Month: October 2023

Unexpected Animals

We went to Kuipers Family Farm yesterday to pick apples, and what should we find but a wading bird, wandering its way between the trees!

It was such a strange happenstance that I went scrolling through my camera roll and realized it was not, in fact, an isolated one. Here, on an island in the road, is one of several deer having a leisurely snack at rush hour:

And finally, a raccoon at our bird feeder. This is, in and of itself, not that unusual; we frequently get after-hours visits from the raccoon, the skunk, and the possum, and on our most exciting nights we get them all at once. It is a little strange, however, to get one during daylight hours.

The moral of the story, I suppose, is that nature will always find a way to be as baffling as it is beautiful.

…and to have your camera ready.

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Solo Shots

Yep, more cat pictures! What can I say? They’re photogenic. These photos were taken in the spring, featuring:

Arwen, sprawled in the bay window and glaring half-heartedly at the camera.

Arwen’s contempt for photography when I could instead be petting her;

Zuko, napping on a fluffy grey blanket with his nose tucked behind one outstretched front paw while his other crosses under his neck to stick out towards the camera.

whatever this nap position of Zuko’s is called;

Diane, lying on the couch and staring in the direction of the camera. Meanwhile, a crocheted Totoro pillow stares into her side.

Diane, by far the most awake and cooperative;

Tortoiseshell paws, tail, and part of June's back stick out from under a purple blanket with gold sun and moon and white star patterns on it. The rest of June is curled up comfortably beneath it, out of sight.

and June’s best impression of the Wicked Witch of the East!

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Sweet Potatoes with Cranberry Sauce

Thus far, this has not been a recipe blog. However, this week I rediscovered a recipe I came up with in elementary school, made it for… probably the first time since writing it down, and found to my great delight that little Cassandra had excellent taste, so it seems only right to share! Behold, Random Geek Child’s first recipe, right in time for the autumn weather finally hitting the Midwest.

Ingredients:
2 sweet potatoes
2 tbsp butter
2 cups cranberries
3/4 cup brown sugar
3/8 cup orange juice
1/4 tsp allspice
1 tsp cinnamon
Walnuts, optional (Little Cassandra didn’t specify a quantity of these, so measure with your heart)

Method:
1) Halve the sweet potatoes and microwave on HIGH for 3 minutes.
2) Add butter to a glass baking dish (of appropriate surface area for your potato halves), put the dish in the oven and preheat to 350°F.
3) Add the cranberries, brown sugar, allspice, and orange juice to a saucepan. Bring to a boil, then lower heat to medium and simmer for 15 minutes.
4) When the oven reaches temperature, add the cinnamon followed by the potato halves – cut side down – to the baking dish and bake for 20 minutes.
5) Serve the sweet potatoes with the cranberry sauce and, if you’re using them, walnuts.

Recipe serves 4. As a bonus, I’ve found the cinnamon butter left in the pan goes well with a sliced apple for dessert! Happy autumn, Northern Hemisphere.

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Heartcatchers

Heartcatchers is a quick to play, two-player bluffing game, in which hearts catch other hearts and collect Secrets. It’s also extremely quick to learn!

The game starts with six face-up heart cards in two rows of three, three cards in each player’s hand, and the rest set aside as a draw pile. On a player’s turn, they may “catch” a stack in front on them – red hearts catch green, green hearts catch blue, and blue hearts catch red – by playing the correct color of heart face-up on top of it, catch an opponent’s stack and swap it for any one of their own, or play a card as a Secret, face-down at the bottom of a stack and perpendicular to those that are face-up. There are also two Uncatchable cards, which can catch any color but cannot be caught! Players draw after playing.

The game continues until all cards have been played, which doesn’t take long, seeing as there are only twenty. Then, scoring! Any face-up cards in a player’s stack are worth one point. Some cards, when played as Secrets, may add or subtract points, or swap the stack with the one directly across from it. We’ve played this game twice so far, and both times we hit a “reverse, reverse!” situation where a stack had two Change-of-Heart cards under it.

And… that’s it! Whoever has the most points wins, and if there’s a tie then the game’s so short you just play it again. Alongside being quick, pretty (look at those sparkles), and simple yet tricky, it’s also a compact game, so it’s easy to find room on your shelves for! Ours are pretty packed, so “this game is small” is a major bonus.

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