June 24, 2024 Back in Iowa

Sorry for the slight delay in gettting this post up.

We come home yesterday afternoon,  Sunday. It was a quiet trip the last day, in part because there is now a direct flight from Washington to Cedar Rapids. It was also easier since we got to drive  to the airport early in the morning when there was not much traffic.

We spent a week at the beach, with family, in Chincoteague, Virginia. That is an island off the coast of the part of Virginia that is east of the Chesapeake Bay. We have been coming there for most of the last 50 years. We stay in the  house where my father was born, in 1921. 

There are so many things there that are just familiar in Chincoteague. The sound of the gulls early in the morning. The haze on hot days. Thinking about high and low tides and how they change every day. Tides are not something we think about in Iowa.

There is a barrier island between Chincoteague and the ocean. The outer island is called Assateague, another native american name. It is managed by the federal government. 

 The ocean is an ever present sight and sound when you are at the beach. It was rather calm all week, as sun and 80 degrees were ever present. Particularly since we went to the beach in the morning, it was not really hot. We mostly avoided the hot weather that much of the rest of the country experienced.

 Particularly on Assateague there are birds. There are egrets and herons and ibis and  eagles and even Julia's favorite, something called a skimmer. We did not get a picture of the skimmer.

There are wild ponies that actually gave Chinciteague its place on the map.

The first day at the beach, which goes on for miles, there were pelicans and dolpins. The dolphins came back on Thursday, being out a few hundred yards.

There are reminders of home. After supper we noticed these in the back yard.

Back home in Iowa the garden rolled along.

Scott did send me these pictures from the garden this week.

Here  is the yellow orchid cactus, that had its first bloom while we were gone. But when I checked when we got home, there many more flowers still to come.

Enjoy these lilies, which survived the deer.

When you have been gone from the garden for even a week wandering around reveals many things. 

We had almost 4 inches of rain while we were gone. Weeds will pull easily for at least several days.

There are weeds, but there are plenty of places to focus the eyes.

This lily is in the front sidewalk bed. It is almost 6 feet tall. I always amazed me that lilium would do well in dappled shade. I think the name is Silk Road.

The daylilies have started.

Coneflowers have started.

Now, for what some of you have been waiting for.

Here are pictures of Christopher and Maisie.

Both children have a remarkable ability to entertain themselves. They like games, even if Maisie does wind up with her own rules sometimes.

They like stories, some of which are read to them over and over and over. Some books are so well known that they will correct you if you skip over something or even mispronouce something. They are also interested in dragons and wizards and magic. 

Sometimes we wonder what is going through her head.

Christopher has been taking  piano lessons in an after school program. He really enjoys just playing around on the piano, sometimes with recognizable chords or tunes.

The piano in Chincoteague had not had such use in years.

A trip to Chincoteague would not be complete without a trip to Mr.Whippy's ice cream store.

Julia's recipe

Chocolate and peanut butter

We were in Chincoteague last week, all seven of us (Philip and Maggie and me from Iowa, Katie and Elisabeth and Christopher (7-1/2) and Maisie (almost 4) from Maine). It was not too hot and not too cold and not too buggy, all good things. We would get up early and go to the beach until a little before noon and then we would  have lunch and go on an outing (bike ride, trip to the visitor's center to pet the horseshoecrab, drive around the widlife loop to look at birds) and then have dinner and play and read books and go to bed. 

One day, the children and I made a dessert recipe I had clipped from the Iowa City Press-Citizen, again the work of Michael Knock, the PC's food guy. This recipe is called "Lunchroom Peanut Butter Bars," and apparently Michael K. had some version of these bars when a schoolkid in NW Iowa. No bake, just a few ingredients, both chocolatey and peanut buttery. Very easy, pretty rich so you really can cut them into small pieces to serve a crowd.  

The ingredients:

1/2 cup (1 stick) salted butter;

1-1/2 cups graham cracker crumbs;

1 cup smooth peanut butter;

2 cups powdered sugar; and 

12 oz. chocolate chips.

I think 1-1/2 or 1-3/4 cups of powdered sugar would be enough. I used non-fancy peanut butter which mixes better than the fancy stuff. 

The grocery store in Chincoteague did not have graham cracker crumbs, so I bought graham crackers and we made our own (see below). 

The first step was to melt the stick of butter in a large bowl. In the microwave. I don't have one but the Chincoteague house does, so we used it. 

I put the bowl of butter on the counter on a trivet to cool a bit. 

Next step, making crumbs. I put about 9 or maybe 10 graham crackers in a plastic bag. The graham crackers were oblong, not the little squares that happen when you break the oblongs in half.

If we had a rolling pin, I would have used it, but we didn't so we improvised. I started by whacking the plastic bag with heavy saucepan. Too much. So we all took turns pushing down on the crackers with a loaf pan. They crumbled nicely, but there were a few bigger pieces. No problem. 

Christopher had taken a turn, and now it was Maisie's turn. I watched. 

And then it was Christopher's turn again. 

When the crumbs were done, we added the powdered sugar and peanut butter and graham cracker crumbs to the butter.

We tried to mix the ingredients with spoons. 

Then we washed our hands and dove in to knead it together with our hands. The dough was thick. It was easier to knead than to stir.

I made a sling by putting a piece of foil in the pan (8'x8"). No need to lube either the pan or the foil. 

I dumped the crumb mixture into the pan and spread it around with my hands as evenly as I could. The dough was easy to work with.  

Next I melted the chocolate chips, again in the microwave.

I dolloped the chocolate around on the top of the crust and used a knife to spread it around.

The children scraped out the peanut butter bowl with their mixing spoons and ate the leavings , and then they did the same thing with the melted chocolate. 

The bars needed to chill in the refrigerator for about 1 hour so the chocolate would set. 

After supper, we cut it into little bars and ate it up. Slowly.  

That is a big knife. Not really necessary, but we didn't have a pizza cutter. 

Odds and ends

We are back in Iowa. One of the flight attendants on the plane, as we were landing, said Iowa was about her favorite place to come.

I am not sure I would agree with that anymore.

We came to Iowa 57-58 years ago. It was the state that had ended the death penalty, by legislation. Harold Hughes was the governor. There were kind and thoughtful Republicans, such as Robert Ray and Jim Leach. (But I never voted for them.)

Iowa is now the state that soon will have no income tax, the same state where the government subsidizes church schools. The government wants to end most government services, all but eliminating the safety net. Small government is the goal, except for those parts that eliminate personal freedoms. Then there is book banning, and demonizing trans kids or others who are different, and sending the national guard to Texas to intimidate immigrants.

Our University is now controlled by the Governor, and she is doing away with anything pertaining to diversity or equity.

I should just stop it. I have said enough.

We had an enjoyable week with grandchildren at the the beach. There were dolphins and pelicans, seafood and soft serve ice cream. 

Back in Iowa there was lots of rain while we were gone. The lilies will do nicely, with a big weed effort. There looks to even be a break in the temperatures, with some 50's coming next weekend.

One of the voodoo lilies has 3 side shoots. It is alost like magic.

The caladium are doing well, as they should in the hot weather.

Pray for peace in the Ukraine, in Gaza and Darfur.

Be kind.

Philip