iPod Roulette - June 2011

As usual, not the best cross-section of what's in my iPod.  I guess I can't really expect it to be with the wide variety there.  Take a look at what popped up and tell me if anything speaks to you.

*note to self - always check volume before inserting earbuds and turning on iPod!*

1.     This Window - GlassByrd

2.     Elegy for Dunkirk - Jeff Beck (feat. Olivia Safe)

3.     Arto - System of a Down

4.     You Make Me Feel Like Dancing - Leo Sayer

5.     I Can't Dance - Genesis

6.     Heat of the Moment - Asia

7.     Band on the Run - Paul McCartney

8.     Good Times Roll - The Cars

9.     The Most Beautiful Girl - Charlie Rich

10.   Stayin' Alive - Bee Gees

11.   Theme from Miami Vice - Jan Hammer

12.   Let Me Be the One - The Carpenters

13.   Holding On - Yes

14.   The Lamb Lies Down on Broadway - Genesis

15.   Rubber Biscuit - Blues Brothers

Pickling again

Some of you will remember I had an instructional post last summer about pickled squash.  It was the first I'd made in many years and I managed two batches (12 jars) before the squash gave out.  I anticipated having more space this summer with our "pool garden" therefore planted extra hills of squash and purchased 24 canning jars.  What I didn't anticipate were August temperatures and lack of rain in mid June!  We've watered, but the hot, dry wind has taken its toll on our garden.  The squash is not producing like I hoped.  At least we haven't been plagued with squash bugs like many folks in our area. 

So far we've had steamed squash and onions twice and given away a mess to someone who shared their potatoes and sugar snap peas with us.  Even though I haven't gotten to make my squash casserole yet (a favorite!), I was determined to pickle the next harvest.  Vidalia onions were all I had on hand and there was only enough squash for four jars, but ... can you spot the other difference in this batch?  The peppers also came from my garden!!  It's the first time I've grown them! 

Sizzling Sixteen by Janet Evanovich

The "Stephanie Plum" series by Janet Evanovich is formulaic, prone to ridiculously unbelievable situations, and probably needs to be brought to an end.  That said, I still found myself laughing out loud in parts as I read the latest paperback installment, Sizzling Sixteen.  It's filled with the usual (and that's part of the problem...it's so much of the "same ole") antics from Stephanie, Lula, Connie, Vinnie, and Grandma Mazur along with the usual tension and indecision concerning Morrelli and Ranger.  The premise for this one?  Vinnie is kidnapped for ransom over some major gambling debts.  Add in stink bombs, a guard alligator, cows, Hobbits, Moon Man's special brownies... wait.  I don't want to give away the entire book!

I'm a glutton for punishment, so I'm sure I'll read her latest (Smokin' Seventeen) when it comes out in paperback.  Oh, and according to IMDb the Stephanie Plum movie that was due out this month is now set for release in January 2012.


This book completed the What's In A Name 4 Challenge (book with a number in the title) and the Cozy Mystery Challenge for me. 

Shadow Shot Sunday #34

Shadows deep in a beaver lodge

(Not the same lodge featured here.  This one appears empty)

Shadow Shot Sunday
Hosted by Hey Harriet

What Am I ? (#9)

1.  My surface includes several interesting landmarks such as Rachmaninoff, a 170-mile-wide, double-ringed impact basin and the Debussy crater, site of a billion-year-old major collision (one of my most recent!)

2.  My iron-rich core extends three-quarters of the way to the surface and makes up 60% of my mass. 

3.  Although my daytime temperatures exceed 800 degrees Farenheit, radar studies indicate that I have vast deposits of ice within the perpetually dark, frigid craters at my poles.

4.  On March 17, NASA's Messenger spacecraft completed a seven-year journey and settled into orbit around me.  Over the next year Messenger will capture 75,000 images of me, helping scientists understand my many intriguing quirks.

Have you figured out what I am from my clues?  *  Scroll down for the answer.




























I'm the planet Mercury!

* Facts provided by the June 2011 issue of Discover Magazine.

Cows, cows, and more cows

We've been experiencing July/August temperatures in our neck of the woods lately.  It's been so hot in the late afternoon that my husband decided we needed to try fishing in the morning instead.  It turned out to be a good idea.  So good, in fact, that I was too busy catching fish to bother with taking photos from the boat!  My real plan, though, was to take some pictures of the cattle after we stopped fishing.  My husband always checks them and takes a head count each morning.  I knew it would be a good photo opportunity.
Remember, you can always click to enlarge the photo.



