Happy Thanksgiving (Buddy)!

Buddy eats his Catster stickers

Catster, one of the favorite cat bloggers’ sites, recently offered free Catster stickers. They want you to e-mail photos of how you creatively used these stickers and will post the most creative uses on their site. My stickers came in the mail this week, so I excitedly looked over my house and stuff for a spot for my stickers so that I could photograph them for Catster. I didn’t want them on my camera, camera bag, computer, Kindle or walls. Not on my school bag, either. Finally I spied Buddy sleeping and stuck them on him. Buddy woke up very quickly and very grumpy until he spied the stickers. Then he immediately started eating them.

On this Thanksgiving Day, Buddy is thankful for anything that is edible. Even if it’s not. I am grateful for my new, rich life with John (and the cats). We have so much. Life is wonderful! Happy Thanksgiving everybody!

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Wordless Wednesday: Female Eastern Black Swallowtail in Flight

Papilio polyxenes

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Photography on Google+

Possum sharpening her claws

I’m spending most of my time on Google+ lately. Photographs are shown in much higher quality than on Facebook. But more importantly, the range of photographers is huge. From serious professionals to hobbyists, we are all there sharing photos.

There are photography groups on G+. You can post every day to a special interest group: whether it be four-wheelers or sky shots, grass, spiders, or your town. Click here to view an updated list of the groups and instructions for how to participate. I have participated several times and am a regular participant of the Google+ Project 365. My project album is here.

I hope you come join Google+. Be sure to include me in a circle — you can reach me from the badge on the sidebar of this blog. Next on my tasks is haiku folks on G+.

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A Flowery Drive

We took a ride one Sunday in July and got a bunch of flowers that are new to my collection of Wildflowers of Vermont (or of the NEK). They will be showing up individually in the PAD blog, but I wanted to share a preview with you all now.

Spotted Joe Pye Weed (Eupatoriadelphus maculatus)

Gray Dogwood (Cornus racemosa)

Creeping Bellflower (Campanula rapunculoides)

Fireweed (Epilobium angustifolium)

And my new favorite, which came in white, pink and red:

Flowering Raspberry (Rubus odoratus)

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The Crane Fly

Tipulomorpha

I found this beautiful black crane fly on the patio of the library on a very hot July day this past summer. I have asked bugguide.net to identify it but they have called in the experts for the ID. Crane flies eat mosquitoes and are one of my favorite insects. They have very long legs, and this one had exceptionally long legs (below):

I was even lucky enough one day this year to photograph a crane fly larva that was in the brook in the back yard:

Crane fly larvae are also called leatherjackets.

I didn't even think this black crane fly was a crane fly because it was black and because the legs seemed so exceptionally long. Also, this was a heavier crane fly than I had seen. Hopefully, an identification will come along soon!

UPDATE (December 9, 2011): This has now been identified as a Giant Crane Fly (Tipula abdominalis). You can find out more by reading the bug page at bugguide.net here.

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Zacchaeus: 2011 Vacation Bible School

A VBS banner

In July, we had Vacation Bible School at the Barton United (UCC & UMC) Church. I was the teller and discussion leader of the story of Zacchaeus who hid in a tree when Jesus visited his town. I worked with the older children. We had quite a discussion about making choices and our faith:

Luke 19: 3-13 [Zacchaeus] was trying to see who Jesus was, but on account of the crowd he could not, because he was short in stature. So he ran ahead and climbed a sycamore tree to see him, because he was going to pass that way. When Jesus came to the place, he looked up and said to him, ‘Zacchaeus, hurry and come down; for I must stay at your house today.’ So he hurried down and was happy to welcome him. All who saw it began to grumble and said, ‘He has gone to be the guest of one who is a sinner.’ Zacchaeus stood there and said to the Lord, ‘Look, half of my possessions, Lord, I will give to the poor; and if I have defrauded anyone of anything, I will pay back four times as much.’ Then Jesus said to him, ‘Today salvation has come to this house, because he too is a son of Abraham. For the Son of Man came to seek out and to save the lost.’ As they were listening to this, he went on to tell a parable, because he was near Jerusalem, and because they supposed that the kingdom of God was to appear immediately. So he said, ‘A nobleman went to a distant country to get royal power for himself and then return. He summoned ten of his slaves, and gave them ten pounds,* and said to them, “Do business with these until I come back.”

Anne's bulletin board for an activity

The tree that Zacchaeus sat in

Snack time behind the church under the ash tree next to Crystal Lake Outlet

Pastor Evelyn gives a puppet show

Agrimony was in bloom behind the church

We sat on the beach of Crystal Lake, at Pageant Park, as the children swam and played

We are all looking forward to our next Vacation Bible School!

