A wildflower

Among notes I save, I recently found one from Georgietta Varrell of Larrabee Heights, Westbrook, asking me about identifying a wildflower she had seen on the rocky banking behind her apartment. She was told it is goatsbeard, and she enclosed a colored picture for me.

It is indeed yellow goatsbeard, of the daisy family. Roger Tory Peterson describes it in his “First Guide to Wildflowers,” 1986.

“Much more slender than the lowly Dandelion, the Yellow Goats-Beard may be recognized by the grass like leaves that embrace its stem, and the long green bracts that support the flower, which closes at midday. The bracts of the ordinary Dandelion are bent downward. Both plants exude a milky juice when their stems are broken. This successful alien finds many of our roadsides and field edges to its liking. Its globular puffballs of seeds are such like those of the Dandelion but larger, and on longer stalks.

We thank Georgietta for her information. I’ve mentioned hawkweed in Ramblings, another of the many flowers in the daisy family.

A nice note

When Jeannette Blake of Center Conway, N.H., sent her renewal check to the American Journal this month, she wrote a nice note about my column on her note to Gloria McCullough, of the administration staff, and Gloria kindly copied it for me.

Oh my, that note made my day!

An enjoyable visit

I have had phone calls from Gladys Anna Pratt from Tampa, Fla. She is the sister of Marion Easler (Bunny), a Grange friend of mine and well-known to many Portland residents. Bunny has passed away, but her food contribution of Harvard Beets, and the many offices she held in the Maine State Grange, are pleasant memories.

Gladys and her daughter, Ruth Ann Cross, come north for a month each summer, driving from the motel they stay in, in Scarborough, to New Brunswick, Canada, to visit relatives at the maple syrup orchards, “Mountain Maples,” where the delicious maple syrup they bring me is made. The bottle is a collector’s item, too, in the shape of a maple tree. I use mine as a vase.

Ruth Ann taught English and speech for four years there in Florida, and she has since worked for many years in the Postal Service there.

I thoroughly enjoyed their visit to me last week. They are both very interesting ladies, and we discussed many subjects of interest to all of us.

An unusual sighting

The July-August issue of “Guillemot,” the newsletter of the Sorrento Scientific Society, is full of interesting sightings.

Monarch butterflies were seen at sea July 17. Under Mammals, we read of a little brown bat in the editor’s living room that appeared to be the size of a pterodactyl, according to his wife. I had to check Webster’s dictionary to understand that one. It said “Pterodactyl – an extinct flying reptile, often of gigantic size, with large and bird-like skull, long jaws, and a flying membrane, somewhat like that of a bat.”

I wonder how they got rid of that frightening bat. And how did he enter the house?

Resident red-tailed hawks were reported all summer. Young birds were begging for food Aug. 23 at Falmouth.

Black bear were reported at bird feeders in mid-September. Cardinals were well-reported, both inland and along the coast all summer.

These newsletters are very interesting to any nature enthusiast. I thank Joan Ashley for sending me these issues.

An interesting combo

This week’s recipe is from “The Maine Apple Barrel,” 1944, a pamphlet of recipes published by the Maine Pomological Society. It was a gift to me from my good friend and Westbrook neighbor, Isabelle LeBorgne. She has passed away. I miss her and think of her often.

APPLES WITH FRIED ONIONS

Peel onions and slice. Fry in fat until a rich brown; drain on soft brown paper (I only have white paper towels, but I’m sure they will do). Fry unpared quarters of apple in the fat left from the onions. Arrange apples in a border on a platter; fill center with the fried onions and serve hot.

(I pare my apples. Also the recipe didn’t specify size or number of the onions or the apples. I used a few large apples and cut the quarters in two).

It made a tasty dish and I’m glad I tried it. This recipe book has 29 pages, so I shall use more apple recipes again.