Taken July 28 in my front and side yards, samples from my day lily collection.
Melon colored.
Have to include this, from July 24, after a rainstorm.
Bonus shadow shot, on a zinnia.
Joining with Magical Mystery Teacher for Shadowshot Sunday.
It's blueberry picking time in the Southern Tier of New York. We've been picking twice this year, two shorter visits because I did something to my back about 10 days ago and it's still cranky. But despite the discomfort, I love being out in the open air.
The blueberries.
More bushes.
The fields.
This has not been the smoothest season for the local blueberry farmers, though, because of a late frost. The U-Pick operation we go to had planted 100 plus young plants this spring when they thought it was safe. It wasn't. Over half of them died. They also lost all of their earliest berries and didn't start picking until a week after the normal start time.
We've been coming to this one operation for years now
I love having the fresh berries so much, and we can (and do) always freeze the excess for the winter.
One of my readers asked yesterday what I do with the berries. We eat a lot of blueberry pie. We make other recipes, too - here's a list from last year with links. Since I'm a Weight Watchers lifetime member, I can't eat too many sweets.
What follows is one of my favorite ways of eating blueberries - blueberry pie, using a slightly changed recipe provided by the U Pick farmer. It makes the best blueberry pie I've ever had, and I blogged about it last year. Last year, I made some changes, so here, once again, is my Double Plus Good Blueberry Pie.
There seem to be a lot of similar recipes online (in fact I found a recipe identical to what the farm provided in an online church cookbook) so I feel OK in posting this farm's recipe for all to enjoy.
Crust
1 refrigerated piecrust (because I'm lazy), baked in a 9 inch glass pie pan.
No pictures this year, because my spouse made the pie while I worked one day last week.
Filling:
4 cups fresh
blueberries (divide into 2 parts, 2 cups each) (apparently you can use
frozen but I haven't done it myself, so I don't know if it will work
with frozen. It might work with the berries you cook (you'll see why as you read on).
2/3 cup sugar. This all depends on the sweetness of the berries. I've found early berries run a little sweeter than later ones.
2
1/2 tbsp potato starch or 3 tbsp cornstarch. My spouse, the family cook, prefers potato starch, which we buy at Passover time.
A pinch of salt
1 tbsp lime juice (because that's what we have - the original called for lemon juice)
1/4 cup cold water
1 tbsp butter (we used whipped butter).
Method
Combine sugar, cornstarch or potato starch, water, salt until well blended. Add 2 cups blueberries. Cook over medium heat, stirring constantly, until the blueberry mixture thickens. If you use potato starch, please keep in mind that it will thicken very quickly. You need to pay careful attention.
Then, add the butter and lemon or lime juice. Let cool.
When cooled, place the reserved 2 cups of blueberries into the pie crust. Then, top with the cooked mixture.
Then, try to resist eating the entire pie at one serving.
Double Plus Good.
Sky moods of the past few days are my theme today.
We went blueberry picking on Sunday, and had blue, cloudy skies to match.
Walking in a local park, clouds play peek-a-boo with a couple of highway overpasses.
Back to blueberry picking later in the week, and the skies are so different. It rained about an hour after we left the fields.
Finally, Wednesday night, a sunset - yes, the smoke had returned, although it was better yesterday.
Joining Yogi and other sky watchers each Friday for #SkywatchFriday.
Love them or hate them, our black walnuts are a beautiful and useful tree native to the North American continent.
They are host trees to over 100 species of butterflies and moths. Their wood is prized - back years ago, when I lived in Arkansas, fortunate was the land owner who had straight, healthy black walnuts on their land. They would fetch a nice price if the owner chose to sell them - in fact, there is a Black Walnut calculator online.
But they are a lot more valuable alive, I think, although there are also downsides to the tree.
Black walnut trees produce a chemical called juglone, It leaches from the hulls and the roots. Even dead trees can continue to taint the soil. Many garden plants, including potatoes, tomatoes, peppers, eggplants, and also ornamentals such as peonies, columbines, and some lilies, are especially sensitive to this chemical.
