American Woodcock

Deborah, Maria, Emily and I were headed to the Muskegon Wastewater and were driving on Osborne road south of Big Star Lake. This road is not paved and goes through deep green, rather wet, woods. Deborah suddenly stopped, as there was a mature Woodcock and two, still downy, small Woodcock babies in the road. Now, Woodcocks aren't seen that often and are incredible masters and mistresses of camouflage, so to see these was exciting! And furthermore, they were basically just staying in the road and then began rocking or bobbing up and down. It was the most amazing thing to watch. We wondered if the parent was trying to get them across the road and thought, perhaps, they couldn't fly. But they bobbed away, the little ones also, and for a bit weren't even moving except for the up and down motion. We watched for a couple of minutes which is long in bird-watching time, especially with birds as secretive as Woodcocks. And then, they slowly did begin moving across the road. The parent disappeared in the grasses, and all at once the little ones flew the short distance into the cover.

Also, right about this time, two red-tailed hawks starting flying about, looking very big up close like this. I almost always see red-tails out in open country high in the sky, slowly soaring in wide circles. Since red-tails do eat birds on occasion, we thought perhaps they were hunting these adorable fledglings who looked quite vulnerable and delicious hanging out in the middle of the road. If you don't know what a Woodcock looks like, it is worth a google. You will see why we were excited, and perhaps we foiled the hawks' hunt, if, indeed, that is what was going on.

At the MWW, we saw sandhill cranes (thanks to Emily's sharp eyes), Upland Sandpipers flying about and vocalizing like crazy, Horned larks, Dickcissels and a Bobolink along with the more usual birds. There are places this time of year on the Wastewater property where the grasses and wildflowers are lush. This morning, the sun was strong, but there was also an east breeze. The combination of sun, cooling wind, good birds and bird songs, blue sky, colorful flowers, lush grasses, gravel road and the sweet floral perfume made this outing perfect. The lagoons were almost empty of birds but the surrounding fields were full of them.

Chocolate-Chocolate Chip Oatmeal Cookies

There are 2 variations of oatmeal cookies for this recipe. Adam was here so I made the one with chocolate. (The other variation has raisins and walnuts and I will also make those soon.) I didn't think the chocolate-oatmeal cookies would be all that good, but they were! He loved them and so did I and will definitely make them again. I gave some to my landlord, my neighbors, the guy fixing the roof and a big bag to the troops in Kalamazoo. These have 5 or 6 tablespoons of black coffee in addition to a bag of chocolate chips, oatmeal and the usual flour, sugar, etc. I just ate the last one, 5 days later and it still tasted yummy.

I forced myself to eat a big bowlful of the Watercress soup, almost gagging. The watercress adds a bitterness to this already marginal, visually unbecoming soup. I always wonder how a few of these recipes actually were picked for this cookbook. Maybe, I'm missing something.

Book: Game Change by John Heilemann and Mark Halperin

I liked this gossipy but informative and fluent book about the Obama/Clinton and McCain/Palin bids for the presidency and vice-presidency. Many of the anecdotes were already known, but enough of the back story was new material, I suspect, for this book to be avidly read by millions. What came through, for me, is that Obama was a good choice; he is a cool cat, but he is not without his deficiencies. Hillary was extremely hard-working and competent and was, IMO, treated unfairly, although she, too, has her own less-than-flattering private persona. Bill Clinton was certainly a factor throughout her bid for the nomination, legitimately, and not always positively, although, IMO, he always comes through in the end. The playing field was not level. The media and then the public became infatuated with Obama, since he was so cool, so charismatic, such a phenomenon. And we Americans love the distraction of a phenomenon, saturated and bored as we are with dailiness. What made this OK, fortunately, is that Obama seems to be an energetic, intelligent, steely President. (Not that HIllary wouldn't have been....)The last chapter was revealing and poignant...the pas de deux between Barack and Hillary over the Secretary of State offer.

McCain and Palin were also shown at their best and worst, although, really, Sarah Palin needed more time to prepare and absorb and understand this momentous moment of history and her part in it. That she didn't have that time made her public events and her personna during the campaign quickly become unbelievable by too many.

