Cocktail Hour Under the Tree of Forgetfulness Discussion

October 13, 2014October 12, 2014 by Sarah | 1 Comment

Fair warning, this discussion (and probably many of the comments) will have SPOILERS so please don’t read this post if you haven’t finished the book yet. After you’re done, feel free to revisit this post and share your thoughts with us.

Hey book worms! Have you finished reading Alexandra Fuller’s Cocktail Hour Under the Tree of Forgetfulness? (Don’t feel too bad, Katie hasn’t finished it yet either.) Today we asked our mom to share her thoughts on the book. We thought it would be fitting because she finished reading the book before both Katie and I and since this book is largely about Fuller’s mum, we thought it’d be interesting to hear our mom’s thoughts on it. If you missed our discussion of Fuller’s first book, Don’t Let’s Go to the Dogs Tonight, you can check it out and participate here.

Before we get to that, I also wanted to introduce our autumn book club pick! Katie started reading Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn and is absolutely loving it so we decided everyone else (including myself) should join in on the adventure. I actually saw the movie in theaters last week. I’m excited to compare notes with Kate and it will be interesting to dissect our thoughts and perceptions of both the book and movie since we’ll be consuming them in the opposite order. If you’d like to join our discussion, go grab a copy and start reading!

Now onto our mom’s thoughts on Cocktail Hour Under the Tree of Forgetfulness…

The Live Seasoned sisters have asked me to lend a hand on this book discussion, as I finished the read on our 23 hour trek from Raleigh-Durham to Boulder. Let me first give you my perspective on novel reading. We sit down and watch tv and everything is laid out for us, no deep thought involved, just entertainment or trying to solve the puzzle before the end of the show. When I read a novel, I am constantly in the moment thinking about the characters, their situation, and then I am usually carried off thinking about my reactions if I were the character in that their particular situation, or it makes me think of situations related to my own life’s journey.

When the Live Seasoned sisters respond to their book selections, they are looking through the eyes of the child and in the case of the books they have selected thus far, the novels are written from the point of view of the child. This will be a switch since I am viewing the book through the eyes of the mom…the crazy mom, of which I have some experience.

I can’t imagine being Nicola Fuller living with the threat of war around her, losing a child, no less more than one child…I think she has earned the right to be somewhat crazy. She relies on liquor to escape and to keep going…who does she have to turn to, to rely on? I wonder if she keeps somewhat of a distance between herself and her girls to try to make their loss bearable, in case it would come to that? I wonder about what changed, what went wrong around the 40s and 50s, that women needed to find a coping mechanism…liquor, darvon, Valium, marijuana, heroine, oxycodone? The sweet and funny times in my life are in my memory, at times forgotten, but when we are together, those memories are pulled out like woolen sweaters from a cedar chest. But, the tragic sorrowful times have made scars that constantly pinch me. I think this is what brings about the craziness in me and in someone like Nicole.

While looking through the discussion questions for this book one that is interesting to discuss is the relationship between Nicola and Tim…two opposites that attracted. Isn’t it the opposite, the mysterious, that attracts us? What happens when the novelty wears off? Tim goes off and does his thing while Nicola carries on the best she can at home…no back-up…deal the best you can. It’s interesting how men can do their thing and be so oblivious and disconnected to the goings on and the needs of their families. Isn’t it funny that raising a family, something so important, is a total learn by doing, somehow we are expected to have those instincts.

I read these stories and wonder what goes on in the hearts and heads of the characters, but who really knows what experiences have piled up upon them to steer their thoughts and actions. I am unable to recall specific events in the novels I read! as I constantly relate the moment to my own experience, helping to explain or validate my feelings and reactions, and then I move on…just as Nicola does…you just keep moving on. I must say, though, one moment that really stood out to me, is when she dressed the girls for Halloween, I think it is kind of funny that the novels chosen by my daughters are about crazy mommas. Are they trying to figure out this crazy momma…I can’t even do that. We pick and choose the moments to remember, I have many sweet and tragic and funny that come together to steer me along the way, all the while trying to stay sane.

Two Bits

October 10, 2014October 10, 2014 by Sarah | 1 Comment

Instead of the usual links posts, each Friday we’re going to start sharing some tidbits from our week. We want to break down these internet barriers and invite you into our lives and we’re hoping you’ll do the same. You are welcome to share your a bit of your week or day in the comments, or if they’re better represented by a photo, tag us on instagram @liveseasoned

Katie here:

A bit late, I know!

