This year I thought I’d try growing tomatoes from seed. I normally buy them as plants when it’s time to put them in my veggie garden. But I really wanted to grow more this year. So, one day while Cary was off getting some parts he needed for a home repair job, at our local Lowe’s, I wandered around the gardening area and grabbed myself a little greenhouse thing, a packet of big tomato seeds and a packet of cherry tomato seeds. I was in business!

I have the perfect south facing window in our daughter, Jessie’s, old bedroom so decided that was where these guys would be residing for the next couple of months. Within 7 days I had tons of seedlings poking up through the soil and many with their first set of leaves. Over the years I’ve picked up tons of gardening tips from my Mom, Grandma, Mother-in-Law, friends and neighbors. I’m not sure who told me this but after the tomato plants get their second set of leaves you can pinch off the first set or “starter” leaves.

There is a distinct difference in appearance between the “starter” leaves and the “real” ones, as you can see in the picture above. This was taken when the tomato plants were at about 2 weeks. Once the plants pushed through the soil and began growing it was time to take the top off the little “greenhouse”.

Sprouting these tomato plants from seed was so easy, the greenhouse thing with the little dirt pods made it practically foolproof. It’s not too late to start some yourself, nothing beats a delicious home grown tomato picked from your very own garden. I love the cherry ones and usually eat tons before they make their way into the house!

More to come soon……

It’s April 1st, April Fool’s Day, and after an amazingly warm month of March I’m finally getting some time to share some pictures, audio recordings of various wildlife, etc. from beautiful days spent hiking around CNY, mainly Beaver Lake Nature Center.

One of the first days that the temps went into the 50′s Cary and I set out hiking but this time before doing the Lake Loop we explored a bit of the bog area. As we neared the end of that trail we saw a couple up ahead intently looking at something. We approached them very carefully, not wanting to scare away whatever the man was trying to capture with his camera. The woman called us over, she had the air of sharing a secret so of course we had to know what they were looking at.

We came out of the Bog Trail and through the woods entered the Lake Loop. Almost immediately we could hear that the geese had landed on the lake. Click the arrow below to hear the geese (you may need to turn up your volume for this one).

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The lake was completely speckled with geese and in a short time you could tell it was like a rest area for them. Just as many flew in and landed, to take a respite from flying, as did the ones that took flight and headed out to their next destination.

About a mile down the trail we hit a very swampy section where we could still faintly hear the geese but there was a sound that definitely overpowered them, Peepers. After stopping to listen for a while we were talking for a bit about what Peepers actually are. We both thought they were some insect. I thought the noise they were making was possibly the sound of wings rubbing together or something similar that a cricket might make. Not the case. On the ride home a quick Google search on my phone answered our little debate. Spring Peepers are what we were hearing and they are in fact a type of FROG! HA! You learn something new everyday Click the arrow below to listen to them.

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We weren’t quite done enjoying the day. On the way home we stopped at a local Tractor Supply store and thought we were just getting stocked up with biscuits for Kody, our Siberian Husky, but instead we struck it lucky… the baby chicks and ducks had arrived. They have them every year in the center of the store but often times we miss seeing them. Not this year!!

The chicks were a little more feisty than the ducks – ha!

Yesterday, many of us in Central NY were surprised to wake up to a snow storm. We’ve had so few of them this year and this one was pretty intense: whiteouts, high winds, slippery road conditions… Mid-day there was a break in the weather so Cary and I threw on our long-johns and decided to head out to Beaver Lake Nature Center to go for a hike on the Lake Loop Trail. Going up the highway we saw a few cars off the road and an 18-wheeler jack knifed in the median but we were almost to our exit so kept going. It really wasn’t that bad out while we were driving. The weather was a little brisk at first but, as is always the case, once we got walking the trail we were unzipping our coats and getting warmed up. It was a beautiful walk in what looked like a winter wonderland and we met several other diehard hikers on the trail

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I love spending my spare time taking photos. For me, it’s about capturing something very specific that I see with my eyes and hope to convey with the photo. Or, it can be as simple as bearing witness to a moment in time through my lens.