They produce delicious nuts but dehulling and shelling them is quite a process.
Here's a post I wrote about black walnuts back in 2021 that includes some information about my experiences with black walnuts from years ago.
I know what that is going to mean, too. The squirrels will be running across my back yard fence, nut in mouth, to their storage areas. It will happen again and again.
Then, this coming spring I may find some buried in my flowerpots, where I do not want them.
But it's all good. It's a majestic tree and Nature's creatures in our area will feast well this fall.
Joining Parul at Happiness and Food for #ThursdayTreeLove.
Today, I'm taking a break from words and letting a neighborhood hummingbird do the talking (so to speak)
This is a female ruby-throated hummer. These are the only hummingbirds that live in the Northeast United States.
She is feeding on cuphea flowers, one of their favorites. She is (if you subtract the long, thin beak visible here) not much bigger than my index finger.
I was inches from her. I saw her entering my back yard while I was outside blogging and had enough time to get my iPhone 13 mini out and trained on the cuphea.
Their wings beat up to 70 beats a second. Yes, a second. They can also fly backwards. I call them little miracles. Here, Ms. Hummer poses in the upper right of the photo, hovering.
Thank you for visiting!
This summer, our Four County Library System came up with an idea.
There are 42 libraries in the system. Urban libraries. Small town libraries. Libraries in historic buildings. At least one library that will turn 200 (the library, not its building) next year.
The idea: visit as many of the libraries as you can between July 1 and September 2 and win some (small) prizes. They called it the 4CLS Road Trip.
Despite me loving libraries, and occasionally visiting libraries when I visit somewhere, I had been to the grand total of four of these libraries. Why should I? I'm comfortable with the ones I'm used to.
But, I soon realized it was time to get out and when I approached my spouse about it, I thought he would run in the other direction. He winces every time I mention the word "library". He knows I wanted to be a librarian when I grew up. He's a reader, just not someone who might live in a library if given the chance.
Reading? GoodReads? Here's my GoodReads story.
To my shock (and it's hard to be shocked after 49 plus years of marriage) he enthusiastically said "let's go!"
So we started our road trip this week, although I'm not planning to visit all 42 (the Four County area is big and itinerary building can be a bit of a challenge, given the hours some of them are open).
I plan to do posts on some of these libraries in the near future. In the meantime, here are some things I have learned.
1. Librarians are proud of their libraries. Two of the libraries I visited gave me history printouts or tour guides. In fact, one of them gave spouse and me a tour EVEN THOUGH THEY WERE CLOSED THAT DAY. (Yes, I'm going to blog about that library.)
2. Libraries care about their patrons. They care a lot. At a library that is in a suburb (although I don't think of it as a suburb) of Binghamton, New York, I saw the librarian greet every patron who came in by name, asking after their family,or their pet(s), or something else. Another library bragged about their Large Print collection, the largest in the system, although those books are a lot more expensive than regular print books. Why? Because most of their patrons are elderly and need them. How do you pay for them, my spouse asked? The librarian shrugged. Dare I wonder what that shrug meant?
3. Some of those libraries are repositories of history. The blend of old and new can be amazing. There are paintings, portraits of the founders of the library, and one even had a 100 year old desk where you checked out your books. Others have local artifacts on display - one library I visited had the shoe of an enslaved person found in the basement of an area home that was known to be a stop on the Underground Railroad.
I do wish something, though. I wish that Binghamton still had its Carnegie Library. I spent many happy lunch hours there until it closed at the end of October, 1999. The building was vacant for many years and was saved by SUNY Broome for a culinary college that opened in 2021 but I'm not even sure the public can go in and tour it even during the public cooking classes. The current building just isn't the same.
Whoever thought this idea up has a winner, at least for me. I just hope they keep in mind the residents who don't drive, because this tour can't be made easily without public transportation. Perhaps for next year, a virtual road trip could be prepared.
