Moonlight Madness

I had another bright adventurous idea (which I hope was not illegal). While walking at night in our neighborhood close to the lake, I was mesmerized by the full moon. The glitter of its light seemed to always be following me. Then I realized that the moon is shining everywhere and it is bright enough to canoe in. I talked Jeff into a moonlight ride. It is hard to describe how calming and beautiful the moonlight was on the ripples of the water. The lake is open and there was lots of area for its uninterrupted light. I thought about how wonderful it must be for the lakeside homeowners to have this view every time the sky is clear and there is a full moon. What is also so amazing is that I was not afraid of walking in our neighborhood late at night and I was not afraid to take the canoe out in the lake at night. This is a wonderful safe place to be a little adventurous. I was afraid of the legality of it because we did not have lights on the canoe. However, we did bring a flashlight. I tried to use it to attract fish. This night with Jeff was truly memorable.

Chasing the Ducks

Who me? We could not resist once we got started. While canoeing one day on City Lake the ducks happened to be in front of us. We turned our canoe and just observed them while we got closer and closer. Finally, they figured out how to go onshore to get away.

However, they also figured out that by going onshore near the geese, the geese would scare us away. They were right!

77 Pears

I would like to start off first by apologizing for not writing more often. Having a full time job sure takes a lot of time out of life. However, I still look for fun things here in San Augustine to share. Thus, “77 Pears”. Yum!

I did not know there were so many pear trees here until they started sagging from the weight of all that fruit. I picked a few at Jeff's job site that were hanging over the fence and I could reach easily, figuring since they were hanging over the fence they were fair game. A week later we picked a few more. Then they started dropping on the concrete and smelling fermented. So Jeff and I stood on back of his truck and picked as many as we possibly could…. 77 in all. They melt in your mouth and are sloppy and juicy. I have since peeled and froze them to make fruit shakes, dumplings, and cobblers. I have to tell you that the most fun from this experience was picking them, not peeling them.

I am looking forward to going to a friend’s orchard this week and picking more. He shared his pears with me today at work and gave me directions to his place and said to pick all I want. He will have ladders waiting, plus it is fun to stand on the bed of our truck.

According to http://health.learninginfo.org/pear.htm pears have been around since the beginning of time and are mostly grown in China, Italy, and the United States (including San Augustine). They are a good source of vitamin K, C, copper, and fiber. Fiber and copper help prevent colon cancer. Vitamin C helps stimulate white blood cells to fight infections including bacteria and viruses. Sounds very nutritious as I suspected. It is best to eat let them sit on the counter and soften a bit and eat them unpeeled because a majority of the nutrients is in the peeling.