The authors don't exactly savage anyone; they do, however, edge up to that, repeatedly, with most of the main characters and many of the minor players. Still, they find humanity in all of them. Obama, Joe, John and Sarah, as most of us, are just mortals, not perfect, but aspiring to effect greater good. I did not feel that any of them were dysfunctional eogmaniacs or that they wanted to run solely for personal glory.

Was this a true game change? Probably not, except for the fact that Obama is our first African-American president, but that fact seemed not to matter very much as time went out. What is obvious is how instantaneously the media makes available so much of the high and low moments of events and individuals. This is a game change that becomes more and more defined with each campaign, determining much of the action/reaction. Is this good?

Puree of Watercress, Mushroom and Potato Soup

What did I do to deserve this? This should be called Penance Soup...penance for spending thousands of dollars eating in restaurants the last 30 years, spending money I could now have to buy a Roadtrek, which is what I want. I don't exactly get this pureed soup deal. Mollie seems to like them, however, and so that's what I fix when these recipes come around.

Leeks, potatoes, mushrooms, garlic and watercress. Well, to begin with the leeks I bought at the Farmer's Market looked wonderful, but had a hard core, like a wooden dowel up the middle of the leek. I trimmed a bit from the sides and used onions for the rest. That was odd...the leek core. And what is watercress? Supposedly, it is a bit "nippy." Hmm....

The color is particularly off-putting. Sort of an angry-looking muddle.

I will eat a bit of it, but certainly not all. In fairness, I think my/most Americans' palates are not used to accepting a bland greenish-grey potage. I would be very discouraged if all her recipes were (IMO) disastrous and less than visually appealing. Maybe, it's me...the color green in a soup just does not entice me; in fact, it makes me walk into another room.

I figure there are about 6 servings and each serving is about 100 calories. That's not enough.

Upland Sandpiper

Maria and I met about 9 a.m. at the Muskegon Wastewater fields, specifically, to look for Upland Sandpipers, and Dickcissels and Bobolinks for her. Almost immediately after stopping on the road in, we saw Uplands. They would fly about, land out of sight in the tall grasses for 10 to 15 seconds and then fly up and about again. As I was watching this behavior, one flew directly to the road in front of me, landed very briefly, thank you very much. Skinny neck and small head. Nice and easy. A new bird for both of us.

In the same area, a bobolink preened and turned and displayed nicely very close to us, clinging to the top of some weeds. I do think we must have been near a nest, as we realized the nice looks we got were probably due to agitation. This bird is jet black underneath, black and white on the back with a broad buffy band across the back of its head, a wonderful cafe au lait color. And, as we were walking back to the car, a dickcissel perched and sang on a post very close to us. This bird is also a classy little thing...chestnut wings, black and yellow on its breast, broad yellow eyebrow and a thick bill. It sings a lot this time of year, and most photos show the bird with its head tipped back singing heartily. We saw several, but this one was very close.

We then drove around the lagoons, amazed at the swarms of mosquitoes. Saw spotted sandpipers, with their distinct spotted breasts and bellies. They were spaced evenly around the perimeter..we saw five or six. Bluebirds, killdeer, meadowlarks, but very few ducks. Hundreds of ring-billed gulls on the center dike which is still closed off.

On Swanson road south of Apple Avenue, we saw a great blue heron in a drainage ditch, silhouetted against the eastern sun; we saw several sandhill cranes, two of them in a field west of us with the sun highlighting their bright rusty color. The field were very green, the sky very blue, and the cranes very reddish. The other first-of-year birds for both of us were horned larks. Again, we saw several. They like gravel and are often in the middle of the roads. The trick is to get close enough without flushing them, and we did. We even saw the teeny black horns that aren't visible unless one is close.

Home again before the heat of the day set in.

Avocado and Grapefruit on Greens with Grapefruit Vinaigrette

This was wonderful! An elegant, tasty, fresh salad. Maria had given me two avocados which sat on my counter too long and ended up in the wastebasket. (I know, I need to figure out a compost deal...) So, last night, I bought another nice firm avocado. I already had the pink grapefruit and red leaf lettuce. The dressing was oil and vinegar, lemon juice, grated grapefruit rind, fresh ginger and a bit of sugar.