There was a time when I used to head out for a walk with a camera hung around my neck willing the world to show me what grand things there were to see and capture through my photos. Then life got busy, my camera set on the shelf for several years and it seemed the only photos I was taking were at family events. Then I got an iPhone… with an HD camera built in! Now, it isn’t nearly as good as my “real” camera but I’ll forever be grateful for the gift I received from that phone. I began taking photos again. I began seeing photos again. I’ve been enjoying it so much lately that I’m going to start bringing that “real” camera with me on outings again.

Although, these photos aren’t nearly what they could’ve been, my iPhone helped me to fully enjoy a chance snow storm last week while on a hike at Green Lakes State Park. Cary and I stopped at the park after running some errands. It was almost 40 degrees out and the sky had gone from grey to blue so we figured it was perfect for a hike around the two lakes. We barely got 1/2 way around the first lake and snowflakes started coming down that were huge and wet and I had no hat. It was truly beautiful so my soaking head wasn’t much of a concern to me. Although, we did cut the walk short by turning at the first lake instead of going on to the 2nd one. My coat wasn’t very heavy either and it was getting soaked too.

When we were about 1/2 way around the last side of the lake and almost to the parking lot Cary wanted to check out a flight of stairs that he’s asked me several times, “I wonder where those go?” and wet or not.. I was game! I love exploring

We happened upon a beautiful field and a herd of deer taking a moment to eat, oblivious to the snow. We had the pleasure of watching them for a while and capturing a few moments in the pictures below.

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I’ve been doing a lot of experimenting with tofu in the past 6 months since I discovered THE best tofu – soy boy – at one of my favorite places to shop, Syracuse Real Food Co-op. I recently learned that Wegmans also stocks soy boy tofu in their organic section, which is really convenient. You may not think this matters but if you’ve ever purchased the tofu off the shelf in the non-perishable section (cardboard container) and opened it to find a white, mushy block… believe me, buy this tofu and you’ll know what I mean.

So, let’s get to this delicious recipe. This morning I realized I was out of eggs but not tofu so I figured, why not try a tofu scramble instead. This was so easy and SO yummy. I hope you get the chance to try it. Make it for your family and I bet they won’t even know it isn’t egg. Seriously!

This was just for one person, so increase everything if you’re feeding more.

Ingredients:

• 1/4 cup of cooked, diced and somewhat mushed potatoes
• 1/4 cup random cooked veggies – I had some asparagus, red pepper and onion on hand (leftovers)
• 1/4 block of soy boy extra firm tofu – crumbled up with your hands
• 1 Tbs Parmesan cheese
• season with salt, pepper and onion powder

Directions:
Melt a pat of butter on the pan. Throw all of the contents above into the pan and cook it while moving around and flipping occasionally. After about 5 minutes add a little shredded cheddar to the top and fold in half to melt cheese. BAM, done!

Who needs ham or turkey anyway? This is one of my favorite no-meat sandwiches to eat for lunch. It’s really filling and packed with tons of nutrition! Try it, I think you’ll love it

Ingredients:

• 2 slices of toasted Alvarado St. Bakery California Style Complete Protein Bread
• organic guacamole
• sliced cucumber
• green pepper sliced lengthwise
• rolled up peppered tofurkey slices (3 or 4 – however many you want)
• lettuce or fresh spinach leaves (sometimes I use sprouts instead)
• sliced radishes
• sliced tomatoes
• organic vegenaise

Directions:
It’s pretty simple, spread guacamole on the bottom slice then starting with the cucumber pile everything up until you get to the vegenaise and spread that on the top slice.

Now sink your teeth in. It’s delish… right?

SONG AT SUNSET

Splendor of ended day floating and filling me,
Hour prophetic, hour resuming the past,
Inflating my throat, you divine average,
You earth and life till the last ray gleams I sing.

Open mouth of my soul uttering gladness,
Eyes of my soul seeing perfection,
Natural life of me faithfully praising things,
Corroborating forever the triumph of things.

Illustrious every one!
Illustrious what we name space, sphere of unnumber’d spirits,
Illustrious the mystery of motion in all beings, even the tiniest insect,
Illustrious the attribute of speech, the senses, the body,
Illustrious the passing light–illustrious the pale reflection on
the new moon in the western sky,
Illustrious whatever I see or hear or touch, to the last.

