Skywatch Friday - the view from Allis

The view from the lean-to we stayed in at Allis State Park in Vermont. The website for the park touts it as one of Vermont's best kept secrets. Sadly, it was a little too secret and it seems there were not enough visitors to justify keeping the campground open. When we visited there were at most three other families on the entire site. The kids are disappointed as they would have liked to go back there but my guess is that, given that the site had a small number of campers and no easy access to water for boating or swimming, it will remain closed in future summers too :-(

30% off - 4 days only

(For my US readers only.) This weekend (July 30 - August 2) you can get 30% off at Gap, Old Navy, and Banana Republic stores with this coupon. 5% of your purchase price will then be donated to Donors Choose, an organization that helps teachers in the United States fund classroom projects.

Sadly, the kind of requests teachers make are very often for basic items like paper and crayons! I had a project funded earlier this year so that I could do some multimedia projects with my students. I had already spent several hundred dollars on materials this year, so it was nice to have someone else spend a couple of hundred on my behalf. So, if you were planning on shopping at any of these stores this weekend, please take the coupon with you. It'll save you a few dollars, and help some teachers and their students out too!

Skywatch Friday

Oops - sorry - the link for Skywatch Friday for July 30 should have taken you here!





View from our back deck a week or so ago.

Here Kitty, Kitty!

Sitting eating dinner tonight, watching the wild rabbits running around, the Littlest American suddenly said "And there's a skunk on the lawn next door."

"No there isn't!" we said.

"Well, what's that black and white thing then?" So we looked -

and sure enough, it was a skunk! As the batteries had died in my camera yet again, DH headed out to take a photo, muttering "Here kitty, kitty!"

I wonder if this is the critter that came up on the deck the other night and dug up the herbs in the plant pot by the door?

Weirder than asparagus

This morning I read about the death of Mollie Sugden, the actress who played Mrs. Slocombe in the BBC sitcom Are you Being Served? Shortly afterwards, an online acquaintance coincidentally mentioned a relatively new ice cream shop in San Francisco called "Humphrey Slocombe." The name is a reference to that same TV show. They have the usual wide range of ice cream flavours, but some rather odd ones too: foie gras, salt and pepper, and peanut butter curry for example. I wasn't too sure what the flavour of Secret Breakfast was likely to be, but it turns out it's bourbon and cornflakes!

Wordless Wednesday - Magic Hat #9

Tonight's beer:
Tonight's beer cap:

The Lawn

The English lawn is so simple, and yet it takes a lot of maintenance to make it look so good. Supposedly, that was part of the point originally - the manicured lawn was more prestigious than the one nibbled by sheep or other livestock. When we moved to our current residence we inherited a gorgeous lawn that was the result of rather a lot of chemicals, and vast amounts of watering. The previous owner's liberal use of weedkillers created a monoculture that has been easy to maintain without resorting to chemicals. Despite the size of the lawn, we now dig dandelions out one by one rather than poisoning them.

We have very little topsoil - dig an inch or so down and there's nothing but sand, so it drains extremely fast and is very dry. Trying to get a nice green lawn is completely dependent on the sprinkler system, though we run it less often than the previous owner. Because of the weather, we haven't had to run the sprinklers more than a few days so far this year. (Yay! Smaller water bill!) The grass has been growing rampant, but has been too wet to mow as often as we would have liked. (Yay! Less spent on fuel for the mower!) Because of the damp, a new species has invaded the lawn that we haven't had to deal with before:


If I were braver, I would look this fungus up and try to determine if it's edible, because there's enough out there in the back yard for several meals, but I'm too scared I'll simply poison us all!

In the long run though, at least some of the lawn needs to go. We need a real vegetable garden. The kids are loving their garden on the front porch, but I think our choice of plants was ill-advised for container gardening! It's beginning to look like a jungle out there!

A little ruined . . .

