The clouds are gathering and their dark bases, heavy with moisture, give us hope that there may be rain -- much needed rain. In order to encourage it, I have a clothesline full of laundry, the dog beds are spread outside to air, the car
windows are down, and we're planning on eating out on the deck tonight. We're having chicken salad, peach pickle, and potato chips -- a standard Southern summertime meal from my childhood. In the past, this particular menu, when served outside has often brought rain.
The only other rainmaker I've known as effective was my older son. When he was young he had a talent for summoning showers anytime I asked him to go to the garden and pick beans. More often than seems credible, by the time he had his shoes on and started out the door, it would begin to rain. And if you fool with bean plants when they're wet, you run the risk of spreading bean disease. So Ethan would escape the dreaded chore -- at least till things dried off.
News of the peeps: Here's a closeup of what I hope will prove to be an Americana chick. And here's the wren family -- there seem to be three but I can't be sure.
I see a wren coming and going constantly with insects and caterpillars to fill these gaping maws. I sincerely hope both parents are on the job --
feeding a baby bird is no joke. One summer we watched a family of towhees where the father seemed to be doing all the feeding while the mother just looked in from time to time, evidently feeling that her responsibilities were over now that the eggs had hatched.
By summer's end, the poor male towhee was a pale, frazzled shadow of his former self, still followed about by his two children, both now bigger than he and fully capable of feeding themselves but still fluffing up and
gaping their mouths at him while Mama, fat and sleek and rested, hung out in the rosebushes, gossiping with friends.
6 comments:
Vicki, it just started raining here in Cullowhee and my husband ran out to retrieve his socks and slacks from the clothesline. Don't! I yelled, you'll stop the rain. But he brought them in anyway---and the rain stopped.
On a hopeful closing, I hear thunder somewhere, so maybe another "cell," as the weather folks call it, is on its way.
As for food, this morning we had plum-raspberry buckle with our eggs and bacon. For supper, nothing sounds any better to me than potato chips, my favorite guilty pleasure.
And not just any chips, but kettle chips, salt and vinegar ones and a flavor called Buffalo Bleu. They were two for the price of one and my husband was doing the shopping . . . We all adore chips but they are so rarely in the house that my kids used to ask if company was coming when they saw a bag of chips. Chicken salad is the one exception -- my grandmother always served chips with it and how can I ignore tradition!
The thought of plum-raspberry buckle makes my mouth water -- I've made blueberry buckle; will have to try it your way.
Okay, so what is 'peach pickle' and 'buckle'? Those are both something I've never heard before! Your story of the male towhee (poor poppa!) reminded me of the summer of the male redbird (cardinal). I wish he would have had some kids to take care of or something. Instead he took offense against my front window. All summer long this bird would literally beat and attack that window non-stop. From sunup to sundown. I tried to put up bags over the window--he moved to the next one (and I have six large 6 x6 ft windows!). I tried a mirror in the tree (hoping he would attack IT). I tried everything I could think of. It finally just came down to me almost losing my sanity, as I ran screaming through the house, throwing pillows and things at the windows.. I lived in dread the next Spring, but he never came back. Thankfully.
Tammy
Hey Tammy, Your story about the cardinal is just like one David Sedaris tells in his new book (I'm listening to it in the car.) Only he was in Normandy and the bird was a chaffinch. He solved it by putting record albums with almost lifesized faces on them in each window -- Elvis and Aretha and Frank Sinatra etc acting as bird scarers.
Peach pickle is what we always called it but it's basically pickled peaches. Store bought, very sweet and vinegary at the same time. Used to be the whole slippery peach and you'd chase it around your plate trying to get a fork into it. Those we had tonight(also store bought) were peach halves, not as hard to deal with.
And buckle - my recipe's downstairs and I'm too lazy to go get it. Don't know if this is Kay's sort of buckle but mine is basically a simple batter -- eggs, milk, sugar, flour, shortening poured in a greased pan with fruit sprinkled on top and a flour/sugar/butter crumble on top of that. Bake and serve hot, maybe with a little cream or ice cream. I'll find the recipe and post it tomorrow.
And it didn't rain but there are still clothes on the line and I hear thunder.
We had an odd situation with our one set of bluebirds this year ... 2 males and 1 female!!! I've never seen this before. Both males will feed, with the one sitting on the roof of the house waiting on the other to do his feeding and she will sit on the fence row and wait, but not always feed. I mentioned this to my sister-in-law and she said they have the same thing there. Mmmmm ... go figure.
We got 1/4" of rain last night with what sounded like some really bad storms around us.
The 'buckle' sounds interesting, so please share that recipe. My mother-in-law used to pickle peaches and they were yummy. I had totally forgotten about them.
Too weird about the bluebird's menage a trois. (I blame this modern, permissive society.) Or maybe the extra guy is just a helpful uncle.
I've posted the recipe -- hope you enjoy it!
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