It’s been one of those nice and mellow weeks around here. A bit of work, a bit of fun, and nothing too hectic on the schedule. Little A and I had to run to Denver for a few errands, so we stopped at the zoo to give him a little bit of time outside the car. Of course he loved it, especially being able to run free on those wide open walkways. He’s also a fan of the giraffes, elephants, and big cats (when they’re awake and walking around, when they’re sleeping he’s not interested). Like many people, I have mixed feelings about zoos, but while there I try to focus on the work they do to bring people close to these wild animals, hopefully forming some bonds that will make little kids grow up to be people who care about conservation.

I ~~picked up~~ downloaded to my phone Gone Girl when we went camping a few weeks ago, not realizing that it was about to come out as a blockbuster movie (we don’t have TV, so we miss many of those movie previews that would have clued me in). What a great book! I was reading it slowly for the first half, but as things have gotten crazy, I haven’t been able to put it down – staying up extra late to read it and squeezing in a page here and there when I have a free moment. I’ve avoided everything related to the movie so that doesn’t impact the story in my head, but I’ll be excited to see the movie when I’m done.

Sarah here:

I woke up around 5 a.m. every single day this past week! (Katie is probably rolling her eyes since her little one has her up at that time every morning) Waking up early goes against every grain in my body, but I happened to have five days of sunrise shoots all in a row. Here’s the kicker though, after waking up so early five days in a row, I was so tired come the sixth day that I slept in and missed the lunar eclipse on Wednesday morning! So bummed about that. Did any of you guys catch it?

Yesterday was another early morning as well. I flew into hot and humid Houston! It was my first time flying Southwest in a few years. Did you know that you pick your own seat?! It’s crazy. I checked in way early so I basically had first dibs, but I was feeling bad for couples at the end of the line. Middle seats allllll around. I didn’t get to see much of Houston today because of work, but I should get a chance to walk around tomorrow. If so, I’ll get on the ball with IG, something I’ve been slacking on. I did take one photo today, meet my new buddy Fajita!

Brie with Truffle Honey

October 9, 2014March 15, 2018 by Katie | Leave a comment

We plan on eating a whole lot of cheese this fall, and then we’ll talk abut it here. Sarah kicked off the cheese-fest with a nut crusted brie, and while there are many different cheeses in the world, I couldn’t help but share another delicious brie idea. Next time a hard cheese, we promise.

I love the flavor of truffles, and whenever there is a truffled this or that on a menu, I’m going to order it. My last truffle indulgence was the delicious Lamb Bolognese with Truffled Ricotta Gnucchi at The Pullman in Glenwood Springs, CO. So good! And what a great guy Calder is by indulging my truffle love – he hates the flavor (thinks it tastes like gasoline!), but he knew that a jar of truffle honey would be the perfect Valentine’s Day gift.

The Honey

Truffle honey is made by adding shaved truffles to honey and then heating it to speed up the extraction of the truffle flavor. You should be able to find some at gourmet cheese shops, but it’s also easy to buy online. It’s not cheap, but a single jar goes a long way. The jar I have has an intense flavor, so just like dishes that use truffle oil or real truffles, this may not be for everyone. Of course, if you know a truffle lover, I guarantee you that they will love this!

Until receiving this gift, I never had or heard of truffle honey and wasn’t sure what to do with it, but quickly discovered that it’s commonly paired with cheese and bread. But what cheese? It seems that everyone has their favorite pairing, some swear by a hard and strong cheeses like parmesan or cheddar while others gush over a soft and mild brie. I decided that I didn’t want to pair the honey with a strong flavored cheese, so I went with a relatively mild and rich brie. Once I had my cheese, I knew that the soft cheese/honey combination was calling out for a chewy bread that wouldn’t crumble with each bite. So I threw a baguette into my cart and we had the makings for a perfect appetizer.

The Cheese

Bries are soft cheeses from France. They’re made from cow’s milk and surrounded by a hard, moldy or “bloomy“, edible rind. The mold will have a white to light yellow color (not the blues of the molds that come to mind when talking about blue cheese). The mold is essential to creating the cheese as it works to break down the fat and proteins of the milk and cream. Bries vary by the amount of cream used to make them, you may see “double” or “triple” on the label signifying increasing amounts of cream. Increasing the cream level increases the richness and buttery-smooth texture of the final cheese.

