As Good as Martha?

As I mentioned in the previous Happy Halloween Post, I was unsuccessful in buying a pumpkin last night. This morning I tried again. 5 grocery stores to be exact. No luck.

Just as I was about to head home, I saw big bins of beautiful looking pumpkins at Michael's craft store. I was surprised that they would have vegetables there, but I figured pumpkin carving is more or less a craft, so it didn't seem so strange.

As it turned out, they were artificial pumpkins at 50% off. They looked pretty realistic, but I wasn't sure you could carve them. The only clue was a sticker on the bottom that said "pumpkin is flammable". I went inside to ask if it was possible to carve these pumpkins. The girls at the cash register said they'd never done it, but they'd heard that "Martha Stewart can!". That was good enough for me. There weren't any examples for me to look at so I just went about carving it the same way I would a regular pumpkin.

Yesterday I was thinking about what to carve. I wanted to do something I hadn't done before, but still sort of fit in with a Halloween theme. Since I've gotten kind of interested in birds lately, I decided to carve an owl. I knew I could draw an owl, but it would take a while and I wanted a sort of cartoon owl anyway. So I checked my favorite free clip art website and found a design that I thought would be good for carving.

Then I printed it out, taped it to the pumpkin, used a pushpin to transfer the design to the pumpkin, and connected the dots with a pen. Then it was time to start carving. Cutting the plastic foam material was a bit more difficult than cutting a real pumpkin, and there were a lot of little fuzzy edges on the cuts. I stopped twice to rest for a minute because my wrist was tired. The good thing about the artificial pumpkin was that it wasn't slippery so I didn't have to worry about cutting a critical piece off accidentally.

After I was done carving, I used a small file to get rid of most of the fuzzy edges. Then I put two LED candles (also from the craft store) in the pumpkin so I could take a picture. The results are pretty realistic. I might even consider carving another artificial pumpkin next year.

¿ What... a Donut Cut ?

Sami and I passed by this barbershop a couple weeks ago and I had to do a doubletake. We were already past the shop before I could ask him to stop the car so I could take a picture.

This morning I went to pick up some library books and to try and find a pumpkin. The barber shop was on my way, so I pulled into the parking lot to take a picture. Right at that moment, one of the women who worked there was taking out the trash. She asked if I was lost and needed directions. I explained, no, I just thought the sign was funny and wanted to take a picture. She laughed and said that two other people stopped by to take pictures yesterday. Surprisingly good advertising.

Burgundy Beef and Wild Mushroom Stew

I found this recipe in a library book a couple years ago shortly after we bought our crock pot. It has become one of our favorites. Our friend Heather requested the recipe yesterday. Coincidentally I was also planning to make the stew. In fact, I had already prepared the meat when I made a batch last week. Often I add potatoes to the recipe. This time I've added butternut squash to the stew.

several ounces fresh wild mushrooms such as oyster mushrooms or chanterelles, chopped into bite size pieces (origanal recipe called for 5 oz. dried mushrooms)

1 cup boiling water
1/4 cup all purpose flour
2 teaspoons freshly cracked black pepper
1/2 teaspoon dried basil
1/2 teaspoon dried oregano
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 pounds stewing beef, cut into 1 inch cubes
2 tablespoons olive oil
1 cup beef stock
2 large carrots, or large handful of baby carrots
1 onion, chopped
8 oz button mushrooms, quartered
1/2 cup red wine
2 tablespoons tomato paste
1 tablespoon balsamic vinegar
1 bay leaf

If using dried mushrooms, combine with boiling water and let stand 20 to 30 minutes.

In a heavy plastic bag, combine flour, pepper, basil oregano and salt. In batches, add beef to flour mixture and toss to coat. Transfer to a plate. In a large skillet, heat half the oil over medium-high heat; cook beef in batches adding more oil as needed, until browned all over. With a slotted spoon, transfer beef to slow cooker. Add beef stock to pan; stir to scrape up brown bits and transfer to slow cooker.

Add carrots, onion, mushrooms, wine, tomato paste, vinegar and bay leaf to slow cooker.

Cover and cook on LOW 8-10 hours, or on HIGH 4-6 hours, or until vegetables are tender and stew is bubbling. Remove bay leaf and discard before serving.

Happy Halloween!

