Close Encounters of the Day Lily Kind

My husband and I had the pleasure of visiting a day lily garden owned by Tom and Kathy Rood this past Wednesday.  We are near the height of day lily bloom here in upstate New York, and we were fortunate enough to be in the area when this commercial operation was open.

Tomorrow, I will show you some of my day lilies as part of Garden Bloggers Bloom Day.

For today, the Roods rule.  After we take a stroll, I have a little story for you.

Such beautiful grounds.

Come into the shade, shall we?

The Roods were friendly and knowledgeable- they immediately offered us bottled water, and invited us to eat some of the mulberries ripening on their trees.

Mulberries.

Alas, this White Perfection was sold out, because I was ready to buy it.

This Lemon Supreme was.

When we got to talking to the Roods, they asked us where we were from.  Upon hearing that we lived just outside Johnson City, New York, Tom mentioned that he had worked for GE for several years back in the 1960's.   Yes, just blocks from where I live.

And 100 miles from where he now operates a day lily farm (it is well worth the visit, by the way.)

I had to tell Tom that the former GE plant was a fixture of my neighborhood at one time, but (rented by another defense contractor, BAE Industries at the time) it was ruined by a flood in 2011, and demolished in 2016.  It took months to demolish this grand building, once the largest wood framed structure in the United States (as my regular readers know all too well.)

The grounds remain vacant, a former power plant (Gowdy Station) Tom also remembered in the distance.  Now, only the geese work the property.  I showed him a picture (not this picture) on my phone. 

I have blogged about the building he worked in so many times.

So many bittersweet times.

I still wonder what will happen to the structure I once called the NakedBuilding.

Wouldn't it be something if someone turned it into a daylily farm one day?

Nah....

Day 14 of the Ultimate Blog Challenge #BlogBoost

Erie Canal #SkywatchFriday #Blogboost

It's Friday, and it is time to watch the sky, along with other bloggers all over the world.

Today, I feature some pictures taken yesterday during a walk along the Erie Canal near Pittsford, New York.  The original Erie Canal was built around 1817- 1825, and was then the greatest public works project in our nation's history.  It opened up the interior of our country to trade, and to settlement.

Now,  the Canal is used mostly for recreation.  Many walk or bike along what used to be the towpaths. It makes for a beautiful reflective picture on a sunny summer day.

Some live along the canal, and have private docks for their own use.

Other boats still travel on the Canal.

Beautiful, isn't it?  When the canal was built, travel between the starting and ending point took about two weeks.  It was shortened to about five days.

Now, it is a National Heritage Corridor.

Check out other bloggers watching the sky at #SkywatchFriday.

Day 13 (and hopefully not unlucky) at the Ultimate Blog Challenge #blogboost

The Witness Tree #ThursdayTreeLove #BlogBoost

Have you ever heard of witness trees?

Witness trees are trees that have witnessed one or more historical events.  It could have been a battle, or a document being signed.

This 400-500 year old live oak tree is called the Angel Oak.  It is located near Charleston, South Carolina, on an island called Johns Island.  When I blogged about it in 2012, it was endangered, but apparently, nonprofits were able to save it.  We visited it again in 2014, when I took this picture.

It's said that the "angels" are the souls of deceased enslaved people - I wonder, just what has this tree witnessed in its lifetime?

If you want to learn more about witness trees, this video was shown this past week on TV in the United States.  Enjoy!

Join Parul Thakur and other bloggers the 2nd and 4th Thursdays of each month for #ThursdayTreeLove.  

Day 12 of the Ultimate Blog Challenge #BlogBoost.

No Hunting

Walking on a secluded part of the Vestal Rail Trail in Vestal, New York, I came across this sight.

Now, on the Vestal Rail Trail, we have signs that say "Smile.  Say hi - we are all neighbors."  So this sign, right next to a sewer, made me pause.

What aren't we allowed to hunt? Is there a monster living in the sewer?

Join Esha and other bloggers for #WordlessWednesday.

