Fall Hangs on; Wintry Day

It is still fall, of course, but it is the temperatures which have have fallen off a cliff. Where we had a high on Friday of 62 degrees, it is but 36 as I type this only forty-eight hours later. When we drove through Kettering today, a snow shower dropped flakes at a significant enough rate that the roadway was momentarily covered. The wind whipped the snow around like it was a January day.
I have been admiring the color of an oak in front of the Germantown Public Library for the past couple of weeks but have never had my camera with me when I was there. Today I returned armed. I thought that the wind or the snow might have ruined the display but the old tree has hung tough, still holding its golden ruddy leaves high. I love how the veins have maintained their greenish tint.


Up close, the leaves are multi-shaded and as tough as thin leather. One year, when we lived in Miamisburg and had a Pin Oak (some French version that I can no longer remember), Mom collected the brown leaves at Thanksgiving time and used them as place settings, writing down names on each one with a black marker.
Our own oak at the end of the driveway, carried home almost 22 years ago, fools us with its display. The leaves - just like our Miamisburg oak - turn a lovely brown and taunt us with their tenacity. Then, with one particularly cold night, maybe followed by a rainy day, they all drop at once. I'd love to have an oak again that holds its leaves until the new ones are ready in the spring.

The other examples of oak we have here at Pinehaven were all collected from the nearby woods. They're natural to the area, offspring of the very trees that have been there for centuries, and they, too, hold their leaves until the last minute - until the weather gets too harsh - and then lose them all at once.

So what of the Germantown oak? It does the same. We watch a squirrel every year collecting acorns from this very tree and we saw him a few days ago putting away his last minute stores. The oak's purpose is more to the squirrel's benefit than it is to mine. I merely watch and enjoy; he dines.

Juniper Berries

Walking again at the pond, I've watched the juniper berries mature and now they hang in blue blankets against the green. It is a startling sight, this contrast of colors, and I can never let the sky-blue berries with their whisper of white dust go. For an instant the sun shone and the cold wind let me alone long enough to take this picture.


These berries are, I am sure you know, the stuff of gin. That seems foreign enough to me - and the bushes do, too - but it is that blushed berry that I cannot pass by. These berries are the foodstuff of winter animals so they are good for more than the looking. I have never tasted a berry but suppose that I should. I might then have a taste of gin tonic, without the gin, without the tonic.



This "Common Juniper" is not all that common around here. I've seen it numerous times at the Germantown MetroPark (not five miles away from our park). And yet it grows around here wild and will become quite tall (25' surely) if left alone enough years. It startles me with it's late season blue-ness, the color of chicory flowers beside the road or the hint of low-bush blueberries, coated with yeast, along the Appalachian Trail. In any case, there is nothing common about this bush at all. What gives us year-round green with such a gorgeous display of fruit so late in the season?

It's Spring at the Pond

Our usual walk at the pond today was met with excellent weather, very spring-like. It was 70 degrees and sunny as we stepped from the car.

This shot of the pines reflected in the pond may not speak of the pleasant temperature, but they do show how calm the air was. Actually. after I took this shot and began walking around the south edge of the pond, a sudden breeze blew up and ruffled the water so it wasn't nearly so pretty.
The weekend promises a little rain (how badly we need it) and much colder temperatures, as much as a 30 degree drop. So our pleasant walks sans coats are going to be limited soon.

Thank You America!

I have had an emotional day, one that began last evening and one that continues to the current moment. But it's all tempered, all made right, by the votes that I find totaled in the right column. We made history yesterday!
Coming home late from a meeting I covered for the newspaper, I sat myself down in front of the TV and began watching election coverage on CNN and ABC. Mom went to bed at about 8:30 p.m. and asked to be awakened when the results were in.
By 10:30 p.m., with Obama's lead grown to more than double McCain's, I thought it safe to go to bed. I took my iPod Touch along, plugged it into its AC adapter and turned on the clock radio, too.
By 10:55 a.m. I listened to a local broadcaster interview a journalist in Washington. The last question asked of him: "When do you think we'll know who won?" The answer: "Listen to Fox News at 11 p.m."
Of course the news was good: Obama was chosen our next president. History made in our own time. I looked at CNN on the web and they were still hedging their bets. The BBC, however, made the same announcement as Fox. It was over.
I walked into Mom's bedroom, woke her and told her Obama was the president-elect. Going downstairs, I informed Dad, too (he was still awake, said he couldn't sleep with all the excitement).
I listened to the radio for another hour. First McCain's touching concession speech and then Obama's wonderful speech from Chicago's Grant Park.
Even before I drove to my meeting I had walked out to Clayton Road and took down our Obama sign. It had been vandalized once (run over by a gray truck while I watched from the front window) and then wholly taken last Saturday night. But we had a second in the garage. Freedom of speech?
Could this thing even be possible? This was a perfect political storm: war, economy, a bright young man. Obama came along at just the right time and just as Lincoln set the stage with his 1858 debates with Douglas, so too did Obama with his convention speech four years ago.
I have a renewed sense of hope that the world's opinion of America will rise again, that our opinion of ourselves will improve, that our "can do" will return.
We did the right thing yesterday. We truly made history.

