Chillin' at the Mall

     Went to the Mall yesterday, to attend the grand opening of one of our favorite Tea Shops, Ku Cha, which up till now has been in Boulder only.  Not to put too fine a point on it, but with the price of gasoline these days, I can't justify running up to Boulder every weekend (100 miles round trip) to see what's new at the tea shop.  Much more convenient down here.  The Boulder shop certainly has its charms, probably three to four times the size, with the whole area for tea ceremonies and so on behind the rest of the shop - the overhead for that much space in Cherry Creek would be killer.  Nonetheless they are doing a nice job in the space available, not too crowded, a good selection of all of their products.  All in all very nice; I hope they give Teavana a run for their money, although as Teavana is a wholly owned subsidiary of Starbucks, they can pump a lot of cash into their stores.  Photo from Cherry Creek Shopping Center

After some lunch at the excellent California Pizza Kitchen we wandered around for a while, letting our whimsy guide us around the shops for a while.  While passing by one of the areas where one can put up the feet and watch a bit of TV, I spotted this couple "chillin' out at the mall." That, or the most boring game in history was on the tube.

Last night we attended yet another of Rob Leavitt's great cooking classes.  This one is the Gourmet Classics Made Easy class.  We learned to make Steak au Poivre, Fettuccini Alfredo, Potatoes Dauphinoise, Steak Diane, Shrimp Scampi, Veal and Chicken Picatta, Sole Veronique, Chicken Parmesan, Marsala and Cordon Bleu, Trout Amandine, Filet Mignon .......classics!  Along with all the wonderful sauces for the dishes, Bordelaise, Hollandaise, Béarnaise, Alfredo.  And all in four hours!  And all done, mind you, in a conference room, no kitchen!

Here's the first combo dish, Steak au Poivre with Potatoes Dauphinoise, Asparagus and Hollandaise.

I've been having a lot of fun
with my wet shaving hobby lately.  Lots of razors, shave creams and soaps, brushes and stuff o play with.  At least it's a cheaper hobby than some.  My latest acquisition is an ultrasonic cleaner for the razors.  Of course it also works great on what it was designed for, jewelry.  If you're ever in the market for one of these things, don't buy the super cleaner they will try to sell you.  We just use hot water with a teaspoon of dish detergent and a couple tablespoons of ammonia - works at least as well as their dollar-an-ounce stuff ($15.95/pint) and costs pennies.

Now that's what I call a biscuit.  And that's after I already attacked it with knife and fork.  Lucile's Creole Cafe makes a fine breakfast biscuit, it's about four inches square by four inches thick.  I couldn't resist their homemade blueberry preserves , had to have a few bites before I managed to get the camera out.

I had mentioned a couple of times to my wife that I wished I had a way to carry my gaiwan along with me so when I could brew up some tea I'd have teapot and teacup handy.  A few days later, voilá.  She likes to make and decorate things, I need things - works out very well.

     Kyri got me a journal for Yule; from Renaissance Art Leather in Santa Fe.
 http://www.renaissance-art.com  Amazing work; hand made, hand-cut paper, old style sewn binding.  Can't miss with one of these.  The paper is lined on one side, and unlined on the other so I can use the unlined sides for drawings and photos and stuff.  My penmanship is way too bad to write on the unlined sides.   I'm impressed.
Here's a quick shot:

Russell Means passed away this morning, age 72

After all the funerals I have attended, all the friends and family I've buried, I'm still amazed at my naïveté.  I still think that some people should be allowed to live forever.

Gentle winds, clear skies, a fine horse and good hunting, friend.

More of my Country in the City fascination

After I feed and clean up after the horses in the pre-dawn gloom, I have been in the habit of late, of driving to a conveniently nearby park to walk around the lake and get some additional but much-needed exercise.  I have been watching the maples and cottonwoods, birches and one lonely new little gingko tree for a week now, hoping to get one last good shot before the leaves all get blown away.  The weather prognosticators' dire auguries of sixty-plus mile per hour winds for this evening fresh in my mind, I thought I'd better get over there this morning and do the deed.  I'm a big fan of "country in the city" as you probably know by now, and this shot, luckily presented to me about 0730, was just the sort of thing I wanted.  Shot with my iPhone (eye-phone -- the camera gets more use than the phone). From the 'burbs, that's the way it looks from here early on an autumn morn.

