Let me ask all of you a question. How many of you have had the experience of washing your car while a bear looks on?

On Sunday morning Rick decided to give Mia a much needed bath so he pulled her around in front of the house where we are able to access the hose from the back yard. The turkey had been around, so I had scattered a few handfuls of seed and cracked corn.

We were almost done when I heard a sharp, loud snap of wood. I looked up to see a bear approaching through the trees. I whispered quietly to Rick “there’s a bear coming!” When it broke through the trees I could see that it was the same yearling cub from Friday. It seemed to walk on tippy-toes over to where I had scattered the handfuls of food, watching us out of the corner of its eye. So, there we were. Rick and I froze for a few seconds wondering what to do next since the bear was only a mere 15 feet away from us with the car in-between us. We could not believe it.  It didn’t seem to care about us being there at all! I was too stunned to even try to go back in the house to get the camera, but oh what a photo it would have made.

When I opened the car door to do the inside of the window the bear spooked and ran off into the trees but within two seconds was right back again. Rick didn’t want to go around the side of the car that the bear was on which was of course the side we still needed to finish up. I stepped up to the front side of the car (but not in front of it) to get the hood, keeping an eye on the small bruin the whole time.

I wasn’t afraid; it’s weird. Here I was ten feet from a bear and I was not in a panic. I don’t know how to describe it but a mutual unspoken trust seemed to hang between us. I won’t bother you if you don’t bother me. I moved slowly. A few times when Rick moved the bear took a few steps back eyeing him warily, but that was about it.

This went on for a good ten minutes and it was really getting ridiculous. I mean, here we were calming buffing the car next to a bear! Who would believe us? Never in a million years did I ever think a bear would knowingly get that close to us. Just as Rick was going to get in the car and back it up so we could finish the other side, Bella saw the bear from the computer room window and started barking. That did the trick. The bear took off and didn’t come back.

I think it’s a female. So she’s going to have a french name for bold and daring: Hardi (pronounced ar-di).

I took these photos of Mia today in approximately the same position that she was in while we washed her. Just use your imagination.

Here I stood right next to the car in the same position that I was in while the bear was there.

And here I am including a photo taken of the bear on Friday. You can see the same tree stump by the bear.

It’s not something either Rick or I are going to forget very soon! I guess I am going to have to quit feeding my turkey.

Whew. Summer is packing a punch this year. Even though I’ve been enjoying this weather from a pool perspective, it’s getting a bit old. Lots of sun and no rain. It’s starting to feel like Colorado around here, and that is not necessarily a good thing since no one here can water their lawns because most of us are on wells in the country. Even people in larger towns do not have the in-ground sprinkler systems that are absolutely necessary there. Our lawn is crisping up and there isn’t much we can do about it. We water our new landscaping in the front only as needed. Where is the rain? I am tired of seeing the relentless sun every day!

The season is starting its decline though. The sun’s angle is lower week by week. Areas of the pool that used to stay in the sun until late afternoon are now shaded. Soon that will lead to a cooler pool temperature than the steady 82 degrees that it’s been maintaining for a over a month now.

At least one person is benefitting from all these brown, crispy lawns. A man who owns a company spraying lawns green with dye is making lots of money. Can you imagine? What does that say about us culturally? We’re so into our green perfect lawns that we would dye them green and potentially harm the environment? He states that his dye is safe for children and pets but I have to wonder. Unless he’s using food coloring! Will the grass need its roots touched up as well?

The other morning I was in the computer room when I heard Bella bark. I thought she wanted to go out, but when I got to the sun room she was looking up at the screen door. Clinging to the inside of the screen was a large green bug. mom, there’s an intruder in the house and i don’t know what it is! Me either, Bella. Never seen one like this before. When I tried to capture it to take it outside it emitted a noise not unlike a cicada, only it wasn’t a cicada. This got everyone’s attention, cats and dog alike. what is that thing?  I took this video so I could try and identify it later on.

