Anna left New Haven yesterday from Tweed-New Haven Airport to attend the graduation of a niece in South Carolina. I was fascinated that they were allowed wifi and transmitted the takeoff. How fun to watch! Wifi was in and out during the flight and I missed the landing by seconds. Even over the Atlantic, I could see her live on the phone.
I apologize for the one little glitch: my meds notification on the phone.
Here is a video of the takeoff made by Anna.
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The plane in New Haven
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I don't recognize where this was filmed during the flight.
Screenshots from Find My of Anna in the air:
Finally, taxiing into the airport at Myrtle Beach:
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Watching the kids travelling—to Barcelona, Cuba, Los Angeles, Texas—fascinates me somehow. Or perhaps these are only images that a mother could love. 😉🤷
"My" apple cake I asked Amy to level the top and she said "It's fine."
You can find recipe links at the bottom of the post.
One of my favorite things to do is to virtually bake with my kids. They are in Vermont, Washington, DC, and Connecticut. Sometimes we simply just bake whatever we want, but sometimes we bake the same recipe. We turn on our phones and show techniques and equipment to each other (yes, just like the baking shows). We holler instructions, question each other's sanity ("You did what??"), and laugh. This new family tradition began during lockdown.
Yesterday, we did a Dorie Greenspan recipe, Marie-Hélène's Apple Cake. I had shared a King Arthur Apple Cake recipe with the group. We all agreed we were going to bake it. But Andrew, in DC, is our professional-grade baker, who is so serious that he specially insures his kitchen. He found the derivative recipe from which King Arthur (KAF) based their recipe. We read, we compared and debated and decided to do Greenspan's original recipe first.
Again, "my" apple cake
There were quite a few reasons for the decision. KAF uses two flours, 2 extracts, and a crushed nut bottom. It also used fewer apples. KAF was actually a more complicated recipe, which is odd. I suspect they are going through another phase to gain more readers and market. Greenspan got her recipe from a French woman. Andrew said it was authentic, the way the French bake: no spices, just the pure apple taste coming through. I mocked that, because Greenspan uses 4 apples, each a different variety. I doubt the French had a choice of apples back in the day. I cook with Cortland and Macintosh and that's that. But when I think about it, even though the French probably used what was at hand, we are privileged to have all these apple varieties now that can enhance flavor.
Because of my arthritis, I can barely cook anymore. Amelia was here and I had the Cortlands, so she made two cakes: mine and one for her house (I did prep the pans, though). Andrew had 2 Granny Smith, 2 Gala, and an extra Gala from a Tarte Tatin he made last weekend, giving him 5 instead of 4 apples. I have farm eggs, but somehow I had gotten medium-sized eggs, so Amelia and I decided we had to toss in one or two extra to make sure the cake was custardy enough. Amelia, good little American that she is, was going to add cinnamon and cloves to the cake, but I threatened her life. The entire point of this bake was to taste apple, not spices, like the old French did. After she divided the batter between the two springform pans, we realized we were short 2 apples (that's what happens when you are all talking at once on a video call), so she cut up another one, tossed the chunks in each pan and stirred it all up. She refused to do a fourth. Andrew ran down to the corner to get the best vanilla extract money can buy (you can do that in DC, I guess). We used the vanilla I make from John's old applejack made from our apple orchard.
We had all agreed not to use rum at all.
Andrew's apple cake He meticulously leveled the cake top
Final Opinions
(Anna was out shopping in Connecticut but was in on the call)
Me
This cake is divine. I never want another cake in my life. I never want to taste cinnamon again except in my pumpkin and squash pies and breads. I will play with different varieties of apples even though the Cortlands were perfect. I'm not going to even try the KAF version.
Amelia
I'm going to use cinnamon next time.
Andrew
I think if you make this with pears and the rum brandy ice cream I make (which tastes like egg nog) it would be a good Christmas dessert. I'll garnish it with some candied nuts.