Day 11 of the Ultimate Blog Challenge #BlogBoost

A Bridge of Locks

I was walking on a bridge on our local rail trail near Vestal, New York.  It was a part that I normally don't walk on, but there was a running event where we normally walk, so we decided to go to this more secluded section.

There, I found this on a fence on one side of a bridge.

Love locks.

But I didn't know that then.  When my spouse and I spied the locks at one end of the pedestrian bridge spanning Choconut Creek, I remembered about a bridge in Paris that had become so covered in these locks that the city had to remove them.

Turns out the love lock tradition can be damaging to both bridges and the environment.

The theory is, two lovers declare their love by fastening a lock onto a bridge (usually writing their initials on the back of the lock) and then throwing away the key.  The lock rusts and weighs down the bridge. The key rusts away in the river the bridge spans.

At least, most of these lovers used key less locks.  But still, the thought is a good one.

What we need now is love, sweet love.

Love can be a beautiful thing, especially in this age when hate seems to be ruling us more and more.

Thinking, as I write this , of the remaining teens and soccer coach trapped in the cave in Thailand and how the world has focused on them, and the hundreds of volunteers.  And the divers (one already has died) risking their lives to save these young men.  As of right now, 10 boys are out, with two boys and their coach still in the cave.

It's humbling, seeing the world pull together.  If only we had a wall of locks for that.

Day 10 of the Ultimate Blog Challenge #BlogBoost

Blackbird #MusicMovesMe #BlogBoost

Welcome to #MusicMovesMe.  Every week a group of music loving bloggers bring you music for your listening pleasure. 

Our honorary conductor of the month, Michelle (Naila Moon), can rest after a job well done last Monday, and allow us to blog about whatever music we wish.

But first, who are the #MusicMovesMe bloggers? Every other week we have a theme, and on alternate weeks, we can blog about any music we wish.  We are headed by our head Engineer XmasDolly.  Her co-conductors are:  ♥Callie of JAmerican Spice♥, (who right now is visiting when she can - please keep her in your thoughts ) and ♥Stacy of Stacy Uncorked♥   Also, co-conducting is  ♥Cathy from Curious as a Cathy♥   And, (last but not least), me.


You are welcome to post your musical blog post in the links but - if there is no music we aren't going to come a'knockin.

So.  I had music - or is it writers? block this week.  I honestly could not decide on a theme for my freebie week.

Until I opened my back door this afternoon and there, on the mini-grill just outside my back door...

...sat a baby blackbird.

At least, I think it is a baby blackbird.  And, although it still had some down on it, the wings were developed.  I watched over it, and, a few minutes later, saw the mother bird swoop down and feed it.

So far, so good.  The area was in the shade.  The parent had not abandoned the bird.   The bird did not appear to be injured.  It appeared to be a fledgling, with wings, and a very short tail.

We haven't seen any outdoor cats in our yard recently (we have it pretty well fenced to protect our flowers).

I was hoping the bird had not fallen out of a nest, but, rather, had left on purpose.  Yesterday, I had seen, out my kitchen window, an adult bird with all black feathers flying into the grass a few feet away from this grill with items in its beak.  A few seconds later, the adult had left.

A couple of weeks ago a workmate had tried to rescue a baby bird (no feathers) she found in her yard that looked like it may have had an encounter with a cat.  She had tried to call wildlife rehabilitators.  No one ever returned her calls.  One had a message on her machine saying she wasn't participating in any rescues at this time.  The baby bird ended up dying soon after.

This blackbird may be in danger but my instincts said "don't interfere".  An internet search seemed to confirm this.

So, as I wrote this post yesterday evening, I continued to look in every once in a while.

And music came to me, hoping the little bird would be OK.  Blackbird, by the Beatles.

Remedy by the Black Crowes. The Black Crowes, I found in an Internet search, were originally named after a 1903 children's book called Johnny Crow's Garden.

One more - Blackbird, by Alter Bridge.