Katydid from Rick & Lynne Robinson on Vimeo.

Bella was very intrigued by it. I think it was injured to begin with because it could not fly away.

The next morning there was another one clinging to the outside basement wall of the house. I took photos and headed off to Google it. I typed in “green bug that looks like a grasshopper but is not” and came up with a solution. Meet Mr./Mrs. Katydid.

We’ve long thought the the cicadas were getting back up from something else like crickets, and here is the proof. But why haven’t we ever seen one before?

The turkeys come around every day and I usually give in and feed them some sunflower seeds and cracked corn. I have one that comes all by itself early in the morning and it just stands there looking at the house, willing the front door to open and for me to come and throw a few handfuls of food out. The other day around midday the big turkey family came (three hens and assorted aged babies) and I went out to feed them. The dumb clucks left instead of hanging around to eat the food and I figured the squirrels, birds and chipmunks would make short order of it. When I looked out an hour later this is what I saw instead.

oops. I’ve done this countless times before without bear visits. Trust me, this was not intentional! Not the same little cub as in the previous post; this one is probably a yearling.

what do you mean this isn’t my food bowl?

who is that crazy lady hanging out the window up there talking to me?

i think i heard something

Right after I took this photo the cub ran off into the shelter of the woods and halfway up a tree. I don’t know what it heard that spooked it, but it was afraid of something. A few minutes later it decided it was safe and back it came.

I’ve been keeping my eye on these grapes growing by the side of our street. Concord grapes. They are tasty and sweet but have a lot of pits! If we don’t get some rain they will just turn into raisins on the vine! I hope not as I plan to snatch them the minute they get ripe.

We had a full weekend with a picnic to Bear Mountain, dog walks, farmer’s market and pool time. On Saturday night we did something we’ve talked about doing for a long time. We “camped out” in the cabana for a while. After our nighttime swim we brought out the air mattress and pillows and just lay there listening to the cicadas (and katydids!). We both fell asleep and sometime later I felt Rick shaking me awake. Time to go back inside before the dogs miss us.

(taken this way on purpose! I happen to like warped nighttime photos.)

Sorry for the rambling post about a mishmash of things. I just sat down and started typing and this is what came out!

I have more to share this week with photos of our drive to Harriman State Park and Bear Mountain on Saturday and the surprise we got on Sunday morning while washing Mia, so stay tuned!

These photos were taken by my next-door-neighbor, Aileen, on Monday. They were too cute not to share!  She said this tiny cub was hanging out on her deck for about a half an hour. No mother was around, so it looks like it’s an abandoned cub. It seems to be wondering if their wooden bear might be a good surrogate. It looks kind of right, but it sure doesn’t smell right!

The sad thing is it might be one of the three cubs that were left to fend on their own when their mother was euthanized about a month ago. (The rogue bear that knocked down a man and swiped at his dog in Jungle Habitat.) It looks about the right size because they were “about the size of a Pomeranian” when their mother was killed.

I haven’t seen it around my yard ... yet, but I’ll be keeping a close eye out for the dear little thing.

When we lived in Ft. Collins we had a peach tree that bore beautiful fruit each year. We made a lot of “pickled” peaches using Rick’s grandmother’s recipe. When we ate lunch at Penning’s Farm Stand this Saturday and saw all the fresh peaches for sale we decided to put some up. Especially when we saw that they were selling their own Spiced Pickled Peaches for $12.00 a jar!

It’s been at least six years since we’ve done this and I think we’ve pretty much forgotten how. Like how much work it really is. Like what kind of jars we should have purchased (the wide mouth kind). Like how the peaches really should be pretty darn ripe because if they are too big to fit into those narrow-necked jars you have to pit them which is not easy an easy process on an un-ripe peach. More like butchering instead of pitting. Like how you really should watch the sugar syrup closely so that it doesn’t overflow the pan and run all over the cooktop and make a big sticky mess.