Good in all,
In the satisfaction and aplomb of animals,
In the annual return of the seasons,
In the hilarity of youth,
In the strength and flush of manhood,
In the grandeur and exquisiteness of old age,
In the superb vistas of death.

Wonderful to depart!
Wonderful to be here!
The heart, to jet the all-alike and innocent blood!
To breathe the air, how delicious!
To speak–to walk–to seize something by the hand!
To prepare for sleep, for bed, to look on my rose-color’d flesh!
To be conscious of my body, so satisfied, so large!
To be this incredible God I am!
To have gone forth among other Gods, these men and women I love.

Wonderful how I celebrate you and myself
How my thoughts play subtly at the spectacles around!
How the clouds pass silently overhead!
How the earth darts on and on! and how the sun, moon, stars, dart on and on!
How the water sports and sings! (surely it is alive!)
How the trees rise and stand up, with strong trunks, with branches
and leaves!
(Surely there is something more in each of the trees, some living soul.)

O amazement of things–even the least particle!
O spirituality of things!
O strain musical flowing through ages and continents, now reaching
me and America!
I take your strong chords, intersperse them, and cheerfully pass
them forward.

I too carol the sun, usher’d or at noon, or as now, setting,
I too throb to the brain and beauty of the earth and of all the
growths of the earth,
I too have felt the resistless call of myself.

As I steam’d down the Mississippi,
As I wander’d over the prairies,
As I have lived, as I have look’d through my windows my eyes,
As I went forth in the morning, as I beheld the light breaking in the east,
As I bathed on the beach of the Eastern Sea, and again on the beach
of the Western Sea,
As I roam’d the streets of inland Chicago, whatever streets I have roam’d,
Or cities or silent woods, or even amid the sights of war,
Wherever I have been I have charged myself with contentment and triumph.

I sing to the last the equalities modern or old,
I sing the endless finales of things,
I say Nature continues, glory continues,
I praise with electric voice,
For I do not see one imperfection in the universe,
And I do not see one cause or result lamentable at last in the universe.

O setting sun! though the time has come,
I still warble under you, if none else does, unmitigated adoration.

The holiday season is such a great time for family traditions and rituals. Over the past 20 years or so our family has created many different holiday traditions. When the girls were very young we wanted to find a fun way to make a special ritual for celebrating the birth of Jesus. We came up with something very obvious – a birthday celebration including cake and candles on Christmas Eve. When the kids were little they loved making the cake and singing happy birthday to baby Jesus. I remember one year things being particularly hectic with all of the holiday preparations and as the morning of Christmas Eve arrived I hadn’t yet made, or even bought the things to make, baby Jesus’ birthday cake. I was considering skipping it and even thought that it was probably more something I had invented as important but that no one else in the family would really notice if we didn’t do it. Not so.

As Christmas Eve Day progressed and the kids were helping me get ready for family to come the next day one of them asked when we were going to start making the baby Jesus cake. There it was… I didn’t skip a beat and just calmly stated, “We might not have time to make the cake this year, we still have a lot to do for tomorrow”.

In unison I heard the following replies.

“No, Mommy, we have to make the cake. Baby Jesus will be sad if we don’t. We can’t sing Happy Birthday to baby Jesus without a cake. Please Mommy, pleaassseeee!!!”

I’ll admit I was annoyed by this dilemma. I really felt the hustle, bustle pressure that year and thought this was something I could let myself out of doing. I took a moment to close my eyes, take a breath and think about my response to these beautiful little girls that had been working together so well to help me with the preparations. This, in and of itself, was a minor miracle to be taken note of on most days. So, I replied, “Of course, you guys are right we HAVE to make the cake and sing to baby Jesus. Let’s go to the store real quick and grab the stuff to make it.”

“YAYYYY!!!!”

My compromise to myself was that we bought one of those really small, microwave (I think), cakes. They were perfectly fine with this, we all got a piece and our special family tradition of singing and celebrating the birth of Jesus was preserved.

Of course, this was when the girls were very young, our yearly traditions and rituals have gone through several transformations over the years. We’ve all relaxed into a much more low-key celebration and in truth, I’m just overjoyed to see both of them on Christmas morning under the same roof. They are grown adults, Jessie hasn’t lived at home for several years and Laura has been in an apartment of her own off and on during college semesters. I fully appreciate the effort for them to both be in our home on Christmas Eve, spending the night in their old rooms and waking to Christmas Day as a complete family unit, under the same roof, again. This, to me, is the MOST important tradition and one that will forever be a keeper!!

