Three clues:
Where is VS? Give me three clues to a place you’d like to visit!
Category Archives: Nature
What’s a Cubit?
Twice on the way home I had to pull over; the rain was just too much. Made me think of the Carolinas, and of Bill Cosby’s Noah. Let’s say you get your own Ark. Enough cubits to be comfortable – size of a hotel room. You have one day to pack.
What goes with you on your Ark?
Posterity
As this is published, Hurricane Florence is taking out her wrath on the southeast coast. I don’t know anyone named Florence, but I do know a Maria, a Katrina, a Sandy, a Patricia and a Rita – all big hurricanes in the last ten years. None of these folks are all that thrilled about having their name attached to a nasty hurricane. I realize that with an unusual name I probably will never have to worry about this happening to me!
What would you like to be named after you? And remember, this is for posterity, so be honest.
After the Ball Was Over
I scrubbed off all my temporary tattoos tonight. It’s official – the State Fair is over.
Most people I know don’t understand my love affair with the Great Minnesota Get Together and to be honest, it occasionally mystifies me a bit. But one of the things I do know is that I love getting temporary tattoos at the Fair. I got nine this year over my four days of attendance – 3 from the airbrush tattoo guy, 2 from Kemps, 2 from the AG building, 1 from the lamb building and my favorite, one of the emerald ash borer. There was a young man dressed up as an emerald ash borer at the DNR booth, trying to engage people about this new threat to ash trees and I felt sorry for him so I let him put his temporary tattoo alongside my others.
The airbrushed tattoos wear off the soonest (which is truly irritating, since they cost money) but over a week later, my free ones were still going strong. Every day last week I had to explain them at least twice a day to one or the other of my co-workers and today my book club members (my OTHER book club) wanted a full run down. It’s been my way of extending the Fair – however tentatively.
But tonight when I was closing a couple of windows (because it’s been getting chilly at night) I realized that it’s time to let this year Fair go and start dreaming of next year.
Do you have a tattoo? If you were to get one, what would you get?
Some Truthiness
Friday during Sherrilee’s “Destructo Kitty” post, I referenced one of those scroll-through-25-pictures articles, which wasn’t a very grown-up thing to do – who (besides a retired person) has time for that? The list (of truths to accept if you’re a real adult) was clearly compiled by a much younger person, but I did find some of the “truths” that resonated with me.
I also found one or two that made me snort tea. Here’s the link if you want to read the commentary, but the “truths” are listed below.
You’ll know you’re a real adult when you accept these 25 truths:
- Life’s tough. Get a helmet.
- If you want to play hard, you really do have to work hard.
- If you mess up, it’s your responsibility to fix it.
- Your driver’s license photo will never, ever be flattering.
- Sometimes you have to give people the benefit of the doubt.
- You have control over your life.
- Making compromises is a good thing. Compromising yourself is NOT.
- Success is just about perception.
- Some people are just big jerks.
- School doesn’t come close to teaching you everything you need to know.
- Love isn’t just a feeling, it’s a choice you make.
- You can’t help someone who doesn’t want to be helped.
- Money won’t solve your problems.
- You are not the center of the universe.
- Things are rarely as cool as they seem.
- You can’t make everybody happy.
- Sometimes you have to put yourself first.
- Jealousy is a huge waste of time.
- Change is good. Sometimes.
- You’re not getting any younger.
- Sometimes you just don’t have the answers.
- It’s never too late to change.
- Even if you have “more important” things to do, you NEED to get a good night’s sleep.
- You can’t have it all.
- The only time you should look back is to see just how far you’ve come.
Which one (or two, or more) of the above resonates with you?
Unidentified Object
Husband cleaned the garage and workbench yesterday and found this:
We don’t know what it is. It must have belonged to my father, since neither if us remember buying it. We inherited my father’s collection of tools and gadgets acquired over his very long life. He loved picking up this and that, just in case he might need them. We have several hundred drill bits, for example, not to mention many socket wrench sets.
I suppose it could be a tripod of some sort, but dad sold his camera decades ago. I think it looks so funny. I half expect it to come to life and run across the garage. I am not even sure which end of it goes up.
Any idea what this unidentified object is? When have you found something in your house you couldn’t remember buying or couldn’t identify? What does your tool and gadget collection look like?
Really Cookin’!
A couple of days ago LJB mentioned finding a recipe and sticking to it. I’ve been thinking about her comments a lot, since I am the exact opposite.
I had a lot of vacation days to use up, so have been off since the 22nd and I have been on a cooking jag. There are two main reasons for this. One of the reasons we’ve already discussed recently – TOMATOES! The other reason is that I’m a morning person. As much as I love to cook, I am just not up for cooking after I get home from work. Warmed up leftovers (or take out) in my jammies are pretty common fare for me at night.
So the combination of many mornings at home and my glut of tomatoes had me cooking up a storm. I started my vacation by dragging out about a dozen of my cookbooks; for some reason that I don’t even remember now, I pulled out a lot of vegan cookbooks. Then I flipped through them and used little slips of paper to mark some of the recipes that looked good to me. I marked about 16 recipes – only one of which I had ever made before. Then YA looked through and vetoed a few. I shopped for six recipes and then got going. I did the last one today – vegan lasagna rolls (which ended up being not vegan).
Here’s what got made on my vacation: Fried Bread Panzanella, Roasted Carrots w/ Parmesan & Garlic, Pico de Gallo, Pasta w/ Tomatoes & Olives, Roasted Tomato & Garlic Sauce, Smash Potatoes w/ Pesto & Parmesan, Apple Honey & Arugula Pizza and today’s Lasagna Rolls. Now we have enough leftovers to last another week or so.
When is repetition good for you? Or not?