When picking a brie you want to look for a “ripe” cut. When brie is perfectly ripe, it won’t be runny or pungent (there are other soft cheeses that are made to be purposefully pungent, brie isn’t one of them). As a brie ripens, you may notice that the wheel of cheese will bulge slightly, especially when cut. You’ll likely buy a wedge from a larger wheel, which makes picking easier. Look for a wedge with a uniform interior consistency that is slowly falling out of the rind. For comparison, an unripe wedge will have a firm interior (or combination firm and soft) that is the same shape as the wedge, i.e. not expanding beyond the original cut.

There are a variety of bries on the market, and I think Supreme is a great, basic example that’s affordable and readily available at many grocers (including Trader Joes if you’re looking for a source).

Serving Suggestion

Once you have your cheese, honey, and bread, serving is easy. We placed everything on a marble board with utensils for self-service. A bread knife for the baguette, a spreader for the cheese, and a small spoon for the honey. That way everyone could personalize their serving. Calder could skip the honey, I could pile it on (and then eat it straight from the spoon), and our civilized guests could take as much or little as they wanted with each slice.

If you have the opportunity, I hope you’ll give truffle honey a try. And with the upcoming holiday/entertaining season, this makes a fantastic surprise to any cheese plate or gift for your truffle-loving friends!

Dandruff Shampoo. seriously.

October 8, 2014June 18, 2015 by Katie | Leave a comment

You are now well aware that Sarah and I like to mix our own cosmetic and beauty products, which we jokingly refer to and tag as potions. So far we’ve shared the gamut from dry shampoo to pore strips to deodorant along with the more mundane (yet totally sinus opening and skin smoothing) body scrubs. Just to add fuel to the fire, I recently learned that my local herbal apothecary offers classes in mixing your own salves, balms, perfumes, and more. It looks like our potion blending isn’t going to slow down anytime soon! But today I’m going to share a potion that’s a bit less glamorous ~ homemade dandruff shampoo.

I moved to Colorado and my head turned into a blizzard. Why? In general terms, dandruff is caused when the skin cells on your scalp grow and die off too fast. In some people it coincides with the dry air of winter, in others it may be compounded by stress, and commonly it’s due to the fungus malassezia. The fungus requires fat to grow, and so it’s commonly found on our scalps, where we have plenty of oil producing sebaceous glands.

In my case, I would like to blame the outbreak on a change in my body chemistry after becoming pregnant, or Colorado’s dry weather, but if you ask Sarah, she will quickly laugh and tell you that I’m a great host for fungus*. We won’t go into detail, but being the great host that I am, I have some experience treating the fun-guys, and every time I’ve turned to tea tree oil. A vast number of studies have shown that it’s a great fungicide and has proven effective in treating a number of different fungal infections on and in humans (everything from dandruff to toenail fungus to athlete’s foot). You’re starting to get grossed out, aren’t you? How about some cute mushrooms to return you to your happy place?

Since tea tree oil is powerful in its concentrated form, you want to be careful about using it at full strength (and some people are extra sensitive or allergic, so test your sensitivity if you’ve never used it before). An easy way to use tea tee oil as a cure for dandruff is to mix it into your shampoo. As little as 5% tea tree oil is enough to do the job. Rather than mixing it with each shower, I like to make up a large batch using 5% tee tree oil and 95% Dr. Bronner’s crazy magic amazing wonderful liquid heaven. As you can see in the photo, I put it in its own labeled bottled and am good to go.

I’m sure you never get dandruff, but if you happen to run into a stranger with flakes, now you have a homemade and totally effective potion to share with them!

*If you’re interested in learning more about the fungus world, Sarah’s been reading Mycophilia by Eugenia Bone. She’s been raving about it and has me excited to read about the fungus among us.

Mushroom image from createnature.com.

Quick Pickles

October 7, 2014June 3, 2015 by Katie | Leave a comment

If you’ve been following along, you may have heard and seen that our farm share started. I’m still in disbelief that we were able to get a share that is this awesome so late in the season! And now I’m remembering what it’s like to have (the wonderful) pressure of a fridge full of veggies pushing me to get creative with dinner.

