Season of the pumpkin

Pumpkins are the flavor and the scent of the season. From pumpkin spice latte to pumpkin spice-scented candles, the big orange (or sometimes white) member of the winter squash family dominates the marketplace for the next several weeks. There are pumpkin patches, pumpkin festivals, punkin' chunkin' contests, and contests to see who has grown the biggest pumpkin and for that contest, you may as well not enter unless you have a pumpkin that weighs at least 2,000 pounds.

Yes, some varieties of pumpkin really do get that big. There are also tiny ones, small enough to fit inside a Thanksgiving cornucopia, and just about every size in between. The ones used in pies and other baked goods are usually the small to medium varieties, which seem to be the most tasty. Then, there are the pumpkins that are used for perhaps their most famous purpose, Halloween jack-o'-lanterns.

Pumpkins, like other members of the squash family, are native to the Americas, but they are now grown right around the world for both human and animal consumption.

Not all humans appreciate the taste of pumpkin, of course, but squash of just about any variety is one of my favorite vegetables and I include pumpkin in that. I particularly like it in soup. And in pancakes.

Breakfast at Denny's on Monday morning has become a bit of a tradition for Hubby and me. Now, I concede that not every Denny's is necessarily a great place for breakfast, but ours happens to be and we look forward to those Monday mornings. I especially look forward to the Monday mornings in October and November because that is when they feature their pumpkin pancakes! They are tasty - well worth getting up early for.  

Pumpkins in any form are an extremely nutritious food. They are good sources of protein, magnesium, copper, and zinc. 

They are a warm weather crop that is relatively easy to grow. I grew some in my backyard several years ago, but they do take a bit of room, more than I've been willing to set aside for them in the years since.

So, I'll leave the cultivation to others, but I'm glad to eat my share! Pumpkin soup, pumpkin pies, and those yummy pumpkin spice pancakes.

Symbols of the season - orange goodness.

Monday musings: America the terrified (updated with links)

America seems to be scared out of its wits these days. At least, a significant and vocal section of the population seems to be.

They are scared of undocumented brown-skinned children showing up at our borders and asking for asylum.

They are scared of Muslims. Any Muslims, but particularly those who are part of ISIL/ISIS. Not that they really have any clue who they are and not that they seem to be capable of making the distinction between those who are and those who aren't. Again, brown-skin = scary.

And, of course, their latest terror is Ebola, the deadly virus that has killed thousands in West Africa and which one unfortunate visitor from that area is currently battling in a hospital in Dallas. The affected man is in isolation. Those with whom he is known to have had close contact (which is the only way the disease can be spread) are quarantined, but to hear the fear mongers in the media tell it, the disease is likely to spread throughout the country and kill us all by next Tuesday.

In fact, in a fear trifecta, some of our more benighted elected representatives in Congress have even suggested that the brown children at the border might be ISIL/ISIS secret agents who are carrying the Ebola infection to spread it around the country. I am not making this up. There is no suggestion too outrageous for these people.

And, of course, it is all Obama's fault which is why some Republican members of Congress are allegedly advising the leaders of the military with whom they are in contact to resign their positions rather than obey commands from their commander-in-chief. There are some who might call that sedition, but in these last days of the tenure of our first (scary) black president, that is what passes for normal political discourse.

Meanwhile, the Secret Service, which is supposed to be protecting that (scary) black president has lately seemed to be asleep at the wheel.

My recurring nightmare, and I suspect that of many people, throughout the Obama presidency has been that he will be assassinated, because I know the undercurrent of racial hatred and fear that exists in this country. I know, too, that it is the basis of the implacable, unyielding opposition and utter disrespect that has been shown this brown-skinned president from certain quarters throughout his tenure. They will never accept his legitimacy and they would rather see the country fail than for him to be able to claim any success.

Stir all of this fear, hatred, and sedition into a big pot, add heaping cups full of misogyny, self-righteous anger over the "oppression" of white men, and unquestioning worship of the Great God Greed/Capitalism (which is how they interpret Christianity) and let it simmer and what you get is conservative talk radio, i.e., hate speech radio, and the Fox News Network. It all provides great material for comedians like Stephen Colbert, but it isn't much fun for the rest of the country.

Poetry Sunday: Why I Have A Crush On You, UPS Man

Just between us, did you ever have fantasies about the UPS man? You can confide in me. I won't tell...