Has your library system ever held a Summer Road Trip?
My first post of the #4CLSroadtrip.
It's Monday. It's time for music!
Who are the Music Moves Me bloggers?
We are bloggers who blog about music
each Sunday or Monday and if you have music to share with us, you are most
welcome to join! (Music Posts Only-meaning at least one music video,
please!) Our head host is Xmas Dolly, and our co-hosts are Cathy from Curious as a Cathy, joined by the knowledgeable Stacy of Stacy Uncorked and Yours Truly.
Why not join our music loving folks? It's so easy. All you have to do is join the linky above with a music post that contains at least one music video. No music video? Your post may be removed, or may be labeled *NO MUSIC*.
Today's theme is chosen by someone who remains anonymous: We are to build a playlist from the 60s – 80 to celebrate someone special’s 64th birthday. I know who this person is, but I'm keeping this information a surprise. Here's my birthday message to our birthday person:
You're having a birthday! You're going to have a good time! Happy birthday to you!
The first one is going to be a natural. How about six songs, two from each decade?
It was so tempting to include the Beatles When I'm 64 from 1967, but I thought that was a little too obvious. Instead, let's start with a 1968 song that I heard, for the first time, at a sweet 16 party.
Although this was first recorded by the Beatles, I decided to start with a Birthday performance by Paul McCartney that was a lot more recent. "Birthday" for our birthday person.
For the 1970's I'm going to pick two of my favorite 70's songs. Neither are about birthdays and one is long, but you can pick and choose here.
From 1978, Donna Summer's cover of MacArthur Park. I loved this song when it first came out but I love Donna's cover even more. I'm going with another live performance. RIP Donna; you were taken from us too soon.
And now for my favorite decade, the 80's. No birthday songs here just enjoyment.
From 1981, Soft Cell and Tainted Love/Where Did Our Love Go, both covers of 60's songs and, oh, that combination.
From 1984, Foreigner and I Want To Know What Love Is. Let's enjoy one of the greatest songs ever.
I said six songs, right? Well, I'm slipping in a seventh.
Let's end this with one more Happy Birthday, this one from Weird Al Yankovic in 1982.
Oh, one last thing. If you loved Tony Bennett, here's a tribute I did to him on Saturday.
And that's a birthday wrap. Hope the playlist met with the birthday person's approval.
Join us again next week for another episode of #MusicMovesMe.
Morris dancers at Binghamton, New York's Much Ado About the Garden festival, July 16, 2023, dancing. You can see their shadows underneath them.
Morris dancing is a form of English folk dancing. These dances were choreographed and, here, the dancers are wearing bells on their legs.
Shadows have been hard to find here lately but here's another shadow - me and trees on a local walking trail at the beginning of July.
Joining Magical Mystery Teacher for #Shadowshot Sunday.
He left our hearts in San Francisco.
There aren't too many singers who are the lead story on the NBC Nightly News, but last night, Tony Bennett was the lead story.
Bennett also closed out last night's NBC Nightly News.
That happens even less. Lead and ending both, but Tony Bennett deserved it.
Tony Bennett, beloved singer and champion of the Great American Songbook, died yesterday in his native New York City at the age of 96, two weeks before his 97th birthday. Sadly, he was suffering from Alzheimer's at the time of his death.
Like me, the man born Anthony Dominick Benedetto, was a native of Queens, one of the boroughs of New York City. We knew him as Tony Bennett thanks to another great, Bob Hope.
There are going to be many music bloggers paying tribute to Tony Bennett today, and, yes, I'll include some of his songs, but there is something I found out in reading his obituary that I had never known.
Bennetto's father, who was described as having a great, powerful voice, died when Bennett was only nine. Bennetto helped to support his family with his voice from around the age of 12.
Bennetto was drafted into the military during World War II when he turned 18 in 1944, and became an infantry rifleman. His unit was sent to Europe to replace troops lost in the Battle of the Bulge. He would entertain troops with his singing, but also saw combat. He was nearly killed his first night out on the line, and faced death more than once in his combat career. This article details his war experience.
