The Holy Grail of Birds
The Florida bird guidebooks all show a multi-colored finch known as the painted bunting. This bird has a blue head, green wings and an orange-red breast. It looks as if nature used its purist spectral colors in designing this bird. This bunting is not common. A neighbor had told me that 20 years ago there
Kiss Your $700,000,000,000.00 Goodbye
This week the U. S. Congress passed and the President signed legislation that authorizes the Secretary of the Treasury to buy up to $700 billion of securities from certain companies. This is a bailout of Wall Street firms or a rescue of the U. S. banking system depending upon your viewpoint or degree of skepticism
Szechwan Cashew Chicken
This dish was my first venture into Chinese cooking 20 years ago
Book Review: Service Included
“Service Included: Four-Star Secrets of an Eavesdropping Waiter” by Phoebe Damrosch (William Morrow, $25)The sub-title refers to the four stars that the New York Times awarded the New York restaurant, Per Se. Per Se is the East Coast effort of Thomas Keller. He is famous in culinary circles for his Northern California restaurant, The French
Blinking Hawk
Caught this fellow blinking yesterday. What we see in the second photo is actually the third eyelid, which, I believe, comes from the right side of the eye (maybe from the back of the head). The first two eyelids are rarely used during the day. Read more here.
A Death in the Vineyard
Robert Gerald Mondavi (1913-2008) died on the 16th of this month. He was the patriarch of the modern Napa Valley wine industry; Doing more than anyone to change the perception of California wine from jug wine to fine wine. He traveled to fine restaurants all over the country promoting his wine at a time when
What is it?
Quiz for Monday morning. Can you identify the following item?. Hints: In was photographed this morning three steps from our front door. Here is another photo of the item–showing a larger view…Got it yet? . Well here is the answer. And a photograph of the artist. I hope that is a mosquito. My first thought
Easter Bunny
When we moved here 12 years ago we saw rabbits everywhere. Since we had no garden they posed no problem for us. The fat hawks and owls seemed to enjoy them too. The previous owner had taken a liking to rabbits and had purchased a dozen. After a while he had a lot more rabbits
Restaurant Review: P. F. Chang’s China Bistro
St. Johns Town Center, Jacksonville, Florida Why have we eaten at this Chinese restaurant six times within a year? Is it the quality? Yes, but relative quality not absolute quality. Let’s take a ride on this rickshaw! Hot and Sour Soup. Prepared by an accomplished Chinese chef this dish is an easy-to-understand example of the
Great Crested Flycatcher (Myiarchus crinitus)
We have had a family of these guys visiting for the past three springs. An attractive bird and rather large, 9 inches long, they are insect feeders (95% and 5% fruit/berries) usually catching their food on the wing. They are very accommodating at being photographed. It’s as if they are posing. The following photo was
FlexFuel Vehicles
There is a lot being said about energy dependency. There are few real solutions being offered. Robert Zubrin, whom you might dismiss offhand since he is best known as an advocate for colonizing Mars, has been propagating ideals to effectively reduce our dependency on foreign oil. Although his area of expertise is engineering his economics