Life in Old Spokane

2011-12-01T09:04:00.001-08:00

GFWC WOMAN'S CLUB of SPOKANE
W 9TH AVE and WALNUT
1428 W 9th Ave

ALWAYS AMAZING

SNOWY LACE AND LILACS

VINTAGE FASHION SHOW TEA

DECEMBER 3 at 1 PM

TICKETS $15
Call Dean at 466-6677

100 years of Spokane Fashion

FEATURING THE LITTLE TEA SHOPPE
Gourmet teas and accessories, hand crafted tea cozies, aprons, bags, potholders...

Grocery Outlet in Cannon's Addition

2011-08-26T19:03:00.000-07:00

Finally, the old Safeway Store at 4th Ave and Maple in South Spokane is coming to life. A banner is up proclaiming Grocery Outlet is coming. I saw workers today. I have been shopping out these stores for almost thirty years. They have some great deals on food. Our family call them the Canned Food Store but they have expanded their offerings. Favorite find of all time at GO [back in the 1990's], quart size jars of my family's favorite Maille Mustard for $1.99. They charge 4 bucks for 4oz at Rosauers.
OK most people will think this store is in Brownes Addition, but it really is in the original Cannon's Addition plat.
Exactly half of Couer d' Alene park in "Brownes Addition" is actually in Cannon's Addition. Darn I-90 ripped apart a neighborhood or two.

Knights of Badassdom filmed in Cannon's Addition

2011-08-12T13:48:00.000-07:00

OK: Just a bit of the Knights of Badassdom was filmed in Historic Cannon's Addition at the Romanesque, Dutch Colonial house at 8th and Cedar. What a way to make a living? The production used the Rose Room in Woman's Club of Spokane to feed the crew. Here's a link to the trailer. http://ow.ly/1vDn4W.

Golden Snow Peas in Late July

2011-07-22T14:43:00.000-07:00

This year I grew "Golden Sweet" snow peas from Baker Creek Heirloom seeds http://rareseeds.com. They love this rain and ...weather, although it is strange to have this many peas in late July. What to do with lots of snow peas? Steam-saute them and serve them on the side of a morell mushroom and jarlsberg omelet. Yum, better than yum.

GFWC Woman's Club of Spokane Happenings

2011-07-04T16:13:00.000-07:00

Forty-one 2'X2'X'2' holes, and yards of basalt rocks pulled out of those holes at the GFWC Woman's Club of Spokane, July 2, 2011

With a grant from the Associated Garden Clubs of Spokane and bump outs at 9th and 8th on Walnut planned for this summer, the GFWC Woman's Club of Spokane is continuing it's efforts to remain a place of pride in Historic Cannon's Addition. This is all part of a plan that included the planting in 2009, and 2010, of three new trees strategically placed to eventually shade both clubhouse and the adjacent sidewalks.
    The foundation plants of a new, 800 square foot perennial and own root rose garden, should be in place by the end of this second week of July 2011. The theme is roses named after women, with choices and placement suggested by Master Gardener/Owner Carol Newcomb, of Northland Rosarium. Club members, and volunteer SPARC clients, have, so far, provided about 200 hours of 'hard" labor to prep the rocky south hill soils that around the building. Planting and mulching are next on the agenda. In about three years it should be just beautiful in flower season.
    The other news at the clubhouse is traffic calming bump outs on Walnut, at the 8th Ave and 9th Ave intersections. These street improvements are paid for through the City of Spokane red light ticket program. Once installed [sometime this summer we hope] this block will be safer for both neighborhood pedestrians, and clubhouse renters. At the corners, there will 16 fewer feet between curbs, and the parking area on both sides of the street will be defined. Traffic calming on neighborhood arterials was emphasized in the Cliff Cannon Stakeholders citizen designed planning study.

Mother's Treat Vintage Fashion Show Tomorrow

2011-05-06T18:47:00.000-07:00

Vintage fashion show tomorrow at the GFWC Woman's Club of Spokane. 33 outfits and a gourmet dessert. It takes a great deal of work to put the show itself together. Four of us spent about five hours today setting up tables, and making them beautiful. Choosing costumes, fitting models and planning a story line takes thirty plus hours. Tomorrow everyone will be scrambling hard to run the show out front and dress the models off stage.

It's a white, mint green and pink scheme to chase the long winter blues away. We are working to make this a spring tradition at the club. I certainly am starting to enjoy narrating the show. And I have a new costume too, a somber little dress appropriate for my Quaker soul from 1924. I think this is my sixth time at the podium.

TAX Relief in Cannons Addition

2011-04-18T17:09:00.000-07:00

Good grief, I am happy. I went from owing to refund status. Bliss. Back to the new garden and the Woman's Club of Spokane's books.

