Musings

This is a sample of last night’s food porn. The restaurant around the corner has special menus seasonally. Right now they’re on a tomato one. This is pane pomodoro appetizer. That tomato mixture started with roasted tomatoes, then they were cooked down and I could not tell all the magic that went into the transformation into the final version. So complex. So excellent. I’m still swooning. We did have a whole lovely meal. Even dessert (against all odds). Mmmmmm.

Tonight’s menu was nowhere near so complex. Tasty, yes. But…hmm…my flavor-creation choreography. Toasted some pignolas. Pureed them with good olive oil, garlic, salt, some water to thin. Then basil. And more basil (after it was de-stemmed and cleaned). Over pasta, duh. Stirred with a generous pile of Parmigiano-Reggiano until homogenous.

Livin’ large.

So, now the hip-high bushes are only almost that high. Trimmed.

Posted at 8:56 PM | 1 Comment »

No popup storms today. That I noticed. This is carry-over moisture.

We’ve been binge-watching the latest “Veronica Mars.” Spiffy writing overall, yet some parts drag despite some snappy dialogue.

Posted at 10:04 PM | Comments Off on Leaf loving

White lily with feathery petal tips. “Just an ornamental” (™ 😀 ).

An Ampelopsis spp., common name porcelainberry. Pretty sure.

At seven this morning it was a mere 72°F, unlike yesterday’s 79°F, so I went for a no-stress walk. Humid!

Posted at 9:42 PM | Comments Off on Parsing

Inattention suited the basil lately. The tall Genovese bush is thigh high; the Thai cultivar is to the right with the purplish flower spikes.

I picked a good pile of the Thai basil…

…and, with cilantro leaves, it made a terrific garnish for our Thai curry tofu. High protein version today with added edamame, peas. I think the rice has a bit of protein, too. I recently read that aging people need more protein.

Protein: check. And yummy, too!

Posted at 6:57 PM | Comments Off on Basil burgeons

That freighter: Indiana Harbor. I assume it’s a real place. The strange-shaped vessel behind it is working on the disputed pipeline that crosses the straits. I think the white cone is part of the pipeline project.

Sparty. BMOC. You know which C.

Old Forestry building, now called Chittenden Hall. Mom’s office was on the second floor.

Irish nachos. Totally decadent. Happily shared with almost-birthday guy, DeeMickGee.

Posted at 10:03 PM | 1 Comment »

The grass and its friend have overtaken the rhubarb. Again. I know there are four crowns, and I think there’s a fifth—if it has survived.

Here’s the result after a little over an hour of clearing. I need to hit it again, remove more invaders and put down cardboard to cover the open soil to frustrate a new crop of invaders.

Below the pink foxglove to the left is the fifth crown. Yay!

Don’t know the name of this beauty.

Oh, the headline? “We” lost 140 lb today, “we” being our real estate, that is, crud removed from the back porch and the garage and deposited at the “dump.” And by “dump” I mean transfer station. All the actual dumps in the UP were closed decades ago; that means no after-dinner bear watching.

Posted at 6:36 PM | Comments Off on 140 lbs lost

I found a milkweed just beginning to bloom, a plant in the vanguard of the blooming, and covered up with skippers.

I found this vetch with plenty of skipper-attention.

Something aka some critters/insects have been eating my basil. This skipper is the only visitor I’ve spotted; however, I don’t think of skippers as basil-eaters. Mystery….

Tar-gravel fixing of holes in the perpetually patched blacktop through the swamp. It’s a bumpy ride.

Posted at 9:39 PM | Comments Off on Skippers everywhere (exaggeration)

Old deer tracks. Exaggerated by being made in soft mud, and from subsequent desiccation.

Recent deer tracks. Just barely penetrating the soil/former mud.

I was on foot, and I could hear a motor that was skipping behind me. It was the mower on the left. Then I heard a second motor. It was the ORV that traveled faster and here is on the right (I turned around to get this shot). I continued walking down into the swamp where I found the tracks above. Because I had descended I couldn’t hear what happened, but both vehicles must have turned into the fix-it place that is before the swamp, as I did not see/hear them again. My hypothesis is that riding mower guy abandoned his ride to fix-it man, joined ORV guy, and they motored to whence they originated.

Posted at 10:05 PM | Comments Off on I’m a tracker

On our last half-day with our houseguest, KB of Minneapolis, we visited the locks and the metro lock area. In the locks visitors’ center, we perused a display that asked people to write about what they liked most about their locks viewing. This writer liked the ACTION, and I concur; it’s wonderful to watch when “the boat gos out.”

Here, however, the car ferry goes out. Right at the Clyde’s lunch stop. Over to Sugar Island; sometime I will take that ferry.

Then we waved bye-bye to KB and dropped in on KW and GG and P___ and M___ at their windy Gitchee Gummee beach. We opted to stay indoors safe from the breeze and the biters, and whiled away the afternoon with non-stop laughs and great stories. Such fun fun fun. 🤭

Posted at 8:51 PM | Comments Off on the boat gos out

Loving the low-angle morning light. And this rug. It’s seen better days, but we both like the color, so it stays (for now).

Stunning flower arrangement for the table…all from the garden and field. Great party followed!

Bumper crop of tent caterpillars this year. Friends are picking them off by the five-gallon bucket full. Yikes! I have heard of scat 💩; turns out that the same sort of output by insects is frass. I knew you wanted to know that.

Posted at 10:36 PM | Comments Off on New vocab: frass