Is it Easy Being Green?

 Managed to walk 2 miles today by going for an extra "tour" on the same trip as the shopping. I don't think I'd ever walked that road before. Not that it was anything special, but new is good. Found this little green guy. Wonder what he thought of the freshly oiled surface. Maybe it isn't easy for him to be green. He was certainly visible on the blacktop to birds that might find him tasty. It's the caterpillar for a Gold Spot moth. Nothing special, but nothing bad. Kind of describes my day. His name is Plusia festucae.

For several months now, I've been making my own salad dressing for my usual evening-meal salad. I couldn't find Green Goddess dressing in the stores for almost a month. I had previously tried a couple of recipes and not liked them. But I found one I do like. It needs fresh herbs, including basil. I've also had trouble finding that in the store. So, today, I bought a pot of the live stuff. It certainly hasn't been easy for this specimen to be green. Or any other color. It's a little sad, but it has a new pot. Hopefully it will perk up on the deck until it has to come in the house. If I even get a couple of pickings off it, the cost will be less than what I paid for one little bunch in a plastic container.

And what about that salad dressing? I like it enough that I have continued to make it. I've been experimenting with chopping up the herbs and freezing the extra in water until I'm ready to make a new batch. That works well enough (although even when drained it makes the dressing a little runny). But I also tried freezing the fully prepared dressing, and that didn't seem to change either the flavor or the texture (the part I was concerned about), so today I made a quart and froze half. Here's the jar I'm keeping out for immediate consumption.

Here's the recipe (tweaked by me to be easier). It's very forgiving. Add more or less of any ingredient as you have it or like it. Also low calorie, and does not contain ingredients you can't pronounce. OK, maybe not as easy as buying a bottle off the shelf, and not quite as green, but yummy and no artificial green.

Green Goddess Herb salad dressing

a few stalks of basil
a handful of fresh dill (or I've used dried dill when I couldn't find fresh)
a handful of fresh parsley (or I've used dried parsley when I couldn't find fresh)
a few green onion stalks
several garlic cloves
2 c. lowfat yogurt
2 c lowfat sour cream

Chop the herbs and garlic fine. Mix with the dairy products and blend with an immersion blender. Actually, today, I didn't even do this. The herbs are a little coarser, but I don't think that detracts, and it's one less thing to wash. It keeps in the fridge for at least a week. I've previously made a cup at a time and finished it all before there was any chance to test how long it will last.

I finally got back to working on Long Distance Hiker Recognition for the NCT. I'm way behind on that. Shopped, worked on finances, gardened a little (stay tuned).

Miles walked in 2024: 384.7

See Let the Harvest Begin

Walking to Vote

  I live only a mile and a half from the township hall. Perfect length to walk to vote. The day was gorgeous! The last of the cloud cover was breaking up. A Mackeral Sky like this signals change, and that is what is predicted- the whole week is supposed to be nice.

Here's another view with a tree for contrast.

The light and shadows on the cemetery creek made it look really nice.

A female cardinal was playing hide and seek in the branches.

And a little green caterpillar was taking a tour of this flat discarded can. I don't know what it will turn into.

I was #340 to vote in my precinct. The lines were the longest I've ever seen here. Saw several neighbors. The clouds were completely gone by the time I walked home.

In other news: I have started that other big house project. I'll show you tomorrow. That took the bulk of my afternoon. But I did manage to write 139 words in Dead Mule Swamp Singer. Not much, I know, but better than doing nothing.

See How's the Cemetery Creek?

Two Puzzles Solved

 
Today was super windy again. I went for a road walk this afternoon, and came across this little guy crawling across the blacktop.



It's not a good idea to touch hairy caterpillars. Many of them can cause skin irritation or rashes. But I touched it with a small rock and it rolled up.



I had to get some help to identify it. Turns out I also took a picture of one in March of 2016. That one was paler, but clearly the same kind of caterpillar. And also crawling across the blacktop.



Turns out it's a moth one actually sees fairly often, although I don't have a picture of one. If you've seen the sleek, smooth moth about 1.5 inches in length that has blue-black wings and an orange head with feathery antennae, this is the caterpillar. It's called Virginia ctenuchid. (say ten-UH-kid). You can see one on Bugguide.net

Puzzle one solved!

Puzzle two... This may be a first. Given my history with puzzles, I'm not sure it is, but I don't recall ever doing this. Although my murder-mystery puzzle has 1000 pieces, it was pretty easy. I completed the entire puzzle yesterday! The picture is not the picture on the box at all. You read the little book, and then find the clues in the puzzle itself (mostly the written notes you see on the countertop), and solve the mystery. It was fun.



In other news: Well, my road walk was 6.6 miles, so that took a while. Other than that I worked on some of my personal and volunteer projects. Oh yeah... a cleaned up the kitchen a little bit. It's hard to care. I know you clean freaks don't get that, but I'm basically a slob.

See Puzzle Puzzle