The Best Camera

With all the billions of dollars spent in the course of a year on photographic equipment, particularly cameras, one would think that we would have figured out by now what the absolute best camera is, or should be.  Umpteen megapixels, ISO 100,000 and up, through the mirror/split mirror focusing, 30 frames per second, video, etc. etc. and on and on and on.

However, I am of the opinion, shared by many photographers and folks in the general public who do not share that particular addiction, that the best camera is the one you have in your hand at the moment. I think there's even an app for that..........

I don't like to walk for exercise carrying a big camera unless I am walking someplace where I have a reasonable expectation of capturing animal life or stunning vistas of nature.  Not where I normally walk.  But, I always have my phone.  And it does a heck of a job.

I really like getting out to walk in the early morning around sunrise; best light in the world except for sometimes sunset.

And that's the way it looks from here.

Fall is definitely on the way, IOS 6

Although we received hardly any moisture this summer compared to what we normally (in Colorado? No normal here at all) receive, summer is gone and fall is loitering in the doorway, ready to come right in.  Snapped this at sunup this morning in the park during my morning walk.  Looks cool and damp and just a little mysterious back up the creek there.







IOS 6 has a few nice updates; I am impressed with the work they have done with Siri, the Apple Maps is very nice, even if they lost a whole city in England (Luton no longer exists, apparently) and the updated camera app now does simple, quick panoramas.  No extra steps at all; fire up the camera app, touch options, select panorama, click and pan the camera until it beeps at you telling you it's done.  No stitching, no muss no fuss.

Now, that's a tomato!

Now, that's what I call a tomato!  We planted a couple of heirloom tomato plants and a grape tomato plant this year, and so far things look pretty good.  We have been getting a regular harvest of the grape tomatoes, about a double handful every day, and we have lots of really big green heirloom tomatoes that should start getting ripe pretty soon.  I hope so, as we don't have a lot of growing season left.  Although, the way this year has been going, we may stay warm until  Yule.  The morning temperatures are still in the fifties, so my fingers are crossed.  We did some soil enrichment with a half and half mixture of horse manure and freshly ground wood chips from trimming the hedge and trees in the back yard.  The tomatoes are only (!) about eight feet tall and six or seven feet in diameter.  Next year I think I'll plant them farther back in the garden and give them some more support.  This year I put up the standard wire towers around the plants, and they were woefully inadequate after about six weeks into the growing season.  Right now the plants are being held up by a climbing rose bush.  Live and learn.  The swiss chard and peppers are doing well also, the onions didn't make it this year.  Nobody in the surrounding villages had any luck with onions either.

___Later.

Sourdough

I may finally be on the right track with my efforts at baking sourdough bread.

• The starter must be fully active, foamy and ropy, full of yeast, bacteria and gluten.
• Add ingredients at the right time, don't just glop everything in the mixer and turn it on.
• Kneading by hand is the only way I can tell what the dough is doing, so I now finish kneading by hand.
• Oven temperature must be pretty stable, so warm it up quite a bit of time ahead of when you expect to put in the bread.
• Let the dough rise on it's own, don't get in a rush!

As you can see, I got a much better rise (the loaf in back) compared to my usual flat dense loaf (the one in front).  The taste has been pretty good, but the lighter loaf is much better overall.

Western Welcome Week parade, 8/18/2012

For the last three or so years, my wife Kyri has wanted to drive her horse cart in the Littleton Western Welcome Week parade.  The first year, she felt that her horse needed some extra 'bomb-proofing' before she wanted to expose him to hundreds of clapping people, fire trucks, marching bands, and so on.  Last year our sponsor came down with a relatively serious medical problem and didn't get the application in on time.  This year, lots of things came together properly.  

