We have native Echinacea purpurea or Purple Cone flowers in our front yard. They are one of the best perennial flowers for late summer and early fall. The butterflies love them. I would like to do something different around the bird bath (yes, I brought it from Concord).

Montgomery 4th of July parade

4th of July Parade in Montgomery- down the street from the house. The parade features the best of small town America, minus the horses. Lots of candy was collected by the girls as everybody in the parade seems to throw something. The other thing which we collected lots of was kleenex ???

12 Deloreans made quite a statement- one was equipted with the entire mechanical system from Back to the Future.

message from the Tea Party, who also had quite a presence....

4th of July- neighborhood parade

15, maybe a few more, families participated in the neighborhood July 4th parade. The organizer, Marybeth, delivered 150 fliers to mailboxes inviting people to either participate or spectate as the parade of decorated bikes and kids zipped by. This is on the corner by our house, so we didn't have far to go. It ended a couple of streets later with a potluck. From here, most everyone went up to the main street, Montgomery Road, for the Montgomery parade.

Ainsley with baby Laney- both sporting the same patriotism.

Apple Brown Betty

A fun part of being somewhere new is trying out new foods. We found this 1/2 pie at the store and thought we must try Apple Brown Betty. Basically, it was an apple pie with a streusel topping. Thinking about this pie made me wonder why it has the name is has and here is what I found out:

a baked pudding, made with layers of sweetened and spiced apples, brown sugar, and bread cubes for the topping. This dessert dates back to 1864.

This recipe is probably more similar to the pie we had from Fresh Market, as I did not detect the bread pudding texture or a bread crumb topping.

Apple Brown Betty from 1st Traveler's Choice Internet Cookbook

Ingredients
4 tart apples, peeled and sliced
3 to 4 Tablespoons brown sugar
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon, ground
1/4 teaspoon cloves, ground

Topping:
1/2 cup butter
1 cup flour
1 cup brown sugar

Butter a 9-inch pie plate. Arrange sliced apples in the bottom. Mix brown sugar, cinnamon, and cloves. Sprinkle over apples.
With a pastry blender, cut butter (soft) into flour and brown sugar to form pie crumbs. Heap crumb topping over apples. Bake in preheated 350 degree oven for 45 minutes or until topping is browned and apples are tender.

Reading to Simeon

Last week, we went to the library to read to Simeon, a helper dog. He was a pretty mellow dog. Ainsley's book was getting a bit long and he told her that he was no longer interested by yawning a big yawn. Kaley did a fine job, too. We always had something going on during the ARF readings, it is fun to be able to do it here.

animals in the backyard

We are on a migration highway, so to speak because of the creek which runs close to our house. Chris, Claire's dad (the 13 year old, who babysits :), said that we will see lots of animals through here as they migrate, due to the creek. He called it the migration highway. Here are just a couple of animals who play in the backyard.

Our neighborhood hawk

We have a family of three hawks, which live in the trees on our Lane. We purchased a Birds of Ohio book, from Wildbirds Unlimited, hoping to be able to identify which kind of hawk it might be, but it is really hard to tell. The store thinks they are red shoulder hawks, but our neighbor thinks they are red tail. We had Coopers hawks in Concord. They were there the first summer we moved in and then they did not come back until the summer that we moved. We felt it was a good sign when we got out of the car here in Ohio our first day, and this guy swooped down to greet us. They have been fascinating to watch. All those little bunnies I've talked about, well, they seem to be decreasing in number. The girls found a bunny leg w/fur attached in the neighbors yard the other day. Two of the hawks tried to take out a big (huge, actually) tabby cat, which has also been hanging around the house. The cat has kept a low profile ever since it was swooped down upon by the hawks.

Electrical system

One of the things that didn't pass inspection on the house was the electrical system. In the 70's, there was a shortage of copper wiring (due the Vietnam war) and instead, builders used aluminum...not really knowing the long term effects. Well, as aluminum wiring expands and contracts, it eventually loses the connection with outlets and switches, thus causing sparking and resulting in house fires. To fix this problem specialized electrical companies come in a cold fuse a copper wire to the aluminum, making the connection to the switches and outlets copper. Then they attach a bib over the connection to keep it from crimping. Curry electric did our work and from Monday-Friday, 8:30-4:30 we had Mike, Brandon and John here working on our power. They were great guys, very respectful with their language and manners. In a weird way, it was sad to see them finish on Friday as it became routine to have them here (not to mention familiar faces).

New neighbors

The universal language of little girls....painting toe nails and bubbles.

McKenna (will be nine in April- going into 3rd grade) and Kylie (will be 7 in August- going into 1st grade). They also have a little sister, Mia, who is not shown. Mia (will be 5 in September- going into Kindergarten). The girls live at the end of our Lane (in CA we'd call it a Court or Culd-e-sak). There are ten houses on our Lane. The four across the street from us are lived in by either widows or widowers. There is a very academic oriented/responsible 13 yr. old girl (with a college aged brother- attends Univeristy of Dayton) next door on one side of us and retired folks on the other. Next to them and in between the three girls is a family who also just moved in. Jessica and Andy have two boys, Trent and Dillon. Trent is 3 1/2 and Dillon is 9 months. Jessica is returning to the work force as a teacher (this will be her first year teaching). She's accepted a job in Cincinnati at the reform school. This is a school, who fired the entire staff and is starting from scratch. She will have her work cut out for her, teaching 5th grade social studies (her only class). Next to the Jessica and Andy are the girls and their parents, then next to them is another couple with college aged kids. They seem to keep to themselves. Their license plates indicate they like golf...The widows are Mrs. Minucha (who spends 6 months in India and had 4 children), Mrs. Cucinotta (who had 6 girls), Mr. Fletcher (who seems very elderly and had 10 children) and Margaretta (don't know her last name- who had six children). Did I mention we live down the street from the Catholic Church???? From what Mrs. Cucinotta says, about 30 yrs ago, there were 108 kids in the neighborhood from toddler to middle school. Then, all those kids learned to drive and that was 108 teen drivers in the neighborhood. She is going to be full of stories!!

Just some of the wildlife in the neighborhood- across the street

For my first course, I'll have Mrs. Cucinotta's (2nd generation, from Sicily- 6 girls and widowed- husband was a well known Cincinnati builder, who built their home) day lilies. Now you see them,

now you don't.

for dessert, I'd like to try the roses, please.

Girls Club- Box Fort

We don't need furniture for the living room- we have a box fort!!!