Bryce loves his new Sombrero

I don't think that's quite full-sized . . . !
  

Sauerkraut Festival!

Our friends Shawn and Liz joined us at the Sauerkraut Festival in Phelps. They had sauerkraut-colored rides, salt-flavored popcorn, cabbage-shaped pumpkins, and many other authentic sauerkraut-related items. Also, chocolate cake made with real Silver Floss (canned) kraut . . . which was quite tasty, and very moist, with a texture suggesting coconut rather than cabbage!
  

The View from my Office

This is a shot straight out the window in front of me -- note the Acer Griseum (the Paperbark Maple, a China native), bird feeder, transformer, and a generator w/ tandem bike locked to it.
 

I like it quite a lot! 

Global Warming Has Its Up-Side

. . . or maybe there's another reason for this Rochester landscape!   

Hay, Rube!

This is an amazing working Rube Goldberg machine down at Excellus HQ (our BlueCross company -- motto: "We have so much of your money we can afford to buy naming rights for the old War Memorial")  

I would have watched it for another hour or two, but they were closing . . . . 

More Mushrooms

This is a display just inside the Pittsford Wegmans -- it's five varieties of live mushrooms, shitake, oyster, and a few others whose names I forgot. There's a little waterfall keeping the moss moist, which keeps the mushrooms happy. Great stuff! 

Edible Volleyballs

Found these while playing disc golf -- the two larger ones were a bit overripe, but the small one was just perfect!

Fried up in 1/2" cubes and scrambled into a couple of eggs was the best -- it's not called The Breakfast Mushroom for nothin'! 

Rosemary Rye bread

One of the really tasty loaves we've enjoyed lately -- a sponge that ripened for nearly two days, kneaded up into a nice dense loaf, mixed with a bit of powdered rosemary, some basil, a bit of garlic, finished off with some rosemary leaves. Yum!  

Dinky car in Springfield!

On our way to dinner before the Smothers Brothers show, we were passed by this cute "just enough"-sized car of uncertain make. Hopefully my Alert Readers will remind me what they suspected it was . . . !
  

Native Plants on Mills Lawn

As part of the natural science curriculum, folks at Mills Lawn school have been planting native species, including this lovely patch getting a fall makeover.  

How Earl Grey tea gets its flavor!

OK, technically it's the Bergamot, not the grasshopper . . . but it makes you wonder!
 

As it turns out, this herbal Bergamot, while native to Ohio, only smells like the true flavoring of Earl Grey, the Bergamot Orange of the Mediterranean area. 

Sustainable Groundhog Harvesting

Here's what happens when a hungry family of woodchucks move in next door:
 
From destroying the Jerusalem Artichokes to wiping out the beans, peas, squash, cukes, and collards, these guys have stopped at little. They don't care for tomatoes, at least!
  

A rose at any other temperature would not smell the same

Buffalo got 20+ inches of snow . . . we got a bit of highlighting!  

Dad's makin' Kraut!

We didn't think to take pictures along the way, but here's Dad's expensive new kraut-making kit in action!  
We used two 3-pound heads of organic cabbage from Tom's Market, adding two teaspoons of pickling salt (with nothing but sodium & clorine!) for each pound, a total of 12 teaspoons. According to the label, each teaspoon is roughly 100% of the "Daily Amount" -- that is, as much as a person should eat per day. So a half-pound of kraut per day is about all you should eat, unless you wash it to remove the salt (which unfortunately removes some of the flavor as well).  

You say "Tomato", I say "Shade" . . . .

Dad sure knows how to welcome guests! 
We barely got a dozen small tomatoes from our two-dozen plants, though there are plenty of green ones waiting for a bit more sun . . . !   

Willie, meet William!

I took our dog down to the Farmer's Market in Yellow Springs to spend a bit of our last day enjoying the scene with my dad. At one point, two guys stopped by the EC table and the younger one asked if our dog was a Keeshond (using the correct Dutch pronounciation, something like "kays hond", rather than the usual American "key shaund"!), and if he could pet him. I replied that he would be happy to be petted, was indeed a Keeshond, and that he was named Willie, and was 13 years old.
 
The older of the two did a bit of a double-take, and said, "Did you just say his name is Willie?"

I thought, "Well, no, I just said that he was 13!", but granted that I had said so -- and said yes, his name is Willie.

He replied, with a twinkle, "Well, then, Willie, this is William, and he too is 13 years old!"

 

A cute pair indeed!