Pinehaven - Farmersville, Ohio

Fall Sunset

2009-11-02T11:07:00.002-05:00

With sunset an hour earlier, I was still out walking as the sun went down yesterday. Coming south on Clayton Road, I happened to look eastward towards the cell phone tower (which is itself east of Venus Road and just north of our house), and the moon was perfectly behind it, as though the top of the tower had a halo.
When I got back, I grabbed my camera and walked back up the road but by then the moon had moved quite a bit higher. Nevertheless, I found a spot which pretty well illustrates what I saw had the moon been just a tad lower.

At the bottom of the picture, the rusty-red glow of a still-to-be-harvested field of soybeans stands there in the orange sunset, highlighting the deep shade even more.
Then, as I approached home I turned westward and shot our property silhouetted by the sunset itself. You can't see it in the picture but the sky over head was a brilliant clear blue as the air cooled into the upper 40's.

This looks like a good shot to put summer to rest. The deciduous trees, now bare, ready themselves for the bitter days ahead. They cannot be far away.

Happy Halloween

2009-10-31T17:21:00.003-04:00

It's Halloween so Mom's brought out her terra cotta pumpkin and fired it up with a candle inside. It's a tradition here. It's just not Halloween without the pumpkin on the back porch until well after sunset. The flickering flame can be pretty eerie, I'll tell you.
That's not half of the weirdness around here this year. Have a look below:

What is the world, you may ask? For some reason Mom got the urge to make masks and the only supplies she had were paper plates. Then, how to hold them on? I suggested a couple of properly-placed holes that we could slide the earpieces of our glasses through might work (all three of us are nearly blind). It worked. You don't suppose we spent too much on costumes this year, do you?

It's odd that Mom gave me my moustache back.

OK, I admit it: the people at Pinehaven can be a little strange.

Me, Myself & the Moustache

2009-10-30T09:27:00.003-04:00

Back in the early 1970's - probably 1972 - I began growing a moustache that I've had ever since. It was in style then. Remember the 60's?
Well, I've been tiring of it of late and needed a change. On Sunday, 10/18 I reached the point where I just said, Enough!", grabbed Dad's electric shaver with sideburn trimmer, and mowed away!
Here, then, is the "new" me:

While very few people who see me on a daily basis even mentioned it (including my brother), it sure felt different. Being covered with hair for almost four decades, I found my upper lip very sensitive to touch. Though I got rid of the moustache for the extra work is caused (constant trimming), I find that daily shaving of that real estate is not exactly a fair trade. I probably spend more time now.

Nevertheless, it is gone and I am happy about it. Unfortunately the same old face resides underneath, now even more exposed. My mouth seems too small! I have the option of growing it again someday if I decide I like myself better with fuzz. But for now, this is how it's going to be.

Katydid

2009-10-27T12:13:00.003-04:00

A few days ago I saw a katydid on the bricks at the back of our house but I didn't have a camera with me. Later I happened to see one perched on the south window of the porch and I walked out to take a shot.

This is truly nature's living leaf. I have always loved lying in bed and listening to the late-summer sounds of the katydid. The drone is enough to quickly put me to sleep.

Particularly I used to find the insects most interesting when I was camping. I noticed that the sound fades throughout the night and ends before first light. Have you listened to the drone of a katydid (not to mention their mixture with the common cricket) until you could no longer hear them? It's like starting at a color until you can no longer see it.

Watching a katydid is fascinating to me for their perfect camouflage. What excellence nature provides the dress of this insect! With cold weather, the windows are again closed and the sound has already disappeared.

Leaf Fall

2009-10-24T09:42:00.002-04:00

Each fall there is one day when the trees lose most of their leaves. It was the night on 10/23 this year. We had a late night rain (it began at about 5:30 a.m.) and the leaves began falling en masse in the cold, wet air. I almost had to shovel a path to the garage. Here's what the north side of our house looked like yesterday morning.

A similar view from the south shows the back porch nearly buried in gold. How I do not look forward to all that raking!