“There is no such thing as a worthless conversation, provided you know what to listen for. And questions are the breath of life for a conversation.” ~James Nathan Miller

Last week while waiting in line at a grocery store I overheard (actually purposefully eavesdropped on) two older gentlemen in front of me having a conversation about how the art of conversation was lost. It was funny watching them. At first they were just standing there facing the register. They were both visibly getting a little antsy at the delay occurring with the lady checking out. Then one of them made a casual remark, the other replied, the one asked the others name and they discovered they both knew each other. From there a conversation was born and they were quickly distracted from the delay at hand. As I listened in I completely agreed with them, the art of conversation has been lost, in my opinion, mainly due to technology. Of course I’ll be the first to admit that I’m guilty of walking around with my nose in my iPhone while grocery shopping.

Last night we decided to do take-out at Johnny Angel’s for dinner and I was the lucky one that ran the errand. Normally I’d mean that sarcastically but I do honestly believe I was the lucky one this time. After I ordered our food I sat down to wait and, as is the norm when I find myself with a few extra moments, pulled out my phone to check e-mail, facebook and read a few pages of my current book. Before I became fully engrossed in this public avoidance  technique an elderly gentlemen walked up and out of the blue said, “I’m just waiting for my chicken sandwich”. At first the thought ran through my head that I wasn’t even looking around I obviously had my nose in my phone, how funny that he would start talking to me. I’m such a brat sometimes… I instantly let go of that nastiness and smiled and listened as he talked about how great the chicken was and the produce was so fresh, then asked me if I’d ever had it. Of course I had and I too love it. The conversation then led to whether we lived here in Skaneateles, we both did, and I elaborated that we’d moved here when our first daughter started kindergarten. This led to him asking where I was from and in the end he shared that he had just come from a funeral that took place in Binghamton which is where we lived before moving to the Syracuse area.

“____ your chicken sandwich is ready,” said the lady behind the counter. I’ve forgotten his name already.

And that quickly the conversation was to come to an end. He looked at me and said, “Nice to meet you” to which I replied, “Have a good evening” and he turned and walked out. I sat there a while longer before my food was ready and found myself thinking about him and how easily he just walked up and started talking. It took so little effort but was the impetus for a nice exchange between two people who would otherwise have spent that 5 minutes or so alone. He left to go home with his single sandwich and I left to go home back to my family. It made me think of whether he lived by himself. Was he going home to spend the evening alone after a day at a funeral for a beloved friend? Maybe not but either way it made me appreciate that I met him and that we had shared a few words while waiting.

I’m always looking for great new recipes to add to the list of meals that I know are sure hits in the house! Cary and I recently went out to dinner with another couple and they turned us on to this great place that’s only been opened for about a year, Laci’s Tapas Bar. The Mediterranean Pizza jumped right off the menu at me so I knew I had to have that. When I saw the menu and read that they were putting chic peas on the pizza, I was kind of like, “huh?”, but in the end it was delish! The next week when I was grocery shopping I picked up a few items that I knew were in the pizza and from there my own modification was born.

Ingredients:

• 1 can of chic peas
• pita, flat bread pizza, etc.
• 1 red pepper, chopped
• 1 onion, chopped
• bag of mozzarella cheese
• kalamata olives, sliced
• cherry or grape tomatoes, sliced
• olive oil, salt, pepper and italian seasonings

Directions:

Take the can of chic peas and dump out 1/3 of them on a plate, drizzle about a tablespoon of olive oil on them and mush them with a fork. They don’t have to be really mushed, just enough so they stick together a bit. Get your pita or flat bread out. Cover it with a layer of the chic pea and olive oil mush then cover that with your chopped peppers and onions, sliced olives and tomatoes and a nice layer of cheese. Lightly sprinkle the top with salt, pepper and italian seasonings or whatever you like on your pizza. Repeat all of the above for each personal pizza. With 1 can of chic peas you can stretch it to cover about 4 of them depending on how big they are. Cook in the oven or a toaster oven at 425 until the cheese is just turning brown a little.

Voila, done! Dive in and enjoy!