Verisimilitude
The 9 course meal we ate on Saturday night was completely sourced from a 100 mile radius of the restaurant. Given its location just east of Seattle, it was no surprise that salmon, geoduck, mussels, and oysters were on the menu. We also ate local lamb and pork. All the veggies like turnips, carrots, greens, cabbage, potatoes, beets, and cucumber came from the restaurant farm, as did all the herbs and flowers used in the dishes. (Day lilies, Marigolds, and Bachelor Buttons are surprisingly tasty.) There were lovely local mushrooms. All the wines had been commissioned from local vintners by the restaurant owners last year for the meal. Cooking fat was either butter, grape seed oil, or hazelnut oil. They grow quinoa locally, and we had that, too.
The restaurant owners went to the extreme, though, to make sure that everything we ate was from within 100 miles. That meant that they churned their own butter from milk from local cows, and planted a couple of acres of rye and wheat to mill their own flour for the bread. They collected clean local sea water to make their own salt. We had no pepper, but there were so many farm herbs in the food that we didn’t miss it at all. Lemon verbena provided all the citrus we needed. The biggest dilemma was what to use for locally sourced leavening for the hazelnut cakes we had for dessert.
They started out last year collecting mule deer antlers from within a 100 mile radius of the farm and grinding them to a powder. Horn is apparently a good leavening agent and made some pretty good cakes. It takes a lot of laborious, time consuming grinding, though, and they found an even better leavening agent in wood ash from the fire place. Who knew?
Plan a meal completely sourced from a 100 mile radius of your house. What would you serve?
Silence of the Canes
I’m a chatter – I freely admit it. No life stories, but a comment for the cashier, a quick quip for others waiting in line with me, hello to the librarian. Normally I pick raspberries with my BFF Sara. We chat away while we pick and if there are folks on the other side of the canes, we usually talk with them a bit.
This year schedules just didn’t coincide so I ended up at the raspberry patch on my own. I was sent down a long row of canes with just one lone gentleman on the other side. He had just started as well and we were picking at about the same speed. We even, by unspoken agreement, shared the “in between” space. Sometimes he would pick berries from the middle and sometimes he left them for me.
But he didn’t chat. I asked just a few questions to see if we could find some common ground:
VS: What do you do with all your berries?
H: We spread them on cookies sheets and freeze them?
VS: Me too. After I make some jam.
Silence
VS: Where are you from?
H: Northfield
VS: That’s convenient. (berry patch is in Northfield)
H:
Silence
VS: Are you here alone today?
H: No, my wife is here.
Silence
Three hints are enough for me. Clearly he didn’t feel the need to chat, so I left him alone and we continued to pick silently. His wife eventually showed up and they outpaced me although even as they got farther away from me I could hear that they weren’t speaking to each other either. So at least it wasn’t me.
Did your folks tell you never to talk to strangers?
A Night at the Opera
Today’s post is from Occasional Caroline
Last summer or perhaps it was the summer of 2016, my sister heard about and attended several Grand Oak Opry concerts. She loved it, raved about it, told everyone about it. I knew from her enthusiasm that I would enjoy it, but I didn’t make time to join her at a concert until August 11. I’m pretty sure I won’t miss another one, except due to circumstances beyond my control. It can’t be adequately described, you have to see it for yourself to “get it.”
The Grand Oak Opry is a unique concert series that takes place in the backyard of Sean Kershaw and Timothy Hawkins, in St. Paul’s West Seventh neighborhood. They started by hosting two concerts in the summer of 2014, and have grown every year since. The 2018 schedule includes seven concerts, with two still to come; We Are the Willows on 9/1 and David Huckfelt & Erik Koskinen Band on 9/30.
The show I saw could not have been more fantastic. It was presented in partnership with the Schubert Club, and the performers were Maria Jette and Dan Chouinard! The Schubert Club delivered a Steinway grand piano to the backyard venue early in the day and picked it up when the event was over at about 9:30.
So, yes, the concert I attended will be hard to beat. Dan Chouinard played a rendition of Rhapsody in Blue that was absolutely amazing. Maria Jette displayed a remarkably diverse range of musical artistry; the whole night was magical. But, I think the Grand Oak Opry experience would be sensational if the entertainment was an elementary school band with a tone-deaf director. The setting is under a huge oak tree in the backyard of 273 W Goodhue St, St Paul. A crystal chandelier hangs in the branches of the tree, which is estimated to be about 200 years old and is still going and growing strong. The backyard décor also includes several brightly painted doors, each with a lantern hanging on a bracket. They are doors to nowhere, but provide a whimsical, colorful, touch to the setting. To put a cherry on top, as the sun began to set, fireflies came out to add to the magical ambiance.
There are no tickets or reservations. Shows start at 7:30 and gate opens at 6:30. Concert goers just show up with their chairs or blankets, bringing food and drink if they choose. A $10 donation is suggested from each guest; all the money collected goes directly to the evening’s performers. Children are welcome to attend the concert or to play in the front yard of the pre-Civil War era home, if the music isn’t quite to their taste. Pets are not allowed. Neighbors volunteer as greeters and information givers, helpfully pointing out the path to the restroom (in the house), a table with water and bug spray, and answering questions. It’s an amazingly friendly and welcoming atmosphere for both newbies and veterans. Attendance has varied from 40-45 at the first show in 2014 to about 500, including overflow into the neighboring yard, earlier this summer (I think it might have been Chastity Brown that night).
Facebook (https://www.facebook.com/grandoakopry/) is the primary source for schedule and other information about concerts. They do have a WordPress blog but a lot of the information there refers to past years and the Facebook page is more up to date.
OK, that’s it. I’m done. I liked it. A lot. Anyone for a Baboon field trip on 9/1 or 9/30?
Have you had an experience that was better than you could have hoped for or expected?
Trail Baboon 