Keep your eyes open!

I like to ride my bike to Elmcrest park. It is a soccer field/park not too far from my house. There are lots of interesting things to see, if you are paying attention. These flowers are Marsh Marigolds (Caltha palustris) also called cowslip. They are a wildflower that blooms for a short time in the spring. According to my "Edible Wild Plants" book, you may cook and eat the leaves ,or pickle the flower buds for a caper substitute. (I don't know why you'd want to do that, capers are not nice food.) Under no circumstances eat this plant raw, as it is poisonous when raw. I won't give you a recipe for a poisonous plant.

These are female Cowbirds (Molothrus ater). They are "co-wives" of one male brown-headed cowbird. (He looks like a blackbird with a brown head.) They are indeed in the same family as blackbirds (Icteridae). Female Cowbirds lay their eggs in other bird's nests. The other birds then raise the baby Cowbird, who usually dumps his foster siblings out of the nest (more food for him!). I am trying not to draw mental comparisons with certain renegade Mormons who have more wives and children than they can feed, so they go on welfare. I don't actually care how many wives, husbands or kids someone has, as long as they mean to provide for them. Paul says that if you get caught in polygamy, you should get an automatic insanity plea. I think I should be insulted.

This is a Cooper's Hawk (Accipiter cooperii) or maybe a Sharp-shinned Hawk (Accipiter striatus). They are so similar that it's hard to tell, especially when they keep flying away! We have Cooper's Hawks that live in the Scout Camp and swing through our yard all summer. It gets very quiet then, because all the songbirds know these are bird eaters! Also squirrel eaters, which I encourage.











This little girl is a Tree Swallow (Iridoprocne bicolor). Just about all the nest boxes are full already. They eat bugs, especially bugs that live by wetlands.

There are tons of things to notice at the park, you just have to LOOK!












This is Chloe. She lives at a house that was having a garage sale. Strangely enough, I went to this garage sale. While I was there, a man arrived to browse, bringing his German Shepherd. This was unwise, as Chloe went apeshit. She chased the dog down the driveway, yowling and spitting. The dog RAN! Dog in car, cat in house, shopping continues. 2 minutes later, the cat is back outside (she has her own exit), and she starts the unholy yowling again. The next thing we know, she jumps on the dog owner, hanging with her claws from his beer belly! (Still yowling!) Then the man yowls! I am not making this up! They locked the cat back up and I paid and ran away. I went back yesterday to get a picture of Chloe for you (you're welcome) and her owner said the guy deserved it! (By the way, Chloe likes me, and let me pet her.)
How is the "ugliest garage sale item" contest going for you? I saw this the other day. It is a broom with a stuffed-animal mouse on the bottom. I don't know why the mouse is wearing a dress and glasses. Did this look nice in someone's kitchen? Whose? Beatrix Potter's? Crazy.

So, one of my favorite movies is "Ferris Bueller's Day Off". At the end, Ferris says something like, "Life moves pretty fast, if you don't stop and look around sometimes, you might miss something". Exactly. Keep your eyes open, you don't want to miss any of the cool stuff.

What recipe do we need to keep our eyes open? Carrots, I think. Do we still tell kids that carrots are good for our eyes? I can't remember. This recipe got mixed reviews at my house, I loved it (and anything else containing sour cream) but the boys only like their carrots raw, so they are biased.

Carrots with Sour Cream-Cilantro Sauce

1 pound carrots, peeled if necessary and cut into bite-sized pieces (pennies or julienne)
1 Tbls chicken stock or water
3 teaspoons chopped cilantro leaves
1 tsp honey
salt and pepper to taste
1/4 cup sour cream

Microwave the carrots with the stock or water until they are as done as you like them. Mix the rest of the ingredients and stir into carrots. The carrots will heat up the sauce enough, and the sauce will cool down the carrots to eating temperature. Serves 4