In this first box we received your typical fall fare: a few bunches of kale and chard, potatoes, squash, etc. What I didn’t expect were the couple of cucumbers and the big beautiful bunch of dill blossoms. I thought cucumber season had passed, and I’ve never received the dill blossoms, so this was a new and unexpected surprise. I have to admit that I have a tendency to buy cucumbers and forget about them, but I didn’t want to let that happen this time. So I turned to one of my favorite easy ways to use up those cukes in a jiffy: overnight pickles! We don’t buy pickles often (and when we do they tend to sit in the fridge for months), but these are different. They are so fresh and delicious, barely lasting a week in our house.

This recipe comes from my mom, but I adjusted it to make use of what I had on hand: eliminating the green pepper and adding the dill blossoms and a bit of fresh dill. Do you hear that? The blossoms were totally a bonus, this recipe is just as delicious without the fresh herb, but as you’ll see, they sure add a touch of something beautiful to the jar.

Ingredients

3 average-sized cucumbers (here I used 2 large)
1 green pepper
1 onion
1 Tbsp salt
2 tsp celery seed
3/4 cup sugar
1/2 fresh lemon juice
1 sliced lemon
optional – dill blossoms

How-to

Slice the cucumbers, green pepper, and onion, and mix them in a bowl with the salt and celery seed. Let this mixture stand for one hour.
Mix together the sugar and lemon juice and add it to the cucumber mixture. Add the sliced lemon and stir.
Cover the container and refrigerate for 24 hours before eating. I like to go in there and give it a stir once in a while, or if using a jar I just give it a gentle shake, slowly turning it upside down. The juices may not cover your mixture right away, but they will as the 24 hours progresses.

The blossoms are a really flavorful part of the dill plant. I added a few to a warm veggie mixture as it cooked, and they imparted a fantastic but not overpowering dill flavor. I found that they did a same thing here ~ creating a batch of pickles that had a sweet dill flavor. I added blossoms that weren’t fully open to my jar before filling it with the cucumber mixture (I’m not sure if there’s any difference in the flavor imparted by open versus closed blossoms?).

While the pickles taste delicious, I think I get just as much fun out of opening my fridge and seeing this beautiful jar sitting on the shelf (for the whole 2-3 days that it’s there!).

Ack, ok, maybe it’s even more fun seeing little A gobble them up and then sign for more with celery seeds sticking to his face!

Seasoned View: Vol. 7

October 6, 2014October 8, 2014 by Sarah | Leave a comment

Each month we share our Seasoned View. Snapshots of nature taken by the Seasoned sisters. Find last month’s here and past month’s here.

It’s October Ya’ll! How is autumn treating you? It was 40° in Chapel Hill, NC this morning, what a drag! It warmed up as the day went on, but it was still pretty windy and cool. (Here it is, my first weather complaint of the cold season!) A new month calls for a new Seasoned View. I’m so sad to see September’s cabbage leave my desktop, but the October shots are colorful and cool so upload one or all of them to use as your desktop background or even as phone and tablet wallpapers. Simply click on the download link below each photo and save the image. Enjoy!

Click here for fall foliage.

Click here for golden maple.

Click here for little liberty caps.

Click here for spiky seed pod.

Click here for bittersweet berries.

Click here for looking up.

Happy Monday and enjoy your new view 😉

Two Bits

October 3, 2014October 3, 2014 by Katie | 4 Comments

Instead of the usual links posts, each Friday we’re sharing some tidbits from our week. We want to break down these internet barriers and invite you into our lives, and we’re hoping you’ll do the same. You are welcome to share your a bit of your week or day in the comments, or if they’re better represented by a photo, tag us on instagram @liveseasoned

Katie here:

I confess, I’m a dedicated holiday decorator. I know not everyone is, but I think it comes with growing up in the coal region where porches are decorated for every holiday, going way beyond the traditional lights at Christmas. So when October arrived I spared no time putting some fall/October/halloween touches on our mantel! With so few surfaces in our small downstairs, it’s great having the mantel to decorate, especially since it’s out of Little A’s reach. And speaking of the little guy, one of his first words was bird, which he loves to look for when we’re outside. As soon as he saw the crows, he was so excited that there were “burds” in the house and kept yelling “burd” as he pointed at them.

