Baldur

My concern with being assumed a witch was not a matter of semantics.
I have heard the same lament from witches time and time again.
Apparently the television series, 'Bewitched' helped to perpetuate an incorrect usage of the word 'Warlock'.
The program used that word for males who practiced witchcraft. Many people have learned it that way simply by trusting the writers who misunderstood proper usage.

Male or Female, the correct word is 'Witch'.

Baldur knows where to place mirrors to create the optical illusion of added space. He also has lots of stuff to engage the eye.
There truly is a lot more to look at in my home than one would expect.
So no hocus pocus, just lots of visual pathways.

Baldur

Does anyone here have a workjing knowledge of Red Tailed Hawks?

One has been a daily presence here at Boughbreak and we are frankly stymied by his/her routine.
While hawks have been a constant presence out here we have not encountered any so vocal before, nor one so social with humans. The hawk will glide down onto a telephone line or low branch not very far over my head and yell at me for as long as I am in the garden.

My first assumption over all the racket was that this was a youngster and Mother Hawk had just kicked him out of the nest to fend for himself.
Perhaps he was not happy with the meal delivery ceasing abruptly.
He however is clearly eating or he would be emaciated and probably dead by now. This has been going on for 3 weeks.
We often are graced with the presence of many mallard ducks, but they come and go. The keening of the hawk seems to have no relation to the presence or absence of ducks.

Then it occured to me that maybe it was raised by humans as a hunting companion. I know of no such people in the area but certainly there could be a whole community of them hidden from me.
I went into the garage and put on a sturdy leather gardening glove.
Out under the glaring hawk I raised my arm and whistled at him.
It was rather frightening to think of what would happen if the hawk came to me, but luckily he did not.

Does anyone have any imput?
Baldur certainly would not try to capture or domesticate him.
There is an Audobon refuge not far from here, perhaps I should pay a visit.

mum23

That sounds like a parent bird defending the nest, or perhaps newly fledged young, to me. We have several species of birds that behave like that to protect their young, though I must admit I've never heard of, or seen, raptors doing it. If you get a definitive answer, I'd be very interested to hear...

indigo

Baldur I just read that Red Tailed hawks nest in the crown of tall trees but also on window ledges or billboard platforms. I saw this on the Cornell Lab of Ornithology site. Maybe there is a nest on or near your house... Beautiful birds, so interesting.

mdawrcn

I am just testing to see if my comments will "take". I tried to leave a on Lizzie's picture and it wouldn't accept. Anyone else having issues?

Baldur

If you have left the exact same comment somewhere on this site in the past something spooky happens and it won't accept the repeat.
I found this out the second time I tried to post 'Happy Birthday matthew'.
I have no idea what sort of hugely impressive filter accomplishes this but it seems to be true.
Try adding a random letter or punctuation mark with the emoticon.

Baldur supposes it is some sort of a spam prevention device built in to ThinkDraw

mdawrcn

Very interesting and astute of you to have figured this out. Your theory is correct. I had left a comment earlier on the same picture and it wouldn't take the second one.

Baldur

It's peach harvest day at Boughbreak. YIKES!!!
We had a friend take about half of them yesterday but that still leaves Baldur with almost a bushel of them to deal with.
What will it be like when the young peach tree we put in last year is also producing like this?

I've kept a few for fresh eating (we've eaten off the tree for the past week anyway). The remainder are getting peeled, pitted, sliced and frozen.

Login

Peaches make delicious jam, as I discovered by accident many years ago. Dockers strike in France caused fresh fruit bound for France to be left on the road sides, with a notice to 'Help yourselves'. Of course I took some home for the neighbours but, as our holiday was in a couple of days, my share became jam.

Baldur

I love peach jam.
We used to travel North to Fredericton, New Brunswick every August for a long weekend gathering with 100 or so friends. It was rather like a biker run without the bikers.
The group booked a large section of hotel and we infused the local economy.
Anyway on Saturday morning there was a marvelous farmer's market in town. I would go and buy a case (12 jars) of homemade jellies and preserves from a wonderful preservist (?).
There would be wonderful flavours like peach, raspberry, blueberry, black cherry, cranberry etc etc.
The following Summer when we traveled back again Baldur would return her case of emptied and cleaned canning jars.
The woman got the biggest kick out of that. She would give me a free extra jar in gratitude.

Baldur

Here is an interesting short video clip.
Someone took Vincent van Gogh's paintings and using computer technology animated them.
I was initially horrified at the sacrilege but eventually sat back and marveled at the concept.
Some of the shorts are very subtle, just a slow changing of the lighting in a scene..others are a little hokey.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MPQSN3fNLF4

indigo

Thank you Baldur. I enjoyed that and the music also!

marg

That was really good - many thanks, Baldur

katidid

Thank you Baldur. That was very interesting.

I also love peach jam if it is not too sweet. Will have to learn (and take the time) to make it myself.

Fangzzz

1st - Very Sad Day - site not working so I can draw or comment or see playbacks. I shall fall asleep less fulfilled.

