Listening To Fosdick Lake Trumpeting Flowers Thinking About My Non Southern Gastronomical Turtle-Free Upbringing

These big orange flowers seemed to be sounding some sort of trumpet call towards Fosdick Lake in Oakland (Lake) Park today.

However, the big orange flowers were silent when I saw them, no trumpet call of any sort.

The temperature was 83, with 78% humidity, supposed making the Real Feel of the temperature 91 degrees, when I left air-conditioned comfort today to seek some salubrious outdoor activity.

The think the humidity measure-er was off.  A wind was blowing. Methinks the Wind Chill Factor was making the Real Feel be something like 76 degrees. Brrrr.

I saw a dozen or more turtles today, jumping off logs in to Fosdick Lake when they felt threatened by my Turtle Soup making presence. Intuitive creatures that they be.

Speaking of Turtle Soup. Yesterday after being unable to find the Tandy Turtle I blogged about my surprise at learning that Turtle Soup actually exists, along with lots of recipes directing one on how to make reptile soup.

Making Turtle Soup generated an amusing comment from someone with the unusual name of Anonymous....

Anonymous has left a new comment on your post "On The Turtle Free Tandy Hills Thinking About Making Turtle Soup": 

Your non southern gastronomical upbringing is on display. 1881? Most all my semi current regional cookbooks (particularly the Louisianians) include such delicacies and are much less complicated. Perhaps it is still served in New Orleans restaurants though I can't recall my last pre Katrina visit. What I do recall is my first and only taste experience as a child with my parents. A nice Miami restaurant. Tanks of live fish and sea turtles from which you assumed your meal had been captured earlier. Turtle soup in the late 60's-early 70's was still popular in the poor rural areas of the south. If you snagged a turtle while fishing; it went home for dinner. The sophisticated city palate liked it too. The rest of us shuddered. Maybe you should visit a big Asian grocery store and see what they're doing these days. 

I hate it when I inadvertently put my non-southern gastronomical upbringing on display. I have never seen any turtles available in the seafood sections of the Asian grocery stores I visit in Arlington's International District.

I wish Anonymous would have told me what turtle tastes like.

On The Turtle Free Tandy Hills Thinking About Making Turtle Soup

In the picture you are looking west to where the west begins at the stunning skyline of beautiful downtown Fort Worth from atop one of the Tandy Hills.

In turtle news, the Tandy Turtle that yesterday had taken up residence in a small puddle at the base of dry Tandy Falls has moved on. I tried to track the Tandy Turtle but I could find not trackable turtle footprints.

Or maybe someone had a hankering for Turtle Soup and brought the Tandy Turtle home for dinner.

Speaking of Turtle Soup, I was curious if such a thing really existed, having heard of Turtle Soup, and sort of always assuming turtle was not really used in this soup, but for some reason it came to have the name "Turtle Soup."

Well, as I so often am, I was wrong.

I now have in my possession a Turtle Soup Recipe, complete with instructions about how to butcher a turtle for eating purposes.

The turtle cooking information came from The Household Cyclopedia of General Information, published in 1881, a handbook of the domestics arts as practiced in American households at that point in time. For some reason the instructions as to how to prepare a turtle refers to the reptile as fish. The butchering info and Turtle Soup Recipe is below, all one big paragraph, in case you feel like having reptile for dinner tonight.....

