The weather is cooler and I am back to muffin making! We bought 15 overripe bananas for $1.49 yesterday. That many bananas will translate into five batches of muffins. Two batches have been made since yesterday, and out of those 24 muffins, 14 are left. We like our muffins!
We also purchased a half bushel of Ontario peaches. They are ripening in their containers on the kitchen floor as I type. By tomorrow I should be enjoying fresh peach smoothies for my lunches, and Giant Oven Pancake with fresh peaches for my suppers.
It seems that every visit to the bush includes a guest appearance from a star. Last Sunday this individual appeared. He/she is clinging to the bottom ridge of plastic on my plastic-five-gallon-pail-chamber-pot, which, having been emptied and cleaned, was left upside down on the crushed stone to dry. Apparently this beauty found the object a perfectly acceptable place to enjoy the sun. There are a lot of dragonflies at our Rideau Camp, and every one of them has a different wing pattern and/or body type. It has been a real fashion parade.
I have a project lined up to perform at the Rideau Camp. The crushed stone drive, and main area, are being overtaken by weeds. This is undesirable because plants provide launch areas for mosquitoes and ticks. The recipe to be used is not as effective as chemicals such as roundup, but it is partially successful.
Weed Killer
4 cups vinegar
½ cup epsom salts
1 tbsp dawn dish detergent
Mix to dissolve, spray weeds, wait.
The yard will smell like a chip stand for a day or so, salt and vinegar.
If you spend time in the “wild” in Ontario, you might notice the ubiquitous empty beer bottle. Sometimes they are whole, and other times they have been ceremoniously smashed and lie in sharp shards waiting for the unwary. We find them along trails, and just about anywhere we walk in the bush. They seem to represent a rural rite of passage into the wilds of adolescence. Our property came with the traditional empty beer bottle, luckily it is intact.
Worldly Distractions
Weather
19°C
Date:2:00 PM EDT Thursday 24 August 2017
Condition: Mostly Cloudy
Pressure: 101.6 kPa
Tendency: Falling
Temperature: 19.4°C
Dew point: 11.7°C
Humidity: 61%
Wind: NW 16 km/h
Visibility: 24 km
Quote
“Most conversations are simply monologues delivered in the presence of witnesses.”
Margaret Millar
I find this more true of men than I do of women, men talking to women that is, or is it talking at women, because that is what a lot of men do when they talk to me. I can think of only two women who indulged in monologue when interaction was available. One I met when a family visited our farm, the daughter talked in a steady stream, barely pausing for breath, for hours… I was amazed. The other was an adult woman who I spent one day with, I uttered two sentences that day, she filled the airwaves the rest of the time. I know more about her than I wanted to. I find most women converse in a very interactive way, with me. Of course, they do not feel any pressure to impress, that might be a factor for males when interacting with females.
Ha Ha! I saw the Muffins title and my eyes skidded down to the recipe for weed killer I thought, What?! That’s a pretty dragonfly.
🙂 Sandy! I didn’t notice that aspect of the structure of the entry until you pointed it out, lol. The dragonfly was amazing, it was very large too.
p.s. The muffins are the Pumpkin/Squash muffin recipe under the recipe tab, but I omitted the cinnamon, nutmet and ginger, and substituted mashed banana for pureed pumpkin/squash.
So… you’re saying you and A. ate 10 muffins between you in one day! My kinda people!!! They sound so good. I plan to make some cranberry muffins one day soon, just wish the mood would strike.
When I saw that pic of the d-fly on FB I thought it was a painting! Your camera is superb! I’d blow that up and print it off and frame it! Dragonflies are so “in” right now… being good for just about everything under the sun.
Bex, you nailed it, 10 muffins gone. I ate them for breakfast, I had one as snack, and I ate them for lunch. I missed my muffins. Attila takes them to snack on during his breaks.
I love dragonflies. Not only are the beatiful, they don’t bite humans and they eat mosquitoes. I love dragonflies.
My cousin wrote a book called Flight of the Dragonfly. It’s been a while since I read it, but as I recall the dragonfly was the symbol of hope that kept her going after her estranged husband kidnapped their two little girls and hid them in Lebanon so she had a hell of a time finding them.
It was an excellent read, by the way. I couldn’t put the book down. Highly recommend.
-Kate
I like the idea that the dragonfly represents hope Kate. I hope your cousin got her little girls back, what an ordeal! I will look for the book.
I’ve always liked dragonflies, I even upholstered my dining chairs with dragonfly fabric. Like Bex, when I saw the pic on FB I thought itbwas a painting. Maybe because of a filter you used, I’m not sure.
Yes, we’re starting to do more cool weather cooking, too. Only problem is I’m not ready to move to Fall. We’ve only had about 8 summer temp days around here in the last 2 months. I want some summer weather!
Teri, I’m not sure about the photo either, I didn’t use a filter and I didn’t alter it, and I like it. I am not that skilled a photographer to do something like that deliberately, lol.
I am one of those people who has enjoyed the weather this summer, hot sunny days are not my favourite. Your certainly are in the majority though, many have commented on the cold wet summer we have had. It was good for the gardens though!
That really is an outstanding photo Maggie – there are times when photos just turn out ‘right’ and there’s no way you can replicate them.
The weed killer recipe is known worldwide. A lot of my friends have used it with varying degrees of sucess. For a small area some have found just vinegar or boiling water works just as well.
Thanks for your recent comments- time gets away from me now and again so I am lax at replying. Then I’ve written another post and the moment has gone so please don’t take offence or feel ignored if that happens. I’ve tried subscribing to your blog but with no luck. Not sure why but no emaiare coming through ~ Cathy
Thanks Cathy! We have been seeing amazing insects this past week or so.
The weed killer works for some weeds, and doesn’t affect others. I am taking the some is better than none approach, it is a big area I am covering, about a quarter of an acre.
No offence taken re comments and replies, 🙂
I will look into what is going on with your subscription, if the process sent you an email which needed a reply to confirm that could be the problem, but not necessarily. I will explore the settings!