Fish Wednesday, Ballard Locks on Sunday Edition

I’m standing on the east gate of the larger lock. The salmon are running, they’re hurling themselves in to the air and slapping back down against the dark green water. The sun is behind the rail bridge, it’s early evening. Every time a salmon hurls its silver body out of the water my heart leaps. …


…read more.

Fish Wednesday: Manic Depressive Edition

Salmon and Peas

In spite of the fact that there is some excellent news to be had around the NEV HQ, it’s tempered with some rather less than excellent sides. The dominant household trauma is around a new furnace, a must fix now situation that will empty the coffers of my hard earned dollars, money I had hoped to spend on something rather more romantic than than a large appliance that will ensure I do not see my breath when I stumble out of bed on those cold February mornings. Along with the unanticipated investment in my home, there’s some more personal stuff that has left me with a big heavy suitcase full of sadness, and not the wheelie kind of suitcase that you can toss in the overhead.

You’d think that things both excellent and awful would cancel each other out, leaving me with a sort of manageable stasis, but instead, it is a roller coaster ride of high places with vast views and stomach wrenching plunges to unexpected depths. This is all a lot of metaphorical smoke blowing, what I ‘m saying is that things are 17 kinds of crazy lately. And in order to manage that without completely losing my mind, I have been back in the kitchen.


…read more.

Fish Wednesday: Perfect Seattle Thursday Edition

I tell people that when Seattle is nice, there is no place on the planet I would rather be. I am not lying, exaggerating, or using hyperbole, it is 100% true. When the days get long, when the sky gets that backlit blue in the evenings, when the cold edge comes off the air and is replaced by something salty and floral and earthy all that the same time, that is when you realize that Seattle is, at that perfect moment, the best place in the world.

View from the Water Taxi


…read more.

Salmon Days in Issaquah

It was gray and a bit blowy, but plenty of people filled the streets in Issaquah for the annual Salmon Days festival. Our uke club was invited to play for the second year in a row, six enthusiastic players (you see five on the stage, one of our guys had to run off) played a …


…read more.

A Fisherman’s a Person in your Neighborhood

About 11am. J, from the kitchen: There’s a guy walking past the houe with a giant fish! Me: WHAT?! J: Look outside. He’s walking past the house with a huge salmon. Me, getting up from my desk, going to the front window. J: See, he just set the fish down on the grass next door. …


…read more.

Fish Wednesday, Salmon Sammich Edition

The nice thing about having a gas grill is you can walk outside, grill yourself up a little something, then wander back inside and, you know, eat it with very little fuss. There’s no planning, no charcoal chimney, no fretting about if the kindling is too wet or the wind will take out the flame. …


…read more.