Over New Haven, Connecticut Sunday night, September 25, 2022
That is, basically, what my daughter, Anna, saw over New Haven Harbor as she stood on the second floor porch of her house on Long Island Sound. I made a GIF of the extremely short video because it hurt my eyes and the GIF does not (I don't know why). Anna's iPhone could not handle the data from the sky well. We quickly learned that this was a SpaceX Starlink satellite train. Each satellite has a life of only 1-5 years. A SpaceX rocket had taken off in Florida that day and was deploying dozens of Internet satellites 500 km over the earth. Humorously, just before I found this information, Anna derisively mentioned it was probably some Elon Musk "thing" that she saw. And so it was. The trains have been seen, and videoed, all over the world, but we had not heard of it until Anna showed us.
The video below is the most interesting and informative one that I found about Starlink, but it was produced in 2019, so it is out of date. However, the astrophotographer clearly explains this controversial project.
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The video below is more technical (2019, also). When I watch information like this, I learn what I am able to understand and ponder the rest for the future. I admit that I love the mathematics involved. Be sure to tell your children and grandchildren that they will be set for life if they become mathematicians. 😉
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I have not been able to learn if the individual satellites, like the ones Anna saw, are physically tethered to each other when in orbit or at launch.
One and a half hours later, Anna sent us three videos of storms that came in off of the Sound. She was hoping to get a lightning video, but that didn't happen. I merged the three to one, below.
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Perhaps some will enjoy and appreciate a GIF of our favorite astrophysicist, Neil deGrasse Tyson, which one child of mine used to express her understanding of Starlink:
There is a tortie cat in this video that is not Sweet Pea.
My Anna's Sweet Pea passed today. Anna shared an iPhone Pet Friends video of Sweet Pea. Sweet Pea has been ill with diabetes for about two years. Anna and Aaron have worked closely with their veterinarian all this time.
Sweet Pea came to Anna in 2008 on a Hartford, Connecticut city street. A drug dealer had a kitten and wanted Anna to buy her from him. Anna said fine, she'd pay and the addict handed the kitten to her. Anna then walked away without paying. He threatened her but she said loudly so all could hear, "I've rescued this cat from you, you motherfucker. Get the fuck away from us." Anna is my formidable daughter.
Maple Hill Road, Barton, Vermont Sunday, September 25, 2022 The mountain in the background is Owl's Head in Québec The farm raises beefalo.
This is the road I take to Orleans Village to see Jody and to go to church. On Saturday, I did both: the Women's Fellowship had its Fall Fling and Jody went with me. The church is across from her house. We entered the raffles and we each won! I got my Pioneer Woman Mini Dutch Ovens (which are stainless, not cast iron), and Jody won a peanut butter bird feeder. I got a bag of doughnuts, also.
Jody's bird feeder
My mini Dutch ovens
After the fair, and after Jody had tended to the potatoes in the church garden that she created and manages, we went across the road to her home gardens to photograph insects in the beautiful weather. Those bugs will be in another post, but just to show you how good an iPhone bug photographer Jody is, here is a long-jawed spider that she found. It is unedited. I love the piped icing framing its abdomen. I'm an amateur, but it looks as if this species has its abdomen mimic a head so that predators don't bite its head off! That is common is butterflies and moths.
Long-jawed Spider Genus Tetragnatha
As for me, I got my own Lifer bee, among many other bugs:
Orange-tipped Wood-Digger (Anthophora terminalis)
We ate our doughnuts with water in the garden as we watched the wasps and bees.
Orleans Federated Church Orleans Village, Barton, Vermont
Sunday was busy, too. First, to church back in Orleans. Then Amelia and Dori came to help me with housework, and I began cooking: macaroni and cheese, chili, bread, and brownies. We all ended the weekend trading our newest family photos of the grandpuppies.
Amelia's Dori in Orleans
Anna's Stewie and Milo (the Devil Dogs) in New Haven
I have not had such a normal, brilliant weekend in years.
In mid-August, my daughter Anna found an ill pigeon on one of her upper porches. She named him Mr. Pigeon. He would not fly and never tried to escape her. She said he was coated with something like paint; the bird was "too black." She found a pigeon rehabilitator, Lisa Ann, who came and took the poor boy "home" to live with three other pigeons she had for rehab.