In March of 1945, his unit entered Germany and helped to end the war, sometimes fighting house to house. At one point he was able to attend a Bob Hope USO show (shows that entertained the troops) where he first heard Bob Hope singing and entertaining.
His unit was then assigned to liberate a concentration camp 30 miles south of Dachau concentration camp. The experience stayed with him for the rest of his life.
Bennetto stayed in Germany after the war and entertained troops as part of a musical unit, but was reassigned after he was caught eating with a black soldier he had known in high school. (This was a big no-no in the segregated military.) That also stayed with him.
In 1949 there was another encounter with Bob Hope - this time, Hope heard him singing in a nightclub in Manhattan, asked Benedetto to tour with him, and renamed him.
Oh, about that experience after he was caught eating with a black soldier? Bennett (influenced by Harry Belafonte) participated in the Civil Rights movement, and marched in Martin Luther King's third march from Selma, Alabama to Montgomery in 1965 Bennett also refused to perform in South Africa due to its apartheid policies.
Bennett also performed in seven decades. His last concert was in 2021, with Lady Gaga. Alzheimer's had already taken hold several years earlier but he came to life during the concert and performed with her unobtrusive help.
His first hit, Because of You, from 1951.
Perhaps his best known hit, I Left My House in San Francisco.
A duet with Sir Elton John, Rags to Riches.
Finally, with Lady Gaga, I've Got You Under My Skin.
Rest in peace, Tony.
We skywatchers look for the perfect sky. Beautiful sunrises and sunsets. The full moon at night. Clouds that make us daydream or gasp. The moods of the sky.
Today, a simple before and after.
We were walking in the park on Sunday, when we saw this: we knew, from that now familiar streak, that the bad air (the air from the Canadian wildfires) was starting to return.
It did return, but for us, it wasn't as bad this time as the other times. We were so happy when the haze disappeared and we saw a clean blue sky about 9am yesterday. This photo was taken almost in the exact same place (not intentionally).
And, by 4pm yesterday, the sky (again, near the same place as the first two photos) signaled we would have storms later that night.
An interesting before and after.
Joining Yogi and other skywatchers for #SkywatchFriday.
I've blogged several times about a year-long project I embarked on at the beginning of 2023 (actually, the planning started back in 2022.) I am crocheting a temperature afghan, a blanket that will record the high temperatures of the year 2023 in color.
A temperature blanket uses colors to record highs and/or low temperatures over a certain period of time. They can be used to record temperatures for a year, perhaps a calendar year, or the first year of a baby's life (to be presented as a birthday gift). Some knit these, some quilt these. Some make scarfs or sweaters. The variations are endless.
My first two updates:
Now, it's mid July, and I'm up to March 15. Yes, beware the crochet Ides of March. But it's progress. At least I'm no longer stalled in February.
See all that turquoise? We had a lot of Turquoise (see temperature chart below) this past winter.
These are the colors I am using, based on a crochet chart developed
by a yarn manufacturer for New York City and are in F (sorry, Celsius
readers).
100F (38C) and above - Fruity Stripe (shades of pink - a variegated yarn) Let's hope I don't have to use it. So far, our high this year has been 94 F (34.4 C)
Maybe, by the next update, I would have caught up with spring. I don't mean calendar spring; I mean Southern Tier of New York spring.
In the meantime I decided there was no reason to beware the Crochet Ides of March. Instead, I will celebrate.
Thanks go once again to the quilter displaying her temperature afghans last October at Salt Springs State Park in Pennsylvania at the Susquehanna Art Trail for talking to me at length about her work. You started me on an interesting journey.
Shakespeare lives in our local botanical garden.
Each July, Cornell Cooperative holds Much Ado in the Garden, four hours of people dressed up as they would have in Shakespeare's time, children's games and activities, a Shakespeare scavenger hunt for plants that would have been grown in Shakepeare's time, Morris dancing, and even an abridged play.