You've Been a Little Ruined by American Culture

Whether you live in the US or not, deep down you're a little American. And there's nothing wrong with loving American culture, but it may have negative effects on your life. Slow down and enjoy what you have. Reconnect with life's simple pleasures. You don't need to be in a consumerist rat race. Life's too short to overwork yourself!

Has American Culture Ruined You?

Scratch Art

DD brought this piece of art work home from school last week. She likes doing scratch art projects like this and over the years she has become much better at them. This one has nice strong lines, with little evidence of any indecision as she scratched the black layer away to create her design.

But on looking more closely, I wondered if her teacher realized the significance of the item to the left of the flowers. I'm pretty sure that if she wore a T-shirt to school that advertised alcohol she would be asked to change, and I'm sure if the teacher had realized what UFO is she might have been asked to alter her design (or sent to the school counselor!) Well, maybe not, but I still thought it was an 'interesting' choice.


UFO - Unfiltered Offering. A Hefeweizen beer from Harpoon Brewery.

Visitor from the UK - guest post

Since starting to blog, and choosing to blog much of the time about being an expat, I have met many other expats online. Michael Harling is an American living in the UK. If you haven't visited his blog, Postcards From Across the Pond, I highly recommend it. Although I haven't bought his book yet, I'm thinking it would probably be a good purchase for my husband before we go to the UK again. Actually, given how much I enjoy his writing, I should just buy it for myself. Michael is currently travelling around the world, from one blog to another and I invited him to stop off here.

Quiet day today. I think I had one too many mint juleps at Wendy and Rob's last night. But when you’re embarking upon a World Tour (even if it is the virtual world) you can’t let a little thing like a hangover slow you down, so my pounding head, dry throat, sandpaper eyeballs and I all got up at 5AM to catch the 8:27 flight out of Little Rock. When Almost American picked me up in Chicopee this afternoon, I was still feeling a little fragile so as soon as we got to her place she made me tea and toast; she even cut it into soldiers for me.

It's nice to be back here in Massachusetts, only one of two states whose name I can't spell without having to look it up (the other is Connecticut).

I used to live here, you know; when my first marriage ended, I moved into a flat in Pittsfield with my buddy and his girlfriend and her two-year old child. I had no other place to go and they were kind enough to take me in. Overnight I went from living in a four bedroom house with one and a half baths, dining room, office, full basement and redwood porch to sleeping on a sofa in a second floor walk-up. It was not the high point of my life.

That unhappy incident did not sully my feelings for Massachusetts, however. It's a lovely state, and I have many happy memories of climbing its mountains, visiting its quaint and touristy towns and peeping at its leaves. A drive along the Mass Pike at the peak of autumn is about the prettiest sight in the world (barring, of course, a drive up the The Northway, through the Adirondack State Park). Almost American is lucky—having left England, she is now living in a place just as beautiful.

It is amazing how much Britain and New England resemble each other, terrain-wise, at least. Where I live in Sussex, the weald and downs look much like—and are every bit as fetching as—the Hudson Valley and Berkshire Mountains. And further north, the Scottish highlands have more than a passing resemblance to the Adirondacks and the mountains of Maine. But seeing as how they used to be part of the same land mass (or so they tell me, it was a few years before I was born) perhaps it isn't so amazing after all.

Back then, of course, when we all lived together, we all spoke the same and things were a little less confusing; an elevator was an elevator, not a lift, and a car had a trunk and a hood, not a boot and a bonnet, and aluminium had not yet developed that extraneous syllable. It wasn't until we drifted apart that the Brits started needlessly searching for new ways to pronounce “oregano,” “lieutenant” and “schedule” when they already had perfectly acceptable pronunciations. At least that's how it looks from this side of the Atlantic. Or perhaps my thinking is still a bit muddled by mint julep fallout.

I think I'd better have another cup of tea and some toast soldiers, then I'll get back to you on that language thing.

Would you like to participate in the
2009 KINDNESS of STRANGERS TOUR?
Visit the Tour Page to sign up or to view the latest Tour updates.

