Horsin’ Around

That’s what we were doing yesterday afternoon when we took a road trip to watch live Harness Racing. And, we traveled less than an hour, plus we didn’t lose any money “bettin on the ponies.”We were on the eastern shore in the neighboring state of Maryland, attending the final afternoon of The Great Pocomoke Fair.The Great Pocomoke Fair is the only one fair in Maryland that features a single day of harness racing.
Horse racing was always a highlight of the Fair from its earliest days. Trotters came from many neighboring eastern states. Races were run four days in a row, with as many as a dozen horses in a race. Currently there are 4 to 6 horses per race in an afternoon of 12 races.Unlike years ago, there’s no betting at these races which are exhibition and USTA (United States Trotting Association) sanctioned races. Horses are brought in from neighboring states, including our native NJ. Purses are awarded with support from Ocean Downs (MD)Racetrack which pledged financial support of the Great Pocomoke Fair to further promote harness racing in Maryland.
It was a fun afternoon. Luckily the threatened thunderstorms held off, but hastened the running of the final few races as seen above.

Any fun things happen on your weekend ?

Still Simply Strawberries

It's August already and we are still harvesting strawberries with NO complaints.

The berries now are smaller than the first harvest in early June, followed up by more in late July. Still, they have been simply wonderful to add to other fruit for breakfast, especially in smoothies.

Any unusual happenings in your backyards or gardens? 

Friday Funnies

Doggone 4th — Even area pets showed their patriotic colors of red, white, and blue in celebrating last month’s holiday.

Smart Camera

Electronic devices now are being billed as “smart” and digital cameras are no exception. Some current models have touch LCD screens, plus an all-in-one mobile app. With a touch LCD, you can “touch type” like on a tablet or smart phone to edit, email or upload to other devices and/or social media.

This new camera is a SMART one with these features (and more).

I purchased it model thanks largely to the enthusiastic recommendation of a good friend who had just bought one. The camera has multiple Wi-Fi capabilities — from automatically sending photos to a smart phone while you're shooting to backing up to cloud storage or e-mailing photos straight from the camera. We don’t have smart phones and I haven’t backed up to a cloud (only my PC), BUT that emailing feature is FUN.
WHY a new camera?

My “brand loyalty” to Canon products was “atta here” after my 2 Canon digital ELPH cameras developed the same problem. A small dot was visible on the LCD and in images when the lens was zoomed beyond 4X, maybe caused by bad pixels (?).  Canon tech support said to send the camera to their repair facility. The resulting “diagnosis” was that the models were not were repairable. I was offered the chance to buy a refurbished unit with a 3-month warranty.
Time for a change. The new camera came with an extended warranty bringing it to 15 months. 
The Samsung WB250F is small at 2.4 x 4.2 x 0.9 inches and under 7 ounces. Its 18X zoom covers a 24-432mm (35mm equivalent) field of view. It has a 14 MP backside-illuminated (BSI) CMOS sensor.  From OFF to first shot takes 1.5 seconds, shot-to-shot time is about 1 second.  Unlike other cameras, the flash doesn’t release on its own, you press the flash button on top to use it. The flash can be angled for bounced flash photography.

This Samsung camera has features I haven’t even tried yet, but there’s still time before our anniversary road trip in late Sept.

The Best Face feature automatically selects the best facial expressions from a burst shot of 5 frames. You then can pick the best face and it will be seamlessly combined into one photo. Here’s my self-portrait taken sitting on the front porch,hand-holding the camera.
SplitShot lets you take images side-by-side which are then combined into a single image like these examples:

One feature on my “to do” list, lets me control the camera remotely from an iPad using AutoShare. Turning this feature on wirelessly pairs the camera with a smart phone or tablet. Then, every shot taken will be immediately sent from the camera to the device for  upload on the go or to be viewed on a larger screen.

So far, the camera has proven quite capable; these images were taken with it.

Not Quite Ready . . .

That's the best way to describe the fruit growing in the F&P orchard, which includes peach, pear, and apple trees.

While this year's fruit output is uncertain because of lack of rain and extremely hot temps, we're hoping for enough fruit to make a cobbler or pie. The peach trees are overloaded now, but none are ready for picking and quiet a few have already fallen off. 

