November Ends


The one spot in the neighborhood high enough to glimpse the Catskills to the south.

 I like to take photos of nature, but it's a struggle to find anything worth capturing these days. It is a bleak landscape when the leaves go, and we get rain instead of snow. The past three days I've had to make due with a walk because it's too cold and windy to ride or kayak. I stop for half a minute to take a picture and I lose all  the heat I built up from moving. At least I keep up a good pace.

I always notice this roadcut of fissile shale as I walk by, remembering my time as a geology teacher.


That last heavy rain eroded some nice patterns in the beach sand. It's a miniature braided stream just like we saw in Iceland.

Not a ripple on the water today, but tomorrow will be windy and rainy.


Bright Sumac

Bittersweet

I surprised myself yesterday morning by getting out ornaments and decorating one of my three trees. I haven't pulled them out in several years, and I enjoyed making a woodland themed tree. I didn't remember I had so many birds, but I really like them.



I also made kale chips because I already have loads of frozen kale. The chips are not bad to munch on as long as you don't expect them to replace corn or potato chips. Next I have a cup of pumpkin seeds to roast, and some maple glazed pecans to make. 

A salty vitamin snack - kale chips. I'll crumble them onto my soup too.

Today I'm off to shop (not fun for me) to replace my broken coffee maker and hunt down a lovely side of salmon for Friday's dinner. I also need to find some white chocolate for Langostine soup  - I'm trying to recreate the dish I had at the restaurant at the Blue Lagoon in Iceland a few years ago. It was unforgettable. 

Comments

  1. MargaretNovember 30, 2022 at 12:42 PM

    Maple glazed pecans, yum. I won't say anything bad about kale chips. ;) A broken coffee maker would be a disaster around here. My 30 year old Krups just keeps on plugging away. Love salmon! It isn't as stark here yet (we always have evergreens) but the windstorm yesterday will have blown off most of the pretty leaves.

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Another Rainy Weekend

Image
Another rainy Saturday to contend with, so I decided on a Van Morrison playlist while I cleaned out the garage and danced and sang. My gardening supplies and planters and pots that need sorting and recycling  were cluttering up my space. They are now sorted and the garage is cleaned out for at least another week or so. I think the shed in the back yard needs to be a project to get it into a more useful state.  The amount of rain we've had is remarkable. May was one of the wettest months in eighty years and June is starting to look the same. I would rather have too much rain rather than a drought though.  After dropping around 3 inches of rain, the skies cleared up later in the afternoon. I loaded up my bike for an impromptu ride on the Electric Trail with the thought of dinner or ice cream at Samascott's.  The first of many turtles on the bike path. Now I see just how rough the path was and how I had no business riding on it.  The trail was very wet on the way s...
Read more

Summer Solstice

Image
Vroman's Nose overlooking the valley. Summer has begun! To mark the solstice, my hiking group held a picnic at the top of Vroman's Nose, which is a short little hike up a 657 foot hill. It overlooks the Schoharie Valley and has a beautiful rock 'dance floor' that easily accommodates our group of forty. The weather was a perfect 74 degrees with a breeze to keep any bugs away. A pleasant gathering on the dance floor near sunset. I drove Sue Ellen who had her gall bladder removed last week, and we hiked up with a guy who has spinal stenosis. As I listened to them discuss their ailments, I silently gave thanks for my health and thought about how 'mature' our group is becoming.  Once at the top, the party began with burgers and dogs, salads and desserts, and great conversation.  Most of our group made it into this sunset picture. Saturday started with me being woken up by my neighbors chatting down below in the street - it was garage sale day. I didn't join since...
Read more

Random Thoughts In My Little Life

Image
 The orchids I bought in February (!) catch my attention each day and I have to marvel at their longevity. Four months of continuous flowers? What other plant does this? I just may become an orchid collector. A new stem with buds is forming on one of them too! This long horn beetle was inspecting my snow peas. They have blooms, so peas are not far behind! I drove up to the Plateau to meet a friend for a paddle. The wind picked up for awhile so we got a nice upper body work out paddling into the wind. Then we just floated near the dock when the wind died down and the sun was shining.  This wetland was covered in yellow flag (iris) on the way to the Pond. Enjoying the calm water after the gusts. This is not proper paddling form, but it was so relaxing. This angle makes my kayak look tiny! Thursday was a nice dry day - perfect for lawn garden work. I'm diligently putting the plants I keep buying into the ground. I have a dozen sunflowers I grew from seed that need planting, but t...
Read more