I was getting a bit discouraged as the last several recipes were not exactly exciting or especially tasty, IMO, so, I was ready for a success, and this was it. Now that I have the greens washed, the grapefruits sectioned, the vinaigrette made, the avocado still with pit in the frig and easy to section, I will eat this 3 or 4 more times in the next few days. (Or will the avocado get ucky?)

Delicious....

On to oatmeal cookies. There are two versions: Cinnamon-Raisin-Walnut OR Chocolate-Chocolate Chip. I may make half of each.

Corn-Rye Bread

Yeast. Kneading. Two words I'm not acquainted with anymore. I used to occasionally bake bread in my Ludington years, but, there is so much good bread in the markets now that I really do not think I would bake my own, except while cooking my way through SLwM.

This bread was dense, hard to knead, and just OK. Good because I made it; wonderful fragrance while baking, BUT rather proletarian.

Corn meal, rye flour, white flour, etc. It made 2 loaves and one is unbaked in the frig. Mollie says that if the loaves are in a sealed plastic bag in the frig, it will keep up to 3 days and can then just go "directly into a preheated oven from the refrigerator. This will enable you to have practically instant fresh-baked bread to soothe you at the end of a busy day." That sounds nice, and I will put the second loaf "directly" into the oven tomorrow when I return from birding with Maria. Good enough to eat but not worth the time, IMO. One unforeseen benefit was that the kneading (15 minutes' worth) used muscles!

Book: You Can't Always Get What You Want by Sam Cutler

Mr. Cutler subtitles his book "My life with the Rolling Stones, the Grateful Dead and other wonderful reprobates." He was a tour manager in the early years for both these bands, and this well-written book tells of those times in the late 60s and early 70s. Altamont is explained according to Sam. Whether or not he self-aggrandizes, this book is a gossipy, generous tale. He doesn't "tell all" as he is too gentlemanly, but he tells enough. What comes through is how different the West Coast American bands were from the British bands, though both had roots in the blues. The Dead were basically a product of Haight-Ashbury with community, love, drugs, chaos and their music. According to the author, the Stones were naive about the West Coast scene. Sam posits that higher powers (feds) distributed bad LSD at Altamont as they were fearful of the power of the crowds that had gathered at Woodstock. They didn't want this phenomenon to be repeated too often. There are also hints that the Mob was already involved in all of this. The Stones were pressured into doing a "free concert" and the whole thing was hugely messed up from the beginning.

There are drugs and alcohol on every page of this book. Why more musicians didn't die like Jimi and Janis is pretty amazing. But, I guess they learned to fine-tune the amounts they consumed, and the survivors always knew the provenance of the acid they took.

One time, a Canadian heir to the Eaton fortune, Thor Eaton, paid for a trip across Canada via train. About 50 musicians were on board, including the Grateful Dead, Janis Joplin, New Riders of the Purple Sage among others. It was a non-stop party with sex, drugs and rock 'n roll. At one point, they realized they were soon to run out of alcohol, so they stopped the train and "a horde of us descended on a small liquor store in a one-horse town and purchased several thousand dollars' worth of booze."

And many, many anecdotes like this: "I had watched Mick at Olympic Studios in London, talking with the choir who sang on "You Can't Always Get What You Want, " and had been amused at the choir's very English pronunciation of the word "want." Mick wanted it to come out sounding like "wa-ant" rather than the usual crisp English pronunciation. He struggled for hours with some uptight vocalists who seemed to think the whole thing was beneath them."

Dosing (getting security cops and others to ingest acid unwittingly) happened occasionally, although the police were under strict orders NOT to eat or drink anything while on this particular duty. But a tiny drop on an unopened Coca Cola can did the trick for one particular cop. So it went....he was "on the bus" for that night.

Book: No Time To Wave Goodbye by Jacquelyn Mitchard

Jacquelyn Mitchard lives in Wisconsin with her husband and 7 children. She looks a bit like Kathy Bates in the jacket photo. I kept thinking this was a Jodi P book and kept returning to the photo, thinking how different she looked from the ringleted gorgeous Jodi. Yes, I know, it's time I start reading more non-fiction. Still, the first half of this book was better than I expected. Then, after the hook was set, it got simplistic and less real. But, by that point, I had to find out what happened. It is a sequel, in a way, to The Deep End of the Ocean, the story of Ben who was kidnapped and who then returned to his family 10 years later. I think that the author could have written a better book if she had continued exploring the dynamics within the family instead of all the improbable stuff that happens in the second half. A good beach book though.