Michael Harling is an American author living in the UK undertaking a virtual world tour via the kindness of strangers.

The local ice cream

Well, one of my commenters got the ice cream flavour right, but I'm afraid I'll have to disqualify her and not give her the non-existent prize because she cheated. I'm sure she's actually been there (right Molly?), and has probably eaten some of this ice cream. It is indeed unusual - so it's not honey or maple flavoured, although those are both local products. It is not listed on the flavours board as locals simply know that it's available in season.

Unfortunately, I don't have any in-focus photos of the ice cream. This is not deliberate. I was trying, but perhaps I was focusing too much on eating the ice cream instead of taking photos of it. I'll blame it on the fact that I didn't have my glasses with me. I have sadly reached that age where my arms are not long enough and I need glasses to focus on anything closer to me than the length of my arms. I had thought that maybe the camera with its so-called AUTO-FOCUS (they lie!) might be smart enough to do just that and focus, but apparently I'm still supposed to do something to get it to focus. I need a camera that will read my intentions and focus on the thing I am thinking of. Then my photos would be much better. In the meantime, I'll just have to remember my glasses and learn how to work the camera!

Back to the ice-cream! Here are said blurry pictures. They look a little greener than the photo in the last post, but I think this is closer to the true color.




The flavour is, as Molly said, asparagus. Sounds disgusting doesn't it? Well, it's actually asparagus and almond and it's pretty heavy on the almond - although as you can tell from the photos the asparagus is definitely in there! If you think of asparagus in a cream sauce it becomes a little less strange I think. It is perfectly edible, although I think I would go for chocolate brownie or cookie dough another time. Remember a lot of American ice cream places will give you a taster spoonful of a flavour or two before you buy, so if you see an unusual flavour you don't have to commit yourself and find you hate it.

Zooming in on the photo from the previous post, you can actually see both the almonds and the asparagus in the ice cream. (See, sometimes I CAN make the camera work!)


I bet they have asparagus ice cream at the British Asparagus Festival. If you can't find anywhere locally that sells asparagus ice cream and you'd like to try it, you could always try making it yourself. There's another recipe here. I'm not sure I would serve it with smoked salmon though as this English restaurant suggests! Nor would I be up for asparagus beer!

Ice cream

Many years ago when my parents came to visit me for the first time in the United States we spent some time travelling around New England. I remember being in Rockport, Massachusetts, one afternoon and deciding we needed some ice cream. My father was delighted at the selection of flavors, and happy that they let him try a couple before he bought. I suggested that he buy a small ice cream. He indignantly insisted that he wanted a large. I suggested a small would be sufficient. He got the large and it very nearly defeated him. I think he only finished it out of sheer stubbornness!

Like many other things, ice cream servings do tend to be larger over here than in the UK. This afternoon a friend described the 'small' ice cream served at our most local ice cream stand as ' the size of a child's head.' We had run into her at a slightly further afield ice cream stand, where her kids were getting a treat after a long and sweaty hike. Ours were just getting a treat. Next time we should do a hike first!

This afternoon's destination is a local dairy farm. They sell a variety of ice cream flavours, all but one (the peanut butter one) made on the farm from the milk from their own Jersey and Holstein cows. You can tell how local the product is as soon as you step out of the car - one of the other products they sell (to enrich the soil in your garden) has a much stronger smell than any ice cream could! The kids like going here for ice cream because they like visiting the cows. You can't feed them or pet them, but there's just something irresistible about these very large animals.

Here's a pic of my (small - I asked for ONE scoop but I think the girl couldn't count that high!) ice cream:
I chose to have a particularly local icecream. Not only does the milk come from the cows on the farm, but one of the other main ingredients does too. It is a seasonal flavour, not offered all year round, so it is not listed on the flavours board.

Can you figure out what flavour my ice cream was? (I removed the name of the farm from the flavours board photo, so you can't just Google it!) It's one of those things that doesn't sound like a good idea necessarily, but is actually quite good. No prizes for the winning guess I'm afraid.

