When YA was four, we had a nice day at the zoo. As we went through the Minnesota Trail, there was a beautiful lynx right in the middle of its habitat. YA was mesmerized; she stood right in from of the glass and stared at the lynx. The lynx stared back; they literally had locked eyes. The two of them stood still like that for a good five minutes. YA broke eye contact to look to me and at that point, the lynx bolted for another part of the habitat. I probably should have realized at that moment that YA had some animal whisperer talent. Maybe it started that day – the lynx has always been one of her favorite animals.
We get emails from the zoo so we were aware that there were two lynx kittens born at the zoo in late spring. The email announcing that the kittens were out for viewing came a couple of weeks back; YA has been on me ever since to get to the zoo.
Yesterday, since I had Blevins in the afternoon, we zipped down to Apple Valley at opening time, 9 a.m. The plan was to go see the lynx first, then see other stuff, then circle back to the lynx before heading home.
Going in the cool morning was great! All the animals were up and about (except the beavers). We even got to see the two martins, who are NEVER awake normally. The wolves, who are usually all sacked out in the back of their area were up, rolling around and even coming right up to the windows!
Saw the red pandas, the sloth (who is usually sleeping when we’re there), all the otters, the caribou, the big moose. Even the prairie dogs were all up and working on their breakfast.
We did go back to the lynx – the kittens had found a way to climb up to the top of their habitat and were looking down at all of us. Even though we could hardly see them and they weren’t doing much, YA had us stand there almost 10 minutes.
All in all, it was a glorious day at the zoo. I think we’ll probably head out early and get there at opening from now on!
A cool wet morning yesterday was perfect for some time in the kitchen. Especially since my tomato plants are still going gangbusters.
Normally I look for easy recipes but for some reason I was drawn to a complicated Macaroni & Cheese with Roasted Tomatoes and Chilis that I found in my Tomato cookbook. It had several steps that needed to be combined at the end, which always spooks me. I’m usually fairly casual about cooking so having to get everything to come together at one point isn’t my favorite modus operandi. But with nothing else on my to-do list, I thought I could handle it.
Part of the recipe was a layer of roasted tomatoes; the recipe called for big tomatoes but I have tons of cherry tomatoes, so I looked up an alternative recipe. I made this first and as the tomatoes were roasting, I laid out all the other ingredients on the counter. It felt like I was doing a cooking show! Then the poblanos got roasted over the gas flame; it’s so much fun to hear the peppers popping and sizzling! Added the peppers to the tomatoes with a couple large cloves of garlic.
Next up was the cheese sauce; it’s been quite a while since I made a roux and then a cheese sauce from scratch. SO much cheese – sharp cheddar, fontina and parmesan. And so much stirring! Managed to get the pasta cooked so that it was done right when the cheese sauce was ready. (leaf-shaped pasta that YA and I found at Trader Joe’s last weekend.)
Laid the tomato/poblano mix in the bottom of my 8” square cast iron, then layered the mac and cheese over that. Then came the breadcrumb topping – breadcrumbs and melted butter – and finally popped the whole thing in the oven for 25 minutes.
Looking at this description, it doesn’t seem as complicated as it felt at the time. The whole dish, including roasting the tomatoes and peppers, took about an hour and a half. I had thought it would take longer. I managed to clean as I went, so there wasn’t a massive mess when I was done.
It smelled heavenly and tasted heavenly as well. YA liked it as well, which isn’t always guaranteed. I guess this means I’ll have to keep this recipe in our roster for another cool rainy day!
Any foods you’re trying to eat up (or put up) this fall?
PS: The left-hand photo is before it went into the oven and the right-hand is the finished product.
It’s been so dry here this summer that hint of possible precipitation gets me all worked up. So, when there was a forecast for rain for yesterday morning, I was happy to hear it, even if it meant getting a bit damp doing my errands. When it didn’t rain… well, grumpy-city!
Time to cave and set up the sprinkler. I did the backyard first and about 20 minutes later, as I was putting something in the recycling on the back porch, I looked out the back door and saw a good handful of sparrows having a frolic! It was so cute. Unfortunately I didn’t get a good picture – the dog barked before I could get a shot. But here is a video that looked a lot like the scene in the back:
(This is a bit long for what it is… won’t hurt my feelings if you don’t watch it all the way through!) I’m not sure why I was so taken with this. Maybe because we are barraged on all sides daily with such ugliness, seeing something sweet and unspoiled is even more special. I know, I’m getting a bit mawkish here, but it was just one of days!
Anything sweet and unspoiled to report in your world this week?
You all know where I am, right? That’s right – the VS State Fair Fest has begun!
Tickets purchased (actually bought them in November for last year’s price).
Blue Ribbon Coupon Book purchased. Both YA and I have added our post-it notes.
Food list assembled and printed off. This includes traditional items that we like every year (corn, cookies, crepe, Hawaiian shave ice, etc.) as well as new foods.
Trial drive to parking lot done. I do this every year to make sure there isn’t any surprise road construction.
Turtle bag “packing list” updated… actually just printed out this year – we didn’t make any changes from last year.