Sandhill Cranes

Last Saturday, Maria, Deborah and I stopped at the Ludington Sewage treatment plant. These are two "lagoons" but there is also a wetland to the west, easily visible from the perimeter path. We were ambling along and Maria spotted two sandhill cranes overhead...large, gangly, light brown birds with red-capped heads. They warbled briefly and then slowly descended, moving as though gravity didn't apply to them. They seemed to float down, long legs dangling, wings outspread, silhouetted against the western sky, an odd combination of elegance and awkwardness...a lovely sight.

Puree of Yellow Squash Soup

Not bad. Yellow summer squash, onions, garlic, herbs, milk. Would I make this again? Probably not, although I will try the last serving with the suggested garnish of red pepper, garlic and chives. That might liven it up, make it a bit more elegant. This is another soup that was pureed in the blender. Mollie says it could then be strained for a smoother texture, but I like the slight crunchiness as opposed to a creamy soup.

IF anyone is ever interested in any of these recipes, the whole cookbook is online. Just google Still Life With Menu.

Book: Woodsburner by John Pipkin

Woodsburner is a novel about the fire that Henry David Thoreau accidentally set near Concord in the spring of 1844. It burned 300 acres, threatening Concord before the townsmen successfully created effective firebreaks and stopped the advance. This is wonderfully written and follows several characters other than David Henry, as he was known before he changed his name to Henry David. There is Emma, an Irish immigrant married to a brutish lout; Oddmund, a Swedish immigrant whose family perished when he was a young boy; Eliot Calvert, a pompous bookseller who dreams of writing a successful play; and Caleb, a stern, half-crazy religious man. As the fire progresses, their stories are told, and the the day-to-day culture of that time comes to life.

As Thoreau ruminates on his carelessness and feels tremendous remorse for the burned-over land, he muses that "Man's inability to conceive of the world's limits does not render the world limitless...The vast wilderness that covered the shores of the New World seemed impenetrable until they built a city. The hills and rivers of Boston seemed immovable until they leveled and filled them. Concord was an outpost in the wilderness until it grew to devour its landscape..." Thoreau decides to remove himself to Walden as some sort of atonement..to live simply, to begin writing, "to make a book from the notes and sketches he collected with his brother during their trip on the Concord and Merrimack Rivers."

And later this afternoon, I was finishing skimming through John McPhee's latest book: The Silk Parachute. I didn't read all the chapters, not particularly being captivated by golf and lacrosse, but I was interested in a chapter titled "Checkpoints," which are his notes on fact-checkers, especially at The New Yorker. And suddenly, this sentence popped up: "On the Merrimack River in Merrimack, New Hampshire, is a Budweiser brewery [the site of which] John and Henry Thoreau passed....in their homemade skiff on the journey that resulted in Henry's first book." Of all the allusions I could have read, this one to something I had read earlier the same day, seems quite striking to me.

So, YES on Woodsburner and MAYBE on Silk Parachute. There is enough in McPhee's book to like, if one likes his writing.

Yogurt Scones

Mollie says these are "unusually light and fluffy." Mine weren't. They were dense but were easy to make and tasted pretty good just out of the oven; by the next day they were a bit too dry and lumpy, an offering those not in the least interested in eating nourishing healthy food would decline. I think they would be good for breakfast with a crowd, right out of the oven and eaten promptly with "butter and good preserves."

Grey Catbird

I hung a suet feeder from a tree outside the window, so I can work at the computer and also watch birds. The squirrels (and maybe raccoons) ate the first cake of suet in a few days, but some bits drop on the ground as they pick away. This afternoon, I looked out and a catbird was cleaning up what had fallen. A catbird is completely dark gray but with a small black cap on the top of its head and beady black eyes. They are quite common but not generally a feeder bird, at least not in my experience. They can sound exactly like a cat hidden in the brush, or they can sing beautifully from a tree top, which is where I often saw and heard them this spring just off the Stu Visser trail. One day, there were four of them, feeding on sumac in a tree right at trailside.

