Random pix

As you can imagine, it's been a busy week full of many tasks. I've been writing so much that I've hardly had a chance to think of anything useful to post on the blog. So I'll fall back upon what I often do when I can't think of anything better: random pictures. So without further ado...

Strawberry pies, ready to take to our neighborhood potluck.

On November 1, I took these photos of the bald-faced hornets nesting on our front porch. Their activities have been curtailed with the advent of cooler weather. Here they're clustering at the tip of their hive, for unknown reasons. Sending off the new young queens, perhaps?

We've noticed NO activity in the nest in the last week or so. Still, I'm not going to chance removing it until we've had a few days of bitterly cold weather, just to make sure everyone's dead.

Talking a walk one afternoon, I liked the way the sun glinted on some distant young pines.

Tamaracks, also called larch, are coniferous trees that turn yellow and lose their needles every fall. It's about the only autumn color we get around here.

Red tailed hawk. Hard to focus, it was moving fast.



Some examples of Younger Daughter's schoolwork: Bible, history...

...and math.

Foggy deer.

Same photo, with the color automatically adjusted.

Visiting a friend, I noticed some additional visitors on her stoop.

Altogether: "Awwwww...."

Lydia, crammed in her favorite chair. The girls covered her with my shawl.

Altogether: "Awwwww...."

More Lydia pix.

We had our first snowfall a couple weeks ago.

It didn't last long, but it was very pretty.

It's always funny to watch the younger chickens seeing snow for the first time. "What IS this stuff?"

Hawk on a distant treetop.

"Brrrr! This water is c-c-c-cold!!"

One last leaf, desperately clinging.

Watch out, guys, Thanksgiving is coming.

Young birds clustered in Matilda's stall.

I thought the composition of this photo turned out splendidly.

Chilly toes?

The dark lines are vines on our front porch. I was shooting through them, focusing on the quail but trying not to scare them off.

Younger Daughter, looking rather ghostly in the cloak made by her grandmother, goes for a walk in the snow.

Older Daughter throws snowballs for the dogs.

Old Major is doing fine after his near brush with death last February. A little stiff and sore, but then he's also getting up there in years.

We got another, harder snowfall last week (it's all melted off now). Older Daughter and I went for a walk. Got some beautiful photos.

I thought this looked like a Christmas card.

Chickens in the compost pile.

Smoky, our setting hen from last summer, has become so tame she's presumptuous.

She knows she's become a special pet.

Sunset after a rainy day.

Strawberry pie

A couple days ago, Older Daughter suddenly had a hankering for strawberry pie. Don't ask me why. I've never even made one, so where she got this hankering, I can't say.

But no matter. She looked up a recipe online -- here -- and we proceeded to give it a go.

We used one of the pre-made pie crusts I froze a few days ago, when I made quiche.

I baked it until it was browned. For the first half of the baking time, I snugged a slightly smaller pie pan inside the crust, so it wouldn't poof up. (My pie crusts will often do this, even though I poke them with a fork.)

Older Daughter sliced some strawberries.

Meanwhile I whipped some cream.

Lydia, we found out, loves strawberries and promptly begged for more after one fell on the floor.

Next we took some strawberries and ground them up in the blender, to make the start of the glaze. This turned out to be WAY too many strawberries. Next time we'll use about a third of this amount.

Heating up the crushed strawberries.

Adding sugar.

I mixed some cornstarch into water...

...which I then added to the boiling strawberry/sugar mix.

While the glaze was cooking, Older Daughter poured the sliced strawberries into the baked shell.

Once the glaze was boiling...

...I poured it over the sliced strawberries.

It made a pretty pie.

After the pie had cooled a bit, I covered it and put it in our "outdoor refrigerator" (on top our chest freezer on the porch) until morning.

As mentioned, I had a lot of leftover glaze. Make a note: do less next time.

The kids dipped into the pie the next day.

Let's just say it didn't last long.

I think I have a new recipe for our dessert repertoire for the weekly neighborhood potlucks.