Usually I buy my pumpkins about a week ahead of Halloween and clean them out at least a day or two before I want to carve them. I think it's easier if they get a little dried out. But this year, I just didn't get inspired. Today I finally had the design for my Jack'o'lantern all figured out, but when I stopped by the grocery store on my way home from work, there were no pumpkins left!

I'll try another store in the morning but in case I don't find one, I figured I'd post a picture of a previous year's jack'o'lanterns.

October Rose

This is one tough rose. I was surprised to see it blooming on my walk from work.

Although the days have been nice and sunny this week, the nights have been clear and cold.

Leaves for D's Sister

Northern Red Oak - Quercus rubra

I also took these pictures of trees yesterday at Commonwealth Park, but they didn't really fit in with the birds.

While Aaron didn't specifically request more leaves, he did comment that D's sister would like them. So. Enjoy!

Linden - Tilia sp.

Geese, Gulls and Ducks

Domestic Chinese Swan Goose - Anser cygnoides

Yesterday afternoon I went to meet up with a walking group at Commonwealth Park. Only two other people showed and the walk was rather short. If I'd driven there I would have been disappointed. Fortunately I rode the bike, so I got my exercise anyway.

Domestic Greylag Goose - Anser anser

Commonwealth Park is a neighborhood park and the habitat is not very natural, but it's fairly large so a mixture of wild and semi-domestic birds congregate there.

There were large flocks of Canada Geese there, but also these others that must have been domestic at some point.

Ring-Billed Gull - Larus delawarensis

There were 4 or 5 of these interesting gulls. They were smaller, and less agressive than the kind we usually see at the beach.

Close up of the banded beak.

Unfortunately a lot of people feed the birds even though there are signs in both English and Spanish saying not to.

In any case, this gull let me get quite close to him, even though I didn't have any food.

Young Gull

I couldn't be sure of the species of this bird, but he could be a Ring-Billed Gull like the others. At first I thought he must be something else because of the dark beak and feet. However he looks a lot like this picture.

Male Mallard - Anas platyryhnchos

Apparently most domesticated ducks are descended from Mallards, so they can mate and produce all types of hybrids.

100% genetic Mallards can also have strange colors, like this one I saw yesterday. Check out this site to learn more.

Female Mallard - Anas platyryhnchos

This little bird started following an old man down the path. She must have thought he had something good in his pockets.

Another female Mallard

Domestic duck

Still, more or less a Mallard. This one had joined the flock.

Another picture of the domestic white duck

Male American Wigeon - Anas american

I think this was the first time I had seen this kind of duck. They make a very cute whistling sound instead of quack. You can listen to it here.

Female American Wigeon - Anas american

More Wigeons

Common Merganser - Mergus merganser

These birds seemed the least tame and stayed the farthest from shore. I think this one is a female.

More mergansers

Mischievous Little Squirrel

Western Gray Squirrel - Sciurus griseus

Sami looked out the kitchen window and saw squirrel #1 taking a nap so he called out for the camera.

We went outside to see if he could get a better shot. Meanwhile, this guy (squirrel #2), runs across the powerline and leaps into the tree waking up #1 and stealing his place.

Getting Ready for Winter

Pine Siskins - Carduelis pinus

Looks like these little birds plan on staying here in our yard for the winter.

They've been pulling coconut fibers from our hanging baskets all morning. We see birds do this every spring, but this is the first time I've seen them do it in the fall.

Bug's Eye View

Fairy Ring Mushroom - Marasmius oreades

It was such a beautiful afternoon, I went geocaching before heading home from work. I was mostly unsuccessful, only finding one out of the three I tried. But I walked 5.4 miles and got this cool mushroom picture. In another place, I found a whole colony of mini mushrooms.

Oh, and here's a colorful oak tree picture from Monday and a western scrub-jay from Tuesday.

Maples doing Laundry

Last night the temperature got down below freezing and this morning was very foggy. My walk to work was something like a dream.

This particular street is lined with maple trees every 30 feet or so. On tuesday, when I last walked down the street, most all of the trees still had their orange leaves. Today, the leaves were all laying on the ground in tidy little piles.

The first thought that came into my mind was the the trees had suddenly taken off their clothes and put them in piles to do the laundry.

Of course I know this is actually the work of groundskeepers, but the fog is just so enchanting.

My other photos from today's walk to work are: foggy morning, maple leaves on moss, sunlight breaking though the forest, curious sheep, and abacus birds.

