My Day

Yesterday was my birthday and it was one of the best yet.  Just being in Seattle now with our own house is gift enough for me. But still, Bruce and Nick got up early and headed out to bring me back breakfast at our new favorite, Bakery Nouveau

and some gorgeous flowers from the Admiral Bird.

What more could a girl ask for?  A chicken...

You can take the girl out of the country but you can't take the country out of the girl.  What can I say?

There were too many things to consider to do on a typical Saturday in Seattle.  This is part of my new Seattle life so I might as well start getting use it. Some of the activities included our neighborhood West Seattle Summer Fest, or the Greenlake Milk Carton Derby which has always been a fun thing to go to which I haven't been for years, the Seattle Tilth Chicken Coop and Urban Farm Tour, or the International Beer Festival with 220 beers to sample.  As you can guess...I chose the Chicken Coop and Urban Farm Tour.  Once you sign up, they email you a map for the self-guided tour and there were four in West Seattle. There are 25 total all over town.  I decided to start off in our old neighborhood near the University of Washington and I checked out the Portage Bay Grange.  

This was a tiny grange, from what we're use to in Idaho, but they had everything crammed into this little space.  A one stop shop for all your urban farming supplies!  Chicks, pullets, ducks

quail, 

organic feed, feeders, waterers, beekeeping supplies and...egg cartons!

I had a slight obsession with egg cartons in Idaho.  My stash looked like this...

Everybody I knew collected them for me for our eggs because they were 40 cents each at our local supply place.  At the Portage Bay Grange, they were only 35 cents (for the non-colored).  What a deal! The other reason I chose the Portage Bay Grange as my first stop was because they were providing complimentary mimosas and pastries for refreshments.

Like I said, it wasn't like the granges we know in Idaho.

I passed on the pastries after my special birthday breakfast but totally enjoyed my mimosa.  I then headed back to West Seattle and stopped at Ceramists Seattle:  Garden and Studios.  This was a home ceramic studio that also was an example of an artful garden-to-table living.  They were making pizzas in their hand-built pizza oven.

Do you see a trend here on how I picked my tour choices?

Their pizzas were made from fresh ingredients from their gardens like potatoes, oregano and radishes.

They bought their pizza crust from a local Italian deli.

Since it was about lunch time for me, this really hit the spot and was totally delicious.

I loved their chicken coop, too.

I always favored the coops that you can just walk into and don't have to stoop down or that are low to the ground.

The chickens seemed perfectly happy

and so were their adorable cat and her kittens.  Cats and chickens just go together, you know.  They are two species that just seem to love each other.

I also like to look at how people manage their little farmsteads.  These people were very organized.

 They used rain water, of course.  Why not?  It's Seattle.

They were very organized about it, too.

My third stop was called Buried Treasure and they had won a pre-tour award already.

This place was amazing with it's gardens, trees, chickens, just everything!

Their greenhouse was a 600 sq. foot hoop house for year around production

and the chicken coop was three coops all adjacent to each other that connected to one another

with the last one having an opening for a huge chicken run.

They displayed their "chicken TV" which I thought was funny and could totally relate since our chicks were always inside the house for awhile, too.

I also liked all their lounging areas around their property to sit and relax.

They had a total of 1/2 acre since they bought the lot next door, too.  Just a lovely place.

I thought touring three places was pretty good considering the eating involved, the talking, socializing and driving.  I got my fix of awesomeness for the day.  We re-grouped at home (the guys had gone golfing) and we then headed out to the Mariner game which was Season Ticket Appreciation Night and free Nelson Cruz Bobblehead Night, one of our Mariner All-Stars for 2015.

I had emailed the Mariners to give them our change-of-address and soon afterwards, I received a phone call from our season ticket rep., Chuck, who invited us to a special beer tasting before the game, so we accepted.  

We had no idea how fun this would be. 

The Mariners paired up with Schooner Exact Brewery Company and we tasted four of their beers paired with incredible food from the Hit-It-Here Cafe at Safeco Field. 

The beer and food just kept coming.  I was one very happy birthday girl.

Occasionally, the rep. from the brewery would stop by and chat with us about his beers, which we were thoroughly enjoying, by the way.

Needless to say, we were not hungry during this Mariner game.

But the highlight of my birthday was seeing my birthday greeting up on the big screen at Safeco Field from Chuck, our Mariner ticket rep.  A perfect ending to a perfect day.