First the peaches have to be peeled. Putting them in a boiling hot water bath for a minute or so helps to loosen the skins. Again, must remember to get riper peaches so the skins come off more easily to avoid butchered peaches.

After peeling they sit in cold water with some vinegar and salt added so they won’t turn a funny brown by they time you get them all peeled. Only thing is, here’s a hint. Don’t put the peaches in a double boiler/strainer because as the peaches displace the water it will begin to overflow—all over the cooktop and counter before it finally makes its way down the cabinets and to the floor in a big puddle.

After a quick dip in the syrup mixture they get put in clean, hot jars along with some cloves and a piece of cinnamon stick. Peaches just a tad too big to fit through the mouth of the jar? No problem! Just give them a good push and hope like heck you can get them back out when you are ready to eat them. Pour syrup mixture over peaches to cover within one half inch of the top.

Out of the canning bath and they are looking good!

 

For all our trouble we got four quarts of mostly intact peaches and one quart of butchered sliced peaches.

We can only hope they taste really good because after all the mishaps and an hour or more to clean up the mess, we are beginning to think that $12.00 a quart is not too much to pay after all.

Ever since fellow blogger, Lettuce Eating, visited New York City (she lives in London) and told me how she went on this food tour, I’ve been longing to do it. What better excuse to finally just “do it” than hosting a visitor over the weekend last week? Anne-Lise (the daughter of our dear friends in France) took a few days out from her busy college schedule in Quebec to come and stay with us. Since we had not seen her since she was 8 years old it was nice to “meet” the wonderful grown woman she has become at age 22! Where did the years go?

We drove in to the city and left early in case the traffic was all snarled up, which if course it wasn’t and we arrived at the closest parking garage to our meeting point in the Village in just over one hour. Amazing! It still seems unreal to me that we live that close to NYC and that Rick is brave enough to drive in Manhattan!

We met in front of Murray’s Cheese.

Here is the only photo I took while inside. It was really crowded, so kind of hard to get photos of all the luscious cheeses and other cool things they had to offer. You can buy these “gift” boxes!

Our first tasting stop was Joe’s Pizza. Did you happen to notice that pizza pie at the beginning of the post? Hmm ... how could you not? I hope it made you hungry because it was certainly delicious! I thought we would each get just a bite of pizza, but we had one whole slice to ourselves. Our guide, Barri, gave us the background history on Joe’s and how they make their sauce. No big list of topping ingredients here. Just your basic tomato sauce and cheese on top of a wonderfully thin crust. Photos of a younger Joe posing with famous people covered the walls. As we left the store we actually got to see “Joe” standing outside talking to someone. Hey, a “celebrity” sighting!

Next we sampled rice balls (or arancini) from Faicco’s Italian Specialty Food Shop (Previously Faicco’s Pork Store) which is right next door to Murray’s Cheese. That’s our guide passing them out. We ate on the street because the shop is just too small to fit us all in at the same time.

Even though they took the pork out of the name, the pig remains on the sign. *oink, oink*

Just look at this line up of wonderful food shops: Amy’s Bread, The Lobster Place (we just peeked in here—so much wonderful looking fresh fish!), Murray’s Cheese Shop and Faicco’s all in a row! Bread, fish, cheese and pork. The only thing missing is a butcher shop for beef.

Our guide told us a lot about the the area and different buildings. I even learned something new about how to tell how old a brick house was by they way the bricks are laid. She pointed out places along the way where a film or television series had been shot. We saw the outside of the house where contestants from the Next Network Food Star were housed a few years ago, the church garden where most of the garden scenes from the movie Doubt were filmed, and the outside of the building that was supposed to be where they lived on Friends. I never watched the show so I didn’t have a clue.

It’s quiet and lovely and at times hard to believe you are still in the city. And, from what we understand, extremely pricey to live here now. No more starving poets and artists. You pretty much have to have “made it” to live in the Village today.

After the rice balls we headed to Home (American Gourmet Comfort food). In this tiny little restaurant we got to sit down and eat in their little courtyard garden in back. By this time it had started to drizzle so the chef rolled out the awnings for us.

