Fish fear me

I went fishing this morning, my very first time.    I signed up for a local class and went on a river trip today with my teacher and two classmates.   Two hours of fairly solid casting.    When I got home I was (to my surprise) exhausted from the combination of activity and fresh air, I guess.    I got to put into practice everything I learned about casting in our classroom and "grass casting" session.   This is how it worked for me:  cast, walk over slippery rocks until I got close enough to un-snag my fly from seaweed or rock, repeat.   At least I didn't fall in several times like one of my classmates did.   There were tons of fish, we could see them through the very clear water, but we scared most of them away.

This is definitely a skill that will take some time to learn.  My cast is so lacking in power that  little red damselflies stayed on my rod for the ride the whole time.     I am convinced that the bubbles on top of the river were from fish laughing at me.   I could see them doing it.     It would be an understatement to say that I am not good  yet at keeping my line tight.   I kept forgetting to keep the tip of the rod down.   I got into many tangles, and was an embarrassment, I'm sure, for any fisherman to be seen with.   

But I loved standing in the middle of the river.    We fished with both wet and dry flies and I had hits on both, but enjoyed the dry fly the most.   I had several strikes and was able to watch the fish actually take the fly and then swim away (my line was too slack), but only landed one enormous fish -- it must have been all of 3 inches long.     The fish looked as stunned as I was so I was able to easily unhook and release it, which had been one of my big worried.    If I ever go alone I will definitely flatten the barbs on the hook to make it even easier to remove, although that will also make it easier to lose them, I guess.    We picked up rocks to look at nymphs and such, so we could match our flies to the food sources.  My (very kind) teacher said I am really getting the hang of it but maybe need a little practice.   It was fun but I think he might be right.   For sure I caught more seaweed and trees than anything else.   It's a good thing I don't need to feed myself.

Different strokes

I just got back from my 3-day trip to Atlantic City.   I'd never been there and I feared the worst -- but it was fun.    The boardwalk was tacky, of course, but it was also cuter than I thought, and the atlantic ocean is always beautiful.    All my dears came true -- I ate too much, drank too much, and gambled too much (I paid for most of my sister's winnings with my losings, I think!).    But on our one day on the beach,  we got beach chairs and an umbrella, a new experience for me -- I  could have sat there all week!   Not many shells, except lots of broken clams and mussels, but I found dozens and dozens of mermaids' purses, some of them quite large.    (I'm holding one up for the camera, it was as long as my hand!)  Many of them were intact but I found a couple smaller ones that were open on one side, indicating that the tiny skate had already hatched and escaped.   My sister and her friend were not impressed, but I was thrilled to be able to add them to my collection!

Denydrating with my new toy

No point in adding a photo because, I promise you, dried and wrinkly doesn't look any better on an eggplant than it does on me.   But eggplant dries BEAUTIFULLY -- time will tell if it also rehydrates into delicious vegetable curry when the time comes.  Blueberries get super tiny and chewy, but are delicious.  Green peppers chunks dry into bits that I will add later to soups and stews.  I am still working my way through the garden, so there is plenty more to try.    But the biggest success so far -- thank you Little Black Scrap Cat for suggesting it! -- is peach leather.    Peaches are delicious, but this fruit leather is AMAZING!

Lucky me!

I got the sweetest card in the mail from Little Black Scrap Cat  -- and now I have a new framed picture on my wall!   Love it!

Spuds and the good stuff

Some not-good things happened today, but for now I'm going to focus instead on the many nice things that happened instead.    I have a sneaky feeling that the not-good stuff is only going to get not-gooder (which is to say, worse), and there will be time enough to dissect it later.

I harvested one of my potato pots today and uncovered quite a few russian banana fingerling potatoes (which are pictured along with the usual harvest assortment of delicious tomatoes).   My grandson expressed surprise when he saw how they grew along the root, and my granddaughter, watching me pull them from the dirt, announced that she was only going to eat grocery store potatoes, NOT potatoes from farms or gardens.    I pan-fried a few in a little olive oil and thought they were delicious.  As usual with a successful harvest,  I wish I had planted more.   But maybe next year I will plant a variety that looks more like those planted by our local growers, so they will have the more familiar "grocery store" look!

Speaking of my grandkids, they spent the night last night, our first since I've been in this house.   We spent hours doing little art projects, painting birdhouses and making fingerprint pictures.   (With Care Bears DVDs when I needed to just SIT!)   Cookies and sleeping bags and endless games of bad guys and heroes.   I had so much fun, although I was soooooo tired when they went home.   I never feel younger, or older, than I do with those little bundles of energy!

I got a surprise package in the mail from one of my former coworkers today, too -- a dehydrator to preserve some of my summer fruits and veggies, and to make jerky if I get ambitious.   What a sweet surprise, it is so nice to be remembered and it will be fun to try this new (to me) technique.   I'll stop at the farmers' market today to find some local fruits and try drying them first.   I hope the farmers still have some berries to sell!

What a day

My friend Dr. Cranky had his 80th birthday yesterday.    Another friend of his, a lovely and gentle woman in her 70s, and I decided that we should have a small party to commemorate the occasion.   We learned, not for the first time, that no good deed goes unpunished.   Dr. Cranky went berserk when his (dying) brother phoned from California to try to wish him a happy birthday because the call came just as Dr. Cranky was readying himself to give a few "remarks."   He berated the gentle woman who answered the phone for F-ing up his day, and generally spent the next half hour in tantrum.    He was finally persuaded to give his remarks, a rambling diatribe that criticized women and extolled his own family.  When he was finished, his only son (in from out of town for the event) challenged Dr. Cranky on the factual basis of some remark.   They celebrated the occasion by shouting Fs to each other and the universe.

We met a few other guests at Dr. Cranky's favorite restaurant.   We had tapas and sangria (I had LOTS of sangria) and chocolate bumpy cake from Sanders.   Although better behaved, Dr. Cranky made clear that he was to be the center of every conversation.   After the longest 2 hours I've spent in awhile, people practically stumbled over one another in a rush to say their goodbyes and get to the exit.   It was then that I realized that I didn't have my car keys.    I mentally prepared myself to find them in the ignition of my locked vehicle, and walked slowly to my car, working out in my head how to get help  unlocking the car and what to do while I was waiting.    But - miracle of miracles -  as the car came into sight, there were my keys, in the passenger door, right where I had obviously left them when I went back for the cake.     It was not a good day, but it sure could have been a whole lot worse, and I was grateful.

Today