Magnolia, Cherry Blossoms of Spring

magnolia buds
This post is all spring blossoms. Enjoy these magnolia buds.

buds avenue
If you walk down North Eighth Avenue in Highland Park, you can see trees in bloom – magnolia trees.

cherry blossoms
Cherry blossoms are also beautiful.

buds on the avenue
I love seeing magnolia flowers on the ground with dandelions. The blossoms don’t last – maybe you can see them for two weeks each spring?

dandelion and periwinkle
Periwinkle with dandelions – this is a different version of the photo I posted yesterday. That post had reflections on recent events; today, I just want to relax among spring blossoms.

What blossoms of spring appear in your neighborhood?

Notes on Lecture with Dandelion and Periwinkle

dandelion and periwinkle
Dandelion and Periwinkle as seen in April 2013

This past week I was more than a little distracted by the news in Boston. I grew up in the Boston area – I used to go to the Boston Marathon as a child when it passed through Newton, cheering on the runners. I lived in Cambridge, worked at MIT and spent time in Watertown. I have many friends who live there. Despite my intense interest in the details, I have no desire to become a political blogger. I will refer you to the blog of my friend Daled Amos – he writes well, explains political topics if you want more information and has a background as a teacher. He often quotes other political bloggers.

I have hopes to write a Nature Notes post this week and maybe a recipe for rice salad. If not, they will show up next week. Meanwhile, a few notes of interest:

  • I had the opportunity to attend a lecture at Rutgers by Professor Maud Mandel on
    Muslims and Jews in France: Genealogy of a Conflict. In a tiny nutshell, her premise was to “question past monocausal explanations” (I believe she meant she was suggesting more than one cause). Her book is coming out in January 2014; here are a few of the causes she mentioned:
    1. Jews from Algeria made citizens of France; Muslims were not. (1870)
    2. North African Jews had welcome from established Jewish community; Muslims had no one, initially.
    3. In 1968, Maoists (a group of Leftists) tried to convince Algerian Muslims to side with Palestine. The Maoists equated Palestine with Vietnam. At first, it didn’t work, but later it caught on.
    4. For two years Muslims and Jews worked together on racism (SOS Racisme), but then that fell apart. (1984)

    Rutgers Bildner Center for the Study of Jewish Life hosts free lectures like this one in the spring and fall; see Public Events.

  • On The Prosen People blog of Jewish Book Council you can read the April Jewish Book Carnival.
  • I published an interview with marketing director David Rekuc: Blog Interview on Marketing, eCommerce and Edison, NJ. Looking to interview other central New Jersey business people, especially those who make good use of social media, websites and/or blogs.

Note about the photo: I love the combination of dandelions with all the purples of this season. I purposely left a few in my front yard, to complement the grape hyacinths, creeping phlox and purple deadnettle. The periwinkle/dandelion photo is actually in a yard a block from my home.

Birds at Philadelphia Zoo and Bird Migration, Too

McNeil Avian Center at Philadelphia Zoo - bird pattern
Bird pattern on door of McNeil Avian Center at Philadelphia Zoo

There is a wonderful educational movie about bird migration at the Philadelphia Zoo. You can see it in the McNeil Avian Center building. It stars a cartoon oriole named Otis. He is a funny yellow bird who starts off in Cape May, New Jersey talking to a heron. She tells him that he really can’t hang around in Cape May; he needs to migrate down to South America.

On the way he meets a lady oriole – she warns him not to fly down into what we know is a big city. Maybe the big city is in Texas. Otis is tempted by all the shiny lights. Bang! He flies right into a shiny, reflective tall building. He also finds out there is little food in this shiny, bright city.

It all ends happily – he makes it down to South America, finds the lady oriole, and at the movie’s end, they are building a nest together back in the north.

african starling at Philadelphia Zoo
At the avian center there is a section of African Savannah birds – this is an African Starling. Doesn’t look like the starlings we see in North America, does it?

