Happy Thanksgiving

Happy Thanksgiving!

For some reason my photo storage has been limited to 1g which I have used up, therefore, no pictures.  I will find a new way to post pictures and will put the link here.  Bummer.  Any ideas of where I can go with the pictures now would be appreciated...

That was yesterday, this is today

So, I was going to post some comparison pictures with yesterday's entry and something is screwy with the blog so I'll start a new post.

 I haven't posted a food picture in awhile so when the onion tart came out of the oven last night I thought it might be fun to put a picture of it in the blog.  Onion tart you say? pastry dough, creme fraiche (sour cream), onions and some chicken sausage.  really good.  So good and easy that I think we'll do it again sometime.  Tonight is Eastern chicken from the crock pot and I doubt that there will be any pictures.  Tomorrow we're thinking of making some preserved lemons, but only if there's nothing else to do and we have no power.  Will take pictures of the lemons if we do it.

 A totally unposed picture of the sheep, but kind of cute so I put it in.  They are all tucked in and ready for the storm.

 The house is all put away and looks rather empty and alone.  I raked leaves out of the garden yesterday but so many oak leaves dropped last night and today that you can't tell I did a thing.  We left the bench up because neither one of us wanted to carry it and if it gets blown over by Sandy it will be really something.

 It's not a pumpkin on the front porch, it's a generator.  At least it adds color...

 Getting it all hooked up and ready to go if we need it.  The pellet stove needs electricity to run so if we do lose power we will have heat and some lights.

 A completely different look from summer.  Really isn't enticing at all.  However, if you look closely you can see that we have carrots, beets and some greens growing.  We were going to put some garlic in to winter over, but we haven't gotten around to it yet.

 Just some water on a dead leaf and some seed pods.  I thought it looked rather artistic so I took a shot.

 Here's another angle.

And this is the same plant that is in the picture from yesterday with the comment about it looking like it was out of focus and rather yellow?  This is what one day can do to a plant.  Interesting.

Right now I'm reading Mrs Woolf and the Servants. An interesting look at life in well to do homes in England at the turn of the century and the relationship of the help with the families.  Also trying to keep up with the New Yorker and The New York Review of Books.  I don't remember the New Yorker endorsing a candidate and being so political before.  I guess times have changed, but that magazine always seemed to stay out of the fray.

It's Fall

It's fall.  The leaves have fallen from the trees and the  ones that are left are dead oak leaves which are brown.  Most of the color has left the garden and we're left with shades of brown, yellow and a little green.

 The lambs ears are still soft and fuzzy-and green, but they are about the only thing that will stay that way till covered with snow.

 A desparate attempt at color.

 Weirdly enough, this picture is in focus and it's disconcerting to look at it because even in person it looks out of focus.

The Amish chairs are so darn heavy that there is no way Sandy will be able to move them even an inch.  It looks like we'll get some wind and rain, but that's about it.  We're missing the storm again this fall.  Last year Irene went South of us and this year it looks like Sandy will do the same.

 Fall decorative Kale.  On the table outside the door.

Even the Sheep look ready to be tucked in for the winter.

But Bob isn't ready to go in yet.  We're going to curl together this year.  It will be interesting and fun.  I'll curl 2 nights/week, one of them with Bob and the other on my own.  I'll keep you posted as to how that works for me.

Retirement, or lack there of

I really thought that I had retired from motorcycling and was quite happy with my decision.  The bike was sold, the money saved and the summer went well.  Then Bob went with Owen to Max's to pick up Owen's new bike and Bob saw this.  The next day Bob and I went down, he test rode it, fell in love and we brought it home.  Today I tried it out-just to be polite of course, and decided that it was a fun bike to ride. Now let the arguments begin as to who gets to ride it and when.  It's that nice a bike.

There's Bob fixing it up with tank bags and other bags so it will be ready to go at a moments notice.  Too bad its the end of the season instead of the beginning.  But it will be there in the spring and ready to go.

Last month we went to the The Common Ground Fair which is one of the most unusual fairs you'll ever attend.  No rides (other than on wagons pulled by draft horses or goats), no cotton candy or coffee (not raised in Maine), only organic veggies and some of the most unusual foods you'll ever find at a fair.  There were the usual assortment of  farm animals , veggies some of which were wonderful and fun to see.