Later . . .

Memorial Day

Memorial Day around here always means going to the local parade. Obviously it's a time to remember those who have died while serving in the US military, but it's not just serviceman and former servicemen who march in the parade. Many of the local Boy Scout and Girl Scouts march too, and representatives from other local organizations, including the town council, the local community band and the high school marching band. There is always a large variety of vehicles, most of which are very shiny and very noisy - lots of sirens and horns going! The local air force base sends a couple of planes to do a fly past at the beginning and end of the parade. The one at the end is usually very low and very loud. The kids' favorite part is usually the fact that many of those in the parade carry large quantities of candy that they throw at children sitting on the side of the road.

And when it's all done we return home to a barbecue lunch. Not the first of the season, as DH likes to grill even in the winter, but often the first with fresh corn on the cob and somehow it still marks the beginning of summer even if the forecast for later this week is for colder weather again!

All in all, Memorial Day is a lot more upbeat than Remembrance Day and if you don't catch the speeches at the cemetery after the parade, it can be difficult to make the connection between the occasion and what it is we are supposed to be remembering.
















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Well trained!

DD went to a classmate's birthday party this afternoon. They had rented a local ice rink. The group had the entire rink to themselves for about an hour and got to watch the Zamboni clean up the ice before they skated. Then when the Zamboni came back out, the girls retreated to a squash court where tables were set up for them to have snacks, cake and ice cream. While they were doing that the public skating session started, so once they were done with snacks they got to go back out on the ice for another hour. DD had a blast. The only other time she's been skating was when she was in pre-school. She was nervous at first this afternoon, but gradually gained in confidence, despite three quite hard falls resulting on one very bruised knee.

I discovered that skating is not like riding a bicycle. Even admitting the fact that I was never particularly good at skating even when I was a teenager, my performance today was pathetic. I could blame the rental skates I suppose. I still have the skates I had as a teenager, and they still fit, which thoroughly confused DD whose feet are still growing. However, even though DH kindly cleaned the rust off them, my blades were in dire need of sharpening and when I discovered that there was no one at the rink who could sharpen them for me I decided it would be safer to go with the rentals. I pottered around the rink a couple of times and that was enough. It was much more fun hanging out at the side of the rink gossiping with the other mommies and taking photos of the kids.

DD enjoyed herself so much that she decided that she wants to go skating again on a regular basis AND she'd like her next birthday party to be at the rink. The last few years she's had the option of taking a family trip to somewhere like Washington D.C. instead of a party and has always chosen the trip. So I asked her if she'd rather have the skating party than a family trip. (The party would probably be the cheaper option!) Her answer proved she is well-trained: "Hmm. Can we go to Canada?"

Search terms

I find it interesting to look at the search terms that have led people to my blog. There's a wide variety and looking at them I see how some led to my blog, but not others:

would you immigrate to the American state
graphs of culture shock
American almost monarchy
American friendliness versus British reticence
filling out a green visa on the plane
American culture time flies when you’re having fun
American bizarre
mcdonalds scottish restaurant radio bam
average American dinner time
things you can put maple syrup on
Americans shocked at British vacation time
places Americans shouldn’t travel
mailing maple syrup overseas
advantages of drive-thru weddings
drive thru bars
when is dinner time for most Americans
future plans and ambitions
statistics on people who cook casserole

The winners in terms of sheer frequency though are variations on the following two:

why Americans shouldn’t travel – 8%
Smarties vs m&ms – 16%!

The Why Some Americans Shouldn't be Allowed to Travel post was lazyblogging - little more than a link to another web page. The Smarties post was written back in January 2007.

Unimportant happy things

Bella Foxx tagged me. The rules are below.

Rules:

1. Mention the person who nominated you.
2. List six unimportant things that make you happy.
3. Tag six blogs, state the rules & notify them with a teeny comment on their blog.

