Last week I told you that Mike and I were going back to the Wyoming County Fair for its last day because the seniors get in free again. I also told you that I wanted to see a couple of shows and that I would take pictures for you.
I did that.
I took over 1,100 pictures! I want to show you the best ones and I want to tell you about The Rhinestone Cowgirls Trick Horse Show and the High School Rodeo but as I was going through the pictures and reliving the events in my head, I quickly realized it needs to be a story all its own. And that frees me up to write about the other things that happened this week. That's a good thing since I'm getting an extremely late start on letter blog writing this week.
"You don't have to write a letter every week!" Mike tells me.
And trust me, in the 20 years that I've been doing this, there are times when I don't feel like doing it anymore, times when I wonder why I do it all, times when I'm ready to chuck it all in and call it quits. Then I remember why I'm doing it. "Yes I do!" I told him. "When you're lying in your bed in the nursing home and you've forgotten everything, I can say, 'Do you remember when...' and read you all the stories from our life together!"
Well, that's not the only reason I do what I do, but I thought it a pretty good one, and I trudge on. I am nothing if not tenacious.
Mike and I went to visit our neighbor Vernon this past week. He wasn't there but the turkeys were in his garden.
The fruit of the Silky Dogwood is turning a pretty shade of purple. The birds are attracted to the fruit and I found a couple of websites that say we can eat it too — but it doesn't taste very good.
"Maybe it would be better after a frost," the Blogger said.
Like many wild plants this one has it's medicinal uses too. The dried root and bark of the Silky Dogwood is an antiperiodic (which means it prevents the periodic return of attacks of certain diseases or fevers, especially malaria), it's an astringent, and a mild stimulant. It's been used as a quinine substitute and a treatment for chronic diarrhea. It's also been used in the treatment of painful urination and chest congestion. The bark was also used as a poultice on external ulcers and as a wash for gonorrhea sores.
This next one is Autumn Olive. If I still had kids, or if anyone in my house ate jelly, I'd make jelly from these at least once! I have eaten them and they taste fruity, but you definitely want to wait until after a frost or create your own by freezing them first. Mostly I just leave them for the birds.
I said you wouldn't recognize the Virgin's Bower once it went to seed! Here's what it looked like two weeks ago...
...and here's what it looks like now!
I really like this shot of Queen Ann's Lace with the Virgin's Bower in the background, especially since the Queen Ann's Lace is tinged with purple.
A little butterfly called a Pearl Crescent. Her wingspan is an inch to an inch and a half.
This is the Crane Fly.
There was a whole flock of them in the weeds and it took me quite a while to get a picture of one for you because every time I got close they would take off.
People sometimes mistake these guys for musky toes — err, misquotes, but they're not. And just like some of our butterflies, at this stage in life, they don't eat. Their only purpose is to mate and for the females to lay eggs for the next generation. Crane Flies are harmless to handle so the next time one gets into your house, simply cup it gently and release it outdoors.
I see the fruit of the Spotted Touch-me-nots is ripening.
As a kid, it was fun to touch them and have them pop in your hand. Depending on how ripe they are, you may have to give them a little squeeze to get them to pop.
Even though it's not full of reds and oranges (I'll show you one of those in a minute) I really thought the evening sky was beautiful this night.
I went to get the mail one day this week and saw a mess on our little country road. A cooler came off the back of a work truck and someone's lunch and all their drinks were scattered all over the place!
We'd just gone through the Labor Day weekend, which means I hadn't been down at this end of the property for at least three days, so I don't have any idea how long it's been laying here, but it was obvious that a lot of the stuff had been run over. Water bottles were flattened and those that landed in the ditch were still sealed. The plain M&M's were waterlogged — I dumped them out. Two crustless sandwiches were still in the sealed cellophane they were bought in. They'd probably be fine to eat if one was so inclined to do so — I was not. I opened 'em up and dumped 'em out for the critters. Consider it the price for me having to pick up your trash. Several soda cans were still sealed, as were the Jell-O cups. The cooler wasn't broken so I tossed everything back in the cooler, put the lid on, and set it beside the road. I was hoping whoever lost it would stop and pick it up. As far as I know, it's still sitting there five days later.
"What if they dump everything out?" you ask.
I thought of that too and just decided if they did that, I'd pick it up again.
And here's the other sunset photo I promised you was coming. No reds but plenty of orange!
