It's In the Mail and Other Lies

Have you ever told someone "it's in the mail," when it wasn't, quite? I'm doing it right now, but I'll also tell you I'm lying. However, I do have 5 packages sitting by the door all ready to go out tomorrow. This is a major accomplishment for me. Next contest... maybe I'll just send PayPal!

So here's the rundown. Biggest box is a taillight for my car. A left taillight. Problem is... I ordered a right one. So after learning it didn't fit, they sent the right one, which was the right one, and a return authorization for the left one. Got that? Right.

Second thru fourth- The packages are all ready for Canadian Doomer, Ivy and Chuck, the winners from the April contest in addition to John Lottery who chose the blog ad.

Fifth- One more project finished... Loretta's shawl, and just in time for her birthday, which is Sunday. So, I figured you would want to see it. But you have to properly appreciate what I have done for you here. This is the first time I've had on a dress for about four years. I kept it on for about four minutes. All for YOU.

Maybe Loretta will model it with the dress it was made to be worn with. We can hope.



I leave tomorrow for New York. I'm giving the Saturday night program at the Spring Weekend of the Finger Lakes Trail Conference. After that, Marie and I will get to hike for two days, then I have to bug home. It's about the part-time job, you know. I have posts scheduled for the days I won't have internet access, but I'll probably miss visiting you for a few days.

Rhubarb

Most of my US friends probably know what rhubarb is, but maybe not everyone around the world. So I thought I'd show you more than the end result.



Rhubarb is sometimes called "Pie Plant," because that's one of the best ways that it ends up. It's a leafy vegetable, although those big beautiful leaves are toxic, and it's used more like a fruit. The dried up leaves on the lower left are the ones I cut yesterday. I put the discarded leaves around the plant to act as a mulch/compost.



What you want to collect are the stalks. They look and feel sort of like thick celery. But they don't taste anything like celery! The taste is extremely tart. I can eat it raw, but not too much. It needs a little sugar with it to be palatable, but with that bit of sweetening, it's one of my favorite flavors.



Here is a stalk that is trying to go to flower. These are just buds. I'll cut that off, to keep it producing leaves and stalks.



Ah, here we are! This is my favorite use for rhubarb. Pie! Pie for breakfast, pie for dessert. Did I mention that I like pie?

See And a Wonderful Meal it Was

Brown and Gray, but the Good Kind

 
You've heard me mention that the month(s) between winter and real spring are my least favorite of the year, with everything brown and gray. But today, I'm going out of my way to show you brown and gray, and not even great pictures, at that.

Brown first: this is a regular yearly visitor to my yard, the brown thrasher, Toxostoma rufum. The local bird guru lists it as an occasional visitor to the county, but I'm trying to convince him that I see them almost every year.



The brown thrasher is one of my personal favorites. It usually stays near the ground, fluttering from bush to bush, or walking across the lawn. They seem to particularly like the wooded cemetery. It's a little larger than a robin, with a much longer tail.



It was windy this morning- hence the ruffled feathers. You can also see its yellow eye.

The gray half of this duo showed up later in the morning back by the railroad tracks. I knew in an instant that it wasn't a regular visitor, and I zapped the pics off to Dave Dister, that bird guru I mentioned. I thought maybe it was a mockingbird.



He answered me that it's a cuckoo, an uncommon visitor here. There are two possible kinds, but in the second picture you can see the red eye ring, which identifies it as the black-billed cuckoo Coccyzus erythropthalmus.



I've seen cuckoos in the south, but never here, and I think the ones I've seen were yellow-billed cuckoos. I didn't even think of it as a possibility. I'll keep my eyes open and see if I can spot it again.

See Brown Thrasher in My Yard

Promises in White

Our fruit trees are aged, uncared for, and completely organic including whatever bugs or bunnies or blights take their toll. But this year, they are at least getting a promising start. The one above is a sour cherry tree. Almost every year, I'm gone when the cherries ripen, if there are any at all. But this year I'll be home, and maybe, just maybe there will be enough for both me and the birds.



This is one of the two pear trees. I usually have more pears than I can deal with, and end up giving a lot of them away. The last couple of years I've been hiking, though, and didn't do anything at all with them. So I have hopes of drying some pears and making our favorite pear recipes for several weeks. This includes some muffins and bread for the freezer.

Well, there is a lot that could happen between now and ripe fruit!

When Did This Happen?

I was going to use some other pictures for today, but this one just had to be shared. We've known this couple, Dennis and Melody Nordine since the early 1970's. We tried to remember, this morning, where we met exactly, but can't quite recall. Probably at church



Dennis was the speaker at a local church today, so we went there to hear him, and see them for a few minutes. We got someone to snap a picture. But, when I looked at it later, I saw four well-seasoned souls. Now, I ask you, "When did this happen?" Last I knew, we were just four young, idealistic people starting out on life.

Now, they were home for the wedding of their youngest child. Home being the United States. They have been in the Philippines for decades now, at the Baptist Theological College in Cebu. We see them every few years when they are home on furlough

But, it seems like just yesterday or so... only 1972.



Om and I were leading bicycle trips every summer- taking teens all over the country. Dennis and Melody went as staff that year.



That's me on the left, then Melody and Dennis. No one looks his or her best when finally getting the chance to eat dinner after all the kids are served. Well, Melody looks cheerful. She always does! This picture also illustrates the reason that one of my personal life goals is to never eat off a paper plate again.

Om's not in the picture because he was the one with the camera. I had to hunt up one of him from the same era. It's hardly fair... he's clean and combed, but it's from the same year.

One of Dennis' points this morning was from Hebrews 10:23- "Let us hold unswervingly to the hope we profess, for he who promised is faithful."

I'm happy to say that we've all done just that. Dennis is having some serious health issues. If you believe in prayer, it would be great to say one for him.