Procure a fine, lively, fat turtle, weighing about 120 pounds, fish of this weight being considered the best, as their fat is not liable to be impregnated with that disagreeable, strong flavor objected to in fish of larger size. On the other hand, turtles of very small size seldom possess sufficient fat or substance to make them worth dressing. When time permits kill the turtle overnight that it may be left to bleed in a cool place till the next morning when at an early hour it should be cut up for scalding, that being the first part of the operation. If, however, the turtle is required for immediate use, to save time the fish may be scalded as soon as it is killed. The turtle being ready for cutting up, lay it on its back, and with a large kitchen-knife separate the fat or belly-shell from the back by making an incision all round the inner edge of the shell, when all the fleshy parts adhering to the shell have been carefully cut away, it may be set aside. Then detach the intestines by running the sharp edge of a knife closely along the spine of the fish, and remove them instantly in a pail to be thrown away. Cut off the fins and separate the fleshy parts, which place on a dish by themselves til wanted. Take particular care of every particle of the green fat, which lies chiefly at the sockets of the fore-fins, and more or less all round the interior of the fish, if in good condition. Let this fat, which, when in a healthy state, is elastic and of a bluish color while raw, be steeped for several hours in cold spring-water, in order that it may be thoroughly cleansed of all impurities; then with a meat-saw divide the upper and under shells into pieces of convenient size to handle and baying put them with the fins and head into a large vessel containing boiling water, proceed quickly to scald them; by this means they will be separated from the horny substance which covers them, which will then be easily removed. They must then be put into a larger stockpot nearly filling with fresh hot water and left to continue boiling by the side of the stove fire until the glutinous substance separates easily from the bones. Place the pieces of turtle carefully upon clean dishes and put them in the larder to get cold, they should then be cut up into pieces about an inch and a half square; which pieces are to be finally put into the soup when it is nearly finished. Put the bones back into the broth to boil an hour longer, for the double purpose of extracting all their savor and to effect the reduction of the turtle broth, which is to be used for filling up the turtle stockpot hereafter. In order to save time, while the above is in operation, the turtle stock or consomme should be prepared as follows: With 4 ounces of fresh butter spread the bottom of an 18 gallon stockpot; then place in it 3 pounds of raw ham cut in slices; over these put 40 ounce of leg of beef and knuckles of veal, 4 old hens (after having removed their fillets, which are to be kept for making the quenelles for the soup); to these add all the fleshy pieces of the turtle (excepting those pieces intended for entres), and then place on the top the head and fins of the turtle; moisten the whole with a bottle of Madeira and 4 quarts of good stock, add a pottle of mushrooms, 12 cloves, 4 blades of mace, a handful of parsley roots and a good-sized bouquet of parsley tied up with 2 bay leaves, thyme, green onions and shallots. Set the consomme thus prepared on a brisk stove fired to boil sharply, and when the liquid has become reduced to a glaze fill the stockpot up instantly, and as soon as it boils skim it thoroughly, garnish with the usual complement of vegetables, and remove it to the side of the stove to boil gently for 6 hours. Remember to probe the head and fins after they have been boiled 2 hours, and as soon as they are done drain them on a dish, corer them with a wet napkin well saturated with water to prevent it from sticking to them, and put them away in a cool place with the remainder of the glutinous parts of the turtle already spoken of. The stockpot should now be filled up with the turtle broth reserved for that purpose as directed above. When the turtle stock is done strain it off into an appropriate-sized stockpot, remove every particle of fat from the surface, and then proceed to thicken it with a proportionate quantity of flour to the consistency of thin sauce. Work this exactly in the same manner as practised in brown sauce, in order to extract all the butter and scum, so as to give it a brilliant appearance. One bottle of old Madeira must now be added, together with a puree of herbs of the following kinds, to be made as here directed: Sweet basil must form one-third proportion of the whole quantity of herbs intended to be used; winter savory, marjoram and lemon-thyme in equal quantities, making up the other two-thirds; add to these a double-handful of green shallots and some trimmings of mushrooms; moisten with a quart of broth, and having stewed these herbs for about an hour rub the whole through the tammy into a purse. This purse being added to the soup, a little Cayenne pepper should then be introduced. The pieces of turtle, as well as the fins, which have also been out into small pieces rend the larger bones taken out, should now be allowed to boil in the soup for a quarter of an hour, after which carefully remove the whole of the scum as it rises to the surface. The degree of seasoning must be ascertained that it may be corrected if faulty. To excel in dressing turtle it is necessary to be very accurate in the proportions of the numerous ingredients used for seasoning this soup. Nothing should predominate, the whole should be harmoniously blended. Put the turtle away in four-quart-sized basins, dividing the fat (after it has been scalded and boiled in some of the sauces) in equal quantities into each basin, as also some small quenelles, which are to be made with the fillets of hens reserved for that purpose, and in which, in addition to the usual ingredients in ordinary cases, put 6 yolks of eggs boiled hard. Mould these querelles into small, round balls, to imitate turtles' eggs, roll them with the hand on a marble slab or table, with the aid of a little flour, and poach them in the usual way. When the turtle soup is wanted for use warm it, and just before sending it to table add a small glass of Sherry or Madeira and the juice of one lemon to every four quarts of turtle. The second stock of the turtle consomme should be strained off after it has boiled for two hours, and immediately boiled down into a glaze very quickly and mixed in with the turtle soup previously to putting it away in the basins, or else it should be kept in reserve for the purpose of adding proportionate quantities in each tureen of turtle as it is served. 