In other news – the Seasoned family is growing! We’re expecting another little baby to arrive sometime this spring in late March or early April. This week we just found out that it’s a boy, and we’re over the moon with excitement, but now we’re struggling to come up with a list of boy names. Look out for a few baby and mom-related posts on the blog :-)… and know that when I share my favorite sidecar recipe, it kills me that I’m not drinking it along with you.

Sarah here:

Last week it felt like fall and this week it feels like summer. Changing weather makes me realize how much I love it all! One day I’m excited to pull a sweater over my head and the next I’m talking about how great flip flops are. The summer vibe I’m feeling may have something to do with the beach wedding that I photographed this past weekend. A long time bestie of mine got married at the Jersey shore. The bf, dog and I piled in the car and made the ten hour trip north. We stayed at an airbnb and we were not disappointed. If you ever find yourself near Tom’s River, NJ, stay with Keith! Back to the nuptials: all the weddings I shoot are fun and full of personality, but this one was so different than any of the others. The couple took their whole bridal party to Casino Pier (a stinkin’ cute boardwalk) to get photos taken. We ended up running and twirling through the sand and then playing skee ball and frog bog! The photos are way too cute and I can’t wait to edit them.

Last week I almost mentioned a new job opportunity as one of my two bits and I wish I would have because you could have had a good laugh because I already got fired! Yep. Got a job. Lost a job. I make an income as a freelance photographer and most times it’s good fun and sometimes it’s a little stressful. It can be hard work trying to schedule clients and gigs not knowing if a better opportunity will come along in the meantime. You don’t want to miss out on gigs that will grow your business, but you always want to keep returning clients happy so you book even more gigs and referrals through happy customers. Anyway, I thought I would go ahead and book several videography events that I would file under ‘learning opportunities’ because I wouldn’t get paid my usual rate, but I would gain some valuable experience shooting video. In the meantime, an architectural photographer that I consistently work with asked me to travel to Texas for a shoot during one of those video days that I had just booked, I’m talking yesterday. So, I call the videographers and ask if I could possibly reschedule and if not I would be glad to do it. They called back and told me how unreliable I was and that they wouldn’t be working with me again in the future. I’m feeling like I just got dumped over here. I guess a trip to Texas will do me some good. Yeehawwww! Got any good recommendations for Houston? Happy Friday folks and have a great weekend!

Apple Sidecar

October 2, 2014July 5, 2015 by Katie | Leave a comment

Apples are our ingredient of the season. So far we’ve done some baking and some drinking.

I don’t know about where you live, but here in Boulder we’ve had a string of chilly fall-like days with views of fresh snow on the mountains. What’s better on a chilly Thursday than a cocktail that warms you up from the inside out?! If you haven’t had a sidecar yet, get ready to sit back, enjoy it in front of the fire, and plan on doing nothing for the rest of the night.

Sidecars are traditionally made with cognac, triple sec, and lemon juice. Today we’re substituting an apple-infused brandy for the cognac. Funny thing – cognac and brandy are the same thing, but to be called a Cognac it must come from a specific region in France. In the past I’ve used Jacques Cardin’s Apple Flavored Cognac. Today we’re making it with Santa Fe Spirits Apple Brandy because we wanted to try something new, and it’s produced closer to home with apples grown in New Mexico!

Ingredients

2 parts cognac or brandy
1 part triple sec
1 part fresh lemon juice
ice
optional – simple syrup

The How-to

Fill a cocktail shaker with ice
Add all of the ingredients and shake
Pour into the glass of your choosing, traditionally a cocktail glass would be used. I prefer a rocks glass… but then I thought that this would be perfect for drinking around a campfire, so why not use an enamel camping mug?!
Garnish with a bit of apple & enjoy!

Extra Tips

As I mentioned, this can be a strong drink. You can do a number of things to weaken the drink. Start by using some simple syrup – either adding 1 part to the mix above, substituting it for the triple sec, or using equal parts of your choosing. You can also serve the drink over ice to add even more water as you drink.
I enjoyed sampling the sidecar with the Santa Fe brandy, but remember the Jacques Cardin cognac to be slightly smoother (although it’ll still knock your socks off).

Welcome October

October 1, 2014October 1, 2014 by Sarah | Leave a comment

On the first Wednesday of each month we like to pause and take a look at what’s going on in the world around us, with a particular focus on animal activity, celestial events, and our farmers’ fields.

