I’ve been mooned!

Betsy and Terry were here for the last great week of kayaking in the gulf. 

 The water was crystal clear and the surf was low. We kayaked for hours over fleets of manta rays, scuttling  blue crabs, and silly leaping mullet. And Betsy even paddled within 10 feet of a family of  dolphins frolicking just off the sand bar. It was amazing. 

But Ida had ushered in the jelly fish, and they were always at our elbows as we paddled about in our recreational kayaks, just inches from our hands.  ACK! 

Terry had been intrigued by the gelatinous creatures and assured us he had stepped on several, with no adverse effects – he lied! 

On Friday we resolved to take the ferry across to Dauphin Island, but it was COLD .  

Betsy & Terry on the ferry

 When we arrived on Dauphin Island we headed to the Estuarium.   http://estuarium.disl.org/

 My boys were grown and gone by the time it opened (and I was traumatized by repeated visits to the USS Alabama in the heat of August) so I had never visited the aquarium on Dauphin Island. I’m sorry, I had missed an amazing experience  ’for want of  a child’!

 The Estuarium was fabulous, but a display of moon jelly fish was educational. They do sting!  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aurelia_aurita

 

 Later,  we took off on the scenic Dauphin Island bicycle paths for lunch at Barnacle Bill’s (call to be sure they have crab cakes), then to the Audubon park before returning on the ferry.

 I would recommend the trip as a 4-star destination! 

(It sure beats my adventure  with Betsy into the Bon Secour Wildlife Area where she stepped on a Pygmy Rattlesnake or our attempts to collect driftwood!  )

ACK

Moon jellies

On the Third Day of Thanksgiving

Heartburn!

I survived a three-day Thanksgiving celebration with heartburn and only a few extra pounds!

I celebrated the first day of Thanksgiving on the traditional Thursday with Sybil and Ed in Gulf Shores.  I brined and smoked the Cornish Game Hens and it was my best effort, ever. 

Brinin' Brinin' Brinin', Keep those birdies Brinin'... Roll Tide!

I discovered that most of the cooks here also brine their birds, but they generally deep-fry their poultry. This is the recommended recipe, and I will certainly use again… The secret is the Zataraine’s Crab Boil!!!   You would never guess those babies were soaked in our favorite shrimp spices,

My Daddy would love it.

<<2 Gal Water*
2 Cups Kosher Salt*
3 Cups Sugar*
1/4 Cup Zatarains Liquid Crab Boil**
4 TBS Black Pepper
1 TBS Dried Rosemary
1 TBS Thyme
1/4 Cup Molasses
1/4 Cup White Wine (not Cooking Wine)
1/4 Cup Worcestershire

*Essential Ingredients
**Makes it slightly spicy but really good

The ingredients with an asterisk are the necessary ingredients and all the rest is just optional to make it taste really good.
How to Brine the Cornish Hens

So you have mixed up the ingredients and maybe added a few ingredients of your own or even left off a few things based on your knowledge of your family’s tastes.

Now place the cornish hens down in the brine using a plate or similar heavy object to hold them under the water. You will need to keep the brine mixture between 33 and 39 degrees and the easiest way to do this is to set it in your fridge however, you may not have room so you can use ice to keep the mix cold if you need to.

Let the hens brine for about 4 hours.

After 4 hours have expired.. remove the hens from the brine and rinse them really well under cool water paying special attention to the area under the wing and thigh.>>

Smoked hen

Dinner was terrific and it was great fun to have young, international guests who weren’t familiar with our traditional Thanksgiving fare!

Sybil's Thanksgiving table

The second day of Thanksgiving was celebrated with Alabama friends who postponed their dinner to coincide with the Iron Bowl, the gridiron battle between Alabama and Auburn. We met at a condo at The Dunes and managed to survive the game in spite of the ‘friendly’ rivalry. 

Sister and Memory.... in the kitchen with Paula Deen's 'lost' sisters

My contribution for that dinner included stuffing balls, scalloped oysters, rolls, and a chocolate ganache cake!

