Eat Eat

"Hey there good-lookin', do you have plans tonight?" "Bugger off." "Hey, wait-up, I just want to..." "I said, bugger off!" "Hey! OWWW!" " Another Saturday night and I ain't got nobody..." I saw all this take place in the space of a few seconds. Clearly, the praying mantis wasn't in the mood to be bothered, and wasted no time ridding itself of the er...pest.  It was interesting how the rejected mantis ran off into the grass as the other stood in the centre of the sidewalk undisturbed by the foot traffic of students from the college. I know the praying mantis is no lightweight-Youtube is full of videos showing how they can sneak up a hummingbird feeder and grab dinner, but I never saw one in a fight like this. You can learn so much about nature just by looking around. Here, I'm noticing a yellow jacket wasp that thankfully was more interested in the flowers than me. They get aggressive this time of year as the fl...

 We hadn't visited an apple orchard for the past few years as the harvest had been terrible for one reason or another. This year was different though, and the trees were full of perfect apples-it almost  makes you wonder if  they're using a new fertiliser, or planted more blight resistant trees or if they just resorted to luring a Scottish policeman to the orchard  had some good luck this year. Er...whatever they're doing, it seems to be working! I guess I could ask one of the people that work here, though they're all dressed as woodland animals today for some odd reason. We made it out alive  home with about twenty pounds of apples, so we'll be enjoying a number of interesting dishes over the next couple weeks. I made a red onion and apple relish to go with black bean tacos tonight. I have my glow-in-the-dark Halloween sign up. I adore Halloween. Dressing up and eating candy-what's not to like?! I know it is more than a month away, so I'm going slow with t...

Yeah. Who buys this crap anyway? There is space to write, "Try to". so perhaps that's the idea? There's something hostile (or at best, passive aggressive) sounding about it. I'm probably not the target audience for this sort of consumer good. The older I get, the more I feel like I'm probably not the target audience for life in a general way. That's fine-get the hell off my lawn. Here's two more trial-run sourdough breads. The poppy seed loaf has wheat bran and wheat germ for extra interest, and the boule on the left is plain white. Both took a total of three days from sponge to baking but that's how sourdough is (slow). Our starters are all doing well (we have three) but Nationwide is the strongest. Yeah, I named this starter, Nationwide . Loooong story. Anyway, we've been giving the starters extra feedings (instead of neglecting them at the back of the fridge) so they will be in peak condition for fair baking. I served tomato sandwiches on th...