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Entry tags:
flora, fauna, and fungi
Flora: a few days ago a baby cherry tree arrived on our doorstep, and yesterday I planted it on the sublawn. At the moment it looks like a 4-foot-high stick, although there are two dead leaves hanging off it. Next step: pray that it survives the winter and becomes a stick with branches and leaves next summer. Within a few years it should be producing flowers and fruit.
Fauna: a few nights ago as I was walking the dogs, I heard an owl in the top of a tall pine tree in a neighbor's back yard: a series of mournful "whoo"'s, all on the same pitch, half, eighth, eighth, dotted-half, dotted-half, dotted-half. Which if I read Peterson's Guide correctly means a female great horned owl. I'm not sure I've ever seen one of those in the wild, so this would be pretty cool. I wouldn't expect to see one in a residential neighborhood, but we are only two short blocks from a square mile of wooded park, so it's not out of the question. I haven't heard it since.
Fungi: I baked sourdough bread yesterday, and it rose quite enthusiastically. (Mixed flour and water around 8 PM, added starter around 10 PM, added eggs, salt, and more flour around 10 AM, baked around 3 PM.) I formed a loaf and put it in a proofing basket lined with parchment paper, and when I came back to transfer it to the Romertopf for baking, it was decidedly too long to fit in the Romertopf. So I chopped off one end and put it in a greased mixing bowl as a mini-boule. I think that end deflated in the transfer process, so the mini-boule is sorta dense. Anyway, we used a couple of slices of the main loaf for patty melts last night.
Fauna: a few nights ago as I was walking the dogs, I heard an owl in the top of a tall pine tree in a neighbor's back yard: a series of mournful "whoo"'s, all on the same pitch, half, eighth, eighth, dotted-half, dotted-half, dotted-half. Which if I read Peterson's Guide correctly means a female great horned owl. I'm not sure I've ever seen one of those in the wild, so this would be pretty cool. I wouldn't expect to see one in a residential neighborhood, but we are only two short blocks from a square mile of wooded park, so it's not out of the question. I haven't heard it since.
Fungi: I baked sourdough bread yesterday, and it rose quite enthusiastically. (Mixed flour and water around 8 PM, added starter around 10 PM, added eggs, salt, and more flour around 10 AM, baked around 3 PM.) I formed a loaf and put it in a proofing basket lined with parchment paper, and when I came back to transfer it to the Romertopf for baking, it was decidedly too long to fit in the Romertopf. So I chopped off one end and put it in a greased mixing bowl as a mini-boule. I think that end deflated in the transfer process, so the mini-boule is sorta dense. Anyway, we used a couple of slices of the main loaf for patty melts last night.