Our tasting here was none other than comfort food at its best: Mac & Cheese. This was not your average Mac & Cheese though ... yum. Go ahead, take a bite. You know you want to.

We visited the Cornelia Street Café which has club space downstairs in the basement for aspiring poets, musicians, and storytellers. It’s like a cave down there and very reminiscent of the old beatnik days. The stage is tiny. Our guide told us that Sarah Jessica Parker and Matthew Broderick had their first date here. You can tell how narrow it is by looking at us all standing around. When we resurfaced, it was pouring rain! oh dear. Some people came prepared but others did not.

Our guide herded us back over to Faicco’s to the shelter of their large awnings as the rain continued to pour from the sky. While she went in search of some rain ponchos for those that were not prepared for the rain, we all got a chance to go inside the “pork store.” Those are huge “logs” of provolone cheese hanging from the ceiling!

Our next stop was another sit-down tasting which got us out of the rain. By this time I was so full I could barely put another bite of anything into my mouth. They say that the tasting tour is “enough for people to eat so lunch is not usually necessary afterwards.” Hah! That’s a slight understatement. Soy and Sake (Asian inspired Vegetarian Restaurant) was something completely different. We were presented with a beautiful little Bento box full of goodies: BBQ pork (really tofu but tasted a lot like the real thing), fried rice, a dumpling and some delicious fried seaweed.

The other nice thing was the chance to order a glass of wine or sake if we wanted to. (Cost not included in the tour price.) Rick was intrigued by something on the menu called Sake2me described as a “sparkling drink infused with all-natural Asian flavors.” He chose the pear flavor. Stupid me, since I don’t really care for sake I didn’t order one but had white wine instead. His Sake2me was absolutely delicious: light and so refreshing! My wine paled in comparison. I’ve since tried to find it around here but right now it looks like no one is carrying it. I highly recommend trying to find it! Where are Rowan & Martin when you need them?

Back out on the sidewalk again it had (thankfully) mostly stopped raining. Well, at least it wasn’t pouring. The dessert course was up next at Milk & Cookies where we ate huge still-warm-from-the-oven oatmeal chocolate chip cookies. I ate half of mine and saved the rest for later.

But wait! We aren’t done yet! We still have the cheese and olive platter over at Murray’s Cheese Shop and last but not least, cannolis at Rocco’s Pastry Shop which have been voted the best cannolis in NY! Rocco’s is only a few doors down from Murray’s, Amy’s etc., and across the street. Good thing I don’t live in this neighborhood.

Whew! Are you full yet? Did you have enough to eat our would you like some lunch now?

Which one was my favorite you might ask? Well…a close tie between the pizza and mac & cheese. Least fav were the rice balls I think. They were good, but heavy.

Now that we’ve been on this tour there are so many restaurants we passed by and heard about that I want to go back to. Like Fish where for $8.00 you can get a half dozen oysters on the half shell with a glass of beer or wine. Uhm ... do I need to point this out — bargain!! And, I am certain that is exactly what they hope the people on the tour will do: come back and patronize their establishments. Works for me!

I’ll leave you with a somewhat hazy view of Manhattan taken from the Jersey side of the Hudson from Weehawken just as we got out of the Lincoln Tunnel. (Jersey really does have the best view of Manhattan—forget the Empire State Building!)

There are a few other food tours that we’d now like to take after having been on this one. The one to Chelsea Market and the one in Chinatown sound the best. It was so interesting to taste the food and get a lesson on history and architecture all at the same time. I highly recommend the experience next time you happen to visit the Big Apple!

Here is the link to the tour we went on. Other tours are listed on the page as well.

P.S. Be sure to click on all the provided links to visit each restaurant’s/shop’s web site. If there is no link there isn’t a web site!
P.P.S. If you have no clue what I am talking about in my reference to Rowan & Martin you are probably too young to be reading this blog.