tasting out loud

Oh no! He didn't!

2013-02-08T09:05:00.002-05:00

Look at this face. It's a happy face... A playful face... This smiling face dreams of squirrels, rabbits, cookies, squeaky toys, a well thrown tennis ball -- and rides in the car. It is face full of joy -- and mischief. It's the mischief I want to discuss today. Meet Beau Beau. Beau (aka Bo Bo, Pupcicle, Stink-pot, Bud, and Bubbie) is the four-footed

TGD...

2012-11-22T11:13:00.001-05:00

Happy Thanksgiving! Doubt these will be on anyone's table today. I think wild turkeys are beautiful! Happy Thanksgiving to one and all!

Rhubarb Cake: Sometimes a blind chicken...

2012-05-10T13:33:00.001-04:00

Late last summer, I bought a rhubarb plant at the flea market. I have no idea what variety it was -- I picked it up on a whim. I've tried to plant rhubarb before, with no luck. By no luck, I mean absolutely no luck. Bare roots, established plants, seeds -- you name it, I've tried it. Failure and rhubarb have become synonymous in my gardening lexicon. But, surrounded by milling throngs of

The Easter Egg and I

2012-04-08T09:23:00.000-04:00

Spring is here -- a little too early perhaps -- but here none-the-less. On this early Easter morning, I'm strolling down memory lane... When I was a child my mother believed Easter called for the best attire possible. She made new grass green matching lined wool Easter suits for my sister and I. My sister and I are four years apart -- a world of age to a child, an instant in time to an

Lentil Soup for a Small Planet

2011-01-21T07:15:00.005-05:00

Lentil Soup topped with melted Swiss Cheese - in this case a reduced fat Lorraine. I've been cranking out a lot of soup lately - partly because it's so darn cold, and partly because Dave is a soup junkie. If you give him an option, during the winter months, he'll pick soup first. If you ask him for suggestions as to what he'd like for dinner, he pops up with soup as first choice - invariably.

Drip, Drip, Drip... The Tale of My Lousy Delta Faucet

2011-01-18T09:03:00.004-05:00

When we purchased our current house, we were, like all new home owners -- excited. We'd planned, saved, and studied all things pertaining to the purchase and renovation of what was, to us anyway, our new home. As I write this, I'm trying to think of some way to be funny about this tale - to make it drip with humor... I could say that my daughter's first jump into the pool splashed chlorinated

The Vortex of Barbecue: Billy's Bar-B-Q in Lexington, Kentucky

2011-01-17T11:32:00.007-05:00

BBQ, Barbecue, Que, Q -- whatever you call it, we, Dave and I, spend an inordinate amount of time seeking and savoring it. Que seems to be one of the common threads that weaves its way through our travels. We seek it out. We hunt it down. We go way out of our way because of the signs. It is the signs -- perched perilously on the sides of mountains and propped up in the middle of

Great Expectations of Spring!

2011-01-16T08:44:00.005-05:00

My Freecycled garden table, painted the same cabbage green as my no-tills. In all this snow and gloom, dreaming of my garden is what keeps me sane. The thoughts of buying and starting seeds, building new garden beds while protecting the ones I have, and playing with my most recently purchased gardening toys puts a smile on my face and keeps the winter blahs at bay. This week, for example, I

Soup Again? Chicken Noodle in a Hurry!

2011-01-10T10:56:00.012-05:00

I've not made it a secret lately that, this winter, I've been under the weather quite a bit. That being said (no point beating it to death here), I've been making and eating a lot of soup. Believe it or not I have another pot of soup on the stove as I write this (Lentil Soup -- about which I will probably write tomorrow). It's a good thing Dave loves soup so much -- he'd be sick of it by

Remnants of The Cold War

2011-01-07T18:26:00.003-05:00

Recently, I took a trip to The National Air Force Museum in Fairborn, Ohio. I hadn't planned on doing any photography. I just wanted to spend the day with my family and look at all the airplanes. Truth be told, I'm a bit of an aviation nut. I suppose I come by it honestly. My father was an aviation nut. He dragged me to every airshow he could find. Some of my best memories of my Dad are

Soup, Soup, I Need Soup - the Senate Kind

2011-01-06T13:09:00.004-05:00

Winter really takes it out of me. Since Thanksgiving, I've been dancing with every virus and bacteria out there that can make your life miserable. Sick of being sick -- that's what I am. Flu shot be dammed. I've spent so much time in bed my memory foam mattress has lost it's memory. There's a permanent hollow shaped just like me in the spot where I recline. One thing I've had time to do

The Origins of Some Interesting Sayings...

2010-12-23T13:00:00.003-05:00

My friend Rindy sent this to me. I love learning about the origins of language, especially colloquialisms, and am passing it along. It's a bit lengthy but interesting, at least to a language nut like me. Forgive the somewhat colorful phrase here and there... Where Did The Phrase Piss Poor Come From? They used to use urine to tan animal skins, so families used to all pee in a pot & then once a

Biscuits and The Heathen Hours...

