Mutant Soup

Opened the mutant tonight because it was developing soft spots. It may have been still immature when harvested; the seeds are awfully flat. Still, I'm saving some and will send some your way, Sue. Made half of the flesh into a Thai-like soup. "Like" because we didn't have any tom kha paste, so I mashed up coriander, ginger (no galanga either), chili, lemon peel, and lime oil to approximate it; also, the coconut flavoring that seemed so promising when I bought it three years ago has aged, apparently, to the point where it remembers coconut, but only just). Not convinced that it worked... we haven't gotten around to eating it yet, because R distracted us with crab cakes.



Now, a quick trip down recipe lane:

Slice a couple of sweet potatoes into thick chips/fries (leave the peel on if it's sufficiently unblemished). Toss them in oilve oil with fresh-ground black pepper, ditto cumin seed, a sprinkle of cinnamon. Toss in some kosher salt to taste. Roast at 450(F) till soft and crisping slightly on the outside. These are great dipped in horseradish sauce or apple aioli.

Apple aioli: Grate and cook 1 tart apple in just enough water to soften it. Put in a blender with 1 Tb mustard, 6 cloves of garlic, dash of hot sauce, a dab of salt. Blend smooth, adding 1/2 up of olive oil in a slow stream at the end (still blending) to make a smooth, light sauce. Horrify everyone with your breath, nyah haaah!

the kransky sisters - overload

-

Ian Rilen

Chaiyya Chaiyya

My favorite Bollywood dance scene-joining in is sure to raise the spirits.

Goodbye old friend

Last night I had to put Digler down. I was with him until the very end. He was a good rabbit and my little furry friend. 

Jon Van Goes

If we are talking radio,let me rave about the charming and lovely Jon Van Goes .His Radio Method can be found here http://www.rrr.org.au/onair.php?pid=58
And his Civil Celebrant site is here http://www.jvgcelebrant.com/

The Chop.

One day I will figure out how to get photos in the right order.Anyway these are photos of Arthur,he runs a timber mill not far from Cygnet and has been competing in the tree felling and chopping for 60 years.These were taken at the Hobart show.

• 

I Spat In Your Gravy - Piranha (1987)

Oh our misspent youth-It was fun

Here's mud in your ear!

Mr. Sorrow discovered this wonderful resource: a radio station that broadcasts from a farm. No commercials. Emphasis on acoustic music. They welcome mix CDs (hint, hint). Oh, and did I mention that they stream?

Archeology? Tracking?

I found this unfamiliar imprint in our garden, and after puzzling over the closeness of front and rear paws and sharp deep hole behind, finally figured out what animal made it. It was Treat, urinating.

Curly onions.

One of my favorite weird vegies .Here is some info on tree onions.

This sunny day

Onions are curly,there is a moth ,the NZ.Sauvignon Blanc is cold and fruity.Best of all A. is cooking up a storm,really get him to post the recipe,its too good!

Banned in the U.S.!

You might want to rethink your travel plans.

Art; nature

Art.

Nature:

Here It Comes

This will all be gone by this time tomorrow, but essentialy we're embarked on five cold, white months.





Time to bank up the fire and put the kettle on. Novel? Check. Cat? Check. Chocolate? -- Chocolate? -- CHOCOLATE?! Erhm, check. Scarf? That's a big 10-4!!

The science of foodies

Good heavens,I will never look at a pringle the same way again.

friendly

Does Rupert own that fine publication Constance?He owns most of Australia's media now.Im sure thats not what little Johnny had in mind when he changed the media ownership laws.

Turkey giveaway

Distraction

Stuff Bush and little Johnny.Click on the cake-cake cake.

Huzzah

Huzzah, habeas corpus is now a footnote in legal history. At least now we have a better idea of who it is that hates our freedoms. Oh, and Ken Lay isn't guilty after all because he died. We should all be so lucky!

Wreckless Eric-Whole Wide World

And now for something completly different

Israel Kamakawiwo'Ole

Some before and now shots

We are getting some warm to hot days(which has started the fire season really early).Finally some rain and the garden has gone beserk.The first pic. was taken about two months ago.You can see we have covered all the grass with sawdust(with newspaper underneath),Its brilliant,no lawn to cut or water and it feels great to walk on and its really helped with drainage.

Spuds

1. 

1. So far the spuds in tyres experiment is looking good.

Broccoli

The spring broccoli are just about to produce flower heads-now begins the war with the white cabbage butterfly.Im hoping that the net might help,so far they don't seem able to get through it.The net is still up because the bantams love nothing more than broccoli,they don't do much damage in the garden but they can strip a brocoli plant in seconds.

Flatt & Scruggs sing Pearl

On the deck.

We have been back on the island,checking out the building progress.Bring me a gin fizz the deck is nearly done.

First.