The kitchen roof is buried deeply in leaves. Next weekend, my brother will stop by and help me clean the rain gutters. I can reach the ones that are low but I can't handle the long aluminum ladder to get to the second floor. The ladder is simply too heavy for me. Each year Bob stops by and helps me set up and move the ladder around three sides of the house as I fish fistfulls of leaves from the gutters. It has to be done before freezing weather.

I thought this maple leaf (below) was particularly pretty as it floats in rainwater collected in the lid of our burn barrel. You can see the pines reflected in the water so you are looking down and up at the same time. In fact, copy this picture to your own computer (right-click; save picture as) and flip it upside down. You'll find the view enchanting (and completely reasonable) in that configuration, too.

So fall is coming to a close (even though it runs until 12/21). I consider November to be the start on winter regardless of the calendar. The days of going out without a jacket are nearly over. The golds of fall are soon to be replaced with winter whites.

Fall Mushrooms

2009-10-21T11:14:00.003-04:00

I can positively identify only one mushroom enough to have it for lunch (the common morel) and this, I'm afraid, isn't it. But every day as we've walked at the Farmersville-Jackson Twp. Park,. we've watched hosts of mushrooms spring up.

First it was a rather flat massive mushroom with the color of old butter and with healthy porous gills galore. After a rain, they came up in various masses, pressed together so closely that they pushed the edges of their neighbors up at odd angles.

Now these pure white mushrooms have taken over and they seem particularly well suited to life beneath the great White Pines. These push the pine needles up - even before the mushrooms are visible - so that you know where the next is about to pop.

These white mushrooms are so perfectly formed and so pristine and clean that I think I must bring them home for a meal. But, no! I know nothing of them and don't relish the thought of death at so early an age.

Better to wait for spring when the sponges again hide from me in the leaf litter of a nearby woods. They are unmistakable, they are delicious and they await me on the other side of winter like buried treasure.

Yet all mushrooms intrigue me. If not food for the body, they are all food for the soul.

First Freezing Night

2009-10-19T10:59:00.003-04:00

Sunday morning (10/18) and we've dipped to 26 degrees and ended our growing season. The grass isn't just spotty with frost but fully white in places. I'm glad I got the back and side yards mowed. We're down to the raking of leaves and then the fall season's work will be officially ended for us.

This picture (above) is a close-up of the edge of our burn barrel, a 55 gallon metal drum which resides at the perimeter of our garden. It was feathery with frost before the sun rose and melted it in a sudden blast of light (though hardly, it seems, heat). Why does the frost form thicker crystals on the edge?

Here, then, is a wider look at the top of the barrel. The flat rusty top, which one would expect to collect the most frost, is barely white, while the curled lip of the lid is festooned with feathers of ice. There's a scientific principle at work here but I don't know what it is. It is enough to enjoy the effect, I suppose.

In the back yard, not fifteen feet away from the barrel, are red and orange maple leaves from the tree by the barn. They are also edged in frost and so the principal carries across materials. Look at the grass - and a few henbit leaves - on the ground beside the leaf, also coated in white.

This is a gorgeous season even if we've had to have the furnace early this year. Our goal is to wait until November, or as close as we can come, before adding heat to the house. But not so this year! We've added heat for the last week and a half.

What does this say about the coming winter?

My electric throw has been added to the bed and I've been content with the the lowest setting for the first week. But Saturday night I moved the dial up a notch and it felt wonderful.

So winter - almost - is upon us. Indian Summer first, of course, and we'll enjoy the warmer days ahead as we would enjoy a break during a race. The sprint has begun.

Playing Catch Up

2009-10-10T11:28:00.004-04:00

And here's some odds 'n ends photos taken these past few days that don't really have a theme but which I'd like to share anyway.
First, one day when I walking about the yard - still in the late afternoon - I found that Mom had already turned on the window lights. I walked close to the front window and took this shot showing a reflection of the soybean field across from us. We have these window lights in both first floor front windows. With the white lacy curtains in the background, I think it's a welcoming image. Every time I come home from a meeting at night, it is these two lights I first see. They produce in me a warm feeling.