Around 6pm, I looked out the window, and the bird was gone.  I'm hoping it finally flew, and that it is OK.

 
Perhaps flying Eight Miles High - the Byrds.

Day nine of the Ultimate Blog Challenge #BlogBoost

Pink Mushrooms and Ringed Beets

Today, I take you to our local regional farmers market, in Binghamton, New York.

It's the heart of summer.  What's growing is an abundance of veggies, including some unusual ones.

A vendor had button mushrooms. I'm not sure why, but they came out pink in my picture.  These were actually brown/white.

These are beets - the red ones with the white rings are chioggia beets. Sadly, they don't keep those colors when they are cooked.  Here, we have red and orange beets, and white turnips.  The beets had the greens still on - they are also edible.

I had never seen red Chinese cabbage, either.  But here it was.  We had greens in our refrigerator already, so passed these up, but I do intend to try them if they have them next time.

On You Tube, I even found a musical video about Chinese cabbage.  Do give a listen - it's a little bit more than a minute.

Freshly harvested onions, with the greens still on.

And what summer market would be complete without garlic?

Do you have a farmers market near you? Do you try veggies that are new to you?

Day 8 of the Ultimate Blog Challenge #BlogBoost

Sustainable Saturday - How To Grow Daylilies

Day lilies are an ideal flower for the beginner or advanced gardener.   The older I get, the more I've been replacing some of my annuals with this easy to grow flower.

Day lilies are hardy in a range of approximately zone 3 to zone 9, but seem to grow best in zones 4-8.  My upstate New York garden is zone 5b, so I fit right in.  I've had a couple of my varieties for over 20 years.  They aren't that fussy about soil, and will even accept a part sun area.

They are said to be edible, too -at least some varieties are - but please, approach this with lots of caution. 

There are many color and shape combinations. Spider type, striped type, fringed type, tetraploid.  I must admit I don't pay that much attention to the details - I plant what I think is pretty. 

Some day lilies are fragrant. No pruning is needed, no insect pests that I am aware of, few diseases - the only care they will need, besides your love, is making sure they have sufficient water and dividing them every few years.

Some people recommend mulching them before their first winter, but in my zone 5b garden, I've never found that to be necessary.

Groundhogs don't bother them (and I should know). They are said to be deer-resistant, but since I don't have much of a deer problem (knock on my garden fence) I can't confirm that.

So, here's how you plant them:
1.  select your area, and work the soil down to about one foot deep so it is nice and loose.  Add some compost.  The plants should be planted 12 to 18 inches apart.
2.   Plant, making sure the crown of the plant is about an inch below the soil level.  Make sure the roots are all spread out before you put dirt over the roots.
3.  Make sure there is plenty of air circulation around the plants.  Rust has not been a problem where I live but it, apparently, has been an increasing problem in certain parts of the country.

And now, your reward for stopping by.

I took these pictures today at Cutler Botanic Garden in Binghamton, New York.  And it's turning out I may not have picked up the correct labels on some of these, so please bear with me, if you are a day lily expert.  Later this week, I will feature some of my own day lilies, but not yet.

I'll start with Siloam Double Classic.  This picture doesn't do it justice.

Roses and Gold.

Linda Daniel.

Ed Brown, said my notes, but obviously (because Ed Brown is yellow) that isn't right.  So call this one "mystery".

Long Stocking.

To me, these beauties only have one fault - they don't make good cut flowers.  Well, two faults - each flower only lasts a day.

Meaning, enjoy them while you can!

Day seven of the Ultimate Blog Challenge #BlogBoost

A Flyover #SkywatchFriday #BlogBoost

No fireworks to show you today.  No beautiful sky pictures.  It has been hot, and I have tried to stay indoors.

But I will celebrate the 4th of July a different way - with a flyover.

To be exact, a goose flyover, near the former BAE Plant in Johnson City, New York.  Now an expanse of grasslands, due to a flood in September of 2011, the geese have made it their home.