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The Elephant Ear

April 2011

Above you see the elephant ear seed (or is it a bulb?) as we planted it in April. Below, you see the plant in July. It is huge and beautiful. If you water it properly, the water is exuded at the end of the leaves and leaves puddles on the floor. I'm glad it is on a tile floor. That way, I don't care how much it piddles away.

The pot we planted the seed in had earthworms in it because it had been outside for a year. It was a strange time: I had to feed the earthworms when I watered the plant. I used coffee grounds and bread crumbs. The worms remained with the plant until recently, when I negligently let the pot go bone dry. John said he found the worms on the kitchen floor. This is what happens when school starts: I neglect many household duties.

July 2011

If you have the room, I recommend that you try growing an elephant ear. It's a fascinating experience.

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Oscar Takes a Long Hike

Oscar in July, 3 months old

You probably know that the cats hike with us in the woods up the mountain. Oscar developed his knowledge about the area and the creatures of the forest from these hikes. Some of the hikes were very long for a small kitten and he tired easily. But in this photograph, half way through the hike, he was still bouncy and full of curiosity and wonder about the forest. I like his right rear leg perched on the log behind him, ready to take off to run and see another interesting sight. Whenever Oscar is out of sight of us, he yowls pitifully until we wait for him to either catch up or, as is usually the case, return to us. He's one of those kids that runs all over the woods without watching where his folks are going!

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The Cohosh Grove

White Cohosh

When you walk up the slope of Barton Mountain behind the house, you will eventually come to a large grove of cohosh below the cliffs to the summit. The grove is full of white and red cohosh and Solomon’s Seal. The berries are plentiful in July. Don't eat them. Even though cohosh has been used for centuries as an herbal remedy, you need to know how to use it properly to avoid poisoning and bad reactions.

White Cohosh berries

Solomon's Seal is plentiful in the same grove.

Solomon's Seal berries

Red Cohosh berries and leaves

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The Tiniest Wasp

A tiny unidentified wasp on John's arm.

John called me over one day to see the tiny wasp crawling on his arm. We had been working in the garden and my camera was close by, as it always is. I couldn't even tell that this was a wasp until the photo was in the computer! It never stung him. It simply crawled on his arm, apparently looking for food. You can tell from the photos that there is pollen in its pollen bags on its legs. To see the wasp and pollen clearly, click here.

I like this photo because the wasp is walking.

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Three Birds, Two Cats

Song Sparrow

The cats and I walk together every day we possibly can. Because of the cats, the birds keep a close eye on us as they perch in the trees at the edge of the woods. John has made benches for me from trees that he culled in the woods. I sit on a bench as the cats hunt mice and the birds come out of the trees to watch and be photographed. As the summer progressed, I was able to get my first photographs of many different birds. I never realized in all these years how many species we have here. I miss those long summer days!

Young Oscar watches the birds watch him.

American Goldfinch

Cedar Waxwing
Waxwings always seem to stay at the top of trees.

At the end of our walk, we saw Grumpy Pansy scowling behind the barn.

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St. Louis

The Arch

Andrew went to St. Louis with friends and sent me these three iPhone photos. I'm impressed with the quality of the shots . . . better than the old iPhones.

St. Louis Basilica

Such a lovely building. For more information and a virtual tour, click here. The interior is spectacular. The Wikipedia article is here.

The view from his hotel room.

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The Hogweed Scare

Heracleum maximum

One Sunday this last summer, John and I were driving about Sheffield and Sutton looking for new views of the wind towers. We were focused on long views but noticed a very tall Queen Anne's Lace-type weed in the ditch in Sutton. Once we were home and were discussing the day, we began to wonder if that weed was hogweed. Hogweed was in the news that week — it had been spotted in southern Vermont and the news people were telling us how to deal with it (don't touch it at all). We were also told that Vermont, unlike New York State, will no longer eradicate hogweed despite it being a dangerous, toxic weed.

We returned to the giant weed spot the next weekend for photographs and identified the plant as cow parsnip, a relative of giant hogweed. Hogweed stems have red streaks and it grows to 15 feet. Cow parsnip grows to only four to six feet. Both plants are toxic to touch, so be careful out there.

For more photographs of cow parsnip click here.

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Why the Break and Spotting meeyauw on the Web

School has opened again. That is why I haven’t posted anything recently. It’s been a crazy two weeks and I have a feeling it will be crazier very soon. I’ve been out with my camera and the cats (and gotten some pretty awesome bird shots). But I haven’t done a thing with the photographs yet. So it’s time to get back in stride and get caught up!

