4-24-10

SUNSET PT1

SUNSET PT2

SUNSET PT3

WE'RE NOT GOING SWIMMING IN THAT!

DIG THE NEW SHADES?

BEAUTIFUL BUT WINDY

WILD IRIS

HOME IS WHEREVER I'M WITH YOU

Camping is an activity neither of us had much experience with as children. Our parents never took us camping, and in the past few years together, we've camped almost as much as the prior 20-something years individually. The campground culture is amusing, and we wonder how we fit into it. A snapshot from earlier today included us sitting at our picnic table, each engrossed in novels with our full sized, Reader's Digest Oxford 1,829 page dictionary/thesaurus in between us. Jen finished Ruth Ozeki's "My Year of Meats" and Aaron concluded reading "Middlesex" by Jeffrey Eugenides. Around us, people were fishing, listening to loud boom boxes, playing games, and enjoying AM beers. Guess we don't fit the mold.

While on the topic of books, a wedding gift we received was the Peterson Field Guide, "Edible Wild Plants." It is our desire to learn how to forage for wild foods, which can supplement our grocery items. We are determined, and we carry this book around with us where ever we go. Unfortunately, the book is for Eastern/Central North America, and we are currently in Western North America. We brought it on our nature walk, hoping to identify something, but knowing many plants in our book would not exist in this habitat. We were able to identify 3 plants that we knew, and consulted the book to see if they were edible. Wild Irises, which are poisonous when eaten, Dandelions, which you can eat the leaves but they are extremely bitter, and ferns, which apparently you can eat. However, studies indicate a diet high in ferns may lead to stomach cancer. As a result, tonight we will be eating rice, beans, and corn roasted tamales for dinner.