5/19/08 Eating Fiddleheads

My first meal in my new apartment and I cooked those fiddleheads! I decided on the boiling recipe that was in the newspaper article. Frank Buckley said he boiled them for a few minutes, then removed all the brown stuff that is a part of the plant (Kathy told me it just comes off in the water and she was right) and then boiled for a few more minutes until done. Eeek. How do you tell when it's done? Well Mary told me that it's like any vegetable and you can eat it raw (some people eat it on their salads raw), al dente, lightly firm, or mushy. So I figured it didn't really matter.

Here's the finished product. There's still some brown on there but I got it all off. Look at the different colors of green depending on how long it's been cooked. They were delicious! I had enough to last for 3 meals, which Frank said he prefers to cook a big batch and then reheat them in small batches, so that's what I did. A little butter and salt and I was a happy camper.

5/19/08 Old Fashioned Road Construction Flag Man Set Up

I remember this from my childhood and was trying to figure out why I hadn't seen it in so long. I guess most of my driving has been on divided highways since my childhood and I just hadn't run into this. But here is an old fashioned flagman who is stopping the traffic in one direction while those of us coming from the other direction utilize the only available lane on the two-lane highway. Behind me was a truck that was part of the construction crew and he was the last one to get through from my direction. The flagman back on the other side of the construction had put up his STOP sign and was halting traffic coming from my direction. As soon as the truck and I get through, this flagman in the picture will turn his sign from STOP to SLOW and allow this line of vehicles to utilize the single lane. As I recall, back when gas was cheap and walkie talkies weren't, the construction truck was the signal of the end of the line and the time to let the waiting traffic proceed. That truck would then turn around and get at the end of the now moving line and follow it through signaling the other side that it was now their turn. I'm thinking it's all done by walkie talkie now but it was a fun flashback.

PS This was on the road to Dixfield where I taught my graduate course this semester. Except this time I wasn't going teaching, I was going to Mexico, Maine, which is just a few miles beyond Dixfield, and is the closest Maine Bureau of Motor Vehicles. I got my Maine driver's license today!

5/18/08 & 5/19/08 Blooming Trees

Here are photos of the crabapple tree for Darlene to enjoy since she missed spring at her own house.

5/18/08 & 5/19/08 Tulips At My Door

These are Darlene's 4 new tulips that she planted last winter. She left town before they bloomed (she left May 16) so I promised I would let her know what color they were. I took the first two photos on May 18 when they were just blooming, then it got chilly and they closed back up, which is what is seen in the bottom two photos taken on May 19. This is so weird! It's the middle of May and tulips are just now blooming! It's worth the wait. :-)