Sam's favorite stuffing recipe!

Death by chocolate!

And my third day of Thanksgiving was celebrated in Pine Apple with the Batemans. We wandered into town and fell into a time warp to a 1950’s era village festival.  We dined on fair food, chatted with neighbors, cheered the parade, and sold raffle tickets.

Miss Olene and Leah & Sharon Bateman wait for Santa

The Bluegrass music was excellent!

Bluegrass in the gazebo

And the drive home that nite was typically glorious, I’m thankful for Thanksgiving in Alabama…  

Another Alabama sunset

Delusions of grandeur…

Blue Angels on our shoulders?

Last year I was convinced the Blue Angels could see me waving from my deck, and that was the reason they performed so many breath-taking maneuvers right over my little house.

They fly faster than my shutter speed...

Since that time I have learned that almost everyone up and down the Fort Morgan Road suffers from the same grand delusion.

Absolutely everyone runs outside (you can see them on their decks with binoculars and cameras) but some people wave flags and others write messages in the sand as The Blue Angels thunder down the coast… and we’re all convinced they can see us, at 700 mph, as we frantically vie for their attention.

Well… they’re back at their home station at Forrest Sherman Field, Naval Air Station in Pensacola and I swear they’re even more impressive than last year.

Betsy and Terry were down from Kentucky last week and I had Betsy on the deck railing waving my UK and UL banners like a demented traffic control flagman.  Sophie hid under the table, but Terry came outside to watch the show.  Betsy waved them in so low that on one pass she swore she could see their faces!

Betsy waves them in

A few days later we took our bicycles over to Dauphin Island on the ferry, and we realized the Angels turned back towards Pensacola when they neared the end of the Fort Morgan peninsula.  Soooooooo,  it dawned on us they were probably reaching the edge of their airspace just over Surfside Shores and they performed one last maneuver before turning back.

Evidently my  personal air show is just a happy accident of geography instead of favoritism…

But I have a plan!

I have three cans of fluorescent paint Alberta left to me when she moved to Arkansas and I still have Brad’s ladder leaning against the back of the house. So I can spray-paint a giant ‘HELLO’ on my metal roof in lime green, and I think I’ve found a way to tie a banner to the dog…

(NOT my photo) Hoestly, they are closer than this!

Official Blue Angel website  http://www.blueangels.navy.mil (turn your speakers up!)

Hurricane Ida

The Eye of the Storm

I turned on the news when I awoke this morning and watched as the local weatherman on Dauphin Island explained that Ida had crossed over the barrier islands and was in Mobile Bay with landfall expected around 7:00 AM.  The satellite radar showed the rain had moved northeast of us on Fort Morgan and it was foggy and quiet outside.

I fed the dog, walked around the yard (a limb from the pine tree had narrowly missed the boat parked in my back yard for safety!) and got ready to take Sophie for a walk.

Northwest wall

Then it hit!

A blast of cold air roared across from the bay and two blackened pine trees snapped half-way off on the edge of the pond.  Sophie changed her mind about a walk and I came back in and turned on the TV. This time the weatherman was hanging on to his coat and was yelling into the microphone, the temperature had dropped almost 10 degrees.

We had been in the eye of the storm! I didn’t realize that, and I’m pretty sure the weatherman on Dauphin Island didn’t know.

Sophie refused to go back outside, so I drove down to the beach to get a look at the Gulf.

Debris washed up under GRITS house

The only real damage I saw was an overturned porta-potty and debris blown from a dumpster that should have been emptied a month ago. ( We were picking up debris from this construction site during the Coastal Cleanup.)

too much trash

The surf had washed under the houses on the beach, and the end of the walkway at ‘Million Dollar View’ was gone, again… but that was the extent of the damage here from Ida.

So long, Ida!

Hurricane Ida

Day Two…

We walked to the beach, but couldn’t walk on the beach. Even at low tide the surf was under some of the houses on the beach.

