Sunday, July 26, 2015

Still Birds

New to the garden
From Ode to Bird Watching

 ...You can hear them
like a heavenly
rustle or movement.
They converse
with precision.
They repeat
their observations.
They brag
of how much they do.
They comment
on everything that exists.
They learn
certain sciences
like hydrography.
and by a sure science
they know
where there are harvests
of grain.

- Pablo Neruda

Sunday, July 19, 2015

Solar Cooking 2015

I usually end up cooking with my solar cooker in August when it gets too hot for kitchen activity with stove or oven. But, this year, that weather showed up early.  Today, I enjoyed solar halibut and quinoa!  Plus a cold kale salad. 

 The halibut was placed in a foil "bowl" and then I added a home made mustard sauce and topped it with some shredded ginger and dried (no sugar) cranberries. I put 1/3 cup of dried quinoa in a cup of water that was in a baby bread loaf pan.



Started cooking about noon.  By the time I brought it in, I had to use pot holders to pick up the pot - it was just as hot as if in an oven.

I let it cook out there for about 3 hours. Both the fish and the quinoa were done to perfection!

Wednesday, July 15, 2015

Flowering Hens & Chicks

Found this a-flowering today.  Hens and chicks. The stem is about 6-7 inches tall.