On June 7, they flew over me, then back again.  They did it several times.  I didn't capture the first couple of flyovers, but then my brain snapped into gear.  I grabbed my iPhone out of my purse and started to click as they flew back and forth several more times.

I don't know why they did it, but it did make for a nice #Skywatch.

While you are at it, why not visit #SkywatchFriday and click on other wonderful pictures of the sky? You may even see some fireworks.

Day six of the Ultimate Blog Challenge #BlogBoost

Memory of A Canadian Fourth #BlogBoost

Ten years ago yesterday...

For many, many years I took the American Independence Day for granted.  I shouldn't have - I grew up (in the 50's and early 60's) in a neighborhood where a lot of Holocaust survivors had settled, and I met other immigrants in my childhood- from Cuba, from Romania, from China.

But I had never spent an Independence Day away from the United States until 2008, when my spouse and I traveled to Canada, on our way to Saint John, New Brunswick.

We had always wanted to see the Bay of Fundy, and that was the week my spouse was able to get off .So, on July 4th, 2008, we arrived at the U.S./Canada border.

At the crossing, a Canadian border agent questioned our motives for visiting Canada and looked at us funny - like he knew we were about to commit some kind of crime.  Why, after all, would two Americans want to leave their country on July 4, this most important day in our history?

We were finally allowed in, and quickly realized we were in a place where July 4 was simply the day between July 3 and July 5.  No big deal.  And, we realized, there would be no fireworks.  No parades.  No nothing.  Crickets.

Well, we had asked for it, leaving the United States.  It did feel a bit lonely, I admit.

I love fireworks.  I love 4th of July fireworks even better.  What had I been thinking? But, so be it.

After a long drive, we arrived at our lodgings in downtown Saint John, New Brunswick. We wandered down to the waterfront, hungry.  After deciding on a restaurant, we sat at an outdoor table and put our order in.   But then, we overheard the people at the next table, excited about the fireworks Saint John was going to have that night.

July 4 fireworks in Canada?  We asked the people at the table where the fireworks would be.  They were just a short distance away, in easy walking distance.  Perfect!

It turned out that we had arrived on the first decent day in July.  The Canada Day fireworks had been delayed by rain on July 1.  And on July 2.  And on July 3.

On July 4, the weather finally cleared up.

So, that evening, my spouse and I stood in a patriotic crowd of Canadians celebrating their birthday, three days late, with fireworks.  Somehow, I felt right at home.

I'm so glad they held their fireworks up just so we could join them on July 4.  Who says Canadians aren't some of the friendliest people in the world?

Here are some 5th of July flowers for you, my dear readers.

Red

White

and (almost) blue.

Day five of the Ultimate Blog Challenge #blogboost

And Forever in Peace May It Wave

I was ready with a light hearted "Happy Fourth of July" post with some flowers.  If you want light hearted only, here are some flowers for you, and I'll caution you not to read any further.

Three cheers for the red...

...white...

and blue.

For those of you who remain, a Facebook friend told me (yesterday) about something trending on Twitter - a hashtag, #SecondCivilWarLetters.

I rarely blog about politics,  and I didn't mean to today, when we are supposed to be celebrating our Independence Day and remembering what the price of freedom is.  But I was intrigued and decided to read some of these tweet "letters", as I am an occasional student of the American Civil War.

During the 150th anniversary (2011-2015) I had a weekly Civil War Sunday feature - you are welcome to look it up and read my posts, if you are so inclined.  I am not a "buff", nor a historian - just someone who enjoys history.

For those who haven't heard the story of how Second Civil War Letters came to be on Twitter yesterday, a brief summary:  a man (I refuse to name or link to him) declared, on Monday, that the Democrats were going to start a Civil War today, the 4th of July, the day we in the United States celebrate as our Independence Day.

The Twitterverse quickly took revenge - people tweeting out "letters" in the style of letters written by soldiers of the first (and hopefully, only) American Civil War.  Some were literate.  Some, in fact, were pretty well done.  Some poked fun of liberals, all poked fun at the "other side" and some were just plain mean.

