Blueberry Picking in New Milford; Snakeskin.

July 15, 2012.

Someone in the family was making something with blueberries, and said the blueberries were rather tart. I am no expert in these things, but I wish to give my opinion. I apologize if I am wrong.

I feel that the blueberries were tart because they weren't fully ripe. They look so gorgeous, and it appears that they are ripe, but as they get riper, they lose some of their solidity and are likely to get squashed in the pail or basket. The more ripe they are, the less sugar you will need. But completely ripe or not, blueberries are so delicious and so full of beneficial nutrients, that we are fortunate to have them to eat. They are one of the best foods ever.

"Pickin' blueberries, pickin' blueberries, ... "   is a song, I've heard Bill and the kids singing it. The song is full of fun. He wrote it for his children in nineteen-ninety five.   

Picking blueberries is really a lot of fun if there aren't any bears about, or rattlesnakes to watch out for. When my siblings and I were growing up, our parents took us with them to pick blueberries. We were living in Springville, and we went to New Milford about 45 minutes away, up in the open hilly area where there were many wild huckleberry bushes. They were called huckleberries, because they were wild and not cultivated, and also somewhat smaller than the current cultivated blueberries.  

Rattlesnakes, and some bears, live there in the hills. We went up into the 'wilds' on crooked little paths, up and down little inclines and declines, toward the plentiful blueberry bushes. We were told not to wander away from our parents. We began to pick berries, and we found they are quite easy to pick. You just pick the larger dark blue berries and not the lighter colored, or even green ones that hadn't begun to ripen yet. They grow in small clumps on the twigs with leaves. 

We were having our fill of blueberries as we picked. My Dad and my Mom had bigger pails than we did, and when our little pails would become halfway full, we would dump them into our parents' large pails. (Our pails must have taken a long time to get half full, with our eating those yummy berries!) 

When it was time to go back home, as the cows' udders were getting filled, we began 'trekking' those curvy, rocky, little paths way down to the car. All of a sudden, my Dad tripped over an especially unsmooth path, and some of his berries happened to get onto the ground - imagine! He felt so bad when he spilled them. We all tried as best as we could, to pick most of them up, and then went on home. 

During the next few days, we had blueberry pie, and my Mom made a small batch of blueberry jam. We even had blueberries with milk, in a bowl. We squashed the berries with the tines of a fork, poured some milk over them, and the most beautiful color appeared! We always liked that magic! 

Those were the days, weren't they, of having delicious food made with several kinds of berries that we picked. We found blackberries in our woods, and we would gather so many for our Mom to make some canned blackberries, or jam, or even jelly, for the winter. 

There were also some red raspberries which were so tasty, and black raspberries which were known as 'black caps'. I loved those the best! We would squash the black caps in a little bowl, add milk, and there was a good color! I thought it was even more fascinating than that of blackberries! The flavor of squashed black caps with milk is very delicious! Or any kind of berry, for that matter!

We found some gooseberries on the hillside pasture on our little Springville farm, and picked them. There weren't many wild bushes of those, so we didn't make jam or jelly with them. One day I was picking some of those gooseberries and suddenly I noticed a snake skin lying in the bush, which startled me so much! I thought at first that it was a snake. No, it was just the skin of the snake, that comes off when it has outgrown its skin. Did you know that this happens? It was quite a surprise to me. 

I'll see you at the Corner Post...

Dinosaur Bones; Orphaned Elephants and Orangutans.

July 11, 2012.


This afternoon a little past two o'clock, my son phoned me saying that he and his family  were suddenly thinking of going to the Pink Palace Museum to see some dinosaur bones in an exhibit, and when they thought it all out, they would let me know for sure.  A few minutes later, a phone call came through to me -- they said that they would pick me up just before three o'clock. 

I was doing something, and excitedly dropped it, and got ready to go. I knew it would be good to go to the Pink Palace, as I'm always ready to go to a museum!

We saw huge skeletons of dinosaurs. The meat-eaters had very large heads. The plant-eaters had much smaller heads. There was also a very small dinosaur that had big feet (paws?) that somehow made me think that the animal could have been very docile. 


At one point, we saw the largest bone in the world, which is a spinal vertebra. It was very interesting to see all of those bones put together as skeletons. Some bones were made of some kind of plaster poured into fossil forms, to help to fill in the spaces. Some of these dinosaur fossils were found in Patagonia, in southern South America. 


Twenty-some years ago my sister and I went on an auto trip out west and saw some fossil digs. The digs were covered with shelter of a wall and roof to keep the elements from disturbing the archaeological research. That trip was quite interesting and informing. 


It was difficult to pull ourselves away from the dinosaur exhibit at the Pink Palace, but it was decided by the parents that we would see the IMAX show in the same building. I do like to see IMAX shows, very much. 


The IMAX movie would be shown just after four o'clock and lasts forty-five minutes; it is about orphaned elephants and orphaned orangutans. The name of the show is Born to Be Wild. The movie alternates between the baby elephants and the baby orangutans to show 
the comparison between the same age groups of these animals. 


