about 6 cups of berries for a 9 1/2 inch pie.

Mix all the berries and add 1/2 cup sugar, 1/2 t. cinnamon and a good squeeze of lemon juice. 1-2 T.

The first time I added a bit of lemon zest — maybe 1/2 t. The second time I added a bit of orange zest — maybe 1/2 t. I think you could get away with a heavier hand on this depending on how you like it

Finally, I mixed with baking tapioca. The first time I used a 1/2 cup and it seemed like a lot so the second time I used 1/3 cup and it seemed better. Then I let the prepared filling sit for at least 30 minutes.

While the fruit was resting I made a bottom crust and blind baked at 375 for about 15 minutes. When I took it out, I sprinkled about 2 oz. of chopped dark chocolate in the warm crust and let it melt a little bit and then used a little spatula to spread the chocolate in a thin layer over the bottom. Resist the urge to overdo the chocolate. It’s really best as just a hint with the fruit.

When that was done I added the fruit and made the top crust. I have never added a top crust to a blind baked bottom before. I was sure how much it would “seal” so I just did my best and then made those giant slashes to give the berry juice plenty of room to bubble out so it wouldn’t come out the sides. It seems like it worked.

Also I should note that I had a timer malfunction so it was left in a tad too long. It tasted fine.

Let it cool before slicing. It’s really delicious — the chocolate is a nice surprise taste with the berries. I stored in the fridge.

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The Stacks

Posted on June 29, 2025 by Pamela Rentz

We love Wes Anderson and loved the gift of this book. We also love Project 562 which was photography project that that photographed all federally recognized Tribes and Alaska Natives villages although when we got it, we thought our niece’s photo would be in it. I think she was in the Instagram feed and that’s how we got that idea. She’s not in the book but it’s still a really awesome collection.

Then I went to the Portland Art Museum to see the art of Oscar Howe, a Yanktonai Dakota artist from South Dakota and I loved his art. I loved it so much I went to the exhibit twice.

I normally would not buy a book from an art exhibit but I couldn’t help myself and I distinctly remember saying to my husband: I don’t want to become a household with a giant stack of coffee table books.

You can see how that’s going. No more coffee table books.

This was in the sculpture garden during our New Orleans trip. It reminded me of our book stack.

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The Little Notebook, Update

Posted on June 22, 2025 by Pamela Rentz

First of all, I did an advanced google-search to find the post with my previous notebook update and AI gave me this:

On the website “pamrentz.com”, the word “notebook” appears in several posts, most notably in a post titled “Notebooks” from July 26, 2013. This post discusses the author’s collection of notebooks, starting from 1978, and how she uses them. The author describes how she has notebooks stashed all over her room and that they are not all full. She also mentions using them for journaling and for jotting down ideas. One post also mentions keeping a small notebook by her bed for late-night ideas or reminders. She describes using a notebook to write down favorite URLs and passwords, a practice she finds amusing in hindsight. A more recent post in June 2023 mentions seeing someone writing in a notebook in a parking garage.

I feel so famous!

Here’s to the 2013 post.

In 2021, I did a post about finally buying a new notebook to replace the pictured.

Except. I found that I’d missed a bunch of pages in the middle of the green notebook. So I kept using it and I just swapped it out in April. And also changed the date to 2025. If it takes 10 years to finish that notebook, I will be in my 70s when I’m done.

Amazing.

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Berry Delicious!

Posted on June 21, 2025 by Pamela Rentz

Yes! I picked 1 and 1/2 pounds yesterday.

If I can, I pick every day. It’s a great way to end the day, especially after work. The other day there were two bunnies hanging out with me while I was out there and it was amazing.

It rained yesterday afternoon and today. I haven’t been out there and I’m not sure how this extra cool days are going to affect the fruit. Let’s hope very little.

Also, you can’t see but there are a few blueberries on the bottom. They are just coming in. The marionberries are also on the verge. I found one ready to eat yesterday.

At first I thought I’d skip making jam but upon inventorying the supply, we have less than I thought so I will probably do a multi-berry batch next month.

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We Got the Beets!

Posted on June 8, 2025 by Pamela Rentz

Staging for the daily cauldron of fruit.

It’s on my list but I still haven’t replaced my trail cam so if I can’t see what’s going on out there — maybe nothing is going on out there.

Wrong.

Sadly, the deer have returned. I don’t know how many or for how long but I definitely could tell that my poor little Asian plum tree served as major snack material. There were pieces of tree on the ground. There were deep divots from those cloven hooves. No turds though!

I can see where someone snacked on the apple tree, as well, but the apple tree is more established (relatively) and the damage didn’t look as bad.

I don’t care if they eat roses like some people. Eat the roses! The rosemary is giant — try that. There’s some green weedy stuff that might be delicious if they would just try it. I guess I should be careful what I wish for. Now I know they at least one of them is still alive and roving about the neighborhood.

This weekend I picked beets that I slow roasted with shallots. Delicious! I also picked peas. The peas are insane. I’ve never had such healthy plants so I planted them way too close together. It’s a mass of pea plants and a chore to poke around in there and try to find all the peas.

We had risotto with fresh peas that came out pretty good but I need to refine my technique. I am hoping to make some pasta with fresh peas and I already threw some in the freezer.

The berries are coming on but still manageable. I’ve never had so many of the everbearing before and some healthy looking red raspberries are starting now, too.

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