A seasonal malady

Let's call it cucumber blindness. It's definitely related to zucchini blindness. I've been afflicted by it about a half dozen times this month. It's embarrassing.

In my defense, I do have about twenty plants that sprinted up the trellis, in spite of a start from nine-year-old seeds and many visits from their mortal enemies. It's pretty dense in there.

On the other hand, if you can get a hold of your cukes before things spiral out of control (20 pounds and counting!), you can spend your Sunday putting up eleven pints of cucumber food stuffs, not to mention throwing together asian cucumber salad, non-asian cucumber salad and raita. From left to right: million dollar relish, dills, bread and butters.

There would have been more bread and butters, but I finally managed to lose a jar in the canner. If you hear a popping sound while you're sterilizing the empty jars, don't ignore it or you'll be fishing cuke slices and glass out of hot water for a while.

The relish recipe is from Farmhouse Cookbook, which I highly recommend, but they do assume you will be feeding a farm, so plan ahead. Even after I halved the recipe, I still have five pints, plus two of last year's I just found hiding in the cupboard. I love the stuff enough to eat it with a spoon, but...anyone need some relish?

Taste the rainbow

Way better than Skittles.

Adventure of the week (3)

Camping: leaving a perfectly nice, permanent shelter behind to take your chances with lightning, hail and mosquitoes in the great outdoors

OK, so maybe that's not the whole story, but I did sling a heavy pack on my back and leave my nice home to walk three hours with said pack to a less predictable locale. Sure was pretty and I can now check multi-day, solo trip off my list.

I had to carry a bear canister (think tiny, plastic keg that sucks up most of the space in your pack), but the most vicious animals I encountered were the biting flies. Most of the trip was like a Disney movie...

with Thumper, the snowshoe hare that came over to sniff my shoes,

Chuck, the chickaree who laughed at me from high places and then tossed pine cone grenades down, too,

and of course, the pink elephants on parade.

There was even an apple pancake breakfast with Chip and Dale, though they wouldn't stay still long enough to have their pictures taken.

I've rarely spent time outdoors without an agenda, so waking up in the morning with nothing planned was a pretty novel experience. What should I do with myself?

A walk would be nice. Up, up, up, to where the flowers were in bloom, right next to the snow.






I could try sailing...Alas, it was a very short cruise before disaster struck.

They never would have made it down the falls anyway.

I could try sitting at the water's edge, reading a book or just enjoying the scenery. This was a lot harder than you'd think. The mind wanders towards a future trip...


Maybe more walking to go see the old pines that were masquerading as desert landscapes. I did love these trees.


With a little more practice, maybe I could get better at doing nothing. Maybe.

No vampire worries this year

Adventure of the week (2)

For my birthday, I got some birds...

two whistle pigs (one whistling),

a butterfly,

pretty pictures,

a nice view after a climb,

a stream to cool off in after a ride (note to self: look waaay upstream for hikers before removing bike clothes),

a few thunderstorms to race (lost once), two mornings of a steaming tent,

loads of flowers,

(Why is the daisy blue? Because nobody wants it around. Really, that's blue daisy poison. The guy with the spray had just come through.)


and, on the way home, yet another place to come back to explore.

Happily, I didn't have to bring all that stuff back with me, because I have no idea where I'd keep two marmots.

Adventure of the week

The Peaks trail never fails me, especially when I'm riding it on a day I would normally be at work. It's great for variety. You want rocks? Just around the corner. Tree roots? Right this way. We'll throw in some open meadows where the beetles took out the trees and then some thick, vanilla scented piney woods for good measure. And almost always super-friendly riders/hikers/horse people. Everyone seems to be happy to be there.

Yes, the bridges are a little worse for wear.

This mess has replaced the quiet trail end I was expecting.

And I did manage to drive my front wheel into a deeper-than-I-thought mud puddle at the end of a bridge and spun madly, going nowhere (yes, Looney Tunes-style), but, still, I love this trail. I've been away from trails for a long while now, and the day after reminded me that I once again have the sad arm and upper body strength of a pre-teen t-rex, but it was totally worth it. "Oops" moments about equaled the "ha!" moments, and I consider that a win.

And the best way to finish up the day? A two-pounder from Beaujo's (the menu said it would feed half a dozen mongeese) and a few games of Asteroids (circa 1979) and pinball at the tiny arcade down the street. I suck at Asteroids, but I rocked the "Tommy" pinball game that I'm pretty sure I played in the 80's at the Funarama. Waaay better than a day at work.

(I'm pretty sure everyone's score on this Asteroids game is one of the ten best, but decided to leave my mark anyway)

Catch of the day