Here Comes the Sun(flower)

Turns out the overspill from the bird feeder provides a delayed gift. Unfortunately, the squirrels like them...so the day after these photos were taken, all that was left of this sunflower was a bare stalk and some petal remains on the back deck. Which is where, I suppose, those buggers like to sit, relax, and dine.

Anita & Arve, Photo Gold!

Well, going through the 1000+ photos from Anita & Arve has been a thrill! Thank goodness for high speed wireless.... I think it's about time for another vacation visit...

You All Apparently Want Homemade Cherry Pie...or, Home-Made Cherry Pie, redux

In reviewing some site statistics, the most repeated google search landing visitors to the site are those searching for some alphabetical variation of home made cherry pie. Last year, I posted an entry about just such a thing when visiting friends in Wyoming. With a photo. Here is that photo, and just so that those searchers actually find what they're probably looking for - a recipe instead of a photo - I'm posting that here as well. Bon Appetit!

Homemade Cherry Pie Recipe
Stuff you’ll need:

• Pastry for Two-Crust Pie
• 4 cups of fresh de-stemmed and de-pitted cherries
• 1 1/4 cups granulated sugar
• 1/4 cup flour
• 1/4 teaspoon almond extract (optional)
• 2 tablespoons margarine or butter

Stuff you’ll need to Prepare:

• Preheat oven to 425F
• Prepare pastry for Two Crust Pie - 9 inch pans.
• Prepare pie pans (glass or metal: add a touch of oil, butter, Pam, etc - to extra-non-stick it).

Stuff you’ll need to Do:

1. Combine cherries, sugar and flour and blend lightly. Most recipes advise adding a splash of almond extract, but I'm not sure why.
2. Taste your cherries. Are they a touch too sweet? Add a splash of lemon juice. Too tart? Add a squirt of honey.
3. Spoon into pastry shell.
4. Apply a little butter/margerine here and there.
5. Add the second pastry shell to the top, or use it to make a lattice crust.
6. Fold edges of top pastry under bottom pastry.
7. Press together to seal and flute edges.
8. Cut slits in several place in top of pastry.
9. Bake for 35 to 45 minutes, or until juice bubbles through the top crust.

Alternative / Options:
Create a show-stopping top crust by applying an egg wash and some raw sugar crystals!!

• To create an egg wash you’ll need an egg yolk and a splash of water, and a new ~2” paintbrush.
• Blend an egg yolk and a teaspoon of water. If the wash doesn’t appear to be easily spreadable with your brush, you may gradually add a little more water – but be careful of making the mixture too runny.
• Brush mixture on the top pastry of your pie – whether lattice or whole crust.
• This yeilds a shiny, golden-brown effect to the pie crust. Additionally, it allows things to stick – like a couple of sprinkles of raw sugar crystals. For the same effect, but with less shine, use the whole egg.
• For an additional neat presentation effect, use a decorative item to press into your pie shell fluting. Examples are something with grooves, lines, patterns, etc. If the texture is flexible, it can be wrapped around a pencil, using the pencil to press in the fluting
• Finally, add a sprig of spearmint (not catmint) to the top for presentation zing.

Norwegians Sweep America!!

I wonder how many erroneous futbol or rugby hits that title might gain.....

Well, my short trip with my Norwegian friends Anita & Arve is over, and they're on their way back to Norway today. Somehow, I didn't end up taking a lot of photos of Las Vegas. That truly is another planet.

The Norwegians Have Arrived!!

Anita & Arve (pronounced like Ave, kind of) arrived on Monday, June 2, and we quickly proceeded to the grocery store to load up on a few necessities. Like an extra "big ass" suitcase for their trip, in which they could pack their extra purchases. And of course, beer, wine, brats, and other bbq accouterments. The bbq went off without a hitch, with some new and old friends and co-workers enjoying a meal graciously cooked up by my friend Jim, who took on grilling duties.

Exploring Amish Country, and Colorado.....