Then, this maple by the barn is turning such a lovely orange right now that it's almost startling when it comes into view. Especially after the past few cloudy days, the tree is almost blindingly bright. Ah, but soon the leaves will turn dark and fall and I'll be left to rake them and clean the rain gutters. Neither are projects I much relish.

Another view of the same tree, this from the back porch with the flag fluttering. My National Weather Service 20" rain gauge is just off the left side of this picture.

Pokeweed! I find these substantial plants coming up in the most unlikely places! This one is north of the woodpile and near the henhouse. After researching the plant, I find that the seed won't germinate until it passes through the digestive tract of a bird. So that explains the randomness of the plants, planted ny nature herself.

As a child, I once picked a bucket of these berries, thinking them elderberries. Good thing I didn't use them in the planned wine. They are poisonous. Though the green leaves may be eaten (Poke Salet), they require great care in the preparation. I won't chance it and so I have never tasted the plant. I remember my Uncle Joe and Aunt Sally considered this a delicacy, but it's one I'll willingly fore go.

Then, walking back Sam's lane, I marveled the other day at the contrast between the drying soybeans - such a golden brown color! - and the light blue sky. Pinehaven is in the right side of this picture. Doesn't this explain what we love about the place?

And so, too, I am still collecting black walnuts on my walks back Sam's lane. With each wind and each rainy day, another harvest awaits my grasp. Yesterday, just after I had passed, a nut hit the lane with such force I thought it had been thrown. It had, I suppose, by gravity.

The nuts are laid out on newspaper on the garage bench, awaiting drying. Over the early winter, when they have turned black and have dried, I'll hammer the husk off, let them dry some more, crack the nuts in our vice and take them into Mom for shelling. We will have the bitter nutmeats for the next year. My applesauce raisin cupcakes (the recipe can be found on this blog) almost requires them.

And so the fall weather is upon us here at Pinehaven and we have scenes such as these to enjoy.

Pinehaven - A Closer Look (Part Four)

2009-10-07T12:23:00.002-04:00

When you climb the steps to our second floor, this is the first room you come to. Bedroom? We have a bed in it and it's certainly large enough to be a room of its own. But there's no privacy here as to get to any other room, you must first walk through this one.

Here's (below) my bedroom. It's at the southeast corner of the house. You can see another of the built-in bookcases in this picture. On the end of my bed you can see my folded-up electric throw. How nice it's been this past week. It's really not so cold yet but we've added no artificial heat so the house has slowly cooled. Having an electric blanket on a very low setting is certainly nice!

Mom's bedroom (below) is on the back of the house. The small window you see in this picture faces west and gets the worst weather. It's an Anderson we bought when we first moved here: it's double-paned and doesn't leak a drop of air.

Looking towards the north side of Mom's bedroom and you can see a third built-in bookcase.

The house is certainly too big for us at this stage of our lives. There's too much to mow, too. But who wouldn't love a place like this? I'll have happy memories forever because of Pinehaven.

Here (below) is the second floor bathroom. The shower stall is "new" from a few years back, a nice replacement for the very crude shower which was here when we moved in. I love the space afforded by a bathroom like this. In the morning, when it's cold, I use a space heater to bring it up to a pleasant temperature before getting a shower.

A fiberglass shower is easy to clean. That's the main point. Nothing sticks to it that you can't easily remove with a cleaner. The hint is to do it often - at least monthly - and a shower will stay like new, even with hard well water.

There you go. That's a current look at Pinehaven ... inside and out.

Pinehaven - A Closer Look (Part Three)

2009-10-07T12:10:00.002-04:00

Here's the first floor bathroom we built so many years ago (the spring of 1987). This was originally part of an indoor porch area. My brother scored the concrete floor and my cousin laid water and sewer pipes. I meanwhile, did the electrical work.

We paneled the entire bathroom, put down a nice wood floor. It's been a joy to have the convenience of a first floor bathroom for these many years. And we've not had so much as a single leak.
Below you can see our dining room. This was my maternal grandmother's table so Mom holds it especially dear. We bought the chairs about 1980 but always thought they were a good match. This view faces roughly northwest.