A Blue Melancholy Monday Brewing Tea While Channeling My Inner Abraham Lincoln

In the picture we are looking at my swimming pool hours after I got wet in it this morning.

You can not tell it by looking at this picture, but it is a clear sky, blue Monday in North Texas.

I am also blue this Monday. With a bout of my chronic melancholy. Bouts of chronic melancholy are just one more thing I have in common with Abraham Lincoln, along with being tall and lanky, with a scraggly beard and the frequent wearing of a stovepipe hat.

I think I had myself a sleep walking incident last night. The evidence of this is that this morning the patio blinds were open, with the patio door slightly open. Both are closed when the sun goes down.

Currently I am leaning towards the idea of returning to the Tandy Hills today to see if the Tandy Turtle is still stuck in its little puddle.

I am also leaning towards the idea of going up to Washington this summer. On July 20 it will be 4 years since I last flew north. I have 2 new nephews and a niece I have not yet met, who I am told are a lot of fun.

I've got some sun tea busy brewing out on the aforementioned patio. In the brewing mix are ginseng, green tea, chamomile, spearmint, lemongrass, blackberry leaves, orange blossoms and rosebuds.

I am hoping this potent herbal mix will give me some temporary relief from my chronic melancholy.

Happy Father's Day, Dad

There are only two days of the year when my dad answers my mom and dad's landline phone. His birthday and Father's Day.

I made the requisite Father's Day call a few minutes ago. As expected, my dad answered the phone.

My mom is having Thanksgiving for Father's Day. As in turkey dinner. I was invited, but I don't think I'll make it.

The father of two of my nephews will make it to mom and dad's for turkey dinner.

The father of my other two nephews is currently not in Arizona, he is up in Washington. I assume my brother will be seeing my nephews today, one of whom is a father, as in Spencer Jack's dad.

Spencer Jack's father emailed me a couple days ago asking for my mailing address because Spencer Jack wanted to send me some artwork.

I never noticed til this very moment that father is made up of two words. Fat and Her.

That is a picture of my dad, above. It is not a recent picture. I believe it is my dad's high school graduation picture. But, I'm not 100% certain of that. I think my dad was 15 when World War II ended. That would likely date this picture as having been taken in 1947 or 1948.

All my life I've been told I look like my dad. I don't see the resemblance.

On July 26, 2002, a date that lives on in infamy, I attended the biggest family reunion in my family history. This took place at the Lynden fairgrounds. Most of the people in attendance I had no memory of having met before. More than once someone who I did not know would say something to me like "you don't have to tell me who's kid you are." It was unsettling.

Anyway, Happy Father's Day to all you dads in the world.

A Surprising Father's Day Reptile On The Tandy Hills

Today I saw something on the Tandy Hills that I never expected to see on the Tandy Hills.

I was making my way across the escarpment above the currently dry Tandy Falls when I looked down at the small puddle below the dry falls and thought I saw a watermelon in the water.

And then I realized it was no melon, it was a really big turtle.

At first I thought the turtle was dead, and then it looked at me and shook its head. The turtle did not pull inside its shell, or quickly move, like the Fosdick Lake turtles do, usually, when I get in their vicinity. I guess this guy was already in water, that, and there really was nowhere for it to run to.

To get to the location beneath dry Tandy Falls this turtle must have journeyed south from the Trinity River, crawled through the culvert through which Tandy Creek flows under the I-30 freeway and then waddled its way to the Tandy Escarpment, where it found it could go no further.

I hope we get rain soon to freshen the turtle's little puddle with some new water. This did not look like a very happy turtle.

Texas Mountain Bike Trails Taught Me How To Lube My Bike Chain In Under 4 Minutes

Thursday evening I biked the Gateway Park mountain bike trail for the first time and blogged about it.

Someone with the very unusual name of  ".." made a comment that led me to ..'s website, Texas Mountain Bike Trails.

Below is what .. had to say....

