30 November 2013 - Family for Thanksgivukkah Part 1

Robin came out a week before Thanksgiving for a long visit.  It was great! She was able to change her flight to come in about the same time I arrived home from Maine. It was quite a surprise when my phone rang while I was waiting for the shuttle to the parking lot to find out she had just arrived as well. 

We spent the first weekend in the shop. I had to finish the August page for the annual Monks and Friars calendar. Robin worked on an impromptu book made completely of found objects in the shop, even including some sorts of type. I'm sorry that I don't have any pictures of it.

I was pretty happy with my page. I used type in a curve for the first time.  It took quite some time to get the type locked up, but it worked!  I also carved a catfish--my second attempt at carving a linoleum block. The page took four passes through the press. That works out to treadling the press 11,200 times. That is probably the reason my hip and/or knee gets sore after a long press run.

Here I am considering my options when I could not get the second run to line up correctly. Then I discovered the type wasn't locked up tightly enough and was about to fall out of the frame. Talk about just in time. Whew!


Robin had never been to Antelope Island and because it is one of my happy places, I dragged her off to the island. That phrase "off to the island again" always makes me think of drinks with umbrellas. Here in late November, it was a bit too chilly for beach drinks, but we had a good time anyway. Because we could, we made a quick stop at Farmington Bay to see if there were any interesting birds. 

The first time I pulled over to look at ducks, Robin looked out her window and saw this little guy right beside the road--a smidge smaller than a tennis ball.  My best guess is a maybe a young muskrat. I will entertain any other ideas. 


It was a pretty hazy day--more smoggy than haze, but it did make it hard to see very far or very clearly. Trying to get pictures was even harder. But there were huge rafts of ducks. This is just a tiny part of the many ducks on the bay.

There were lots of Northern Shovelers, Pintail Ducks, Ruddy Ducks, Western Grebes and Goldeneyes. My guess is there were many others I couldn't see well enough to identify.  I could hear Marsh wrens and see them moving through the reeds. 

But the best part was as we were leaving and we saw a bald eagle sitting in a tree.  

At first I thought he was a golden eagle. He was backlit and with the bare eye and all the haze I couldn't see the white parts until I got him in the zoom. Even then he was far enough away that the camera barely could get him. 

Pretty exciting!






We moved on to Antelope Island.  It never disappoints.

 At a stop on the causeway, Robin ran down to the water to check out the drifts of dead brine shrimp. 

The tumble weeds were still blowing around the island, floating in the lake and otherwise looking picturesque. 

Robin also had to do a head-bump with the sacred white buffalo.

And yes, we did see the real thing. Quite a lot of them, actually. 

You would almost think this guy was the model for the sculpture. 

As usual, the landscape was stunning. No matter what the season is, there is something wonderful to see. 

 
We looked until our eyes hurt. But in all that looking there were some surprises--like a porcupine. At first he looked like a big messy nest in a tree, on a second look we realized he was indeed a porky.  We could only see his butt, but it was spiny. 

We also stopped to watch some large groups of starlings murmurating. When some of them landed in a tree I was ready. 

In the late afternoon the seed heads on the grasses glowed in front of the setting sun.
 

 There is something about the low, southern winter sun that adds a bit of magic to the landscape. Intriguing. Fascinating.

 













All too soon it got dusky and darkness descended as we drove back to the causeway. 

 All three sibs together, cooking and eating too well.  How fun is that? We had decided early on that rather than cook a turkey we would have duck. All of us like dark meat so it seemed like a perfect solution. We also decided not to go overboard with food to keep it simple. Hmm. Simple doesn't mean the same thing to everyone. 

David's idea of simple was two batches of pumpkin bars and a blueberry crisp. Not all at once mind you. 

Robin's idea of simple (?) included making sweet potato latkes to go with the duck. She got David involved in cooking the latkes.

Then later in the week her idea of simple was cooking up some bone marrow for appetizers.

 Here is the marrow, ready to spread on the fingers of toast and then topped with a fresh herb mix. David and I immediately reverted to five years old and were making faces at each other during the process. We should have been relegated to the kids' table, but another surprise? It was delicious!

Since my life is measured out in lyrics, there was nothing for it: I was obliged to sing Eggs, Eggs and Marrow Bones--at least as much of it as I could dredge up. I learned it from one of Pop's Richard Dyer Bennett records years ago. 

My idea of simple involved eating leftovers and not cooking at all.

Robin went foraging in the yard and made the centerpiece.




 


















Several days later, Robin discovered she couldn't stand the idea of not having any turkey at Thanksgiving, so she picked up a several packages of turkey thighs and cooked them. Do you know how big turkey thighs are? I made a double batch of fresh cranberry/orange relish and we totally forgot to eat it. Very odd. I am sure I will find many ways to use to up. 

Robin lit the candles each night and sang the Hebrew blessings. We let them burn down as the three of us played Scrabble and argued fairly good-naturedly over words. I'm still miffed that congo is unacceptable and Robin wants qi added to the two letter word list. When David had an unacceptable word he always was able to make it into something else even better. We each won at least one game.