Berries

While Western New York strawberry season is long over for this year WOBs has had the pleasure of 3 different kinds of berries this week.

On the way to and from Buffalo I am fortunate enough to pass Thorpe's Organic Family Farm where I get to practice exercising self-restraint. This week Tuesday I found Black Velvet Gooseberries . These were new to me - I'm not quite sure if I enjoyed their name and appearance more than the taste. Maybe I'll find something to bake with them over the weekend.


Wednesday I got my hands on a quart of blueberries that were splendid in every way: look, smell and taste. These beauties won't last long enough to be baked with!


The trifecta was completed at the Belmont Farmer's Market on Thursday with raspberries .


So what if these equally delicious apricots (Thorpe's on Wednesday) don't start with the letter B? I'm giving them equal billing!


Bon appetit!

Batavia Baseball

That's two Bs in case you hadn't noticed.

Drove to Batavia up and down hills on beautiful country roads, through a wind farm, to take in our first (and last) Muckdogs game of the season. They are the single A affiliate of St. Louis, in the New York-Penn League and their "short season" didn't start until mid-June, just in time for all of our recent rain.







But tonight was a lovely rain-free summer evening and what was pure delight it was to sit in the front row directly across from third base, listen to the third base coach, peek into the dugout and watch the Muckdogs beat the Mahoning Valley Scrappers while the day turned to evening and the lights went on over the field.





The good subs from the Northside Deli didn't hurt either.

Ballot Box

WOBs and Mr. WOBS voted today in the annual Rushford Lake Recreation District election. The RLRD is not the same as the Rushford Lake Landowners' Association. That one is a homeowners' association. The RLRD is a Special District, kinda like a school district, that can and does levy taxes and owns and regulates the Lake our cabin in "on" as well as land surrounding the lake up to a line of 1450' elevation. With me so far? I didn't think so.

Point is, this is a very small municipality, sort of a Monaco of the Southern Tier of New York State. The actions and inactions taken by the Board of Commissioners can have a huge effect on the use and enjoyment (sound like a lawyer, don't I?) of our lakefront home.

Three commissioners are to be elected today. They and the two others, appointed by the towns in which the RLRD is located are truly a local government. And when the total number of people who voted in 2008 were something like 267, WOBs thinks her vote really means something.

There's even a real voting machine - the good kind that New York State is getting rid of.



Don't know the outcome yet. The results won't be on TV but then again, WOBs doesn't have TV here. Just the use and enjoyment of a Lake.

Bunny, Book and Bookclub

I know, it's been over a month. What has WOBs been doing instead of posting? Who knows

It's sort of embarrassing to do one now but I'm trying anyway.

So here's the bunny I knit for our landlady's new baby.

I hope he uses it when he sucks his thumb.

And here's what my book club read this month:

It was just wonderful. I heard the author speak at Politics and Prose earlier ithis year; I've read and enjoyed My Own Country and The Tennis Partner, his previous works non-fiction and this book just overwhelmed me. Wish I was still reading it.

Here's how they both came together:

All of my extra balls of yarn are in DC, including the black yarn used for faces on my earlier bunnies. You can see from this one that they don't take much. Since I didn't have the right yarn initially I bought a skein for the first bunny and will finish it up maybe if I make about a 1,000 of them. Also a large bag of fiberfill; ditto for its current location and amount needed. I sure didn't want to buy more of both to finish the bunny when I have an lifetime overload waiting in DC for me. Noreen to the rescue!

Noreen is in my bookclub and an awesome knitter. I just had a feeling that she'd have just what the bunny needed in her stash (Note to non -knitters: You should be ashamed of yourselves - in knitting context "Stash" refers to yarn and knitting supplies). I e-mailed her the night before book club and she brought just what was needed.

Thanks Noreen from me and my bunny - and maybe even from Lori's baby!

Whole Lotta Bakin' Goin' On

What fun! Baking on the new kitchen island from Ikea (see previous post- baseball in Pittsburgh)

Resourcefulness is called for with no cookbooks here. WOBs left almost all 400+ of them in DC. No fear - Marcy Goldman's www.BetterBaking.com is totally trustworthy!