We are now stabling the horse within a mile of the parade staging area, so she didn't have to wrangle horse trailers, flatbed trailer with cart, parking, and so on.  She was able to harness up and drive the horse to the pre-parade staging in just a few minutes.  

Kyri's very good friend Barbara just started a new business this summer, and became the 'sponsor' for Kyri's entry.  The weather was perfect, everything came together just right, and the parade was a resounding success.

Kyri, Barbara and Tootles, Kyri's horse Liath

And, Monday morning following the parade, Kyri got a call from the Western Welcome Week organizers, and was asked to come pick up her award.  How about that,  First Place, Equestrian Horse Drawn Commercial!

Perspective

Can you imagine having a child, and seeing your son die the same day?  I  should think that a situation like that would put you right into 'evaluating your life' mode.  So, let's say you somehow managed to come to terms with the death of your child, and tried to carry on with your life, and had another child, who didn't make it to three months.  If it were me, I might just give up at that point.

And we think we have it rough.

Horse and Carriage Auction July 13-14

The Troyer Draft Horse and Carriage Auction is always a fun trip, it's held in mid-July and again in September.  Knowing what the retail price is on the carts and buggies and so on is a must, but for the most part you can come away from the auction with some very good deals.

A very small part of the "Garage-Sale" part of the auction. 

We also had the pleasure of meeting our friends Becky and Barry at the auction, so we had somebody to shoot the breeze with as we walked around admiring (and wondering at) the draft horses,carts, buckboards, traps, buggies, surreys, wagons, tack, harness parts, antiques and kitsch.  

Barry, Kyri and Becky with Rose the Blue Heeler

Barry and Becky brought along their new puppy Rose, a Blue Heeler (destined to be another cow dog!) that was the most calm and collected little girl I have ever seen.  From what I hear she is quite the little go-getter around the other dogs, but she was sure calm and quiet at the auction.  I think we tired her out wandering around the horse barns before the auction.  I really like her red ears and feet.

Worn out

SALAD, SALAD

Yesterday we attended the third cooking class put on by a local chef, Rob Leavitt, former Executive Chef at Castle Pines Country Club.  Rob has been bringing in a portable kitchen to a local bookstore and doing full bore cooking classes:  Basic Skills, Fish, Salads and Dressings - great stuff.  We're looking forward to future classes.  I'm hoping for Mexican recipes.

Rob, the mad scientist in his laboratory...... er, Rob making salad dressing

Mobile Post Office

Railroad Post office workers of the nineteenth and twentieth century had some crazy working conditions.  A nine foot wide by thirty-three foot long post office, rocking and rolling down the rails at up to a hundred mph, hot in the summer, freezing in the winter, not much light, ..... etc.
  These guys had to know every Railroad Post Office by location, so they could sort all the picked up mail, before the next mail stop.  Sometimes they didn't even stop--bags of mail were hung on a special rack at the railroad station, and the mail car had a hook that grabbed them as the train went by, and yanked the new mail off the hook and dropped their sorted mail at the same time.  We went yesterday to the Colorado Railroad Museum to catch a ride on one of the Galloping Goose units.  Six of the seven "geese" ever made are owned by the Colorado Railroad Museum, including a reconstructed Number Two, made from a 1928 Buick (the original was a 1927 I think.  Great day, hotter than the hinges of hell, but breezy.

Just a Thought

With the membership in fraternal societies and organizations falling the last few decades, many of the organizations have started to sell off some of their properties, and sometimes several Masonic Lodges, for instance, will meet in the same building on different evenings throughout the week.

Given this tendency, I wonder what might happen if some of these organizations were forced to join or combine together.  It might get interesting.........not saying it has or will happen, but what about:

The Benevolent, Protective Order of Rotary Eagles?