At the pond, Ginger went for a swim...
...and I took pictures of dragonflies.
A Katydid got tangled in the laundry I took off the line and I shook him out of a towel.
Our neighbor Vernon and Mike are getting to be good buds, which is good for Mike as he needs other men to talk to. While we were up there I saw that he had Buttercup squash. I love, love, love, this winter squash! It's my very favorite. I looked around and could only see about five of them. "I'm getting one," I said to Mike.
"You should ask first."
Vernon wasn't home at the time. "He said I could have whatever I wanted, that I was just to take it," I reminded Mike and I cut one free of its vine.
When Mike was up visiting on his own one day, he asked Vernon about them.
"I don't even know what they are or what to do with them," Vernon told Mike. "I just planted a mixture of seeds." So Mike called me.
"Tell Vernon what to do with that squash that you like," he commanded.
"The Buttercup?"
"Yeah."
"I just cut it in half, scoop the seeds out, and cooked it in the microwave for about 12 minutes," I told him.
I was on the speakerphone. "In the microwave!" Vernon couldn't believe it.
"You could do them in the oven if you wanted to, it'll just take longer."
I went on to tell him other things that people do like add a little water to the dish when they put it in the microwave; that steams it and keeps it moist. And people coat the cut side with oil before baking too.
Once cooked I mash it with a little butter and milk if it's too dry — but I like it dry.
"All the better to put gravy on," Momma says.
When Mike was describing the squash to our friend Margaret in Missouri, she thought it sounded like the Acorn squash. "I can understand that," I told Mike. "They're both dark green."
My sister.
I'll tell you what. I know that my sister loves me, and I love her, but she shared something with me that is truly dangerous in my house!
"You know how I like to share recipes with you that are easy and delicious?" she asked.
"Yeah?"
"I made these three ingredient peanut butter cookies that are truly fabulous — and so easy to make that you won't believe it!"
That piqued my interest. I love peanut butter and who doesn't love easy. "Really!"
"Mix one cup peanut butter with one cup sugar and one egg — that's it."
"No flour?" I couldn't believe it.
"Nope," Phyllis confirmed. "No flour."
"Don't they fall apart?"
"No. Let them sit for a minute or so before you take them off the sheet. They are wonderful!"
"How many did it make?"
"Umm, maybe 18. And it only took about 20 minutes all told!"
After I got off the phone with her I Googled it and found out two things she didn't tell me. Use parchment paper or Silpat to bake them on...
"I used aluminum foil," she told me when I confronted her.
And don't use natural peanut butter; it won't come out near as well.
"Doesn't apply to me so I never thought to tell you."
I normally use Smucker's Natural Peanut Butter but I have a jar of the other stuff I keep on hand for making bird suet cakes, so I used that.
Bake them at 350 degrees for 12 to 15 minutes and that's it! You can have it mixed and ready to pop in the oven in about the same amount of time it takes the oven to preheat. The only problem I had was my fork stuck to the dough a little as I made my crisscrosses. I imagine you could use a little somethin'-somethin' to keep that from happening if you want to. You can use sugar, flour, or even a little milk to keep them from sticking.
I like to share easy and delicious with my friend, that beautiful and feisty redheaded neighbor of mine, Miss Rosie.
"Mmmm. They look good," she said when I handed her the plate.
"Try one," I told her and as she happily munched away, I told her how to make them.
"No flour?" she asked.
"Nope. No flour."
She couldn't believe it either.
When we were leaving I gave Rosie a big ole hug. I love hugging her, she hugs me back. "Thank you," she said.
And I felt a little guilty. I patted her belly, "Yeah? Your belly won't thank me."
"My belly loves it — but the scale might not!"
Our next stop was Vernon's to drop him off a few cookies. We caught him mowing but he stopped and visited with Mike for a little bit — and they talked their boy talk.
This guy landed on me while I was sitting there. He looks like a flying ant, I thought and took his picture. I'm not sure I've ever seen a flying ant before but he looked like an ant and he had wings, so that was the assumption I jumped to. I Googled it and pictures of guys just like this one came up; he is a flying ant.
