It’s been quite some time since I posted a photo showing one of the flower arrangements I designed that was then photographed by Spencer.

This arrangement especially appeals to me since my favorite color is purple. I love the way the cool green pompoms contrast so well with the elegant tall purple stalks (don’t know what type of flower they are).

A few Sundays ago, The Seattle Times Pacific Northwest magazine had an article on flower arranging by long-time contributor and gardening guru, Valerie Easton. I learned a lot by reading it, and hope you will, too.

Just for fun, here’s a gorgeous bouquet I snapped standing outside the Women’s Conditioning Room at the Washington Athletic Club. The florists there are truly talented; their weekly changing arrangements send me into my workout inspired and uplifted.

Another fun photo from our summer vacation. . .the Norwegian Sun (the boat we seemed to follow all over the Baltic Sea) gets a paint job.

And you think you have a tough job?!?!

During our recent summer vacation to Scandinavia and Russia, we enjoyed a four-hour tour of Helsinki, Finland, that culminated in a Finnish food workshop.

We were offered Finnish beer or vodka to accompany the tastes of reindeer salami, smoked salmon, heavy butter with fish roe, and wonderful fermented dark bread.

Because I’m not much of a beer drinker, I opted for the tar-flavored vodka, which smelled so strongly of tar I could hardly get it past my nose. Once I took a small sip out of the little bucket (pictured above), the tar flavor continued along with a very sweet aftertaste. Hmmm. . .maybe this is an acquired taste.

Dessert brought some relief thanks to the cloudberry cake and cranberry-studded dark chocolate (Finns supposedly love their chocolate). But the salted licorice may be another acquired taste, not unlike the tar-flavored vodka.

Once Stateside again, a ProChef SmartBrief article showed me that perhaps the Finns were simply ahead of their time, since an Alaskan distillery is making smoked salmon-flavored and one in Seattle touts bacon-flavored vodka, both reportedly very popular for use in Bloody Mary drinks.

On our final afternoon in Copenhagen, when temperatures were close to 90 degrees outside and temperatures had been unseasonably warm since our start in London 15 days before, we sought most welcome comfort at the cool (both literally and figuratively) IceBar CPH by IceHotel.

City dwellers pack up the car and head out to Arlington, Washington, this weekend (June 19 and 20, 10 a.m. to 5 p.m.) to Biringer Farm‘s Strawberry Fest. It’s located on the new Red Rooster Route, a collection of half a dozen small family farms, at 21412 59th Ave NE, Arlington, WA, 98223.

Think of this as a strawberry paradise. Ride the Jolly Trolley out to acres of fresh strawberries to pluck and eat right from the vines. You’ll never get them any fresher!

Enjoy the open wide spaces, get back to nature, meet the farmer, and see where your food comes from. Picnic in the vintage covered wagon next to the historic barn or bring a blanket and picnic on the grass.

Festive Activities: Pony Rides, Giant Strawberry Ride, Kiddy Slides, Puppet Shows, Inflatables, Pennies in the Hay, Story Time, Barnyard Croquet, Pig-Butt Bowling, and more.

Barn Market: Ready-picked strawberries, containers of fresh-sliced and sugared ready-to-eat strawberries, local honey, shortcakes, cold drinks, and (of course!) fresh strawberry shortcake.

This is an experience in this traditions are kept, treasured memories are made, and luscious fruit goes home with family and friends. . .until they return again.

How best to use your fresh-picked strawberries? Here’s a complete Northwest menu. . .scroll down for the recipe for Merry Berry Medley.

Ahoy, matey! Good news. . .there’s still time to walk the gangplank to “Bounty! An Epic Adventure in Seafood,” which runs on Thursday, Friday, and Saturday evenings through June 19.

This fun-filled, action-packed, aquatic-themed show and five-course dinner and wine pairings is presented at Theo Chocolate in Seattle’s funky Fremont neighborhood and garnered a very favorable review from The Seattle Times theater critic, Misha Berson.

The evening begins with a Champagne greeting at 7:00 p.m.; the first course sets sail at 7:30 p.m. in Cafe Nordo–an intimate restaurant on an old sailing vessel.