Last week we welcomed the official Autumn Equinox. Katie and I both camped last week in our separate necks of the wood and I speak for both of us when I say how lovely it was. It is truly comfortable outside. I love fall for its cool breeze and warm sun. If you’re a photographer you know that shooting during October sunsets is magical. The leaves are changing, the weather is perfect and the light is warm.

Hikes take more time in Autumn because there is so much to see. Mushrooms are springing up after the first fall rains, flowers are both blooming and going to seed and animal activity is abundant. I may be making this up (definitely am), but Autumn seems like everyone’s favorite time of year. We are shaking off summer, enjoying the changing seasons and attending every fair and festival like it’s going out of style, which well, it is because in a couple months it will be winter, but we don’t have to talk about that right now.

Last year at this time, I stayed in a yurt with my sister Kristin and some friends and we had a little visit from Katie and her forest monster. I hope you plan a little something to soak up the season this month 🙂

Fields and Festivals

Farmer’s markets at this time of year are my favorite. The weather is usually sunny, but there is a nice breeze, which means I can meander through the market and take my time with selecting which veggies I’ll purchase from which vendor. Unfortunately it’s also the time of year when markets transition from two to one day each week. Three local markets in my area have cut back to one day and while I really don’t need to go twice a week, I really do enjoy the errand. Like we mentioned last month, this is the time of year when crops that need a full summer growing season and ready to be harvested and brought to market. At my market in Carrboro, North Carolina, I’m see lots of summer and winter squash including butternut, acorn and pumpkin. There are also a wide variety of tomatoes, apples, melons, and greens. I’m contemplating joining a CSA for the winter. I know it will mostly be filled with kale, chard, lettuces, beets, carrots and turnips, but it might be nice to be forced (ok, gently prodded) to go to the market to pick up my box each week-even in the dead of winter.

Don’t have a favorite farmer’s market? Autumn is a fantastic time to pick wild mushrooms. You should always pick with someone who is experienced in the craft, but if you’ve never done it before, you should try it this fall. Look up a local mycological club, call an old friend (and mushroom expert) or attend a conference! Make sure you know a little bit about mushroom etiquette before you hit the trails though. Don’t pick on private property unless you have permission and know the rules about permits and such before picking in state and national forests.

Now that we’re talking about picking, I’m thinking about pumpkin patches. I love outdoor autumn activities and picking my own pumpkin nearly tops the list. I came across this website that lets you search pick-your-own farms by country, state and county. While you’re out in the farmer’s field, I’m sure you can talk them into letting you take a few dried cornstalks home for decoration. While we’re on the topic of pumpkins, I wanted to admit to a slightly shameful story. Until 2010 I had always thought of pumpkins as decorations instead of food. I would eat pumpkin pie and various other dishes made with pumpkin, but in my mind they registered as jack-o-lanterns and decorations rather than a good source of fiber and other nutrients. It wasn’t until I worked with a group of Jamaican farmers (who grew lots of pumpkin) that I realized they were a great crop first and foremost and not simply a seasonal decoration. Now I make sure to roast the seeds from my carved pumpkins and use any whole pumpkins before they rot on my doorstep. Just some food for thought that I had failed to think about for the first 21 years of my life.

Along with flocking to pumpkin patches and going on hayrides, there are plenty of other festivals and activities to attend in October.

Watching the leaves change color in the Great Smoky Mountains in North Carolina and Tennessee attracts millions each year. (Fun fact: over 9.4 million people visited the park in 2010 making it the most visited national park. The second most popular is the Grand Canyon which had 4.4 million visitors in 2010)
Vermont is also a popular destination for leaf chasers, but really, any forest is bursting with color this month so where ever you are, you don’t have to drive far, tie up your boots and hit the trail.
There’s more than just colorful leaves floating around, the Albuquerque Balloon Fiesta is in a few days!
October Autumn Fest is also this coming weekend in Fort Washington Park, Maryland. If you’re in the area you should check out the ranger scarecrow building contest.
Astronomy day is on October 4th. There may be some events at your local planetarium or museum.
The Earth Harmony Festival is a free weekend celebrating eco-living & sustainability. It’s held on the country’s largest EcoVillage located in Arizona. Did I mention that it’s free? There’s also a kickstarter for the event if you believe nothing in life is free..
While September was packed with environmental holidays, October has only a couple official ones, including World Habitat Day.