OK, I get it.  The Battle of Bowling Green (aka the "Bowling Green massacre"), the liberal's love of avocados and Starbucks, the dreaded covfefe.

I learned what "kek" meant.  I had just heard about the Space Force and learned more about various memes than I ever wanted to. 

But after a few too many "letters" especially one describing the (satirical) last words of a dying "alt right" soldier, I sobered up and stopped laughing, because, in fact, a second Civil War is no laughing matter.

My ancestors did not come to the United States until well after the Civil War ended.  It is in my DNA, though, as a third generation American.  I was born and raised in New York City, but I have lived parts of my life in the South - the former Confederacy - in Florida, Texas, and Arkansas, to be exact.  And Kansas - once known as Bloody Kansas.  The Civil War lives on in these places.

A monument to Confederate soldiers, Charleston, South Carolina

When I lived in Arkansas, my daily commute to work involved driving through one Civil War battlefield (Prairie Grove, now an Arkansas state park) and near another one (the Battle of Cane Hill).

Some facts:
The death toll from the Civil War is hard to know, but estimates vary from 620,000 to 850,000 for military- possibly two percent of the then-population of the United States.  The 620,000 figure comes from a study done around 1889  The higher figure is more recent.

The number of "casualties" at Gettysburg - a three day battle that concluded on July 3, 1863 - dead and injured - 51,000.  That's more than the population of Binghamton, New York, where I work.

Let's not forget those taken prisoner in the war (I know someone descended from one of them).  Andersonville (South Carolina). Elmira (New York) and many other prisoner of war camps, on both sides stand as monuments of horror today, as Americans descended to depths we would hope we would never descend to again.

One hundred fifty seven years later, we still can't even agree about the causes of that war.

I fear we are heading towards a second American Civil War, as we turn against our neighbor, against our relatives, against our co-workers.  We can not seem to have any civil (no pun intended) conversation anymore.  Fake news rules.  People receive death threats on social media for expressing their opinions.

Neo-Nazis and their sympathizers can openly deny the Holocaust and be taken seriously.  They were allowed to gather near a synagogue in Charlotteville, Virginia on the Jewish Sabbath one August Saturday (the Charlottesville police having turned away the synagogue's requests for protection) hours before one of their kind allegedly rammed a car into a crowd of counterprotestors.

On this, the 242nd anniversary of our Declaration of Independence, I implore you to think twice about a second American Civil War.  Let us remember the toll of the first.  Let us remember how the trauma still lives with us today.

It's good to laugh for a few minutes.

But then, there is work to be done to make sure the Second Civil War never happens.  One of those opportunities may come soon to a community near you, and will certainly come in November.

Write your Congressperson or Senator. Subscribe to you local newspaper and read it.  Become informed.  Be respectful, always.

And then, VOTE.

Day four of the Ultimate Blog Challenge #BlogBoost

An Edible Walk #FlavoursomeTuesdays #BlogBoost

Let's take a quick walk on the Vestal Rail Trail near Binghamton, New York.  Why not find a couple of edibles and take a trip back in time to the early 1980's, when my spouse and I lived in rural Arkansas and did some experimentation with wild edibles?

Elderberry.  Our next door neighbor had a huge elderberry bush almost on our property line.  He welcomed us to pick all we wanted.

I used to make elderberry jelly. 

Homemade jelly tastes so much better than store bought, but it is a lot of work.  All stems must be removed from the tiny (and I mean tiny) berries.  Then there is crushing, straining, cooking (I always used store bought pectin), then canning in canning jars in a boiling water bath (fun in the hot Arkansas summer).  We would work on this after working our day jobs and the hour commute home, sometimes staying up until near midnight when we had several batches of produce to process - now, just thinking of all that work makes me feel tired.

My spouse made elderberry wine and, one time, even made elderberry flower wine.