.....just sayin'

Classic Bikes

Today we went out to Heritage Square for a benefit Classic Motorcycle Show.  The weather couldn't have been better - the show was scheduled from ten AM till three PM and the weather started to come in at about 2:30; most of the bikes were by that time packed up and everybody was waiting for the judging.  There were some very nice café racers, both original and rebuild/conversions, some bikes you don't see around here very much, like the Laverdas, and the big MotoGuzzi machines.  Also, some old choppers, Indians, and a few real classics.

Here is a very nicely restored Vincent            

 and an absolutely Perfect 1938 Brough Superior                                                                             

To me, the best of show was a 1930-something Henderson Xcelsior, very like the one my Dad used to ride; it was out in the parking lot, not even in the show at all.  Dad's was a 1937, as I remember, and had "beach bars" but other than that, very very close.

Spring Chores

So, the high winds this past winter and early spring brought down a lot of small twigs and some not-so-small branches from the cottonwoods in the yard.  This makes for a real obstacle course when you get out there to mow.  So, Kyri spent a day picking up fallen twigs and branches and did the edging, and I mowed the front and back lawn.  I had let it go pretty late, there were dandelions that I had to go after with a machete.

I had already been working on the sprinkler system, and it's about 90% operable at the moment.  I dug out a few heads, and put in a new head where I broke a pipe about three years ago while digging a garden.  So, of course, I was mowing along in the back yard and remembered a sprinkler head that was pushed out of the ground by tree roots.  I remembered this about 1/10th of a second before I ran over it with the mower.  Bang!  Chunks of plastic, springs, filters, all dancing in the air while we ducked.

I thought this would be a good time to reposition the head anyway, and get it loose from the tree roots.  I'm glad I dug it all up first, before I made yet another trip to the Hardware store.  All the rest of the whole yard, front and back is plumbed in 1/2" pipe.  Not this one.  Three quarter inch, so I needed an adaptor to replace the one I broke off in the elbow connector when I hit the head, in addition to a new head.  You can see the remains of the old adaptor's threads in the picture.  With all my trips to the local hardware store this week so far, I'll bet Ace Hardware Stock is up five points.

Next project: Try to reclaim my wood chipper/shredder from ten years of rampant Virginia Creeper, rebuild the carburetor which I'm sure is full of varnish, probably replace the fuel tank, change out the oil, etc.

Life gets tedious, don't it?

A Handy Kitchen Gadget/Tool/Appliance/....whatever it is.

I have seen these in use at several of the local restaurants over the past couple of years, and in a few grocery stores at the product demo tables.  It is a single burner butane stove that sits on a table top, or pretty much any flat surface that's well away from flammable materials.  It uses compressed butane in a can, has a safety interlock/shutoff,  and puts out an impressive amount of heat.

I encountered this item in the local Asian Mega Mart for a reasonable price.  I got the stove in a hard carrying case and eight cans of butane for about thirty dollars.

We have an electric glass-top stove that I really like, but there are a few times I want more instantaneously controllable heat, and this little gem really does a good job in that regard.

Disclaimer:  This product is clearly labelled for outdoor use only - use indoors at your own risk.  I am not condoning your use of this product anywhere but outside.  This burner generates Carbon Monoxide, and you can kill yourself or someone else by breathing or causing someone else to breathe it.  Please behave responsibly.


Now that that is over with, I discovered a new use this morning.  I love roasted peppers; red, green, yellow, orange, anaheim, chipotle, pacilla, and so on.  But we can't store more than about a bushel's worth of roasted peppers in the freezer half of the refrigerator.  I have no problem buying additional peppers in smaller amounts to get us through the winter, but I don't like building a fire in the Weber Kettle just to do a few peppers every week or so.

et Voilá, presto!

... and that's the way it looks from here.

Spring is on the way! The blacksmith is forging iron flowers for the garden.

It's been a year since I was at the Littleton Historical Museum, and I thought it would be a good idea to go down there yesterday to see if I could finally, after a number of tries, get a decent shot of the blacksmith's forge.  Things seem to have worked out.