Low tide this morning

I dragged the deck furniture into the garage and the plants into the house, then cooked a chicken and some snacks because Sharon and Leah were coming over to ‘ride out the storm’.

We watched Arrested Development and played Loaded Questions until Leah decided we should take a walk to the beach. At 9:00 pm, as the tropical storm approached Fort Morgan, we set out. Sharon and I wore conventional rain coats, but Leah was sheathed in a commercial trash bag.

Leah's hurricane fashion

She stayed dry but Sharon and I were soaked to the bone. Too funny!

Storm chasers

And now we’re cooking pizza and settling in for landfall.

My first hurricane party has been great fun, so far…..

Hurricane Ida

Day One…

It looks like Ida is drawing a bead on Surfside Shores on the Fort Morgan Peninsula!  She is a category two now with winds over 75 mph.

The weather here is breezy but still beautiful.  Sophie and I were alone on the beach, but that’s not unusual.

The local experts predict the cool water in the gulf will slow the winds and it will probably deteriorate to a tropical storm before it hits land.

But I’m sure the ‘talking heads’ on morning TV will blow it all out of proportion and the entire Gulf Coast will take a real financial hit this week. Thanks Dianne, Harry & Matt!

Sunday morning

However, this might be a good time to check on my hurricane shutters, I’ve been meaning to do that all summer…

Zenyatta

You go, Girl!

Banished to the Bedroom

By a ‘Bama ballgame!

I was frantically searching for the Breeders’ Cup on my computer after the local TV station abruptly switched coverage to a FOOTBALL GAME in the middle of the day! Astonishing, and terribly disappointing…

The phone rang and I jumped in the car and headed to the Bateman’s for barbecued ribs. No one turns down an invitation to the Batemans when Horton is grilling, so the house was filled with both Bama and LSU fans shouting at the television when I arrived.

I was escorted by Leah into her newly decorated bedroom, and with genuine southern hospitality, she found the Breeders’ Cup race on her television and made sure I was comfortable before she returned to melee in the living room.

"I'm too pretty to be a 'bama fan"

Leah Bateman's LSU mascot

Leah is an established artist and budding photographer, so she joined me (while I snacked on those delicious ribs) during half-time to show me her latest creations.

Her beloved Mango had returned from a visit to the neighbors with ‘accidental’ red and white stripes, so she ‘tagged’ and photographed their pooch.

LSU Tiger

As game time neared and the rivalry heated up, Leah decorated Mango with purple and gold fingerpaints and sent her back across the dunes to make a bold statement!

Leah documented the entire  ‘dog fight’ with her new camera.

The game was ending, with LSU behind, as the horses loaded into the starting gate for the Breeders’ Cup Classic.  I made so much noise as  Quality Road balked, delaying the race, that I had more spectators cheering in the bedroom as Zenyatta moved to the outside and thundered down the stretch.

Zenyatta and jockey Mike Smith in the Breeders' Cup Classic at Santa Anita. by HorsePhotos.com

It was a perfect ending to a perfect day, and the best ribs I have ever tasted.  Alabama might beat Louisiana in football, but they can’t touch real Cajun cooking!

And Miss Leah has progressed from printing fish and fingerpainting dogs to photography…

Good work, Leah!

Leah's butterfly

Leah's photo for Veteran's Day, November 11, 2009

It’s a BEAUTIFUL day in the neighborhood…

Full moon, startlingly beautiful sunrise, and no one on the beach this morning…

and, finally some shells on the beach at low tide.

The water in the Gulf was endlessly clear and calm.

And the sunset was spectacular, again!    

Pine Apple

in the Heart of the Black Belt

My friends recently purchased a farm with a quaint historic cottage in Pine Apple, Alabama.

