The crew sucked nearly 100 hornets from the tree-hollow hive—the first ever found in the U.S.—using a vacuum and captured escapees with nets
— Read on www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/entomologists-destroy-asian-giant-hornet-nest-found-washington-180976136/
Yikes!
It’s been a delightful weekend. Darling Daughter and Best Boyfriend came up Friday evening, and we shared a delicious Indian takeaway, followed by some mead Boyfriend made from our honey.
It was so good The Engineer and I drank finished the bottle. 🙂 Unfortunately for BB, this meant we ended up spending several hours regaling him with details of our past travels. Poor dear!
Saturday, I was a bit lethargic — couldn’t have had anything to do with the mead, I’m sure — and didn’t do much except visit my mom, watch football, (soccer to my fellow Americans), and crochet.
We made up for it today. The Engineer and I saw off Daughter and BB after a large breakfast of local eggs, Bombay potatoes, bangers, and toast, watched a bit more football, and went for a hike in the Cuyahoga Valley.
The trail meandered through the woods, and there were quite a few big old trees with massive trunks including this one near the trailhead.
It was fun scuffing through the leaves, stopping to watch squirrels, birds, and chipmunks.
We took our time, looking closely at interesting natural features like this moss-covered log. The little round things look like acorns, but are actually puffballs. This is a highly scientific term for this particular type of fungi.
No, really, that’s their name. I was making a joke, but I just looked it up, and they’re actually called Puff Ball Mushrooms. I knew them as puffballs from when I was a kid because when you squeeze them, they puff out their spores, and it looks a bit like smoke.
We took a side trail that led to this scenic pond.
This is Brandywine Falls. We’ve cycled to the spot many times, but this is the first time we’ve hiked in. Mostly people drive there, get out of their cars, walk down the staircase you see in the picture, get back in their cars, and drive away.
Still, it’s a beautiful place, no matter how you get there and how much time you are able to spend. We’re lucky to live close enough to take the time to explore the area from a variety of angles.
I took this photo because I don’t know what plant this is and thought someone might recognize it.
Also, I picked up a couple of leaves to identify when we got home. I was pretty sure the yellow one was a Tulip, and I was right. It’s from the Tuliptree. I’d seen leaves like the other one, but wasn’t sure what it was. Turns out it’s sassafras.
I took another picture of the Tuliptree leaf to give you an idea how large it is.
After the leaf identification session, we ate Tomato Leek Bruschetta.
I’d made Baked Leek and Tomato earlier in the week and had a brainwave that it would be good as a Bruschetta on a loaf of bread from Artisan Bread in Five Minutes a Day.
It was.
The Byrd and the Bees 