Now, looking more due south, you can see more of the dining room and the door which leads out onto the enclosed porch. If you've followed this blog, many of the pictures of flowers are of those that spend their winters there. With frost and cool temperatures already this fall, we've already brought all of our plants in.

Pinehaven - A Closer Look (Part Two)

2009-10-07T11:55:00.004-04:00

Join me in the living room. The room is 25' wide, originally made by joining two rooms, probably a bedroom and a parlor. This fireplace has been one of our favorite parts of the house. The mantel is from wood taken from a barn which originally sat over on Farmersville-Germantown Pike (very near the village of Farmersville). A Buck stove insert means that it's fairly energy-efficient.

This view (below) is of the south end of the living room. My "spot" is on the left side of the couch you see. We've always admired the built-in bookcases throughout the house, particularly the one on the right side of this picture.

The north half of the living room (below) is where Dad (chair on the left) and Mom (chair on the right) have their favorite spots. Doesn't everyone? The slanted area in the middle of the picture is the underside of the steps that lead to the second floor (there's a small storage area underneath; see the small door?)

Our kitchen is also large and many a great meal has come out of there. We love the large windows that face the woods. It's a special place for watching nature.

A view of the south side of the kitchen shows the door to the bathroom which my brother and I built when we first moved here. A second floor-only bathroom would never do! Now that we're all older, it's even more convenient.

That butcher block table, now an antique (made in Michigan), has been another favorite of ours. Moving it when we had the carpet laid was a challenge. No wonder the previous owners sold it to us with the house. How could they have taken it along? It is not hollow as many are today but solid maple. I can't even imagine how much it weighs.

Pinehaven - A Closer Look (Part One)

2009-10-07T10:52:00.004-04:00

Pinehaven basks in the August sun in this shot.
Yesterday I took a series of pictures to capture Pinehaven, inside and out.

This shot (all below the describing text) is the house taken from the north. The dark place on the bricks between the two first floor windows is where the fuel oil tank stood for many years. There's no way to clean the spot as it is the soil of the ages. It's built right into the brick, I suppose. I have to look at it only one way: it's a mark of living, of character.

The south side of the house shows the year-old heat pump and most notably to us who live here, the lack of a chimney for the furnace. We no longer need one and had the roof built over the opening. No more leaks! It's pleasant to lay abed and night and know the roof is solid, the attic dry as a bone!

The 2.5 car garage has been a Godsend. We can store so much there! In this shot, the slanted roof above the kitchen shows and the DirecTV satellite dish, just over a year old, points skyward.

The back patio, wet from a shower, has been the place of many a pleasant conversation. I've rocked in those chairs, recorder in hand, watching nature unfold her miracles here.

Finally, the barn. Situated at the south end of the property, we've never put it to good use. We should have rented the space for storage. Instead it holds wood scraps and cut wood for the fireplace. The barn is a great place to be when it rains. How noisy are the drops from there!

If there's a prettier piece of property in Montgomery County, I don't know of it. How pleasant have been these almost-23 years.

'Praying' for spring?

2009-10-03T11:46:00.004-04:00

It is the season of the Praying Mantis (Mantis religiosa) and I look forward to seeing these alien creatures each fall. For if there is not proof that extraterrestrials have visited the earth, surely it is right here in these strange insects.

Mom and I went to Miss Molly's Bakery & Cafe in Farmersville for breakfast and I parked near the bank. When we came out (about 9 a.m.) this mantis was sitting on the driver's door. I gave him a quick examination before climbing into the car - mostly to make sure he wouldn't fall into the crack of the door - and drove off, sure that the wind would blow him away. But when we arrived home, he was still clinging to the shiny surface.

Oddly, the creature has only been in the United States for 110 years. It was introduced on nursery stock from Europe in 1899 (technically, the Praying Mantis is the European Mantid). Considered a "beneficial predator", the Praying Mantis will feast on other insects. The trouble is, it will also feast on others of his same species.
Once we arrived home, I picked the insect up and deposited him on the limb of a Blue Spruce. He turned his head, looked up at me with almost a "thanks!" and scrambled up the branch. I suppose he is by now having lunch.
Come to think of it, that's a good thing to do.