Day 2 of our adventure began with our having a little time on our hands prior to our 7 pm flight out of Detroit. So, after a quick breakfast, we hopped on south a bit to explore an Amish area. I've gone out into Amish country before, but had not previously seen so many Amish people. You couldn't throw a rock without seeing an Amish person. And then we realized: Because of Anita's pregnancy, she's a good luck charm. Every time from this point on during our trip that Anita said, "I'd love to see _______!", it would literally appear around the next corner. This included marmot, buffalo, elk, a condor, Amish, snow-covered mountains, good weather ......you name it. There are too many examples to recall.

Despite arriving at our Denver hotel at 1 am due to storms in Chicago (long story), we were raring to go the next morning. I should mention that I am often cursed in rental car arrangements at Denver International. And it appears this is contagious. On one previous trip there to pick up a rental and explore Wyoming, I was 'upgraded' from a basic economy to....an electric-spandex-lame-ass-blue PT Cruiser. Good mileage and drive, but ugh, what an ugly freakin' car. Such was our luck - queer blue color and all - on this trip. Hopefully we won't also hit an elk.

At any rate, our Colorado venture was essentially a LONG day of driving across it on I-70. Wanting to break up the scenery a bit, we had time for one side trip, and that was to the top of Mt. Evans. This mountain, along with Pike's Peak, is one of two in the country that have a paved road to the surface and whose summits are over 14,000 feet (or over 4200 meters). The highest peak in Norway is 2,469 meters (8,100 feet). En route to the top, we encountered marmots, road mice, and even some scavaging mountain goats before they were able to see a span of the Rocky Mountains laid out before them. Below: road marmot - found an erosion-created pothole that he called home, which I'm sure was warm, but noisy as hell when cars rolled over. And not very life-preserving!

Now, we all know about not touching wildlife, but this miniscule little bugger was literally sunning himself in the middle of the (thin) blacktop roadway. We stopped and tried to wave him to the side of the road, but he went instead under the car. So, Arve picked him up and moved him to a nice, flat, warm rock on the side of the road, where he stayed - at least until we drove away.

Utah - Red Rock Country

After whizzing through Colorado, our next leg was to take us just into Utah on I-70 and then cutting south toward Moab, and along the east side of the state. We were in Moab at the onset of a gale force wind, announcing a fast-moving storm. It was fantastic! During our time in Utah, I kept mentioning I'd never seen it so pretty so late in the spring - there was much remaining green, and having actual cloud cover was fantastic. My last camping route through the area was in May, prior to Memorial Day a few years ago, and the heat (at 92 degrees) was unbearable - mostly due to the lack of any possibility of cloud cover. We had great weather for our trip, in fact keeping us quite cool until we reached Vegas (at 102). Some Utah pics:


This is probably my favorite: Fisher Towers on the left; Colorado River at the bottom; snow-capped La Sal mountains behind. yay!

A real-life tumbleweed on a fantastic reddy-purple sandstone background.

The electric-spandex-discotronic PT Cruiser. PS: Chrysler, I'd be glad to lease you a copy of this image...

Onset of storm. This literally blew in during the time it took us to fill up the tank on the car, and take a bathroom break. There were trashcans rolling down the street.

Heading south from Moab, adjacent to Canyonlands. Some real, and some ghost rain.


Mmmm.....red geology........




The goosenecks of the San Juan River.

Grand Canyon 08, with Norwegians

We made it to the Grand Canyon with plenty of daylight left to eat, shop, and do a little hiking before sunset. And, in keeping with our trip's trend, just as Anita was wishing to see elk, they seemed to stumble right across our pathway - nibbling on the grass in front of Bright Angel Lodge.







And Arve, the perennial quiet humorist, has a great sense of physical comedy!


Hufta!!

Watch out, Vegas.......

Anita & Arve arrive in the morning, and we'll launch into our whirlwind tour of the West - Denver to Vegas, via Moab, Canyonlands, Monument Valley, the Grand Canyon, and the Skywalk bridge. More to come soon!

Congratulations, Nepal! You new Republic, you.....

In another post of shameless self-promotion, I present to you another photo of mine published by a news service, regarding a topic especially close to my heart. Nepal! And its newborn freedom!

And here's a link to this story (my photo, ahem, at top right...).

Old Farm Accents

My friend Jim's family has an old farm nearby, and I visited recently to snap a few photos of what I call 'interestingness'. Enjoy.