Around the House and the Neighborhood

…taking a break from the narrative and photos from our September road trip.  This time it’s all about nature, food and personal dietary choices, weird though they may be.

For the first time ever, we have had Red-Winged Blackbirds at our feeder!  I suspect that it’s because our feeder is more open to those birds who haven’t adopted woodlands as their home.  The lot behind is now clear cut for the new home that’s being built and we’re left with just a narrow fringe of bushes and tree cover.

Generally Red-Winged Blackbirds prefer being near or at wetlands…either fresh water or salt marshes.  They have been known to gather in loose flocks of over a million birds.  The full number of breeding pairs across North and Central America may exceed 250,000,000 in an ideal year.

We’re always happy to see a Northern Flicker at our feeder.  They are very shy and are easily spooked.  The Northern or Common Flicker is a medium-sized bird in the woodpecker family.  It can be found in most of North America, parts of Central America and even on Cuba and the Cayman Islands.  Unusual for woodpeckers, this species does migrate to warmer climates in the winter.

OK…what to do with a leftover salmon patty?  When we first had them for dinner, we thought that they were just OK.  We’d purchased them from Fresh Market.  How to step it up a notch for breakfast?  I heated it in a frying pan with butter, then topped it with a slice of cheddar cheese, placed it on a slice of buttered toast and topped it with a couple of easy over eggs.  Sadly, it didn’t help…but I did finish it.  In the future we’ll make our salmon patties the old-fashioned way…from a can as per old time recipes.

Who doesn’t love spring!?  Our forsythia bush with its flowers and new leafs popping out was very eye-catching especially when viewed against the backdrop of Laurie’s bright red quince bush.

Laurie’s Lenten roses are always the first flowers to bloom in the spring.  Of course these plants are not closely related to the rose family.  It is part of the ‘hellebores’ genus of 22 species of herbaceous or evergreen perennial flowering plants.  One real plus for us is that these ‘roses’ tolerate shade well.  In nature the largest concentration of these plants are found in Europe’s Balkan Peninsula. 

Our grape hyacinths are spreading and they really add a pop of color in the early spring.  They are commonly called 'hyacinths' but they really aren’t related to that species of plants.  Grape ‘hyacinths’ are part of the Muscari genus of perennial bulbous plants that were originally native to Eurasia.  They are naturally found in woodlands or meadows but they are commonly cultivated in a variety of settings.  They don’t require much feeding or watering in the summer and they do well in full sun light or light shade.  There are 79 recognized species of Muscari related plants.

Given the medicines that I take, the only ‘safe’ green vegetable I can eat is iceberg lettuce, mainly because it not only lacks Vitamin K but also just about all other vitamins as well.  So when I really crave greens or a salad, I have to make do… In this case Laurie’s salad consisted of the lettuce, sliced carrots and yellow squash, topped with a Mexican blend of shredded cheese and balsamic vinaigrette.  I ‘cheated’ a little with a few slices of pickled jalapeno and instead of the balsamic vinaigrette, I went for Marie’s Blue Cheese Dressing.

The salads were our accompaniment to a pair of strip sirloin steaks that I’d grilled on our Weber gas grill.  There was a little pink and they were very tasty but I needed to grill them for about a minute less to achieve perfection.

OK…this is a bit weird.  The top bowl of cereal is Laurie’s.  It’s a bowl of one of the Cheerios varieties and as is her norm, she tops it with Splenda and dried cranberries, then she pours a modest amount of half and half milk over the cereal.  I do agree that her bowl of cereal is more appealing to look at than mine is... 

I do drive her crazy with my food peccadillos or peculiarities, and the way I eat dry cereals is no exception.  First of all, I put my dried cranberries on the bottom and then cover them with a mix of a local Food Lion brand cereal with Special K Oats and Honey.  I like the ‘treasure hunt’ aspect of eating cereal, seeking those dried cranberries at the bottom of the bowl as I eat.  I also load my cereal with the half and half milk so I have leftover milk to slurp when I finish my cereal.  Weird I know…but at my stage and age there’s no turning back.

Why half and half milk?  It’s simply because at the most, we have cereal once a week, more likely once every 10 days.  Regular or 2% milk would spoil and be wasted.  However the shelf life of half and half milk is a month or more.  

There was some real excitement in one of the Tellico Village neighborhoods!  Imagine looking out your front door or living room window and spotting a group of Guernsey’s wandering along or grazing on your lawn!  That one cow is looking directly at the person with the camera…thinking “What?”  

As no udders are visible, I do believe that this group consisted of a bunch of trouble making boys that were looking for greener pastures…  They were rounded up with no injuries, either to themselves or the local wranglers.  And to think that some folks worry about deer in their yards! 

Just click on any of the photos to enlarge them…

Thanks for stopping by for a visit!

Take Care, Big Daddy Dave