Egyptian Plover
Another African Savannah bird: here is an Egyptian plover. An Egyptian plover has a black crown and underparts of pale orange. It was quite warm in this part of the avian center – I suppose all these African Savannah birds would prefer a climate warmer than that of Philadelphia.

black birds in tree
The black birds above were not part of any exhibit of birds at Philadelphia Zoo, but they were not afraid of the crowd at the zoo.

Peacock at Philadelphia Zoo
If you don’t watch where you are going at the zoo, you might run into a peacock.

bird on carousel at Philadelphia Zoo
Should I count this upside-down bird on the carousel as one of the birds at Philadelphia Zoo?

female cardinal eating at bird feeder
I learned at the bird migration movie that cardinals, unlike orioles, do not migrate. So if I keep feeding the cardinals in my backyard, maybe they will stick around all summer.

• • •

What do the birds in your area do? Do they hang around all winter or do they migrate? Do you know? How could you find out?

Review at the Zoo with Giraffes

giraffes at Philadelphia Zoo
Two giraffes at the Philadelphia Zoo

Elsewhere in the Blogosphere

  • Michelle is recovering from breast cancer surgery, and she is blogging about … taking care of herself by resting.
  • Lorri has been reading and reviewing books. I hope to read this book called Triumph and Tragedy about life in Poland and its Jewish communities.
  • Stuck on what to blog about? Jeri has an exercise that might help.
  • Just because you read a study in a well-known newspaper does not mean it is a well-done study: Chris Kesser talks about confounding factors in this article on Red Meat and TMAO. “The healthy user bias is one of the main reasons it’s so difficult to infer causality from epidemiological relationships. For example, say a study shows that eating processed meats like bacon and hot dogs increases your risk of heart disease. Let’s also say, as the healthy user bias predicts, that those who eat more bacon and hot dogs also eat a lot more refined flour (hot dog and hamburger buns), sugar and industrial seed oils, and a lot less fresh fruits, vegetables and soluble fiber. They also drink and smoke more, exercise less and generally do not take care of themselves very well. How do we know, then, that it’s the processed meat that is increasing the risk of heart disease rather than these other things—or perhaps some combination of these other things and the processed meat?”

Recipe: How to Make Almond Milk

three almonds
I was told that making almond milk is easy, but in truth, I found the process a bit confusing from the “recipes” I read online. So I am writing up my own recipe in the hopes that it will clarify details on how to make almond milk.

Why Make Almond Milk

Best reason: it tastes yummy. It is richer and creamier than what I have purchased in stores. I think I really made almond cream, to tell the truth. Other reasons might be: you want to learn how to make a non-dairy (pareve) creamer from scratch or you like the idea of making a healthy drink. I made it because I usually have oat milk with my coffee, and on Pesach oat milk is chametz (sort of like bread, which we don’t eat on Passover). Almond milk is not, but our family only uses products that are certified kosher for Passover, and the almond milk I bought last year was so, so, so bad I had to throw it out. If you look at the ingredients on purchased almond milk, you will find ingredients other than almonds and water. This recipe is just: almonds and water!

Almond Milk Ingredients and Equipment

  • water to soak almonds; different water for almond milk
  • Food processor or other means of crushing the almonds
  • Cheese cloth bag or cheese cloth on top of a cup – I bought a soup bag at Glatt 27 in Highland Park, New Jersey (they are hanging near the register)
  • Almond Milk – How To

    Soak the almonds overnight (8-12 hours) in water. In the morning, discard the soaking water. Crush the almonds until fine in the food processor. Place crushed almonds in a cheese cloth bag. Add water: the more water you add, the more milk you get, but it will thin the milk. I added about 1/2 cup of water and so I obtained almond cream. Squeeze the bag into a cup to retrieve the milk.

    You will then have a bag of crushed nuts, so find a recipe that calls for crushed nuts. We made cookies with our crushed almonds, and that made my daughter and husband happy.

    almond milk in blue cup - learn how to make almond milk
    I apologize – almond milk with coffee tastes so yummy I drank most of it before taking the photograph

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    On a separate note, I have recently set up a subscription by email for the Sketching Out blog. There is also a link on the right sidebar. This was in response to the upcoming “death” of Google Reader – I may write more on that topic in an upcoming post. Thank you to any of you who choose to subscribe.

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