Tall Tales from Kansas

My name is Carol. I live in Kansas. I write about stuff that happens to me as I walk through the world. Most of it is true.

recent posts

  • a wooly worm, an abandoned snake skin, a couple of solo monarchs

    It was a Cat Stevens Morning Has Broken start to the day at the Baker wetlands today. I went to see if there were any unusual birds waiting for me there. This is the time of year when migrating birds move through the midwest. Isn’t that a wondrous thing to even think about?

    I heard killdeer and saw red-winged blackbirds. There were also some geese flying overhead. I did not spot any white pelicans. I will have to head to Clinton lake soon and see if there are any of them hanging around, taking a rest along their journey.

    The sun was hitting the grasses, the breeze was nice, there was a hint of highway noise in the background but I ignored it. My attention was called to other things.

    Things like a wooly worm, an abandoned snake skin, a couple of solo monarchs, and a dragonfly or two.

    There was a leaf hanging in the middle of the trail, suspended there with the the aid of the long tail from a spiderweb. I do not know if the leaf hit it on the way down, or if it deliberately used it to ease the descent.

    The filtered sunlight on the fallen leaves on the trails is just so beautiful. No words can describe it. It’s one of those external cues that trigger a cascade of memory and feelings that together make up an entirely unique experience for each viewer.

    The leaves are starting to turn but small flowers continue to bloom.

    Today I saw some large shallow pools for the birds, but compared to 5-6 years ago, it is much drier at the wetlands.

    I was delighted to catch one great egret stepping carefully along.

    This was a most excellent start to a long weekend.

    Now I am off to dig an old Cat Stevens CD out of who knows where… Dottie if you are reading this do you remember how much Gracie Villanueva loved it when we sang Morning Has Broken at mass in Panama? I can see her as clear as day right this second.

  • I have worked out in my mind how the intertwined futures of Esme and Iris play out

    Tonight it’s an update from what I have been reading. As usual it’s a mish-mash of things that catch AND hold my interest. First let me tell you about The Vanishing Act of Esme Lennox by Maggie O’Farrell. Sister told me I must read it; sometimes I listen to her about books and sometimes I don’t. This was one of the did listen times and I am glad I did.

    First let me say that I knew it was about a young woman who was committed to an “asylum” because of her “behavior”. That is all I knew about it, and in retrospect I am glad. I finished it this morning on my way to work and immediately sent a Marco Polo to sister to discuss the ending, never mind that it was 4am on the west coast when I sent the message. I listened to this book and the Scottish brogue was completely wonderful and added to the whole atmospheric feel of the story.

    I am reluctant to tell you a lot about the book and instead encourage you to dive in with an open mind and let the story take you where it will. THEN I will want to hear what you thought. The ending caught me off guard, but I have worked out in my mind exactly how the intertwined futures of Esme and Iris play out. Highly recommended.

    I finished The Mystery Guest by Nita Prose in the last week too. It is one of those “nice” little reads about a quirky character in a familiar place and it was a lovely thing to read before bed. As soon as I finished that, I put my head down on the pillow for a few minutes, let it all sink it, ran my hands over the cover, then took out the bookmark and put it in Italian Shoes by Henning Mankell.

    Dianne told me about it, it sounded intriguing, and they had it at the library. I read another book by him several years ago and enjoyed it very much. The older I get, the more I like to read authors from other countries. It takes place on a small island in the Swedish Archipelago and I love the references to all the places in Sweden that sound familiar after Sister and I visited there, back then, whenever it was, I can’t remember the year, but I remember everything else. I am about 6 chapters in and completely caught up in it. Something happened to the main character that caused him to isolate himself on the island – I don’t know what that was yet. Right now I just love saying the names of the places out loud in my best Swedish accent and imagining living on a small island inhabited by me alone, with a dog and a cat. Or maybe 2 cats. That right there is a good reason to get caught up in a book.

    This concludes my first book report on WordPress. The end.