Fancy Spanish Food

This week my assignment for Spanish class was to find a recipe for a latin dish, to translate it and to bring it to class. Here are the results.

A sort of tapas:

Honeyed Figs and Serrano Ham on Nut Toast

And this lemon and almond tart. It was excellent!

Tarta de Santiago

More Mysterious Mushrooms

I found couple more mysterious mushrooms on my walk to work today. These were in the ditch on the side of Springville Rd.

Coprinus comatus - Shaggy Mane

Mushrooms of Northwest North America says:

"Grows on heavily manured soil in meadows, parks and along roadways. It can be recognized by its shaggy cylindrical shape, like an unopened standing umbrella. It is grown commercially in a very limited way because it is hard to keep as the enzyme which causes autodigestion keeps working even in cold storage. Edible and good."

This one is either:

Lycoperdon perlatum - Gem studded puffball

OR

Vascellum pratense - Western lawn puffball

In either case, the mushrooms are edible when they are young.

Mostly Mushrooms

I had a doctor's appointment this morning. It happened to be right across the street from the Tualatin Hills Nature Park. The weather was beautiful and I couldn't resist taking a walk though the park. I found a ton of interesting mushrooms and various little critters. I wish I knew more about mushrooms. I'm sure some of these are tasty and some would probably kill me, but I have no idea which are which.

Licorice Fern in Bigleaf Maple tree

Polypodium glycyrrhiza

Acer macrophyllum

Mycena sp.

The mushroom ID book says that Mycena means mushroom in Greek.

To identify the particular species you'd have to look at this one under a microscope.

Garter Snake - Thamnophis sp.

Geocaching at Night

We planned on going geocaching this afternoon, but discovered the geocaching website no longer provides the ebook format for the palm pilot. It took us 4 hours to install and figure out how to use the Geocaching Swiss Army Knife and CacheMate software.

Unfortunately it was dark by the time we got started, but at least we're paperless again. We found two caches tonight; the second one was by this nice fountain.

More Leaves for Becca

I thought people might be bored with all my nature photos, but apparently not. My sister Becca asked for more leaves. She lives in California now and misses them.

I could tell some kids used to have a treehouse in this old Hickory tree. Carya sp. It's been long abandoned though. Whatever farm was here is now one of the powerline parks.

Ice Plant - Carpobrotus edulis

Aspen Leaf - Populus Tremuloides

Ornamental Plum

Maple Leaf and Swamp Horsetail - Equisetum fluviatile

From Ball Parks to Powerline Parks

My walk from the shopping center to work this morning was grey and very wet. Actually I've been lucky. This was the first day that it had been actively raining on me since I started the walk a couple weeks ago. Anyway, it was raining and although there were lots of birds out eating crabapples, it was too dark and foggy to identify any of them. Fortunately the walk back was beautiful and sunny.


First I walked from the library to the new Rec Center built next door to the campus.

Even though it's very new and some of the ball fields are not even completed yet, there's already a geocache there, so I stopped by to find it.

Near the ball fields there were trees with beautiful red apples, but all the ones close to the ground were already picked.

There were also lots of new trees planted including one of my favorites, the Tulip Poplar - Liriodendron tulipifera. (Not native to Oregon)

After leaving the rec center I started south though a different neighborhood than I usually walk though.

I saw a whole orchard of unpicked apple trees, an old house, with a wrap-around porch (first one I've seen in Oregon), a bunch of ducks flying in formation, and this amazing pink Dahlia. Oh, and I saw some kind of hawk, but couldn't get a decent picture of it.

As I was walking though the neighborhood I happened to see the entrance to this powerline park.

These parks are pretty cool, they're usually full of birds and native plants and some of them are miles long and have nice paths for walking or biking.

Everywhere around me there were birds chirping, but I couldn't even begin to locate them with all the grasses surrounding me. The birds were almost completely camouflaged .

I thought this dry head of Queen Anne's Lace - Daucus carota was really pretty.

Red Winged Blackbird - Agelaius phoeniceus

I knew there were a bunch of these birds around because I could hear them whistling. Their song is one of the few bird calls I recognize. Finally I spotted one, up on the powerlines.

This dried plant had a very interesting form too, but I haven't been able to identify it easily.

After I left the park, I saw some kids having a "plant sale". I went up to see what they had, but the kids only seemed to have pine seedlings, mint and one lonely pea seedling, so I didn't end up buying anything from them.