2nd - Red Tail Hawk behavior is very much scolding/distraction of a parent to draw you away from a ground hole nest. These are created when a young bird falls from a higher nest and the parents (both male and female care for the young) will dig a hole to hide this fledgling. Look for an area of grass that has broad leaf weeds, or tall grass with some new low level green leaves.

3rd - savory curry dried peaches - slice peaches very thin and shake in gallon bag with - cinnamon, cardamom, orange zest, turmeric, cumin, paprika, sour salt (citric acid/fruit fresh) and a few hot peppers or ginger for heat - dry in oven over night. Peaches are a favorite right along with raspberries.

Baldur

I think I would enjoy savory curried dried peaches. All my peaches have already been peeled, pitted, sliced and frozen.
At this point they are destined for cobblers and perhaps pies.

The seasoning mixture sounds very similar to what I use in my rice pilaf with dried fruit. There is no sour salt in that recipe, but a few other ingredients instead.

Thank you for that Fangzzz and for the nest information on the Red Tail Hawk. I have seen no ground nest, but certainly there could be one here in the gardens somewhere.

Baldur

I will share the pilaf recipe here.
There is an old traditional Lebanese Rice and Lentil recipe call Mujadara. It is quite lovely, getting flavour from caramelized onions.
Baldur took this recipe, added dried fruit, a palette of Indian spices, a bit of heat and created something different, very low-sodium and wonderful.

Baldur's fruited rice pilaf

Heat a tablespoon of olive oil in a medium sized pot and add 1 or 2 chopped onions. The onions should not be chopped too small, you want to see them in the finished dish.
Brown the onions well, almost too well... you want them rather dark.
At the last moment add 1 or 2 minced Garlic cloves.

To the browned onions add:
1/4 teaspoon Garam Masala
1/4 teaspoon ground Turmeric
1/2 teaspoon of Curry powder (I use a medium strength one here)
1/4 teaspoon Rogan Josh (another Indian spice mixture)
1/4 teaspoon ground Cumin
a pinch of ground Fenugreek
1/4 teaspoon of dried hot Red Pepper flakes (or more)
a dash of ground Cinnamon
a slightly smaller dash of ground cloves.

Warm these up a bit in the onion-garlic oil mixture before proceeding.

Now, to the onion mixture add a handful (1/2 cup) of dry brown or green lentils and about 1 cup of cold water.
Continue cooking this on low heat for about 10 minutes until the lentils are soft enough to chew but still far from done. Add a little more water if necessary.

Sprinkle 1 cup of medium or long grain white rice on top of the mixture, pour 1+1/2 cups of cold water over everything.

Continuing now on medium heat bring everything up to a simmer.
Place a lid on the pot and lowering the heat again to the lowest setting cook, covered for 10-12 minutes.

Meanwhile:

Peel and coarsely grate a raw carrot or a smallish raw sweet potato

Assemble about 1/2 cup of dried fruit, it can be any mixture you prefer but Baldur thinks half should be dates.
I generally use dates and dried cherries or dried cranberries, put have also used prunes, apricots, regular or golden raisins... any combination is lovely.
Cut up the fruit unless they are very small varieties like raisins.

If you have it, sprinkle 1 tablespoon of rosewater over the dried fruit in a bowl and toss the fruit around a bit.

When the rice is down turn off the heat

Scatter the grated carrot or sweet potato over the hot rice, follow this with the dried fruit.
Replace the lid and allow everything to sit undisturbed for about 10 minutes. The steam from the hot rice will cook the vegetables a bit and soften the fruit.

Stir the pilaf gently and mound it into a serving bowl.
You can scatter chopped roasted pistacchios (or walnuts.. or almonds) over the top as a garnish.

Baldur

A handful of pomegranate arils would also make a nice garnish.
I just developed this recipe here at Boughbreak this Summer and pomegranates are not in season here yet.

A recipe variation that also works well is to replace the lentils with chickpeas.
Add a can of drained chickpeas (low sodium variety if possible) to the onion-spice mixture and cook this all together for a moment.
Then add the rice and water (increase the water by about 1/4 cup) and continue from there.

Baldur

OK
Where and how do you store books in your home?
Baldur thinks he has an interesting library, and I would like it to be a larger, interesting library.
Each time I rearrange the shelves I manage to squeeze in a few more volumes. How I hate to get rid of books.
A book would need to be fairly dreadful and unreadable to be given the boot. Sometimes books are just that, but not as often as one would think.

A tip i've learned is that you can jam more books in if you stack the smaller ones on top of each other horizontally.

I have different sections that are somewhat segregated by theme.
Fiction, Science Fiction, Biographies, Science, Reference, Cooking, Antiques, Art, Gardening, Magazines, etc and the largest section of all, 'the Unread'.

Baldur

So basically here at Boughbreak Baldur has filled 3 floor-to-ceiling bookcases, 3 half size bookcases and has made decorative stacks wherever possible.
Robert is not a bibliophile, I need to tread lightly and make the books appear to take up less space than they actually do.

Any suggestions?
Once I become insanely wealthy there will be a library wing added to the house, until then things are getting a bit crowded.