First Flanders poppy for this season(dedicated to Digler who's been in the wars).
First stained glass window Ive ever made-Just got all the pieces together today,the maths has given me a headache.Soldering tommorrow,next the world.

Some more shack shots.

Some shack shots.

Sultanas of Bruny.

My dear friend Annie and I have been going to Bruny Island to paint ,swim and fish for over ten years.Staying at the shack pictured here.Annie bought a block of land above this shack and has just begun building her own ,its so exciting .We spent the last few days digging foundations and preparing the block for planting.The little Echidna turned up to eat the ants we had disturbed.Thats Annie-looking excited.

Sheela Na Gig - PJ Harvey

Put on your P J s

Hotel La Pinta

Sorry, I still haven't figured out how to do the picture thing other than hitting blog in picassa. This is the hotel we found the first time we drove the Baja Penninsula.  

Baja Beautiful

I'm heading back down to BAJA soon and found this shot from our first visit there. We are returning to this beach again this year. I'm going to try my hand as surf fishing and clamming. Anyone have any experience at it? 

Meet the Egglestons

These people lived in our house once. I believe they built it (though I could be making that up). They were farmers. The headstones, legible when I was a kid, are now dissolving in the acid rain we receive courtesy of coal-fired power plants in the midwest, so they're not as easy to read now. Patriarch James died in 1819 at the age of 82 and if the stone that's there now is the original, it took his family 43 years to save up for it. Sabra died in 1856 -- she's on James' headstone, which usually signals "wife" -- either she was a sister or a daughter, or I read the dates wrong. (They're barely discernable.) Or maybe James robbed the cradle! William Eggleston, James' son, married Deborah, and died 17 years later at the age of 44. Crushed by a tree, gored by an ox, stepped on a nail? Two of their sons died before he did. Willie H. was 14 when died in 1850; Freeman died 4 years earlier. He was only 6.

Deborah married Collins, William's brother or maybe a cousin. They put their daughter Jennie in the ground when she was just a year old, in 1861. Son Henry died in 1863 at the age of 5. Collins isn't here. Maybe he went to fight the Confederates and never came back. Or maybe when Deborah died in 1882, at the hard-won age of 67, he just had no more heart to fight this hardscrabble hillside farm. The last person to be buried here -- a least according to the headstones that still stand -- was Truman Doubleday in 1884, aged 4 years, 8 months.

The rocks these men pulled out of our stubborn glacial hills so they could grow crops are still piled in stone walls around the edges of what's now smooth meadow. Some of them were doubtless dug and rolled up to become part of the wall that surrounds this little graveyard. We still get apples from the trees they planted, though the deer get most of them. And the house they built still stands.

So Long, Summer

Three weeks ago, I was working in this garden.

Recently, though, salads have lost their appeal and we’re craving hearty, savory food. I’m cooking the last of last year’s hams for supper tonight, because this year’s pig is almost ready for slaughter. It was a strange wet summer. The tomatoes took forever to fruit, and most are still green, way past the time they’re usually done.

Those that ripened fell off the vines or developed black spots.



Some things did well, though.












The green thing behind the pumpkin looks like a pumpkin but is precisely the color of an acorn squash. Here’s another photo of it.













The pumpkins and acorn squash were planted next to each other; the bees must have played a prank on us. Wonder how it will taste?


The last week or so has been pretty crazy, between the putting the garden to bed and having to spend a week in Boston while on a tight deadline. I managed to insert some anti-Creationist messages in a high school science text, though. For example, you often hear the argument, “Evolution is just a theory. Just someone’s opinion. Why should I believe it?” So I gave the kids some reasons, and some ways to answer that question. The ones that can’t handle uncertainty, though, well, I can’t help them. I remember how anguished I was when I first figured out that I could probably never possess The Truth; that was a tough concept to accept. Trying to figure stuff out all the time is plain exhausting. So it’s not surprising that people balk at the notion that the way we understand our world is subject to constant reinterpretation and latch onto A Truth.

Summer has lingered, but last night there were frost warnings, not here but west of here, where the weather stops off first before it rolls over us. Several counties had frost warnings, and a couple had freeze warnings. Our elevation meant we’d get frosted for sure, so I raced the sinking sun to pick what I could and shroud the tomato vines with old sheets, pegged on with clothespins to keep the wind from hogging the bedclothes. Then, in the chilly, smoke-smelling dark, we hauled in a couple of tons of pellets for the stove.












Today dawned clear and still, perfect conditions for frost.














And sure enough.


















So long, garden, and thanks.













Now the foliage will turn in earnest -- what’s left of it. A lot of the leaves are gone already. The bracken’s dying and giving up its wonderful rich berrylike smell.





And the air has turned; suddenly it’s got a bite. But thanks to Calamity, I’m wonderful rich berrylike biteproof!


Thanks, Calamity honey!!