Next, rhus glabra - smooth sumac.  We had a lot of sumac on our Arkansas property. 

We experimented with making a tea from the berries of sumac, which you do once the berries turn red and ripen.  It was too tart for my taste.  I've now found the leaves and roots of this particular sumac were used medicinally by Native Americans. 

Next, something I don't personally eat, wild roses.  Most of the roses on the rail trail are white rugosa roses, but I was pleased to find this pink rose in mid June.

Roses are related to apples (among other fruits) - if you've seen wild rose hips, they look (to me) so similar to crab apples.  Those who eat these will add the rose petals to salads, or take the buds, dry them, and make tea.  Then there is rose water - something we never made from our rose plants in Arkansas, but apparently it is quite easy to do.

Finally, Rubus odoratus - purple flowering raspberry.  I found this walking on the Vestal Rail Trail on Sunday - it is edible, but I have never tried them.  This is the flower I found Sunday.  Unlike most brambles, they flower in late June and early July where I live.

I've been thinking a lot of the things we used to do years ago, that we abandoned in the past thirty or so years.  One day, we hope to go back to some of what we used to do.Why not?

Life is here to be enjoyed!

Joining up with #FlavoursomeTuesdays (hosted by Bellybytes and Metanoia) and day three of the Ultimate Blog Challenge #BlogBoost

Patriotic Songs #MusicMovesMe #BlogBoost

Welcome to #MusicMovesMe.  Every week a group of music loving bloggers bring you music for your listening pleasure. 

This is the week of two national birthdays.  Yesterday was the birthday of our neighbor to the north, Canada.  And on Wednesday, we in the United States celebrate our national birthday.

That's why our honorary conductor of the month, Michelle (Naila Moon), has chosen Patriotic Songs as her theme.

Who are the #MusicMovesMe bloggers? Every other week we have a theme, and on alternate weeks, we can blog about any music we wish.  We are headed by our head Engineer XmasDolly.  Her co-conductors are:  ♥Callie of JAmerican Spice♥, (who right now is visiting when she can - please keep her in your thoughts ) and ♥Stacy of Stacy Uncorked♥   Also, co-conducting is  ♥Cathy from Curious as a Cathy♥   And, (last but not least), me.

Welcome, Michelle!

Let's stand for the unofficial National Anthem (in my humble opinion) from the movie The Jazz Singer - Neil Diamond singing about freedom's light burning warm:

He sings about immigrants, such as my grandparents, who came from Eastern Europe, escaping pogroms, yearning for a home where they could live free from persecution.

Johnny Cash singing a song from 1974, in the Watergate era Ragged Old Flag.
Many had lost faith in our institutions. The song is a defiant celebration of what Cash and many others feel what it means to be American.

I learned a song, back around 1963, in sleepaway camp called "You're a Grand Old Flag".  In researching for this post, I discovered this song, by the incomparable George M. Cohan, was written for a 1906 stage musical called "George Washington, Jr", and was originally called You're a Grand Old Rag.  It became extremely popular during World War I and, again, in World War II.

I chose this version, from Yankee Doodle Dandy, a musical biography of George M. Cohan from 1942.  The song is sung towards the end of this clip,which features other patriotic song clips.

What is a Hero?  Jim Nabors ponders this in this video, where he sings as Marine Gomer Pyle.

And finally - no Fourth of July oriented post can conclude with out this most wonderful of marches.  I bring you, from 1896:  John Phillip Sousa's The Stars and Stripes Forever.

As a bonus - a live version with fireworks, because I can listen to this song forever.

Forever may our flag wave high, reflecting the ideals we, as Americans, strive towards.

Besides #MusicMovesMe, this is Day two of the Ultimate Blog Challenge #BlogBoost

Happy Canada Day Cake #blogboost

Today starts the Ultimate Blog Challenge, and I welcome any new readers coming my way.  In your honor, in fact, I baked a cake.  But first, a little introduction.