This year's festival was Sunday.
We arrived early, before a lot of the activities, because much of it was outdoors and it looked like it might rain (we did get a drenching shower and decided to leave shortly after).
Enjoy some highlights:
Shakespeare era plants and quotes in this and the next three photos. Alas, most violets bloom earlier in spring.
Shakespeare was a wise man, but the garden chamomile appeared to be missing in action.
This botanical garden, which is small (but free), has a Rose Walk. This Shakespearean era rose (a musk) was one of the few still in bloom. The quote is "There we will make our beds of Roses and a thousand fragrant posies." (Merry Wives of Windsor, act iii, scene i.)
"Fairies Use Flowers for their charactery" Merry Wives of Windsor act v sc 5
Joining Sandee at Comedy Plus for her #WordlessWednesday.
A story of these times....
Years ago, we visited Cape Cod and went to a store in Hyannis (the largest village in the largest town on the Cape). It was love at first shop.
Several years later, the Christmas Tree Shop opened a store where I live in the Southern Tier of New York State. They actually started on Cape Cod (not the Hyannis store) back in the 1950's. They were acquired by Bed, Bath and Beyond in 2003 and underwent a big expansion.
Yesterday I went to its going out of business sale. Going, going, almost gone....
I wasn't surprised. Bed, Bath and Beyond preceded them in closing. But I really knew, a year or so after they changed ownership in 2020, that we were seeing the end of the road.
We've all been to going out of business sales. In the past few years, the pace seems to have accelerated. But this one was different.
We were faithful customers of the pre-2020 Christmas Tree Shop. We knew we could find things there, not just for Christmas, but year round. Our list included paper plates, cups, and napkins for various holidays and seasons, tablecloths, placemats, herbal teas, coffees, stocking stuffers for our son (a nut lover), an occasional rug or curtain, cake mixes, kitchen gadgets, gardening items, and the unsalted whole pistachio nuts I snacked on at work.
Sometimes there were real finds, things that only turned up once, and those were some of my favorites. Smoked salmon from Alaska. Expensive-in-stores-but-not-here celebrity tomato sauce.
The Christmas Tree Shop was always a stop for us on Black Friday because you got a special coupon if you got there before 9am.
But, under the new ownership, it was never the same. We mainly stopped going when they were no longer selling many of the items we wanted, or when we found that the food items they had in the rapidly shrinking food area were now more expensive than at the supermarkets.
Yet, we had been there a couple of weeks before they announced their closing, hoping we would find something we wanted.
The charm had disappeared. So had most of our reasons for shopping there, alas.
Yesterday, I found I wasn't the only one who felt that way. As we looked at what remained, I heard snippets of conversation, shoppers talking to each other about how sad they were to lose the store, especially the store before the ownership change. Not only that, but I overheard a couple of conversations between shoppers and employees where shoppers expressed their love for the store.
At the checkout, I told the clerk we would miss the store. Her response: she will miss the shoppers. I must have looked surprised. She said it was rare to find any shopper who wasn't friendly.
People were happy to be in that store. Online isn't the same.
We need a lot more happiness in our daily lives. I'm glad her employee experience was a good one.
More and more, we are forced online. Online shopping seemed so great back when, but this is the unintended consequence.
Now, the Christmas Tree Shop moves onto the list I keep mentally of stores, both local and chain, that I miss, and will continue to miss.
Are your favorite brick and mortars going, going, almost gone where you live, too?
It's Monday and it's time for music!
Who are the Music Moves Me bloggers?
We are bloggers who blog about music
each Sunday or Monday and if you have music to share with us, you are most
welcome to join! (Music Posts Only-meaning at least one music video,
please!) Our head host is Xmas Dolly, and our co-hosts are Cathy from Curious as a Cathy, joined by the knowledgeable Stacy of Stacy Uncorked and Yours Truly.
Why not join our music loving folks? It's so easy. All you have to do is join the linky above with a music post that contains at least one music video. No music video? Your post may be removed, or may be labeled *NO MUSIC*.
