Tuesday Night Tilapia

Is it any wonder that the best meals are sometimes the ones you don't plan. I had NO idea of what to cook tonight. I rushed into the kitchen at 5:30 with a plan to cook some frozen tilapia filets (fast and good).

I made the usual BIG salad, and then everything went morphing along as I checked the contents of the frig and crispers and pantry.

We dined elegantly on: Ginger Citrus Tilapia over brown rice (Schwan's frozen...awesome and fast). I created a coconut milk/citrus/curry sauce for the fish and rice..using a touch of cayenne pepper and turmeric. Our vegetable side was steamed green beans with dill and cilantro. This was such a good supper, and dessert was our homemade fruit salad!

We had to take pictures of the food tonight. Yum! Happy eating!

On The Way to the Kiln

The following pots will soon be bisque fired and will be coming soon to a gallery near you. If they stay in one piece...it's clay, ya know??

Check back soon for further developments!

Tracking In The Snow

Oh, what a beautiful Winter day! The temperature shot up to about 33, and the brilliant sun just demanded that we take a walk.

As usual, we found evidence that we were NOT alone! Here's a quick series of animal tracks that you are (probably) familiar with:

This multitude of tracks was found in our backyard. Clue: the little black dots are Thistle seed. Hmmmm...... This track was made by my Daughter-in-law's favorite furry rodent. Hmmm.......

And this is the track of my daughter's favorite lagomorph. Hmmmmm.....

These tracks run all over our area, next to the houses, and ... in some instances...right UP TO the houses! Hint: in Winter, they eat just about

anything. Hmmmm....

But THIS track is the MOST PUZZLING one of all! Do you think...can it be??....BIGFOOT?????

(We had a LOT of fun with this...)

January with the Seniors

The snow has fallen, and the sun came out in all its brilliant January glory. Who could resist a walk in the woods?

Bundled up and ready, we started out down the Canal Path in Seneca, heading West toward Marseilles. The weather was, indeed, perfect. Snowmobiles had blazed the trail for us, and walking through the fluffy snow was easy.

We checked out the tracks on the path as we

always do. It's fun to see which animals are out and about in Winter, and how many we can identify. One of the first we spotted today was this one.

Do you know

what critter this is?*

Living rural, we are up to date on the farm scene. A lot of corn is still in the fields, and because of this, the blackbird population did not leave the area this Winter.

We spotted many a tree full of blackbirds (usually a mix of grackles, cowbirds and the occasional Red-winged Blackbird), and many a cornfield with the

stalks supporting a huge cast of the birds. In our backyard

at home, the tree behind one of our feeders is ideal perching for the gang.

Along this section of the path, with the old canal (or what is left of it to the North), we have spotted signs of what it must have looked like earlier. Some of the trees still retain hooks for barbed wire fencing in

their thick bark. In fact, some of the old cottonwoods have embedded barbed wire under new bark growth. And there are the abandoned farm buildings. What a story they could tell if they could speak.

With 2010 upon us, and the wonderful January air

filling our lungs, it seemed only natural to make

the first snow angel of the year here on our very

own Canal Path.

After quite a trek, we

called it a day, and headed home, But we had to snap one more photo

by the I&M Canal Path sign for Seneca's historic site: The Hogan

Grain Elevator, which was THE hot spot during the heydey of the

Canal, with barges of grain headed to Seneca for storage.

So don't be a couch potato in Winter. Put on the long underwear and

GET OUT THERE! It will put the roses in your cheeks.

*The print is a Wild Turkey. We saw him, too, running down the path

ahead of us. He obviously chose the path over the deep snow...Wild Turkeys

are not dummies!

January Pots

On such a snowy day, it's a real picker-upper to unload the kiln and have the time to take photos of the latest pots to make their appearance.