Let the Sun shine in my back yard.

2011-04-04T13:57:00.000-07:00

The tree removal crew arrived at 9AM. The tree was a weed tree, three seedlings from whirligig seed pods were allowed to grow together and into the wire fence. Including an hour off for lunch to celebrate Phil's birthday, we cut down and removed the evidence of a 60 foot tall, 30" diameter, three headed maple tree in 5.5 hours. Counting our family and friends, there were ten of us, and I think 3PU trucks and 2 wheel barrows and 5 hard hats. Before, 75% of our backyard was in shade. We now have access to sunshine in 50-60% of our backyard. Veggies will now flourish.
Happy side advantages, the birds may no longer sit in the tree and drop "stuff" on my laundry drying outside, every windstorm will not threaten our electric, cable and telepone lines, and Rick has lots of hardwood to burn next winter.Yeah.

Urban Garden Restoration in HCA

2011-04-02T15:47:00.000-07:00

It was sweet while it lasted. Three years back we told our next door neighbors we were installing raised beds in our front yard. In shock at the thought of less grass in the front yard, our dear, elderly neighbors offered us their 800 sq foot garden in exchange for produce. We became sharecroppers. After several years of their tenants using the space for growing efforts [and giving up when the weeds arrived] their garden had gone to weeds [like thistle, that deep rooted spreading grass, morning glory etc.]. We dug up as many weeds as possible, grew a cover crop to suppress weeds and build some soil life, then built 4 raised beds in the space, resulting in about 400 sq ft of growing area. We hauled in straw to suppress weeds in the path and added lots of compost to the beds. We hand weeded daily to keep up with the insidious morning glory.

Last week we found out the garden will be re-purposed for use by a yet to open restaurant. Urban garden restoration feels good. We gave the garden back it's life, and reurn it to the owner in much better condition.

Now we take down the north side maple trees in our backyard, and build those raised beds in our backyard and the front yard. Once you have 400 sq ft of raised beds filled with homemade compost, to grow your veggies in you get spoiled.

GFWC Woman's Club of Spokane and me

2011-03-25T14:48:00.000-07:00

In November 2006, my husband made me join the Woman's Club of Spokane. Really, he did all the digging and calling to find out how to do this. It's sort of around the corner from our house. Attractions for me? Old building needs help. Vintage Fashion Collection, needs help. What happened. This is an all-volunteer organization, with this local branch founded in Spokane in 1905. My second meeting, in February 2007, I volunteered to be and was accepted as their new House Superintendent. Four years later, I just present my first from scratch Vintage Fashion Trunk show, Unmentionables 1900-1950. That was fun. I am the webmaster and am working on improving our site womansclubspokane so the rest of Spokane knows what the club is up to; both for public events at the club house and what club members are doing. Always looking for new members. It is only $50 a year. Always looking for renters for the building, starts at $25 an hour.

WASHER-DRYER-COMBO CONNIPTIONS

2011-02-28T11:03:00.000-08:00

Five weeks ago my 9 year old front load Kenmore Washer left ominous blotches of black stuff all over a load of clothes. Nothing takes this black stuff out. The bearings were shot. I needed a new machine. Problem: this washer was part of a stacked set and the location has height limits. New stacked sets, 2011 energy efficient and full sized are too tall for the space with a sloped roof I have in my laundry/ bathroom. I found a LG Washer Dryer Combo Machine wm3987hw, with lots of great reviews. This machine is just one machine with both functions. It was finally delivered on February 23. It washes, but it does not dry, not even something easy like sheets. My sewing room is filled with laundry strung up to dry. Today, I chatted with LG about the problem. LG is sending out a service person from Portland, OR, 350 miles away, tomorrow. Good thing I chatted, the English was, well , Anabel said, " I am setting a service to your house". I told her the weather was terrible, cold and snowy, but I am not sure she understood what travel from Portland could be like in these conditions. There is no charge for this visit so we shall see if I am happy or not tomorrow..

Late February Blizzard in Old Spokane

2011-02-24T11:52:00.000-08:00

They said snow was forecast, but when I went to sleep last night I thought, "late February and really too cold to snow much, maybe 2". Well guess what, it blew in hard and swirled all night and wow is that 10"out there? Rick came over this morning with his new snow blower,and Jacque had a blast using the boy toy to open up the sidewalks and walkways on our end of the block. I swept the front porch, the snow was 2"-4" deep all the 7 feet way in, under a roof. Phil dug out the pick-up by the alley. the four of us drove 6 blocks to Franks Diner [2nd Ave and Walnut] and had a huge breakfast and gallons of coffee. Yum.

