June 19, 2015

Granite Mountain day hike

Granite Mountain, Hiking, Snoqualmie Pass

Not sure what I was thinking when I decided to drag us up to the tippy top of this darn mountain! I’ve been following my fellow PNW outdoor adventures on a variety of social media platforms as of late and their pics had me super envious. Mountain tops, alpine lakes, rustic campsites surrounded by snow capped peaks…ugh! The wanderlust was BAD. I needed all of those things in my life STAT. I scoured the Washington Trails Association app and determined that this was best accomplished by hiking to Granite Mountain at sunset to capture the glory of it all.What I failed to realize was that this was an “expert” level hike with almost 4,000 feet in elevation gain. I’m not a numbers gal and didn’t realize that 1,000 feet per mile = hella steep. Like butt burning steep. Like so steep that I might fall off of this god damn mountain steep. The trail started like any other but we quickly realized that this was going to be a dozy.

(more…)

June 2, 2015

yard werk.

Organic Garden, Peas, Potato, Raspberry

Pacific Northwest garden, raspberries, blueberries, potatoes

Top: Stella checking out our potato crop. Bottom (left to right): the first ripe raspberry, blueberries coming in strong.

We came back from Sasquatch and everything in the garden seemed to be busting at the seams! Our peas were all squished up against the netting, arugula had bolted 4 feet into the air, green beans had popped up and even the squash I planted less than two weeks ago had sprouted. It was insanity out there.

And then yesterday I saw it…the first ripe raspberry of the season. OMGee. It’s barely June! According to last year’s garden journal (yeah, I’m strange and document it all) we didn’t have raspberries until June 28 to be exact. Whoa. I suspect everything is going to be earlier than last year. Our three year old blueberry bush is looking quite good too. I think we’ll get a lil harvest out of that bad boy this year. Oh to be knee deep in berries – that is my version of heaven!

May 30, 2015

2015 Sasquatch Music Festival

Music Festival, Sasquatch, The Gorge

We made it out alive. Always a good thing 🙂 Music, music, oh and more music. My ears are still ringing but it was all worth it. I forget just how much I love music festivals…the people watching, the endless dancing, the entertainment, the unique atmosphere…..it’s addicting. Until next year, Sasquatch.

Sasquatch Music Festival - cultivatedrambler.com

Wheel in the sky... - cultivatedrambler.com

The King of Sasaquatch - cultivatedrambler.com

Sasquatch Music Festival at the Gorge - cultivatedrambler.com

The end of the festival weekend - cultivatedrambler.com

May 23, 2015

currently.

Currently, Garden, Peonies

Seattle, Pacific Northwest, Peonies, Gardening

Currently in love with these peonies.

Watching: The new Kurt Cobain documentary – Montage of Heck. Didn’t get a chance to see it on the big screen, but man, pretty interesting stuff. I loved all of the footage from his childhood and seeing his art. The soundtrack was pretty amazing too.

Loving: This Seattle weather. 70 degrees in May? I’ll take it. And so will my tomato starts thank you very much.

Listening to: I should just take this off the list…music isn’t happening much these days unless it’s a lil live streaming action from KEXP. We’re headed to the Sasquatch music festival shortly and this concert goer is VERY unprepared. Not really sure who’s even playing :-/ I suspect I’ll be finding all sorts of cool, new music.

Doing: Meal planning. Now that the chaos of work has settled down, it’s back to making dinners at home and bringing lunches to work. Ahh…frugality.

Reading: My fav blogs these days – this one, this one and this one. I had a few library books on my kindle, but alas, 21 days is never enough time to finish them.

Eating: Fresh lettuce, arugula and spinach from the yard. This is becoming an every other day sorta thing and I’m digging it (literally.)

Thinking about: Our upcoming trip to Eastern Europe in the fall. We’ll be hitting up 6+ countries in 3 weeks and the thought of adapting to new cultures, languages and hell, even exchanging currencies is starting to stress me out. Not to mention only bringing a backpack.

**This blog post was inspired by http://sometimessweet.com/ – check her out!

May 20, 2015

new throne.

Handyman, Toilet, TOTO

TOTO Drake toilet - cultivatedrambler.com

I tell ya, a new toilet is something to shout from the rooftops in our household! We were blessed with not only a mauve one but a green one upon the purchase of our house. You know these bad boys are O-L-D when they match the sink AND the tub. Every time I flushed, it was like watching $10 of water going down the drain. What a waste! So we got our act together and decided to replace our half bath first, since it gets the most use. I ordered a TOTO Drake off of Amazon per our handyman’s suggestion. I was a bit hesitant to order a toilet online, but it showed up on our door step the following week all nice like! The only downside is that it came with a ton of packaging which won’t even fit in our garbage can. Womp womp.

Before doing all of this toilet online ordering stuff, I learned that the City of Seattle offers up a $75 rebate if you upgrade to a water efficient toilet on their list. Happy dance! I also learned that their list is hella complicated and this gal ordered the wrong one and will not be getting the rebate. Yeah, pretty freaking cool. I’m not bitter. I only checked their list like 50 times before ordering. UGH. Regardless, we trudged along and now have this beaut. I’m trying to put the rebate loss out of mind but you know the next time around, that rebate is MINE.