  • where my mind goes in September

    It’s almost the end of September and I am willing myself to sit in it. To luxuriate in my memories of all the September’s that have come before this one. Each anticipated start of a new school year complete with freshly sharpened pencils, notebooks waiting to be filled, making covers for textbooks out of brown paper grocery bags, a few new items of clothing. No matter the numbers of years that have passed since I last started a new year of school, that is where my mind goes in September. It’s a great place to visit.

    But let me get back to the farmers market for a minute. The morning light on the eggplant was splendid. As were the carefully lined up pots of mums in front of these tables.

    Every market these days is a smorgasbord of flowers, take your pick, they are all colorful, vibrant, plentiful. This Saturday there was also the wonderful sound of a vaguely familiar tune played on an accordion.

    There amidst the steam and partially obscured by the lid, was a maker of tamales. I haven’t sampled hers but will make it a point to get some soon.

    This celery was beautiful, I love all the leaves. I was mostly interested in that bag of “tween kale” right above it though. It holds up very well to a roasted vegetable, bean, pepper, combo that can be dressed and taken to work for lunch and tastes as good on day #4 as it does on day #1.

    Death by Chocolate this week. As the baker told me about it “I don’t really crave chocolate, until I do…” and when I do, nothing fills the bill like this cake. Moist with chunks of chocolate that you bite into at random.

    The pot of succulents! I can’t stand it, it’s so cute. It came out of a barn on some property out in the county where it had been hiding for the last 50 years. In my mind.

    These two got the award for the most colorful AND friendliest at the market this week. I didn’t know about the friendly part until I asked to take the picture.

    Let’s end this market post with some more fall bounty shall we?

    Until next time, I will just be doing my thing, but mostly thinking about September, and October.

  • I’m so glad we had this time together…

    The latest Huff +1 lunch took place in Lawrence this week. I decided both an inside AND an outside photo were needed just because, and in case. Small factors like glare can sometimes creep up unawares and leave you with not quite the result you had hoped for. I don’t like to do too much fiddling around with editing of photos either, so inside and outside. You didn’t need all that information, but now you have it.

    Gosh we had a good time. I reminded Marti that she told me a year or so ago that the thing she would tell her 21 year old self if she could go back in time was “this too shall pass”. Gosh if that isn’t the phrase we all need tattooed on our arms right now. We decided as well that the watchword for our time is “cope”… and figuring out how to do that. Which brings me back to this monthly lunch. I look forward to it knowing it will be a time to breathe out, breathe in, say what needs to be said, ask for input, eat good food, laugh, and be thankful for the immense comfort it provides. There’s usually a bit of singing at lunch too. Last month it was “so long it’s been good to know ya, but I’ve got to be moving along“. This month it was “I’m so glad we’ve had this time together“. We usually sing loud, because we like to encourage anyone in the joint who knows the words to join in.

    The sunlight on this one leaf, right in front of me, as I sat on the porch today was a thing of beauty.

    As are these pots of geraniums that are enjoying the cooler temps.

    I recently finished installment #12 in the Inspector Gamache series. I don’t think I already told you that. Another insight deeper into the characters’ pasts, a glimpse of what may be some new recurring players, a visit to the lovely village of Three Pines, ongoing clean up of the corruption at the Surete du Quebec, descriptions of delicious foot… just another day in the life. Thoroughly enjoyable.

    I hope that each of you have found just as suitable, companionable, parts of life to keep you buoyed this week.

  • In my next life I am coming back as a warty pumpkin

    Because today is the first day of fall, how about we start this post with some gnarly looking pumpkins? These were on display in the back of a pick up truck at the farmers market on Saturday. Ooooh how I do love a good warty pumpkin.

    There were also some really nice looking flowers. I am a sucker for the bouquets with dahlias. I like how these whisper “fall is coming” but they are not shouting all-out fall yet. If that makes any sense.