Pine Apple is the home of the Annual Front Porch Tour where the tourists are invited to “sit a spell and visit” in Old-Fashioned Southern Style. I can’t think of a more beautiful place for a Front Porch Tour, and Sharon is already thinking about hors d’ ouevre to serve on her new front porch next spring. (But many of us think they should just open a restaurant, I would certainly drive to Pine Apple to eat at Bateman’s Bistro and I think the Tyrannosaurus Rex would be the perfect mascot!)

The Bateman kitchen

http://www.pineapplealabama.com/frontporch.htm

I was treated to a weekend at the farm and we mixed a little shopping and touring with the cleaning and moving on our ‘to do’ list.

We dutifully watered the beans,

Bateman Beans

although they had already grown over an inch in one week in the rich black soil. The Black Belt is a fertile crescent along the Alabama River, and the region grows a variety of imaginative folk artists in addition to the celebrated cotton crop.  In the nearby town of Camden Sharon and I stumbled out of a hardware/hunting store and into a unique gallery, Black Belt Treasures,  a non-profit showcase for local artisans, including the renowned Gees Bend Quilters.

Black Belt Treasures

http://blackbelttreasures.com/ 

The region has become the heart of hunting in Alabama, and there are many farms for lease and camps for rent in Wilcox County. Hunter Appreciation Day is the Saturday after Thanksgiving in Pine Apple and the parade starts at the Moore Academy School.

Sophie enjoys the fire

The Alabama Black Belt Nature and Heritage Trail guide boasts Pine Apple is home to some unique ‘funerary’ decorations, and Sharon and I set out every evening to find them, but failed.

A 'lost symbol' in Pine Apple??

http://www.wilcoxareachamber.org/tourism.htm

I am looking forward to returning to Pine Apple to continue the quest! I’ll take a longer book and bigger bottle of wine.

Lynne's room

Is a Bobcat a Wildcat?

Sunset 10/24/09

I saw one tonight.

I was driving home after running to a friend’s house at half-time, so I could get home in time for the Kentucky game… and I saw a Bobcat.

Sunset 10/24/09

Maybe it was because my little electric car is so quiet, but I got a good look at him/her as it crossed the road near Morgantown. I didn’t get a photo because I was gaping as it stopped at the edge of the road and looked at my car, and then loped across the dune… by the time I thought of the camera the moment was gone.

I knew they lived here, but seeing one tonite was an omen…. the Kentucky Wildcats will win tonight!

Sunset 10/24/09

So… no picture to post of a Bobcat, but I did get a photo of our spectacular sunset tonite from the deck when I got home.

Sunset 10/24/09

Wish you were here!

Sending ocean breezes and best wishes to Kentucky!

Sunset 10/24/09

Monarch Madness

Check your tags!

After banding birds this fall at Fort Morgan, marking monarchs would have been a natural segue. For the past week we have passed three bushes with butterflies hanging, like Tiffany ornaments, from the limbs.

Monarchs

Monarchs on Palmetto Dr

 It’s a mystery to me why the Monarchs prefer these three plants, identical to dozens we pass on our morning walk.

But it’s a bigger mystery how these great-grandchildren find their way back to their ancestor’s fall migration routes every year.

This is the 2009 Fall Migration map from Learner.Org and we are just past the peak dates for migration at this latitude. So it’s too late for me to tag butterflies this year, but the migration rates and routes can be tracked here.

http://www.learner.org/jnorth/monarch/index.html

 

2009 Fall Monarch Migration Map from Learner.Org

 The process and goals of the Monarch taggers are very similar to that of the Bird/Hummer Study Group, but their volunteers include thousands of teachers, students and gardeners across the country.

Interested individuals can purchase a tagging kit from Monarch Watch with complete instructions for only $15.

http://www.monarchwatch.org/tagmig/index.htm

 

Although rain is in the forecast, it’s dry here so I am watering my garden to encourage my plants to flower, instead of wilt, in hopes of providing some food for the migrating butterflies

And I will dutifully check for tags on the unfortunate butterflies that do not survive the fierce north winds on the Gulf.

Fragile victim of the storm