The beauty of this area!

I had always wanted to photograph this road by the country club during the time when the forsythia was in bloom.




Last Saturday, the apartment house looked equally beautiful.

Rubgy!

Yes, that is how it is spelled on the sign near the field! Did you know that they played rugby just about 1.5 miles from my house, John?



This is the properly spelled sign just down the road at a major intersection.




They play on an open field. I think that last Saturday they must have been having a tournament as there were MANY more players there than I usually see and others warming up.




How do you like that action shot! I had never used the sports mode of my camera before.




Of course, when you play rugby in horse country, you do expect some spectators!

The Lovely Shad!

The image of shad was from -

http://www.floridabayseafood.com/fish/amer.%20shad.JPG

Tonight I enjoyed a lovely piece of shad. Just to remind me of my past with shad, I found 3 bones in my "boned" piece of fish!

Tom mentioned this morning that shad was very important to the colonists and so I did some research and here it is:

From http://www.fws.gov/chesapeakebay/SHAD.HTM -

"They have been called poor man's salmon and white shad. The exquisite taste of their meat is reflected in their Latin species name, sapidissima, meaning savory. They are American shad, largest member of the herring family.

Native Americans harvested shad during the annual spring spawning runs and taught colonists how to catch shad in order to feed their families. Dried shad has been credited with saving George Washington's troops from starvation as they camped along the Schuylkill River at Valley Forge. By the 1800s fishermen caught shad by the ton. Even farmers took advantage of this seemingly endless supply of fish, using shad as fertilizer for their fields. People prized shad for their succulent meat and tasty roe (eggs). Everyone eagerly awaited the spring migration of shad."

"American shad are anadromous fish, meaning they spend most of their lives in saltwater but spawn in freshwater. Shad are found along the Atlantic seaboard from Labrador to Florida. Shad are an important food source for other fish such as bluefish and striped bass.

Rising spring temperatures prompt shad to leave the ocean and return to the waters in which they were born. Biologists believe the fish find their natal streams through their uncanny sense of smell. Males arrive on the spawning grounds first, followed by egg-laden females. A female releases 100,000 to 600,000 eggs into the water to be fertilized by several males. Adult shad return to the ocean soon after spawning.

The transparent fertilized eggs are carried along by the current. The larvae hatch in 4 to 12 days. Juvenile shad spend their first summer in freshwater. By autumn, the young shad gather in schools and swim to the ocean. They will live in the ocean from three to six years, until sexually mature then return to freshwater to complete their life cycle. This sustained a thriving shad population for centuries, but this changed as America prospered."
draft

Swimming, Rectangular Fish & Shad

I finally was able to get to the pool today to swim while Hal was examining my car. (The garage is next door to the YMCA where I swim.) As it has turned out, my air conditioning is broken and the dealership will need to fix this costly repair.

It was GREAT to get back in the water. During the last couple of weeks, it has been first one thing and then another to keep me from swimming. I like to pray while I swim and I did a lot of that today and also some thinking - about fish!

I had seen a sign in the local seafood shop yesterday that they had shad. I missed the season last year (well, maybe for the last 2 years) and I was so hungry for it. Shad has a lot of memories for me. When we were children, we killed our own beef and so we had steak nearly EVERY night. To this day I consider fish to be the real delicacy. We almost never had fish when I was a child -- well, almost never. We did have fish sticks (rectangular) and we loved them. Then there was the founder that came in a frozen block (again rectangular.) I recall one night as I was cutting the frozen rectangular block into squares to put in the oven and I noticed that it had started to defrost and that these flat pieces of fish came off the frozen block! I did not know what was happening - I saw fish fillets for the very first time when I was a teenager! So we had rectangular frozen fish sticks and rectangular frozen founder.

Once a year, Daddy would take us all down to the Chesapeake Bay to get shad. The season is March and April. I have a special memory of going down to the bay and coming back with a huge wash tub full of shad. We would clean them and cut them up in the back yard and then take them into the kitchen and wash them and freeze them. I loved shad - WHAT A SPECIAL TREAT! - BUT THOSE BONES! There must be more bones in shad than any other fish anywhere! I remember being reduced to eating it with my fingers so I could pick out each bone. I recall stating that if anyone could figure out a way to serve shad with out the bones it would be the most delicious fish ever! Well, in those days, shad was a cheap throw away fish - in those days when you got it with the bones in it! Now you can purchase it in the local seafood shop and all those bones have been removed. Imagine no bones in shad! Imagine how high the price is for a boned shad!