View from our dining room window looking at our picket fence [34" high] Rick's rose arbor gazebo and Spanish Revival house.

Winter Wonderland Spokane

2010-12-31T15:27:00.000-08:00

There is beauty on a very cold winters day even in a central city urban setting. This is the canopy on my street in Historic Cannon's Addition, a beautiful neighborhood just south of downtown Spokane, platted in 1883.

KITCHEN GARDEN/POTAGER DREAM

2010-12-29T12:25:00.000-08:00

The snow is falling thickly on the ground and the weather service is predicting bitter cold for New Years Eve. So my thoughts have turned to Spring and the glories of planting things to eat. Living on a small city lot, I want to see beauty and order in my garden. My spouse recently googled the image potager. Oh my goodness, pages and pages of blissful inspiration. The garden maps at http://homedesigndecorating.com/potager-vegetable-garden-pictures-and-layout/ are simple and glorious. If everyone's front yard was a potager instead of a grass lawn what a beautiful and healthy place our cities would be.

OBAMA CARE EDUCATION

2010-11-15T11:49:00.000-08:00

If you wish to complain about ObamaCare to me please be informed with actual facts. Gosh, no, it cannot happen over night, so grow up. I am tired of people saying get rid of “OBAMA CARE” and they have absolutely NO IDEA what they are talking about. Please read carefully at the following clear and concise websites what is real in time and space.

http://healthreform.kff.org/timeline.aspx

http://www.healthcare.gov/

OBAMA CARE health reform is incredibly positive and will make most Americans* healthier and at lower cost. Shed your short term mentality; and embrace the changes to national health care that are logically scheduled to happen over an eight year period.

*Not healthier in 2018? Well some people really do choose unhealthy life styles. God help them.

Clear timeline on new Health Care Reform

2010-03-26T16:22:00.000-07:00

Looking for information about the new health care reform bill I found this handy, clear time line at NPR.ORG
Health Reform Timeline.

No more confusion, just the facts folks.

I like to bake bread

2010-03-14T13:57:00.000-07:00

Really good bread, with crust, taste and texture. This is my potluck offering for today, 54 oz of bread.

2009-12-15T18:11:00.003-08:00

I woke up this morning to 4" of Beautiful windblown powder snow.

Polly Judd Park Exercise

2009-08-04T17:16:00.000-07:00

Polly Judd Park in Historic Cannon's Addition, Spokane finally has it's exercise stations installed. Five in all . This was a 3 year process. Your federal tax dollars at work CDBG [Community Development Block Grant] paid for this and other improvements to our neighborhood park. I say it all the time, Historic Cannon's Addition is the most beautiful low income neighborhood I have ever seen. the people who live here are pretty neat too. This neighborhood is densely populated by Spokane standards and really needed a park. Fifteen years later, you can now feel and see how nice this park will be when the trees mature. Pictures taken July 12, 2009.

Sharecropper garden

2009-08-04T17:03:00.000-07:00

We told our elderly neighbors we were going to dig up our front yard and create an edible estate. They responded by offering us there 900 sq foot garden instead.
March 20. Dig up as many noxious weeds as possible.
April 1 Plant a cover crop of annual rye. [weather did not cooperate.
May 1-15. Establish 4 raised beds using any old piece of lumber from the back of garage pile.Laid weed cloth and straw in the paths to supress the bind weed infestation. The beds are hand weeded
May 15-20 Haul in 2-3 yards of homemade compost. Last fall we collected all the maple leaves from our block of 7th Ave [10 mature trees]. Created a huge windrow in our backyard, added chicken manure and bio-char. This stuff was steaming in the middle of last January under 3-4 ft of snow and ice, just amazing. Anyway, this garden soil was pretty depleted after 60 years of non-organic style gardening.

May 15-Jun-15 Planted unusal [high prices in the store or farmers market] varieties of classic garden veggies. Pictures were taken on March 21, July 7, July 17, Aug 4.
We put a thick layer of rough compost mulch down two weeks ago. The garden went nuts absorbing the compost tea.

Interesting weather images

2009-08-04T16:14:00.000-07:00

It was about 4pm in September 2007. The wind howled at 60mph then went dead. The air was intensely dense, and the sky was weirdly green. I grabbed my camera and took these shots from my back porch on 7th Ave. The colors are pretty accurate. 2 minutes later the wind roared again. Historic Cannon's Addition in Spokane felt like Kansas for a bit.

2008-12-18T10:39:00.000-08:00

5:30AM W 7th Ave looking toward Walnut
Dec 18 2008. Historic Cannon's Addition in Spokane. WA.
This was magic.