An Outing

Today the Geezer and I took Sheba to Halibut Point for walkies. The Geezer wanted to try out his new camera. Sheba and I just wanted to walk.

We saw a flock of Harlequin Ducks. (The picture is from the internet). They were floating in the sea, diving, and standing on tiptoes in the water, flapping their wings.

It's called Halibut Point because it's the place where sailors used to tack out (haul about) to avoid Cape Ann. Not because of the fish.

It was very clear and we could see the Isles of Shoals in the distance.

The Bread and the Pie alluded to in an earlier post

COG and Son of COG had already helped themselves to bread. I'm told it's a particularly nice loaf. Probably due to rising overnight in the fridge.

Thanksgiving Morning

The bread is rising and the pie is in the oven so Sheba and I had a little walk. It's mild and rainy this morning and supposed to get to 60 this afternoon.

It has been an unusually beautiful autumn. The colors aren't as intense as some years, but the leaves have stayed on the trees longer than usual. Many trees are bare,but there are still wonderful golden leaves in the undergrowth, as well as overhead. On many of the narrow back roads, the trees form a golden arch over you. When the sun shines through it makes one think of Lothlorien. But even in the rain it's lovely.

Friends of the Library Book Sale

I haven't blogged for a while. First, because I was in Minnesota doing Halloween and that was covered by other bloggers better than I could do it. Second, because since I got back.... I just haven't had time.

I've spent a lot of hours this week preparing for the Friends of the Library Book Sale. This was a small sale, our big ones are 3 days long in June and July. People donate books all year long and twice a month we sort them into boxes. I cream off the best ones to maintain a cart of books in the library proper where we sell the best books all year long. The others are stored until the sales.

At today's sale, we had a lot of kids books, and a year's worth of donated Christmas books, music and videos, plus we featured like-new books for Christmas gifts. We made $500+ in 4 hours, selling books at 50 cents for paperbacks and $1 for hard-cover. Plus, we had some of the best ones for $2.

I pulled out what I considered the very best ones at the end and replenished my cart and a second cart by the kid's library. Lots of great kids books. I wish I'd had this as a resource when the kids were younger. I would have been great to buy books for them at these prices.

I brought home 3 books for only $1.50. Of course, that means I'll get rid of 15 books - that's the rule the Geezer and I have now, 5 go out for every one that comes in. What did I bring back? Home: a short history of an idea by Witold Rybczynski, an architect who has written a lot of interesting stuff; Entertaining Satan: witchcraft and the culture of early New England by John Demos; and a mystery by a man, but it sounded interesting anyway, so I broke my rule about only reading fiction by women.

It was lovely to be around books again even for a few hours.

Enough with the vampyres, already

I went to Borders to buy a book to read on the plane tomorrow. I was thinking a nice mass market paperback science fiction/fantasy. I discovered a sci fi section filled with vampire books. OK, I loved Buffy as much as the next woman (maybe not quite as much as the next woman- I've never attended a Buffy Studies academic conference, but a lot). And I had an open mind, sort of. I'd have taken a nice little dragon book, or a woman warrior, maybe some sentient animals, fairies can be good, or an untried mage coming into his or her power, maybe a little time travel or just an ordinary alternate medieval world with a little magic here and there. But no -- vampires, vampyres, nightwalkers everywhere.

I tried the mystery section, but it, too, was full of the undead.

Yes, we all know I'm picky. With few exceptions, I only read books written by women. I look first for books written by authors who love Dorothy Dunnett. My tastes are specific and I've read a lot so it narrows my choices.

Sigh.

Bought literary fiction. Something my book group is reading. Water for Elephants. Everyone says it's wonderful. I'm sure I'll enjoy it. yadda yadda Not really what I wanted.

Sigh.

Wild Harvest - Hickory Nuts and Apples

I've been out foraging on Heartbreak Road. I found hickory nuts just down the road among the leaves.

The little white egg-like things in the picture are hickory nuts, which are a native species and they grow wild all over here. Right now, when I take Sheba for a walk we trample nuts in every direction on the roads around our house. From the internet I've learned that pecans are a form of hickory nut, but some people think they are inferior in flavor to the kind I found. Therefore, I'm going to try to make a hickory nut pie, similar to pecan pie. The only problem so far is that their shells are fairly thin, so it's hard to get the nutmeats out without crushing them.


Here's a picture of my harvest. The apples are also from Heartbreak Road, from an old tree hidden in the hedgerow - it doesn't seem to be in a place where it would have been planted. I've already made apple butter with them. They looked pretty ugly, but they made a mighty fine apple butter.

COG Photo for Andrew

Andrew, this is an abstract the COG did at the island, in the reeds by the beach. I love it. I thought you might like it, too, since you said you like abstracts.

Appleton Farm, again

Appleton Farm, where we have our CSA share, is owned by the Trustees of Reservation, a land and property preservation organization. The Farm is 700+ acres of lovely rolling meadows and woods, only a fraction of the land is farmed, so there's lots of land for recreation.

Some trails are reserved for walking and running only, but other areas are also open to biking, to horses, hayrides, skiing in winter, and, our favorite, dogs off-lead.


Most summer days I take Sheba for a walk there, though in winter we also go to Crane's Beach, another Trustees of Reservation property.

Bounty of the Season

Here is this week's 'share' from The Appleton Farm CSA:basil, coriander, mint, leeks, savoy cabbage, potatoes, onions, garlic, winter squash, celeriac, peppers, turnips, rutebegas, pumpkins and eggplant. We pay about $500 per year and this entitles us to a full grocery bag of our choice from whatever is available, plus various extra things (2 pumpkins this week, sometimes corn, or melons), plus pick-your-own, which we pick up each week from June through the first week in November.

I pick it up from the wonderful old barn shown below, outside and inside. The Appleton Farm had been continuously owned by the same family since the original land grant in 1630-something, until the owner died a couple of years ago. It's 700 acres of farm, field, woodland. In addition to the CSA, we are able to walk dogs off leash there in a large wooded area, and we do that most days, if we aren't at the beach. There's cross-country skiing in the winter, horse trails etc. A really wonderful place.



As for the CSA, it's great. Pick-your-own might be the best of all. Strawberries in season, green beans, tomatoes, herbs, many varieties of hot peppers and flowers - an amazing assortment of different flowers, including sunflowers. We also get lots of strange things like edamame, tomatillos, 15 different kinds of heirloom tomatoes, purple and gold beans, as well as green ones.

The COG on his bike

The COG was never allowed a bike as a kid, for safety reasons. But he bought himself one last Spring and is really enjoying it, as you can see from the picture.

Today he talked me into biking the length of the Plum Island with him. Plum Island,which is more of a peninsula, really, is mostly a national wildlife refuge. It's an important stopover on the Eastern migration and it's where James does his bird banding. The road is about 6 miles each way, and half of it is unpaved. It's pretty flat, but it was bumpy. My bike isn't really made to use on unpaved roads and the bumping was.... let's just say I'm a little saddle sore.

But it was a great ride.