After my swim this morning, all I could think about was that shad sign in the seafood shop so I drove out and got some. In my refrigerator is a lovely piece of boned shad. I am not sure if it will be my dinner tonight or tomorrow. I will enjoy it so much without the bones - but for some reason, the memories of childhood shad with bones and eaten with my fingers is even more special.

Spring at Lamborntown

Just thought that you might like to see some photos I took last week of the spring blooms around the home that God has given me to live in for a time.




The pink tree is so beautiful each year and I do not think that I have ever photographed it!




Then there is the view up the road to the farm and the beautiful magnolia tree.




I MUST learn the names of all of these plants!




But the favorite of all is the violet in the grass.

Kyle's day on Good Friday

After we went out to breakfast and then shopped all morning to try to find sweat pants, socks and get some groceries, Kyle was quite exhausted and so spent a quiet afternoon. He did not want to color eggs or cook so he rested and watched TV.




Kyle enjoyed eating an apple while watching TV.




I hope he feels better today! I so enjoyed spending a day with Kyle and his brother and sister.

Cooking with Rhia

Rhia wanted to make lemon bars. First she prepared the pan.



Then Rhia broke 3 eggs for the lemon bars



Between mixing and baking the bars and taking these last photos, Rhia had a lolly pop - a blue one! Notice the blue mouth!



Rhia enjoyed putting sugar on her bars and then tasting them with her blue mouth!

Cooking with Iain

Iain wanted to make a chocolate cake with chocolate frosting yesterday. He put the mix and eggs into the mixing bowl.




Iain then carefully measured the water.




He especially enjoyed using the electric mixer.




He then make frosting and frosted the cake.




Every chef MUST TASTE his work!

Coloring Easter Eggs

Yesterday, Rhia and Iain colored Easter Eggs. Here you see Rhia busy at work.




Iain was most diligent about his eggs as well.




They were very good about sharing the wax crayon so that they could write on their eggs before they dipped them in the colored water.




They enjoyed inspecting their writing after the eggs had been colored.

Home Sweet Home!

This morning I was up at 4:30 AM and off to the train to New York City for a day of research. It poured the entire way to the train station about 40 minutes away. I was drenched when I got a cab to the Morgan Library. I worked all day and then took a cab back to Penn Station and took the train home. As we passed through Philadelphia, the city skyline and the sky was spectacular.




The Art Museum stood out against the beautiful sky! I did not see Rocky!




Each moment the sky was more beautiful than before.




Then I drove home and the sky was still quite beautiful.




The view of the field behind my house reminded me why I love to live here and not New York City! Thank you Lord for the beauty of Your creation and for the privilege of living where I live.

Mr. Kyle Goes to Harrisburg...

On March 18, I was asked to give testimony before a Committee of the House of Representatives in Harrisburg. Kyle was able to join me and learn a bit about how laws are passed.




Part of the "fun" for Kyle was leaving about 5:30 AM for the 2 hour drive!




As we waited for the hearing to begin, Kyle asked if he might try to get some autographs from the representatives there. He really seemed to enjoy walking among them and discussing various issues with them.




Do you think we might have a future politician?

We the people...

Last night, I had a meeting at our township building. As I sat in the meeting and we discussed the results of a recent professional study for our township, I was struck by the fact that we were meeting in the official township building which is the garage where we store our trucks and snow removal equipment.




The garage has no heat nor air conditioning - thus township officials are not encouraged to stay too long and do too much "damage."




Our township sees no need for a magnificent office building.




I have heard that the problem with the USA is air conditioning. It used to be (before AC) that our officials in Washington DC went home when it got hot and humid in DC - from mid-May to late September. Then someone invented AC and all the buildings in DC were air conditioned and now look at the mess our country is in!




Compare this building to those in DC!