Tag Archives: Howard County

Bluebirds

Posted on January 2, 2013 by AnnieRie

I always know it is winter when the bluebirds return to my birdbath. Today they obliged.

This is the male I saw. The two females were there earlier, but disappeared up into the trees, once I found the camera. I have to go looking for them the next few days.

The bluebirds never come to feeders, but water is a great attraction, particularly when it is cold and dry. This is their source, and they return every year. If you want bluebirds to visit you, just add water.

These pics below are from last year.

Hoping to get many more this year.

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Posted in Birds, Howard County, Nature and tagged birds, Howard County, nature, photography. Bookmark the permalink.

Looking Forward to the New Year

Posted on December 31, 2012 by AnnieRie

I think my husband said it best coming home today from a visit to my mom. It is so nice not to have to go back to work Wednesday. The fact that we are retired has really finally sunk in. This is his second year of retirement. I will hit three years in April. Last year there was much upheaval, with my impending surgery, and uncertainty. We both are grateful I came through it, and slowly am mending, but mending nonetheless.

sunrise new year’s eve

The sunrise today was impressive. It inspires me to look forward to the coming year, a new beginning, and full of choices. I already came up with those sixty things I want to accomplish. They are my resolutions.

I will still plan projects for the year, just not calling them resolutions. Projects like decluttering. Home improvements.

And, I want to be more focused in my volunteering. Expanding what I do.

And, get back into walking and hiking again. Maybe do some county hikes. So many things. I just need to focus.

Here’s to 2013, the blank slate we write upon, the 33rd year of marriage, and the 38th year in Howard County. I think it’s time to watch a few bowl games. Even though they now have stupid names. Like the Autozone Bowl? Really??

A few more nights, then the decorations will come down. I leave our decorations up until the Epiphany. It still feels like the holidays until I have to put them away.

They survived the wind, rain and snow, even though I had to batten down the deer more than once. And, I just noticed one string of lights on the tall tree shaped stakes burnt out. I suppose we will be restringing those before they get stored away.

Random thoughts, these are. Random thoughts in our corner of the world. A corner where both the Ravens and Redskins made the playoffs. Water cooler conversations should be fun all around DC and Baltimore this week. Let’s also not forget that the Orioles and Nationals both exceeded our expectations last summer. Here’s to continued success for our local teams. May they meet in a Super Bowl or World Series sometime soon!

Hope all our friends and family stay safe tonight, and stay healthy for 2013. Happy New Year, Howard County!

hocoblogs@@@

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Posted in Commentary, Community, Family, Howard County, Retirement and tagged commentary, community, hoco loco, hocoblogging, holidays, Howard County, traditions. Bookmark the permalink.

The Year 2012 In Review, from the Blog

Posted on December 30, 2012 by AnnieRie

I was going to do a highlights post. Lo and Behold, WordPress did a year in review for me. Weird that I clicked on my dashboard and found the year summary just as I was sitting down to write about the most popular posts.

In my summary page, it showed many views of the local resource page, and my About page. I decided this afternoon to update them to make sure they were current. Including more detail and a few more pictures.

As for my most popular posts, the top five came out this way.

Number Five — Baby Chicks at Tractor Supply — people still click on this one. It is from last April. I suppose this year I need to take pictures of the chicks. I only did a superficial summary last year without finding out how many people buy chicks from them every year. They certainly had a nice variety, and they sold out quickly.

Number Four — CQ Field Day, CQ Field Day — my account of the amateur radio weekend at the local school yard, with the local clubs. I cook for them, and I blogged about it. It got picked up on a national radio club feed and it still gets views, when people search on their call sign, W3AO, or Whiskey Three Atlantic Ocean. We won this past year. We are used to winning. A large group of very competitive hams.

W3AO Field Day 2012 Class 27A

Number Three — Brighton Dam Azalea Gardens — I shouldn’t be surprised by this one. Lots of people want to know when the azaleas peak. This year, again, I will be monitoring them and taking pictures, and posting them. We live right up the road from the gardens and visit them frequently. We also have been all over the property doing bird counts with the local club. One of my favorite places in Howard County.