There were buildings to suit every need.  The perfect guest house which would look sooooo nice snuggled down in the woods behind the house, greenhouses, furnace houses, pizza ovens, all kinds of things.

 Goat transportation for little ones or things.

And a chicken coop with a white picket fence.

 www.thegoodtable.me started their Wed evening cooking classes with a crepe class taught by Michael Roy who is the owner of Phi Home Designs.  The goal of the class is to get people who have fun cooking to come in and demonstrate their favorite recipes and Mike did a great job.  It was a nice evening.

Mike with one of the attendees, swapping notes on crepes,  backyard ice rinks and the state of cooking.










And, we had a great visit with the family last weekend.  It was so good to see everyone and even though the pictures didn't turn out that well, we all had fun and Kristine was missed.

 The nice thing about having 2 sons that look alike is you only have to take one picture and it can pass for either one.  Brian or Colin?  You make the call:)

 And then there's Owen cringing in fear of the "long bomb" that might not go that long.

Living on a Divided Road

 Hard to believe but its true.  We live on a divided road.  I'm not referring to politics, though I'm sure I could, not referring to economics, though I'm pretty sure there's a divide there, but not down the middle, but actual, physical road division.  Yup, it was divided.  Pretty cool, huh?  And you thought we lived in the boonies. Actually they were fixing the road for the winter and trying to get rid of low spots, pot holes and encroachment by grass and weeds.



Bob's been away so it's salad time here at the house.  This is Greek Pasta Salad, which was great the first night, good for lunch the next day, ok for dinner last night and honestly, not looking forward to it for lunch today.  If he keeps going away I'm going to have to learn to halve recipes or quarter them.  Or get a cookbook for one...

New York Review of Books this issue is really informative and has a lot of interesting articles.  More than just the lead one which I haven't gotten to yet.  The one on the Obamas is interesting as is the one about Krugman and Stiglitz.

The garden has come alive now that the heat is gone and I hope the eggplants make it before frost hits (it was in the 40's last night) and there are peppers on the plants-finally.

Not much else going on.  Knitting, reading, and football.  The usual fall activities.

Deconstruction

 The deconstruction of the shed is about to begin.  We've had the shed since we bought the house and it had developed leaks and had all kinds of things living under and in it so it was time for it to go.  Plus, there was just something about it that really didn't fit in with the house.  Or, I didn't want it to fit with the house.  It was a little too Waldo...

 The new shed is nice, relatively tight (to keep out those looking for a place to sleep for the winter), and more Belfast than Waldo:)  That's Bob still filling it up with lots of good things.

The two ends of the shed are gone and Bob is about ready to start taking up the floor.

 Lunch today was our summer squash with our tomatoes, oregano and parsley with onion and Greek olives and a piece of bread on the side.  It's fun to go out and pick the food, bring it in and cook it for a meal.  There are times when I wish I had planted more and most of the time I'm glad I did amount I did.  Next year we'll definitely do potatoes again with tomatoes and more herbs.  And I think we're going to join a CSA down the street to be sure we get fresh veggies and herbs 10 months out of the year.

 This was Sat night dinner.  Grilled Avocado and fresh faux veal chops from the farm down the road.  The chops were great and the avocado was good but I'm not sure it was worth the effort to grill the avocado or maybe we didn't do it right.  But, it was fun to try.  We've had grilled peaches which were good (idea from Garden and Gun magazine, I thought) but couldn't find it on their website so I linked this Frito Pie Recipe from Garden and Gun instead. It's totally kind of beyond belief and probably could only be thought up by someone south of the Mason Dixon Line.

Summer days and balmy nights is still my favorite cookbook this summer even though it does NOT include the Frito Pie Recipe we're still making a lot of the recipes in it. However, Plenty is running a close second.  Though it is technically a vegetarian cookbook, the author does eat meat and does include meat pairings.

They were haying this field the other day and the pictures just don't do justice to the actual scene.  It was like giants were playing a game of rolling the hay bales or something the way they were scattered around the field.