I live in upstate New York, about an hour south of Syracuse, NY, near the New York/Pennsylvania border.  

On Mondays, I participate in a music meme called Music Moves Me.  On Fridays, I participate in a weekly posting of Skywatch Friday. On the second and fourth Thursdays of the month, I blog about trees for a meme called Thursday Tree Love.  On the other days, anything goes, especially if it involves photography.

Today is Canada Day, the day Canadians celebrate the July 1, 1867 enactment of the Constitution Act.

I have visited Canada several times, and have always had a lovely time.  On one of those trips, we picked up these items.  My spouse wears the shirt, and I the socks, each year, to honor our friends to the north.

One thing I've never done, though, is to be in Canada on Canada Day.  I have been in Canada on the 4th of July, our Independence Day, because...well, it seemed like a good idea at the time. And I'll blog about that more on Wednesday.

There is one things Canadians do well for their holiday, which we don't seem to do on our nation's birthday.

Celebrate with birthday cake.

Because, although we Americans do many things on July 4, one thing we don't seem to have are cities and towns that serve birthday cake to their citizens.  Why not?  Why not celebrate a national birthday with free cake?

Canada, I love you.

One Canada Cake idea  is white cake with whipped cream frosting, topped with strawberries,  The strawberries should be arranged in a maple leaf pattern on the cake.

I decided to make this cake instead.  It came up in a search for "Easy Canada Day Cake"  It is hot ("wicked hot" as we say around here) today and I didn't want to go through much trouble, so I used the mix.  Because I'm not a big frosting person (and was lazy), I decided not to attempt to make frosting.

 Here's the recipe:  (sorry, metric readers)

One Box Betty Crocker™ Super Moist™ white cake mix

1 1/4 cup water

1/3 cup vegetable oil 

3 whole eggs ( I used three duck eggs, because I had bought some in a local store - I used to keep ducks for eggs years ago and they are awesome for baking.)

2 tbsp unsweetened baking cocoa (I used black cocoa, because it's what I had on hand)
2 tbsp seedless strawberry jam (that was the theory, anyway).

Official Method

Heat oven to 350°F. Spray bottom of 13x9-inch pan with cooking spray.

In large bowl, beat cake mix, water, oil and eggs with electric mixer on medium speed
for two minutes, scraping bowl occasionally.

In small bowl, place 1 1/4 cups of the batter; stir in 2 tablespoons cocoa until blended.

 In another small bowl, place 1 1/4 cups of the batter; stir in 2 tablespoons strawberry jam and 1/4 teaspoon food color until blended. Pour remaining cake batter in bottom of pan. Drop tablespoons of each colored batter in random pattern over top; pull table knife through batter to make swirls.  Bake for about 30 minutes at 350 degrees, or 325 degrees if you have a no-stick pan.

What Really Happened (or, why my spouse is the family cook)

Spouse said we had some freezer strawberry jam I had made last year (I hope it was last year, anyway) in a moment of insanity, so he dug a canning jar full of something that looked like red jam from our chest freezer.  Helpfully, the label said "tomatoes".


Spouse defrosted the red stuff while I started to preheat the oven and assemble the baking implements.  It turned out to be raspberry jam, full of seeds, so he quickly took some defrosted stuff and pushed the jam through a colander.  Well, raspberries, strawberries, whatever.

Meanwhile, I combined the cake mix, water and oil, asked Siri (the iPhone virtual assistant) to set a timer for two minutes and started to mix.  About a minute into the mixing, I realized I hadn't cracked in the eggs.  "Stop, Alexa, stop!" I yelled at my iPhone, wondering why the timer was still going.

Finally, by some miracle, I got the cake mixed.  Don't ever say that making a cake mix doesn't involve skill.

I also managed to mix the chocolate and the straw...I mean raspberry part. I forgot to take a picture of the raspberry mix.

Here's the baked cake.

I could have gotten a maple leaf from my front yard or my back yard (we have lots of maple trees around here) but I decided staying in the air conditioning was a lot nicer.