Crackling Fireplace

2009-10-01T12:48:00.003-04:00

Last evening (09/30) as we finished September, we found the evening air becoming chilly. Not yet wanting to turn on the furnace, we set up a nice fire in the fireplace. Here's the result:

This was shot through the screen so it has an unusual texture. The fire was made with wood cut here on the property, with pine cones liberally sprinkled in for their wonderful scent and a lower stack of crumpled newspapers to get the whole thing started.

I'm told that it's not wise to add charcoal to an indoor fireplace ... but we do and we've never had an ill effect. The risk is carbon monoxide poisoning, I'm told, but our CO2 detector (when we had it) never detected anything unusual. The fireplace, though, has a Buck stove insert and draws well so perhaps there is little danger with our set-up?
As the evening dragged on, the fire snapped and crackled and made lovely hissing sounds as we watched TV and had a small snack. The temperature in the dining room rose from 64 to 66. Even when we went to our beds, the fire burnt on.
It was a good night for a fire as we had our first patchy frost. That's early for us. Our usual first frost is 10/06. We bottomed out at 36 and a look into the back yard before we left with the laundry showed some of yesterday's mown grass white with frost.
What's better than having a bitterly cold fall night and not turning the furnace on? It did not cost us a cent to have the fire and pile extra blankets on the bed.

Germantown Pretzel Festival

2009-09-27T16:50:00.004-04:00

It's the 30th anniversary of the Germantown Pretzel Festival and it's an event we never miss. I've lived at Pinehaven for 22 years and I suppose I've attended every one of them since moving here.
This year, Saturday (09/26) began a little misty but the sun broke through in the afternoon. I talked with Molly Patton of Miss Molly's Bakery & Cafe (Farmersville) and she said she woke up Friday night worried about their tent. It survived, though the number of vendors who set up shop exceeded the usual space in Veterans Memorial Park and Molly was one of those who had to set up in a grassy overflow area.

This shot (above) shows one of the sidewalks at the park early Saturday morning, probably about 10 a.m. There was already quite a crowd but nothing like what would come later.
We came back at 3 p.m. because we wanted to hear The Greasers (all shots below). They're a Germantown band that disbanded in 1999 but came back together this year. Three of the four original members are still there; now they number ten.

This view (above) is a long shot of The Greasers beginning their 2.5 hour set in the park's gazebo. Let me tell you: they're good and they're loud!

Getting a little closer to the music, the crowd was certainly enjoying themselves.

The main singers are Randy Stiver, Richard Schoonover and Ric Hacker. Ashley Stiver also helps with vocals. Gerald Emerick plays bass; Don Frame is on drums; Bill Emerick and Brandon Schoonover play guitar; Steven Cross plays keyboard; and Julie Stiver plays saxophone.

I was impressed! There are plenty of good musicians but these guys are simply exceptional!

A view from behind the band, shooting this picture through the open back of the gazebo.

The band piled their equipment at the side of the gazebo.

Mom and enjoyed both trips to the festival. As always Mom buys homemade bread that a Germantown church offers. I finally bought a soft pretzel (that's the point of the festival, after all) as I found a church selling huge pretzels for $2 (the commercial food area sold small ones for $2, the large ones for $3).

The event ran Saturday and Sunday.

Rocky

2009-09-22T17:34:00.003-04:00

Remember the Beatles "Rocky Raccoon"? Well, we didn't choose the name for that reason, though the song was going through my mind at the time, but rather because this raccoon is "rocky" in the meaning of "rough".

I walked out for the mail several days ago and as I approached the mailbox, this raccoon was sitting under a nearby pine and watching me with some fascination. I sort of took a double take, thinking I wasn't really seeing an animal. But when he stayed - rare, indeed - I grabbed the mail and backed off slowly. Clearly a healthy animal doesn't act that way.
Then, Mom called me to the kitchen window a day later and asked me to have a look. The raccoon was slowly ambling across our lawn, every now and then completely stopping, and often falling entirely down. I've seen this before and suspected rabies.
The coon would paw at the ground searching for maple seeds and seemed hungry. Pretty soon he dragged himself to our bird bath (see below) and took a long, hearty drink.