The next day, Lisa Anna called Anna and said Mr. Pigeon was dirty, exhausted, had minor injuries, and was malnourished, but he would recover. Mr. Pigeon's dark color was simply a variation of color that all pigeons have. Best of all, the four birds had already developed into a flock, which would facilitate Mr. Pigeon's healing. A couple of weeks later, Anna got photos of the bird. He looked new!
Mr. Pigeon is in the middle.
In September, Lisa Ann introduced the four to a wild flock in an empty parking garage in New Haven early on a Sunday morning. The wild flock accepted the new guys very quickly, and the story had a very happy ending.
Here are photos of the two flocks merging and bonding in the air and on the ground:
I was unable to get two videos for this post, but when I do receive them, I will post them. They brought tears to our eyes. A lonely pigeon who seemed to have given up on life was happy in a flock of his peers and he soared!
Lisa Ann rehabs dogs, cats, birds, and any other creature that needs her.
Daughter Anna sent us this photo yesterday. It was taken on the pier in New Haven Harbor where she walks the devil dogs. It didn't move until she left.
I said that it was nice to see a mouse whole and not in parts.
My daughter, Anna, and her husband Aaron rescued these sibling long-haired Chihuahuas as babies; they call them the devil puppies. The abuse, physical and emotional, that they suffered was severe enough that the effects will probably linger forever. They are happy now and feel secure and loved. But they are a tad demanding!
Amelia came to school Sunday and helped put my new office together. I have been moved, thank goodness, so now I'm not so isolated and am in the middle of the action. I no longer have a classroom; just an office. But this office is mine, unlike last year. No sharing. No copier machine. Nobody else's stuff. Only my stuff. Plus, I found my complete set of Sir Cumference books that I have not seen for four years! I finished unpacking and arranging things on Wednesday. 😎
Jody, Amelia, Anna and I spent one virtual night last week trolling Twitter and sharing hedgehog pics. I decided I had to have a hedgehog village. So Jody surprised me with a starter home and two companions for the hedgehog. 💖
My hedgehog starter home.
My hedgehog companions.
Unfortunately, the dinosaurs from last year's fossil class escaped. . .
Oh, nooo!
Not to worry; all are happy and well. I'm going to ask some kids to make a backdrop and forest floor for the cubby where these are being showcased.
These are the things I am so thankful for this week.
I called Lucy down from the upper field just to see her face when she asks, "What? What?" and being so happy, as she is all the time (well, unless I won't give her a treat that is bad for her).
Daughter Amelia took Dori for an evening walk and bumped into a beautiful sunset.
Amelia and her husband went out for the evening, leaving two foster kittens behind with their babysitter, Fender, who confronts them at the end of the evening at the door, "Why you so late??? They were so naughty!"
Dori had a bath. Dori always ends her baths like this. Dori is a self-drying puppy.
Remy (for Rembrandt), below, is a pandemic lockdown kitty that my son, Andrew, adopted literally one hour before lockdown in Washington, DC, where he lives. Remy "discovers" himself here. He bushed out his tail at the stranger (he's a shorthair).
Finally, my daughter, Anna, and her husband rescued abused brother long-hair chihuahuas a few years back. What a handful they are! But here, Stewie and Milo share a quiet, cooing moment.
May you have a peaceful week with wonderful weather.
Oh, there were so many photos flying across the Internet today from two of my children and me. Two sets of photos of the heat-breaking storms are from Vermont. One set is from Connecticut.
From my house in northern Vermont, Lucy watches the sky warily, but manages a small walk until she returned to me. When the leaves began to blow around in the air, she said it was time to go inside.
From Connecticut, a daughter sent photos and one video of before, during and after her storm:
And again from Vermont, 10 miles north of me, another daughter sent these photos, the sequence of which she never specified. They had one inch hail, held by her husband, that I never saw. My mountain blocks a lot of the storms they get.
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