Bagpipes and Lotus Seeds

I hope my readers had a good weekend. I had one full of vegetables, but it started out full of mystery on Friday evening: as I waited for Travalon to come home, I heard someone playing the bagpipes outside. Being terminally curious, I ventured out and saw a youngish guy in full Scottish regalia playing in the parking lot at Mariner’s, but before I could ask him what was going on, a middle-aged guy led him to where the cruises leave, so I assume he was there for a private cruise since there are no public “Scottish Highland” cruises offered. When Travalon came back, we went to Octopi Brewing for their fish fry, but they had run out of it, and the mushroom sandwich I had instead was not too satisfying. We ended up going to Mariner’s to have some fish fingers and ice cream drinks, and we asked the bartenders if they knew what the bagpiper was doing there earlier that evening. None of them had heard him, but Jack the owner had, and apparently he said, “That guy has just about worn out his welcome.”

Saturday Travalon and I weeded my garden plot and collected a bunch of greens and zucchini for a party at Rich’s later that evening, then we went on a boat ride to the mouth of Six Mile Creek and Governor Nelson State Park. On the way back we stopped at a patch of lotus growing in the river, because my Chinese colleague said the seeds are really good. I picked five of the green seed heads that look like shower heads, then we brought everything over to Rich’s house. He was hosting a dinner for Mr. Icon, who was visiting from Alaska. Fortunately someone else cooked the zucchini – and did a wonderful job – because I had my hands full getting the seeds out of the lotus flower heads. We tried them raw, but they were very bitter, so I cooked them in oil on the stovetop, and they made a popping noise but did not get fluffy, the way it said they would when we consulted the internet. With some spice they were like roasted pumpkin seeds – very tasty. I also cooked a bunch of greens: beet, collard, Swiss chard, and two kinds of kale. And wouldn’t you know that this time Rich had not only remembered to make a vegetable, he made two – broccoli and corn on the cob! Someone thought it was Mr. Icon’s birthday, so she gave him a bunch of little toy animals, and after dinner we played with them. Someone brought a marzipan cake she had made for dessert. It was so good to see Mr. Icon again! And I felt very proud to have grown or foraged so much of the dinner.

Yesterday on the way to Mass Travalon and I saw a deer, a bunch of Canadian geese, and two turkeys within a few blocks of our house. I was saying that my poem has not appeared on a bus yet, and he made me laugh so hard by saying maybe the people who thought my photo was too ugly for their event page contacted the bus company and said, "Don't put her poem on a bus - she's too ugly to be a bus poet!" We took a hike at Cherokee Marsh, and I looked at all the lotus plants growing there. It’s kind of a preserve, so I’m not sure we’re allowed to harvest seed heads, but man, there sure are a lot of them! The ones we took were in the river, not the preserve area. Then we stopped by a small festival at the gardens, where I ran into an old coworker. I went over to Rich’s house for leftovers, because the Japanese professor who visits all the time was supposed to be there. He missed his flight, but his student (a senior in college) came, and he was very cool. Travalon had gone to see The Who with an old friend, so I went to bed alone, and before that I did something almost as stupid as watching a scary movie alone at night – I read a book about weird, unexplained happenings, and the author chalked them all up to demonic activity. Boy, was I spooked! I did fall asleep, but then in the middle of the night I heard a strange sound in the bedroom. It took me a long time to realize it was just Travalon breathing – I never heard him come in! After that I couldn’t get back to sleep, so today I am kind of a zombie. Fortunately not a zombie snail, but that’s a post for another time.

Famous Hat