Turtle bag packed (bandaids, Tylenol, pad/paper, address labels, collapsible container for cookies, coupon book, cash…).
Depending on what time you’re up and reading this, I’m either feeding the dog/cat before I leave, driving to St. Paul, waiting in line, on the Park & Ride bus. Once the bus gets to the transit hub and I get through the entrance, who knows what the day will bring for me!
You’ll have to talk among yourselves today. Anything planned for YOUR day?
Yesterday I got an email from MPR inviting me to download an e-book titled 2026 Minnesota State Fair New Foods e-book. I signed up and they sent me the e-book within a few minutes. Gotta love computers. The email also said starting Saturday I’ll be getting the Minnesota Today Weekend Edition newsletter. If there’s any State Fair news, that will be fine, otherwise it will get discontinued.
I don’t really need to have three weeks to get prepared for State Fair. We have all our tickets already. I have a little checklist for things to take. But after getting the e-book, I couldn’t help but do a little more. So I printed out the actual tickets (back-up in case the whole cell-phone-wallet thing doesn’t work) and downloaded the two fair apps. One is the official Great Get Together app and the other is called Minnesota on a Stick. We don’t use these heavily but every now and then they come in handy with show times and locations of various food stuffs that we’re looking for.
My state fair t-shirts are all folded nicely in one section of my t-shirt drawer. Back before I was retired, I would wear one every work day in August. Guess I can still do that, just at home. I have 11 shirts at this point – short sleeve. I also have one long-sleeve with a loon on it, but I’m not wearing that in August, so I don’t count it. (It doesn’t even live with the other fair shirts; it lives with my long sleeves.)
I probably won’t be able to keep myself from going to Cub in the next day or so to get our Blue Ribbon Discount Coupon books. And I might have to print out my checklist! Good grief.
Any big events coming up for you? How long do you need to get ready to hear VS drone on and on about state fair this year?
Saturday night was the first downpour we’ve had in a while. So it didn’t surprise me when my tomatoes, which are really tall for the first week of July, were sagging over, taking their tomato cages with them. I don’t usually have to shore up tomatoes this early in the season, but …. gotta do what you gotta do. As I was pushing my stakes in, I found two ripe cherry tomatoes. Two. On the 5th of July. I have never ever had ripe tomatoes this early.
I usually pull out the cookbooks looking for tomato recipes in late July, early August. But I have the perfect recipe for these two darlings.
First of the Season Cherry Tomato Delight Ingredients
Two perfect cherry tomatoes
Salt (optional)
Instructions
After harvesting the two cherry tomatoes, rinse thoroughly
Pat tomatoes dry
Open mouth
Pop the first tomato in
Chew
Repeat
Serves just one
What summer produce are you looking forward to the most?
In looking for my packing list on my pc last night, I found a Word file titled “From Books I Like”. It’s only a couple of pages long and I would not have remembered that I have this document if I hadn’t stumbled upon it. It has a few quotes from books that I’ve read; one of the quotes is that wonderful metaphor about the town from TheEgg&I by Betty MacDonald that I’ve written about before. Then there are two other quotes from Michael Perry’s OffMainStreet. One is another transfixing metaphor….
“Summer is a seducer. After bundling through another tight-lipped winter, after enduring the mounting frustration of spring’s titillating dance of veils, we gape as summer comes sliding down her blazing ecliptic like a woman down a banister. She laughs with her head thrown far back; she throws her hands high in the air, releasing fistfuls of butterflies. She belly dances through the cornfields until the dust rises like a charmed snake, hanging in fat curls, leaving you cotton-mouthed. She makes the fox pant, she drives the hawk to think air. Weaker creatures curtain themselves away to complain.”
Fairly appropriate as I’m enjoying the beginning of spring/summer this week. My major gardening push is done so now I can enjoy my yard without massive effort. Bird feeders are full, hummingbird feeders are out (although I haven’t seen any hummingbirds yet). YA and I have new Adirondacks in back as one of our old ones gave up the ghost a couple of weeks back. Windows open. No fans down from the attic yet although I have had my overhead fan going a couple of times in my bedroom. Did my twice-a-year laundering of my bedding and allergy covers. Swapped out my spring/summer wardrobe for my winter one. Aaaaahhhhhh.
Of course, unearthing these quotes on the pc makes me wonder if I have other files like this started and squirrelled away. Suppose I’ll have to take a look one of these days!
As of yesterday afternoon, the biggest part of my gardening year is over. Clean-up from the fall, spring weeding, mulching, flower baskets planted and veggies planted in the bales. Phew!
It took way longer this year than usual. Part of this was the weather. We had spectacular weekends but then I wasn’t following through because Monday – Friday was too cool. I do not like to garden when I’m cold and I certainly don’t want to wear a coat out there either! Then the mess from the fall was much bigger than usual. And all my fault. A triple whammy, in fact.
My gardening season came to an abrupt end the day after my birthday last August, when I blew out my first knee. Then right about the time I might have gotten to some fall clean up, the other knee went. That meant that apart from some watering (most of which YA took care of), I didn’t do ANY fall clean up. No dead-heading the late summer flowers, no cutting back peony stalks, no raking (although YA is a little bitty bit).