Six things that make me happy, unimportant things . . . let me see . . . That's harder than I first thought! There are lots of little things that make me happy - like hugs and kisses from my kids & DH, but I wouldn't count those as unimportant because unimportant means something I could live without.

1. matching necklace and earring sets (I wore jewelery far more often B.C. - Before Children)
   
2. more pairs of shoes than DH thinks are necessary (I had more of those B.C. too!)
   
3. plants in the house (Don't have as many of those as I used to B.C. either. Hmm - there is a theme here!)
   
4. laundry that's been dried on the line (It's been 4 years since I had an outdoor clothes line, so clearly I can manage without it, but I'd still like to have one again.)
5. comments on my blog
   
6. a perfectly tidy and organized house! (It would be nice, but I seem to manage without it!)
   

Now I have to tag 6 people.
A Brit Different
A Brit Out of Water
Crunchie Mummy
Expatmum
Paradise Lost in Translation
Yael

Meme

Wife in Hong Kong tagged me for this meme:

1. What are your current obsessions?
Obsessions? I never obsess about anything ;-)

2. Which item from your wardrobe do you wear most often?
Probably my comfy stretchy travel skirt from Coldwater Creek or its ripoff copies from Target.

3. What’s for dinner?
Dinner tonight was not typical. I finished off the pasta salad DS took to school for lunch because he only ate half of it, then I had half a PB&J. The kids had sandwiches. It was DDs night for Girl Scouts so dinner had to be quick.

4. Last thing you bought?
I went to the supermarket while DD was at Girl Scouts for more cold cuts, milk and Tetley's British Blend. Then I gassed the car up - so petrol was the last thing I bought. (Anyone else notice my schizophrenic code-switching there - American to English?)

5.What are you listening to?
The quiet hum of the computer.

6. Favourite kid’s film?
There are so many good ones! Ratatouille. Wallace & Gromit movies. Flushed Away. Chicken Run.

7. Favourite holiday spots?
The Dordogne, the Loire, and Acadia National Park in Maine. (Except for all the tourists!)

8. What are you reading now?
A mindless beach book that is so unmemorable I can't even remember the title.

9. Four words to describe yourself?
Talkative. Smart. Overweight. Unfocused.

10. Guilty pleasure?
Chocolate

11. Favourite author?
Again, so many to choose from.

12. First spring thing?
Daffodils

13. Planning to travel to next?
Possibly Montréal. Can't afford a trip to the UK right now, but we might as well get some use out of our passports!

14. a) Best thing you ate and b) drank recently?
a) Anything my husband cooked. b) Starbucks dark chocolate frappuccino

15. When did you last get tipsy?
Probably my husband's company Christmas party.

16. Favourite ever film?
Picnic at Hanging Rock (I finally found the book, but had to order it from Australia.)

17. Favourite band?
Not as big a deal in my life as in some people's as I find it hard to do other things while listening to music. Changes on a regular basis, but always 'oldies'. The Police, Les Négresses Vertes, The Housemartins, Pink Floyd . . .

18. What new blogs are you reading?
Haven't really added any new ones to my list recently - it's hard enough keeping up with the ones I already have on my RSS feed. The newest ones on my list are probably Brits'n'Bobs and Another ReDesign of the Wheel.

19. Biggest regret?
Not raising the kids bilingual.

Rules of the meme. Respond and rework. Answer questions on your own blog. Replace one question. Add one question. Tag 8 people. Now I tag

Boojam
Limey at Brits'n'Bobs
Tasha the Coding Mamma
Daffodilly
Nicola

And anyone else who'd like to do this because I see that at least one of the people I put on this list has already been tagged, so I give up . . .

Bizarre little video

Wow - someone actually got paid $10,000 for this! It was created for a competition, but I didn't even see the name of the sponsoring company the first time I watched it. (It is there, and this is an ad for them!)

Cooking by heart

How many recipes do you know by heart? The UKTV Food channel recently surveyed 3,000 British people about their cooking habits and discovered that on average they knew 6 recipes by heart. (A recipe being a dish that includes 4 or more ingredients.)

