Abundance

The theme for my little brother’s photo challenge this week was “abundance”. This was a good one – can mean so many different things to different people. So here’s our week of abundance (with photos from the challenge at the bottom).

We have an abundance of trails in our neighborhood, which we’ve been giddily exploring. But it was hot yesterday, and the kids (ok, mostly Melina) weren’t their usual happy selves as we rounded the lake. Their was an abundance of complaining. We were almost ready to call it quits when we saw a red tailed hawk perched in a nearby tree. We took that as a sign to explore a path just past the hawk that we hadn’t tried yet. And it was awesome!

The path starts out by crossing a creek with stepping stones. Whether it was the heat or a complete inability to balance, the girls decided it would be better to take off their socks and shoes and walk through the water. They did not put their shoes back on for the rest of the day – and we walked a LOT.

There were lots of turns and creek crossings, but the coolest one was a fallen tree. People have leveled off the top a bit so that it’s easier to walk on, and there are stone steps wedged into the upturned root ball. It felt like we were in a jungle.

At the end of the trail we noticed a big dog staring at us through the woods. I was a little nervous because (a) I thought it might be lost, and (b) I didn’t know if it was friendly. Karen looked on NextDoor to see if anyone had posted about a lost dog. Turns out lots of people had seen this dog on the trail before, and it lives on a nearby farm. People said that it comes down to the creek all the time…with it’s goat friend. So there you have it – an awesome trail with creek crossings and log bridges, patrolled by a resident farm dog and his best friend the goat.

By the time we got back to the house the girls just wanted more time outside, so we set up the sprinkler to let them clean themselves off / play. Hooray for an abundance of clean water:

 

Earlier this week we had a bit of a scare. I was in the basement working when the girls rushed down the stairs and said “Mommy needs you, come quick!”. I followed them outside and there was Zellie, covered in blood. It looked pretty bad, but she also didn’t seem upset. On closer inspection she had ripped her ear on a rose bush (she got all tangled up in it and had tried to yank her way out). An abundance of blood had run down her head and all over her neck, so it was pretty spectacular. Apparently this happens sometimes when dogs cut their ears. Not too dangerous, but it’s also hard to get the bleeding to stop. We tried cleaning up her ear and putting some pressure on it, but every time she would shake her head and it would bleed again. This went on for about an hour, and while good-natured, she was clearly tired of me pinching her ear. Eventually we got it to stop using a paper towel and a chip clip, then migrated to a band-aid afterwards.

This was the only bad part of Zellie’s week. The rest of the time she is living the dream.

Karen finally ascended to the top of Mount Sourdough last week. And with a mighty victory yell declared her triumph over baking and yeast-bound mortals.

As the weather heats up we are starting to see an abundance of new critters. The bullfrogs are out in force, and we are starting to see some neat insects. The green one is a six-spotted tiger beetle and the ladybug-like one is a swamp milkweed leaf beetle. Note the red mulberries – we are probably just a couple of weeks away from a bumper crop.

We’ve also had an abundance of the macabre on our walks this week. Small dead animals keep showing up on the path. I think death has a name though, and that name is…Pipski. Aside from Pipski’s murderous tendencies, she also enjoys rolling in grass and playing with Diane.

Back to the photo challenge…

This week I decided to set up a mini “studio” in the basement. That just means a tripod and 2 pieces of poster board. But it let me indulge in some “staged” shots. Here are my two favorites for “abundance”:

GMO

Escape to Tequila Island

 

So that’s our strange (but lovely) life in quarantine this week. Hope you are all doing great!

Karen’s note: after trying and failing to make bread from my active sourdough starter in March, I’d given up and relegated the starter to the fridge for occasional feedings. But last week I did some searches and apparently baking sourdough bread has since become all the rage online for beginners and folks without the typical ingredients and equipment, so there is now a wealth of hints and tricks out there on how to make do with what you have. Honestly, it was easy once I had that info. Yay for the internets! But I have to admit, finally making sourdough bread from a starter was a bit of a letdown. It wasn’t as easy and delicious as the other breads we’ve made, and took a day and a half to make so just doesn’t feel worth it. Oh, well. I did make sourdough bread bowls for soup the other day and that was fun! But I’m back to using yeast for a while as long as I can get it.