Guests are regaled with sea stories and chanteys, folklore and science in this epic celebration of the fruits of our oceans.

And one of the evening’s best features? Concerned citizens can leave their Monterey Bay Aquarium wallet inserts at home, as local and sustainable seafood is at the very heart of this love letter to the sea.

Delights from the creative menu include the Big Bang amuse bouche, Sea Urchin, and locally sourced salmon, all of which highlight the local and sustainable gifts of the waters around Seattle. Original music and performance are the wind and waves in this evocation of a sailor’s love for the ocean.

Here’s our server, “Chum,” dishing up Manila clams, Mediterranean mussels, and Dungeness crab claws from our table’s very own aquarium!

And here’s a close-up of the delicious seafood soup.

And not to spoil the surprise, but the evening ends with a dramatic shipwreck and. . .zombies!

Tickets are $79 per person on Thursdays; $89 on Friday and Saturday, and are available at www.brownpapertickets.com. For more information visit www.cafenordo.com

My friend and Seattle public-relations maven extraordinaire, Louie Richmond, founder of Richmond Public Relations, sent me a batch of a fun new snack–popchips–that I’d seen advertised on the sides of city buses and elsewhere the last month or so.

Culpa mea: I’m not much of a snack-y person. . .I much prefer a glass of wine and piece of cheese or a piece of best-quality dark chocolate to a bag of chips or a handful of pretzels.

But the all-natural (no preservatives, artificial flavors, or colors) crunchy-round beauties quickly captured my heart. Because they are somehow rather miraculously popped rather than baked or fried, their texture is more akin to a crispy rice cake than a more traditional chip.

They’re even healthy, as snacks go, with no cholesterol or saturated fat, 0 grams of trans fat, and just 100 calories for an entire 0.8-ounce bag, which contains a very satisfying 18 chips.

I liked the plain chips just fine, but the flavored varieties really captured my imagination. Flavors such as Cheddar, Sea Salt and Pepper, Sour Cream and Chives, and Barbecue.

Not only are they good to eat out of hand by themselves or with a dish of tomatillo salsa, but (once gently crushed under a rolling pin or in a Zip-loc bag) they make a nice crumble over vegetarian (or regular) chili or could even be used as a crust for chicken or fish.

One of the highlights of the month of January was a tour of KOMO TV’s studios at Fisher Plaza near downtown Seattle. Many of you know the sleek, modern building as the home of Seattle Grace Hospital on the popular Grey’s Anatomy television show. And while we didn’t see McDreamy or any of the other cast members (who haven’t done any filming at KOMO during the past two years, according to our tour guide), we did get up close and personal with KOMO’s super-star anchor Mary Nam and its effervescent weatherman, Steve Pool, during a taping of KOMO 4 News@4PM.

Above is Mary and 425 magazine’s style editor, Alexandra Hedin, chatting before they do a segment on creative ideas for Superbowl parties. Alexandra was just one week away from having a baby, and her husband had begged her to bag the segment, but she went on like a trooper.

And here is Steve (resident gourmet and wine lover) sampling Pizza and Nacho Rolls, an easy Superbowl snack. Complete recipes and tips are on the 425 Web site.

Back this summer, I had the pleasure of signing my books, including Pacific Northwest Wining & Dining, at the beguiling Queen Anne Farmers’ Market, an invitation from Queen Anne Bookstore.

Here are some of the creative entries in the fruit-carving contest, from porcupines to turtles to bird cages. Seems like a long time ago, with all the cool fog and drizzle of late.

During the holidays, our thoughts often turn to the dear departed. On our recent trip to the Olympic Peninsula, I was phondly reminded of a member of our phamily, Phish, who passed to the great beyond earlier this year.

Here’s a little lookalike from Fins (or should I say, Phins?) Coastal Cuisine, a lovely waterfront restaurant in Port Townsend. If we hadn’t watched Phish’s tiny coffin float into Shilshole Bay, we would have sworn our Phish-y phriend had been reincarnated.