I took so many pictures trying to get one that captured the picture but wasn't really successful.  They were all picked up today and put away for winter feed.

Its finished

Bob proudly standing in the side doors of the Red Shed.  And it is red.  It was finished today so it took 1 1/2 days to build and now we have to finish painting the shed and the trim, build a ramp, put in shrubs and fill it with Bob things.

 There are Bob and TED (he's running so fast he's already out of the picture) on the way to the Bob house for their favorite things to put in the Red Shed.  They were even thinking of having a sleep out in the RS, but I don't know if that's going to happen.







Front view of the RS.  That's what you see from the Bob House.  By this weekend it should be all settled and comfy for manly men to work in.

Pictures and no pictures of what's going on

Today's post is a jumble of pictures, things that are going on and what I'm reading-or not reading because of all that's going on.

First, the potato harvest was rather weak.  I still have some plants in the ground so I'll let them stay and see if the potatoes get any larger.  I even had some blight which was really slimy and decided not to post that picture or any comments about starvation, corn, or the Irish Protestant that happens to live in the house.

 Sat night dinner.  A nice manage a trois.  We did add steak to the mix, but that changed everything so I didn't take that picture either because what would you call it?  Manage a quatre?  It just doesn't isn't the same, in oh so many ways.

 I'm still walking and I noticed that the cows seem to be hiding more often that not.  Of course I took it personally (they didn't like my taste in music, my outfit, etc, etc)

And then I saw this sign across the street.
I guess they figure that if they stay in the shadows no one will make the connection between their side of the road and across the street.  Too bad, we saw the cow carrier at the barn today and it looked like it was filled up.

 And now, for the latest happenings on Cross Lane.  Bob had a friend come over the other night to play and he brought this for the 2 of them to have fun with.

 They are preparing the ground for the Red shed that's coming tomorrow.  So now we have the Bob house, the TED shed (in the picture and will be moved soon to a less conspicuous spot) and the red shed.  The red shed will replace the shed that is next to the house right now.  It will be made out of wood and painted (you got it-barn red).  Pictures this weekend.  Fortunately I will be at work for the installation.

This weekend was the Belfast Harbor Fest with the annual boat building competition.  Bob's buddy and curling partner Owen participated again this year with the only female in the contest as his partner.  Since he wears a work kilt they called their group Us Girls.  Not sure how they did as we left before the results were in.  Update:  They came in third overall which is great since Sarah had never rowed before last weekend and had never built a boat.

Owen and Sarah working away.

 One of the many boats on display and for sale.

 And this cute little boat which is a little chubby in the middle is appropriately named, TED.

 Another boat and  view of the event.

 There's Owen in his work kilt and other gear finishing up the boat.  Speaking of kilts and skirts...  Someone has a birthday coming up and would be thrilled to get 2 skeins of this yarn, both the same color.  It would make a really nice scarf for a lucky daughter-in-law or any other female you may know...

 Tomatoes are starting to ripen.  The cherry ones are coming in now and the regular ones should be coming along in a week or two.

 The pink phlox are in bloom and they held up in the rain the other night.  The red phlox didn't do so well, so that's another picture not taken.

The fall/winter garden has been planted.  Lots of carrots, beets and some lettuce.

 The spot in the yard where the TED shed will be this time tomorrow night.

 And Bob pondering the state of the sheds, life and hopefully dinner...

What have I been reading this week?  A couple articles on Paul Ryan like this, and this one about Sonny Rollins and a delightful book of letters between Julia Child and Avis DeVoto  written while Julia Child was in France and Avis was in America.  It was the Kindle deal of the day for Julia's 100th birthday (that's the link to the book).  It is a correspondence between 2 women that loved to cook, comment on the politics of the time (the 50's and 60's) and life in general.  I highly recommend it to all.  And this one was in my email today but I haven't had time to read it.  And for more birthday ideas you can always click here.  I know I'm shamelessly promoting and putting out suggestions, but what the heck?

FLASH:  This is required reading for my relatives.  Not that I have even close to that many books, but I'm still relatively young and if you count the Kindle books and the ones I've given away, maybe????