Avian & Astrological Activity

From what I’ve gathered, beehive robbing is quite common during the month of October. What do I mean by robbing? Robbing is when a beehive is attacked by invaders from other hives. Robbing is a serious situation for beehives because the colony will fight to its death. Also, if the invading army is stronger, it may steal all of the weak colony’s food, which it needs to survive the winter months.

I’ve been noticing lots of geese overhead this week and let me tell you, it never gets old. Each time I hear their honks I’m looking skyward and pointing it out to those nearby as if I’m one and a half years old and just learned the word for bird (shout out to my nephew!). I recently stumbled upon this website and while I would like to paraphrase their information for you, they said it just right, so here is a continental update from BirdCast: “Favorable conditions this past week bring widespread light to moderate movements to the West and moderate to heavy movements to the Plains, while increasingly scattered moderate movements occur in the East in more summer-like conditions. Species on the move this week will include Cackling, Snow, and Great White-fronted Geese, American Wigeon, Ring-necked Duck, Yellow-bellied Sapsucker, Northern Flicker, Hermit and Varied Thrushes, Ruby-crowned and Golden-crowned Kinglets, Brown Creeper, Gray Catbird, Orange-crowned, Palm, Yellow-rumped Warblers, Savannah, LeConte’s, Fox, White-throated, White-crowned, Golden-crowned, Harris’s, and Lincoln’s Sparrows, and Dark-eyed Junco.” I will definitely keep my eye on this website in the future so if you forget, we’ll keep you informed.

Now onto October’s astrological events, but first let me say that it is so. damn. hard. to find detailed migration information on the web. The search terms alone make it pretty difficult (animal migrations, animal activity, animal movement) because it seems the web is only focused on african animal migrations to attract tourism, animal activities for children to act out and animal movements as in, movements to benefit various animal groups. If you have any reliable animal migration sites (or searching suggestions) I would LOVE to hear about them. Please, I’m begging you. Ok, now let’s talk space:

Uranus at Opposition. Uranus will be at its closest approach to Earth and its face will be fully illuminated by the Sun. Due to its distance, it will only appear as a tiny blue-green dot, but nonetheless it’s the best time to view Uranus.
Total Lunar Eclipse. A total lunar eclipse occurs when the Moon passes completely through the Earth’s dark shadow, or umbra. During this type of eclipse, the Moon will gradually get darker and then take on a rusty or blood red color. The eclipse will be visible throughout most of North America, South America, eastern Asia, and Australia. Check out this map so that you’re prepared.
Draconids Meteor Shower. The Draconids is a minor meteor shower producing only about 10 meteors per hour. It is produced by dust grains left behind by comet 21P Giacobini-Zinner, which was first discovered in 1900. The shower runs annually from October 6-10 and peaks this year on the the night of the 8th and morning of the 9th. Due to the full moon, the shower will be less than spectacular. I recommend focusing all your energy on catching the eclipse or the Orionids Meteor Shower.
Orionids Meteor Shower. The Orionids is an average shower producing up to 20 meteors per hour at its peak. It is produced by dust grains left behind by comet Halley, which has been known and observed since ancient times. The shower runs annually from October 2 to November 7. It peaks this year on the night of October 21 and the morning of October 22. This will be an excellent year for the Orionids because there will be no moon to interfere with the show. Meteors will radiate from the constellation Orion, but can appear anywhere in the sky.
Partial Solar Eclipse. A partial solar eclipse occurs when the Moon covers only a part of the Sun. It can only be safely observed with a special solar filter or by looking at the Sun’s reflection. The partial eclipse will be visible throughout most of North and Central America. Check out this map to be better prepared.

Looking back through past October photos, it is clear that this month deserves to be spent outside. I think I’m finally going to treat myself to a trip to Asheville, something I’ve been meaning to do since July. Have you ever been there? Any suggestions for me? I’d love to hear about them in the comments.

A nature-inspired lifestyle blog.

Monthly Archives: October 2014

Cocktail Hour Under the Tree of Forgetfulness Discussion

Fair warning, this discussion (and probably many of the comments) will have SPOILERS so please don’t read this post if you haven’t finished the book yet. After you’re done, feel free to revisit this post and share your thoughts with us.