Brighton dam azaleas

Number Two — The YEMMies are Coming — Why? I have no idea, but lately every time I look at the sidebar where it lists most recent popular posts, the YEMMie post is there. It has over 200 views, most of them recent. Obviously, there is adequate discussion on the media about the Young Educated Millennial Mothers. I discussed in my post about mothers in my CSA making baby food themselves from the organic veggies and fruits, and of former coworkers looking for pasture fed, and/or free range meat and eggs and dairy. We certainly see an increase in younger patrons at the farm stands and markets we frequent.

And, the Number One post for the year, my personal view after the fatal accident that closed rte.32 in November, that was picked up by the Preserve Woodmont facebook page, was My View from West County. That was one of the crazier days out here, with people we know stranded, or rerouted, or lost trying to get through the clogged roads.

Our visit that night to Bistro Blanc included conversations with a number of people who had real problems getting anywhere that day. If we had medical emergencies, or a fire out here, the gridlock would have made it next to impossible to get emergency vehicles in. It took people three or four hours to get through west county that day. I lamented the fact that our infrastructure upgrades that were in process when we moved here in 2005, have pretty much not materialized.

They are only now working on the second interchange up near us, with the Rte. 144/Rte. 32 one still in the planning stages. Even then, the two lane road is still overcrowded, and has been overwhelmed by commuters traveling from north and west of Howard County.

It will be interesting to see what happens once they finish the Linden Church interchange next fall. Will the clogged up area move north to 144? Will they see the bailing out of traffic on roads like Pfeffercorn? We see it now on Triadelphia, Linthicum, Burnt Woods, Ten Oaks and Howard. I think it will just make the funnel move further north, but still create hazards for those living here.

I really wish they would just at least do something about the mailboxes, trash collection and recycling. Having only one way delivery for mail, and one way pick up for trash and recycling has made driving even more dangerous due to the sheer number of cars, trucks and buses on our roads.

I find it interesting that my most viewed post had to do with west county infrastructure. I have noticed, reading the local blogs, that most of them focus on Columbia and Ellicott City. I am not sure how many of my fellow local bloggers have been out here other than to pick strawberries at Larriland. At eight years in, we have seen many changes, but also have seen much that keeps us rural and disconnected. Not a bad thing, most of the time. It still is a lovely place to live. And, to blog.

Have a safe New Year’s Eve. We are staying in, eating well and popping the cork on a split of champagne, if we can stay up until midnight. A few people will shoot off fireworks at some of the more remote properties not far from us, if the weather cooperates. We hear them and see them every year.

hocoblogs@@@

One Lovely Birthday Dinner

Posted on December 29, 2012 by AnnieRie

Compliments of my husband, Wegmans, Raimondi’s and England Acres. Today really turned out nice, in spite of the snow. My husband had flowers and strawberries sent to the house, even though it took a while to get here. Seems FedEx delivered, as we are out in the boonies beyond the normal delivery area for the florist. He was sweating them getting here, but at 4:30 they arrived.

It was an easy dinner to do. Rockfish, and cauliflower, both baked in the oven. The cauliflower went in first, then the rockfish.

A simple salad using those pomegranate seeds. Oranges picked up at England Acres last week, and fennel from Wegmans. Lemon olive oil, orange juice, red onion, salt and pepper. Served over arugula.

Dinner in the dining room. All decked out for a party. Finished later with the strawberries and a dry sparkling Domaine Carneros. Dinner served with a Puligny Montrachet from Chanson. Not a bad celebration, and a fraction of the cost of going out. My better half did the dishes for me. What more could you ask for?

Here’s to many more happy birthdays!

hocofood@@@

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Posted in Food, Local Businesses, Locavore, Real Food, Sixty@Sixty, Wine and tagged cooking, Food, foodie, Howard County, local businesses, Locavore, wine. Bookmark the permalink.

Sixty @ Sixty

Posted on December 29, 2012 by AnnieRie

Yes, sixty years young, today. This is one of those significant birthdays. Worthy of doing something different to commemorate.

I recall one of my fellow volunteers talking about traveling to celebrate a milestone birthday. Something like 50 days for the 50th birthday. We traveled way too much when we worked. We are really enjoying our surroundings and doing things we never got to do while we were in the work force.

So, I decided. Sixty is, of course, six decades. Six times ten. Six things, ten times. Or, ten things six times. I settled on more experiences with less to accomplish in each. It looks simpler to do. We shall see. I have been doing research already to find things that interest me.