A mature ant colony produces winged virgin queens and males. During the life of a colony, it can produce millions of queens. Which is a good thing since the young queens have an extremely high failure rate. The weather conditions have to be just right before the winged ants take their maiden flight, and they go in search of mates from other colonies, which also released flying ants. One queen will mate with several males; the sperm stored in a special organ in the queen's abdomen, and will last her lifetime — which can be as long as 20 years! The sperm she collected can be used to fertilize tens of millions of eggs — that's a lot of eggs! Whereas the queen can mate with several males, for the male it's a 'one shot' deal. During the quick and violent mating, the male literally explodes his internal genitalia into the genital chamber of the queen and quickly dies. The young mated queen lands, removes her wings, and attempts to start a new colony. She has to raise the first brood herself and of all the queens sent out over the life of a colony, only one of these queens will succeed in making a new successful colony. Most are destroyed by predators (like other ants), environmental hazards or failures in raising the first brood.
And now you know more about flying ants than you ever thought you wanted to know. You're welcome.
I got to feeling a little guilty about always taking Miss Rosie some of what I bake. I'm supposed to be helping her lose weight — we're supposed to be helping each other lose weight — but we both like to bake and we both like to share and things aren't as fattening when you share, don't you know.
"Does Lamar get mad when I bring you cookies and things?" I asked Rosie on the way to exercise class one night.
"Noooo. He knows I can exercise self-control if I really want to. And I love all the yummy things you bake — and so does Lamar."
So I guess I won't worry about it anymore.
"Why were you late in starting your letter blog this week?" I hear you ask.
"The Ultimate Yard Sale is Saturday morning," Rosie told me.
I love a good yard sale. "Oh yeah? Where's that?"
"It's behind the newspaper office there at Monroeton."
And so Saturday morning was spent walking around looking for new treasures — like I need anymore, right!
"Did you find any?" you ask.
I found a case with Richard Simmons exercise DVD's. There were four Sweatin' to The Oldies and a couple of other ones for just three dollars; a good deal.
"Richard Simmons!"
I know, right! But Rosie and I enjoy working out with Richard. Michael found a hot dog and I had to smell his onions. Luckily, he stopped and talked with the gal at the furniture store (he's still looking for a recliner with an extending footrest) and she gave him a mint.
"She was really relieved when I accepted it," Mike told me.
I laughed. "I bet she was!"
I took some road pictures for you. Nothing fabulous but since you kind of expect that of me, here they are.
Mike and I are making plans to head west. One of the things I wanted to do this trip was take a side trip to Minnesota.
When our daughter Kat died, her boyfriend said he would keep some of her things for us until we could arrange to get them. Her grandmother's china, some Brownware, and some family photo albums. Clara was adamant, long before she died, that she wanted her one and only granddaughter to have her Moss Rose china. Clara didn't have a setting for six or even eight, she had place settings for 12! Even though she had a china cabinet, she used her china, and so some of it was chipped. Mike and I found a large set of China with the same pattern and spent $150 to get it for Kat. It not only replaced some of her chipped ones, it gave her pieces that she didn't have before.
I asked my sister to try to arrange this for us. "Jesse won't talk to me, won't answer my calls or emails. He says it's too painful for him," Phyllis told me.
"How about through one of his daughters?"
"I'll try." She's a good sister.
Losing Kat was so hard for Jesse, then before he even had a chance to recover from that, he comes home to find his brother dead on the couch. Heart attack. Jesse spiraled out of control and lost the house, leaving Kat's things behind.
"Why didn't he call us to come and get the stuff?" I asked.
"Good question," Phyllis replied.
"I'm so angry! There aren't a lot of family heirlooms in my family and this was important to me."
"It's okay to be sad," my beautiful sister told me, "but you shouldn't be angry. Anger hurts the person who's angry way more than it hurts the person you're angry at and it doesn't solve anything. Besides, Jessie is such a broken man he deserves our compassion, not our anger."
I've had a little time to digest this and I think I know why he didn't call us. He didn't call us because he didn't care. When you care about things and you lose them, it hurts. It hurts a lot. The only logical thing to do is stop caring. Jesse stopped caring, even about himself, I suspect.
"Maybe the people who bought the house kept the stuff thinking we'd come back for it someday," I suggested to Mike. It's what I'd do if I found someone's family photos.
"The bank probably sold off the contents of the house," he said, "and it ended up in a flea market someplace or at the dump."
I decided to stop being angry, because Phyllis's advice is good, and instead I got sad. Then I decided to turn it over to God.
Let's call this one done.
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