Balcony Garden

Buster's favorite Nandina and the dwarf maple.

Penne and salad made with lettuce and cilantro from the "garden"

When we lived in Milwaukie, we had a garden most years.  Tomatoes, potatoes, peppers, cilantro...We've been here 3 years in June and I thought it was time I tried a small garden on the balcony.  I miss the fresh veggies in the summer!  Our balcony faces west and really gets baked in the afternoon, so hopefully my plants won't fry.  In preparation, I rearranged the furniture and pots.  Love the new look.  Next was a trip to Cornell Farm to buy some little planter boxes and veggie starts.  While there we also bought some perennials to plant up some empty pots.  My favorite is the lemon thyme (smells so good!) and the Hebe I put in the same pot.  Back to the veggies.  We bought lettuce, cilantro, rosemary, oregano, mint (for Moroccan mint tea!).  Tomatoes and peppers will come later... It's tough to plant on a 5 x 15 foot balcony!  It's been two weeks and we had our first salad with our lettuce and cilantro tonight!  Paired it with Jonie's famous penne dish.  I added a little basil.  Thanks Jonie!

At the base of my little maple.  Birds are courtesy of sister in law Leta.  Figured the sedum would do well in the heat.

Hebe and lemon thyme pot.

Lettuce and Oregano.

Cilantro, Rosemary, Mint and Lettuce with a view of the Mirabella going up in the background.

First Post!

So, I'm new to this and thought I would try it out...

We are just back from our annual night at Timberline Lodge to celebrate our anniversary.  Number 11!  We were married at the Lodge in 1998 on a sunny day just like it was today.  We had a great room with a view of the summit of Mt. Hood right outside the window.  We snowboarded with Luke on Saturday.  Very cold, stormy, and windy and "dust on crust" as the guy in the gift shop said. I stayed in after lunch and Mark and Luke closed the lifts down.  We started the evening with a great dinner at the Cascade Dining Room.  We brought along our bottle of 1999 Malbec from the small winery we toured (Bodega Carmine Granata) when we were in Mendoza, Argentina in the summer of 2007.  Yummy.  We both stuck with the red meat...I had a great sirloin roasted asparagus and Mark had a filet mignon with crab.  I saw the beet salad on the menu and had to have it.  Mark did not want to share.  He hates beets.  Dessert was a triple chocolate Napoleon with a glass of "Port style" from Eola Hills.  Very good!  First time I've had a Port that wasn't from Portugal.

Today was a blue bird sky day with a couple of inches of fresh.  Perfect!  They opened the Palmer and we enjoyed boarding on the good corduroy.  By the time we did the top of the Palmer to the bottom of Jeff Flood we had a run of over 3,500 vertical ft.  A day to remember for sure.  Only had one real bad fall that readjusted every bone as I did a cartwheel and landed on my left hip.

Back at home.  Watered the veggies on the balcony, fed the cat and hoping the Blazers win tonight's game.