I have a pan of water sitting atop and anchored there with rocks picked up from nearby fields. The poor raccoon nearly lay down as he drank. He literally seemed on his last legs.
When he finished, I watched him work his way to the front and begin slowly to climb a catalpa tree right along S. Clayton Road. He climbed with great difficulty but eventually managed to pull himself into a tree cavity. We didn't see him again that day.
Mom has since purchased a bag of dry dog food and is placing it in a metal pan beside the birdbath. The last two mornings it's been licked clean. I watched one of our many squirrels today. He got a drink but didn't even look at the dog food. Of course we could have a nightly stray dog walk by ... but I doubt it. I've never seen one.
So Rocky is a good name for this poor fellow. I wonder if he simply tangled with a car and is nursing a broken leg? In any case, we'll maintain a safe distance, keep the dog food coming and hope for the best.

Going Nuts!

2009-09-05T13:39:00.002-04:00

While I'm washing the lunch dishes today, I spotted this squirrel having his own lunch just beneath the window. When I watched him carefully I would see that he was combing old maple seeds out of the grass with his paws. He'd quickly lift the seed to his mouth and eat it with relish. But this shot seems to show him gnawing on something larger than a mere maple seed. The yard is full of acorns (we have two oaks) and this looks more of that size.

But acorns there are this year ... and in abundance. It's not a banner year but still there are plenty lying around ready for the squirrels to harvest. Most are still green when they fall but there is some variety to the coloration. While the oak out front (near Clayton Road and beside our driveway) drops larger, mature acorns, an oak by the henhouse seems to produce a smaller variety.

This squirrel (same as in the first picture) is a female (see the teats?) and her mouth seems muddied by the frantic searching among the grass. After this picture was taken, she went to the bird feeder and drank long and hard, balancing herself with her tiny fingers.

I enjoy the squirrels in the winter, too, when they try to find their buried treasure. While they're now busy placing the acorns underground, they'll get hungry in January and remember the meals they've tucked away. I've seen them part the snow searching for them.

Often times, as the many seedling oaks tell in the spring, they'll forget where they buried them. Who can blame them when the landscape turns to snow and ice? But we have more oaks to thank for their forgetfulness.

My Deer!

2009-09-01T12:43:00.003-04:00

Dad and I are having lunch - wonderful homemade potato soup - when Mom calls from the kitchen. "Come here! Hurry! Be quiet!" she whispers. I slide my chair back and round the corner and find her pointing out the large bay window in front of the sink. Two young deer - both female - are nibbling contentedly at my sunflowers. So that's why the flowers look so bedraggled!

The doe are in no hurry and experiment with tastes of the horseradish and tomatoes, too. But only the sunflowers meet with their culinary approval.

This close-up shot was at about 12X as I stood beside the sink and rested the camera on the windowsill. The deer are gorgeous with their still-white spots. We've seen as many as five at a time in recent weeks, including Mama. She is particularly alert and skittish while the babies, alone for the first time, seem intent on experiencing everything in this new world.

After about 15 minutes, the pair amble east towards the front of of our property and push beneath the Scotch pines. Then they run north towards our meadow and the woods.

My soup is now getting cold but my soul - what there is of it - has warmed in relation to any loss.

Speaking of apples ...

2009-08-29T16:09:00.003-04:00

Earlier today I posted the recipe for our apple crisp and I suppose we were still thinking about that when we made another trip to Crossroad Orchard. We bought a bag of Jonathan's for Bob's family and dropped them off after stopping at the library.
As we walked back to the car, I couldn't help but admire the trees heavy with their fall crop. I certainly can't tell you what kind of apple this is but the ones in the foreground sure look healthy ... and delicious!