This week, we gathered up most of those and placed them in a paper bag, hopefully to promote ripening.

And, when (and if) we get enough for Grenville to bake one of his specialty peach pies, y'all are invited for dessert. (Just let Grenville know who's bringing the vanilla ice cream.)

Ribs Rubbed Right

Crockpot cooking is easy, but ours has been on hiatus, since warm weather meals are often salads or grilled foods.

Until last week, when we bought a package of boneless country-style pork ribs. I had read that these were great cooked in a crockpot with a few added ingredients — barbecue sauce, sliced onions and rubbed with spices of your choice, which makes the ribs extra flavorful. While there are lots of choices on what rub to use, mine included brown sugar, garlic powder, cumin, and chili powder.

Crock Pot Country Style Ribs

• 4-6  lbs. country-style ribs  (ours were bone-in)
• 8 oz. barbecue sauce
• 1 onion, cut in slices
• 3 TBSP Worcestershire sauce

The Rub

• 1/2 TBSP paprika
• 1 TBSP brown sugar
• 1TBSP  ground kosher salt
• 1 TBSP chili powder
• 1 TBSP ground cumin
• 1 1/2 tsp black pepper
• 1TBSP garlic powder

Put onions in bottom of crockpot, dry off ribs. Mix dry rub ingredient together. Rub the ribs with Worcestershire sauce, then with the rub. Criss-cross the ribs in layers in crockpot. Pour barbecue sauce in and cover. Set crockpot on LOW 6-8 hours; HIGH 3-4 hours if you’re in a hurry, but for this meal, low and slow is best.

The ribs were served with these easy side dishes (the recipes were posted before, but repeating means no links to another post.)

Classic Slaw

Buy a bag or prepared Cole Slaw mix which is SO much easier then shredding everything by hand. Then, just make the dressing:

• 1/2 C mayonnaise
• 2 TBSP rice vinegar
• 1 tsp brown sugar
• 2 TBSP milk 
• 1 tsp ground celery seed
• 1/2 tsp seasoning salt

Whisk ingredients in small bowl. Let sit 15-20 minutes so flavors blend. Stir just before adding to salad.

Asian Marinated Cucumber Salad

• 1 large cucumber, thinly sliced (seedless if available)
• 1/4 onion, thinly sliced
• 1/3 C rice vinegar
• 1 TBSP minced fresh dill or ½ tsp dried dill weed
• 3/4 tsp salt
• 1 tsp sugar
• ¼ tsp crushed red pepper flakes
• 1 TBSP toasted sesame seeds (optional)

Gently toss together ingredients until evenly coated. Place in a container with a tight fitting lid and refrigerate for at least 1 hour. Gently toss again before serving.

Dinner was great — leftovers were even better !

Backyard Beauties

All it takes to appreciate the colors and diversity in nature is for me to walk around the Frog & PenguINN backyard. That's what I've been doing recently while trying out a newly-purchased digital camera (more on that in a future post).

We have a several butterfly bushes in bloom and a large wildflower meadow which grows large unattended, much to the delight of bees and a lone ladybug.

And also butterflies.

Of many varieties and colors . . .

Flowers in bloom include day lilies, coreopsis, petunias and others . . .

Unlike many neighboring southern states, the VA eastern shore has not been inundated with rain the past few weeks. While, that's good news as far as lawn weeds dying off, the flowers are looking for some much-needed moisture.

How are things going in your part of the world?

Birthday Blast

Granddaughter celebrated birthday #2 last weekend which for us required a(nother) road trip. This trip we spent a beach day in CT with the grands and Patrick's aunt. Later, Grandpa and Ellie shared a story together. Birthday calls came for granddaughter.

Then, it was time for cake.

And, of course, presents — for both as grandpa's birthday was several days earlier.

Friday Funnies

Sometimes, even a rescue vehicle needs a rescue . . .

Veggie Leaf IDs

Thanks to all the great comments on Grenville's veggie garden in a recent post. Congratulations to blogger friend, Christer (The Cottage by the Crane Lake Part Two) for guessing the leaf IDs with with 3 out of 5 right. Here are the "answers" . . .

And, Grenville said that while he would gladly share a 'mater sandwich with you, he won't be delivering it to your cottage in Sweden. However, you're welcome to join us at The Frog & PenguINN anytime.