The weather was sunny and mostly windless, but as we stood in the smithy jawing about the state of blacksmithing for a while, you could still see your breath if you stepped away from the forge for a minute.

I had a forge in the back yard when I was quite a bit younger, but the neighbors got tired of the smell after a few months and I had to give it up.

The big selection of tools hanging on the side of the forge are in the Museum's permanent collection; the resident blacksmith uses a much smaller selection of tools that he has on a rack over by the anvil, but this made a better composition.

As always, there are lots of things going on at the museum; the turkeys and sheep, cattle and horses, chickens and barn cats are all "feeling their oats" and going through their spring rituals.  There are a few tiny sprigs of green here and there, and the ducks are busily building nests on the island.

Spring myst be on the way.

Yum!  Peach pie cooked on the wood stove...... or, maybe a more catly errand, like chasing a bug.  

Breakfast, Creole Style

I just can't say enough about Lucile's Creole Cafe; they always take care of my morning stomach grumbles in fine style.  This morning's repast was a Boudin Sausage patty under

two properly poached eggs, with a Tasso Hollandaise sauce.  A side of Collard Greens, 

and Cajun style Beans and I'm all set.  Tabasco vinegar is wonderful on the greens.  Don't forget the Beignets and Chicory Coffee.

Dinner in the woods

Saturday night we had a limousine ride to Frisco, where we boarded a sleigh and trekked off into the snowy countryside for a mile or so to a large tent in the woods for dinner.  The photo was taken with my iPhone well after dark in light snow, so it did pretty well.  The trip up was fun, the meal was ....adequate, the entertainment was great.  The mules in the picture are old hands at this, having been toting tourists around the hills for a decade and a half.  They're part of quite a string, six mules, a pair of Belgians and another horse who pulls a sleigh for two, for photo-ops.  Lots of fun.  There are similar services in Steamboat, Breckenridge, Aspen, Durango and other towns.  Something fun to do for an evening.

Having Survived the New Year......

We are actually doing pretty well.  We made it through the holidays with minimal tension, although the Rose Parade and Bowl on Jan 2 this year made the whole week seem strange.  We opted not to go for the "finger-food" stuff on New Years Day (actually Monday) like pizza rolls and such, and instead Kyri made one of her famous recipes, a cheese pie. That with a salad and a Champagne cocktail with blueberry and pomegranate juice made for a fine meal for  watching the parade.

And, later on in the week we got a new TV, forty six inch LED style, and had them haul away our old tube-type 32 inch model which weighs 382 pounds, and had been acting up for about a year.  I was worried the delivery guys were going to sprain something getting that old behemoth out of the living room, but they took it (literally) in stride.  We didn't realize how bad the old TV was until we sat around last night watching the new one.  Wow!

Why am I not surprised?

Well, here's a situation that just makes me crazy:  I have high blood pressure, and my doctor has prescribed medication XYZ, which really seems to work for me.  However, ...........

I have medical insurance, but my plan will not cover any part of a prescription for XYZ.

I have a discount card from the pharmaceutical company that makes XYZ, that says, in big letters on the front of the card, "Pay no more than $25 a month* "   They will pay up to $140 towards the cost of the medication, after your co-pay.

But, in the fine print (remember the * in the "pay no more" statement?), if your insurance won't cover XYZ, you get $25 off.  Whoopee, the company will buy you a cheap dinner.

So, If your insurance doesn't cover XYZ, and you need the discount, you can't have it.  If your insurance  pays for XYZ, then you get a big discount.               WHAT?


 Why am I not surprised?

Any wonder the general public has no love at all for pharmaceutical companies, or insurance companies?

The Food Channel has a lot to answer for.

