Have you ever been up to “The Mountain”, as South Puget Sounders call Mt. Rainier? Well, if you are living in the vicinity and up to taking the drive and the fee at the park entrance, you shouldn’t miss out on this. And if you are compelled to stay home, let me at least virtually […]
Across the Fence
Across the Fence: Ground and Shapely
Have you ever been to Hamburg, Germany? It’s a lovely city! Why, though, is it the namesake of a meat patty between two halves of a bun, accompanied by all kinds of other toppings? And what makes it so different from a meatloaf/mock hare, meatballs/Klops, and Bouletten/Frikadellen when they are all made from ground meat? […]
Across the Fence: Collections or Stuff?
Have you ever been to an estate sale? Have you noticed how much stuff, if not to say clutter in some of these homes has accumulated over a lifetime? Now everything is for sale, even rolling pins without handles and boxes filled with rusty nails, old manuals and shot glasses from travel destinations. And everything […]
Bacon’s Double Take – Piano in the Park
Do you have specific memories of moments of a stunned double take? The kind when your jaw drops, and you blink and pinch yourself and look again? You bet I have, and one of the most curious kinds happened not too long ago. Quite a few of you might know by now that one of […]
Bacon’s Double Take – Double Take
You might have already made a double take at the Suburban Times headlines today. Is it a typo? There are two headlines with almost the same wording. The only difference is the very first word. Apart from that, what’s a double take on a double take? Does it multiply it by two, and should it […]
Across the Fence: A Winter Walk
Sometimes we don’t even know what little jewels are right in our neighborhood until we stumble across them. One of these past sunny, icy-cold winter days, my husband and I decided to take a walk on a trail we hadn’t explored before. And it would be an utterly exhilarating experience. We drove up SR 99 […]
Across the Fence: May It Bring Luck!
Numerous are the customs and traditions we stick to in order to bring about good luck for a new year. This year, we are expecting an entirely new decade to begin, and I bet a number of you have already made plans how to change their lives, have bought bubbly, might pour molten lead to […]
Across the Fence: The Celebration of a Plant
Alright, you may think: What has a plant to do with the celebration of Christmas? I’m not even talking Christmas trees today. Most of you probably know that story well enough. I’m talking of a popular Christmas carol, “The Holly and the Ivy”, which was created in Britain in the early nineteenth century. When I […]
Across the Fence: Turkey Days
When I was planning my first Christmas dinner after my arrival over here in 2010, I found to my surprise that there are obviously just two options promoted by supermarkets all over the country – you either have turkey, or you have ham. Not like back home where different regions have different traditions. There’s Christmas […]