There's something about grazing cattle that seems so peaceful!  If you're quiet enough you can hear them!   I attempted a Haiku about it one time:

   Cows attack the grass
Tearing apart the silence
Heads never look up

This one decided to look up.  Excuse me, am I disturbing you?

Looks like the cow on the right is doing some baby-sitting. 
Would that be calf-sitting?

Uh oh.... they don't like it that Jed and Suzy came to the pasture with us.
The calf on the left looks like it's about to charge at them!

                                             This group is keeping in the trees. 
                                Looks like they're keeping an eye on the dogs, too.

Look at the cow in the background! 
She's grooming someone - or maybe it's a dominance thing. 

Peeking over the hill to see if I've got anything for her.

More cows peeking....including Kelly (on the right in case you don't recognize her).
What's going on over that hill?

It's a shady watering hole - and there's Bully!!
It always scares me just a tiny bit when Bully makes eye contact with me.  After all, were're talking a good 1800 pounds of beef here!

Kelly and another cow have joined Bully for a quick dip.

My, that was refreshing!
(Kelly just can't seem to take her eyes off of me!)

When we first got our cows I took pictures of them all the time.  My original Yahoo360 blog was filled with cow pictures.  This blog, as you can tell from the small number of cow entries in the tag cloud, not so many.  Times change.

The Darling Dahlias and the Cucumber Tree by Susan Wittig Albert



Susan Wittig Albert has done it again!  I shouldn't be surprised since she's been putting out consistently good stuff for almost twenty years.  I've read all nineteen of her "China Bayles Herbal Mysteries" (plus a collection of related short stories) and the twelve books in the series she wrote with her husband under the pen name of Robin Paige.  She also has a "Beatrix Potter" series which I haven't started, though I have a few of them on my shelf.

The Darling Dahlias and the Cucumber Tree is the first in a new mystery series by Albert.  Set during the Great Depression in the small, fictional town of Darling, Alabama, we are introduced to the ladies of the "Darling Dahlias" - the local garden club.  We first join them in May 1930.  The ladies have unexpectedly inherited a new clubhouse and garden from a member who recently died.  That's not the only excitement in town, though.  There's an escape from the nearby prison farm, rumors are flying about troubles at the Darling Savings & Trust Bank, and the cosmetics girl (aka blond bombshell) from the local drug store disappears.  Oh, and there's also the ghost that's been seen digging in the garden behind the clubhouse at night!

Albert does her usual fine job of setting time and place.  The characters are likable and believable and I enjoyed that it wasn't just one storyline, but several woven together.  As with her Herbal Mysteries, Albert included a few recipes at the end of the book - these in keeping with the time period.  In addition, she included a list titled "Makin' Do:  12 Ways to Stretch Whatever We Have". 

I've had this book on my shelf since last summer.  The advantage?  I don't have to wait long to read the next one!  It comes out in July and I already have it pre-ordered! 

This was my eighth book for the Cozy Mystery Challenge. 

Shadow Shot Sunday #33

Shadows at the watering hole

Shadow Shot Sunday
Hosted by Hey Harriet

Ponderings #7

Am I the only person on Earth who...


Never read the Harry Potter books?

Never read any Jane Austen?

Never watched a James Bond film all the way through?

Refuses to set up a Facebook page?


Please, tell me I'm not alone!

Pond Ramblings

For this group of photos you're going to wish I had a decent zoom lens on my camera.  Be prepared to click and enlarge these and maybe find a magnifying glass for additional help!


See MamaDog sitting on the bank?  What does she see?

In the middle of the photo, right in front of the grass in the water, there is a small beaver.  He turned and went the other way once he realized MamaDog was on the bank watching him.  He's making quite a wake behind him!

Here is where the beaver lives.  We can pull the boat in and fish all around the lodge.  We're not sure exactly how many live there.

Can you see the tiny little birds sitting on the top branch of the dead tree?
Good fishing spot!

This one is much harder to see.  Try looking at the dead limb right in the middle of the photo that looks almost as if it's lying on the edge of the grass.  You might be able to make out the grayish bird sitting on it, almost in the water lilies.

I bet you can see this one just fine!  Suzy and MamaDog have been terrible this year about trying to swim out to us while we are fishing.  They have ruined more good spots for us in the process!!  Suzy got all tangled in the grass one evening so I felt sorry for her and dragged her into the boat with us.  Nasty!  On this occasion we just waved her on.  She easily made it to the bank where she proceeded to shake and roll (but not rattle).

I'm sorry my photography is so poor.
It doesn't do justice to the beauty at our pond.