Tulips!

The part of Pullman that I live in is conveniently home to a number of city parks, and the city's formal garden. The land and funds for Lawson Gardens were donated to the city in 1985, and since then Pullman has done a great job of turning the site into a beautiful garden that makes for a nice place to visit on a sunny day. For a very reasonable rate you can also reserve the central lawn for weddings, something that seems to take place quite frequently.

After hearing from a neighbor that the tulips were plentiful at the garden, I decided to wander over one afternoon and check it out. I snapped some pretty good photos, and did it just in time, as the following two days we saw snow, torrential rain, and high winds--not so gentle to tulip blooms.

(those of you in the botanical know, please ignore that bulbs are not actually roots...)

And now, obligatory picture of Alice:

We just recently started an advanced obedience class, and on the first day Alice did a great job of showing everyone what an absolutely energetic, out of control dog looks like. She's so food motivated she loses her mind when there are really tasty treats around and it's all I can do to keep her energy level low. But energy is great! And no one can condemn a happy dog!

Almond Bread

One of the first things I baked after moving into my Pullman apartment was this great Braided Almond Bread. It freezes very well, which was very beneficial because I didn't want to eat the whole loaf all by myself in the short span of time before it would have gone bad if left out. It was also very nice to be able to pull a thick slice of bread out of the freezer on the way to work in the morning and have it for a morning snack.

Part of making the almond filling was blanching the almonds--something I'd never done before. I was amazed at how easy it was! I'm pretty sure the original recipe has you make enough almond paste for two loaves of bread, but I used the whole almond paste recipe on just one loaf--it wasn't overpowering, so you're definitely encouraged to go that way.

I used a bit less sugar than the recipe called for, so my bread didn't exude sugar the way you might see in the original recipe posting, but it was still dang tasty! (and easier to clean up.)

Spring on the Palouse

I've been lacking in my updates, due both to being busy at work and not having internet access at my apartment. Today I'm updating from the Daily Grind in downtown Pullman, where students have taken over with laptops to prepare for finals. The internet connection is running slower than molasses in January. On top of that, I forgot to upload recent pictures before coming here, so you'll have to wait awhile longer for true, exciting, photo-filled updates.

I do have this one photo for you though, taken a couple of weeks ago when we were soil sampling at the Wilke research station, just outside of Davenport, WA. This particular research project has 48 plots, all of which had to be sampled for our bulk density and fertility analyses. We take 2 cores per plot, which are combined into one representative sample. The tractor you see has a Giddings probe attached to the back--it's a hydraulically-driven corer that allows us to sample as deep as 5 feet without the human strain required when using a king tube or push probe. Even with this mechanical advantage, sampling takes a lot of time and I've spent many days in the field. The sun has been shining--I've got the sunburns to prove it--and there are definitely worse ways to spend a day at work.

New Job, New Address, New Phase of Life!

I don't think this will come as a surprise to any of you, but last weekend I loaded my belongings into a Uhaul and returned to Pullman to take a job working on a multi-state, agriculturally-focused climate change project. It's been in the works for quite awhile, and finally being in Pullman feels great.

My car began the journey to Pullman on Friday night, with my friend Kara taking on the task of driving it over. Alice and I followed the next morning in the Uhaul. I was incredibly nervous about driving the moving truck the roughly 300 miles between my new and old addresses, but things went great! Between my experience driving tour buses at the Zoo last summer and YMCA mini buses for the last few months, the truck was very easy to adjust to. The weather was even halfway decent for the trip over Snoqualmie Pass and the rest of our highway journey to Pullman.

Alice got to ride shotgun in her kennel and was a very patient passenger. I was a little worried because she had done quite a bit of complaining during the hour and a half long drive to Aunt Louise's house a couple of weeks before, and we were looking at 5+ hours for the move! Luckily, she spent most of her time curled up sleeping, waking just long enough to shoot me an unimpressed look if we hit a bump in the road too hard.

After arriving in town Kara and Keith and a couple of recruited friends helped unload the truck--it went so much faster than when my mom and I had been loading it on Friday afternoon! We spent much of Sunday relaxing and walking around campus, so it wasn't until this weekend (a week after moving in) that I got my boxes unpacked and put the place into a bit of order--it still needs work. I started my new job on Monday, and I find there are a lot of things I have to figure out and locate, but that shouldn't take too long and I'll soon be totally ready to kick some research butt.