.. has left a new comment on your post "Tonight I Heartily Biked The Gateway Park Mountain Bike Trail": 

Good to see you back on the bike! 

Gateway Park is a pretty popular bike trail out here but I have noticed fewer riders at most of the trails lately. I think that is because the heat has really started to set in.

Stop by the site sometime at www.texasmountainbiketrails.com and say hi! 

I stopped by the site, but I did not say hi. I'm shy about saying hi.

The Texas Mountain Bike Trails is a very good website. Lots of useful info.

I was a little surprised when I clicked on DFW Trails to see that Gateway Park was not on the list. The DORBA trail in Cedar Hills State Park is also not on the list.

At another location on the Texas Mountain Bike Trails website there is a list of the Top Ten Mountain Bike Websites. The DORBA website (Dallas Off Road Bicycle Association) is on that list of Top Ten Mountain Bike Websites, with .. saying, "The Dallas Off Road Bicycle Association is one of the biggest mountain bike clubs in the US and I am happy to call it my home club."

Being ..'s home club makes it a bit surprising that the club's namesake DORBA Trail in Cedar Hills State Park is not on the list of DFW Mountain Bike Trails.

I was surprised at how many of the listed DFW Mountain Bike Trails I've pedaled. Of the 15 trails on the list I've rolled wheels at Dinosaur Valley Sate Park, Erwin Park, Horseshoe Trail, L.B. Houston Nature Trail, Northshore Trail, River Legacy Park and Tyler State Park.

Tyler State Park is about 80 miles east of the east edge of the DFW Metroplex zone. I am appalled to think back on it and realize how far I used to drive to go mountain biking.

I drove east to Tyler State Park several times, with the first time being just a month after my Texas Exile began. I remember being totally amazed how much this hilly part of Texas reminded me of Western Washington. I remember verbalizing my surprise, at finding a real mountain bike trail, to a Tyler State Park biking Texan. He asked where I was located in Texas. I told him I lived in Haslet, north of Fort Worth. He then told me there were a lot of mountain bike trails in the Dallas/Fort Worth metro area. I thought this guy was nuts. I quickly learned he was not nuts.

When I moved to Texas I brought my mountain bike with me, but, I thought to myself, and mentioned to others, that my mountain biking days were over, now that I'm moving to a part of the planet with no mountains.

Tyler State Park is not the farthest I've driven to ride my bike since I've been in Texas. I drove down to Waco more than once to mountain bike the trails in Cameron Park.

At least twice I drove north, past a town called St. Jo, to a private mountain bike trail park, just south of the Red River and Oklahoma. I can not remember the name of this place. I do remember there were several miles of bumpy gravel road after I left pavement and arrived at my destination.

Texas Mountain Bike Trails is on Facebook.

New Green Grows On The Dried Out Burned Tandy Hills While Rosie The Rat Dog Looks For Gold In The Yukon

For an hour or two, during the pre-dawn darkness of Friday morning, a lot of rain fell at my location.

I went to the Tandy Hills today expecting to find a muddy prairie. I figured I could navigate the main trail in from View Street and have myself a little walking time.

Well.

I don't know if any of Friday morning's downpour poured down on the Tandy Hills. I found no mud no matter where I hiked on the hills.

So, I was able to have myself some good endorphin inducing aerobic stimulation.

In the picture you are looking at some green sprouting from the burned area that was torched a few weeks ago by a lightning strike or an arson.

Changing the subject from arson to the Yukon.

Rosie the Rat Dog and her Entourage have made it to the capital of the Yukon Territory, Whitehorse. You can go to Rosie the Rat Dog's Alaska! Blog to see what things Rosie is seeing and doing in the Yukon. Things like milk, gold and beer. To me the Yukon Territory looks very cold.

Up On A Pedestal With The Veterans Park Soldier Thinking About Going To Trader Joe's & Other Aggravations

Due to last night's heavy rain, I decided Veterans Park in Arlington was a good, likely wet-free, walking option. That and I wanted to go to ALDI.

I would have rather gone to Trader Joe's, in Fort Worth, which had its Grand Opening today, but a madhouse was expected, with parking problems.

When I arrived at Veterans Park and saw the memorial, I saw a young lady on the pedestal where the soldier who guards the memorial stands.

