My father used to have a riddle, “what’s red when it’s green?” The answer was “a blackberry”, and in the question “green” has to mean “not yet ripe.” These are starting to get there. Maybe Anne will find them next weekend. Maybe the birds will beat us to them. Watch out for thorns!
Author Archives: deanb
Butterfly on flowers
A former co-worker of mine used to like taking pictures of insects on flowers. We had one butterfly that seemed to want to pose for me, so I’ve joined the insect-on-flower picture crew. — on some cucurbit, I think it’s probably a gourd but there may be pumpkins in this tub also — on black-eyed …
Blueberry pie
Unfortunately (because the wild blueberries have more flavor) this was made with cultivated blueberries, not wild ones. I got a pint of blueberries at the Bridgton farmers’ market (after having a long chat with the woman there about blueberries and raspberries and picking the latter) and added a cup or so of supermarket blueberries, then …
FO – table
I sanded down the rough spots in the table top with 220 and 400 grit paper on Saturday morning and put one more coat of urethane on it. By midday Sunday everyone agreed it was dry enough to bring up to the kitchen. The garage, where it had been drying, is so much cooler than …
FO – hat
I finished knitting a hat from the Sweetgrass Wool extra-bulky yarn I had got at the Denmark Sheepfest in April. I did get enough to turn up a cuff to cover my ears, but there was enough yarn left over that I could have done two or three more rounds. That’s reasonably close to coming …
Listening for Loons
We played Settlers of Catan with Charley and Nicole on Saturday night. Maybe Arlene and I played it one New Years Eve with Sue, Richard, and Katherine, but we’re not sure. I do like that game. There’s a lot of thinking and a lot of social interaction, and it doesn’t take too long go get …
More on Ployes
When I mentioned the mix for the northern Maine crepes known as ployes, I didn’t realize that there was a web site for them. There’s your link. I used up the last of the mix this morning, mixing a cup and a quarter of it with most of a cup of milk, an egg, and …
Yet more on raspberries
One other interesting thing about raspberries we learned at Hedgehog Hill Farm last weekend is that, like apples, they don’t germinate true to type. If you want cultivated raspberries, you need to buy a plant that’s grafted from the variety you’re trying to grow. Wild raspberry seeds have a thick husk that keeps them from …
No ID
We tried again to find the route from Maine Turnpike exit 47 up to River Road in Windham. We took an early turn off the Westbrook Arterial and a left at the end. It wasn’t where we had wanted to be. A couple of right turns eventually got us into a commercial area. I stopped …
More on raspberries
I finally cooked up my raspberries into syrup last night. I had maybe a cup and a half of wild raspberries, a quarter or half a cup of water, and part of a scoop of sugar (maybe a quarter cup, maybe more.) And maybe one tiny spider crawling around to get out of the hot …