Another entry I want to make to this blog is an update to the picture of the mushrooms I posted on 08/23/09. I said then - and I believed it to be true - that a mushroom does most of its growth at the beginning. For these, however, that's not true.
Each day as we walked the path at the park, I noticed the mushrooms changing. First they seemed to have been stepped on. That set them back a day or two. Then they seemed to be expanding. Today they are quite an expanse of white.
Compare this to the initial entry on August 23, a mere 6 days ago. Look at how much they have changed.

They seem to have almost grown together. You can barely tell where one begins and the other ends. Their beautiful "toasted" top is gone and they're now essentially pure white. How the world around us does change! Look closely or it'll soon be gone.

Pinehaven Apple Crisp

2009-08-29T12:44:00.003-04:00

It is close enough to fall that our appetites have turned to apples. And apples mean one thing at Pinehaven: Apple Crisp.
We've just been to the Crossroads Orchard in Miamisburg, an annual trip, and we've come home with half a peck of Jonathan apples. They're a little sweet for this recipe - tart is better - but they're what we bought so they're what we used.
Here's a look at the finished product. The house smells of apples at it bakes and that, coupled with the pungent scent of cinnamon, even drifts into my bedroom on the second floor. I wish you could share this with us but I'll go one better. I'll show you how to make it.

Pinehaven Apple Crisp

6-8 apples, sliced
1 cup sugar (1/2 brown, 1/2 granulated)
1/2 cup butter (we use margarine)
3/4 cup flour
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
squirt of lemon juice if apples are too sweet

Put apples in greased baking dish (8x8" Pyrex). Work together sugar, flour, butter and cinnamon with fingers until crumbly. Pack closely over apples. 45 minutes in 375 degree oven. Serve warm.

This recipe card is the one Mom has used since the 1960's. She's made notes and modified the recipe slightly over the years. The printed recipe is the one we used for the dish shown. Because the apples were quite sweet, we did add a squirt of lemon juice. We buy lemon juice in the plastic lemons commonly sold in the produce sections of grocery stores.

That's it. Make a nice, hot cup of black coffee. Don't ruin it with cream or sugar! You want the contrast of the bitter coffee with the sweet of the apples. Don't even think of tea.

Pick a day when the outside air begins to cool. Set about baking early in the day. At lunch sit down to a leisurely dessert with one of the best apple dishes around. Smile!

Nature today

2009-08-23T17:02:00.003-04:00

So what does a single summer day present to me?
For starters, mushrooms.

This clump of mushrooms was first spotted yesterday at the Farmersville-Jackson Twp. Joint Park. They had just sprouted beneath an old pine. I didn't have a camera with me then, plus I wanted to see what a day would do for them. The answer: nothing. They looked no different today than yesterday. So any growth must happen initially.

The I was reading a book ("Breakfast at Sally's") on the sofa when I spotted movement outside the nearby window. I stood and saw this butterfly slowly moving his wings. Or was it an unfelt breeze? In any case, he stayed at the same spot for some minutes and seemed to be exercising his wings. Were they wet with the morning dew? Or was he almost a meal for some other creature. As I looked closely, his wings were tattered and had a few holes. His season is ending.

Later this afternoon I went into the barn and found this worm clinging to the vinyl siding near the door. He was a compact, fat green worm and seemed pretty much asleep in the sunshine. I didn't bother him any longer than it took to take this picture. Are green worms stopping too low? Never!

So how about this salmon zinnia? Could there be a prettier shade? The front flower bed is alive with zinnias just now. What? Two more months and we'll be cleaning the last of the frost-blasted debris.

And this zinnia, too ... a pretty orange that caught my attention. All from a single pack of seeds. What variety there is in nature, even within a single species. How can there be boredom anywhere on this planet while there are flowers?

Clouds

2009-08-21T17:22:00.003-04:00

This past week we have had storm after storm. Each day seems to find towering cumulus building towards mid-day and storms by evening. I have stood beneath these massive clouds and literally become dizzy looking up at them. How they boil!

Step out into Pinehaven's yard and enjoy the upward view!

