There are many gulls sitting on these rocks at the Asbury Park beach. But you will see at the end of the post, the humans out number the gulls.
One lone gull (is he a gull? See this list of sea birds) flies away from his friends. This one appears brown.
A brown gull flies by the active waves. Crafty Green Poet writes: “the brown bird is probably a young gull, most species of gull have I think three years in brown plumage (slightly different each of the years) before they take on adult plumage” – thank you!
A few brave souls sit on the rocks at the beach. My kids both went dunking into the freezing May waters. I just put in my toe. My husband relaxed on the beach – too cold for him.
This photo should give you an idea of how crowded it was on the beach. And economically, this is good news. Asbury Park was very depressed in the past thirty years. My husband grew up in this area, and he saw the decline. About one hundred years ago, it was quite a fashionable place. People may no longer walk in fancy dresses and suits, but the new restaurants and shops are upscale. I hope the gulls don’t mind.
Pictured in the crowded beach photo are the Asbury Park Theatre (see it in my Asbury post from last year) and the Berkeley Carteret Hotel.
For more Nature Notes, visit Rambling Woods:
In honor of Jerusalem, I am posting a few pictures from our 2008 trip:
This is a synagogue that was destroyed by the Arab Legion in 1948. Here it is, in the Old City of Jerusalem, being rebuilt. The original Hurva synagogue was built in the 18th century and destroyed by Muslims. As it lay in ruins for 140 years until being rebuilt in 1864, it became known as the Hurva, which means ruins.
Migdal David (Tower of David) is now a fun historical museum by the Jaffa Gate. It wasn’t a museum when I first visited in 1980. You can see the winding tree sculpture on this photo of mine.
These flowers are growing by the arch in Migdal David – you can see my photo of the arch here.
If you think the “Old City” of Jerusalem is old – actually, it is new compared to the City of David. Pictured are excavations at the site. If you visit Jerusalem, I highly recommend a City of David tour.
For more Jerusalem Day posts:
In memory of the many soldiers that have died serving the U.S. or in any country that allowed the rest of us to have freedom, here’s the famous Flanders fields poem by Canadian John McCrae, written during World War I:
In Flanders fields the poppies blow
Between the crosses, row on row,
That mark our place; and in the sky
The larks, still bravely singing, fly
Scarce heard amid the guns below.
We are the Dead. Short days ago
We lived, felt dawn, saw sunset glow,
Loved and were loved, and now we lie
In Flanders fields.
Take up our quarrel with the foe:
To you from failing hands we throw
The torch; be yours to hold it high.
If ye break faith with us who die
We shall not sleep, though poppies grow
In Flanders fields
The two orange “blobs” in my photo (behind the rocket-like white columbine) are marigolds.
On a related topic, What’s a Doughboy?
Jazz girl (namely my daughter) wants you to help with this post. As I wanted to write a post but I wasn’t sure what to say, I decided to ask questions. Pick any or all and answer in the comments.
- Are you reading or have you read any good books? Care to share?
I’m reading The River Midnight by Lilian Nattel; I found it buried in a stack of books at the Highland Park Public Library book sale on Sunday. It’s a novel about women in a shtetl in Poland: one in particular who has not been able to have children and her friend and neighbor who has many, more than she can handle.
- When you think of a photo from any blog other than your own, which photo first comes to mind?
I had in mind one post of an old house by EG Wow, but somehow I landed on this house by Lake Ontario.
- Can you name any recipe from a blog other than your own that influenced your cooking or baking?
It would have to be Batya’s cake recipe (from 2005!) – she no longer talks about cake. Last year she talked a lot about diets, and this year she has been posting about simple cooking.
- If you are a lurker (someone who reads this blog but rarely or never comments), will you delurk and say hello?
By the way, my daughter danced with a different teacher tonight, and it went well. So we probably have a new dance studio for her for September. And if you haven’t yet visited my free postcard giveaway post, you still have a few days left to join just by leaving a comment on that post.
These cookies were a Mother’s Day present from my daughter. She had a school assignment to get recipes for a book that would be presented to the mothers on Mother’s Day. So she and my husband went looking for the “perfect” cookie recipe – actually, they took various recipes they found online and combined them into a Raspberry Oatmeal Walnut Cookie. Last Friday I decided to make the cookies based on her recipe, and I was wondering why the recipe called for 3 cups of whole wheat flour AND 1 cup of oatmeal – that seemed to be an awfully dry cookie. I modified the recipe as I went along, and I found out when my husband came home that the recipe in the book was a conglomeration of various baking recipes. Oh, now he tells me. The recipe below is my modified version.
Ingredients
- 1/2 cup brown sugar OR 1/2 cup white sugar + 1 Tbsp. molasses (I did white sugar + molasses)
- 1/2 cup coconut oil
- 2 eggs
- 1 tsp. cinnamon
- 1/2 tsp. baking soda
- 1 cup oatmeal (old-fashioned rolled oats)
- 1 cup walnuts, chopped
- 1/2 cup flour (whatever you like – I used white, unbleached flour)
Topping (optional):
- 1/2 cup white sugar
- 6 strawberries or 20 raspberries (my daughter’s recipe called for raspberries – I improvised with strawberries – worked fine)
Heat oven to 375°. Mix coconut oil, 1 egg, cinnamon and sugar in a bowl. Mix well. Add baking soda. Add flour, oats and chopped nuts. Mix well. If it looks dry (which my mixture did), add the second egg.
Put spoonfuls of the cookie batter on a baking sheet covered with parchment paper. Put in the oven and bake for 4 minutes. While the cookies are baking, mix the berries in the food processor with sugar. Take out the cookies after 4 minutes, and apply a spoonful of berry topping to each one. Then bake the cookies for another 8 minutes or so. If you skip the berry topping, you can just bake the cookies for 10 minutes.
• • •
My husband and I loved the cookies, and my sons said they were okay. My boys would have preferred the cookies without the berry topping. My middle son is considering making peanut butter with oatmeal cookies. His current peanut butter cookie recipe is just eggs, sugar and peanut butter.