The top ten dishes British people feel most comfortable cooking (and the percentage of people who can cook them without a recipe) are apparently:

Spaghetti bolognese (65%)

Roast dinner (54%)

Chilli con carne (42%)

Lasagne (41%)

Cottage or shepherd's pie (38%)

Meat or fish stir fry (38%)

Beef casserole (34%)

Macaroni cheese (32%)

Toad in the hole (30%)

Meat, fish or vegetable curry (26%)

Source: UKTV Food survey

I could manage 7 of those without a recipe, 8 if I'm allowed to use a jar of Patak's or Trader Joe's curry sauce! (Interestingly, Patak's has recipes on their websites - but only five TOTAL on their US site as opposed to the dozens and dozens of recipes on their UK site!)

This household beats the average because those surveyed admitted they made an average of just four home-cooked meals per week, and they own just five cook books. Hmm - I probably have five cookbooks that I use on a regular basis, but there are at least thirty cookbooks in my living room alone. If home-cooked means eating at home, and not eating take-away or frozen/prepared meals, we eat home-cooked meals ALL the time! Very occasionally (once every couple of months) we have pizza. Equally rarely, a box of Trader Joe's samosas will sometimes serve as dinner - though less often since they annoyingly stopped selling the India Relish that went so well with them!

I'm trying to think of actual recipes I know though. A lot of the meals I cook don't really seem to qualify as needing recipes! Baked boneless, skinless chicken breast with some kind of spice mix like Montreal Chicken, served with rice (cooked in chicken stock with onions and garlic), and microwaved peas. Ground (minced) turkey with garlic, onion, mushrooms, zucchini (courgettes) and pasta sauce from a jar, served over pasta. Does it count if the pasta sauce comes out of a jar? Can you tell my main goal is simply to get people fed? Sometimes I do chop a lot of veggies and do a chicken stir fry. That takes more effort, but it still doesn't really need a recipe! Hmm ... chicken casserole! That one counts, I'm sure! Bite-sized pieces of boneless, skinless, chicken, with onions, garlic, mushrooms, canned corn, tomato paste, cubed potatoes, a couple of bay leaves, thyme and chicken stock. Throw it all in a casserole dish and bung it in the oven till done! Quantities? Times? No. Can't give you those. Fill the casserole dish. Check it occasionally while it's cooking till it seems done. This one is perfectly edible (indeed, better) when reheated the next day, so a little over-cooking won't harm it.

DH is the one who knows most of the recipes in this house though. Occasionally, very occasionally, he deigns to write them down so that I can attempt them. Tonight's super yummy turkey burger recipe is one that he knows by heart, but I could never replicate it unless he wrote it down. (And he hasn't.) It involved ground (minced) turkey (of course!) and garam (chickpea) flour, egg substitute, Worcestershire sauce, garlic powder and a bunch of other spices. There were no measuring tools involved as far as I could see, yet the recipe turns out well every time. Here's one of my favorites he did share with me (but I certainly don't have it memorized yet!)

BLACK BEAN AND CORN SALAD

1 can black beans (rinsed & drained)
1 can corn (drained)
1 vidalia onion
1/2 each red, orange and yellow pepper
1/2 cucumber (English)
4 medium tomatoes (remove seeds)
1 can sliced black olives

3-4 tbsp chopped fresh parsley
abt 3 tbsp chopped fresh cilantro
4 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
4 tbsp red wine vinegar
1 tbsp lime juice
1 crushed and minced clove of garlic
1 tsp sugar
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp ground cumin
1/4 tsp ground black pepper
1 pinch dried oregano

Put vegetables in bowl.

Mix liquids, herbs & spices in a jar. Shake hard for a minute. Pour over vegetables and stir to coat all.

Best if it sits overnight.

Enjoy! And if you do, please let me know in the comments, and leave one of your favorite recipes there too!