Pinehaven Apple Dumplings

It's fall and apples are in and we've been to Crossroads Orchard in Miamisburg twice. We bought the tart Johnathans earlier and now we have some beautiful Winesaps left. What dessert would fit the season better than our Pinehaven Apple Dumplings?
Actually, the recipe is pretty generic and is adapted from several Mom's been making over the years. I can remember these even when I was young. I thought they were too good to be true! My mother could make something like this? Of course, now so can I.


So you have some idea what the end result is going to look like, the apple dumpling pictured above was eaten by me earlier this afternoon (sorry folks). But I'll tell you what I'll do as compensation: I'll show you how to make them.



OK, one more look before we dig into the recipe. See that spoonful of apples on the right? Yum!

I should tell you right off that Mom prefers them less sweet and less spicy than Dad and I do. She adds only a sprinkle of sugar, cinnamon and nutmeg to the mound of apples before they're pinched into the dough. I'm quite a bit more liberal. I want them sweet! So, use the word "scant" if you like but the recipe shown probably is a little lighter than I go on the spices. I want these things to stick to my ribs!

Pinehaven Apple Dumplings

2 cups water
1-1/4 cups sugar
1/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg
4 - 8 drops red food coloring
1/4 cup margarine (that's 1/2 stick)
2 cups flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon salt
3/4 cup shortening (Crisco)
1/2 cup milk
6 small apples (Winesap are great)

Making the syrup:
Mix water, sugar, cinnamon, nutmeg and food coloring.
Cook about 5 minutes, remove from heat, add margarine.

Making the dough:
Mix flour, baking powder and salt.
Cut in shortening with a fork, a little at a time.
Mixture will be crumbly.
Add milk, stir lightly.
On floured pastry cloth roll to a rectangle (about 12" x 18").
Cut into six squares (6 - 6").

Assembly:
On each dough square, place mound of apples.
Sprinkle with sugar, cinnamon and nutmeg, dot with margarine.
Bring corners of dough up and pinch to seal (they will be irregular).

Baking: (* can be frozen and baked later)
Place in pan (all six will fit in a 13 x 9 x 2" pan) but we bake in two
smaller pans.
Pour syrup over dumplings.
Bake at 375° for 35 - 40 minutes.

A Final Fall Walk at the Pond

Today was certainly one of the last walks at the park where we could enjoy the scenery without the need for coats. In fact, a jacket was too heavy. As we started on the south side of the park and went clockwise along the path, I decided to record the prettiest sights I saw.
I first came upon this crab apple beside the pond, its fruit bright red against the light blue sky and darker shades of water. This is certainly our Indian Summer: we've had freezing weather and now we're almost as warm as 70 degrees.



On the northeast side of the park, just beginning to walk with the sun in our faces, the red leaves of the trees (maples) were lit from behind and so bright as to almost require a squint. In another few days, the leaves will be gone and the picture painted here will be no more than a fond memory.

Nearing the pond again, this time on the east side, I saw a last-of-the-season dandelion gone to seed ... holding out hope for next spring.

The cattails, too, have been "burnt" by the cold nights. All their summer green is gone. Though the water looks inviting on this warm day but it is but an illusion: it would already be so cold as to be numbing.


I enjoyed, too, time in the yard. I dragged the last of the downed limbs to a pile in the meadow and raked where they have been stacked since the winds of 9/14. I also re-stacked one of the wood piles which had fallen over. I added wood that was cut last summer (see 7/12/08). It's been stacked right near where it was cut and it's bothered me every time I passed it. So, with warm weather and no excuses I could think of, I got that project finished before winter, too.

A couple of miles beneath my feet today, too, as I thought I'd better burn a few extra calories before the winter winds start blowing. It's so easy to eat (and sit) and so hard to exercise.

Following Mom's Orchid

Once Mom's orchid begins blooming (see 10/14), we know we are in for weeks of enjoyment. This first photo (below) was taken on 10/13. A flower has just opened but a cluster of buds awaits.


Here's a different flower (10/21, below) fully opened and as pretty as can be.



And finally a picture I took a few minutes ago (11/01, below) with the far left bud on the photo above opened. The flower you see above is beginning to fade and is off the frame to the right of this shot.

This orange/red Cimbidium always takes my breath away, with its depth of color and staying power. This flowering sequence has already lasted over two weeks and we have at least that long to go. Right now the vivid color is mimicking the last of the fall leaves. Or is it simply early for the Christmas season?