Why I Have A Crush On You, UPS Man

by Alice N. Persons

you bring me all the things I order
are never in a bad mood
always have a jaunty wave as you drive away
look good in your brown shorts
we have an ideal uncomplicated relationship
you're like a cute boyfriend with great legs
who always brings the perfect present
(why, it's just what I've always wanted!)
and then is considerate enough to go away
oh, UPS Man, let's hop in your clean brown truck and elope!
ditch your job, I'll ditch mine
let's hit the road for Brownsville
and tempt each other
with all the luscious brown foods -
roast beef, dark chocolate,
brownies, Guinness, homemade pumpernickel, molasses cookies
I'll make you my mama's bourbon pecan pie
we'll give all the packages to kind looking strangers
live in a cozy wood cabin
with a brown dog or two
and a black and brown tabby
I'm serious, UPS Man. Let's do it.
Where do I sign?


                                                       ~

This week in birds - #128

A roundup of the week's news of birds and the environment:

The Ruddy Turnstone, one of our most beautiful shorebirds in my opinion, is a great wanderer, nesting on high Arctic tundra on the northernmost reaches of North America and Eurasia and wintering on the coastlines of six continents. In migration, it can be seen mainly along the coast, though some stop at favorite spots on the inland, such as along the Great Lakes. Lucky us - we get to see them in migration and some linger with us through the winter. I photographed this one in the waters around Rockport in the early spring this year.

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One of the big stories in the world of the environment this week was the gathering of some 35,000 walruses on an island in Alaska. The walruses would normally be hauling out on sea ice, their preferred habitat, but the sea ice is melting and becoming more and more scarce and the walruses are having to find other places to come ashore. Their gathering on land, of course, has implications for the animals that live there and for people who inhabit the places that they choose.

This gathering was so spectacular that it even caught the attention of Gail Collins, who wrote a very perceptive column using it as a theme.

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Another victim of the melting sea ice is the polar bear and, in a ripple effect, the Snow Goose. Losing the sea ice is forcing the big bears to hunt in different areas for different prey and they are learning to snack on the nesting Snow Geese. Scientists are trying to ascertain what long-term effect this might have on the geese.

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Well-trained sheepdogs such as Great Pyrenees protect the predators as well as the sheep. The wolves or coyotes cannot get past the sheepdogs to attack the sheep and so they do not come into conflict with humans - a conflict they are bound to lose. When sheepdogs are on the job, everyone wins.

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The American Birding Association has once again updated its rules regarding when a bird can be legitimately counted or listed. "The Birdist" has a summary of the changes.

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There are a lot of myths about cheetahs, many passed along by television shows about Nature, that make them out to be fragile animals, living on the knife's edge of survival. In fact, most of that is bunkum. They are in fact fairly robust and, left to their own devices, fully capable of surviving and thriving in the wild a new study shows.

*~*~*~*

The Ivanpah solar facility in California continues to evince major concern because of the harm that it does to migrating birds, as well as to flying mammals. Another similar facility that was to be built in the California desert has been scrapped because of those concerns.  

*~*~*~*

Climate scientists, contrary to what you will hear on talk radio and in the halls of Congress, are actually quite conservative in their modeling of the climate. They are universally reluctant to attribute specific weather events to the warming climate, but it seems clear that the blocking pattern that has kept the West Coast in a two-year long drought now is a result of human-caused climate change. Moreover, extreme record-breaking heat experienced by Australia during their last summer, scientists have concluded, would have been virtually impossible without the influence of human-caused warming.

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The western population of the Yellow-billed Cuckoo (the beloved "rain crow" of my youth) will be listed as threatened under the Endangered Species Act. This is the culmination of a 15 year campaign by conservationists. The protection extends only to birds in the West. In the East, they are more numerous and are not yet considered to be imperiled. However, I have not seen or heard a single one in my neighborhood this year.

*~*~*~*

It had been thought that the invasive Asian long-horned beetle had been eradicated in New Jersey and, for the most part, in New York, but it has been recently discovered to be present once again and the battle is on.

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"The Prairie Ecologist" considers how areas recover from wildfires.

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Scientists continue to discover new contaminants that are polluting our waterways and affecting the habitats that exist within them and around them.

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The U.S. Forest Service is preparing to auction off logging rights to a section of the Tongass National Forest's virgin woodlands in Alaska. Conservationists are feeling betrayed because the Obama administration had agreed to phase out logging of those lands and they are going to court to try to stop the plan.

*~*~*~*

A new study in the journal Tropical Conservation Science details how the study of common birds can aid in saving rare species from extinction.

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An interesting piece in National Geographic's "Phenomena" blog shows how dinosaurs evolved into birds and how the dinosaurs set the table for the explosion of avian life on Earth.

Henri, the political philosopher

The political season is heating up. In just one month, we will be having an election that will do much to determine what our future will look like, and yet I find myself overcome with ennui and low expectations in regard to the whole thing. Not unlike a certain famous black and white cat.