First - I baked a birthday cake for Ken's birthday party tonight, having been told by his wife Marcie that yellow cake with chocolate frosting is his favorite, I found BetterBaking.com"s Perfect Birthday Cake and a recipe for Pure Fudge Icing attached to a recipe for Brown Sugar Sour Cream Chocolate Cake (sounds good, doesn't it?) that I will have to try another time.

Going to DC tomorrow for WOBSOD's (my Older Daughter) baby baby shower (that's a shower for twins) so I baked two kinds of biscotti - also from BetterBaking:

Dulce de leche - with a thin layer of the stuff in the middle,

and Chocolate Cinnamon Sheet Biscotti.

Please remember that WOBs lives in a log cabin (doesn't start with a B - but it is the middle letter) and the oven is old and inconsistent. I'd never made the chocolate cinnamon biscotti before and the first baking ended up so underdone that the middle was still somewhat batter-y. More resourcefulness got them onto the cookie sheet, baked longer than instructed for the second baking. They may look misshapen, but I have been assured by Mr. WOBs that the taste is just fine.

Also books:
Michael Connelly's The Scarecrow on my iPod is a wonderful book to bake to ( WOBs wants to know if you listen to audiobooks while you bake), and The Unlikely Voyage of JackDeCrow by AJ Mackinnon gave me something to read while the oven did its work. I would have never heard of this book without a recommendation from someone I spoke with at a political fundraiser. It's a memoir of a Mirror boat trip from North Wales to the Black Sea, written gently and intelligently and with a huge appreciation for the surrounding world.

My ball of yarn, Baby Bunny, is being used to knit the subject of a future post. Since I'm not giving it away in advance you'll just have to check back here sometime soon.

Baseball in Pittsburgh

A trip to Ikea for a kitchen island turned into a drive to Pittsburgh - 4 hours away- and WOBs second game of the season.

The Pirates played the Mets (WOBs' team) at 12:30 which was exciting enough and then - oh boy - free tickets ! Waiting on line at the box office, two guys offered WOBs and Mr. WOBs free tickets behind home plate. They were sitting next to us and wouldn't even accept the beers we offered them.

What a place to take in a game. Behind the outfield is the Roberto Clemente Bridge and the skyline of Pittsburgh. Even on a cloudy day, PNC Park is a great place to watch baseball.

Lots of hitting, even thought the Mets fell apart mid-game. Watching Andrew McCutchen, lead-off hitter for the Pirates was the highlight for WOBs. His first at bat of this game was his first at bat in the majors and he hit a single on the 3-0 pitch. The fans and he were very excited and he was given the ball. He scored on that hit and he hit again and scored again later in the game.

Mr. WOB helped keep score, creating a new notation system which includes drawings of food items and neighborhood icons: egg white omelet and our neighbor's new raft. See if you can figure them out; WOB can't keep their significance straight and will keep to the lines on the diamonds in the future.


After the game we went to Oakland to eat at the O. Great fries with gravy - mediocre burgers and crazy ambiance. Was the well-dressed gentleman waiting at the other side of the table talking to himself, or did he have a hidden cell phone?


Other Bs:

Book - Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet by Jamie Ford

Baking - Adirondack cookies from Marcy Goldman at BetterBaking.com

Balls of Yarn - Harry's Sailor sweater by Kristen Rengren from Vintage Baby Knits in Tess' Designer Sock and Baby Yarn.

Enjoy the game!

Bags and Boxes

Not everything is good that starts with the letter B.

Just like the rest of life, some B items result in unpleasant work and frustration.

Last weekend the living room of our cozy (and by cozy I mean small) cabin was filled with bags and boxes containing most of the stuff from our Buffalo apartment. Premier Wines would only let us take boxes 2 at at time so I kept emptying them and taking them back to refill.

By the end of Memorial Day Weekend, it was down to this and I took a picture of the last few.


And just when I thought I was done sorting it out to either (1) put up in the loft to take to DC in August or (2) to find space for here or (3) to donate to friends or deserving parties, I brought the last of the stuff and had the room looking like this - though nothing compared to last week.


Happy ending and no more boxes or bags - at least at ground level.


Take a look in the loft for another story: