IT’S COMING SOON!

If you are anything like me then you are desperately ready for Spring to arrive. There have been indications lately that it is on the way, although we have been fooled before. We’ve had some very nice weather for the past week, but a huge wind blew in Monday night and brought cooler temperatures with it. Linda went for a walk on Sunday, March 6th, and saw the first crocuses of the year. She promptly took a picture of them, and here they are below in all their glory.

FIRST SPRING FLOWERS

Yesterday I was looking out the living room side window and spied some greenery on the golden currant bushes. We have been looking at bare branches for so long, it was quite shocking to see green poking out here and there.

GREEN POPPING OUT!

I immediately went to look out the front window to check on the lilac bush. It did not fare well last summer when we had the actual temperature (not the “feel like” temperature) reach 115 degrees. All of the leaves got burned and turned brown and crispy, and at first glance we were afraid it might have died. But the twigs stayed green, and it was heartening when I looked at it yesterday to see green buds at the top of each branch.

THE LILAC BUSH

The birds have been hopping around with renewed energy lately. At least that’s what it looks like to me. I’ve been seeing a lot more of the towhees, but when I try to video them they are hard to keep in the frame. Even with the video slowed down, they still move fast.

MR. & MRS. TOWHEE

The hummers are still giving their feeder a fit. I have had to fill it more regularly than I did before. I still see a little male come to it every now and then, but he is very skittish. If he sees me at the window with the camera, he flies away. I am still trying to get some video of him, so hopefully I will be successful.

It makes me think of the bird blind that my Daddy built for me back in the 1970’s. I had just gotten a good 35mm SLR Minolta camera, and I wanted to take some closeup pictures of the beautiful birds coming to my Momma’s feeder. The only problem was I couldn’t get close enough to the feeder without the birds flying away. My Daddy decided that just wouldn’t do, so he built me a collapsible bird blind. He designed it with a four-sided wood frame, with the sides attached together using wing nuts so it would be easy to put up and take down. Over this frame was stretched a light green fabric. There was a hole cut in the fabric on one side to stick my camera lens through. It was a wonderful construction and I used it a lot. I was able to get some pretty good closeups of the Cardinals (my favorite) and other birds. My bird blind had one problem, though. The fabric was not very porous, so in the summertime, it was extremely hot inside the blind. And of course, that was when I wanted to use it the most. I mean, who wants to sit outside in a bird blind in the winter? Not me. Anyway, I thought it was beyond sweet for him to make this for me. I wish I had a picture of it to show you. Alas, back then I was only focused on taking bird pictures. But at least I have memories of it.

iMOVIE UPDATE

I didn’t post a blog last week because during the time I usually write it, I was on the phone once again with Apple. I do not believe the engineers are ever going to find a solution to my problem, but the Apple advisor I spoke to last week (the 6th one since I began this journey) was able to show me how to access all my media from the corrupted “library” that refuses to open. I am now able to make new videos and access all of the media I used to make previous videos, but I still cannot access the old videos themselves. However, since I uploaded most of them to YouTube, it really isn’t a problem. The good news is that I can make videos now, as evidenced above with the towhee video.

NEW RECIPE

I like to try making different foods from other countries. One thing I have been wanting to try making for a while now is Arepas, a South American corn cake that has been a staple mainly of Columbia and Venezuela for centuries. So this past week when I went to the grocery store, I found some P.A.N. Yellow Corn Meal, the main ingredient in making arepas. This is basically corn meal that has been pre-cooked and has no additives. Upon Googling “arepas” I found that everyone who has ever made them has their own recipe. They are very easy to make and also very quick, as the dough only has to rest for 10 minutes. I found a recipe on YouTube that had an excellent video showing how to make them. This lady even made three different versions. Her name is Anita Shepherd and she is the founder and CEO of Anita’s Yogurt. Below is a link to the video she made in collaboration with Food52 (which, by the way, is one of my favorite websites to get recipes).

VIDEO BY ANITA SHEPHERD ON MAKING AREPAS THREE DIFFERENT WAYS

Here is a link to the recipe on the Food52 website (link here). The thing I liked about her recipe is that it only makes 3 arepas. This way you can try it out to see if you like them without having a ton of them hanging around.

I was surprised at how easy these were to make, and how delicious they turned out. Linda and I both loved them, and I was wishing I had made more. But by making a small amount, I can get better at the forming technique like Anita states in her blog accompanying the recipe. I can tell you that this is going to be a recipe that I continue to make on a regular basis.

MY AREPAS!! (notice one is conspicuously absent)

PARTING SHOT

The warmer days that we had last week really got everyone in a Spring-like state of mind. Summer Girl was no exception. She took advantage of the sunshine every chance she got, and she delighted in wallowing in the dirt.

SUMMER GIRL TURNING INTO A GREY CAT

Join me every Wednesday (barring any unforeseen circumstances) for more from the Southerner in the Northwest.