I do not know what this young lady was doing with the soldier, but it appeared very odd to me. Some girls just go gaga over any man in a uniform. Or so I heard. Somewhere.

I've had an odd day. One of those odd days where one aggravation after another clears up. The biggest aggravation to clear up has been aggravating me since February. It involved Facebook, AT & T, M-Qube and a local entity which I will now refer to as Buzzard Electronics, because the Customer Care person at Buzzard finally took care of the problem.

I kept avoiding blogging about my aggravation with Facebook, AT & T, M-Qube and Buzzard Electronics, and was right on the verge of doing so, using the actual name of Buzzard Electronics, because I felt I'd given them plenty of time to take care of the problem.

I will get around to blogging about this aggravation, because it is an aggravation that I know has aggravated a lot of people.

Another aggravation that got cleared up today was confusion over a contract.

Another aggravation was a malfunction of my air-conditioning system. The air-conditioner system repair people fixed that aggravation while I was out and about today.

Changing the subject from my chronic aggravations to something else.

Rosie the Rat Dog and Entourage are now far enough north on the Alaska Highway that darkness does not arrive til after 10. The latest update on Rosie the Rat Dog's Alaska! blog has some really good photos of what it looks like to drive the Alaska Highway. And a lot of bears.

And there is one photo of that famous location on the Alaska Highway where thousands of stolen signs have been erected. Rosie found one with my name on it.

Friday Morning Texas Thunderstorms Have Put Me On Flood Alert

You can not see via the view from my secondary viewing portal on the outer world that lightning is striking this Friday morning, half way through the month of June.

I did not get many hours of sleep last night. I don't know what time it was I started hearing thunder booming. It was strange. I heard thunder, sort of constantly, but saw no flashes of lightning.

The lightning free thunder went on for quite a long time.

And then all hell broke loose. A downpour arrived simultaneously with a lightning bolt with the thunder boom also simultaneous. It felt like the lightning struck right outside my window. This was then repeated several times.

Sleeping was not possible.

I see, via my computer based weather monitoring device, that the National Weather Service has issued a Flood Alert.

When I went to bed last night I did not know that a thunderstorm was in the forecast. And now I have to be alert about a flood.

This is all very stressful.

I think I will go swimming now and try to alleviate some of my stress.

Tonight I Heartily Biked The Gateway Park Mountain Bike Trail

Gateway Park Trail Above Trinity River Cliff

Tonight I went on my first mountain bike trail ride in a long long time.

Yesterday I saw the Gateway Park mountain bike trail and thought it looked fun.

Easy and fun.

Well, it did turn out to be fun. But, easy? Not so much.

The Gateway Park mountain bike trail is a one-way single track. The trail starts off easy, twisting and turning through a dark woods. At times I felt like I was in a tunnel.

After several minutes of twisting and turning I exited the woods to a paved trail, following an arrow back to the mountain bike trail. Once more I was meandering a twisting and turning trail through a dark woods. I was liking it a lot.

And then, suddenly I found myself pedaling beside the Trinity River, with the river about 50 feet below, with the trail running along the edge of a cliff that drops to the river. This seemed treacherous to me.

My photo of this does not remotely capture what this cliff-side trail actually looked like.

I was still dealing with the surprise of finding myself pedaling at a cliff's edge, above a raging river, when suddenly I came to a steep drop off.

It has been a long time since I biked down a steep drop off.

Biking down the steep drop off went well, but, I was not prepared for the steep climb that followed. I almost made it to the top of the climb when I ran out of steam and had to jump off the bike. This type maneuver can go badly wrong. This time it did not.

That first steep up and down was followed by several more, some with twisting turns mixed in, and some off camber turns.

It was challenging.

Eventually the roller coaster section ended and I was back to more sedate trail, like I enjoyed at the start of tonight's ride.

All in all, I was quite impressed with the Gateway Park mountain bike trail.

Who makes these trails? And how do they make them? It seems to me to be quite the feat of engineering.

It would seem, judging by the fact that I only saw 4 other bikers tonight, that the D/FW mountain bike community has not discovered this trail. It took awhile for the River Legacy mountain bike trail to draw the crowds that now regularly fill the parking lot. In many ways, I thought the Gateway Park trail was funner than the River Legacy Park trail.

I will be back. But, not tomorrow. And probably not the day after tomorrow.