The second problem was last year’s mulch. For reasons that pass understanding, I chose big chunky wood chips last year. As we were spreading them about last spring, I was thinking I’d made a mistake, but it didn’t become clear how obnoxious these wood chips were until we were cleaning up this spring. They didn’t seem to have broken down at all and were a mess to work around/with.
Then there was the Creeping Charlie fail. Normally I do a great job of weeding the Creeping Charlie menace but last summer, I was busy in July, thinking I would just do a big push in August. But, then…. well, you know. My nemesis ground cover didn’t give a fig about my knees so there was way more weeding needed this year on that front before the mulch could go down.
I’m feeling quite relieved… there will, of course, be plenty of gardening going forward, but not the three/four hours a day grind we’ve been going through. Time to enjoy!
When was the last time you “shot yourself in the foot”?
Things really have been going well so far. Last Saturday we closed the spring college show, the last show for the director, Jerry. He’s retiring at the end of the academic year. He and I have worked together at the college for 25 years, (I was free-lance the first few years) and have known each other longer than that.
Notice the students in the background.
Did you make the connection? His name is Jerry. And we like ice cream.
Our buddy Brian, in a scene from the play. Brian has been around, like, forever. As a student he was the thorn in my side. A fun thorn, but one of those kids that pokes the bear right up to the edge. He’s one of our besties now.
Monday we got 0.65 inches of rain. I had concert rehearsals Monday and Tuesday with a final spring concert on Wednesday and we finished planting the windbreak bushes. The oats started poking out of the ground on Thursday. Got some more corn planted, too. Making progress.
I have 25 Tamarack trees to plant yet. I didn’t realize they’re also known as a Larch. And when I heard that, my head immediately said, in that Monty Python voice, “The Larch”.
Saturday, at one of my other jobs, I’ll be working the Bernie Sanders visit to Rochester. As usual, I’ll be way in the back in the booth. His advance crew has been very nice and on our walk through with six Rochester Police officers, the high school kids were sure staring at us. I saw one young lady, whose mouth fell open at the sight of us, and I said, “You’re in trouble now.”
On Tuesday the township had a culvert replaced on the only road into our place. The neighbor and I just planned on staying home. As part of my township duties, I went up and was an official inspector. They had a shovel I could lean on.
It was interesting to watch them start the project. Another contractor had a high-pressure water jet, and a giant vacuum, and they made a trench to expose the two telephone lines and the fiber optic line that bisected the culvert on the West side. That fiber line through the culvert is what started this whole thing. Turned out to be another phone line on the East side. The old culvert they could cut in pieces to get out. The new one, the contractor put all the way to the west, then slide it in under all the cables. Added the aprons on both ends, and add some rip-rap. Good for another 85 years.
Padawan is getting more experience every day. There are days I feel like I spend all my time explaining things and answering his phone calls. I try to remember he really doesn’t know anything about this stuff. And the more he learns, the more valuable / knowledgeable he becomes. The other day I had him move the tractor and digger on to the concrete, then I showed him how to replace digger points, and I went out and graded the road. He found a broken shank, which he learned how to replace one other day, although this one was a bit more difficult, and it took a few more phone calls but he got it. Two weeks ago he would not have know what a broken shank was or that it was important.
He cut grass. Until he ran it out of gas. I mentioned that it has a gauge. “That thing sucks!” he says. “Don’t blame the tools” I remind him. “That gauge was blinking way over there. I cut grass for another hour!” …so you had an hour’s warning to fill it?? He walked away from me. And got a gas can and refilled the mower.
He has a one-track mind and that track is cars. My goodness he talks about cars a lot.
Friday morning a crew was out to burn the CRP ground. Conservation Reserve Program. They burn every five years as part of the regular maintenence.
I spent 6 hours chisel plowing the cemetery field I started running last year. It was the last field to be harvested last fall, just before it snowed, so I didn’t get it worked up last year. After I got that worked up I spent an hour planting corn.
It’s been some real nice weather.
Sunset
Moon rise
BEEN TO A BEN AND JERRY’S ICE CREAM STORE?
GOT A FAVORITE MONTY PYTHON OR FAWLTY TOWERS MOMENT?
Last Saturday was really rainy here. It seemed to rain all day. In ND, rain was a discrete event that only lasted for a little while until it stopped completely. Our rain Saturday seemed to last for hours.
Husband has been very anxious about the weather here, getting pretty worked up during snow/rain storms and wind. He just isn’t accustomed to the way it goes here. Our very active terriers were surprisingly sleepy all day on Saturday. I assumed this was due to the weather. Husband napped. I find the only weather that gets me real excited is snow storms. I love blizzards if I am home. I find it hard to sleep!
We usually had very low humidity most of the time in ND. Here it is so variable. I find my arthritis gets worse as the humidity and air pressure change. We all have a lot to get used to.
How does the weather impact you? What weather do you find exciting or distressing ? Post some weather music.
