Thanksgiving in Hillsville

The kitchen was full of activity Thursday morning. Here John is washing dishes, I'm weaving strips of puff pastry around a mushroom and nut wellington, and Ann (not pictured) is somewhere fixing turkey, two kinds of dressing, gravy, two kinds of cranberry sauce, and vegetables.

The mushroom and nut wellington was filled with caramelized onions, breadcrumbs, mushrooms and red onions, and four kinds of nuts (brazil nuts, cashews, walnuts, and almonds). My recipe made so much filling that I ended up making two wellingtons.

I made tiny vegan cheesecakes: pumpkin and raspberry.

 And we all had a wonderful meal.

Happy Thanksgiving!

A Tribute to Pumpkins Past

The Pumpkin

by John Greenleaf Whittier

Oh, greenly and fair in the lands of the sun,
The vines of the gourd and the rich melon run,
And the rock and the tree and the cottage enfold,
With broad leaves all greenness and blossoms all gold,
Like that which o'er Nineveh's prophet once grew,
While he waited to know that his warning was true,
And longed for the storm-cloud, and listened in vain
For the rush of the whirlwind and red fire-rain.

On the banks of the Xenil the dark Spanish maiden
Comes up with the fruit of the tangled vine laden;
And the Creole of Cuba laughs out to behold
Through orange-leaves shining the broad spheres of gold;
Yet with dearer delight from his home in the North,
On the fields of his harvest the Yankee looks forth,
Where crook-necks are coiling and yellow fruit shines,
And the sun of September melts down on his vines.

Ah! on Thanksgiving day, when from East and from West,
From North and from South comes the pilgrim and guest;
When the gray-haired New Englander sees round his board
The old broken links of affection restored,
When the care-wearied man seeks his mother once more,
And the worn matron smiles where the girl smiled before,
What moistens the lip and what brightens the eye?
What calls back the past, like the rich Pumpkin pie?

Oh, fruit loved of boyhood! the old days recalling,
When wood-grapes were purpling and brown nuts were falling!
When wild, ugly faces we carved in its skin,
Glaring out through the dark with a candle within!
When we laughed round the corn-heap, with hearts all in tune,
Our chair a broad pumpkin,--our lantern the moon,
Telling tales of the fairy who travelled like steam
In a pumpkin-shell coach, with two rats for her team!

Then thanks for thy present! none sweeter or better
E'er smoked from an oven or circled a platter!
Fairer hands never wrought at a pastry more fine,
Brighter eyes never watched o'er its baking, than thine!
And the prayer, which my mouth is too full to express,
Swells my heart that thy shadow may never be less,
That the days of thy lot may be lengthened below,
And the fame of thy worth like a pumpkin-vine grow,
And thy life be as sweet, and its last sunset sky
Golden-tinted and fair as thy own Pumpkin pie!

(Images (not including the vintage Thanksgiving cards): Stuffed pumpkins from Thanksgiving 2008; pumpkins I roasted in 2006, 2007, and 2009; the pie from Thanksgiving 2010; fondly-remembered pies from Emilie and Derek's pie parties in 2006, 2008, and 2010.)

The Time I Ran With the Wolves

Yesterday I went to Seacrest Wolf Preserve, which is an amazing place. It started out as a wolf rescue, then became a place that educates the public about wolves. They have gray wolves, Arctic wolves, and British Columbian wolves, all living in packs in large enclosures (the preserve has several hundred acres of land). The wolves are socialized to be friendly to humans. I got to help by playing with these six-month-old gray wolf cubs.

They look like full-grown wolves, but you can tell they are babies because they are so playful. They turned everything in their enclosure into a toy.

Including me! They weren't aggressive at all -- they let everyone pick them up and rub their bellies -- but they really wanted to play with my sweater. Here one of the volunteers is pulling the wolf off of me so I won't go home in tatters.

After I played with the puppies, I got to go inside the enclosures and walk with the wolf packs. It was eerie to hear the howling in the distance and see the wolves running toward us through the trees. The older wolves and the alphas kept their distance, but the younger wolves ran up and licked us. You aren't allowed to take digital pictures in the enclosures, so I'll post more pictures when my disposable camera is developed. But I did get this picture of two of the gray wolves. They were beautiful.

Then we visited the small animals, who also have large zoo-like enclosures, but who come out to interact with visitors. I petted this pair of Arctic foxes. They were incredibly soft.

I went inside the enclosure with the gray foxes and saw them get treats.

 I petted Billy the groundhog, a rescue animal who lives in the house of the couple who run the wildlife preserve.

Here he is sitting on his human friend's head. I'm pretty sure we could train my parents' groundhogs to do this.

I held several skunks, all rescues from a farm that bred them for their fur, all incredibly cute. It was an amazing day.

Torreya, Take Two

Today I did the 7-mile hike at Torreya State Park again.

This time, there were little bits of fall color everywhere.

This is as colorful as leaves get in Florida.

Torreya State Park is supposed to have the best fall leaves in the state.

But this is what most of the fall leaves looked like: a spot of color in a sea of green.

The pine barrens had fewer wildflowers in bloom than last time.

But they were still beautiful.

Look at the amazing bark on this longleaf pine!

Longleaf pines are endangered, and this ecosystem is a rare one. It's where gopher tortoises live. I didn't see one, but I did see its burrow, with little tortoise tracks outside.

Also I saw this amazing but super venomous caterpillar.

Election Day

We voted! There was no line -- I think we must have hit the polling place at just the right time.

It was a beautiful day, but very windy. The wind whipped my "I voted" sticker out of my hands, and I lost it! I hope that's not a bad omen. The guy who voted right after me gave me his sticker, though, which David says is a good omen.