In early November it rains most of the time, most days. The sun struggles to prove its existence. But one day the sun came out, and after teasing a series of partial rainbows over the water, we were treated to this beauty. It is a consolation prize for not seeing the mountains.

Full Rainbow over Puget Sound

News & Notes

• It's fall and the salmon have again returned to spawn in the tiny Piper's Creek, a few blocks from our home. No matter how many times we see the salmon returning, we are still amazed that they do it.

  

  Salmon In Seattle's Piper's Creek

  
  

• Brendan's theater company, Pony World, presented the US premier of Parliament Square by British playwright James Fritz. The play, directed by Brendan's colleague Sann Hall, won the Bruntwood Prize. The story follows a woman obsessed by the social trauma around her and distraught by her helplessness to make anything better. It's theater that leaves the audience with much to think about and discuss.

  

  Pony World's First for America

  
  

• We fitted in a trip to Libby MT to see Jim and Julie. As always, we kept busy with the usual activities, including visiting friends. An important goal was to check on Doug Crum's recovery.

• While hiking on a Sunday afternoon in November, our friend Doug Crum was brutally assaulted by a knife-wielding crazy man near Libby MT. (The popular trail, famous for mountain sheep, begins at the edge of town - at right in the photo - and follows the Kootenai River.) Doug, who was more than a mile down trail, fought the attacker, ultimately subduing him with bear spray. With ten stab wounds puncturing both lungs, he hiked out and drove himself home, a testament to his outstanding, meaning totally awesome, physical condition. After a week in the ICU followed by physical therapy, he has recovered. The perp is in jail awaiting trial. (See press reports 1 2.)

  

  J with Doug, Invincible Mountain Man

  
  

• Our balcony Christmas tree, again cut and delivered by nephew-in-law Jeff, is an Alpine Fir (Abies lasiocarpa). This year's choice was located along a game trail in West Fisher River drainage of the Kootenai National Forest. Notice that the deer nibbled off the ends of branches along the lower left hand side of the tree.

  

  1200 lights valiantly trying to improve an Alpine Fir

  
  

• We celebrated our 50th wedding anniversary with a ten day family trip to one of our favorite cities: Singapore.

  

  Dan, Brendan, Melissa, J, Dave, L at the Cloud Forest In Gardens By The Bay

  
  If you saw the Singapore wedding in Crazy Rich Asians, we must tell you that a Singapore wedding anniversary is more subdued if you're not rich or Asian. It's still crazy fun, of course, just more subdued. For example, we all love plants, so in addition to Gardens By The Bay, we visited Singapore's unrivaled Botanic Garden and the National Orchid Garden.

  

  Reveling in Singapore's Tropical Climate

  
  Food was an important part of the celebration. We ate at a half dozen hawker centers including one of our favorites Lah Pa Sat. Singapore's signature mystery food, Black Carrot Cake, was on the menu, as was our favorite snack, Crispy Honey Baby Squid. Black Carrot Cake is a mystery because it contains no carrots and is not a cake. It is black, unless it's white, another variation.The cookers took a cooking class from a delightful woman, Ruqxana, making four local specialties. Cruising the markets is a family fave, and at Tekka Market we found ingredients for dinner, some of which remained unidentified. Is it not a joy to fix foreign foods in a foreign land?

  

  The Tekka Market Provisions An Hour Away From Becoming Dinner

  
  The celebration was tremendous fun ... we shouldn't have waited fifty years to do it!

  

  Drinks at the roof top bar

  
  

Rainbow photo courtesy: Lisa Witte
Cooking class photo courtesy: Dave Snyder