A few years ago, thanks to the food and cooking channels and Emeril Lugasse, Bobby Flay, Mario Batali and lots of other chefs, many of us learned that we actually had a flair for cooking.  Here in Englewood we are within an easy drive of Whole Foods, Tony's Meats, The Savory Spice Shop and the EVOO Marketplace, so top-flight ingredients are not a problem either.  In the larger Denver metroplex there are several ethnic/regional grocery stores as well, so the ingredient spectrum over the last, maybe ten years is like going from a sixteen-color box of Crayons® to a box of 64.  Long story shortened, here's last Sunday's Dinner:  Pork braised in truffle and sage infused olive oil, acorn squash with maple syrup, cinnamon and nutmeg, green beans sauteed in just a touch of vermouth.  Good stuff!

How strange, something actually useful........

I am a big devotee of fountain pens.  I have a very small collection, less than a dozen pens, about four of which I use, the rest are too good, too unusual, or too awkward to use because they were not meant to be useful but collectable.

The brand I like to carry with me is Lamy.  I was at one of the local art supply houses recently and noticed Lamy's blotter bottles.  What a great idea.  I am always at home when I re-ink my pens, because I'm not a cartridge fan.  I like to be able to change ink colors more often than I could if I had to wait until a cartridge was empty.  One of the hassles with a filler-type pen is that you always, always have extra ink somewhere; on the barrel of the pen, on top of the nib, someplace.

This bottle goes a long way to solve the problem.  Included, tear-off blotting paper for after-fill cleanup.  Very convenient.  Neat!

How to keep warm in the winter

Kyri doesn't seem to have problems keeping warm in the winter when we have turned the furnace down.  Blankets and cats, a good solution.  I'm moving around too much to attract the four-foots.

Oh, those Victorians

Not to put too fine a point on it, but the Victorians were a bit over the top on some of their decorations.

I enjoy shaving with soap and a blade and so on every now and then.  It's a welcome break in the tedium of shaving, and a ritual all in its own.  But I will say, if I had to look at this scuttle every day, I might change my opinion.  Flowers, and shading, and gold leaf......?

A Victorian era shaving scuttle from my collection

More breakfast shots

I didn't mean for this blog to turn into a breakfast log, but as I keep finding excellent breakfasts here and there, might as well let somebody else know.  Comments are welcome, of course.

This morning's offering is from Lucile's Creole Cafe in Littleton.  A Butternut Squash and cheese omelet, with a fennel sausage gravy.  Very good.

Butternut Squash and Cheese Omelet, Fennel Sausage Gravy

I opted for the protein route this morning, and had scrambled eggs with hot Louisiana sausage.  Also good.  Now I'm armed for the day.

Chilly morning

07:30, still snowing.  Power is on, but I lit one of the kerosene lamps anyway, for a warm light while I was updating my journal.  Five inches of snow so far from this one, 0.67" melt down.  Supposedly it will clear up and get warmer the next few days -- I'll believe it when I see it.  Had to take a shot with the iPhone.

More Wild Country inside the City

President Eisenhower wanted to retire to Colorado after his stint as president, and bought some land on which to build his retirement home.  His wife wasn't totally excited about Colorado, and they ended up in Pennsylvania.  The piece of land he bought stayed in the family for a long while, then was sold to a private school, now known as Kent Denver Country Day School.  There's a lake on the property that's pretty photogenic. I haven't seen water this still and placid in a while.  The colors were very nice, but there are signs around the lake stating that there's no trespassing, no swimming, no boating, no fishing, no dogs, .......just plain no.  So, unless I can get some official permission, I guess I won't go back.

Strange, the things you find in old drawers.

You find the strangest things from time to time cleaning out drawers.  This card is almost fifty years old now.  And I still talk regularly to my Scoutmaster from back then, and some of the guys in my old troop.  I was going to get the name correctly spelled, but never did.  Too late now by decades.

I must say, some of the best times in my life were with the Boy Scouts.  My mom was a den mother when I was in Cub Scouts, and my dad was an assistant Scoutmaster when I was in Scouts.    We sure did a lot of camping and fishing back then.  I liked working for all the merit badges, but my patrol specialized in First Aid, and won all the district and state competitions for about four years running.