This year, no New Year’s Resolutions, just the pursuit of these stretch goals, for lack of a better descriptor. Some are fun, some may be difficult. If I enjoy this journey, I may make it into a page. A journal of sorts. Since I am an avowed locavore, locapour, and still a foodie, many involve cooking, eating, gardening, farming, the county and nearby places.

My list —

Visit six festivals and/or fairs that are new to me
Taste at six new wineries never visited before
Seek out six new farmstands or markets to expand my locavore network
Do something different or visit someplace new in six states other than MD
Eat at six small business restaurants and/or diners
Eat/drink or experience six childhood memories
Log six new birds not seen before
Cook and eat six new proteins, i.e., meat, seafood, beans or nuts
Grow and/or eat six exotic fruits, veggies or herbs
Tackle six rightsizing projects

Some are self explanatory but others will take some initiative. Rightsizing projects include things we inherited from our families and things we accumulated over our 60+ years. Things like pictures, CDs, books, tools, clothes, shoes, whatever lurks in closets and cabinets. Having the space here makes it one of those often avoided projects.

The childhood memories include things like — riding a ferris wheel again, or a merry go round, or eating cotton candy, or a root beer float. Things we did as kids.

For my first project, my husband bought a pomegranate at Wegmans yesterday. I have had pom juice, and pomegranate balsamic, but never tried getting the seeds out and using one in cooking. Tonight’s salad will have pom seeds on it. Maybe using my fennel we bought, and oranges. I am making my own birthday dinner, doing things I want to eat. Rockfish. Salad. Roasted cauliflower. None of it hard to make, and no worries about driving in the slush/snow/ice/whatever we have on the ground tonight.

It is still snowing out here. The red bellied woodpecker and one of the squirrels were out there chowing down this morning while I was prepping the fish in a marinade.

This is a new young red bellied woodpecker, who is more skittish than the older ones are. He bolts when he sees the reflection of my camera. As for the acrobatic squirrel, he is lucky today. I don’t have the two layer baffle system on the large suet holder, and he can defeat just one. Besting the squirrels is a major undertaking here. Or, at least keeping them under control.

Who knows what this year, 2013, will bring to us here. I do know I intend to make it somewhat memorable, and certainly don’t intend to be bored.

hocofood@@@

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Posted in Adventures, Birds, Bucket List, Day Trips, Farmer's Markets, Food, Gardening, Hobbies, Howard County, Local Businesses, Locavore, miscellaneous, Nature, Real Food, Remember When, Restaurants, Retirement, Rightsizing, Sixty@Sixty, Travel, Wine and tagged birds, cooking, day trips, farmer's markets, Food, foodie, gardening, hobbies, hoco loco, Howard County, local businesses, Locavore, nature, photography, real food, retirement, sixty@sixty, traditions, travel, wine. Bookmark the permalink.

Wegging Out

Posted on December 28, 2012 by AnnieRie

As opposed to vegging out. We went to Wegmans today, after not getting there for months. There was a very good reason. Rockfish. We got an email about it, and since a significant birthday is tomorrow, one of those ends in zero ones, I wanted something nice for dinner.

Who cooks on their birthdays, you say? Really. You think I wouldn’t be cooking? Well, we were going to do Ruth’s Chris but the weather is supposed to be somewhat dicey all day tomorrow. I think we will save that gift card for a better weather day in the future.

I don’t mind cooking great food for birthdays. I also love rockfish. My husband bought a lovely Puligny Montrachet to have with it. A simple lemon butter topping on the fish. Baked potatoes. An arugula and goat cheese salad to start. Specialty cookies with a late harvest wine for dessert. The cookies are rum balls and raspberry filled wafers from Wegmans bakery. My foodie world and locavore worlds had one of those collisions today.

I did get some other interesting things there. For tonight, spicy shrimp spring rolls before I put out an oven baked brined turkey breast from their rotisserie cart. I did throw a few Brussels sprouts from an earlier trip to the store into the mix.

Wegmans now has their own brand of K cups.

Plus, we found another source, one that is environmentally friendly, San Francisco Bay. Price the same as going to Costco.

These cups generate less waste, as there is no plastic surrounding container. Should be something different to get used to using. We shall see. We ended up getting scallops for New Year’s Eve, and other staples I normally only find at grocery stores. They had Meyer lemons. I have Aranciata. I only need to find fresh basil to make the Meyer Lemon Basil Fizz cocktails we love. Wegmans disappointed us, as they were out of the local Virginia potted fresh basil. Don’t need sage, or the other ones they had. No fresh basil there. Interesting.