Back Spin by Harlan Coben: A review

Back Spin by Harlan Coben
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I've had this book on my Kindle for a couple of years, but after reading Deal Breaker and Drop Shot, the first two books in the series, I was not anxious to pick up a third.

Actually, I rather enjoyed the first one, but I found Drop Shot totally without merit and I suffered from testosterone poisoning for weeks after reading it. So, two more books in the series have languished on my Kindle since.

But I have this rule that I can't remove books from the device and send them to the Cloud until I have read them and I got sick of seeing those titles every time I opened up the Kindle. Time to bite the bullet I thought. I'll read one of them.

I chose Back Spin, thinking it was number three in the series. Turns out it is number four. Oh, well. Imagine my utter surprise when I found out that I liked it!

I found the writing much more crisp, the character development more believable, and the plot complicated but overall easy to follow and suspense was maintained throughout. All in all, it was a good reading experience.

The story is that Jack Coldren, a journeyman pro golfer, had blown his chance to win the U.S. Open twenty-three years ago and hasn't really won much since. But now the tournament is being played on his home course once again and, suddenly and surprisingly, he has what seems like an insurmountable lead. His wife, Linda, is also a pro golfer but, in contrast to Jack's career, she is number one among women golfers. They have a sixteen-year-old son, Chad.

Someone, it seems, wants to sabotage Jack's chances of winning the tournament because Chad is kidnapped in an apparent attempt to throw him off his game.

As it happens, sports agent Myron Bolitar was pursuing the Coldrens in an effort to sign them up for his agency. He and his sidekick Win were attending the tournament, but Win, as usual, was going his own way. In an unexpected twist, Myron learns that Win is actually a cousin to Linda. He is totally estranged from his family and wants nothing to do with them. As Myron becomes involved in trying to find the kidnapped Chad without bringing in the police, Win will not help. He's on his own.

The Coldrens are a family with many dark secrets and, in the course of Myron's investigation, they will begin to be revealed.

Myron also finally learns why Win is estranged from his family. It's a tawdry and commonplace story that does not, in my opinion, explain or excuse the psycho that Win has become, but at least one can begin to have the tiniest bit of compassion for him.

Myron, on the other hand, continues to be an engaging character, one who seems to have grown a bit since the first book. He has a tenderhearted side which tends to balance the more sadistic Win. Actually, we don't see much of Win in this book and maybe that's why I enjoyed it so much.

Myron's other cohort and friend, Esperanza, is a much more interesting character. She's about to finish law school and is asking to be made a partner in the sports agency. Maybe we'll see how that turns out in the next book.

Meantime, Back Spin left me with a good vibe. I won't wait more than a year before I pick up another Harlan Coben novel.


View all my reviews

Backyard Nature Wednesday: Warbler season

For the last couple of weeks, there has been a series of migrating warblers passing through my yard. They don't usually announce themselves. Fall migration is like a silent retreating army, with not a lot of singing like we hear in the spring.

When it comes to the fall warblers, they are mostly an army dressed in olive drab. Gone are the bright colors of spring and summer. These birds are not interested in calling attention to themselves.

For those two reasons - lack of singing and absence of bright colors - the visitors can be easily overlooked as they busily search the leaves for insects, unless one is making a special effort to look for them. But I've been lucky enough to see several of the little birds recently because I have a secret weapon - water.

I have a small fountain in my backyard and it gurgles and splashes with water and that is a magnet to the birds, especially to the warblers. Every one that I have seen recently has been visiting that fountain. And so it was again on Tuesday.

Fall warblers can be hard to identify at times because they are in their drab winter clothes and I really wasn't sure about the one I saw Tuesday. After consulting every guide book I own, I finally decided that it was probably a Nashville Warbler.

It was a tiny bird. I'm not too good at estimating sizes but I saw the bird next to a Ruby-throated Hummingbird, which is about 3 3/4 inches long. This bird was not much bigger - probably about an inch. It had a very short tail and an eye ring but few other distinguishing marks. It was basically olive drab all over with just a hint of yellow on the breast and belly. Fortunately, I did have my camera handy.

Looking the fountain over to decide if it is safe.

Giving me the eye. Can't be too careful!

Trying a sip.

And taking the plunge!

After the bath.

This was a very active little bird. It spent several minutes in and around the fountain and took a dip repeatedly. It had had a long trip, maybe from as far away as Canada and it needed to wash off all the dust from its journey. I was seated twelve to fifteen feet away, but the bird did not seem concerned about my presence so I was able to enjoy a nice, long look.