Still the one

Coffee and Lunch at Starbucks in Mill Creek

Yesterday (June 21) was our 35th anniversary! I have an old Orleans song rolling through my head....

"We've been together since way back when....

Your still the one-- I want whispering in my ear;

Your still the one-- I want to talk to in bed,

Still the one that turns my head.

We're still having fun and your still the one."

We were completely without a plan for yesterday. We spent too much money on the new BBQ. Since we like to play with our new toys (and it was way too cold and wet to try out the new Kayak) we dressed for birding, tucked Rudy into the 'burb and drove north toward Mt Vernon to hit the Skaget County Co-op and do a little Fir Island bird walking. We did not get much and we did not see birds besides a sparrow or two. The ride was nice.

At the Mill Creek Central Market (yep, those are the kind or rides we take when we do not have a plan), right next to the 20 dollars a pound Copper River Salmon, we found a pile of bright, fresh Kodiak River Coho for 8 dollars a pound. The fish guy cut up our prize into 4 steaks and filleted the rest. Barbecue here we come! A few apple chips bundled under the flame, a glaze (sauce?) of butter and olive oil with fresh parsley, garlic and chives with a sprinkle of dill (my garden dill isn't ready yet and the fennel is too small) and I was in the Salmon business!

Ray ate peas for dinner. If you know Ray, you know he NEVER eats cooked peas. Even if English peas are raw he doesn't really want to eat them. He does like sugar snaps if I make a ranch style dip with lots of garlic, lemon and dill. But last night he gobbled up the Orange Saffron Butter Linguine with peas and shallots from the garden and asparagus, even had 2nds! I did notice a small pile of English peas on the side of my plate, but no snow peas left on either of our plates.

Recipe at "Music Of Rain" http://musicofrain.wordpress.com/2010/06/22/orange-saffron-butter-sauce-on-spring-vegetables-and-pasta/

Did I mention birding in Skaget and not seeing anything? So there I was, grilling salmon on the back deck. I kept hearing a bird that sounded like a kid blowing on a toy train whistle, sometimes it would change up and sound like a play-ground whistle (the kind with a small ball in it to make a twitter sound). I can only hear out of one ear, so it is difficult for me to tell where a sound is coming from. I called Ray who quickly found the sorce of the song. It was a somewhat largish yellow breasted bird in a pine tree just down the hill in the draw behind the house. We thought, warbler? because of the bright yellow and new song. Ray kept coming back to a rare bird called a Yellow Breasted Chat. He got a decent picture of him but his lens isn't powerful enough to really draw it in, and sent it off to "tweeters". It wasn't long before he got conformation that it was indeed a rare Yellow Breasted Chat. Right in our back yard! When I went out this morning it was sitting an a bush just outside of my back fence, singing away.

Picture at Music of Rain: http://musicofrain.wordpress.com/2010/06/21/yellow-breasted-chat/

Good start to another year! And.... it is actually sunny today.

You're still the on that makes me laugh,
Your still the one that's my better half,
We're still having fun and your still the one!