thisendoftheswamp

The Squire had to run to the store this morning, and as he was getting out of his car he was hit in the head by an empty cigarette packet. He stopped, looked at the packet, and then at the driver of the pickup truck next to him. The driver simply shrugged and continued to puff away.

The Squire looked at the packet a second time, and then at the driver. No result. On the third go-round, the woman sitting next to the driver spoke up.

“Harold, get off your lazy a** and pick up your own trash. You know better!”

The Squire couldn’t see the woman well enough to tell if she was Harold’s wife or mother, but Harold did start to open the door of his truck, and The Squire walked away.

. . .It’s worth overdoing.

Actually, that was my sister’s attitude, but The Squire seems to have decided it was a good plan, as well.

It is hot enough that we needed to put the air conditioner back in the living room window. As you can see on the far left, the bushes around the front of the house have gotten a leettle bit out of control. “No problem”, sez The Squire. “I can trim them a bit.”

Can you say “Scorched Earth”?

It looks as if Sherman took this route on his March to the Sea.

My trusty, dusty Nissan has finally bitten the dust. This car has been a real workhorse, racking up almost 160,000 miles, and costing us much less in repairs than the Kia The Squire drives, and it is a 2009. I bought it around 2007 and paid $6,000 for it. About a week ago, it started making a dreadful noise, so we took it up to our local mechanic, who informed us the rear axle has an internal problem of some sort. He did say that; he honestly explained what was wrong, but it went clear over my head, so there’s that. “You can drive it for another month or so, but I really wouldn’t recommend it.

So now, we are off to find another car – another Nissan – to replace this one. Wish me luck!

I fixed a salad for supper today and it was met with great applause from The Squire. It goes well with just about any main dish, fish or fowl. Quick and easy, and I don’t think there’s anything in it you don’t have at home. If you don’t have what it calls for, substitute!

Whisk together:

2 tablespoons olive oil

1/4 teaspoon each salt and pepper

2 tablespoons red-wine vinegar (I didn’t have any, so I used a raspberry balsamic, but I’ll bet a malt vinegar would do as well)

1 cup chopped roasted red bell peppers, rinsed (I can’t think of a substitute for this one)

1 clove of garlic, finely chopped

1/4 cup chopped pistachios

1/4 cup chopped fresh parsley or cilantro

Combine with:

2 cups cooked quinoa (I used a packet of Aldi’s 90 second Quinoa and Brown Rice)

This is supposed to serve four, but I was lucky to have any left at all. It is good hot or cold, and is absolutely delicious!

. . . you’ve been playing too much Zuma, when you find yourself racing to the bottom of the New Yorker before it crashes!

Well, the snapping turtles didn’t appreciate the cicadas I tried to feed them the other night, but this morning The Squire and I watched two squirrels sit on the patio and eat one after another. They each ate six and then, apparently satisfied, they scampered back the the trees.

They would grab the bug and begin chewing on the nether end, then toss the head and wings, before scurrying away to get another one.

It’s a change from peanuts, I suppose.

The church we attend is one of the Queen Anne Parishes, and dates back to the 1700s.

Last summer, The Squire spent many, many days working beside a group of people from various archeology organization, including a professor from the University of Maryland and some of his students, and representatives from the Archeology Association of the Upper Chesapeake, as well as the Maryland Historical Trust. There were other volunteers, some of whom used ground penetrating radar, and a drone.

Yesterday, he received a letter from Jacob Benson, chair of the Harford County Historic Preservation Commission, stating that the church has been recognized for their efforts in preserving the history of Harford county in general, the Joppa Seaport in particular. Mind you, Joppa Towne hasn’t been a seaport for almost two centuries, because it silted up pretty quickly, when the local farmers started tearing down trees and plowing the hills up and down, so all of the top soil ran into the water.

You can see the video at: harfordcountymd.gov/2420/historic-preservation-awards

Scroll down to the third video, which shows Colonial Joppa. What appear to be a lawn mower and a roto-tiller were actually different kinds of radar equipment. It doesn’t mention The Squire by name, but he is parish representative, and received the award for the church.

There’s been a lot of chatter about how cicadas are edible – if you have a strong stomach. It is recommended that you pick the newly-hatched bugs off the tree, the ones that are still soft and white, rather than dealing with the “ripe” adults. I collected a snack-sized bag of them and put it in the freezer, which is suggested as a more humane way of killing them.

So far, so good, but when I took the bag out of the fridge, I took the coward’s way out, and decided to feed them to the snapping turtles. The only thing they’ve ever taken from me as food is store-bought white bread, so 1) they looked close enough to scraps of S-BWB that they’d take them without question, and 2)I figured they would really like these delicacies.

Well, was I ever wrong! One turtle did accept the first cicada I offered (Shades of Terry Pratchett’s Rat-on-a-Stick!) , but spat it out immediately, and none of the others would even come near them.

There must be some sort of telepathy going on!

I just dumped the rest of the bugs into the pond. Maybe the snappers would change their minds, and if not, somebody downstream got a treat.

We have four turtles in the pond right now, which is at least five too many, and two of them insist upon me feeding them more or less by hand. I put a hunk of bread on the end of a lilac twig and they will swim over and take it. Oddly enough, they are both very gentle when they do this. However, if I don’t move fast enough, they will haul themselves out of the pond and come after me. Nothing will get your attention faster than being barefoot and in the vicinity of a snapper!

I have to wait an hour after I take my Synthroid before I can eat breakfast, so I use the time to read the on-line comics and print off the crossword puzzles so The Squire and I can work them wile we eat. This morning he was at his computer, also reading the funnies when suddenly the fire alarm went off. While we bolted for the kitchen I asked him if he’d left something on the stove – a trick we’ve both pulled in the past – which he denied.

It turned out the alarm had misfunctioned. There was nothing on the stove, not even an empty frying pan. We hadn’t put bread in the toaster, and the oven wasn’t on. We waved a towel at the blasted thing, pressed the reset button, took it off the wall and tried to open it. Nothing worked.

We finally put it out on the picnic table, where it continued to annoy all of Greater Downtown Bradshaw. After breakfast, The Squire said he had to run over to church for something, but I’m inclined to think he just wanted to escape the noise. After about fifteen minutes after he left, I decided my choices were to carry it out to the barn, or beat it to smithereens with a hammer. I opted for the former, but I could still hear it – over the noise of the cicadas! – all the way back to the house.

The Squire pulled the lawn mower from the barn when he got home, and it was still blaring, but when he finished mowing, the bloody thing had finally quit.

Probably melted into a puddle. And I don’t care!

All the news just now is that we are about to be invaded by Cicadas. Hardly earth shattering, although they certainly can be ear shattering. When I went out to get the mail this morning I found half dozen or so on the Hosta along the drive. There aren’t any on the trees so far, so maybe they are hatching first in the shade?

Already, people on the neighborhood bulletin board are asking how to kill them, while others are telling them not to do so. FWIW, when the cicadas have just crawled out of their shells, and are still soft and pink, they are supposed to be edible, and can be fixed the way you fix shrimp – with the same caveat, that if you are allergic to shellfish, you’d be best to avoid them.

Can you eat cicadas? Yes, and here’s how to catch, cook and snack on them. – The Washington Post

I’ll keep you posted!