We don’t get over to the eastern side of Columbia often anymore. It is a 35 mile round trip. I only ended up using three coupons. Too many of them were for frozen or processed or prepared foods. Not what we normally use. Let’s see what comes this month in the mailings. They haven’t let up on sending us things. The holiday version of the Menu magazine had ten coupons. They obviously want customers from west county. The little booklets keep coming, as well. I did get some pepitas in the bulk food aisle.

Next week I don’t think I will be running out there for frozen waffles or packaged meat. Their promotional giveaways don’t rank up there in fresh food items most of the time, and today, I never found any of the carrots. They must have run out of them.

Still, all in all, a decent store. Now off to have some turkey with a local white wine. My last day as a fifty something. Wait until you see what I want to do in my sixtieth year.

hocofood@@@

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Posted in Food, Howard County, Locavore, Real Food, Restaurants and tagged cooking, Food, foodie, Howard County, Locavore, real food, wegman's. Bookmark the permalink.

Snow Days

Posted on December 26, 2012 by AnnieRie

I don’t mind snow days like these. We needed the rain, and we got almost an inch so far today. It is snow mixed with sleet and rain, so it will be gone soon. The birds are frantically looking for food. It’s junco and blue jay reunion out there. Although the blue jays flew away once the camera came out.

Today was one of those stay inside and do projects kind of days. I am cleaning out the bedside nightstand drawers and doing some shredding. I did put tuna and tomatoes, with a base of canellini beans, in the oven on slow cook. A good hearty cold weather dish. Using some of my oven dried tomatoes that I froze. Plus, that end of the Costco tuna loin. It looks so dark and meaty, you wouldn’t think it was a fish dish.

We are keeping a close eye on the trees to make sure they don’t get weighed down with wet snow. We lost too many branches during those storms a few years back. We were supposed to have the final high tree pruning today, but the weather forced a cancellation. Without leaves, though, the deciduous trees will do OK, it’s the coniferous trees that worry me. We have a wind advisory for tomorrow with a potential for downed power lines again. The big question always is, “Should we fill the tubs with water in case we lose power and can’t flush toilets?” With all the weakened trees after the hurricane, power losses are still possible.

I do have to admit that it is beautiful out there. All Christmasy with the twinkling lights. Glad we don’t commute anymore, but can enjoy the view.

hocoblogs@@@

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Posted in Birds, Food, Howard County, Nature, Real Food, Retirement, Weather, West HoCo and tagged birds, commentary, community, cooking, Food, foodie, heirloom tomatoes, Howard County, Locavore, nature, real food, retirement, tomatoes, weather, West HoCo. Bookmark the permalink.

Shopping at the Farms

Posted on December 22, 2012 by AnnieRie

It was a vow I made, to support local farmers. Eat more local foods, and even if they cost more, buy them and just adjust how much we eat. It is really easy around here to do that.

You don’t have to fight crowds with carts at grocery stores for many items. I learned to love markets in France. Our first trip to Provence.

My dream home. Provence. If I had my way, I would live there. I speak passable French. Understand more than I can articulate. Fell completely in love with the food and the land, and would move in a heartbeat to live that life style. Shopping for fresh foods locally. I didn’t have pictures of the live chickens. You picked the one you wanted and they dispatched it for you.

So, I do the next best thing. I shop here at our local farms. Even in the winter they are open for business. Today I went food shopping at two farms and one farm stand. We decided to take a ride because it was cold, windy and we didn’t feel like fighting crowds in stores and malls. The itimerary: Breezy Willow, England Acres and Baughers in Westminster.

On a mission. For holiday ice cream. Eggs. Fixings for tomorrow’s venison roast. And, possibly to have lunch at Baughers. I did get some great things there, like out of date peanuts, that they sell for $2.99 a case to feed the birds and the squirrels. Celery and mushrooms. Pears. Mixed nuts in the shell. The mushrooms for the venison roast. The celery to use to make some soup next week.

From Breezy Willow, pumpkin ice cream. Eggs. Great Harvest whole wheat flour, since I am running out of flour from baking.