It takes a long time for these orphans to 'grow up' enough to be out in the wild on their own.

It turned out to be very moving to us, and I choked up with tears and cried a little, about eight  to ten times throughout the show. Those little baby elephants were so helpless and so innocent, as were the orangutan orphans. 


The people taking care of them were very loving,  caring, devoted. There were men who were with the baby elephants 24 hours a day, sleeping in the same little room that each elephant was. 


There was one scene in which the very young elephant was unable to relax and go to sleep, because he or she remembered how his mother had been killed by thoughtless poachers. 
The male caretaker would pat and caress the elephant, and talk quietly to it to help it to relax, and the man put a large blanket over it as it finally lay down. Then the man went to bed in his own little cot in the corner. This was one of those moving events that made me cry. 


The loving tenderness and thoughtfulness of the caretakers different little episodes sometimes made the tears come. This movie Born to Be Wild, is well worth the time and money to see it. Please do. 


There were about fifteen or twenty elephants in one group. Baby elephants love to play, and the caretakers did that too. They would invent games that they and the orphans would play, like running after the several soccer balls, for instance. 

The orangutan orphans were treated and cared for, like human babies are. The mothers in the wild always take very good care of them, holding them to their warm and motherly bodies all of the time when they're babies, and play with them so much of the time. 

After the 45 minute show, we went outdoors, and it was raining quite hard! I had brought my umbrella -- it was in my handbag. My son had left his in his vehicle, so he used mine to go to the car and retrieve his umbrella. We had some fun in getting out through the rain and into the car. Two of the girls decided to dare it, and ran in the rain to the car. A lovely summer day it was!


And it was also such a surprising end to my day! I am so happy to be invited to go with my family. 




I'll see you at the Corner Post...

'A Strange Dog in our midst'; Five Dogs in the Kitchen.

July 3, 2012.

 

I was planning to take it easy today, as I was a bit tired after a very busy weekend. But I needed to do a load of my laundry, so I did that, washed my dishes, and spent some time with my computer.

About 4:30, Jennifer phoned me and said they were all planning to go out for dinner this evening, wanted to know if I would like to join them. Of course, I said YES. I do enjoy dining out, but more than that, I enjoy spending time with the family.

She came to pick me up around 5 o'clock, and took me to their house.

Bill and Melanie had been at Tim and his friend's place, to help move their furniture out of one little apartment into another small apartment, and they would bring some of the things to Bill and Jen's to store in the attic for a while. We waited for them to come home and shower because of the awful heat of today and moving furniture and loading it into the trailer that Bill had rented. 

While we waited for the showering to be done, we were experiencing a fifth doggie in the kitchen, because the friend's puppydog, Lily Rose, came for a visit. It was quite interesting, to see eleven-year-old Princess, and nine-year old Lily, and good ol' Lucky, Jennifer's dog, and Em's young dog MoJo, welcoming and investigating the personality of Lily Rose. 

Lucky, the manager of Bill and Jen's home, barked relentlessly because Lily Rose was 'a strange dog in our midst', and yet he was very much interested  in Lily Rose. Lucky didn't put up such a fuss when Em's dog MoJo came to join the canines for the wedding weekend. I think that was because MoJo is 'a man', whereas Lily Rose is 'a nice young lady'. There are many things to consider when one is introducing a strange dog to the earlier canine residents of a home. 

We were engaged in the actions of these five dogs  for quite some time. Then Bill  and Jen decided to have Lily Rose outside in the back yard, and the other four dogs to be in the kitchen while we were gone to have dinner. 

Showers over, we finally got into two vehicles, three of us in one, and four of us in the other vehicle. We went to a restaurant close by, and got out of the cars to enter the place, when it was discovered that they were just then closing up for the evening. DRAT! 

We got back into the autos, and drove another mile or so to another restaurant, a Mexican one. We spent a lot of time looking the menu over, and chatting, and having a great time, and then finally we all were ready to give our orders when the waitress came back. Bill was having such a grand time speaking Spanish to the waitress. She could hardly keep her laughter hidden when he would say something in Spanish, I noticed. He did know many Spanish words, though. His accent may have been a bit off...

We had to wait for quite a while, but we were drinking our beverages, and reminiscing, chatting, teasing a bit, and just truly enjoying each other's company. There were seven of us, Tim and his friend, and Melanie, Emily, Jen, Bill, and I. We enjoyed the camaraderie so much. As I said, I love being with the family.

Our food finally came, and it was very good food, different, and so tasty. We were in no hurry to eat and run, so we leisurely dined and conversed. It was very nice, and I am so glad I said 'YES' to Jennifer!

It was almost 9:30 when we arrived back at the house. Then Jennifer said she would bring me right home while the men were unloading the trailer into the house. I said goodbye to Emily because she is leaving for Atlanta early in the morning. I'll see Melanie a few more times before she goes back to Pennsylvania. Tim and his friend, I hope to see now and then during the rest of the summer. 

My eyelids seem to be getting a bit heavier, and that is a signal for me to go to bed. So good night, all, and happy dreams to you. 

          I'll see you at the Corner Post...