Book: A Good Death by Gil Courtemanche

The patriarch of a large family has advanced Parkinson's disease. The story is told by his oldest son, who is now 60, and who explores the anger and ambivalence he feels towards a father he hasn't loved for a long time. While Anatole (the father) raised his family to fear him, physically abused them at times, was not always truthful, was an autocrat, still, as he loses his power, things become more complicated. The family gathers for Christmas and then New Year's Eve. The author divides his siblings into the Buddhists and the Medicals, those who are not grounded enough in reality and those who are strident and too rational. This tale is told with humor and poignancy. The narrator collaborates with his nephew Sam as they try to figure out how to deal with the irascible old man. The wife/mother is wonderfully drawn, and not simply, in her unwavering love for her children and her husband. Her character slowly emerges through the book. This is one more book about universal family dynamics and how many of us remain connected in ways that can surprise us.

Book: The Tourist by Olen Steinhauer

The CIA (Company) has a secret rogue branch and those who work there are called Tourists. Milo Weaver was once a Tourist until he burned out and became a more conventional citizen, a man with a wife and daughter. But he continued to work for the CIA, just not as a Tourist. Then there is Homeland Security and inevitable tensions between these agencies. Some in the Company think of America as an Empire, and they manipulate emerging countries as in a chess game, still believing in the ultimate invincibility and supremacy of America. The author lives in Budapest and thus moves with ease through the geography of Europe where much of the action occurs. There are the Chinese and their reliance on oil from Sudan; an assassin who targets people all over the world; Milo's persistence in tracking this man. There is a Russian thread running through the book, along with Milo's murky past. This is a book of spies, counterspies, double agents, and tangled threads of terror, intrigue, espionage, power used and abused, trickery and disillusion. It was a lot like Vince Flynn novels. As always, these novels do make one wonder what exactly our government is doing and/or what they are capable of doing, given certain political ideologies at the highest levels.

Book: Shopping for Porcupine by Seth Kantner

This book is a Milkweed Editions book. Milkweed is an independent, nonprofit company who publishes books it feels make "a human impact on society, in the belief that good writing can transform the human heart and spirit."

Seth was born and raised and still lives in NW Alaska, north of Nome, north of the Arctic Circle. As he says, his Father "chose the tundra." This book is a paean to the land and, at times, a bittersweet swan song for the Alaska he knew as a child but which is changing because of oil, the snowmobile and climate warming. There are lovely photographs of the natural world and his family and friends in Alaska. He writes of the elders, the tundra and mountains, the rivers and ocean, the caribou, bears, moose, ducks and geese, wolves and salmon, the perils of ice-covered rivers, the cold and the dark, of berries and bugs, and of what subsistence hunting really means. He writes, "Our need for foods and furs from the land has shrunk exponentially as the Gore-Tex and plastic, Pepsi and Banquet chicken have some off the airplanes. But our ability to harvest animals grows with every Ski-Doo and Ruger rifle. In the villages now a new generation has been raised in HUD house, on basketball, satellite TV and Nintendo..."

While for most of us, Alaska is a wondrous land known only through photos, documentaries and various magazines and books, for Seth Kantner, it is his reality and his sanity. He is a true Alaskan child.

Book: The Unbearable Lightness of Scones by Alexander McCall Smith

This is Mr. McCall's new 44 Scotland Street novel, and it is the first one of that series that I've read. I always find his books a delight no matter what he writes about. This series is about the lives of neighbors and friends who live in Edinburgh. There is a marriage and subsequent honeymoon in Australia, precocious 6-year-old Bertie, his pals--including the bossy Olive--and his parents Irene and Stuart, a vainglorious young man named Bruce, Big Lou who owns the neighborhood coffee shop, Angus and his dog Cyril and Domenica. There are 100 chapters, and the threads of these various people and their daily activities move through the book as McCall gently advocates civility while writing about the common and uncommon, the ordinary and extraordinary, little mysteries, and the worlds of adults, children and dogs. The author is prolific, yet he writes with grace and humor as his characters move under his microscope, wherever they are in the world.