From England Acres. Cauliflower. Spring Mill Bread. Sausage. Onions. Popcorn. Honey. Goat cheese. Baby Spinach. By the time I came home, I have all I need to make dinner tomorrow, and to make soup next week. And, a salad tonight. England Acres now is buying wholesale from Lancaster Farm Fresh, the cooperative that supplies my CSA. All winter. Open Saturday and Sunday, I can pick up fresh organic veggies from the same farms that supply me my CSA for 33 weeks a year. How can I go wrong with them? They have been my major source of food for the past 20 months. Love what they grow.

So, I use Roots, Wegmans, Harris Teeter and Costco for staples I can’t get at the markets. But, year round, we have great stuff not far from us. Fresher than foods flown and trucked in from across the country and the world. I just wish we had something like this up the road. The Arles market.

Being a locavore is not hard around here. Wishing for unlimited spices, now that is a stretch.

hocofood@@@

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Posted in CSA, Farmer's Markets, Food, Real Food, West HoCo, Winter Eat Local and tagged cooking, CSA, farmer's markets, Food, foodie, Howard County, local businesses, Locavore, real food, West HoCo. Bookmark the permalink.

Tree and Garden Maintenance

Posted on December 19, 2012 by AnnieRie

Today was a clean up day. We had landscapers come out to do the final clean up of derecho damaged trees, before we put up the crank up tower in the yard. We don’t need trees coming down on the guy wires or the tower. Now that the leaves are gone, you could definitely pick out damaged trees that strong winds could bring down.

While out there, I took advantage of the mild weather and finished the haircuts on the spirea. Cleaned out those flower beds.

I really cut them way back. Not a bad idea. They come in more vigorous every summer and have created almost a hedge of sorts. This is what they looked like in the summer. The bunny is a bonus. Baby bunnies, birds, chipmunks, all love to hide in the spirea.

I also made my first attempt to clean out the veggie garden. It is a real mess. Full of dead tomato plants and overtaken by morning glory vines. I pulled out many of the cages and cleaned them.

I was careful to salvage my tomato ties and not throw away any sticks, ties or rope. The tomato plants will not go into compost. I don’t need them growing in the compost pile. The twisty ties were collected and brought in the house to put away for next year.

This garden plot is going to become herbs, lettuces and cool weather plants only. There will be a new garden next year. I need to get out into the field where I get more sunshine. The trees have now grown to a point where they shade the current garden site. Morning sun doesn’t come in until after 7 am. The sun starts disappearing behind the maple after 3 pm. Next year it will be worse as the trees get even taller.

There will be a new plot dug in and fenced. 20 by 40 is my goal. My 30 by 10 garden will now have a very large neighbor. This is the year I will do pumpkins, watermelon and lots more squash. Off into the field we will go. Oasis, who did today’s tree maintenance will be tilling and creating my new one. Ron is a local business owner, just a few miles down the road on Triadelphia Mill Rd. He and his crew did a great job today.

The new home for the garden.

The tall grasses are my neighbor’s property. We cut ours so we can put the radio towers there. Now, I just have to find a way to keep these visitors from jumping the fence.

The deer think nothing about galloping through our meadow and racing across my other neighbor’s front yard. The day I caught this one with the camera there were four of them out there.

Well, winter will be here in two days. I think this year is the earliest for my plant pruning, and I have a head start on garden maintenance. Time to hibernate for the winter, and hope we don’t have ice storms. At least if we do, we have pruned the trees to keep them from breaking off.

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Posted in Gardening, Howard County, Local Businesses, Nature, Weather, West HoCo and tagged gardening, hoco loco, Howard County, local businesses, nature, photography, spring flowers, weather, West HoCo. Bookmark the permalink.

Eight Years In

Posted on December 15, 2012 by AnnieRie

December 2004. The first time we saw our house. After months of frustrating searching and one bad experience with misrepresentation on a disclosure form. We drove by at night to check it out. It is dark out here. Really dark. But, the house was decorated and looked great. On the 16th we came back to tour it.

And, fell in love. It was probably the kitchen that did it for me.

450 square feet. OK, so we have replaced the refrigerator and ovens. They were 18 years old when we moved in. I still love this room. The heart of our home.

My husband fell in love with the family room. The paneling. That manly thing. The fireplace. The entire back of this house is kitchen and family room.

We had no idea how different things are, in west county. Learning to be self sufficient. Thankfully, with a gas fireplace, and a wood stove in the basement. With snow throwers, tractors, pick up truck. Way different than living in Columbia. Things really are different out here. And so worth it. Nights are dark, yes. No glow from lights anywhere. Amazing sunsets.