    Butternut squash has arrived. I just saw a recipe from Forks over Knives today for a Moroccan Bean salad that had chopped roasted winter squash along with … oh let me just include the recipe here instead of telling you everything in it. You might want to try it too.

    Screenshot

    A couple of zucchini made their way into my basket, dipped in hummus or grated over quinoa with some pickled red onions, and a fried egg on top, both sound very tasty to me.

    How about this dynamic duo? I love me some hand-holders.

    Mums will be coming soon to my front porch. My geraniums still look too good to dump… but soon.

    Apple Spice cake this week. That little red hot on the top was the perfect accompaniment . Reminded me of a nice warm apple cider with a splash of cinnamon schnapps on a cool fall evening.

    I listened to a podcast the other day about the health benefits of foods like red peppers which only reinforced that I should get all these peppers.

    Just one more shot of the pumpkins. There will be more as we work into October. Lots more. In my next life I am coming back as a warty pumpkin.

  • an introduction of sorts

    Howdy. I was going to say Hello but decided howdy was more in line with the whole “saddle up” theme from my last post. Greetings from this new platform. Most (maybe all) of you who are reading this have been reading this blog on my previous site. But just in case, let me say a few things as an introduction of sorts. Tall Tales from Kansas began in April of 2011 with the encouragement of Sister. “Of course you should do a blog“, I still recall her saying “if Brother (not our real brother, our pretend brother) can do it YOU can“. Over the course of almost 14 years I sent 3845 posts into the world, random topics, everyday parts of my life.

    Unfortunately, the service at Typepad was always a bit on the dodgy side, and in the last several years it was downright annoying. At the beginning of September they announced they were shutting things down. No surprise really, I think there were a couple of chipmunks manning the controls and they were mostly on a break when they weren’t playing pranks. Truth be told, the shutdown was just what I needed to move on. Should I just quit? Continue on another site? Would I miss it? Would I miss you all? Finally I decided why not check out another site and “just try”.

    I did not give much thought to moving all the content I had created over the years with me. I am in the cleaning out phase of my life and the potential difficulties that could be encountered just seemed like too much effort. That was then, this is now. It’s not like I regularly go back and look at old posts.

    Just getting oriented to a new system would be plenty enough for me. So here I am, figuring things out, hoping it will all work, thinking about things I want to tell you about…. yada yada yada.

    Thanks to all of you who reached out and encouraged me to continue. I look forward to our ongoing conversations. Over the years several of you have asked about subscribing which you can do on WordPress. So here we go. Carrying on. Walking through the world and making the best of things no matter the circumstances, supporting each other, reminding ourselves about what matters most.

  • Saddle up, we are going for a ride…

    Let’s give this new site a whirl shall we? It will be an experiment, flying by the seat of my pants with no instruction on really what should go where or what it will look like.

    It seems right to start with a post about the Farmers Market since I could not post photos last week on my old site. These mini pumpkins were the first thing I encountered as I entered the market.

    There was also hand spun just waiting to be made up into a pair of mittens.

    Signs of fall all around. Peppers, apples, marigolds, baskets of greens. You see the mums in back of the peppers right?

    I love how this woman was GETTING the watermelon with her name on it. Size be damned! Of course she could carry it to her car. No, she did not need help. Yes, I could take her picture.

    It is never too early to start teaching a youngster about the ways of the market.

    Cake this week? Orange/honey. Intensely orange, incredibly moist, five stars.

    I followed the lady with the super cool glasses from Mrs. Peters table (where I got applesauce) to Thuy’s for juice. We discussed our favorites, I told her she won the prize for best glasses at the market.

    Here is what came home with me. Yes, there were apples, apple butter, and apple sauce. It’s apple eating season. The more the better.

    I realize you can see the mini pumpkin just fine in the photo above, but I needed to add the big one below as well. Details are important.

    Speaking of details, bear with me. I am learning the WordPress way of doing things. Hopefully when I hit publish things well work.