So thank you for sticking with me through this saga.  Too bad I can't squash a piece of this cake through the wi fi connection to your device.  We'll probably serve it with ice cream and some sliced strawberries.

We Americans might make flag cake for the 4th of July, but it isn't institutionalized in the same way.  It's more of a novelty, something to serve to family and friends.    The cake is normally decorated with blueberries for the field of stars and strawberries for the stripes.  However, I've never seen an actual Independence Day birthday cake served at a festival.

So, if you are Canadian, and even if you're not, please have a happy (and safe) Canada Day.

Day 1 of the Ultimate Blog Challenge #blogboost

Now the Journalists

This time, the shooting was in a newspaper office in Annapolis, Maryland. 

Editors, journalists, and a sales associate had not gone out to get the news.  The news came to them.  And, five dead  later, the survivors joined with a sister newspaper, the Baltimore Sun, to report on the news that had just happened right before them.

This shooting was a little different, though, because a close in law was visiting us, and she worked for a suburban New York City newspaper for many years.  She, through her words, had taken me into a newsroom on the morning of September 11, 2001, as she and fellow staff members gathered around a television set, watching the aftermath of a plane that rammed into One World Trade Center in downtown Manhattan, wondering if it could have been an accident.  Minutes later, as they watched (live on television) a plane hit Two World Trade Center, they had their answer.

They all scattered, journalists, editors, other support staff.  They did their jobs, as if they had been trained for this moment, and returned that night to commuter parking lots full of cars that would never be driven by their owners again.

My in law told me of the threats her paper had received after a particular story had run, not too many years before she was laid off.  She edited her social media so that people would not know she worked for that paper.  Now, her worst fear had come true - a man with a vendetta against his local paper had taken action.

I don't know what it is like to be a journalist, but I do know what it is like to be a bystander (several blocks away, and I was not a direct witness) as respects an active shooter situation - in fact, it was the topic of my very first blog post in April of 2009.  Other people did their job that day - police, medical personnel, and - yes - journalists.

Now, we need newspapers more than ever, but journalism (in this I include support staff) has become a more deadly field than ever before.

The shooting joins all the other ones - in churches, in schools, at concerts, at nightclubs, in movie theatres, at a military base, so many that we can't even remember them all any more.

The names blur.   We hold demonstrations and nothing happens.  We send our thoughts and prayers and that keeps us going until the next time.

Our President said on Thursday: "Journalists, like all Americans, should be free from the fear of being violently attacked while doing their jobs."  The Governor of Maryland said  "There is no amount of clarity that will ever explain or nullify the pain that comes with losing so many lives for so little reason,"  in a statement Friday morning.  He went on to say that "journalism is a noble profession upon which our democracy depends, and we will fight to defend it."

But the dead are still as dead, and their families, their friends, their other loved ones, cry out to us, the American public, to do whatever it takes to make it stop.

Will we answer the call this time?

Many Sky Moods #SkywatchFriday

The sky can give us so many moods.

Dramatic.

Blue with a moon.

And cloudy with a chance of flowers.

Every Friday, dedicated bloggers watch the sky and report what they have seen on Yogi's #SkywatchFriday.  Join us today!

Cottonwoods #ThursdayTreeLove

Cottonwoods are native to North America and were common where I used to live in Wichita, Kansas.    I also remember them from my preteen years, going to a sleepaway camp in northern New Jersey.  Their cottony seed mass coverings would blanket the ground.

Some call the release of the seeds "The snows of June".

These trees are among the fastest growing of trees, and are not well loved due to the mess they make. (However, there are male and female trees, and only the females produce the seeds).

I found this cottonwood tree ready to release on June 10 where I exercise walk on the Vestal Rail Trail.

Here is one of the seed masses close up.  It does look like cotton, doesn't it?

 Join Parul at Happiness and Food every second and fourth Thursday of the month for #ThursdayTreeLove.  Love (or photograph) a tree today, and join us.