This cumulus (below) was standing on the western horizon as the sun was preparing to set. Such a pillar of moisture! It looked as though it was about to strike! Flaming orange about the edges, this cloud looked positively threatening as it came ever closer.

Below is a cumulus which has moved east of here. I could almost see it unfold upwards.

Though these clouds can be deadly, dropping tornadoes from their underbellies, while they are docile they are a sight to behold.

Blooming Time

2009-08-21T17:06:00.003-04:00

A Canada Thistle, I believe, but can you imagine a more delicate flower than this? If you didn't get in close, you'd think of stickers and skin rashes. But have a close look at the delicate lavender filaments of the flower and you can't help but fall in love with this lowly weed.

These flower abundantly just now, beside roadways and in ditches and across unkempt fields. Their only care is what nature provides: some sun, a little rain. And yet they grow luxuriously among the other weeds, holding their regal blooms high.

Yet closer to our house I planted sweet peas some years back because I didn't like having to clean the dead vines from the trellis each winter. One year, after pulling all the withered vines down, I thought I might transplant a single start to the meadow, placing it near the edge where I could watch it. Now, at least five years later, I am annually rewarded with bright pink at the base of the weeds.
Have a look:

There, on the ground, this plant still thrives. There is no trellis, nothing to pull itself up with, and yet it blooms. I drove by and saw the blanket of pink and couldn't believe how well it is doing. A perennial, the plant requires no care at all. If I am coaxing this one to become a weed, I have nearly succeeded. It's seen no water from a hose in years, no turning of the soil, no fertilizer but for what the soil itself produces through decay.
Who says we humankind are much needed? The world will go on without us ... and beautifully, too.

African Violet

2009-08-16T13:29:00.003-04:00

A few years back I bought this African Violet for my mother. Of course she can grow anything and manages to make everything bloom as often as possible. This particular violet is on a small three-legged stool in my bedroom, hiding behind a thin white curtain at the south window.
I can wake during nights with a full moon and see its hazy flowers glowing there in the dark.

And again the plant blooms. Mom mentioned to me a few weeks ago that it was getting ready. She notices the small changes that presage a bud. Soon enough, I too see that it's going to flower. She waters the plant on some particular schedule by carrying a small cup of water from the bathroom sink.
The plant has it good.

A close-up of a single bloom shows the beautiful details of what seems to be a simple flower. I love how the petals seems to be made of tiny transparent balloons, each filled with moisture. A finger press would come back wet.

My first admiration of the African Violet was of a particularly huge specimen - or so I remember it to be - in my Aunt Belle's dining room. Placed by a north-facing window, I remember the plant in a terra cotta crock and how huge and soft the leaves. Upon visiting my aunt as a baby, I'd always want to see the African Violet. It was sitting atop a humidor that my uncle used for pipe tobacco. He died in 1947 and I did not come along until 1949 but I remember opening the door of the humidor and smelling the sweet scent of tobacco, lingering years after he had gone.

So there they were: the humidor and the African Violet. Inseparable in my mind.

The past is recalled in visions and reminders and scents.

Butterfly King

2009-08-16T12:58:00.003-04:00

This regal butterfly - the Monarch - is one we enjoy each August. I was getting into the car - camera in hand - when I noticed a Monarch flitting about the zinnias we have planted right outside the garage door. Would it hurt to walk over that way and see if he'd alight?
And so he did - immediately - and he stayed on a flower while I composed and focused this shot.

A wider view (below) and the exquisite details of the orange and black wings unfold. Danaus plexippus, it is named, but the more common "Monarch" is how we call it. I remember as a child watching the chrysalis hanging on a fence and how it became more transparent with each passing day. Finally I watched the finished butterfly emerge from the greenish capsule, replete with golden regal dots. They looked to be painted on with the finest of brushes.
We have now plenty of milkweed about the grounds and I suppose this accounts for our plethora of adult butterflies. They're usually a little tentative and flit onward when I approach.
But not this time.
Imagine the journey ahead, the tattered miles to Mexico. Imagine "King Billy" then as he joins legions of others, moving to Central America.
Why King Billy? Why for the colors of King William of Orange: orange and black.