Back in July, John cut down a double cottonwood tree. When it fell, it was crazy with ants carrying pupae off the tree and down in a hole in the ground. They were distinctive and fascinating ants and I photographed quite a few of them and their babies-to-be. But who can identify ants? Not me. The folks at AntBlog did, though. Specifically, James Trager was asked to respond. He is a fascinating ant scientist and I am favored that he answered my question. You can find the entire post here at AntBlog.

The Irasburg Castle in 2005.

In August, Geek Mountain State picked up an old, old Irasburg Castle post that I did in September of 2005. It was nice to be blogged about, and even nicer that the post was so old. Thank you, Andrew! Andrew is a contributor to Geek Mountain State. I love him because he shares my son’s name (yes, that’s all it takes). You can find the Geek Mountain post here.

By the way, Archer Mayor, one of my favorite authors, is also a contributor. Archer’s site is at http://archermayor.com/. I can’t visit the site because my McAfee site advisor says it exhibits risky behavior. Knowing Archer, I know the site is safe, so I don’t know what the problem could be. You can go and buy his books here, though: Archer Mayor's book on amazon.comPlease. I get a small percentage of the sales. Amazon has a $10 minimum before they pay their associates and in seven years, I still haven’t made that minimum. But I’m close!

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[Cross-Post] Making Pickles

We have dozens of wonderful cucumbers from the garden this summer. John made 6 pints of relish (the recipe will come later), and today we made pickles. The photos are my own from when we made the pickles using this recipe. The recipe can be found at http://www.bonappetit.com/recipes/2011/08/bread-and-butter-pickles. We tasted the pickle juice after we finished canning the pickles. It was wonderful, with a great “bite.” We can’t taste the pickles for one week.This post is from my recipe blog: http://meeyauw-recipes.blogspot.com/2011/08/bon-appetit-bread-and-butter-pickles.html. All text in italics is mine. Non-italic text is copied from the Bon Appetite post. We doubled the recipe and used pint jars. This was a great day — John and I cooked together while violent thunderstorms raged outside!

These old-school sandwich pickles strike the perfect sweet-sour balance.

MAKES ABOUT 2 QUARTS

RECIPE BY Kevin West

AUGUST 2011

John has made a knife that uniformly cuts 1/4 inch slices,
which was perfect for the cucumbers.

INGREDIENTS

• 2 1/2 pounds Kirby cucumbers, cut crosswise into 1/4 inch rounds (about 8 cups) (We used the small cucumbers from the garden, about 4-6 inches long.)
• 2 cups thinly sliced red onions (We used a combination of red and yellow.)
• 1/3 cup pickling salt
• 2 cups apple cider vinegar
• 1 1/4 cups (packed) light brown sugar
• 1 tablespoon grated peeled fresh ginger
• 1 tablespoon turmeric
• 1 tablespoon yellow mustard seeds
• 1 1/2 teaspoons coriander seeds
• 1 teaspoon celery seeds
• 2 Fresno chilies or red jalapeños, pricked with a toothpick (We used green because no red was available. We also cut them into thick slices.)

The cucumbers, onions and salt are ready for the refrigerator.

PREPARATION

• Toss together cucumbers, onions, and salt in a large bowl. Add 3 cups ice; set aside for 2 hours. Drain; rinse well and drain again.

• Combine vinegar and the remaining ingredients with 1 cup water in a large pot; bring to a boil, stirring to dissolve sugar. Add cucumbers and onions; return to a boil.

• Ladle hot vegetables and pickling liquid into 2 clean, hot 1-quart jars, dividing equally. Press vegetables to completely submerge in liquid, leaving 1/2 inch space on top. Wipe rims, seal, and process in a boiling water bath for 10 minutes.

After several hours, I drained and rinsed the mixture.

Hungry for More? If you have a question about this recipe, contact our Test Kitchen at askba@bonappetit.com. To see more recipes like this one, check out our Summer Sides Slideshow.

• NUTRITIONAL INFORMATION

  1 tablespoon contains:
  Calories (kcal) 19.4
  %Calories from Fat 0.0
  Fat (g) 0.0
  Saturated Fat (g) 0.0
  Cholesterol (mg) 0.0
  Carbohydrates (g) 4.4
  Dietary Fiber (g) 0.4
  Total Sugars (g) 3.5
  Net Carbs (g) 4.0
  Protein (g) 0.2
  Sodium (mg) 60.9

The sterilized pint jars.

The lids waited in a hot water bath.

The first jar is filled.

Seven pints are put into the hot water bath.

The jars have to be covered with boiling water in the canner.

The pickles!

PRINT THIS RECIPE

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