2010-12-19T14:30:00.003-05:00

Cold and foggy makes for a beautiful morning It's Sunday and I must confess. I often spend my Sunday mornings at Jungle Jim's International Market in Fairfield, Ohio. It's quiet then. My husband calls this time on Sunday mornings The Heathen Hour. No crowds -- especially this time of year. Most people are in church or in bed. It's fun because all the produce managers and fish mongers and

Baby, It's Cold Outside...

2010-12-12T09:34:00.001-05:00

Overstating the obvious, as usual. But I decided to load up a pix that gives a pretty good idea of what it's like around here today... enjoy! Neighbor's barn... ©Equimage® Media

In Harmony...With My Heart

2010-12-02T12:45:00.004-05:00

Last week I had the opportunity to watch HRH Prince Charles' gorgeous environmental movie Harmony. It was a visual delight and an inspiration. Harmony made me feel as though I'm not just one little guy banging my head against a wall of indifference in my concern for the earth. There are others out there, many of whom have greater resources than I and whom one wouldn't think were your

Cone Flower Freebie

2010-10-15T21:03:00.005-04:00

Contrary to a lick-happy little white dog's opinion, not all things called cones are created just to torment him. Some provide pleasure. During the height of Summer, I received a nice cone flower plant from a gal on Freecycle®. Freecycle® is a treasure trove of freebie plants. I bet I snagged 15 or so this past summer. Fruit of my watering-the-freebie-labor... When I picked the cone

Of Cones, Cabbages, and Kale

2010-10-15T13:44:00.013-04:00

The kind of thing I shoot when I'm working... For the past three weeks the 2010 World Equestrian Games kept me hopping. In my other life, I'm and equine photographer and writer - someone who concentrates on the equine industry as their photographic and journalistic specialty. Obscure to be true. So for the past three weeks I've worn my other hat exclusively. I've shot over 6000 frames and

Exile and The Button - It Could Drive You to Drink

2010-09-28T10:58:00.003-04:00

I've been away - forced into exile - intellectual and creative exile. I've been wandering, lo these many days, in the barren, lonely desert of a no man's land called: No Computer. Having a glass of water dumped on one's Mac is not a very healthy thing for the electronic storehouse of one's life's work. It could drive you to drink. The memories. The stuff. The hundreds of gigs of photography.

For Love of the Spud! Potato Pancakes

2010-09-21T10:00:00.001-04:00

IIn light of the fall potato harvest fast approaching, I decided to repost this recipe for the glorious potato -- and the best potato pancake you've ever tasted. Also, my big laptop is in the shop with most of my images on it. That means that I was bad and didn't back-up my Mac. So, I'm forced to use my old powerbook which is slow and has a much older operating system on it. My oldie but

Last of the Summer... Beans

2010-09-15T14:29:00.003-04:00

The days grow shorter. The sun rides lower in the southern sky. No more birdsong cacophony in the morning. All that breaks autumn's silence is the chirping of a multitude of crickets - more background noise than nature's song. No more cicadas droning on... Summer is past. It's time to harvest the last of the summer garden. Time to finish off the beans. I picked last of the green beans -

London Broil When it Sizzles

2010-09-10T20:54:00.001-04:00

Here in land of sticky summers it's been hot -- hot, dry, and insect-laden. We haven't eaten outside much. Haven't had many bonfires nor done many of the things we so look forward to during the dead of winter when the snow is two feet deep. We did float around the pool a fair amount, which definitely helped with the heat. But not much grilling. The Barge The pool makes our icky mid-west

Last Chance to be Corny

2010-09-08T13:01:00.018-04:00

With all the High Fructose Corn Syrup rants out there, it's hard to know what to do. I believe the research that says that HFCS does not provide sweetness satiety to the human brain. When people doubt this, especially those who knew me as a child, I like to remind them that never was there enough pecan pie to satisfy me! And, pecan pie is LOADED with corn syrup. While my Pecan Pie gluttony

No-Tilling What Will Come Up

2010-09-05T07:45:00.006-04:00

Okay, so the title is a bit of a yuck yuck yuck. But playing around my our no-till garden beds this past summer has been fun. The no-till gardens have been not only a source of very abundant organic chow but good, mostly clean fun. Made mostly of alfalfa hay and oat straw, they were, after the initial frame building and painting stage, pretty easy to put together. The whole layering bone meal

It's the Simple Things...

2010-08-25T17:42:00.001-04:00

Sometimes I just want to curl up and hole up, escape. But a few days at the beach is out of the question.Too much going on. Too little time. Too many commitments. Too long a list. Too full a plate. Just much too much. So, when things get a little overwhelming, I just shut down for a morning hour or two and take it easy - at least mentally -- with a tiny little breakfast in bed. It's

I'm Bad -- But La Bodega -- It's Good!

2010-08-25T08:02:00.004-04:00

It's been a long hot summer and I've been neglecting my literary responsibilities in favor of gardening, sweating, swimming, sweating, canning and preserving, sweating, watering and watering and watering my black-spot-ridden heirloom tomato plants. Suffice it to say that summer has been long and hot. My only excuse is that I decided to take some time off from writing in favor of reading -- books