Today's theme is "You Pick" and I'm going to do just that.
What better in very warm and humid weather but to do some dreaming.
I must include the 1968 hit for the Monkees, Daydream Believer, because it is such a good song, and because someone whose blog is part of this blog hop would probably never read my blog again if I didn't. No, seriously, it's a great song, written by John Stewart of The Kingston Trio and turned down by several artists before the Monkees took it on. The Monkees ended up changing one word to better fit their brand.
From 1986, Van Halen - Dreams. I woke up several times this week thinking of this song. Dare I call it a dreamworm?
Also from 1986, Crowded House - Don't Dream It's Over.
Last but not least, Boulevard of Broken Dreams from Green Day, a 2004 hit for them.
And that's a wrap!
Join me again next week for another episode of Music Moves Me.
This is the 5007th blog post I have published since I started to blog in 2009
Happy milestone to me - I don't check stats often so I was unaware I had passed the 5000 post milestone. Yay, me!
It's been fun (for the most part).
In turn, I've discovered many blogs I enjoy reading - some (not all) are on my blog roll.
Let's celebrate Post #5007 with some flowers from my garden. First, some leftovers I didn't include in yesterday's Garden Bloggers Bloom Day.
Impatiens.
Yellow scaviola, which has taken over an entire container.
Another zinnia from our community garden plot.
Blurry white marigold. For some reason, the two varieties of marigolds I am growing this year are not doing well, plus something is eating my white marigold plants. I'm not seeing obvious insects (Japanese beetles, aphids, catepillars) but leaves keep disappearing.
Finally, this is my tallest daylily and it's blooming profusely right now.
I've enjoyed sharing my writing and photos with you, dear readers, and hope you will stick around for the next few hundred posts. I appreciate each and every one of you.
THANK YOU FOR YOUR READERSHIP. YOU AND YOUR COMMENTS ARE SO APPRECIATED.
It's July 15, and I can't believe that this year is more than half over. It's also Garden Bloggers Bloom Day, and it's time to share some of the flowers in my zone 5b Southern Tier of New York yard with my readers.
It's been warm and humid. We had been in a drought, but we've had rain - fortunately, we've been spared the flooding people to our east in the Hudson Valley of New York (where my spouse grew up) and Vermont. We haven't had the blasting heat of other areas, although today it will be (for us) hot.
July is day lily time.
I love day lilies and I have so many of them to show you. There are too many for my small front yard (my back yard is too shady) and too many to show you today. So let's get right to the flowers.
Day lilies: I don't know the names of many of these. Some are forgotten in the mists of time, plus I have purchased, over the years, a lot of unnamed varieties or varieties the local botanical garden got from a deceased grower where the family did not know the names. My July 2022 GBBD post gives more details.
Fashion Police.
An unnamed spider variety purchased in 2022 from Lambertson's Brookside in Pennsylvania. I am not linking to them because the owners are in the process of selling to a new owner (located in Honesdale, Pennsylvania) and most of their stock is with the new owners.
Red.
Pink ruffles and a yellow throat. For a while, I was on a ruffled kick.
Red and yellow.
A group photo.
Purple - this may be the first day lily I ever purchased.
I am not including several others but I must mention my earliest day lily, still going strong.
Have to make room for some of my non day lilies. Here, variegated pink petunias and yellow lantana.
Yellow loosestrife. I bought this at a plant sale at our local botanical garden, and was warned it was aggressive. Let's say I'm somewhat sorry I bought it because we have to thin it out each year, but it does have pretty yellow flowers. And, it's purple when it first comes up in the spring.
A blurry zinnia. They are just starting to bloom (we grow them in our community garden).
Tall phlox, which, this year, has a bad case of powdery mildew. Time for baking soda and water.
Thanks go, as always, to Carol at May Dreams Gardens for this 15th of the month meme. Why not follow the link and find some other blogs with beautiful flowers for today?