Another Tea Tray

From previous posts you might have gathered that I am a fan of Chinese green tea, and particularly interested int the Chinese Gongfu Tea Ceremony,  Tea, we are told, not only by the Chinese herbalists but by modern medicine, is good for you.  All sorts of antioxidants there.  Basically, "good for what ails you."

Just my opinion, but if you're going to go to the trouble of buying good tea, you might as well add a bit of ceremony to the drinking process.

The ritual of tea is pretty simple.  Pour hot water onto tea leaves, steep, drink.  It's the ceremony that makes it fun.  The Gongfu Tea Ceremony is as much a meditation as it is a dressed up ritual of making tea.  Flowers, incense, music, lighting, clothes, all play a part in the ceremony of the underlying ritual.  To that end, there are some props and tools that help to make the ritual into a ceremony.  One of these is a tray to hold your teapot, strainer, pitcher, and so on, that allows for the storage of "extra" water, used to heat and sterilize the teapot, tools and cups.  The tray needs to have provision to hold the excess water or a facility for drainage.  We have a "honored guest" tray, inlaid with mother of pearl that we save for special occasions.  I was looking for a good sized, robust tray for everyday use, and found one from a company called Bird Pick Tea and Herb.  I like the shape.  You can see the drain tube coming out the left side.     Put  a little ceremony in your life!

Another "Get More Exercise" scheme

I need exercise, but I get bored with walking  .....and running, and swimming, and .... just lazy? In any event, I have to do something that involves a hobby, with exercising as a secondary consideration. For instance, I walk around carrying a camera, stopping to capture images as the muse directs.

I can do this, because the lazy part of my brain pays attention to the photography (something I enjoy) and ignores the fact that I'm walking. It's not as aerobic as it could be, but I just can't get into striding along, swinging my arms, panting and puffing and going around the block, down the path, just like yesterday, just like tomorrow...... see?

So, while cleaning out some dumpster fodder this last weekend, I found my old metal detector.  I have been a treasure hunter/metal detectorist/gold panner for a long time.  I have quart jars of coins I've found, boxes of rings and jewelry. But, mind you, this was all many years ago.  But the detector seemed to be in good shape, and I've been giving the battery pack a charge every couple of years (even with that kind of mis-treatment it still seems to hold a charge) so I thought I'd get out and swing it about for a while.  

My first outing was not very productive.  In an hour of detecting at a local park, I gathered up several miller light beer cans, a couple three-inch pieces of rebar, and a couple old pull tabs.  At least the thing was working, the pull-tabs were buried almost six inches down.  Back to the drawing board.  

Hurray!  Not skunked after all!

Realizing that it's been over ten years since I used the detector, I sat down with the manual and really, seriously read it.  This morning, I went to another park and started swinging.  I thought I was going to get skunked again.  With the machine properly tuned for the type of ground I was walking over, I had dozens and dozens of bad targets -- that I could tell without digging were aluminum, foil, nails, or other trash.  I was about to call it quits, walking back to the truck, when I got a good signal... short story, dug a penny, a dime, and two quarters, 1983 to 1988 vintage.

Sterne Park, 9-20-2011

I went for a walk to Sterne Park this morning, more for exercise than to take a walk in a park; last fall the city of Littleton decided to cut down the willows and small trees almost all the way around the lake.  It's not nearly so pleasant a place now.

The park now looks half finished, the herons and cormorants have vacated to other demesnes.  The ducks are still there, cedar waxwings and tanagers, and a sizable group of Red Winged Blackbirds come in this time of year to feast on sunflower seeds in the nearby farm garden.

What they were thinking about I do not know.  Safety measure perhaps, so evil-doers couldn't lurk in the shadows and spring out onto the path armed and spoiling for rapine and pillage?

In any event, always having a camera with me, I was surprised to encounter a coyote sauntering through the trees.  He was surprised as well, I suspect.  After we exchanged the social pleasantries  expected of us in our social stations, I proceeded around the pond and did catch a nice image of a pair of ducks.  ...and that's the way it looks from here.